Chapter Eighty-Six: The Victims

Who knew that as soon as Zhou Quan's front foot left, Qin Shi, the county commander of Cangxian County, greeted him with his back foot and said:

"Shandong Express!"

Xu Qing was shocked, could it be that he would come? I wanted to sleep, but I didn't expect the disaster to come so quickly, so I had to fight hard to see Qin Shi. Qin Shi took out the official document from the bamboo tube that was protected from 6 wetness, and handed it to him with both hands.

Xu Qing took it and saw that it was an official letter directly sent by the Yamen of Shandong Province. Such orders are issued directly to the state by bypassing the governor's office and are extremely rare, and only occur when there is no need for delay. Xu Qing hurriedly inspected the customs defense, opened the envelope, took out the letter and saw that it was Shandong Province that made the four counties of Cangzhou prepare to accept more than 30,000 victims, and his eyes became solemn. After pondering for a moment, Xu Qing asked Qin Shidao, "Is the disaster in Shandong very bad?" ”

Qin Shi personally came to deliver the letter, so he naturally did his homework and inquired about the disaster situation in Binzhou. He said: "I have never seen such a big tide, the lewd rain and strong winds, the wind rolls, all the grain seedlings fall down, Wudi, Zouping two counties are all flooded, a few days down, even the rice seedlings are soaked to rot. Later, it was reported that Bincheng, Yangxin County, and Boxing were also severely affected......"

"Boxing? There was also a disaster there......" Xu Qing sighed softly, that was where he first arrived in the Tang Dynasty.

Qin Shi paused and continued: "In this typhoon disaster, almost half of Shandong suffered a catastrophe, at least hundreds of thousands of people were destroyed, and it was received by the prefectures and counties that were not affected by the disaster in Shandong. If one side is in trouble, support from all sides. If it can't be tolerated, the four prefectures and counties in the north, south, and west will send some ......"

Xu Qing was silent when he heard this, although he had already been reminded, he was still a little surprised, and said for a long time: "You go and eat something first, I asked the house to boil ginger soup, and I will write to the officials at all levels." ”

"Yes." Qin Shi replied respectfully, and followed the chief to eat.

Xu Qing called all the state officials, considered a few letters, wrote them in a serious and neat official document format, and sent them out quickly. A letter was sent back to Shandong Province, which is nothing more than saying that Honshu has also suffered a disaster, how difficult it is, but if the compatriots are in trouble, no matter how difficult it is, it will be overcome. In this way, it will be avoided that Shandong Province will send the victims again and again, after all, Cangzhou only has that little bit of family background.

At the same time, he wrote a letter to the level, saying that Cangzhou is not rich and cannot support so many people, so please transfer grain and grass together. There was also a letter to the prefectural orders of the remaining three prefectures, asking them to rush to the "city" for an emergency response and peace meeting.

The next day, the government was arranged.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is Shandong Daowen Migration." Xu Qing's gaze swept over all the officials, everyone's face was full of exhaustion, they must have been called when they were inspecting the township. It seems that this time the wind disaster, Cangzhou is on the edge and has also withstood a lot of pressure. He sighed in his heart and said in a deep voice: "Shandong typhoon, several counties were flooded, fertile land houses were destroyed, and the people were forced to move. ”

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the hall, and all the officials, even Xu Qing's protégé, Yan Ku and others did not hide their resistance. It's okay for them to resettle the displaced people, but it's hard to receive the victims.

The displaced people are scattered, and the victims are gathered, and there are more unstable factors for the victims than for the displaced people. Besides, who wants to be a wet nurse in another county? The resettlement of displaced people can increase the population, which is a political achievement. But once the catastrophe passes, the victims will still be recalled by the original state and county, which is equivalent to working in vain. Once you don't do a good job, you will be blamed and thankless......

It is better to raise a chicken stealing dog than to help poor relatives.

"This is an order from Shandong Province and the Governor's Office, not a consultation." Xu Qing knew that the moment of disaster relief could not be delayed, so he said in a deep voice: "The sub-patrol and sub-guard will come to inspect in a few days, and if the preparation is not good, even if it is the official, it must be removed from the post and investigated on the spot!" ”

Xu Qing took out his boss and the patrol as shields, meaning that the boss said, I can't help it. Three of the four county orders present were Xu Qing's protégés, and one was a die-hard fan of Xu Qing. The county ordered such bigwigs not to speak, and the rest of the people naturally lost the strength to speak, and they were all silenced.

"Disaster relief is like fighting fires...... Xu Qing finished speaking, and his majestic gaze swept over everyone: "If anyone shirks the blame in the disaster relief, the official will be severely punished!" Do you understand? ”

"Well, I wonder how many victims will come this time......"

"The letter said that more than 30,000 people ......" Xu Qing said again: "Do you understand?" ”

"......" all the officials had to respond in unison. Xu Qing was suddenly deflated, shouldn't you shout "understood" in unison, and then I said, "I didn't hear it,", do you yell "understood" again, why don't you follow the routine!

There are more than 30,000 people, even if he falsifies his data, in fact, there are 40,000, and the average distribution of each county is only 10,000 victims, which can barely hold on.

"Now let's talk about how to take in the victims!" Xu Qing nodded, and said in his heart. In fact, Xu Qing had already made up his mind for a long time, but in order to make it easier for everyone to accept his plan, it was better to infiltrate in the discussion.

