"Your Majesty, according to local reports, Shaanxi and Henan have suffered a severe drought this year, and some prefectures and counties may have failed to harvest more than 50 percent of their autumn grain.

"Try to help."

Last year, the whole country was in good weather, but this year God is starting to make trouble again.

In the north, which has not had a major disaster for several years, Shaanxi and Henan provinces have been in drought for half a year this year, and there was no snow even last winter. At the same time, the Yangtze River, Ganjiang River, and Huai River basins rained heavily again after July, and the water levels of rivers and lakes continued to rise.

Fortunately, after several years of immigration and reclamation, the Changping warehouses in various prefectures and counties in Henan are more or less stocked with grain. Moreover, the peasants in Henan have only begun to pay their land contributions in full this year, and every household actually has grain in stock.

Even if Shaanxi and Henan provinces are short of grain, they don't need to be transferred from the south, and they directly use Henan's Changping position, and the effect of Zhao Han's recuperation and recuperation is immediately highlighted.

At the same time that the central government ordered the transfer of grain for disaster relief, clean government inspectors were also dispatched.

Whenever there is a big move involving money and food, the Metropolitan Procuratorate will send inspectors to supervise it openly or covertly.

Xiaohong is a woman, and it is inconvenient for her to visit secretly, so she is in the open this time.

Along the Grand Canal, the flood waters have just receded, and people on both sides of the river are rushing to harvest rice. Most of the rice was soaked in water, and after two more days, it was all rotten.

"Huang Xiantai, look, there are peasant associations and peasant soldiers' banners there!"

The person who spoke, named Zhan Wenfeng, was a female inspector of the Metropolitan Procuratorate Zhan Wenfeng had not graduated from Jinling University, but she was booked by Xiaohong to enter the Metropolitan Procuratorate immediately after completing her studies. Of course, that was before the resumption of the imperial examination, and now you have to take the examination first.

Xiaohong stood on the deck of the official ship, raised her eyes, and sure enough, she saw the flag fluttering on the shore.

Xiaohong sighed: "It seems that the matter is urgent, and the local magistrate has to use the peasant association and peasant soldiers." Nowadays, except for the construction of bridges and paving roads, these two flags are rarely seen. “

The farmland on both sides of the river that has been flooded must be harvested in a hurry, and a large amount of manpower must be dispatched.

At such a time, the government can mobilize the masses and make overall arrangements without favoritism. Which paddy field needs to be harvested first, which farmland can be directly abandoned, and which farmland needs to mobilize manpower, these things can only improve efficiency with a plan.

Of course, the farmers who received the help also had to show something afterwards. For example, one person from each household is responsible for repairing and maintaining village and town roads this year.

Such an efficient grassroots mobilization capacity can be maintained for at least several decades. As for the process of dying in a few decades, these two generations will die, and then it will definitely gradually weaken, and finally become the inability of the government to effectively mobilize the people, this process may be thirty or fifty years, or it may be a hundred years.

If it can be maintained for a hundred years, Zhao Han is enough to feel relieved Zhan Wenfeng lying on the railing, quietly watching the shore to harvest the soaked rice. She remembered that she used to do farm work at home.

During the busy farming season, the village primary school will also have a few days off for the students to go home to help.

There is more than one female student at Jinling University, and the reason why Zhan Wenfeng was selected by Xiaohong is because she was born poor and has a relatively quiet personality.

"Huang Xiantai, in this year's imperial examination, why don't there be female jinshi?" Zhan Wenfeng asked suddenly.

Xiaohong smiled helplessly: "It is inconvenient for a woman to be an official after all." Female students from universities in various provinces are married or married before graduation, and once they graduate, they immediately return home to marry and teach their children. Which husband's family is willing to let them go to Beijing to take the exam?

The few who are aspiring will either go to the examiner early, or go to the Hanlin Academy and the Qintian Academy as graduate students.

