Chapter 1289： The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 1289 The Butterfly Effect

Xu Hai and his investigation team left for Beijing after lunch. They had completed the two main tasks of the trip, and there was no need to stay any longer. Zhu Pingan, Tan Lun and others sent them all the way to the official road.

After sending off Xu Hai and his party, Tan Lun stayed in Jingnan for more than an hour. Accompanied by Zhu Ping'an, he carefully inspected the East Lake project area and learned in detail about all aspects of work-for-relief, precautions, etc. Tan Lun has made up his mind, and when he returns home, he will follow Zhu Ping'an's example in defining food prices and carry out work-for-relief.

"Master Fu, please take a step to speak." Zhu Pingan saw Tan Lun's determination and said softly to him.

Some words are inconvenient to say in public, so I can only take a step to speak, and Zhu Ping'an will not recognize it after saying it.

"Master Zhu, I don't know what to teach you." Tan Lun followed Zhu Pingan to the side and asked with a smile.

"How dare you see the teaching. The government official wants to carry out work-for-relief, how much does the government treasury have?" Zhu Pingan cupped his hands.

"There are still more than 38,000 silver in the treasury, but there is not much grain in stock, only about ten thousand stones." Tan Lun knows the situation of the treasury very well. When it came out, there were more than 20,000 shi of grain stored in the grain depot, but half of it was consumed by porridge and relief since the flood.

Zhu Pingan shook his head slightly, "Master Fu, the deposit of more than 38,000 taels of silver may not last long. Take my small county in Jingnan as an example. In Jingnan, we held work-for-work relief, with 20 Wen per person per day, and a total of ten Tens of thousands of people and refugees participated, and the wages alone cost 60,000 taels a month, and the consumption of food and rice was even greater. Even if three meals a day were charged, each person would only recover about 5 Wen per day, which is a drop in the bucket.”

Tan Lun froze when he heard the words, as if he had been poured cold water, most of the enthusiasm in his body was immediately dispelled.

Yes, food for work requires costs. A small county in Jingnan District has to pay 60,000 taels a month, not to mention the entire Taizhou Prefecture. There are no less than one million people in need of relief.

What can I do? !

Tan Lun couldn't help but frowned, but soon his eyes lit up again. My Fucheng couldn't afford it, so how did Jingnan do it? He immediately cupped his hands and said to Zhu Pingan, "What can Master Zhu teach you?"

"I don't dare to see the teaching. It's just the government. After the price of grain is determined, the grain merchants from all over the country are bound to make a lot of money. They made a fortune in Taizhou Prefecture, so they should make some contributions to Taizhou Prefecture's disaster relief." Zhu Pingan thought somewhat said.

"Master Zhu is asking grain merchants to donate money for disaster relief?" Tan Lun's eyes lit up, and he shook his head at random, "These merchants are the most greedy, and they value money like their lives. How can they be willing to donate money?"

"In this case, the common people may not agree. As parents and officials, we should be the masters for the people."

Zhu Pingan said meaningfully.

Everything was kept silent, Tan Lun understood, looked at Zhu Ping'an, and nodded vigorously.

Zhu Ping'an also suggested that Tan Lun should wait until the price of grain was fixed and grain merchants flooded into Taizhou Prefecture before launching work-for-work relief.

Tan Lun understands well, the key to whether the meal of work-for-relief can be held well depends on the dish of grain merchants.

Soon, when Tan Lun returned to Taizhou Prefecture from Jingnan, the Taizhou Government posted a notice on the second day, and the announcement defined the price of grain in Taizhou Prefecture as 2,500 cash per shi. At the same time, Tan Lun also issued official documents to the counties and counties. The first part of the official document first praised and introduced Zhu Pingan’s experience in fighting floods and disaster relief in Jingnan, and the second part required all counties and counties to raise the price of grain within their jurisdictions to Two thousand five hundred wen per stone.

Soon, the explosive news that the Taizhou government raised the price of grain to 2,500 yuan per stone spread widely.

As soon as the news spread, it was like a basin of blood was poured into the shark tank, and all the sharks named grain merchants went crazy.

On the day when the Taizhou government posted the definition of grain prices, hundreds of large and small grain merchants tried their best to transport grain into Taizhou continuously through various methods such as horse-drawn carts, donkey carts, ox carts, and ships. Territory. They are close to the water and the moon is the first to get the moon. Farther away, more grain merchants are coming.

For a while, grain from all over the Ming Dynasty was continuously transported to Taizhou through grain merchants.

The food shortage in Taizhou Prefecture was alleviated immediately. Although the price of food is very expensive, it is no longer a price without a market. As long as you can spend money, you can buy food. Although the common people in Taizhou have consumed the family wealth accumulated over the years, they have finally survived the catastrophe. Taizhou, which has been ravaged by floods, is developing in a good direction.

At the same time, Tan Lun also followed Zhu Ping'an's example and accepted the thank-you gifts from grain merchants in the form of disaster relief donations. For those whose numbers did not meet Tan Lun's psychological expectations, or those who did not come to donate, Tan Lun sent staff to the other party's grain shop to ask them to contribute to Taizhou's disaster relief.

Of course, for some uninformed grain merchants, Tan Lun sent officers to carry out field clearance searches and interrogations in the name of "capturing bandits", "capturing robbers" and "searching stolen goods". Unable to operate normally. You know, now time is money, and opening a grain shop is like stealing money to make money. If you delay for a while, you will make a lot of less money. How can grain merchants have trouble with money. As a result, the grain merchants who had been taught a lesson became wiser and obediently made up their donations.

Through this method, Tan Lun quickly raised enough silver and grain for work-for-work relief.

Three days after the Taizhou government announced the definition of grain prices, it issued another announcement-relief with work.

Tan Lun almost copied Zhu Pingan’s work-for-relief proposal, planning post-disaster reconstruction, water conservancy facilities, repairing city walls, anti-Japanese sentry forts, reclaiming land, and other series of sieges, and called the people in the territory to participate in work-for-relief.

However, in order to reflect the benevolence of the official uniform who loves the people like a son, Tan Lun provides free three meals a day to the people who participate in the work-for-work relief, of course, it is only the most basic porridge and steamed buns. In addition, the daily wages are reduced to 15 Wen.

In fact, compared with Jingnan’s work-for-relief treatment, Taizhou’s side is just going around.

Because three meals a day are provided free of charge and the wages are relatively low, the enthusiasm of the people is slightly lower than that of Jingnan.

However, these are not important.

The most important thing is that through the policy of defining food prices and work-for-relief policies, the flood situation in Taizhou Prefecture has continued to improve.

Under the positive influence of Taizhou Prefecture, surrounding Shaoxing Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, Jinhua Prefecture and other prefectures also began to raise domestic grain prices, or turned a blind eye to the increase in domestic grain prices, and defaulted to the increase in food prices.

Food from all over the country is continuously shipped to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the flood situation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is also improving. Affected by Zhu Ping'an, the butterfly, floods in the south of the Yangtze River recovered faster than in history, with fewer losses and countless people living.

(end of this chapter)