Strictly speaking, the court's response was swift.
In the early morning of the next day after the heavy snow hit, Emperor Hongzhi, who had been working hard in the morning, received a report of the snow disaster in the capital. In the morning meeting, Zhu Youtang immediately issued an order to the cabinet ministers and Liubu to organize disaster relief. The civil servants in the outer court also
It can be said that they did not take it seriously. After the next court, they immediately discussed with the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Shi Zhong, and the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, Zeng Jian, and came up with a relief plan led by the Ministry of Revenue and coordinated by the Ministry of Industry.
In fact, relief work is not a big deal. In recent years, the Ming Dynasty has experienced frequent famines, droughts and snow disasters, so the court officials actually have some experience. However, this time they underestimated the extent of the snow disaster.
This heavy snowfall came suddenly, and the blizzard swept across the surrounding areas of Gyeonggi Province. Thousands of houses in the capital city alone collapsed, leaving thousands of people homeless and causing many casualties. Nearly a hundred people were injured in the snowstorm on the first day.
The casualties among the people were extremely tragic.
What troubles you the most is not the tragedy of houses falling down and killing people, but the panic in the capital caused by the snow disaster. I don’t know if someone spread the news or the people know that there will be a shortage of food and supplies after the snow disaster.
In the morning after the heavy snowfall, the prices of various daily necessities in the city began to soar. In particular, the price of rice and noodles soared several times, and there was nowhere to buy it.
Faced with this situation, apart from immediately cracking down on unscrupulous traders who raise prices to make profits and arresting those who spread rumors and mislead the public, the cabinet currently has no good solution to the real problem.
Logically speaking, as food prices skyrocketed, the court should release grain reserves to stabilize food prices and crack down on unscrupulous traders. Grain release is the most effective measure, which can quickly calm panic. However, the outer court did not do this.
.It’s not that they don’t want to, it’s that they can’t do it.
On the contrary, not only did they not release grain, but after an emergency cabinet meeting, they decided to strictly control the entry and exit of grain from the treasury. The cabinet decided that without the approval of the chief official and the collective consent of the cabinet, not a single grain of grain could be released at will. The random use of daily necessities such as rice and noodles was strictly controlled.
Issue and receive.
This is of course not because the bachelors in the cabinet are old and confused, but because they made a choice for the purpose of stability in view of the current situation. Officials all understand that the stability and food security of the capital are the most important. If the food security
In the case of shortage, the first priority is to ensure the food supply for the soldiers and horses of the imperial government office in the capital, and then they can worry about other things. And now, they have to do this, because there is actually not much food in stock in the capital.
Generally speaking, for a Ming capital like Beijing, food security is a top priority. There are more than one million soldiers and civilians in the city, plus hundreds of thousands of mules and horses, which is an astronomical figure. The harvests from the fields around the capital are naturally far higher.
Not enough, not to mention that now most of the acres around the capital are occupied by private individuals. Taking the Zhang family as an example, the two brothers own a total of more than 3,000 acres of land. That is 300,000 acres of land. That’s it, in
It can only be regarded as a middle-level among the nobles.
Therefore, the capital cannot go without food for a day, and the reserves in the granary are generally maintained at at least three months' consumption.
The grain in the capital is mainly transported by water from the southern grain-producing areas and other grain-producing areas. Taking last year as an example, the grain transported to the capital by water reached 4.2 million shi. You must know that the total rice tax in the Ming Dynasty was also
It’s only about 30 million shi. This shows how huge the capital’s food consumption is.
In normal years, after winter enters and the Haihe River in the northern section of the Grand Canal freezes, water transportation is basically cut off. In addition to relying on stored grain, the only way to rely on land-assisted transportation is. As we all know, road transportation is expensive, slow and
The transportation volume is small, which is a time-consuming, labor-intensive and resource-intensive method. But in winter, when the waterway is blocked, this is the only way to ensure the food security of the capital and slightly offset the reduction rate of stored food. There is no other way.
Method.
However, after the heavy snowfall, both water and land routes were cut off, which naturally aroused concerns about the capital's food. Especially this year, when the surrounding areas of Gyeonggi Province are generally short of production due to insect pests, the capital's food gap is even greater, and a large amount of food is needed.
Food support. In fact, since autumn, because it is a bad harvest year, the price of grain and rice has increased by 10%. There are already rumors that food will be very tight this year.
It would be fine if this was just an ordinary snowfall. However, it snowed so violently that depending on the weather conditions, traffic flow may not be restored even in ten and a half months. In this case, it is also a cause of concern about food security.
Very normal thing.
Under such circumstances, it was actually a wise move to some extent for the cabinet to make regulations on sealing up grain depots and restricting access. Effective food control was also a reasonable measure. However, no one at the top or bottom realized that this would seriously delay relief.
footsteps.
The Minister of Revenue, Ji Zhong, indeed ordered the establishment of a porridge shed, but when the official in charge received the grain, he was told that cabinet approval was required. However, cabinet approval required a note from the Minister of Revenue. After all this trouble, the gate of the grain depot was secured.
, but the time was wasted in the back and forth procedures.
In the afternoon, when Ji Zhong, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, had some free time to inspect the relief situation, in fact, the approval note requesting the cabinet's approval for the two thousand stone relief grain relief was still on his official record. At that time, he scolded the relevant officials and blamed them for not setting up porridge sheds.
What he said was actually for others to listen to. In fact, he had realized that it was his dereliction of duty.
When he returned to the Yamen and approved the note, the official in charge sent it to the cabinet for approval, and then took it to the warehouse to release the grain. By the time this set of procedures was completed, it was already dark. The real relief operation could only wait until next time.
It will be carried out again every day.
It can be said that Zhang Yanling's relief came in time and made up for the delay. Otherwise, the thousands of victims in Yongding Gate would have been hungry until dark. Not only would they die, but they might also be alive.
chaos.
…
It snowed heavily all night again. This second heavy snowfall that followed really made things worse. The disaster in the city became more serious, and there were thousands more victims. The relief situation, which had been slightly relaxed, became serious again.
And the most terrible thing is that when the defenders of the major city gates in the capital were about to open the city gates at dawn the next day, they were shocked to find the darkness outside the city gates of victims who had fled from the surrounding areas overnight. They stood in the thick
In the snow-covered wilderness, I looked helplessly at the tall and trembling gates of the capital city. My eyes were filled with prayers for mercy, and I cried out, hoping to enter the city and get help.
The city gate defenders did not dare to make decisions without permission. They quickly reported to the court, and the news was quickly reported to the cabinet and officials of various ministries who were preparing to go to court.
Many people only realized the seriousness of the problem from this moment on. In the crowded court room where the court was resting, under the dim candlelight, a fierce quarrel broke out among the bigwigs in the outer court.