Xu Hai and his team of investigators left for the capital after lunch to resume their duties, the two main tasks of the trip they have completed, there is no need to stay, Zhu Pingan, Tan Lun and others sent all the way to the official road.
After sending off Xu Hai and his entourage, Tan Lun stayed in Jingnan for more than an hour, accompanied by Zhu Ping’an, carefully inspected the East Lake project area, understanding in detail the various aspects of the work for food, precautions, etc. Tan Lun has already made up his mind, and will continue to work for food. Tan Lun had already made up his mind that he would follow Zhu Pingan’s example of defining the price of food and carrying out food for work when he returned.
“Prefect, please lend a hand.”Seeing Tan Lun’s determination, Zhu Pingan said softly to him.
There were some words that were not convenient to say in public, so he could only take a step to speak, and Zhu Pingan would not recognise it even after saying it.
“Ta-Jen Zhu, I don’t know what I can tell you.”Tan Lun followed Zhu Pingan to the side and asked smilingly.
“I dare not teach you. Your honour wants to carry out food for work, I don’t know how much is in the government treasury?”Zhu Pingan arched his hand and said.
“The government treasury still has more than 38,000 silver in stock, but the grain in stock is not much, stopping at about 10,000 stones.”Tan Lun for the government treasury situation as if he knew it by heart, the silver in the government treasury are all his painstaking efforts, a sum of money to save out, originally the grain store also has more than 20,000 stones of grain, just since the flood gruel relief and so on consumed half of it.
Zhu Pingan slightly shook his head, ”Prefect, 38,000+ silver reserves are not sustainable. Take my Jingnan county as an example, my Jingnan held a food-for-work programme, each person daily wages of 20, a total of 100,000 people and refugees to participate in a month down the wages alone would need 60,000 taels, grain and rice consumption is even more massive. Even if we charge for three meals a day, each person will only recover about 5 Wen per day, a drop in the bucket.”
Tan Lun stiffened at these words, as if he had been thrown a pot of cold water, and his enthusiasm was suddenly dampened by most of his body.
Yes, food-for-work costs money. A small county in Jingnan has to pay 60,000 taels a month, not to mention the entire Taizhou Prefecture, which has no less than a million people in need of relief.
The people in need of relief are not less than a million!
Tan Lun can not help but frown, but soon again eyes bright, my capital city can not afford, that Jingnan is how to do, immediately arched his hand to Zhu Pingan said, “Zhu Taoyuan what to see.”
“I don’t dare to teach you. Just the government, after defining the price of grain, grain merchants around the world is bound to earn a cup full of money, they have made a fortune in Taizhou province, it is right to do something for the Taizhou province disaster relief contribution.”Zhu Pingan said with intent.
“Lord Zhu is saying to ask the grain merchants to contribute to the disaster relief?”Tan Lun’s eyes lit up, then randomly shook his head, “These merchants are the most insatiable, counting every cent, and treating money as if it were their life, so how can they be willing to donate.”
“In that case, the common people are afraid that they won’t agree either. We, as parental officials, should act for the people.”
Zhu Pingan said meaningfully.
Everything was in the clear, Tan Lun understood and looked at each other with Zhu Pingan and nodded vigorously.
Zhu Pingan also suggested that Tan Lun wait until grain prices were defined and grain merchants flooded into Taizhou Province before launching the Food for Work.
Tan Lun understood that the key to whether or not the banquet of food for work could be opened well depended on the dish of grain merchants.
Soon after Tan Lun returned to Taizhou capital from Jingnan, Taizhou capital posted a notice on the second day, which defined the price of grain in Taizhou capital as 2,500 wen per stone. At the same time, Tan Lun also issued an official letter to all counties, the first part of which first praised and introduced Zhu Pingan’s experience in fighting against floods in Jingnan, and the second part of which asked all counties to raise the price of food to 2,500 per stone under their jurisdictions.
Soon after, the news of Taizhou Province raising the price of grain to 2,500 per stone was widely spread.
Once this news was spread, it was like a pot of blood was poured into a shark pool, and all of a sudden a shark named grain merchant went crazy.
The day the Taizhou government posted the definition of grain prices, there were hundreds of large and small grain merchants who had beaten the blood of chickens and tried their best to transport grain into the boundaries of Taizhou through various means such as horse-drawn carriages, donkey-drawn carts, ox-carts, and ships. They were close to the water, and farther away, more grain merchants were on their way.
For a while, grain from all over Daming was transported to Taizhou in a steady stream through one grain merchant after another.
The grain shortage in Taizhou Province was immediately alleviated, and although the price of grain was very expensive, it was no longer priceless, as long as one could get silver one could buy grain. Although the people of Taizhou had consumed their family wealth accumulated over the years, they had finally survived the calamity, and the flood-ravaged Taizhou was developing in a good direction.
At the same time, Tan Lun also followed the example of Zhu Pingan, for the grain merchants to send gifts of thanks, all in the form of relief donations received. For those who did not meet Tan Lun’s psychological expectations, or did not come to donate, Tan Lun sent officers to the other side of the grain shop, asking them to contribute to the disaster relief in Taizhou.
Of course, for individual grain merchants who do not know what they are doing, Tan Lun sends his officers to search and question them in the name of “arresting bandits”, “arresting thieves”, “checking for stolen goods” and so on.In short, it is to use a grandiose reason, so that you can not normal business. You know, now time is silver, open grain shop with robbing money like money, delayed for a moment will earn a lot of money, grain merchants how will be with the silver. So, one by one to be taught a lesson of grain merchants, all become wise up, obediently make up the donation.
In this way, Tan Lun soon raised enough silver and grain to carry out the food-for-work programme.
Three days after the Taizhou government announced the definition of grain prices, it once again issued an announcement – food for work.
Tan Lun almost copied Zhu Pingan’s proposal for work-for-food, planning a series of attacks on the city such as post-disaster reconstruction, water conservancy facilities, repair of city walls, anti-Japanese sentry forts, and reclamation of land, and summoning the people in the territory to participate in work-for-food.
However, in order to reflect the benevolence of the official service to love the people, Tan Lun to participate in the work in lieu of food for the people to provide three meals a day free of charge, of course, just the most basic thin rice, rice, and in addition to the daily wage is reduced to 15 Wen.
In fact, compared with the treatment of Jingnan’s food-for-work, the Taizhou side is just a matter of three meals a day.
Because of the free supply of three meals a day and the relatively low wages, the people’s motivation was slightly less than that of Jingnan.
However, none of this mattered.
What was important was that through the policy of defining grain prices and providing food for work, the flooding situation in Taizhou Province continued to improve.
Positively influenced by Taizhou Prefecture, neighbouring prefectures such as Shaoxing Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, and Jinhua Prefecture also began to raise the price of grain within their borders, or to turn a blind eye to the rise in grain prices within their borders and acquiesce to the rise in grain prices.
Grain from all over the country was constantly being transported to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the flooding situation in the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang was also improving. Influenced by the butterfly of Zhu Pingan, the floods in Jiangnan recovered faster and lost less than in history, and countless people lived.
