(Thanks to the illusory and floating clouds of the book city, the change from now on the two big rewards, and the monthly pass of lucky every day, life variety, and couple's cotton slippers!) ）

Three days later, Qi Liaozao went to the Shanxi Hall in the capital, and when he came out, he had already raised two million taels of silver. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Xianfeng was overjoyed, and specially called Qi Liaozao into the palace to commend him.

Later, Xianfeng issued three holy decrees in a row.

First, he ordered Wang Maoyin, the right attendant of the household department, to purchase grain with 800,000 taels of silver, and to provide disaster relief in places such as Zhili in Henan. The second is to order the governor of Zhili, Nerjing, to organize the government of the locust-stricken areas of Henan and Zhili provinces to exterminate locusts and provide relief to the victims on the spot. The third is to exempt the 17 prefectures affected by the disaster, such as Henan, Zhili, and Shanxi, and the land tax of the 83 counties this year will also be halved in the coming year.

Thus, the work of eradicating the locust plague in the Great Qing Dynasty began.

As soon as the news broke, the price of grain in the entire northern part of the Qing Dynasty soared. The Ministry of Household Affairs sent officials to inspect one after another, but to no avail.

Before Wang Maoyin left Beijing, he received invitations from many people, and all of them were characters he couldn't afford to offend. Helplessly, he had to follow the requirements of these imperial relatives and buy 200,000 taels of silver of rice and wheat in the territory of Jingshi Zhili.

The remaining 600,000 taels, fortunately, there was an explanation in the holy decree, so that he could be directly distributed to the affected government.

However, at this time, the market price of rice and wheat in Zhili has risen to one stone, four taels and two dollars of silver. And the price of his purchase was as high as five taels or three dollars, which was one or two dollars higher. You don't have to think about it to know that these high prices have naturally become the benefits of those royal relatives.

Wang Maoyin divided the grain of less than 40,000 stone into three batches and sent two directors of the household department to the two provinces of Zhili and Shanxi, which were affected by the disaster.

He himself, with a batch of 20,000 stone rice and wheat, originally wanted to rush to Luoyang, the most severely affected city of Henanfu, but the Jingshi had to pass through Huaiqing Mansion on the way to Luoyang, and now, the Northern Expedition army of the long-haired thieves is besieging Huaiqing Mansion City for almost a month, although it has not been captured, but it is also urgent, how can he dare to pass through the life-saving food for disaster relief?

So, Wang Maoyin took 20,000 stone rice and wheat to Kaifeng City, the provincial government of Henan.

Yinggui, the governor of Henan, was busy leading his troops to besiege Huaiqing's long-haired Northern Expedition thieves, so Wang Maoyin handed over 20,000 stone rice and wheat to Zheng Dunjin, the political envoy of Henan, and asked him to relieve the disaster by himself. Wang Maoyin went directly to the prefectures and counties below Kaifeng Mansion to supervise the extermination of locusts.

When Wang Maoyin saw the prefectures and counties below, he did not pay attention to the extermination of locusts, but only organized manpower to carry out simple manual fighting. couldn't help but be furious, called the local magistrate, questioned him, and dismissed him on the spot with the scepter of the Qincha Festival, and immediately all the states and counties paid attention to it.

Wang Maoyin also heard some specific methods of catching locusts, such as: "One side of the fighting, the other side of the net to catch, no leakage." And in the gap of the ditch, the fire is lit at night, the grasshoppers see the fire rushing, gather in the ditch, add grass to burn, bury the soil and press. And at dawn, when the dew is heavy, pounce on it. It was popularized and required to be implemented by all states and counties.

At the same time, he also worshiped the god of General Liu Meng and prayed for the smooth extermination of locusts.

Ying Gui, the governor of Henan, begged for a meeting, and in addition to taking away the two hundred and twenty thousand taels of silver that should have been used for disaster relief, he also took another 6,000 stone of rice and wheat from Zheng Dunjin, the political envoy.

Wang Maoyin naturally knew that Yinggui would definitely embezzle it as military food and salary, but he didn't dare to say more. Yinggui is a person from the Blue Banner, not something that he can offend as a Han official. What's more, he should have been responsible for disaster relief, and he completed the mission by delivering the money and food himself.

