For example, last year grain could only be sold for 1,900 coins, but this year it can be sold for 2,800 coins.

The cost of living has also dropped significantly.

After deducting all expenses, you can save a few coins a year and buy some other things.

But it would be best to maintain it at more than 200 wen per stone.

If it goes any lower, farmers' income will plummet. The saying "low grain prices hurt farmers" is not empty talk.

Hong Wen walked through the crowd of farmers selling grain coming and going, and walked east for more than ten minutes. He entered Chongmingmenwai Street and arrived at the Nanzhenfu Division where he was on duty.

Actually, I'm not working today.

After all, it’s the end of the year and I’m on annual leave, so I have very little time to work.

However, the government has recently been organizing activities to care for the poor, the lonely, and the disabled.

Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Administration were responsible for investigating and registering the poor population in Bianliang. Funds were allocated from the government treasury to distribute oil, salt, rice and flour door to door, so they needed to work overtime temporarily.

When Hong Wen arrived, most of the supplies in the Nanzhenfusi Yamen compound, which were piled up like a small mountain yesterday, had been distributed.

But it happened that people from Meng's Trading Company sent another batch of grain and oil.

The Meng family used to be just a middle-class merchant family that sold grain, but the second son, Meng Chengqi, currying favor with the magistrate, actually got some state-owned business, and rose to prominence since then.

This activity also involved the government purchasing a batch of supplies at low prices from various public-private joint ventures, and handing them over to Kaifeng Prefecture and the Imperial City Administration for distribution.

The clerk from the Imperial City Office registered the shipped goods at the door, and the officials loaded the goods onto a cart and delivered them to the designated person's home.

When you come back, the clerk will register it again, and the number will be on the list. Once the official makes a follow-up visit and finds that the items have not been delivered to the designated person's home, no one can escape.

So everyone worked diligently. Six clerks at the door were writing furiously, and dozens of officials were carrying goods onto carriages and setting off according to the family address.

Seeing Hong Wen coming to work, a subordinate who was registering early in the morning complained, "The boss seems to be taking it easy, while we've been busy all morning."

"No way, walking is slow."

Hong Wen came to work on time. He patted his thigh and said self-deprecatingly that he had a good relationship with his subordinates, so close that they were like friends.

"Master, you've arrived just in time. I have to go to the bathroom. Please help me take over."

Another subordinate waved his hand.

Hong Wen walked over, took the brush, and began to register. As he wrote, he asked, "How is it going?"

The subordinate ran to the toilet and said, "We have distributed more than 500 dan today, and another 1,200 dan has been delivered."

The Imperial City Division and Kaifeng Prefecture each had their own responsibilities. The Southern Pacification Division was mainly responsible for distributing grain to the poor people in the southern city, not only in the city but also outside the city, with more than a thousand stones distributed every day.

Including the Northern Pacification Office and Kaifeng Prefecture, nearly 4,000 dan of grain, hundreds of tons of oil, salt and firewood were sent out every day, totaling more than 1,400 guan a day.

What's funny is that Zhao Jun had invested in many overseas trading companies in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and all the money went into the treasury. As a result, Zhao Zhen's treasury now has more than 20 million strings of cash. He gave 100,000 strings of cash at one time, which is almost enough to pay him until March next year.

In other words, there were indeed many poor people in Bianliang, and most of them lived outside the city. Due to land annexation, many people had to go to the city to work, but they could not afford the high rent, so they could only build wooden houses outside the city.

These groups of people, as well as the elderly, beggars and poor people in the city, are the main targets for distributing supplies.

Hong Wen sat down and started registering.

After about ten minutes, his subordinate came back and took over from him.

Just when Hong Wen thought he could properly supervise everyone as the chief official, Liu Zhubu came in, wiping his sweat and shouting, "Is there anyone else? Come quickly and get some people."

Hong Wen was puzzled, so he went over and asked, "What's wrong?"

"The director asked us to distribute all the items on the list before the Lantern Festival. How can we finish distributing them? Everyone is working like crazy."

When Liu Zhubu saw Hong Wen, his eyes lit up and he pulled him over and said, "Come on, Old Hong, come and help too."

Because of his leg disease, Hong Wen often slacked off, so now he had no choice but to follow him out with a wry smile.

He couldn't move anything, so he went over to help hold the sack.

After a while, another car was loaded. Since he could read, he took the list of names to be distributed and slowly left with the car.

The freight carriage was running very fast. The driver seemed to have learned the skills from Zhao Guangyi. He drove through the bustling streets and went out from Guangli Gate in the south.

A large number of houses have been built on both sides of the Cai River.

This is outside the outer city, which should be the wilderness.

But it also seems like a new urban area.

Wooden houses are built along the river, some are brick and tile structures, and most are ordinary wooden bungalows.

Kaifeng Prefecture also replanned the area outside the city, with streets lined up one after another. Although not as good as those inside the city, there was at least a degree of order.

The carriage stopped at Xinmin Street. It was called a street, but in fact it was just a dozen or so wooden houses along the river. Children were running around barefoot on the rammed earth street. People with patches on their bodies and pale faces came out from time to time. Some were going to fetch water, some were going to work in the city, and some were sitting on the street corner doing handicrafts.

"Room 13 Zhang Family"

Hong Wen got off the carriage and limped to a dilapidated wooden house. In front of the house, an old man was making bamboo products. He asked, "Is this the Zhang family?"

The old man raised his head, and it was only then that Hong Wen noticed that the old man was extremely skinny, with half of his pants cut off under his right leg, leaving nothing inside. There was also a crutch placed on the wooden wall next to him.

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