Ming politicians

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The situation in front of him made Su Tiancheng feel sad.

There are densely packed sheds built on several continuous hills. As for the quality of these sheds, there is no need to describe them. Most of them are built of tree trunks and branches, covered with some thatch, and people live inside.

The Yellow River burst, the flood receded, and a large amount of silt accumulated. The government organized people to clean it up, but the effect was not very good.

The victims dare not live on flat ground, and almost all choose to build sheds on the hills.

It has been more than two months, and the dead bodies have almost converged. There is still an unpleasant smell in the air. It is the smell of dead animals after decay.

After the news of the imperial court's disaster relief came, many people returned to Mengjin.

There are disaster victims everywhere around the county seat. The situation in the county seat is a little better, but it is also extremely miserable.

Everywhere you can see, people are crowded everywhere, and there is a foul smell in the air.

The people who could see were all dressed in tatters, with disheveled faces and dull eyes.

What Su Tiancheng was most worried about was the plague after the catastrophe. If the disinfection could not be organized quickly, the germs emitted by the dead animals would infect people and cause a huge disaster.

In the 17th year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng attacked the capital, he encountered almost no resistance. There was a big reason that it was inside the city of Beijing.The plague is raging and there are dead people everywhere.Li Zicheng entered the city of Beijing, and his sergeants were all infected, and their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.

On the issue of how to provide disaster relief, Su Tiancheng and Yan Zizhang had conflicts again.

Yan Zizhang has been in Mengjin for a few days, and there is not much food nearby. He first bought it in Luoyang, and the price of food was very high.The wheat noodles that used to cost three renminbi a stone had risen to five renminbi, and there was not much in stock, so I gritted my teeth and bought some grain, and hurried to Mengjin, only to find that many victims of the disaster had returned.Gathered outside the county seat.

The grain purchased cannot last for a long time.

Of course, the local government is mainly responsible for disaster relief. The prefect of Henan Province has rushed to Mengjin County to assist in disaster relief, and wait until the emotions of the victims stabilize. <> The inspector censor is about to go back, and it will take at most one month.

When he was in Kaifeng, Su Tiancheng bought a lot of seeds, medicines, and some cotton cloth among the materials he bought.

Saw these items.Yan Zizhang expressed his incomprehension, in his opinion.The most important thing is food. As long as the victims have food to eat, they will not starve to death. The rest will be discussed later.

When Yan Zizhang saw Su Tiancheng, his attitude was much more polite.

Su Tiancheng wiped out more than [-] bandits in Xinxiang County of Weihui Mansion, and beheaded Du Laosan, the bandit leader. Yan Zizhang already knew about this, two thousand against five thousand, and won such a major victory. Don't dare to take such a risk.

After checking the supplies, Yan Zizhang hurried to the county government office.

Officials such as the magistrate of Henan Prefecture, the county magistrate of Mengjin County, the county magistrate, Zhu Bo, and Dian Shi are all in the second hall of the county government.

"My lord, these relief supplies, the officials think, is the most important food. As for the rest, you can ask Henan Prefecture and Mengjin County to handle it."

Su Tiancheng looked at Yan Zizhang, he really read too much and his head was kicked by a donkey, since he doesn't understand disaster relief, he shouldn't open his mouth casually, and he is still a deputy envoy.

"Master Yan, after a major disaster, there must be a major epidemic. The reason why such a situation did not happen in Mengjin County is that the county government actively cleaned up the mud and collected the corpses. It is also a large number of victims who have left here. Now the victims have heard The imperial court came to relieve the disaster, and they returned one after another. If there are too many people, some diseases will inevitably occur. If you can’t effectively defend yourself and a major epidemic occurs, don’t you and I have failed the grace of God.”

"The disaster victims cannot completely rely on the government's relief. They must start production and rebuild their homes. They need seeds, restore arable land to the maximum extent, prepare to sow winter wheat, and have food in the coming year. Otherwise, the court will exempt them from taxes, but In the field, there is no food grown, what do they eat."

"The weather is getting colder. When winter comes, the victims need to wear warm clothes. If some people freeze to death, you and I will not be able to complete the task well."

"Henan Prefecture and Mengjin County are mainly responsible for post-disaster production and reconstruction. You and my colleagues worked together to estimate the amount of money that needs to be spent, and asked them to implement it on their behalf. As for the food, the victims need to overcome difficulties, and the imperial court is not so concerned. With great capacity and full responsibility, prefectures and counties have to find a way.”

After speaking, everyone fell silent.

Yan Zizhang was still thinking about what to say, but when he saw Su Tiancheng who was expressionless, he shut up wisely.

