Liu Cai listened to Hai Rui's question and replied: "The silver taels are still in the treasury, and the disaster relief matter, now that the Qin mission has arrived, it will start immediately." ”

Hai Rui stared at Liu Cai: "In this way, in the past many days, the old military gate and the old men have not yet begun to help the victims?" ”

Liu Cai is a high-ranking and powerful governor, a provincial governor, and has his own style of not being angry and self-authoritative. Listening to Hai Rui's words, it was not very polite, but he faded Fang Cai's sadness a little, and said in a deep voice: "Hai Xilang's words are ridiculous. If the banner of the Qincha and the king's order does not arrive, how can disaster relief be done? If the Qin is not good, the disaster relief money has been moved, and it is inevitable that there will be a shortage of silver at that time, and it will not be able to account for it, whether it is we greedy for ink, or the household department will not be enough when it is allocated, or the records when it is distributed, who will say clearly? ”

Yan Hong saw that the first two sentences of these two were about to be pinched, and interjected beside him: "Before Ben Qin set off, my grandfather told me that although the imperial court sends rice out of rice, although it can make the price of rice a little flat, but among those hungry people, many of them have no money, and they will inevitably still sit on the road. Therefore, relief for the victims must be two-pronged. For example, 100,000 stone rice, 80,000 stone out of the light, to help the people, 20,000 stone by Jinan people officials to transport to all parts of the city, every morning to gather hungry people, people to give a liter, everyone and get benefits. I don't have much knowledge, so I might as well do what my grandfather did. ”

After all, Yan Song is the first assistant of the imperial court, and he has been a eunuch for decades, and he is quite insightful in handling specific affairs. At that time, the so-called disaster relief was not just about sending money down. After all, no matter how good the silver is, it can't be eaten. And buying rice with silver is tantamount to raising the soup to stop boiling, which is useless.

The princes of the court and the central government are not fools, they naturally know the way. Generally speaking. As long as it's not the kind of super famine that is thousands of miles away. In most cases, the people are not without grain, but the grain is in the hands of grain merchants and large households, and they are just hoarding.

Therefore, the general disaster relief method of the imperial court is to allocate silver taels to the people to buy rice, and at the same time, sell the stored rice of the imperial court at a low price to stabilize the price of rice, in other words, to use the government's power to reduce the quantity. Rigid intervention in market behavior.

As long as there is a large amount of low-priced rice in the market, the high-priced rice of those grain merchants will lose its value. At this time, if the government uses its strength to exert pressure on the large grain merchants and force them to sell at low prices, the price of rice in the market can basically be guaranteed to be stable, and the price of rice will not be provoked by riots.

As for taking out part of the government's grain at the same time, boiling porridge for relief, this act of hanging his life is mainly used to appease the lowest strata of society and prevent those who are starving to death from really becoming corpses. Throughout the disaster relief. Porridge relief is not only an indispensable link, but it can also be said to be an auxiliary means from a macro perspective. After all. You can't rely on the porridge of the official family to feed the refugees for the rest of their lives.

All this must be handled by competent officials, otherwise the government sells rice at a low price and the grain merchants take the opportunity to eat it, and it will become a generous gesture to the state, and the momentum of helping the grain merchants will not play its due role. And if you are not careful, it is likely to be self-defeating. At the same time, disaster relief operations also need to be backed up by sufficient material resources, either the food in the hands of the officials must be sufficient, or the support of the wealthy businessmen who have food in stock. Otherwise, if the official family only has a small amount of food, it will be a drop in the bucket if it is thrown into the people who are in the famine, and it will be sucked dry in the blink of an eye.

Hai Rui heard Yan Hong say this, nodded and said, "What Yan Qincha said is reasonable. What do you think? ”

Liu Cai shook his head and said, "Two Qincha, I'm afraid this matter is not that simple. If you send rice flat, you must also have rice to hair. Now in the city of Jinan, thanks to Wang Xuan's royal staff going out to give rice relief. As for the official warehouse, there is not much rice and grain. In the opinion of the following officials, if you want the official family to send rice to quell the famine, unless you go to Dezhou and Linqing, and allocate two places of grain to solve the food shortage in Jinan. ”

Yan Hong thought to himself, Shibo, you are here again. I don't dare to agree to you in private about the secondment of grain to Jinan, and you dare to bring it up publicly? In fact, everyone knows that the grain in those two places is the rice and grain that runs from the south to the north, and the food supply of the Beijing division is burdened, so who dares to dispatch it without authorization?

Not to mention that there is still a large share in it, which is to meet the cost of military rations, and whoever moves will lose his head. Liu Cai said this to Yan Hong a few days ago, because he really wanted to win over Yan Hong to make a fortune together. At this moment, he said this with the intention of a Tai Chi technique, an unobtrusive idea, and introduced the contradictions in the province.

Hai Rui didn't answer Liu Cai's words, and said: "Liu Junmen, in Jinan's Changping and Domain, the grain accumulated over the years is no less than hundreds of thousands of stones, and it is enough to relieve the victims inside and outside Jinan, but it is enough to deal with the emergency. The military gate now says that there is no grain in Jinan, and the lower officials dare to ask, where did the grain go? ”

Liu Caizheng didn't even look at Hai Rui, and snorted coldly: "The amount of grain accumulated over the years is not hundreds of thousands of stones. In the past few years in Shandong, the harvest has been poor year after year, and it is difficult to collect all the taxes, and it is necessary to pay the imperial court, and how much is there left in the domain? Second, the famine is not unique to this year, and there have been famines in the past two years. If it weren't for the old man who opened a warehouse and gave relief, I don't know how many people would starve to death. In order to go to the New Year's disaster relief, the grain in the treasury has long been exhausted, could it be that Hai Xilang wants to cure the old man's sin because of this? ”

Liu Cai is old and temperamental, and he is from two lists, and he is on the right path, so he didn't look at this Hai Rui from his heart. At that time, there was a huge difference between Jinshi and Juren, and when an eighty-year-old Juren saw a twenty-year-old Jinshi, he also had to respectfully address each other as an old man, which was the gap. Therefore, from the perspective of common sense, Hai Rui's background is destined to make it difficult for him to make great progress in officialdom.

