Chapter 502: The Abandoned Son and the Carp (Part 2)
The illuminated awning boat rowed across the small river not far away from the street. Looking down from the upstairs of Zhuji, people were passing by on the street. A small cart selling noodles and fried dough passed through the crowd.
The vendor waved the kite in his hand at the children passing by. The night in Bianliang was getting darker with the swaying stars.
Ning Yi's fingers tapped on the railing.
"When the Prime Minister's Office considered the candidate for deputy transport envoy for Hedong Road, there were several other considerations. But frankly speaking, the rise in food prices along Hedong Road is very serious. This time is different from the past. It wants to do disaster relief.
Well, there will be a lot of people to offend. Liu Congming, the governor of Hedong Road, is indeed an old official who has an old relationship with the Prime Minister of Qin. If he is asked to help cooperate with this disaster relief, he will do his best, but his efforts are also limited. "
He paused for a moment: "I have been working hard in the officialdom for many years. It is not that there are no officials who are honest and upright, but there are very few who have not contracted any bad habits. Liu
Your Excellency does not do either of these things. Of course, if you want to say that he is a bad official, it is not necessarily true. If it is just an ordinary chaos, based on his experience in running Hedong for several years, he would have to rectify the administration of officials and even kill a dozen or so people.
He is an obedient subordinate, and he can show his courage, but this time, he is more willing than capable. Because he will offend many people, these words are Mr. Yao's evaluation of him."
"So in the end, the Prime Minister's Office had no choice but to settle for the next best thing. They thought it was best to have someone with an upright temperament who was not afraid of offending others. He would work for Mr. Liu and only take care of the most important thing. And Mr. Liu would be willing to put this aside.
Ichijo's power was put down. Later, when Prime Minister Qin chose you, I was a little surprised. But Prime Minister Qin's reason was simple. In any case, Dexin, you are capable. When the matter is over, even if you have offended someone.
, being criticized and criticized may at least save you several years or even more than ten years of hard work... Of course, if you only do things with the mentality of keeping your position, you may not do well, but you are a smart person, so naturally
You understand what I'm talking about."
"Li Heng underestimates me." After hearing what Ning Yi said, Li Pin laughed and shook his head, "Under such circumstances, if you upgrade several levels in a row, you will naturally have to do something. If I am being duplicitous at this time,
, I just want to be able to climb up in peace and safety, fear is the real way to death. But Li Heng, it doesn't matter, we who are studying, where righteousness comes, even if there are thousands of people, I will go there. Just like today
In the palace, the Holy One said that this disaster relief work is not for officials, but for the common people. Whether it offends people or kills people, if I have the slightest thought of worrying about myself this time when I go north, I, Li Dexin, will deserve to die.
.”
His tone was not high, but his expression was generous, and there was a sense of righteousness in it. This was not the first time Ning Yi had seen this kind of Confucian temperament, and he naturally understood his mood, so he nodded and spent a while.
, sighed: "Many people will die this time, and all the Prime Minister wants is to have fewer deaths..."
Li Pin frowned and said, "Then what is the business path that Li Heng mentioned?"
Ning Yi said: "Dexin thinks what is really important about this disaster relief?"
Li Pin thought for a while: "The so-called disaster relief sounds complicated. In fact, what we can do is only a few points: as long as we can strictly govern the officials, the corrupt officials below will not dare to line their own pockets in the disaster relief food link.
If it can be distributed to the victims, less than half of the work will be done. After that, market prices will be strictly controlled, and merchants will not be allowed to sell food at high prices. Those who maliciously drive up food prices will be investigated, arrested, and killed. Basically, disaster relief will be done.
There has been some improvement. Of course, as a result, many people will be offended."
After he finished speaking, Ning Yi shook his head: "Most of the disaster relief work is done this way, but this time the situation is too troublesome. On the market, it is the people who voluntarily stockpile food as you said, and it is behind the scenes. It has a deep background.
, you go to Hedong Road, the Zuo family of Zuo Duanyou is involved, and the Qi family of Qi Yan is the leader. They may not come forward and only act as a protective umbrella behind the scenes. It will be difficult for you to investigate, arrest and kill. "
"...On the other hand, the number of people affected by the disaster this time requires relief is more than 1.7 million." Ning Yi said, "The total amount of food that the country can really allocate to the disaster areas cannot be added up.
It’s 380,000 dan. In terms of the number of people, there may be a lot that haven’t been counted, and the food, oh, a lot of it may still be bad debts, bad debts. We’ve done the calculations, and what we can really get rid of is probably only half, 190,000.
As the stone looks like, the distance between the two sides will continue to widen. By this time, ten people will be saved by one stone of food."
Ning Yi was almost counting on his fingers at this time. Li Pin frowned. In fact, the weight of one stone in the grain unit at this time was about one hundred kilograms in later generations, or about sixty kilograms. He heard
De Ning Yi said: "This matter has not been put on the table yet, but we are already investigating and will arrest a number of officials, big and small..."
Channel Li: "190,000 kilograms of relief food... Theoretically speaking, there should be many people in the disaster-stricken areas who have food in reserve. If it is boiled into gruel just to save lives, it seems..."
Ning Yi laughed: "Dexin is right. We have calculated these things repeatedly. To be honest, 1.7 million people were affected. That was the number of people who were seriously affected when rice prices rose.
No calculation. Among this group of people, only a small part actually suffered floods and had all their belongings washed away. In other words, some of these people can eat and save food, sell their houses and land, and even sell their children, which is not a bad thing.
