A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 872: Shannan offended the official and the saint's grace, one day Jiangling Guanzhong was stable
Shannan Road, Shannan is divided into east and west, the east Shannan Road is Jingdi, and the west Shannan Road is Badi.

The dividing line between the east and west roads of Shannan is between Kuizhou and Jingzhou. It has been the first road into Sichuan since ancient times. The Yiling Road, where the Yangtze River passes through Wushan Mountain, is also known as Wu Gorge.

At this time, heading west from Wu Gorge, just past the Wushan County section of the river, on the waterway close to Kuizhou City, an official ship escorting prisoners was slowly sailing.

The people escorted on this official ship were all criminals sentenced to exile. The place of exile was Yelang, Zhenzhou, Qianzhong Road, which was the location of the ancient Yelang Kingdom. Yelang originated from here.

Qianzhong Road is located to the east of Qiannan Road, and is surrounded by Qiannan Road, Jiannan Road, Shannan West Road, Shannan East Road, Jiangnan West Road, and Lingnan Road.

Because this place was developed relatively late, it is full of miasma and has a population limited to one state in the Central Plains. It was one of the places of exile selected by the imperial court.

"Bang." The criminals on the boat knew that they had reached the shore again.

Most of them were imprisoned officials and their relatives, so their situation was much better than other criminals. They were more decent and were not abused by the yamen runners.

Because no one knows whether any of them will be reinstated in the future.

On the boat, an out-of-place, ragged old man huddled in a corner of the cabin, attracting no attention at all.

Just as the prisoners were waiting for their meal, the clerk in charge of escorting the prisoners came into the cabin with a few runners, smiling, and said loudly:
"The Saint has granted amnesty to the world. You are free."

The cabin suddenly fell silent, and then cheers resounded throughout the entire ship. Many people even faced due north, wept and bowed, saying, "Long live the saint, long live the saint."

The movement in the cabin finally woke up the old man in the corner. He looked at the movement around him in confusion, then passively followed the crowd out of the boat, stepping on the solid land in disbelief.

"I'm alive?" A hint of excitement arose in his mind, but suddenly disappeared. He was confused and didn't know where to go.

"But Mr. Li is in person."

Just as Li Bai was staring at the river in a daze, a man dressed as a waiter saluted him respectfully.

"I am Li Bai."

Li Bai gave his name without hesitation. The man breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I am following the order of Bai Jingzhou to go to the river to find the official ship for exile, just to invite you to go to Jingzhou."

"I?"

"Exactly."

"In that case, go ahead and lead the way."

The waiter was stunned, then followed Li Bai's strides and led the way for him.

He just got off the criminal ship and then boarded the merchant ship, but one was going down and the other up.

In the small cabin, he washed his body lightly with river water, put on the prepared loose robe, and did not carefully comb his hair, but just tied it casually with a hair tie. The image of a free and easy Taoist was born.

Asking the boatman for a pot of wine, Li Bai leaned on the edge of the boat, drinking and admiring the infinite scenery of Wu Gorge.

He looked at the fast-flowing river, and thought of how he was in the dark cabin a few hours ago, not knowing whether he was alive or dead. Now he was standing on the deck, and he couldn't help but feel a sense of heroism.

He opened his arms wide, embracing the oncoming river breeze, letting it blow his robes fluttering, and he could not help chanting loudly:

"I left Baidi in the morning amidst the colorful clouds and returned to Jiangling a thousand miles away in one day."

"The monkeys on both sides of the strait can't stop crying, and the light boat has passed ten thousand mountains."

"The boat has passed through thousands of mountains, hahahaha!!!"

However, one day, Li Bai, who was hungover, was pushed awake by someone and followed his servant into Jingzhou City and came to a more solemn mansion.

Led by the doorman, he walked through the front hall and central hall and came to a reception room in the backyard.

Not long after waiting, an old man in casual clothes, exuding a noble and bookish air, came here. He was not much different in age from Li Bai, probably only in his fifties or sixties.

Li Bai did not dare to be negligent. Although his poetry was famous throughout the world, he was now just a white man.

"May I ask who is Bai Jingzhou now?" "Yes, Li Taibai?"

"Your Majesty."

Bai Bingde asked Li Bai to sit down and said straight to the point: "I was entrusted by the young master to deliver the message."

Li Bai took the letter handed over by Bai Bingde with both hands. It first contained Bai Jing's words of concern, and then described his recent situation in the past few years.

He then went on to say that he had now reunited with Du Fu, and the two were now working together to provide relief to the victims in Guanzhong and collecting the bodies of innocent people who were killed in Guanzhong and Henan. They were short of manpower, so they invited him to come to Guanzhong.

