Chapter 542 The prince who likes to confiscate property is here!!!
Qin An is 38 years old this year. He was born in a poor family and has no power behind him. He was promoted to prefect because of his personal efforts and the emperor's deliberate support for the poor to fight against the aristocratic families.
Qin An is very honest and is also good at local politics. After the imperial examination, he was sent to a remote place and started as a seventh-rank county magistrate. No matter where he was promoted, he was deeply loved by the local people.
Wherever Qin An has served, the people are peaceful and the local government is clean. Even Qin An himself believes that as long as he wants, no matter where he is an official, he can make the people under his rule live a good life.
Qin An never thought of being promoted to prefect in the south of the Yangtze River.
Jiangnan is a land of fish and rice, extremely rich. It is the granary of Daliang, with developed water transport and a major tax collection area for the entire Daliang.
If you really want to make money, there is absolutely no better place than Jiangnan.
When Qin An really arrived in Jiangnan, he found that the so-called wealth was only for the aristocratic families and a small number of merchants. Most of the people still lived a hard life, but at least they could eat and wear warm clothes.
Of course, compared with other places, the people here are already living quite well.
Qin An originally wanted to show his talents after taking office, but he didn't know that he would encounter a flood that was rare in a century.
He didn't even know the local situation clearly, and he encountered such a disaster, and even disaster relief was extremely difficult.
When he reported the disaster, he was thinking about opening the granary for disaster relief.
However, the officials in Jiangnan were too greedy. The food stored in previous years had been replaced by spoiled rice at some point. Only one tenth of the food in all the granaries was edible.
And because of their greed, the officials were also dealt with by the prince.
But how can disaster relief be provided without food?
Fortunately, the imperial court urgently allocated silver for disaster relief. 1.5 million taels of silver does sound like a lot, but when the flood came, the crops in the fields were submerged before they were harvested. For a time, the price of food rose sharply, and the people in the city scrambled for food.
In addition to food, there are more problems to be solved, such as the treatment of disaster victims and the repair of collapsed river embankments.
However, the government has limited manpower, and the local aristocratic families and wealthy merchants do not cooperate. These things piled up, and the silver was spent like water.
Being able to save this Gusu city and these people now is the result of Qin An's great efforts and maneuvers.
Qin An tried to narrate the process without any emotion, and to explain the original situation more objectively. However, when talking about the experience of the people, his voice still trembled.
It's too difficult.
From the flood to now, it has been too difficult for both him and the people.
God knows how they have survived this month!
The heavy rain is still falling, people are starving to death, villages are flooded one by one, and there is constant news of riverbank collapses in the front. Unfortunately, after the initial rush for food, there are no more grain merchants in the city.
The few families who originally sold food not only have limited food for sale every day, but also change the price every moment.
On weekdays, a bushel of rice costs only 10 coins, which can feed a family of three for more than ten days.
But now, a bushel of rice has risen to 1,000 coins! It costs 1 tael of silver!
How can ordinary farmers afford it?
But even so, many people can't buy it.
As for herbs, they are even more expensive.
If you can't afford rice, you can only starve. If you can't see a doctor, you can't afford medicine, so you can only endure it.
The final result of both is the same, death.
Qin An is really hard, he has never been so sad.
Watching the people starve to death, die of illness, but he is powerless. Even his mother starved to death due to food shortages. The grief in his heart is really hard to describe.
Lu Zexu then realized that the prefect's mansion had also run out of food.
However, although he had traveled overnight and did not bring much food with him, his brothers would enter the city in half a day and bring back the abundant food from the imperial estate.
"Don't tell me that there is no food left in Gusu City?" Lu Zexu asked in a low voice.
"Yes, but they are all from wealthy families and high-ranking merchants. When the disaster occurred, I visited them in the hope that they could donate some rice and grain, and help the people to overcome the difficulties together, but..."
Qin An smiled bitterly, "I have met a few wealthy merchants in the city, but the rest of the heads of the wealthy families are either not at home or have caught a cold, so I avoided them all. Naturally, there was no way to talk about donating rice and grain."
Lu Zexu naturally knew the twists and turns here. It was nothing more than that the wealthy families controlled Gusu City, and the wealthy merchants were in collusion with the world's big families, otherwise the prices of medicinal materials and rice would not have risen so fast! "As I recall, the noble families
in Gusu City are the Yang family, the Chen family, the Tang family, and the Zheng family." A few months ago, when he came here to kill people everywhere, he met these four families. They are definitely wealthy families. Even if the whole Jiangnan region suffered a disaster and had no food, these families would not be without food. "Did the Zheng family also not make any comments on the disaster?" Lu Zexu asked. Although Qin An didn't know why His Royal Highness the Crown Prince singled out the Zheng family, he still replied respectfully, "At first, the Zheng family did distribute porridge in the city, but they removed the porridge stall within three days. I haven't seen the head of the Zheng family, so I don't know the reason." Lu Zexu rubbed his fingers, "Go and check what happened to the Zheng family?" There were only Lu Zexu, Qin An, and two guards in the study. After the little prince said this, there was no change in the study. To outsiders, this order seemed to be spoken to the air. However, in a place where no one could see, one of the secret guards had already left quickly. It is most convenient to let the secret guards do things like gathering information. I hope there is nothing wrong with the Zheng family, otherwise, it would be really difficult to deal with the eldest sister-in-law's maternal family. The eldest sister-in-law is pregnant. Moreover, the Zheng family is also the eldest brother's in-laws' family. The little prince frowned tightly. Now he really realized how powerful his third brother was. The Shandong patrol was his uncle. It would be very difficult for him to deal with it personally.
Just like him at this moment.
I hope the Zheng family has not committed a serious crime, otherwise -
the little prince is in Qin An's study, writing a letter quickly. Let's say hello to the eldest brother first.
With the situation in Gusu City, he doesn't believe that the Zheng family is clean at all.
While the little prince understands the situation in the city, the four major families in Gusu City naturally get the news of the prince's arrival.
The four heads of the family gathered together and were a little nervous for a while. After all, the little prince is not very old, but they have witnessed the scene of mass killings with their own eyes.
How he replaced all the officials in Jiangnan, they all saw it with their own eyes.
Now this guy is here again. Although he hasn't done anything yet, they are still nervous.