Qi County.

In Zhangqiu City, Zhang Xutuo, the general guard, summoned the county commander Du Ruhui, the county lieutenant Luo Gui, and the Changbai governor Shi Chai Xiaohe and other people.

"If the number of people is increasing, and if they are allowed to continue, these affected people will become hungry, then they will become homeless, and eventually they will become people who are looting and looting. Lieutenant Luo, how much grain is there in Zhangqiu? ”

Luo Gui was the county recorder before, but because during this time, Luo Gui took Zhangqiu's county camp and township regiment to suppress bandits and thieves, so Zhang Xutuo personally promoted him as the county lieutenant of Zhangqiu, and his son Luo Cheng made meritorious contributions in the Liaodong Army, and he was already the Marquis of Xiangyang and became the emperor's new favorite, and Luo Yi was promoted to the Duke of Yanguo, and the Luo family in Xiangyang is now red and purple, and of course no one in the eastern capital stayed in the imperial court to reject the appointment of this little county lieutenant.

As a result, now Luo Gui has also become the lieutenant of Zhangqiu County, and he and Du Ruhui have partnered to preside over Zhangqiu County affairs.

Listening to Zhang Xutuo's inquiry, Luo Gui said truthfully, "There is still a lot of grain in Zhangqiu County, and the grain in the official warehouse is still full, and the grain in the Yicang is also full. It's just that this warehouse of grain, if it is not ordered by the imperial court, the local government is not allowed to open the warehouse and release grain without permission, and according to the law, it is also a crime of beheading to release a grain of grain privately. ”

The Sui Dynasty paid the most attention to grain expropriation, especially under the regulation of rent, and the harvest of land rent was huge. At the same time, the Sui Dynasty's household registration management was strict, and there were relatively few hidden households, which led to the fact that most of the grain in the hands of the people was actually received by the government when the rent was levied by the government.

On the other hand, the imperial court set up Yicang in the local area, and the people paid Yicang grain according to the acres of land, which was equivalent to another land tax.

Countless grains were gathered from the people, and finally the imperial court collected these grains little by little, and each county had a transshipment warehouse, and in the county town, as well as some important water and land transportation arteries, there were many larger transshipment warehouses.

Along the canal and the Yellow River, the lifeline of land and water, the Sui Dynasty also had six giant granaries, which were Xingluo Cang, Huiluo Cang, Liyang Cang, Guangtong Cang, Heyang Cang, and Changping Cang.

Each warehouse is actually a warehouse city, storing more than one million stones.

And the Xingluo Cang is located in Gongxian near Luoyang, built in the second year of the Great Cause, the circumference of the Cangcheng is more than 20 miles, wears 3,000 cellars, each cellar can hold 8,000 stones, and the prison officer and the town soldiers are guarded by 1,000 people.

This Xingluo warehouse can store a maximum of 24 million stones of rice, which not only supplies grain to hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Luoyang, the eastern capital, but also can transport grain to all parts of the world through the canal and the Yellow River at any time.

It can be said that the grain accumulated in the Sui Dynasty for decades is a heavenly amount, and according to the imperial court's estimates, the grain in the six major warehouses and warehouses in various places can still be eaten by the imperial court for forty or fifty years.

Originally, with so much grain in hand, the Sui Dynasty was not afraid of natural disasters.

But the problem is that the output of the land is limited, and the more the court collects, the less grain the people have. Usually it is still few, and in a disaster year, it will inevitably be green and yellow.

However, in ancient times, transportation was extremely inconvenient, and most of the grain was stored in a centralized manner, and it was extremely difficult to transfer it. Just like this expedition to Liao, in order to supply the million-strong army in Liaodong, the imperial court had to levy three or four million people to transport grain.

Every time one stone of grain is transported to Liaodong, the cost is as high as seven stones.

On the other hand, although the government has a lot of grain in its hands, but the management of the warehouse grain is also extremely strict, any warehouse to open a warehouse to release grain, without the approval of the upper layers, is resolutely prohibited, who dares to open a warehouse to release grain, that is a serious crime, the light will be lost and dismissed, and the heavy will lose his head.

