Chapter 1231： food hidden danger

Chapter 1231 Hidden dangers of food

Thousands of miles south of the Yangtze River into Zeguo, half of the people are disaster victims. The people who survived the flood not only had to bear the pain of losing their loved ones, but also faced a severe survival crisis, being displaced, suffering from hunger and cold, and crying endlessly.

The people in Jingnan are a little luckier than most of the disaster victims. At least they don't have to bear the pain of losing their loved ones.

"Our top priority right now is to resettle the common people and victims of disasters, and build more temporary houses in the flood shelter area, thatched huts are also acceptable. There is a place to shelter from the wind and rain, and the common people feel more secure in their hearts. If the common people get If there is no assistance, under the instigation of some caring people, there will be potential unrest forces. There are countless examples of disaster victims’ riots in history. In the final analysis, the assistance is not timely.”

Zhu Pingan summoned all the subordinate officials of the county government, organized them into several groups, and arranged them to be responsible for resettling and rescuing the people and victims in different flood shelter areas, and emphasized to them the purpose and significance of helping the people before leaving.

"Don't worry, the county lord, now is a critical period, and we will do our best to complete the tasks assigned by the county lord."

Zhang Tongsheng, Liu Fuzi and other subordinate officials surrendered their hands and took orders one after another. They also knew the importance of helping the people after the disaster. In addition, they are also natives of Jingnan, so they are naturally very concerned about resettling the villagers.

"There is another point that must be paid special attention to. As the saying goes, after a major disaster, there must be a major epidemic. After the flood, houses, gutters, livestock pens, etc. are all submerged, and all kinds of filth and stolen goods are scattered everywhere. Rats and mosquitoes are rampant. It is easy to breed a variety of epidemics and spread among the crowd. When resettling the people, you must do a good job of epidemic prevention. First, plan latrines in the flood shelter area. It is strictly forbidden for the people and victims of disasters to defecate anywhere. ; second, the water source is the well water drilled from the deep veins, followed by the well water infiltrated by the river, and the ditches are the last. It is strictly forbidden to drink raw water, and it must be boiled before drinking; The victims should keep clean and hygienic, change and wash their clothes frequently, and take a bath every two days. They can mix perrin and other herbs to prevent plague in the bath water. Fifth, if there are any troublemakers among the victims, they will be severely punished. Well, that’s all for now, if you have good measures and suggestions in practice, please report them to me in time.”

As a modern person, Zhu Ping'an is well aware of the importance of post-disaster epidemic prevention, and has instilled modern epidemic prevention experience into them.

"As ordered."

Zhang Tongsheng and others took orders one after another, but they didn't think so much, so they couldn't help but admire Zhu Ping'an even more.

"County Lord, food and grass are essential to resettle and rescue the people. The autumn harvest grains of the people's homes are basically soaked by the flood, and the rations they carry with them during emergency evacuation are limited, and they are basically all exhausted now. If the supply of food and grass is not enough, the people will be hungry. Lulu, in order to fill my stomach, I'm afraid something will change.

Master Liu cupped his hands and said that he was more worried about the food issue. In history, common people rebelled, most of them rebelled because they couldn't eat enough, couldn't survive, and had no other way out. For example, the Yellow Turban Uprising during the Three Kingdoms period.

"That's right, magistrate, this is the same reason as soldiers and horses moving ahead without food and grass."

When Mr. Liu mentioned the food issue, other people felt the same way and were also worried about the food issue.

The reason why they are all so worried about the food issue is because they all know that the county venerable Zhu Pingan not only used up his own personal pockets, but also stored 12,000 shi in the county government warehouse in order to cash in the bounty for the city defenders some time ago. All of them were converted into taels of silver, and the bounties were cashed out for everyone. Everyone in Jingnan knows about this matter, and everyone praises the county lord for his words and trustworthiness, and they are full of praise for the county lord.

It is indeed commendable for the county to do so! But the clinker thought, what if it is flooded now? ! In a famine year, food is too important. The county lord converted the grain stored in the warehouse into silver taels and gave everyone cash rewards. Isn't the grain in the warehouse... gone? ! Now is the time to use food, how can everyone not worry.

