Great Warriors of Sui and Tang Dynasties

Chapter 1235 Mazhi County

The weather continued to be dry, and it hadn't rained a drop for two months.

In the Central Plains, locusts have followed one after another, but they are still captured by countless army of locusts in various ways. The plague of locusts has not yet appeared, but the crops in the field are still not preserved.

The young crops were not eaten by locusts, but there was no water, and they died of drought day by day.

Small streams and rivers have stopped flowing, and large rivers have exposed large riverbeds, leaving only shallow rivers in the middle of the river.

The government has already started to tell the people that the drought this year will continue, so some fields cannot be kept, so there is no need to fight the drought in vain.There is no water to pick, and you can't win if you pick.Rather than being in vain, let's catch locusts together for food.

The locusts caught everywhere are now piled up like mountains.

Fortunately, the exchange of grain for locusts has been going on without any changes. The locusts are pulled over and the grain is exchanged without any discount.

The number one scholar of the new department was newly awarded the post of secretary minister from the sixth rank to the secretary. At first, Ma Zhou refused to accept it. He said that he would go to a local place, preferably in a remote place, even if it was a ninth rank. The county magistrate is also fine.

However, the emperor asked him to stay in the capital for a period of time and study collectively with other Jinshi in the Ministry of Officials, so he first let him take up a post in the Secretary Province.

Then, Luo Cheng asked Ma Zhou to go to Yanshi County to take a temporary post, and let him serve as the county magistrate.

The previous Yanshi magistrate had been promoted and transferred away because of his meritorious service in controlling locusts.

Ma Zhou’s tenure in Yanshi was a temporary post. According to the official statement of the court, Lang Benguan, the Secretary of the Secretary Province, seconded him to another post. Therefore, his official official said that the Secretary and Provincial Secretary Lang knew the affairs of Yanshi County. The county magistrate and the county magistrate still had very different.

When Ma Zhou arrived in office, he was a little surprised when he found out that Li Gang was actually his assistant official and county magistrate. This former academician of the Hanlin Academy and Prince Zhan Shi was busy organizing locust catches and fighting drought in the county all day long.

Most of the fields have been designated as abandoned areas, and only a few fields near rivers and water have been reserved as protected cropping areas. People are organized to dig wells and use water trucks to combat drought.

Li Gang had nothing against the young county magistrate Ma Zhou. During the following period, the old master Li Gang seemed to be a different person.

Now he doesn't talk about those Confucian classics or sages' speeches, and he doesn't talk about the relationship between heaven and man. He is just doing something down-to-earth now.

"I know that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been harvesting locusts. In fact, His Majesty is benevolent. He uses the food from the internal treasury to subsidize and relieve the common people." Li Gang said with admiration.

In Yanshi County alone, a large number of locusts are caught every day, but the people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not refuse to come, and change as many as they have.

Three catties of locusts and one catty of millet have not changed since the beginning, and it has been two months.Although it is not as good as two catties of millet per catty, migratory locusts are bigger.

Outside Yanshi City, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also specially sent people to build several huge locust warehouses, which were filled with dried locusts.On the other side, in the processing workshop, dry locusts are also being ground day and night to make powder.

Li Gang also knows that the Ministry of Internal Affairs uses locusts to dry and grind them into powder, and then mixes them with other miscellaneous grains, or makes them into health-preserving powder, or simply makes them into feed, which is used to feed chickens and ducks.

But he still believes that at this time, the locusts have already collected too much, and if the market behavior is used, the price can be greatly reduced.

"Those workshops employ a lot of people in the county, and their wages are settled with food every day. This is also a disguised form of helping the people."

Ma Zhou was also aware of these, but he still firmly believed that the actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were not entirely charitable, and should still be profitable.

Like Li Gang, he would not think that it was an act of relief and charity.

As the newly arrived magistrate, Ma Zhou spent a few days running through the entire Yanshi County, and then summoned Li Gang, the county magistrate, and other officials.