As for the Qincha aspect? Joke, Liu Cai, as the governor, can also be regarded as a chaplain. He also has a set of royal flags and seals. Therefore, in terms of power and power, Liu Cai is not afraid of Hai Rui.

You must know that Yan Hong is a genuine Qincha, and he is the grandson of Yan Ge Lao, relying on the strength of the Yan family, Liu Cai has to give three points. In addition, Yan Hong was also quite upright to Liu Cai before, the so-called people respect me a foot, I respect people, so naturally I have to be courteous.

And for Hai Rui, of course, there is no need to be so polite. Especially when I heard that this guy connived at the people and punished the officials everywhere he went, he put a full shelf on the shelf. What's the matter, you barbarian from Qiongzhou, the old man is shaking under his nose, you are still tender. Therefore, Liu Cai seized the opportunity to stab Hai Rui.

As for Zhongguan Zhang Cheng? I'm sorry, eunuchs, how far away is flashing, we civil officials are talking about state affairs, and everyone else is shut up.

However, what Liu Cai didn't expect was that he was facing an outlier among the strangers in the officialdom of the dynasty. Seeing that Liu Cai was angry, Hai Rui not only did not restrain himself, but also raised his voice and said:

"What did Liu Junmen say? If it is really for the country and the people, Hai will not be able to cure Liu Junmen's crimes. On the contrary, if it is in the name of disaster relief, if it is a person who pretends to help the public and enrich his own pockets, Hai will never show mercy. Liu Junmen not only said that he would open a warehouse for relief, but also said that the taxes were not uniform, can he bring the account book and take a certain view? ”

Liu Cai sneered: "It turns out that Hai Xilang suspects that the old man is corrupt and perverts the law, but this is okay. Qian Fangbo, please also bring the bottom book of the accounts of my Jinan Domain over the years and give Hai Xilang a look. lest he say that we are full of private pockets, and that he must ask for the king's flag to take us down. ”

Political envoy Qian Fengnai is the second person in the strict party in Shandong Province, and he has always been the only one who is the head of Liu Cai, and he immediately echoed: "This matter is also right. The Qin sent to inspect the affairs of the province, of course, should check the accounts to prevent fraud. However, it will take time to find the accounts of the past years, and I will ask the deputy envoy to wait a while. When I instruct my subordinates to take care of the grinding and experience, bring the bottom book of the accounts for your inspection, I am a lowly official, but I can't be the official authority of your dignified sea boss. After speaking, he also sneered a few times, closed his eyes slightly, and said nothing more.

Liu Cai and Qian Feng, one is the governor of Shandong, the other is a high-ranking official from the second grade, and Hai Rui is only from the seventh grade. The so-called official position is the same as pointing at the monk and scolding the bald donkey. Hai Rui was not annoyed when he heard his sarcasm, but said: "What is the prestige of an official position? In the eyes of the lower officials, they are loyal to the monarch and love the people, and they are impartial and upright. I also asked Qian Fangbo to instruct him to go down and bring the bottom book as soon as possible for Hai to see. ”

Hai Rui's words came out, Liu Cai was not good, and Qian Feng's face had changed. Yan Hong saw that these people were fighting fiercely, and he was busy playing a round on the side and said: "Let's not say a word, but now is not the time for us to speak quickly." After all, there are many disaster victims, and we hope for food like seedlings and nectar, so we still want to protect the people. Liu Junmen, look at it, we really can't raise any food in the treasury? ”

Liu Cai eased his cheeks a little and said, "That's not what you said, how can there be no food left in the treasury?" However, there is indeed not much corn in the treasury now, and it is already overstretched to meet the expenses of soldiers, students, and errands in the city, and it is still worried that it will not be able to sustain itself. It is the old man's Fubiao camp, which has been reduced in grain. If the little grain in this warehouse is used to supply the victims, the officials and soldiers of the whole city will probably have no rice to cook. Besides, the number of people affected by the disaster is huge, and my little food is a drop in the bucket. And when these people get relief every day, they have to let the government give them every day. In this way, not only will it not help, but I am afraid that it will add fuel to the fire. ”

Yan Hong listened carefully, Liu Cai's words were not all unreasonable. If there is too little food, it will really have little effect on the overall relief efforts, but will only stimulate the needs of the victims. Due to the asymmetry of information, it is impossible for the common people to know how much grain is stored in the official mansion. They only care if they can fill their stomachs with a little something. If you can drink porridge at the first time, and then announce that you will not give it after three days, then the people will indeed go crazy.

On the other hand, even if a small amount of grain is put on the market, it will be difficult to achieve the purpose of stabilizing grain prices. The premise of wanting to bring down grain prices is that there must be a sufficient supply of low-cost grain, even if the grain merchants really strike and stop selling, the imperial court also has a sufficient supply of low-cost grain in order to hold on to the situation. Now the Ming Dynasty not only suffered a famine in Shandong, but also had a small grain shortage in Hebei, and there was no strength to transfer grain and rice from other provinces to Shandong. Under the premise of insufficient support, disaster relief is very difficult. (To be continued......)