Since the festival, there has been no rain in the entire eastern shore of Taihu Lake, and the water level of Taihu Lake has gradually dropped to normal levels.

After seven or eight days, the flood waters receded completely, taking away the crops from the fields as well, leaving only a layer of silt.

Under Wu Qian's administration, these governments in the disaster-stricken areas organized and carried out post-disaster reconstruction with unprecedented intensity.

The officials of various prefectures and counties suddenly became diligent in their administration, not because they had received some spiritual baptism, but because they did not dare to be diligent, and there were too many superintendents sent down from above, wave after wave.

First of all, Wu Qian spent three days to build the shelves of the Taihu Lake Comprehensive Management Division, and the officials in it were transferred from Lin'an, some were concurrently served by the Zhejiang Xi'an Pacification Division, and some were Wu Qian's old subordinates.

The department quickly set up operations and dispatched a large number of inspectors to various prefectures and counties, one of which was to inspect the terrain and prepare for water conservancy construction, and the other was to supervise and guide the local reconstruction and restoration work.

Then, the day after the tax register of the atlas was sealed, the Zhejiang West Economic and Boundary Bureau was quickly set up, and one by one the working groups were stationed in various prefectures and counties, and while clarifying the atlas, they also ran around the local area, and went deep into the village level to familiarize themselves with the local situation.

These working groups seem to have no official and no duties, but the state and county officials do not dare to take it lightly, after all, the Economic Boundary Department is personally commanded by King Yan, and what is outrageous is that each working group is also equipped with hundreds of escorts, all of whom are fully armed elites.

Then, at the suggestion of King Yan, the imperial court enriched many idle officials with positions and no powers to the imperial history platform as a temporary imperial historian, and then sent them to Zhejiang West Road, they did not have the power to interfere in local government affairs, so they only collected the local situation and then summarized and reported.

In the end, these temporary imperial histories will also be subject to performance appraisal, and those who do well will be transferred to positions of real power in the future, and those who do not do well are likely to be pushed to the end and deprived of their official status. new

The civil service team of the Great Song Dynasty has always been very large, but the actual position is basically fixed and limited, the so-called radish and a pit, idle officials want to take the position, they have to move the original people, so they have both motivation and pressure to find fault with local officials to find problems.

This kind of behavior will definitely cause trouble and trouble to the officials who actually do things, but the temporary imperial history only has the right to investigate, not the right to dispose of it, so Zhao Mengqi is not worried that there will be too much chaos.

In addition, in addition to the above, there are also many people holding the imperial city officials who are also shaking around the place.

For a while, the entire Zhejiang West Road was very lively, and even seemed a little messy, which frightened the local officials all trembling, and no matter what they did, they felt that there were many eyes staring around them.

The complaint was sent to Lin'an like a snowflake, which made the court also make a commotion, but Zhao Yun hid in the deep palace and did not go to the court at all, which made Dong Huai, the mother-in-law in charge, miserable and annoying, but in addition to consoling and appeasing, he could not change the status quo.

Compared with the chaos of officialdom, the people are much more orderly, and even have a thriving appearance.

Although the floods cost the people a lot of property, the government hired more than 100,000 people just to clean up the silt in the canal, and the wages were a bucket of food a day, so that they and their families could live without becoming homeless.

In addition, in order to implement the border crossing, land transactions in Pingjiang and Jiaxing provinces were frozen, and the people did not have to worry about their land being stolen.

Everything seemed to be developing in the direction that Zhao Mengqi had envisioned, but a huge crisis lingered.

In the lobby of Wujiang County, a large group of people present looked sad.

Wu Qian held an account book, "...... The entire Pingjiang Prefecture used a total of 320,000 servants, consuming more than 30,000 stone of grain every day, more than 60,000 officials and soldiers, and nearly 2,000 stone of daily rations...... In other words, an average of 40,000 stone of grain is consumed every day."

"Moreover, the hundreds of thousands of troops requisitioned by His Highness from all over the country are also arriving one after another, but the total amount of grain stored in all the official treasury and Chang Ping in Pingjiang Mansion is less than two million stones, and this is still because His Highness "borrowed" more than one million stone of grain from the gentry of Wujiang before, plus the result of intercepting the grain."

"Count it down, even if it's a tight ration, let's

The grain stock can last for two months at most, but the late rice will not be harvested until November, which is not surprising, which means that there will be a shortage of grain for more than a month......

Zhao Mengqi pinched his forehead and didn't speak, only thinking hard in his heart about where to get food.

Cao grain can't be intercepted anymore, otherwise what will Lin'an's nearly two million mouths eat?

There is no food in Fujian, and Uncle Xie Fang sent a letter, and he bought a total of more than 500,000 stones, which will be shipped to Lin'an one after another, and it should not be able to buy much this year.

Lianghuai and Jinghu are both war zones, and they themselves have to rely on other places to supplement food, not to mention Sichuan, which is still a long way away.

At this time, Gao Jia, the magistrate of Wujiang County, said, "At most, half a month will be spent planting late rice, and when the time comes, most of the servants will return to the fields, and won't they save a lot of grain for work?"

Late rice must be planted before the beginning of autumn, so that half of this year's grain output can be saved, and it is natural to put the labor back to farming, so what Gao Jia said seems to be right.

But Wu Qian shook his head, "Even if they don't work, don't these people have to eat?" Although there is no need to pay wages, whether it is relief or sales and loans, it is always necessary to ensure that these more than one million peasant households have food, and the actual amount of grain consumed has not changed. Moreover, even if they were only given rations, each of them would have to pay two litres a day."

In fact, because of the failure of the early rice harvest and the grain stocks washed away by the flood, there was a shortage of five or six million stone of grain.

Realizing that he had such a big negligence, Gao Jia was suddenly embarrassed, peeked at King Yan, and saw that he didn't show any blame, so he was slightly relieved.

In addition to Gao Jia, the officials present, regardless of civil and military, also worked together to discuss.

Chen Xiaokun scratched his head, "If not, suspend the conscription of the Xiang Army first?" If you have less than 100,000 mouths, you can always save some food."

Wu Qian still vetoed, "No, the water conservancy project cannot be delayed, there has been a big flood for two consecutive years, and there is a great possibility of drought next year, but this time, the main projects are on the west bank of Taihu Lake, which can relieve a little food pressure."

"Then buy grain, except for the local grain in Wujiang, which is controlled by the government, the gentry in other states and counties should still have a lot of grain in their hands, and it will be absolutely no problem to survive this year." Pingjiang Prefecture General Judge Zhou Chengji proposed.

"Nowadays, except for Wujiang County, where the price of grain has remained stable because of official sales, grain prices in other prefectures and counties, including Fucheng, have risen to varying degrees, and if two or three million stone of grain is bought at market prices, it will even increase the price of grain, and even if it can be bought, it will cost at least six or seven million yuan, where does this money come from?"

Wu Qian asked this, and everyone's eyes shone on King Yan in unison.

"You can't let me 'borrow' grain from the local tyrants in other states and counties, right? I guess before I open my mouth, someone will rebel." Zhao Mengqi smiled bitterly in his heart.

It is said that under the whole world, it is not the king's land, but if the emperor really dares to seize the wealth of his subjects on a large scale indiscriminately, he will definitely be violently resisted.

As for the issue of grain prices, the practice of the imperial courts in successive dynasties has been to use official grain reserves such as "Chang Ping" to stabilize them, rather than issuing any decrees to restrict them, because that would be basically useless.

If Zhao Meng uses a mandatory decree to set the price of grain, and if the price is higher, he will be punished, then the local tyrants will hoard grain and not sell it, which will make the food on the market even more scarce.