"Everyone don't have to worry, Mr. Qian, tell everyone how much grain is left in the warehouse."

Zhu Ping'an knew what everyone was worried about, so he smiled calmly and said to the Dianli Qian beside him.

"Everyone, we currently have a total of 20,000 shi of grain stored in our county yamen's warehouse." Dianli Qian was the only person among the crowd who didn't worry about food. After Zhu Ping'an finished speaking, Dianli Qian took a step forward and said to everyone.

"What, 20,000 shi? Didn't the county lord convert all the grain stored in the warehouse into taels of silver and give it to the young and strong guarding the city as a reward?" Everyone opened their mouths in surprise when they heard the words, and the surprise was beyond words.

After years of savings, the Jingnan warehouse had only accumulated 12,000 shi of grain. They thought that there was no more grain in the warehouse, but they didn't expect that there were 20,000 shi of grain in stock. One stone of grain is about 150 catties, and 20,000 stones of rice is 3 million catties. For a county, 20,000 shi of grain storage is a huge sum. Generally speaking, 10,000 shi of grain stored in the county government storehouse has reached the standard. The warehouse stores 20,000 shi of grain. The counties and counties that can do this are those big counties that have been famous for a long time, and there are no more than fifty counties in the entire Ming Dynasty.

"Mr. Qian, is it true or not?"

Happiness came too suddenly. After the surprise, everyone couldn't help being a little skeptical and didn't dare to believe it.

"This is not true. After the autumn harvest, the county lord said that the rice should be stockpiled to prepare for the shortage. Taking advantage of the abundant and cheap rice, I bought 20,000 shi of rice in the warehouse and stored it in the warehouse. It will be used as a reserve grain for the county government, in case of emergencies. Take precautions. Half a month ago, when the continuous rain started, the county lord ordered my warehouse to be prepared for flood and waterlogging. I followed the county lord's instructions and made sufficient preparations. It is no exaggeration to say that my warehouse is here Not a single grain of rice was lost in this flood." Qian Dianli said to the crowd confidently.

After being confirmed, the subordinate officials relaxed their hearts. The ancients said: When you have food in your hands, you don’t panic.

After all the subordinates left, Zhu Pingan sighed. Food. Food is a big problem.

Although after the autumn harvest, I used the experience of accumulating grain to prepare for famine in the past dynasties, and took advantage of the abundant and cheap rice, I used the confiscated money from Qian Gonggong and the money obtained from Zhang Xiancheng and others to purchase 20,000 shi of grain, and stored it in the warehouse to prepare for the famine. .

Although 20,000 shi of grain is 3 million catties, it seems a lot.

However, for this flood, for the people of Jingnan County, there is not much food.

Jingnan is a large county, and with the mountain people included, there are more than 60,000 people.

Since Jingnan’s flood control measures are more effective than neighboring counties such as Taiping County, flood shelters have also been set up. These days, after hearing the news, many displaced victims in Taiping County and other neighboring counties fled to flood shelters near Jingnan. Area. According to preliminary statistics, there are currently five or six thousand people, and this number is still increasing. As the news spread, the number of people fleeing to Jingnan every day may increase exponentially.

According to the calculation of six taels of grain a day for a common people, the 20,000 shi of grain can only last for about a month.

This is an optimistic estimate.

One month seems very long, but in ancient times, the response time of the imperial court for disaster relief was not as good as in modern times.

Of course, this is not the most important thing.

What Zhu Ping'an was most worried about was the inability of the imperial court to relieve the floods in the south of the Yangtze River. In recent years, disasters have occurred frequently in Ming Dynasty, and there have been severe droughts in the Shaanxi area for many years. The imperial court has provided relief for many years, and the treasury has been consumed a lot. Embarrassed. Zhu Pingan has inspected the Taicang bank, and knows how empty the Ming treasury is. Although he uncovered the Taicang deficit case and Emperor Jiajing fined a large sum of money, his hands are not warm yet. Just beckon. Now, I am afraid that the court wants to provide disaster relief, but it has more than enough energy for a while.

(end of this chapter)