Wang Maoyin stayed for more than a month, and Zheng Dunjin, the political envoy, came to report that the locust plague in all the provinces of Henan had been extinguished. After that, he led Wang Maoyin to look around in the countryside of Chenliu County, Kaifeng Prefecture for two days, Wang Maoyin saw that porridge shops were set up in various official road stations, and porridge was given to the victims, and dozens of disaster victims went to eat every day, and he was very satisfied at the moment.

He also heard from the two principals of the household department that the locust plague had been hunted and killed in Shanxi and Zhili, and the relief of the victims was effective.

So, Wang Maoyin returned to Beijing and replied to Xianfeng, saying that he had completed the locust extermination and disaster relief.

Xianfeng is happy! commended Wang Maoyin.

The next day, Xianfeng was in a good spirit, although the sun was shining, but he was excited to go to the countryside on the outskirts of Beijing to see the crops in the fields.

Under the blazing sun, Xianfeng galloped out of Beijing surrounded by 2,000 royal forest troops. When I was about to reach Tongzhou, I was traveling, and suddenly saw a dark cloud in the southwest sky floating quickly, and it carried gusts of breeze.

Xianfeng's spirit was a little weak, yawning and snot began to come up, but it was the addiction that attacked, and he was trying to hide in the convenience that followed the rear team, that is, the simple sedan chair to suck it, and in an instant, the cloud flew overhead, and it turned out that this was a phalanx composed of a large group of flying locusts.

Xianfeng's spirit was lifted, and he looked up anxiously, and sure enough, he saw the flying locust array roaring overhead, heading straight to the northeast, and couldn't help but be shocked, and even the addiction was gone.

To the northeast is Chengde Province, so why have we never heard of a locust plague? And the direction of the southwest locust flying is Baoding Mansion, and two or three hundred miles to the southwest is the land of Shanxi Henan.

Wang Maoyin also said yesterday that the locust plague in Shanxi, Henan, and Zhili has been cleared, and the victims have been properly resettled, and disaster relief is effective. But it was only the second day, and there were such a covering locusts passing through.

Xianfeng was furious on the spot! Urgent order to return to Beijing!

That night, Xianfeng directly ordered the guards in Beijing to capture Wang Maoyin, the right attendant of the household, and sent him to prison for questioning.

Xianfeng also issued an order, blaming the governor of Zhili, Naerjing, and ordering him to immediately organize local governments to recapture and extinguish the locust plague, and read that he would lead the troops to defend against the long-haired thieves, and only fined him for one year. At the same time, he dismissed the Shuncheon Prefecture Yin from his post and investigated the locust plague, and ordered the governor of Zhili to withdraw the investigation and concealment of the locust plague officials.

For a time, the officialdom in the Zhili area of the Qing court shook.

On the third day of Wang Maoyin's imprisonment, he was found guilty by the prison guards.

Xianfeng was suspicious, and the Criminal Department sent personnel to investigate, but there were no clues in the cell, so he had to give up. However, the Criminal Department sent Li Yanchang to the middle of the incident to Kaifeng Prefecture and Henan Prefecture in Henan to verify the disaster relief situation.

According to the practice of the Qing Dynasty, after the distribution of disaster relief money and grain, the imperial court must send people to the disaster area to inspect and inspect the local disaster relief situation.

Li Yanchang quietly went to Kaifeng Mansion, went to the countryside to inspect, and found that the locust plague was still there, and the victims ate the bark of grass roots and trees, and they didn't know about the disaster relief of the imperial court, let alone drank the porridge cooked by the government!

Li Yanchang went to Zhengzhou County, Xingyang County, and Mi County, which were a little far away from Fengfu City and where the locust plague was serious, to inquire about the situation of the government's disaster relief.

However, the local government turned a blind eye to the rules stipulated by the imperial court that factories should be set up in the prefectures, counties, and cities when the relief was issued, and the amount of silver and rice that had been given, household registration, name, and month and day were published in order to seek supervision by the people. (To be continued.) )