Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 186 Disaster Victims
Unexpectedly, as soon as Zhou Quan left, Qin Shi, the county magistrate of Cang County, greeted him and said:

"Shandong Express!"

Xu Qing was shocked, did he come just as he said?I wanted to sleep, but I didn't expect the disaster to come so quickly, so I had to force myself to see Qin Shi.Qin Shi took out the official document from the bamboo tube that prevents Lu from getting wet, and handed it to him with both hands.

Xu Qing took it over and saw that it was an official letter sent directly from the Shandong Daoist Yamen.It is extremely rare for this kind of order to go directly to the state, bypassing the general manager's office, and it will only appear when it is extremely urgent and cannot be delayed.Xu Qing hurriedly inspected the customs defense, opened the envelope, and took out the letter to see that it was Shandong Road who had ordered the four counties of Cangzhou to accept more than [-] disaster victims. His eyes suddenly became serious.After thinking for a moment, Xu Qing asked Qin Shi, "Is the disaster in Shandong serious?"

Qin Shi came to deliver the letter in person, so he naturally did his homework and found out about the disaster situation in Binzhou.He said: "I have never seen such a big storm, the rain and strong wind, the strong wind, all the grain and seedlings fell down, Wudi and Zouping counties were completely flooded, and even the roots of the rice seedlings were soaked and rotted after a few days. Later, it was reported that Bincheng, Yangxin County, and Boxing were also severely affected by the disaster..."

"Boxing? It also suffered disaster there..." Xu Qing sighed softly, it was the place where he first arrived in the Tang Dynasty.

Qin Shi paused and continued: "This time the wind disaster, almost half of Shandong was hit hard. At least 10 people's farms and huts were completely destroyed, so the prefectures and counties in Shandong that were not affected by the disaster took over. If one side is in trouble, Let's support from all directions. If there is no room for it, send some from the north, south, west and west counties..."

Xu Qing was silent when he heard this, although he had been reminded a long time ago, he was still surprised, and said after a long time: "Go and eat something first, I asked the mansion to make ginger soup, and I will write letters to all levels of officials right away. "

"Yes." Qin Shigong replied, and followed the entourage down to eat.

Xu Qing called all the state officials, thought out a few letters, wrote them in a serious and neat official document format, and dispatched them quickly.A letter was sent back to Shandong Road, which was nothing more than saying that the state was also hit by a disaster, and it was so difficult, but the compatriots were in trouble, no matter how difficult it was, they would overcome it.In this way, Shandong Road will avoid sending the victims one after another. After all, Cangzhou only has that little wealth.

At the same time, I wrote a letter to my peers, saying that Cangzhou is not rich enough to support so many people, so please help me adjust food and grass together.There is also a letter to the county magistrates of the other three counties, asking them to rush to the "city" to hold an emergency response meeting.

The next day, the Yamen was arranged.

"Everyone, there is Shandong Daowenyi." Xu Qing glanced at the officials, everyone's face was full of exhaustion, they must have been called when they were inspecting the township.It seems that Cangzhou, being on the sidelines, has also withstood a lot of pressure in this typhoon disaster.He sighed inwardly, and said in a deep voice: "Shandong was hit by a windstorm, several counties were flooded, good fields and houses were destroyed, and the people were forced to move. Shandong Road asks us to do a good job of receiving them."

As soon as this remark came out, there was an uproar in the hall, and all the officials, even Xu Qing's disciple Yan Ku and others, made no secret of their resistance.It's okay to let them resettle refugees, but it's difficult to accept disaster victims.

Refugees disperse and disaster victims gather. Compared with refugees, disaster victims have more factors of instability.Besides, who wants to be a nanny for other counties?The resettlement of refugees can increase the population, which is a political achievement.But once the disaster is over, the victims will still be called back by the original state and county, which is worthless.Once you don't do well, you will be blamed, thankless...

I would rather raise chickens and dogs than help poor relatives.

"This is an order from Shandong Road and the General Manager's Office, not a discussion." Xu Qing knew that the time for disaster relief cannot be delayed. Officer, you should also be dismissed on the spot and investigated!"

Xu Qing used his boss and patrol as shields, meaning that the boss said, I can't help it.Three of the four county magistrates present were Xu Qing's protégés, and one was a die-hard fan of Xu Qing. As soon as Xu Qing finished speaking, the four county magistrates hurriedly shut up and thought about countermeasures.The county magistrate and other big bosses didn't speak, and the rest of them naturally lost the energy to speak, and they all fell silent.

"Disaster relief is like firefighting..." After Xu Qing finished speaking, his majestic eyes swept over everyone: "If anyone shirks responsibility during disaster relief, I will punish them severely! Do you understand?"

"Uh, I don't know how many disaster victims will come this time..."

"The letter said more than [-] people..." Xu Qing said again: "Do you understand?"

"Here..." All the officials had no choice but to respond in unison.Xu Qing was immediately discouraged, shouldn't you shout "Understood" in unison, and then I said "I didn't hear that", and you shouted "Understood" again, why didn't you follow the routine!
There are more than [-] people, even if his data is falsified, if there are actually [-], the average distribution of the victims in each county is only [-], which is barely enough.

"Now let's discuss the method of receiving the victims!" Xu Qing nodded, and said with ease.In fact, Xu Qing has already made up his mind, but in order to make it easier for everyone to accept his plan, it is better to infiltrate it in the discussion.

