Shortly after winter began, heavy snowfalls for more than ten consecutive days covered the entire capital city.
Among the people, grassroots people have their own rules of survival. They bought a large amount of white radish and sweet potatoes early as supplies to survive the winter.
When there is a heavy snowstorm, the biggest problem is not traveling or shopping, but the snow is so heavy that it collapses the roof.
Houses of this era, no matter what their structure, had wooden beams.
The pressure resistance of beams in thatched houses, loess houses, and wooden houses that have been in disrepair is very poor.
As a result, a large number of houses in the outer city collapsed overnight, at least thousands.
The poor people in the capital suffered a disaster, and Tang Bing, the governor of Shuntian, had no shirk in his duty. He quickly went to the palace to request an order to transfer grain from the Ministry of Household Affairs in Tongzhou to provide disaster relief.
Yuzhu is in charge of the public security in the capital, and preventing traitors and gangsters from taking advantage of the situation has become a top priority.
Speaking of which, since Yuzhu became the infantry commander, he has participated in winter disaster relief work almost every year and has become a veteran in disaster relief.
However, the scale of this year's snowstorm is more than ten times that of previous years.
When it comes to disaster relief, Yuzhu naturally has a trick up his sleeve.
Yuzhu went to the palace to find the old emperor and suggested: "Old man, tens of thousands of disaster victims have gathered in the capital. If they are not resettled in time and properly, there may be a civil uprising."
If you want to successfully provide disaster relief, you must say what the old emperor fears most.
As a bannerman emperor, what the old emperor was most worried about was that the Han people would rebel, leading to wars everywhere.
"You are the infantry commander who should be in charge. Tell me, what are the best strategies?" Even if Yuzhu didn't remind him, Kangxi knew the seriousness of the matter.
Tang Bing was always timid, but his disaster relief methods were extremely traditional. He transferred grain from Chang Pingcang in the Ministry of Household Affairs and set up porridge sheds to help the victims.
The method proposed by Yuzhu is very unique.
The tens of thousands of people affected by the disaster were contracted by the head of each village and dispersed to designated wealthy families. Their accommodation and food expenses were subsidized by money allocated from the emperor's inner treasury.
Because the Treasury Department's bank account is so poor that it can run away from rats. Where can we get so much money for disaster relief?
Judging from past precedents, Kangxi was still willing to spend some money to gain the reputation of a holy king when it did not threaten the imperial power.
"That's right. It's just that I'm afraid that unscrupulous people will take the opportunity to win people's hearts." The old emperor was always on guard against ambitious bad guys taking the opportunity to win people's hearts.
Yuzhu had already expected that the old emperor would be worried about giving people the chance to become Wang Mang or Cao Cao.
"Old man, we have many male servants in the palace. I think it is very appropriate to ask them to distribute money and food on your behalf." Yuzhu understood the old emperor's thoughts very well, and he had every reason to believe that what he proposed
The old emperor would definitely listen to the suggestion.
"Well, if the servants of the inner court leave the palace, they are afraid that there will be some controversy in the court." The old emperor hesitated.
Yuzhu reminded in a low voice: "Let Wang Chaoqing and the others distribute benefits to the victims on behalf of the Holy Lord. This is a great good deed."
Instigated by Yuzhu, the old emperor immediately made up his mind, "Okay, it's up to you."
The emperor sent people to personally provide disaster relief and took care of them so considerately.
Even if the local officials were bad, the emperor of Qing Dynasty was good.
Well, a good emperor can expect that as long as he doesn't starve to death, he won't rebel!
The grace of the Holy King shines on the earth. This is the biggest temptation used by Yuzhu to deceive Kangxi.
Not to mention anything else, just because of the huge temptation of reputation, the old emperor will definitely fall into the pit and will never be able to climb out.
According to Yuzhu's suggestion, each disaster victim was given two taels of silver and fifty liters of rice per month.
Yuzhu made it very clear that the entire disaster relief strategy can be truly effective only if the hosts not only do not lose money, but also make a small profit.
Everyone has sympathy.
However, forcing people to spend a few months of their income to support irrelevant outsiders, apart from talking about morality, I believe most people in this era will not truly agree.
After all, grassroots households really don’t have much food left over.
"Well, you always talk about it. Who can get up early if there is no advantage? Well, that's the truth." After the old emperor figured it out, he couldn't help but feel happy.
The old emperor felt at ease, and he was particularly generous in his actions. He allocated two million taels of silver and one million stones to store grain for Yuzhu for disaster relief.
After Yuzhu received the decree, he immediately left the palace and mobilized troops and horses. On the one hand, he could maintain the security of the outer city and frighten Xiaoxiao, and on the other hand, he could make the disaster relief work go more smoothly.
According to Yuzhu's arrangement, the head of each village is responsible for arranging accommodation for families who live in relatively spacious and affluent families.
These families were in charge of food and housing, and all expenses were paid by the court according to the registered list, and disaster relief subsidies were distributed.
In front of hundreds of village heads, Yuzhu emphasized one point.
"You all listen up, I'm the one who said the ugly things first. Whatever the host family eats, the victims will follow suit. The host family must not eat white rice, they eat chaff, which will seriously damage the name of the saint's mercy.