This involves a problem, that is, the problem of corruption by local officials. The money for disaster relief cannot actually be used on the victims. Therefore, Su Tiancheng buys as much supplies as possible and distributes them. There is no way, of course, after the disaster, he has no way to stare at it, after all, there is only so long time.

Outside the county seat, there were more than [-] porridge places set up. After Su Tiancheng came, he made a clear request that the cooked porridge and rice should not be poured with chopsticks. This is all right.In addition, every place where porridge is given out has boiled traditional Chinese medicine, and everyone should drink it to avoid infectious diseases.

The officials of the county government began to be busy again. They registered the situation of the victims, continued to clean up the dead animals and livestock, and buried them deeply as required. Most of the victims were mobilized to start rebuilding their homes.

Regarding the matter of cleaning up the mud, Su Tiancheng couldn't bear it anymore and reprimanded Yan Zizhang.

According to Yan Zizhang, the county government sent people to clean up the mud, and the victims went out to work without any pay.

Su Tiancheng insisted that the young and strong farmers who participated in the mud cleaning must complete the work tasks, otherwise their wages would be halved.

Yan Zizhang thought it was incomprehensible, it was the disaster victims' own business, why the court had to pay the money.

The two even got into an argument at the county government.

Yan Zizhang put forward his reasons, the court did not need to pay the money.

Su Tiancheng glanced at Yan Zizhang coldly, and spoke unceremoniously.

"Master Yan, I am the chief envoy. I am directly responsible for everything and make decisions. You and I can negotiate, but you must be clear about your identity."

"My lord's words, the lower officials don't agree with, the lower officials have to object to unreasonable matters, otherwise, when I return to the capital, the lower officials must impeach my lord."

"It's up to you, you can do whatever you want. From now on, you will assist the local government to take charge of all disaster relief matters, and all decisions will be made by the officials."

Yan Zizhang was also short of breath, and spoke with a sneer.

"My lord said so, the next official will go back to the capital tomorrow, is there no reason for it?"

"Please go ahead. However, I have something to say beforehand. The Xiaoqi Battalion will follow to relieve the disaster and will not escort you back to the capital. If you want to go back early, you will be responsible for the expenses along the way."

"You, you deceive people too much..."

"Hmph, it's a good thing for me to do this. If it wasn't for your consideration that you came to Mengjin County earlier to help the victims as much as possible, I would have hired Shang Fang's sword a long time ago, and I don't know anything about it. Talking nonsense here and delaying disaster relief. Shut up."

Yan Zizhang's face turned pale, Su Tiancheng was furious, and invited Shang Fang's sword out, that was no joke.

"I know you are dissatisfied, so I will let you understand. First, when you arrived in Mengjin County and saw the victims gather, you didn't think of reasonable arrangements to carry out self-rescue, but you focused on food. As long as the victims have food, I don’t care about everything, I’ve handed it over to the local government, what’s the use of the imperial court sending you to rescue the disaster.”

"Secondly, simple common sense is not clear. This is not a drought or flood. The Yellow River burst, countless dead, and the corpses of livestock are everywhere. The weather is hot. These corpses rot, and the dirty water flowing out enters the river. Don’t you know what will happen if the victims drink it? After the catastrophe, the plague will prevail. Don’t you know that when you come to Mengjin County, you don’t organize prevention, you just think about food, and you don’t know anything about the situation below? , you are also here for disaster relief."

"Thirdly, post-disaster reconstruction has not been given sufficient attention, nor has it thought of a good solution, blindly relying on the local area. The dredging project is a huge project, and it depends on the county government. When it can be completed, take advantage of the dredging time to subsidize The victims of the disaster need some silver to help them build their homes, and with the silver in their hands, they will be able to survive this period of time, you don’t know such a simple truth, and you are talking about disaster relief.”

"Master Yan, I would like to remind you again that disaster relief is extraordinary, and no mistakes can be tolerated. If you think about other things, delay the disaster relief, and make the people suffer, no matter who it is, this official will not be polite." of."

Yan Zizhang's face turned pale, he completely understood these words, it turned out that Su Tiancheng knew everything.

He also had a last resort, since he accepted the task, he had to work hard in that direction, otherwise he would not be able to explain it. Who knows, Su Tiancheng simply ignored this, and often made a decision directly.

In fact, many of Su Tiancheng's proposals are very reasonable. Doing so can also help the victims to the maximum extent. For example, for the job subsidy money, if the money goes to the local government, I don't know how much. Falling on the heads of the victims, using this method to distribute the money directly to the hands of the victims is undoubtedly the best.

Now that Su Tiancheng has noticed everything, Yan Zizhang is also very knowledgeable. If Su Tiancheng had no support, he would not have such great confidence. Besides, what he did was really for the victims of the disaster. Tian Cheng, I'm afraid that in the end, he will be at a disadvantage.