In addition to the war and chaos, it is the famine year caused by floods, droughts and locust plagues that has the greatest impact on the lives of the people. It is easy to cause social unrest, disaster victims and thieves everywhere, and damage the vitality of the country. Therefore, there is a political achievement called "waste government", and the level of waste government is also an important yardstick to test the ability of local officials.

The core of the famine policy is the relief of the disaster victims, and there are three main points - food, shelter, and home. Among them, 'returning' is a matter in the later stage of disaster relief, and there is no need to consider the states and counties that accept the victims, and the states and counties only need to do the first two things, and 'getting food' and 'having a house' are enough.

Everyone began to think about how much grain they had in their county, how many people they could collect, and how many shacks they could build. But after receiving the victims this time, their own county will also be hollowed out. Also with turmoil, plague and a bunch of troubles. Looking around, Xu Qing only saw Zhao Lu knocking on the table alone, his face was happy. This Zhao Lu is only mediocre among Xu Qing's protégés, I don't know what he can do, Xu Qing stretched out his head and asked.

"Adults are ......," Zhao Lu said: "The method of disaster relief in the past is nothing more than gathering the victims in the city and cooking porridge for them to eat." This is indeed convenient for government management and relief, but it also has no small disadvantages. Zhao Lu paused and continued: "But the gathering of disaster victims is too dense, and it is easy to epidemic diseases and die one after another. Some people waited for several days to be fed, and when they could not get the porridge, they fell to death on the road. This method is nominally a perfunctory act of disregarding the victims of the disaster and ignoring their lives and deaths. ”

"Hmm......" Everyone nodded, and even Xu Qing had to admit that he had a point: "Do you have a better way?" ”

Zhao Lu said: "There are vacant places in the yasha, Taoist temples, temples, warehouses and other places in Xiaguan County. In addition, according to the household, vacant houses in each township of the county can be requisitioned to resettle the victims. ”

Yan Ku arched his hand and asked: "The former can accommodate a limited number of disaster victims, and the latter, can the people agree?" ”

"You can send a document to the li, saying, 'The exiles are coming, and there is nowhere to go, and if they gather in the city, the plague will be and you will be killed.'" Therefore, the government came forward and rented a house to wait for it. Zhao Lu said: "The people of Cangzhou are kind-hearted, and they have money and food, so they will not be allowed." ”

Yan Ku and the others were still skeptical, but they all nodded and stopped asking. Zhao Lu continued: "It mainly depends on the latter. The county is densely populated, and it is rare to have vacant houses. Therefore, the upper class only needs to have two rooms, and the middle family needs two rooms and the lower class family has one room. The houses in the townships are slightly more generous, and there is one more upper class and one more medium household. It is more than enough to resettle 30,000 victims in this way, and the victims are scattered from one household to another, so that there will be no worries about the epidemic, which is much better than gathering. ”

The crowd said, "Your method is novel." ”

"You're talking about rentals." Zhan Zeng immediately pointed out: "But many of the victims' property has been lost by the flood, and they are already penniless, where can they have the money to pay the rent?" ”

"Those who can't afford to pay the rent will be paid in advance by the county." Zhao Lu said lightly: "In fact, it can be requisitioned for free, but if the people get some benefits, they will naturally be more cooperative, and they can coexist with the victims in the future, and they can also be more harmonious." ”

"Do you have to pay it back after you have paid in advance?" Zhan Zeng asked: "If you don't pay it back, can you afford it in the county?" ”

"Of course we have to pay it back, otherwise the victims who could have been out of the disaster will not come out." Zhao Lu said: "It doesn't matter if you can't afford the money, you can work for relief." ”

"I see." Everyone was relieved, and Xu Qing was also happy in his heart, this was what he thought in his heart.

Zhan Zeng asked again: "How to make porridge when the victims are scattered?" ”

"Since it's scattered, I won't boil porridge." Zhao Lu replied: "Change to according to human hair meters, and give it every two days." ”

Several county magistrates looked at each other, lowered their heads and thought about it, it seemed that there was nothing to do, the matter of resettlement of the victims was originally a so-so deal, and now that they came up with this method, they must not be nitpicking.

Everyone looked at Xu Qing's face, and Xu Qing said: "This is slightly feasible......", so everyone said: It is feasible and feasible.

Zhao Lu said worriedly: "The students still have something to solve. ”

"What?"

Zhao Lu spread his hands: "It's work for relief, where does this 'work' come from?" There is no need to repair bridges in our county, and there is no need to repair the city walls, so there is no place to use labor......"

Xu Qing laughed, picked up Zhao Lu's words and said: "This matter is easy to hear, choose skilled people from their old business, those who strike iron for the official family, and the carpenter will make tools for the official family, I am not afraid that it will be useless." For the rest of the people, I have a place to arrange ......."

The people asked, "Where?" ”

Xu Qing said generously: "If you want to be rich, build a road first, I plan to build a brick and stone road between Nanpi, Haixing, Huanghua and Cangzhou City!" ”

"There is a quarry of stones, there is no quarrying of bricks, and the road is built by two carriages that can run side by side. It is not only necessary to be able to connect the three counties and Cangzhou City, but also to connect the major towns and villages along the way. ”

"Strong men can burn bricks and quarry, women can do it, children can collect wages, old people can help make molds, everyone can use it, food is distributed according to working hours, and everyone can support themselves."

"The victims of the disaster are stationed in major towns and counties, and they can start work at multiple points at the same time and extend to both sides. This is also the advantage of the separation of disaster victims......"

After hearing this, everyone looked at each other, and someone asked, "Why, why do you need to build roads?" ”