readx; "The people, and only the people, are the driving force behind the creation of world history. Pen Fun Pavilion www.biquge.info [Burning ^ Text ^ Library]"

After a few years of traversal journey, Zhu Youzhen admired the old man's famous sentence more and more. In the face of all kinds of natural disasters**, will it be necessary to destroy the country and extinct the species? Zhu Youzhen and his supporters have already answered with their own practical actions. And what is happening in Kaifeng City has once again verified this truth.

The booklet that Zhu Youzhen gave to Yan Ermei recorded the valuable experience summed up in many disaster relief efforts. Including how to organize personnel, how to maintain order, how to ensure fairness, how to make good use of materials, etc., in administration, public security, health, medical and other aspects can be said to be comprehensive. Of course, this cannot be summed up by Zhu Youzhen alone, but is the crystallization of the collective wisdom and sweat of all the people who participated in disaster relief in the past. With this booklet, Yan Ermei was able to strengthen the disaster relief work, even if she was a novice, and the disaster relief work was well organized.

Moreover, the principle of cash-for-work is still adhered to in this disaster relief. According to the count, there are more than 50,000 people living in the city, including about 15,000 people over the age of 60, children under the age of 12, and the disabled and seriously injured.

The remaining nearly 40,000 people, whether they are men or women, old or young, and high or low, as long as they come to the porridge factory to eat porridge, they must work to earn their share. One work can eat one meal, and more work can be accumulated, can be transferred to others, and can also be exchanged for cash.

For the ordinary people of Kaifeng Province, they used to have their own livelihoods in the city, but they were all destroyed by the war. Although most families have farmland outside the city, the crops will not be harvested until the beginning of next summer, and the water will not quench their thirst, not to mention that this year is a cold winter, and I am afraid that we will not be able to harvest much food. In this case, the government provided them with jobs, which was equivalent to saving their lives, so everyone was grateful to Dade and enthusiastically signed up for work according to their own conditions.

Zhu Youzhen's plan is also ambitious, he intends to make full use of Kaifeng's location in the Central Plains and convenient transportation to build Kaifeng into a new industrial city with a complete range of categories.

First of all, there is a need for a professional construction team, which requires at least a few thousand strong laborers. With them, roads and bridges can be paved, water conservancy projects can be built, city defenses can be rectified, and factories and houses can be built.

Second, Kaifeng should set up a brick factory, a coal factory, an iron-making factory, a textile factory, and a military factory. In order to allow these factories to be set up quickly, Zhu Youzhen has urgently transferred technical backbones from Jingshi and Qinwangzhuang, and is now on his way to Kaifeng. In particular, military factories should be set up with the highest priority, so that officers and soldiers can replenish ammunition on the spot and reduce the workload of long-distance transportation from Beijing.

Third, Zhu Youzhen also has a long-term plan, that is, to harness the Yellow River and reopen the Grand Canal from Jiangnan to Henan. Because the flooding of the Yellow River has always been a problem for the Chinese nation, and the drought in recent years is a good time to harness the Yellow River.

As for the Grand Canal, the significance is even less so. Although there is now the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, the Sui-Tang Grand Canal has long been abandoned. Sooner or later, when the Liaodong issue was no longer the biggest threat to the empire, Zhu Youzhen would have to look to the west and solve the problems of Mongolia, the Western Regions, and Tibet. These places are long distances, and if you want to firmly control this vast territory, you must first solve the problem of supply. Therefore, there must be not only the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which runs through the north and south, but also the Grand Canal that runs through the east and west. To control the Yellow River, more manpower is needed, even the manpower of 20 Kaifeng Prefectures is not enough, so the people absolutely do not have to worry about having no work to do.

Under the organization of Kaifeng Prefecture, the people of the whole city soon devoted themselves to the hot labor. The men worked side by side with the officers and soldiers of the Ming army, preemptively repairing the ruined city walls and some less damaged residences in the city; The women cook, wash clothes, take care of the elderly and children, and do the same chores as before, but now they are all organized and much more efficient.

But not everyone is satisfied with Kaifeng's arrangement. The people who are most emotional are those big families, wealthy businessmen, and officials in the past, as well as some scholars. They feel that it is simply humiliating to do such manual work, in their words, these are the work of peddlers and pawns, and they either used to have a lot of money, or they feel superior to others, how can they delight themselves and be in the company of ordinary people?

But as the saying goes, "people are under the roof and have to bow their heads". Some wealthy families did hide a lot of silver at home, but now there is no food in the whole city, and trade has not yet resumed, even if they have money, they can't buy a grain of rice, and if they want to eat, they have to work for relief. For those who read, "there are thousands of bells in the book" usually say that it's okay, but I'm really hungry for a day or two, my eyes are blue, and I can't wait to eat all the books, how can I still pay so much attention?

Therefore, these people had to reluctantly participate in the "cash-for-work". However, these people are usually pampered and accustomed to being pampered, and they are typical of the four bodies that are not diligent, and the five grains are not distinguished, and they can't do physical work at all. Others work for more than an hour, and one work is earned, but they just work all day, and they can't even complete half of the quota, and they are still grinding their hands full of blood blisters, complaining bitterly.

Later, Yan Ermei took care of them, halved their work quota, and specially gave them some copywriting and management work. At that time, when the officials were recruited, these people were angry and no one came; It's good now, they are all rushing to be scribes, because they don't have to sell coolies, and they can't even eat if they don't cook anymore.

Three days later, order in Kaifeng had basically stabilized. Although normal commerce and trade have not yet resumed, the people have food to eat and temporary tents provided by the officials and soldiers to live in, and finally there is hope for life again.

In the early morning of the fourth day, a notice posted outside the yamen of Kaifeng Mansion once again caused the whole city to boil.

The general content of the notice is: Kaifeng is in ruins, and many officials serve the yamen voluntarily, although it is moving, but it is not a long-term strategy. After the prefect asked the governor of Henan for instructions, the governor specially approved the following:

First, a large number of new official positions were established in Kaifeng Prefecture, and all official goods were not in the stream, and salaries were paid by the imperial court and included in the official evaluation. In other words, there is a chance for promotion. As long as you are literate, you can apply for exams and run for office.

Second, in addition to the establishment of new official positions, some of the positions of officials were changed to "employees". Employees are not officials and cannot be promoted, but they are also paid by the imperial court. Employees are eligible to run for election as long as they are male, aged between 15 and 60 and in good health.

In less than half an hour, the prefect's yamen was crowded with people who came to compete and watch the excitement, and no one even went to the porridge factory!