"According to the observations and calculations of the Taishi Bureau of the Secretary's Province, the drought in Henan will intensify, so the food in the first half of this year will basically not be guaranteed. Now Li Xiancheng is leading everyone to catch locusts. The effect is very significant. There are basically no swarms in the county. There are lots of migratory locusts, which is a good thing."

"However, I think we can't just stare at the locusts. Right now is a difficult time. If we want to eradicate locusts, we also have to prevent disasters. If there is no harvest this summer, there will be more than half a year before the autumn harvest. The rations of the people will definitely Supply must be guaranteed.”

There is a booklet in front of Ma Zhou, which is some of the things he recorded when he ran down during this period.

"Nowadays, many people in the county still have food in their hands. In addition, the locusts have exchanged for food, and each family has also exchanged a lot. This is a good situation, and there is a lot of food in the warehouse. Normally, even if there is no harvest this summer, we still don't There will be a famine, but to plan ahead, a certain proposal should strengthen the supervision of the granary in the county, suspend the trading of grain, implement a quantitative allocation system, set the allocation according to household registration and population, and lock the price of grain at the same time!"

Ma Zhou's meaning is very clear. Now many people are not short of food, but some people will still be short of food after all, and I am afraid that everyone will see the drought locust disaster, and there will be a phenomenon of looting and hoarding food. People hoard too much food at home, and some people have no food at home.

Implement a quantitative allocation system, based on household registration and population, so that everyone can buy food, and it can prevent them from panic hoarding food, and then a lock-in price will prevent the price of food from skyrocketing and the people will not be able to afford food.

"We are not short of food, but we have to prevent an atmosphere of panic and prevent the act of looting and hoarding food."

The county recorder said, "Mazhi County, although there are official warehouses of the imperial court in the county, there are still many private grain merchants. If they lock the grain price, I'm afraid they may not be willing."

Ma Zhou said very bluntly, "Grain merchants? Grain merchants are also the grain merchants of Daqin. In these special times, do they still want to hoard grain prices and manipulate the price of grain to make money for the country? Anyone who dares not cooperate will be considered guilty!"

"What crime?"

"rebellion!"

Ma Zhou said coldly, "The laws of the Great Qin Dynasty call for treason, which is a crime of endangering the country, plotting to overthrow the imperial court, and endangering the country."

Cold sweat broke out on the forehead of the county secretary. Ma Zhou wanted to convict the grain dealer who refused to lock the price of treason.

But Ma Zhou said that in special times, everything should be strictly controlled, so he had nothing to say.

All the officials in the county looked at Li Gang. After all, although Mazhi County was the champion of the new department, after all, Li Xiancheng was the prince's teacher and was once the prime minister.

"Someone feels that what Mazhi County said is right. The more stable it is at this time, the more grain merchants want to make money, but they can't make money at this time."

Ma Zhou cast a thankful look at Li Gang, and then said, "Of course, in addition to ensuring the safety of the granary and implementing quota distribution, I think that the county should take advantage of the current time to use grain to hire young and strong people to build roads. Laying bridges, building dikes and canals, constructing water conservancy projects, and transforming cities can not only do some practical things, but also relieve the victims of disasters. With work instead of relief, the work is done, and the disaster is also relieved, killing two birds with one stone."

Li Gang nodded immediately, "I agree with Mazhi County's plan!"

It is said that there are three fires for new officials to take office.

As the number one scholar in the new department, Ma Zhou did not stay in Chang'an City to enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by stars, did not linger on the banquets of those nobles and rich families, and did not rush to visit high-ranking officials, but went to the lower level to take up posts. As soon as he came, he wanted to do practical things. This attitude, as well as his plan, were appreciated and supported by the officials below.

"Natural disasters are merciless, but human beings are merciful. In Yanshi County, we not only need to overcome the disaster, but also turn the disaster into motivation, organize people's strength, and do some things that need to be done together!"

(End of this chapter)