A means to survive. But the so-called disaster relief and relief are originally the people at the bottom who can’t survive the most.”
Li Pin was silent until this point and said: "...we also need to reduce the losses on the road, the interception by officials, and the secret interference of big families."
"Let's reduce it by half here." Ning Yi said, "One hundred thousand dan, regardless of the uneven distribution of food, Dexin, even if all the officials in several departments have become life-threatening cruel officials, the food that really goes into the stomachs of the victims will be,
About 100,000 dan. And the grain cannot be distributed yet, so it can only be cooked into porridge and given to the public, because direct distribution will only lead to more money being cut off by large households. In the meantime, everyone can eat wild vegetables, dig tree roots, etc. In short,
The Right Prime Minister's office has made a total calculation, and after taking away all kinds of considerations, the number of people across the country who have starved to death due to this increase in food prices exceeds 100,000. Excluding these people who have died of starvation, there are forty to five people in various places.
The property and fields of one hundred thousand people will be annexed by large households, and thereafter they will become servants, tenants, and beggars. If we can control it within this number, we can be considered effective in disaster relief."
The numbers sound cold when spoken, but they carry a heavy aura.
After a moment of silence, Ning Yi smiled, with a cold sarcasm in his smile: "Don't think this is a big number, even in Jiangning, in winter, an average of twenty people freeze to death every day, and it snows for a month, and beggars
, six hundred poor people and old people froze to death, which is considered to be a peaceful life. This number does not include normal deaths. Jiangning is a big city, and there will be fewer people in other states. During the Wu Dynasty, 100,000 people froze to death in one winter. This time
If there is a catastrophic disaster, saying that one hundred thousand people starve to death is an optimistic attitude. If it is not done well, it is possible that there will be three hundred thousand or five hundred thousand people."
Li Pin thought for a long time and then said in a dry voice: "What are the Prime Minister's offices going to do?"
"Administration and commerce must go hand in hand, but commerce must be the mainstream." Ning Yi said without much hesitation, "The ones who really starve to death are those who no longer have any property. The relief grains are boiled into porridge and then distributed. We must save them."
That is, their lives. If they still have property at home, they can buy their own grain. Even if they sell their land, their lives can always be saved."
He said and shook his head: "To be honest, the shortage of grain in these places is not as much as imagined. There is a phenomenon of grain failure, but it is more due to the fact that everyone has started to stockpile grain, which has caused the price of grain to be artificially high. Hedong
In the past, the price of grain was only two and a half yuan per stone. Now it is thirty-two yuan to one stone, which is ten times higher. However, there is still not much food in circulation on the market. Everyone is still waiting for the price to rise. What will happen to the life-saving food once it snows?
It’s possible to any degree. If that happens, some people will starve to death and some people will rebel.”
"The prime minister wants to put the grain on the market?" Li Pin asked, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he knew it was impossible.
Ning Yi shook his head: "If you put just over 100,000 shi of grain into it, you can't even turn over a single blister. According to the past, my family could buy it all if there was one more shi in two guans. Now even if it is doubled ten times, it will still be enough."
Those big families are so rich that they can swallow them up in one bite, and once they change hands, they can sell them at a higher price. So what I consider is to rely on merchants from other places to hit the markets affected by the disaster, and this time
Business is coordinated by the government."
Li Pin frowned and thought deeply. Ning Yi continued: "With the Prime Minister's Office as the leader and in conjunction with the influence of Princess Chengguo's Office, we will lobby the landowners and merchants. As long as they have food at home, we will explain to them the disaster area.
Then make plans for them on how to assemble, transport and resell their food. If they are in other places, their food cannot be sold at this price, but if they leave their hometown and establish their own trade network, they will inevitably be
The local snakes are bullying them, but with our lobbying, many small landowners will be willing to contribute and earn a fortune from it. At the same time, we can also tell them that this is for the country and the people, and thousands of families will have Buddhas."
Li Pin's eyes lit up slightly: "I heard that people from Zhuji go out to help people do business. Could it be that they are preparing for this?" He thought for a moment, "Speaking of which, I also have several acres of farmland at home, and some
If you save food, you can repair a book and take it back..."
"It's not mainly for this, but it can be regarded as a benefit." Ning Yi said, "Zhuji's influence is only in the area near the capital for the time being, which is just a small head. And to be honest, it really depends on lobbying rather than relationships.
Yes, most of the people who will be persuaded are some small and medium-sized landowners. They have really big families and big businesses, and they also have their own relationship channels. These people have to rely on people like Qin Xiang, Nian Gong, and Master Jueming to take action.
, plus people like Kang Xian and Princess Cheng Guo in the south, it is estimated that if we can continue to pry more than 500,000 dan of grain into it, we should be able to disperse the entire hoarding market."
"Once the falsely high food prices are brought down, the number of people who interfere with the distribution of disaster relief grains will be further reduced. Next, we will cooperate with investigations, arrests, killings, purges of officials, and pressure on the market. The final expectation is that we can
Bringing the price of food back down to less than 10,000 yuan, and reducing the number of people who starve to death to 50,000 or even less. This is... I hope you can maintain the Hedong Road trade route."
Ning Yi smiled slightly, and this time there was no irony: "For this matter, you will set off in three to five days. Within ten days, after Qin Xiang has greeted Grand Master Cai and the others, the entire plan will be launched, and we will contact
Including gangs involved in transportation, including the fastest routes to various places, and plans to dump food. Within a month, the first batch of food will arrive. Before the snow falls, the price of food will be suppressed. As long as the most critical food after the snow can be
If we maintain this for a period of time, many people will be able to survive..."