At this time, there was a sea of people in front of the city gate of Fufeng County, but the old and weak women and children were seen queuing up to receive food, holding tree sticks in one hand and broken bowls in the other.
"Thanks."
"Thanks."
...
The tearful thanks one after another made Li Qi uncomfortable to hear, because this was something the imperial court owed them, but now it was made as if the imperial court was giving it to them.
In the past few days, accompanied by Ji Minren and Zhe Yanzhi, he began to travel around various counties, and distributed the military rations to the victims as disaster relief food, and then encouraged the people to go to the fields to work in agriculture immediately, not to take this hard-won money.
The great season has been delayed.
Twenty thousand shi of food sounds like a lot, enough to feed a family for several lifetimes, but in the current Fengxiang Mansion, it is undoubtedly a drop in the bucket.
But this is the only thing Li Qi can do at the moment, and he is now waiting for help from the capital.
After a while, Li Qi felt ashamed and ashamed when facing the people shouting "Master Qingtian", so he asked Ji Minren to take him around.
A group of people looked around and learned about the local situation, and then came to a loess slope.
Li Qi stood on the slope, looking at the farmers who were working hard in the fields, nodded secretly, and sighed: "The best way is to try to save yourself!"
Ji Minren shook his head and said: "It would be good if we could save ourselves, but natural disasters are beyond human control."
Zhe Yanzhi agreed: "Prefect Ji is right. Bu Shuai, you didn't come last year. The people were so hungry that they didn't even have the strength to walk, let alone farming. It's not easy to save themselves!"
Li Qi smiled slightly and said: "Natural disasters are certainly terrible, but they are not so terrible that people can only sit and wait for death."
Ji Minren snorted and said, "Shuai Bu seems to have thought of a way to put an end to this phenomenon?"
"I'm not a god, how can I prevent the occurrence of natural disasters." Li Qi shook his head and changed the topic: "But we can't just sit back and wait for death, we must prepare for a rainy day."
Ji Minren said: "What do you think Bu Shuai said?"
Li Qi did not answer and asked instead: "Prefect Ji, do you know anything about the new law recently promulgated by the imperial court?"
Ji Minren nodded and said, "I heard a little bit."
"The new law promulgated by the imperial court this time is centered on the economy, that is, it wants to change the current people's livelihood." Li Qi said seriously: "Take this famine as an example. Your only option is to turn to the imperial court for help. The only way is to turn to the imperial court for help."
The only solution is to provide assistance from the imperial court, and there seems to be no other way out."
Is there any other way to do this without asking the court for help? Zhe Yanzhi became more and more confused the more he listened, and said: "If it goes according to what Bu Shuai said, is there any other way?"
"Of course." Li Qi smiled and said, "It means people can send food here voluntarily."
"This---how is this possible?" Zhe Yanzhi asked in surprise.
Li Qidao: "How is it impossible? But if you want to do this, you can only rely on the economy."
"economy?"
Everyone said in unison.
"Yes, the economy has two major characteristics. First, it has a very good bonding effect. It can connect two completely unrelated places. For example, the imperial court recently planned to build an ordnance academy in the northwest.
In Fufeng County, once the Ordnance Institute is built, the weapons produced in the Ordnance Institute will be shipped to other countries. Originally, the two have nothing to do with each other. It is the economy that connects them, but the economy
It requires manpower, which also increases the exchanges between people in the two regions. This is the second major feature, mobility. The key to the economy lies in mobility. Because of the economy, the flow of goods and people flows throughout the country and even the world. Once we have Fengxiang
As the economy develops and forms an economic chain with other regions, there will definitely be businessmen coming here. Once more people pass by, food will begin to flow in Fengxiang, and food will be transported from Fengxiang to other places.
With the inflow of food, if there is another natural disaster, there will be an emergency shortage of food in Fengxiang. At that time, the demand will far exceed the supply, which will definitely affect the entire economic chain. At that time, people will consciously make up for this economic chain.
.To put it more realistically, if a disaster with the same damage occurs in Fengxiang and Hangzhou at the same time, Hangzhou’s recovery speed is much faster than that of Fengxiang. This is because Hangzhou’s economy is developed and there are many businessmen passing by.”
Li Qi looked into the distance and said: "In short, if we want to prepare for a rainy day and prevent this phenomenon from happening again, we must develop the northwest."
“Develop the Northwest?”
Ji Minren said in astonishment.
Li Qi nodded and said: "If Hangzhou and other places are the southern gate of our Song Dynasty, then Fengxiang is the northern gate of our Song Dynasty. In fact, Fengxiang has an excellent geographical location. It is close to the Silk Road and can lead to any destination in the west.
The country is blocked in front by Weizhou and Qingzhou. Even if there is a war, there will be a buffer stage. We can take advantage of this to attract businessmen to come here to do business, set up factories, shops, workshops, etc. If
A Hangzhou businessman has to deliver his goods to Huihe, so the distance he has to deliver the goods is more than ten thousand miles, and some goods have a time limit and cannot be stored for too long, so he cannot do this kind of business with Huihe.