"This summer's floods in the Yellow River flooded more than 40 counties on both sides of the river, and millions of people were affected. Now that the green and yellow are not accepted, the people have become hungry, waiting for the approval of the imperial court, and they don't know how to wait until the Year of the Monkey. The hungry people are all waiting to be fed, if they don't wait, they will become people, don't care about the others first, first open the warehouse and release grain to appease the victims. Otherwise, we will kill Pei Changcai today, and tomorrow there will be another Shizihe, and then there will be Qin Junhong, this thief is inexhaustible, and these thieves were originally the good people of our dynasty. ”

Luo Gui couldn't help nodding.

Although during this time, they fought in the east and west, and they were never able to gather bandits of a decent scale in Qi County, but the more they suppressed, the more bandits they suppressed.

Today there is a gang to be wiped out, and tomorrow there is a bunch there.

In order to fill their stomachs, countless hungry people have already carried hoes and firewood knives, and they have gone to attack the county seat and rob the countryside, just for a bite to eat.

Zhang Xutuo came to Zhangqiu to sit in the town, also because more and more displaced people are moving closer to Zhangqiu, because there is Changbai Mountain, and the hungry people still hope that there can be a shelter here.

"Let's put the grain."

Du Ruhui, who had been silent, also said, "All the Zhangqiu transshipment warehouses and Yicang are open grain." However, it is necessary to make a plan before releasing the grain, in case there is chaos, and please send more soldiers to guard the warehouse and let people maintain order. ”

"This is natural, I let the county soldiers guard the warehouses, and the county lieutenant Du sent the township regiment to maintain order."

Du Ruhui said, "It's not enough to just open a warehouse and release grain, I think we can take this opportunity to provide disaster relief at the same time, organize these victims to build city walls, roads, bridges, and dredge river channels, which can also be regarded as work for relief." ”

Putting food and soup porridge and then letting the victims do things is really much better than simply putting out grain.

"County Lieutenant Du deserves to be a cadre." Zhang Xutuo praised.

"Actually, this is not all I came up with, when Shi Cheng was still in Zhangqiu before, I often talked with him about some county affairs, including talking about disaster relief methods, which was reminded by Shi Cheng of the work for relief."

In times of disaster, the use of work for relief can not only take the opportunity to build water conservancy and repair the city walls and roads, but also has a great advantage, that is, it can organize those unstable young and strong disaster victims first. And with the organization of the government, the possibility of riots and riots can also be greatly reduced, which can be regarded as a plan to draw salaries from the bottom of the kettle.

"Okay, just do it according to the plan of Du County's order, and if there are any consequences of opening the granary privately, I Zhang Xutuo will bear it."

"If something really happens, I am willing to bear it together." Du Ruhui said that he would send a letter to his grandfather, explaining the situation here in detail, and asking him to help him negotiate with the relevant yamen of the DPRK and China, hoping to get the official permission to open a position as soon as possible.

The matter of opening a warehouse for disaster relief was almost discussed, and several people drank tea together.

"This is about to enter September, and Liaodong is almost cold, why hasn't this expedition to Liao been successful?" Du Ruhui said worriedly.

"yes, it's September." Zhang Xutuo sighed.

In September, it means that Liaodong will start to get colder, or it will start to snow soon, and it will be difficult for Liaodong to continue military operations at that time.

And as soon as the weather is cold, it will be even more difficult for these millions of people who transport grain and grass to carry heavy loads. Even if it is colder, Hebei's canals will be frozen and suspended, and the transportation of grain and grass will become even more problematic.

So far, I have not heard any real good news, but I am afraid that this year's huge crusade will be overwhelmed.

A failed crusade did not know how much civilian power was spent.

"I don't know what happened to Shicheng in Liaodong, at this moment, I don't know if it's under the city of Pyongyang." Luo's father was worried about his son Luo Cheng, who was far away.

It is said that the mother of the child is worried, but the father is just as worried. Although he was also annoyed by Luo Cheng's mistakes with the Yan family lady outside, after a long time, he still thought about his son.

Calculating the time, the belly of the Yan family lady will have to be seven or eight months, and I am afraid that she is about to give birth.

"Hey!"

The three of them suddenly sighed together, and everyone looked at each other, only feeling full of helplessness.