After reading it, Li Bai couldn't help showing a trace of tenderness, and bowed to Bai Bingde and said:
"Thank you for forwarding my friend's letter. In this situation, it is really unattainable to receive a letter from a friend."

Bai Bingde waved his hand:
"It's okay. Master Jing is the young master of my Bai family after all. I have completed my mission. What do you think, Brother Bai?"

"Whether you go north, return to Jinling, or stay in Jingzhou, I can call you to join me, which can be regarded as recruiting talents for Jingzhou."

After thinking for a while, Li Bai smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid I have to bother you, Your Excellency. My health has been getting worse in recent years, so I won't go north to burden Bai Shiwu and Du Zimei."

"It just so happens that I have a good friend there named Liangzai, so I am not alone."

"Good Prime Minister? Governor of Ezhou? All right, then I will reply to you, young master. It just so happens that Jingzhou is short of a military officer. I will immediately write to the court to appoint you. You can take the responsibility for the time being."

Upon hearing this, Li Bai bowed formally to Bai Bingde to confirm his rank and indicated that he would work under Bai Bingde from now on.

The Sigong military officer had complex duties, including organization and personnel, education and examinations, religious sacrifices, medicine and health, etc.

With Li Bai's ability, it was more than enough for him to manage the literature, religion and medicine of a state.

November of the second year of Qianyuan

In his capacity as the ambassador for the collection of corpses in Guanzhong and Henan, the inspector of Guanzhong, and the ambassador for disaster relief in Guanzhong, Bai Jing mobilized 10 million coins allocated by the court, 100 million coins allocated by the emperor, and 200 million coins donated by wealthy merchants and aristocratic families from all over Guanzhong, led by the Bai family.

A total of 310 million coins were used to purchase one million dan of grain from Shu, Hedong, Jingxiang, Jiangnan and other places, which was transported to Guanzhong via the canal. Finally, the relief for more than one million disaster victims in Guanzhong was completed.

They also implemented work-for-relief under the pretext of disaster relief, organizing refugees and disaster victims to repair water conservancy projects and roads in various parts of Guanzhong, rebuild collapsed houses, and bury corpses in the wild.

Bai Jing personally sat in Xianyang to oversee the overall situation, while his deputy Du Fu, the Left Censor-in-Chief, Deputy Envoy of Disaster Relief in Guanzhong, and Supervisory Censor of Gyeonggi Province, inspected the local area.

In addition, he received help from hundreds of Bai family members and court officials who were directly under Bai Jing's command and were in the Luoyang Disaster Relief and Burial Inspection Office.

As well as the Jingji United Commercial Bank (abbreviated as Jingshang), which was integrated by Bai Jing, with the Qiuci Trading Company (Qiuci Bai Family) as the main body and the participation of noble families, merchants and caravans from all over Guanzhong.

By relying on the vast commercial channels of Beijing merchants, shops and peddlers located in various cities and villages, Bai Jing successfully completed the tasks assigned to him by the court and Bai Qing - disaster relief and collection of remains.

December 28, the second year of Qianyuan

Xianyang. Because Chang'an was the emperor's residence, Bai Jing had to set up the disaster relief and corpse collection center in Xianyang, not far from Chang'an, for the sake of taboo.

They also asked local government offices to spread the word that disaster victims who had no food to eat could go to Xianyang to seek food.

Therefore, he set up four temporary porridge sheds in the four directions of Xianyang, and set up temporary tents as housing for the victims.

After two months of emergency disaster relief, the victims from all over the country were sent back to their hometowns one by one by the government, because the cold winter had arrived and it was no longer suitable to live in tents.

From then on, relief grain and grain seeds until the autumn harvest will be delivered to the villages by local officials.

Therefore, the work of Bai Jing and others became much easier. They only needed to check whether officials in various places delivered grain on time and organize grain delivery teams to deliver it to various counties and townships.

Standing on the top of the Xianyang city wall, Bai Jing looked at the porridge sheds and tents of the disaster victims being dismantled outside the city, and looked at Du Fu who was obviously in much better spirits and said:
"Now that the situation in Guanzhong is basically on track, the bodies lost in the wild in various places have been basically collected. I am going to Henan. So the next inspection and escort of grain in Guanzhong will be handed over to you."

Du Fu did not shirk his responsibility: "Don't worry, I will never let these life-saving grains fall into the hands of a corrupt official."

"Yeah." Bai Jing looked outside the city again, at the busy yamen runners, the common people, and the snowflakes falling from the sky, and murmured:
"Winter is coming, can spring be far behind?"

(End of this chapter)