Do you understand?"
"Hey." No head of the department dared to ignore Yuzhu's threat, and everyone took note of it.
There is strength in numbers!
The victims were first gathered into various military camps of the Eight Banners Infantry Army Yamen, and then followed by the heads of each village to temporary residences.
Under Yuzhu's personal supervision, the victims were properly resettled almost within a day.
The food and housing problems of the victims have been solved, which also solved the problem of Han uprising that the old emperor was most worried about.
After the first step was achieved, in accordance with the requirements of the decree, Yin Tangbing of Shuntian Prefecture issued an order for corvee recruitment.
The corvee levy order only stated that any civilian husband who participated in the disaster relief work, as long as he worked for one month, could be credited for six months of two years of corvee service. Moreover, when the corvee was released, the government took care of the food and food, but there was no wages.
At this juncture, large-scale conscription of corvee labor to participate in disaster relief is a clever way to concentrate the power of society and target poverty alleviation.
In the past, when they went out to do corvee work, they spent all their own money and food, and the government did not contribute half a penny.
As a result, they only planned to recruit 10,000 civilians, but 30,000 strong men came.
Are you kidding me? If you only work for one month as a royal servant, you can pay for two years and six months of corvee service. This is a big pie that is hard to find even with a lantern.
In the past, all able-bodied men were obliged to serve as corvees for the government.
This kind of corvée service lasts for three months every year, and the specific time is designated by the government. Moreover, if you bring your own food, money, and bedding rolls, you are spending your own money and food to work for the government.
Yuzhu took advantage of the human nature of not being able to afford an early morning without profit, and quickly mobilized 30,000 people to help the poor people who suffered from the snowstorm rush to build new houses.
Work was in full swing on the construction site, and someone actually publicly impeached Yuzhu.
The old emperor shook the impeachment papers in his hand, threw them to the ground, and said calmly: "It's better to be an errand than to talk. What should I do with him?"
Yuzhu smiled and said nothing.
Hehe, for a young man, he had already expected that someone would attack him and try to win people's hearts.
Therefore, Yuzhu suggested that the old emperor send eunuchs from the palace to distribute disaster relief money and food from house to house.
The eunuchs in the palace, no matter how big or small, are all good at observing people's words, and they are especially good at talking to people and telling ghosts.
Let the eunuchs fool the common people, and they will be right every time they fool one.
In this era, the eunuchs in the palace came out to serve as the propagandists of the old emperor.
Even a fool knows that the eunuchs in the palace can only say good things about the old emperor, but cannot praise the jade pillar.
Years of experience in the temple allowed Yuzhu to successfully avoid the sinkhole.
If Yuzhu had thought less about being impeached today and let the soldiers of the Infantry Army Yamen distribute relief money and food, it would definitely arouse the suspicion of the old emperor.
When people are in the temple, they don’t have to be careful and don’t try to stand firm. This is the truth!
Historically, Fan Zhongyan actually boasted in front of Song Renzong that a gentleman has a party, but a villain has no party.
Immediately afterwards, Ouyang Xiu published a commentary on "On Clique" and talked about how a gentleman can have cliques.
As a result, the Qingli New Deal was naturally over, and Fan Zhongyan was demoted from Beijing.
Whether it is the emperor of the Song Dynasty, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, or the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, it is the most basic emperor's mentality not to let the officials unite to plot against me.
To put it bluntly, any dictatorship by relatives, eunuchs or powerful ministers is essentially a check and balance technique where the imperial power is not demonstrated, leading to conflicting opinions, and there is a big problem.
In this sense, the so-called eunuch dictatorship in the Ming Dynasty was actually just the Spring and Autumn writing style of the Ming Dynasty emperors slandered by scholars.
The reason is actually very simple. Whether it is Liu Jin or Wei Zhongxian, the emperor can kill them all with just one word!
In the Tang Dynasty, the eunuchs who controlled the Shence Army were truly powerful beings above the imperial power.
Due to the unusually abundant manpower for disaster relief, the collapsed houses of the victims were repaired within just half a month.
The old emperor suddenly became interested and led Yuzhu around for inspection.
Along the way, almost everyone he met was praising Emperor Kangxi.
"Well, without the emperor, our whole family will starve to death."
"Yes, the current Emperor Kangxi is a rare benevolent emperor."
"That's right, the presence of the Holy King is a blessing to all people."
More than 98% of ordinary people in this era are illiterate. These ordinary people have not received modern education from the nation-state. How do they know how to defend their country and the world and resist foreign invasion?
To put it bluntly, as long as the emperor in power treats the common people a little better, he will be praised for his virtues.
"To tell you the truth, the main hall of my house is dedicated to the throne of this emperor. I pray to heaven every day, hoping that the emperor will live forever." This person may have read some books and spoke with a little literary flair.
Kangxi immediately became interested and followed him to his home.
When Kangxi arrived at the scene, he took a closer look and found that he was indeed not lying. His immortal tablet was actually offered as an incense.
The spontaneous flattery of ordinary people is better than the deliberate flattery of anyone.
The old emperor Long Yan was overjoyed. After returning to the palace, he immediately said, "Call Zhang Tingyu."