In this year's examination, don't mention a female jinshi, not even a woman who participated in the imperial examination. “

Zhan Wenfeng said: "If I hadn't entered the Metropolitan Inspection Institute, I would definitely have taken the exam this year." ”

Xiao Hongwan said: "Then I really shouldn't pick you, maybe there will be the first female jinshi in this dynasty." “

Today, Xiaohong's official position is the imperial envoy of Zuo Yidu, and he is a four-grade official, which can be understood as a department-level official. The level is the same as when she was a prefect before, but now she belongs to the real power of the Beijing official, and she is infinitely close to the deputy ministerial level.

As for Zhan Wenfeng, there is a little minion in the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and because of his gender, he can follow Xiaohong around.

Zhan Wenfeng joked: "Maybe I can really get in." ”

Two women, chatting on deck.

There were also some male inspectors, but they played mahjong in the cabin. Can't gamble money, this is the principle, what they are gambling at the moment is that if they need to dress up in disguise when they get to the place, they can be the master if they win, and they can only run errands with their entourage if they lose.

All the way to the boat, finally arrived at the border of Henan.

Xiaohong took Zhan Wenfeng and two male inspectors to the provincial capital to supervise the disaster relief on the bright side.

The rest of the integrity inspectors immediately dispersed and inspected various states and counties in private.

Liu Chuanzong, Luo Fang and Wei Gan were more unlucky, and when the three of them drew lots, they were drawn to the four counties of Lingbao, Ruxiang, Shaanzhou, and Mianchi. These places are all in the corners of Henan, and the other side of the Yellow River is the boundary of Shanxi.

They wandered around the pond for more than half a month, and found nothing unusual except for the severe drought.

So I continued to walk west and came to the boundary of Shaanzhou, which was Sanmenxia City a few hundred years later.

"Hey, there's a foreign monk there." Wei Gan pointed ahead and said.

In the wilderness, Nan Huairen was in high spirits, watching an old woman go to the grave of her ancestors.

It is normal to worship ancestors, Nan Huairen has seen a lot, but this time it is a little different, completely subverting his concept of Chinese ancestor worship.

I saw that the old woman had burned the paper money, and then placed sacrifices in front of the grave. Then, the old woman held a wooden stick in her hand and walked around the grave and whipped it: "The money has been burned, and the meat has been offered, and to be an ancestor should be to have the virtue of being an ancestor." Your great-great-grandson is the only seedling of our old Li family, and you are not allowed to come and hold on to it again. If you dare to come again, I will kill you.

I can't kill you, please ask the monk and Taoist priest to chant the scriptures, and curse you so that your soul is scattered and you can't be reincarnated! ”

After beating and threatening the ancestors, the old godwoman pointed to the grave next to her with a stick, and scolded: "None of you are allowed to come, my grandson is the first in the exam, and the ancestor of the old Li family depends on him." Who dares to touch my grandson, no matter where you are, you lonely ghosts, dig up your graves one by one! ”

For the next half an hour, the old woman kept cursing in the cemetery, and if there were really ghosts here, I was afraid that those ghosts would be scolded and hidden.

Nan Huairen thought for a moment and said to himself: "Chinese worship ancestors, just like they worship God, not because of faith, but out of practical interests. Pray to God and worship the Buddha, and only when it is fulfilled will the vow be repaid. Worshipping ancestors is also to be blessed by ancestors. If the ancestors do not bless and hurt the younger generations, then their respect for the ancestors will be gone.

Three anti-corruption inspectors, passing by the cemetery with their bags on their backs, also stopped with great interest to watch the excitement.

The old woman scolded with a dry mouth, and finally received her magical powers. When leaving, he also gave a piece of pork to his ancestors,

Pick it up and carefully put it in the basket. The ancestors had already eaten it, and they ate the essence of pork, and the rest of the meat was, of course, taken home to the living.

Liu Chuanzong suddenly spoke: "Old man, the drought here is severe enough, and these leaves on the mountain are all withered. “

The old woman answered, "Isn't it? Emperor Zhao sat in the world, and the first two years were also drought, just like the Ming Dynasty. After that, it was good for four or five years, and it was said that Emperor Zhao was virtuous. This year, it was very strange, and Emperor Zhao didn't work. There was little snow last winter, only two rains since the beginning of spring, and the wells in the village are running out of water. “

"Then there must be no famine?" Liu Chuanzong said.

