Sure enough, it’s still self-help ah ……”
Zhu Pingan rubbed his brow, although the result was expected, he still could not avoid a few disappointments when the dust settled.
Disappointment would not solve the problem, it would only increase the problem.
Zhu Pingan only rubbed his brow for a moment before regaining his spirit and sending someone to summon a group of Xuyun officials from Jingnan to the county office.
“……The situation is just like this. What about a short period of time, don’t expect the imperial court to provide relief or rescue, the only thing we can do is to save ourselves.”
Zhu Pingan read out the reply letter from Taizhou Prefecture in front of all the xuxu officials, telling them the truth.
“Ah? What? You want us to save ourselves? We’ve only just been flooded, ah, we’ve suffered heavy losses, how can we save ourselves?”
“How can this be? This flood involves half of Jiangnan, the scope is so wide and the damage is so heavy that it’s rare in decades, how can the imperial court just stand by and watch? Isn’t it afraid that poor disaster relief will cause civil unrest?”
“When other places were affected, the court mobilised grain and grass from our Jiangnan to provide relief, why can’t the court mobilise grain and grass from other places to provide relief when my Jiangnan was affected? Can’t it be that we are adopted?”
After hearing the reply letter from the Taizhou Prefecture looking to ask for self-help, the crowd of Xuyun officials were all disappointed, worried, and indignant.
“Alright, all of you. The court also has the court’s difficulties, in recent years, my Ming eventful autumn, disasters occur frequently, such as the successive years of drought in Shaanxi, the first half of the Northern Zhili floods, Jiangxi drought, Xuanfu Datong famine, things catch up a piece to go, the court treasury consumes quite a lot of time, it is difficult to raise the relief of silver. In the court to raise silver, food relief before the disaster, we only have to help themselves. We eat the king’s salary, should be loyal to the king’s affairs, for the saint to share the worry, for the people to solve the problem, why fear the road.”
Zhu Pingan slapped the table, interrupting the disappointed indignation of the crowd, and said to the crowd with a firm gaze.
The crowd’s reaction was expected by Zhu Pingan, this is also common sense, but we as the helmsman of Jingnan, how can we be so negative minded, this big ship of Jingnan has to rely on us to take the helm and sail out of the predicament.
“County honourable words are very true, just we Jingnan in this flood loss is heavy, houses destroyed countless, property loss is immeasurable, with the current status quo, to carry out self-rescue, I’m afraid that the heart is more than enough ah.”
Driven by Zhu Pingan, although all the Xuxu officials had raised their spirits, they still could not help but feel worried when they thought of the difficulties.
“We in Jingnan were united and took precautions in advance before the flood occurred, compared to other counties, we in Jingnan suffered much less damage in this flood. Carrying out self-help, the burden on us is already much lighter than other counties. If we can’t bear the burden of ‘self-help’, then the other counties can simply hang themselves. What we need to do is rise to the occasion and overcome the difficulties, rather than being overcome by them.”Zhu Pingan slightly pulled the corner of his mouth and flirted with the crowd.
”Well, that’s true, far from it, let’s just say that the neighbouring county, Taiping County, has suffered ten times the losses that I, Jingnan, have suffered.”
The crowd of Xu officials were completely refreshed.
Seeing that the officials had regained their spirits, Zhu Pingan nodded his head in satisfaction, this was the state of affairs that those at the helm should have in the face of a disaster. Next, Zhu Pingan asked each of the Xuxu officials to report on their duties, to map out the situation of the disaster, and to give the crowd a clearer idea of the current situation in Jingnan.
“Back to County Honour, the Northern Suburbs Flood Shelter Area under the jurisdiction of my humble servant currently houses a total of 26,233 victims ……”
“Back to County Honour, the East Mountain Flood Shelter Area under the jurisdiction of my humble servant currently houses a total of eleven thousand five hundred and sixty-two victims ……”
“Back to Your Excellency. ……”
The five major flood avoidance districts and the county town’s official in charge first reported on the situation of the victims, the five major flood avoidance districts had a total of sixty-four thousand six hundred and seventy-three victims, and the county town had a total of twenty-six thousand four hundred and fifty-three people, the two added up to more than ninety thousand people. Hearing this number, the crowd couldn’t help but feel pressurised.