, there is no way to make this money, so what should we do? Open a branch in Fengxiang, which greatly shortens the distance. In this way, the goods can be transported to Huihe faster and more conveniently, and it can also expand
More money is coming.
If a large number of businessmen come here to open shops and build workshops, then they will definitely need manpower, and they will have to recruit people here. The most basic thing for recruiting people is to give the employees a meal. By then, if there is a natural disaster, they will not be able to do it.
We no longer need this store, and we no longer need our own employees. At that time, they will transport the food here on their own without you having to ask."
Zhe Yanzhi's eyes lit up when he heard this, and he said, "This is a very clever plan!"
Li Qi shook his head and said: "Actually, [***] is more terrifying than natural disasters."
Zhe Yanzhi was stunned again, then he clasped his fists and said, "Commander Bu, you can rest assured, with our Zhe family army here, we will never allow anyone to harm the people of our northwest."
Li Qi smiled and nodded, saying, "With your words, I feel relieved." After a pause, he then turned to Ji Minren, who was still deep in thought, and said, "Prefect Ji."
Ji Minren was startled and said hurriedly: "Commander Bu, what do you want me to do?"
Li Qidao: "Actually, this is not something I suddenly thought of. My original idea for economic construction was to spread out on both sides and develop Jiangnan and Northwest China at the same time. Therefore, it won't be long before the first batch of businessmen will come here. You must prepare as early as possible."
yes."
Ji Minren nodded and said: "Ji will definitely do his best."
"That's good."
Li Qi nodded and suddenly asked: "By the way, how long have I been here?"
Yue Fei behind him said: "Bu Shuai, it's been half a month."
"Half a month?" Li Qi frowned.
Ji Minren said: "Bu Shuai, what happened?"
"Oh, it's okay." Li Qi shook his head, looked up at the sky, and said, "It's getting late. That's it for today. Let's go back to Linyou County."
After returning to Linyou County, Li Qi seemed quite worried. He just had a casual dinner and his appetite was not very good. After dinner, Li Qi took Ma Qiao and secretly went to Zhao Jingyan's place.
As soon as Zhao Jingyan saw Li Qi coming, she quickly asked: "Is there any letter from the capital?"
Li Qi shook his head and said solemnly: "That's why I'm here. Let's talk about it after we go in."
The two came into the house. Li Qi sat on the table consciously and frowned: "The situation seems to be right."
Zhao Jingyan hummed and said, "If you expedite it for eight hundred miles, it should be delivered to the capital within two days. The round trip only takes four days."
Li Qi nodded and said: "This matter is so urgent and cannot be delayed. How can the Grand Master ignore the importance? He should step up the follow-up. Even if it is not handled well, he should also send me a letter. It is impossible for me to be here."
Let’s wait.”
Zhao Jingyan frowned and said, "What about Qin Hui?"
Li Qidao: "No, but the situation on his side is different. They took Huainan East Road. When my letter arrived, they should be near Chuzhou or Yangzhou, so they first had to rush to Huainan Granary, where thousands of people
No matter how fast the troops are, I'm afraid it will take some time, and they still have to investigate, which will take some time, so the news over there won't come so quickly."
Zhao Jingyan nodded and suddenly said: "Is there something going on in the capital?"
Li Qidao: "I have thought about this too, but even if something happens, the grand master should write me a letter, not let him deliver it in person. Unless---"
Zhao Jingyan raised her eyebrows and said, "The letter was not delivered to the Grand Master and was robbed on the way."
Li Qi sighed: "If this is the case, it would be terrible. Our plans are all under the control of the enemy."
Zhao Jingyan said: "Judging from the current situation, the surname may be very big. However, if the letter is really robbed, who will do it?"
"It's hard to say." Li Qi shook his head and said: "Logically speaking, the Zhe Family Army might have the biggest surname, but I am doing this for their own good, why would they do this? If it wasn't the Zhe Family Army, there would be others
It may be the work of people from the capital. They have already sent people to wait here, but if it is not the case, then it is very likely that there are some enemies lurking in Fengxiang that we don't know. If so, it would be terrible.
, maybe even the letter sent to Qin Hui was robbed."
Zhao Jingyan pondered for a moment and said, "How about I go back to the capital?"
Li Qi rolled his eyes and said: "It's better to let it go. Have you forgotten who you are? Since they can rob the letter, they must have spies everywhere. If you are from the capital, if those people know about you
Also in Fengxiang, huh, that would be terrible."
Zhao Jingyan sighed and said, "Then what are you going to do?"
Li Qidao: "Now this is just our guess. Let's wait a day or two. If it doesn't work, I will directly send a thousand people to deliver the letter. Although it is a bit slow, it is better than not being able to deliver it at all."
Zhao Jingyan shook her head and did not answer. It was obvious that Li Qi's words were full of anger. He couldn't protect himself now, so how could he dare to send half of his troops to deliver a letter? (To be continued.)