The old woman smiled: "It's okay, there was a bumper harvest in the past few years, and Emperor Zhao was also very good, only half of the grain was paid to the government, and there was surplus grain in every family's warehouse." Even if you can't harvest food this year, you won't starve to death until next year.

It's just that the draft is inconvenient, and every household has to be guarded by the well, and a bucket is immediately beaten away

When the old woman had finished speaking, she took the basket and went home, and there was a village in a ravine nearby.

Liu Chuanzong walked up to Nan Huairen and said, "Brother Tai is fine." “

Nan Huairen returned the salute: "Hello, my name is Nan Huairen, from the Netherlands (Brussels, Belgium) in Europe. "

Wei Gan smiled: "What Your Excellency said is actually an official word. ”

Nan Huairen said: "I have been to Nanjing, and I almost met the emperor. In the past few years, I have traveled to Guangdong, Jiangxi, Jinling, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, and this time I came from Shaanxi to Henan. ”

"You can run and preach in the provinces?" Luo Fang warned, "Your Majesty has decreed that the Jews can only preach in churches, and it is illegal to preach outside churches." ”

"I'm not a missionary, I'm just traveling around China, and I'm going to write a book about China," Nan said. ”

While chatting, they followed the old woman, planning to spend the night in the village in front.

As soon as I arrived at the entrance of the village, I heard a commotion.

When Liu Chuanzong inquired in the past, it turned out to be a grain merchant in the county, who went to the countryside to collect grain at a high price.

"Something is wrong." Wei Gan muttered.

Luo Fang sneered: "Of course not. I have only heard of harvesting grain in good years and selling grain in disaster years, but I have never seen a grain merchant who went to the village to collect grain at a high price in a disaster year. ”

Liu Chuanzong said: "Go over and have a look." “

When the three of them came to the noisy place, they only heard the village chief say, "Are you confused? I won't be able to harvest a few grains of grain this year, and every household will save to eat, so how can I sell any more grain to you? Hurry up, don't come to entertain us. ”

The person who took the lead was a guy in the grain merchants, he had already tried the soft ones, and these peasants did not sell grain alive or dead. There was no way, so he simply came hard and threatened: "The second master of my family is doing a classic history in Hui County." The third master of my family is the head of the county's rite section. The fifth young master of my family is the experience of Datong Bank in this county. If you don't sell your grain, you'll have a good time next year!" Do you know what Reco does? It's in charge of the school! Offend my family, so that your children and grandchildren will not be able to finish elementary school! ”

A peasant captain rushed up: "Lao Tzu moved from Jiangxi, and in the eighth year of Chongzhen, he followed His Majesty to fight." If he hadn't been disabled and discharged, Lao Tzu would have been at least a regiment commander now! This Ming Dynasty has made us lose it, and I'm afraid of you, what kind of chief of the Rite Section are you? If you dare to play tricks again, I will beat you up and then report to the official! ”

"Phew!"

The captain of the peasant soldiers blew the bamboo whistle, and the peasants in the village stepped forward one after another, and they ran to buy grain with a mess in their hands, and they were so frightened that they immediately ran away, for fear that they would be killed if they stayed.

"Hahahaha!"

The villagers laughed.

Liu Chuanzong and the three of them stayed in the village that night and wanted to inquire about the news, but they couldn't ask anything inside.

Continuing to walk forward, I found that in several nearby villages, grain merchants sent people to buy grain. Moreover, it is all high price,

There are really peasants who have a lot of grain in stock, and they are greedy for the high price and sell some of their grain.

Another evening, Liu Chuanzong convened a meeting: "The Chang Liquidation of Datong Bank in this county, I'm afraid there is something wrong." The harvest year is naturally fine, but the disaster year is about to be exposed, so these officials and businessmen are scared to hurry up to buy grain at a high price to make up for it. ”

"It must be so!" Wei Gan nodded and said.

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