In addition to the chaos of soldiers and horses, it is the famine years caused by floods, droughts and locust plagues that have the greatest impact on the lives of the people.It is easy to cause social turmoil, victims of disasters and thieves are everywhere, hurting the vitality of the country.Therefore, there is a political achievement called "Famine Administration". The level of drought administration is also an important yardstick for testing the ability of local officials.

The core of the famine policy is the relief of the victims, and there are three main points - food, shelter, and return.Among them, "get back" is a matter of post-disaster relief, and there is no need to consider the states and counties that accept the victims. All states and counties only need to do the first two, and "get food" and "housing" are enough.

Everyone began to think about how much grain they had in their county, how many peasants they could recruit, and how many shacks they could build.But after calculating left and right, after accepting the victims this time, their own county will also be emptied.Also use turmoil, plague and so on a lot of trouble.Looking around, Xu Qing only saw Zhao Lu knocking on the table alone, with a happy expression on his face.Among Xu Qing's disciples, Zhao Lu was only mediocre. I wondered what he could do, so Xu Qing raised his head to ask.

"Your Excellency..." Zhao Lu has her own way of saying: "Students think that the method of disaster relief in the past is nothing more than gathering the victims in the city and cooking porridge for them to eat. This is indeed convenient for the government to manage and provide relief, but there are disadvantages. It’s not too small.” Zhao Lu paused and continued, “But if the victims gather too densely, it’s easy to spread the disease, and they’ll die together. Some people died on the road after waiting for food for several days. This method is nominally to help the victims, but in fact it is a perfunctory act of not treating the victims as human beings and ignoring their life and death."

"Hmm..." Everyone nodded, even Xu Qing had to admit that what he said made sense: "Do you have a better way?"

Zhao Lu said: "The government houses, Taoist temples, temples, warehouses, etc. in Xiaguan County have vacated space. And according to the household, vacant houses in various townships in the county can be requisitioned to resettle the victims."

Yan Ku cupped his hands and asked, "The former can accommodate a limited number of victims, but the latter, can the common people agree?"

"You can issue a document to each li, saying, 'The refugees are here, and there is no way to deal with them. If they gather in the city, the disease will affect you and others. Therefore, the government will come forward and rent houses to wait for them.'" Zhao Lu said: "I am in Cangzhou The common people are kind-hearted and have money and food, so they will definitely agree to it.”

Yan Ku and the others still had doubts but they all nodded and stopped asking.Zhao Lu continued: "The main reason is the latter. The county is densely populated, and it is rare to have vacant houses. Therefore, the upper-class households only need two, the middle-class households two and the lower-class households one. If you are more affluent, there is one more room for upper-class households and middle-class households. This is more than enough to accommodate [-] disaster victims, and the disaster victims are dispersed in different households, so that they will neither gather together to cause violence nor worry about epidemic diseases, which is much better than gathering together."

Everyone said: "Your method is novel."

"You are talking about renting." Zhan Zeng pointed out immediately: "However, many victims have lost all their property in the flood and are already penniless. How can they have money to pay rent?"

"Those who can't afford the rent will be paid by the county." Zhao Lu said flatly, "Actually, free expropriation is also acceptable, but if the common people can benefit from it, they will naturally cooperate more, and we can live more harmoniously with the disaster victims in the future."

"Do you still have to pay back the advance payment?" Zhan Zeng asked: "If you don't pay back, can your county afford it?"

"Of course you have to pay it back, otherwise the victims who could afford it will not come out." Zhao Lu said, "It doesn't matter if you can't afford the money, you can use work instead."

"So that's how it is." Everyone understood, and Xu Qing was also happy. This was what he had thought in his heart.

Zhan Zeng asked again: "The disaster victims are scattered, how to make porridge?"

"Since we're scattered, we won't cook porridge anymore." Zhao Lu replied, "It's changed to rice per person's hair, once every two days."

Several county magistrates looked at each other, lowered their heads and thought for a while, and it seemed that there was nothing wrong with it. The resettlement of the victims was handled so carelessly, and now that they came up with this method, they must not be picky.

Everyone looked at Xu Qing's face, Xu Qing said: "This is feasible...", so everyone said: It is feasible.

But Zhao Lu said worriedly: "The students still have one thing they can't solve."

"What's the matter?"

Zhao Lu spread her hands together: "It's just labor for relief. Where does this 'work' come from? There is no need to build bridges or repair city walls in our county. There is no place for labor..."

Xu Qing laughed, picked up Zhao Lu's words, and said, "This matter is easy to hear. Choose skilled people to follow their old jobs. Blacksmiths forge iron for officials, and carpenters make furniture for officials. They are not afraid of being useless. The rest Well, I also have a place to arrange..."

Everyone asked, "Where?"

Xu Qing said generously: "If you want to get rich, build roads first. I plan to build a brick road between Nanpi, Haixing, Huanghua and Cangzhou City!"

"Stone paving in places where there is quarrying, burning bricks in places where there is no quarrying, and road repairs where two carriages can run side by side. Not only must it be able to run through the three counties and Cangzhou City, but it must also be able to connect major towns along the way."

"Strong men can burn bricks and quarry stones, women can do it, children can earn their wages, and the elderly can help make models. Everyone has something to use. Food is distributed according to working hours, and everyone can support themselves."

"The disaster victims are stationed in various towns and counties, so they can start work at more points at the same time and extend to both sides. This is also the advantage of the separation of the disaster victims..."

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay after listening, and someone asked: "Why, why do you need to build roads?"

(End of this chapter)