“Dignitary Qian, Dignitary Zhang, you guys give everyone an overview of the current situation of grain and silver stocked in the warehouse and treasury.”
Next, Zhu Pingan asked Dignitary Qian and Dignitary Zhang to give everyone an account of Jingnan’s home base.
“Back to County Honour, as of this morning, my warehouse still has 17,286 stones of grain stored.”
Qian Dianliang, the warehouse official, rose first to report.
“Erm …….It’s only been five days and you’ve already consumed nearly three thousand stones of grain?!”
The crowd of Xuxu officials couldn’t help but voice out in surprise as they didn’t expect the grain to be consumed so quickly.
“Gentlemen, this is still due to the relatively small number of victims who fled and came in the first few days, the consumption of grain is low, with the current growth of the daily victims, in the future, the daily consumption of grain will increase by hundreds of stones. Preliminary estimation, at present, my barn stock can only last for about twenty days. After twenty days, my warehouse will have no more grain to use.”Warehouse Warden Qian Dianliang couldn’t help but say to the crowd with a worried look on his face.
“Erm ……No food, what can we do, the most important thing for disaster relief is food.”
All of the Xuxu officials were worried.
Only Zhu Pingan had a calm face, “Dignitary Zhang, tell everyone how much silver is still stored in the treasury.”
“Back to County Honour, at the moment, my county office treasury has a total of three hundred and eighty taels of gold and twelve thousand six hundred and fifty-six taels of silver.”As a treasury warden, the Zhang Din official was familiar with the county office’s gold and silver deposits, and rose to report back.
These deposits of gold and silver were mainly obtained from the seizure of the family properties of County Minister Zhang, Lord Yao, and Li Dianshi. Some time ago, to prevent flooding, dredge ditches, buy building materials, build and repair dykes, etc. spent more than 10,000 taels of silver. At present, the county office treasury deposit gold and silver is left with these gold and silver.
Hearing the amount of gold and silver deposited in the county office, all of the xuxu officials were slightly relieved that the county office’s finances were still in good shape.
“If you all have any ideas, there is no harm in saying so.”Zhu Pingan said to the crowd.
“County Duke, I suggest taking out the gold and silver stored in the treasury to purchase grain, grain is the basis for disaster relief.”
Old man Liu, the ceremony room official, proposed.
“I second the motion.”The official room official, Zhang Dianliang, seconded.
“Canon Liu, Canon Zhang, you are unaware of the price of grain.”Household room official Liu Fu Zi shook his head and sighed, “Currently my Jingnan’s grain prices are rising three times a day, in the morning, at noon, and in the evening that’s a different price. Before the flood, that is, five days ago, the price of a stone of rice was only 400 wen; by this morning, the price of a stone of rice had already risen to 1,200 wen. In just five days, the price of rice has tripled, and it’s still going up. I can guarantee that just as we speak, the price of this grain will have risen again. In other counties such as Taiping County and Linhai County, the price of grain has also risen by the same amount. Our county office’s entire deposit of gold and silver combined can only buy about 10,000 stones right now.”
“Then we have to buy it too.”Old man Liu and the others said.
Household Office Warden Liu Fu Zi sniffed and couldn’t help but sigh again, “Even if we want to buy it, where there has to be someone to sell it. Now the county town grain shops are limited to selling grain, the daily grain sale is very limited, each time the door is open only enough to sell about one incense burner, go to the late, is to take more money will not be able to buy the grain. The situation in other counties is also the same, and even not as good as our situation in Jingnan.”
“These black-hearted merchants, disregarding the people’s lives and raising the price of food, all know how to make a fortune, their consciences have been eaten by dogs. They sell grain in limited quantities every day, not to inflate the price of grain!”
“These black-hearted, crazy price hiking grain merchants should be severely punished, if I may say so, County Honour, we should bring these black-hearted grain merchants to justice, and it would be best to chop off a few heads in public, to make an example of them, in order to curb grain prices.”
When all the Xu officials heard this, they all couldn’t help but be filled with righteous indignation, and in their words, they were eager to tear these treacherous merchants apart with their hands.
