Li Zhi, don't be a coward

Chapter 300
This is the first time that Li Qinzai officially delivered the memorial as a courtier.

After all, he was just a refined salted fish before, and he would never know how to write memorials anyway. He is too familiar with Li Zhi, so writing memorials seems far away.Is the place where the eaves are hung out of the sun?
Li Zhi opened the memorial with great interest, turned his head to Empress Wu and said with a smile: "It's rare for Jingchu to go to the memorial, so I have to take a look, I'm afraid I may encounter some difficulties..."

Empress Wu showed a somewhat unnatural look.

She didn't forget the words Li Qinzai asked the eunuch to bring him before he left for Bingzhou.

Li Zhi wanted to protect Mrs. Han, and she wanted to kill Mrs. Han, two completely different orders, this Li Jingchu probably experienced a lot of struggles.

Empress Wu was even more worried that if Li Qinzai's memorandum revealed both her and Li Zhi's intentions, Li Zhi might get angry and openly oppose the emperor as a queen, and the superficial love between husband and wife might not be maintained.

When the memorial was opened, Li Zhi saw the crooked words on the memorial at first sight, and immediately took a deep breath.

"Is this written by his dog?" Li Zhi blurted out subconsciously.

Empress Wu leaned over to take a look, immediately gave a chuckle, covered her mouth and said, "This word...the concubine finally knows that Li Jingchu is not as good as others."

Li Zhi laughed happily: "That's right, from this memorial, I finally know that Li Jingchu is also a mortal body, otherwise I would have thought he was an omnipotent god."

After finishing speaking, she curled her lips in disgust: "This word... is really unsightly, unsightly!"

Enduring strong discomfort, Li Zhi continued to read patiently, and immediately fell into a daze after reading.

Empress Wu's heart tightened, and she hurriedly glanced at the memorial, and then looked at Li Zhi in surprise.

"Your Majesty, Li Jingchu said... to mobilize the soldiers of the Zhechong Mansion?"

Li Zhi frowned, and said: "Jing Chu said that the soldiers removed their armor and armor, entered Bingzhou, and replaced the local corvees to open canals to divert water and build reservoirs..."

Empress Wu immediately grasped the key point of the memorandum, and said softly: "Jing Chu means to use soldiers instead of labor to solve the drought in Bingzhou?"

Li Zhi hummed, and said slowly: "The drought in Bingzhou is more serious than I imagined. Jing Chu said that this year's harvest may be less than [-]% of the normal year. The court should make preparations for disaster relief. It is best to issue a government order in advance to exempt Taxes should be collected from the state, and relief food should be allocated before the autumn harvest, otherwise countless refugees would be displaced..."

Empress Wu sighed, and said, "But Your Majesty, the treasury does not have enough grain. Last year's battle with Baekje and the war against the Japanese kingdom consumed almost all the grain in the treasury. We are still waiting for the grain to fill up after the autumn harvest this year." The treasury, I didn't expect to encounter a drought in the north this year..."

Li Zhi looked sad and sighed: "Yes, this year's drought is not limited to Bingzhou. Many counties in the north have reported it. The grain harvest is a foregone conclusion. The imperial treasury really can't mobilize food to help Bingzhou..."

Empress Wu pondered for a moment, then said: "However, Li Jingchu said that using soldiers from Zhechong Mansion instead of corvee labor to go to Bingzhou to open canals to divert water and build reservoirs is... a bit interesting."

Li Zhi hesitated and said: "The army is the army, if they are called to do corvee work..."

In ancient times, the division of functions of the army was very strict, and the army could only be used for combat, and there were very few precedents of using the army to dig ditches in places.

It's not that the ruler didn't think about it, how could he not think about the tens of thousands of ready-made laborers there?
However, in every disaster year, the risk of local civil uprisings will expand infinitely. It is a very dangerous thing for the army to disarm and go into the local area to relieve disasters.

Therefore, since ancient times, the imperial court has always guarded the disaster area strictly and is full of vigilance. No one has ever dared to use the army as labor to help the local people survive the disaster.

Whenever the army enters the disaster area, what they do is not disaster relief, but suppression and defense.When the disaster occurred, the imperial court automatically regarded the victims as enemies.

Only Li Qinzai dared to put forward such a suggestion. After all, he came here a thousand years later, and he knows the importance of the army better than anyone else, especially in disaster areas where there is no hope.

The government soldiers of the Tang Dynasty may not be subordinate soldiers and have no sense of serving the people, but as long as the imperial court gives an order and the army can execute it perfectly, it will still be a great help to the people of Bingzhou.

There are tens of thousands of laborers ready, why not use them?Datang is now invincible in the world. The rulers of the neighboring countries tremblingly pray to God and Buddha all day long to pray that the Tang army will not invade. Who dares to take the initiative to invade the territory of Datang?

Since no one dared to invade, Datang's standing army was in a state of idleness. There were tens of thousands of soldiers around Bingzhou.
Li Zhi pondered for a long time, in terms of talents, Li Zhi was still slightly inferior to his father, Li Shimin, and his courage in acting was not as good.

Glancing at Empress Wu, Empress Wu hesitated again and again.

After a long time, Empress Wu said softly: "Your Majesty, you might as well give Jing Chu's proposal a try. Before the autumn harvest, the disaster situation has not yet reached the serious stage. If Jing Chu's method can be used, there are also examples for future disaster relief in the Tang Dynasty. Generally speaking, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.”

Li Zhi thought for a while, nodded and said: "That's right, you can try it. In the north of Bingzhou, there is the Ningshuo Governor's Mansion, which can transfer more than [-] soldiers. I will grant the right to dispatch troops to Jing Chu, and allow him to dispatch them when the opportunity arises."

Empress Wu added: "Your Majesty, don't forget to allocate money and food. Whether it is to open canals to divert water or provide relief to victims of disasters, a lot of money and food are needed."

Li Zhi was taken aback for a moment, then showed a heroic shortness of breath, and said with a wry smile: "The treasury has some spare money, but food... there is really no."

Empress Wu smiled and said: "Then allocate some money to Jing Chu and let him figure out a way. Although the national treasury has no food, the people still have it, but it is concentrated in the hands of a few powerful landlords. Let's see if Jing Chu has the ability to take it The food was exchanged to help the victims.”

Li Zhi smiled and said: "What the queen said is true, I will make an order..."

After pondering for a moment, Li Zhi suddenly smirked and said, "I will prepare a few more copybooks from the Wei stele, and give them to Jingchu along with the imperial decree. The handwriting is so ugly, I can finally disgust him for once."

…………

And state city.

Li Qinzai was still dressed as a wealthy son, wandering around the city of Bingzhou with a few of his followers.

There are more than 30 grain shops in the city, and Li Qinzai has been going back and forth between these grain shops in the past few days.

Interestingly, with the disaster imminent, all the more than 30 grain shops were closed and a notice was posted outside the shop, saying that the grain was sold out.

The people in the city are not farmers, they have no land to grow, and the grain shop can't buy food, so the people can only go to the government.

This is also the reason why Li Qinzai wandered around the grain shop in the city.

The grain shop was closed and the shopkeeper disappeared. There seemed to be an agreement among more than 30 grain shops, but one person in charge could not be found.

After Li Qinzai searched patiently for a few days, he finally lost his patience.

This is not taking the governor as a cadre, is it true that the newly appointed governor has a good temper?

Standing beside Li Qinzai, Wang Shifu saw that Li Qinzai's expression was a bit serious, but Wang Shifu was still expressionless, showing no signs of happiness or anger.

He was forcibly pulled out by Li Qinzai. Li Qinzai said something to understand the people's sentiments, and then the governor of Bingzhou City walked side by side with No. [-] and No. [-] figures for a long time.

Standing at the door of a grain store, Li Qinzai pointed to the closed door, and suddenly said with a smile: "Don't drive, my lord, more than 30 grain stores in the city are closed, have you seen it before?"

Wang Shifu said indifferently: "I have never seen it before, but I know the reason."

"what reason?"

"Hoarding grain is a surprise. After the autumn harvest, these grain merchants hoard grains that can be sold at sky-high prices. Now that the disaster has not yet broken out, they are naturally unwilling to sell."

Li Qinzai blinked: "Can the governor's office take care of it?"

"It can be managed, but it is easy to cause a rebound from grain merchants, and the consequences may be more serious."

"What are the consequences?"

Wang Shifu thought for a while, and said: "If the governor's office intervenes, it may be able to overcome the difficulties for a while, and the grain can be sold to the people, but most of the grain merchants are not reconciled and will quickly transfer the grain to other counties."

"This year's drought is not only in Bingzhou, but also in the whole north. The grain in the hands of the grain merchants is not worried about selling. If the grain merchants take away the grain in Bingzhou, when the disaster breaks out, the people of Bingzhou will not be able to buy it even if they have money. After all, businessmen are profit-seeking people, they don’t care about the lives of the people.”

Li Qinzai's expression became cold: "So, I, the governor, have to coax those grain merchants carefully? Can you give them a knock?"

(End of this chapter)