Chapter 164 Disaster Relief 1
It is almost inevitable that a major epidemic will occur after a major disaster, and it is not uncommon for a disaster to occur at the same time as an epidemic.
In recent days, small-scale conflicts between soldiers in the city and disaster victims outside the city have occurred almost every day. He Bi was so worried that his mouth was covered with bubbles, but he could do nothing about it.
The main reason is the traditional concept of being buried in peace.
No matter how the officers and soldiers mobilized to burn the bodies, no one responded. They even forbade them to sprinkle quicklime on the bodies before burying them, saying that it would disturb the ancestors' afterbirth.
I don’t know who first told my family about this in their dreams, but everyone believed it.
The victims of the disaster are not extremely poor or vicious, but they are very poor and very hungry!
The poor can't afford a coffin, and the hungry don't have the energy to dig a hole.
Most of the bodies were wrapped in straw mats and buried shallowly.
It is not certain whether he can be reborn, but he did raise a group of red-eyed wild dogs outside the city.
There was a rumor among the people that the dogs with red eyes were messengers from the underworld who ate human flesh. The victims of the disaster still had porridge to drink and no one dared to attack those dogs.
But when they were extremely hungry and wanted to kill the dog to eat its meat, they could no longer beat the dog. If they really faced off, they wouldn't even know who would be the food.
Those dogs, who ate the flesh of dead people, became fat and strong, and were more ferocious than wolves. They traveled in packs, which had become a common sight.
Wild dogs roamed around in the forests that were previously used for burying corpses. The victims were afraid of being attacked and did not dare to go there, so the corpses were buried closer and closer to people. It was no surprise that the plague spread.
Now the only thing He Bi can do is to keep the disaster victims outside the city and prevent the plague from spreading into the city.
Even the city gates were closed and even soldiers were allowed to leave but not enter, and relief food was hung down from the city walls.
This was the terrible situation the disaster relief team faced when they arrived. Xiao Yuan couldn't help but secretly curse the Fifth Prince's relatives as trash.
Now the situation must be brought under control, otherwise even if the subsequent supply teams arrive it will be of no use.
The emotions of the disaster victims are already unstable, and there have even been some cases of people getting sick and deliberately infecting others in the hope of dragging them to death.
Governor Xiao did not rush into the city, but set up camp a mile away from the disaster victims and first sent people to gather information among the disaster victims.
In this era, clan concepts were important and people had a certain respect for officials, so the words of some respected clan leaders and village chiefs still carried some weight.
The victims of the disaster are rioting because they see no hope of survival. If they knew that food has arrived and someone is providing disaster relief, they would gradually return.
After all, it is better to live a miserable life than to die a good death, and dying now is really not a good death.
No matter how chaotic the disaster victims are, they still have the instinct to seek benefits and avoid harm. The Dongchang barbarians are all strong and sturdy, so they are good at talking with knives and swords.
Soon, a dozen middle-aged men who were still in good spirits and had some prestige among the disaster victims were brought in front of Xiao Yuan.
When these people heard that it was the imperial envoys coming to provide disaster relief, they burst into tears and shouted "Long live the emperor".
No matter what, it's right to thank the emperor first.
They just didn't understand why the adults covered their faces with white cloths. Did they think they smelled too bad?
Well, they do smell bad.
Xiao Yuan didn't waste time talking to them. He first asked about the victims' food and illness conditions, and then about how the dead were dealt with.
This got to the point. Several people rushed to answer the question like frogs in a quarrel, and only after being scolded did the oldest man report back.
When the disaster first hit, people could still have two bowls of thick porridge and one pancake every day. Later, perhaps because food in the city was no longer abundant, the porridge became thinner and thinner, and there were no more pancakes.
The old man was old and had experienced several disasters. He wiped his tears and said objectively,
"Sir, don't blame the prefect for giving us so little. The city has never had much food in stock. It's already pretty good that we can still have two bowls of porridge a day.
I remember that during the great flood ten years ago, our children became unable to eat their own food just half a month after the disaster. Now, nearly a month after the disaster, we can still have two bowls of porridge to drink, and we are so grateful.
only……
Although I didn’t die of hunger after eating porridge for a long time, I felt weak and gradually became sick. It turned out that…it turned out that…”
The old man choked up at this and dared not say anything more, but even without him saying anything, Xiao Yuan understood what he meant.
If you are weak, you will get sick, and if you get sick, you will die. If too many people die, an epidemic will break out.
But the word "plague" is an absolute taboo. Once it is shouted out, the situation will get out of control.
Even though many people in the crowd now understand that there is a plague, they are still deceiving themselves and would rather believe that those people died of starvation.
When people are in desperate adversity, they live with a kind of vitality and spiritual sustenance. Once hope is gone and the vitality is dissipated, they will quickly go to destruction.
After Xiao Yuan carefully understood the situation here, he quickly formulated a strategy, which was actually just picking out the useful ones from the hundreds of strategies prepared by his wife.
These days, when Supervisor Xiao looked through the manual, he would always clapped his hands in amazement.
Although he didn't know why the lady, a lady from a noble family, knew so much about disaster relief, there were indeed many brilliant plans that he had never thought of.
The first step in disaster relief is to break the disaster area down into smaller units, dividing the victims into villages and towns and finding a person in charge for easier management.
Only when people gather together can they cause trouble. The idea is that the law does not take much responsibility and the responsibility is not shared among themselves.
But if the responsibilities are broken down into smaller units and made clear, those people in the same village and group will be able to nip the troublemakers in the bud.
But before that, you must first establish your authority and show favor.
Xiao Yuan gave an order and selected 200 archers, who lined up in a line and advanced towards the woods. Soon all the red-eyed man-eating dogs were hunted down.
Many of the disaster victims cried for joy as they looked at the pile of more than a hundred red-eyed dogs of all sizes.
God knows how painful it was for them to watch the bodies of their loved ones being torn apart by these dogs. Some were even torn to death by wild dogs while trying to rescue their children's bodies.
Now, these harmful beasts, in addition to the disaster victims kneeling down and expressing gratitude, first recognized that these adults who came to provide disaster relief were not the vicious and evil villains who only knew how to kill people in the past.
Xiao Yuan used this prestige to announce three major policies:
First, the disaster victims were managed separately by village, with the village chief taking food from each person and cooking separately every day.
Not to mention that this would reduce waiting time so that everyone could eat as soon as possible, the food rations of 200 grams for men and 100 grams for women, girls and children alone made the victims cheer and rejoice.
Two taels of dry rice can produce half a pound of rice, which is enough for a strong adult to eat.
Women, the elderly and children eat less, so if they really receive food according to this quota, they will be better off than in a bumper harvest year.
But the boss also said that this decision was subject to conditions.
We don't want you to have a full meal just to sit back and relax. Except for the frail elderly and children, everyone else has to work.
But even so, it could not stop the enthusiasm of the disaster victims.
What's there to be afraid of?
These ordinary people who make their living in the soil have been following the adults since they were five or six years old, helping them pick rice ears and feed chickens and pigs.
Even when he was old and leaning on a cane, he was still working. When did he ever rest?
Just being able to survive is enough. If you have food to eat, who would be afraid of working?
Xiao Yuan had already expected the public's reaction.
He knew that when there was a great reward, there would always be brave men. As long as the food was in place and everyone could have enough to eat, many things would become easier to talk about.
As expected, with these two taels of grain as the foundation, the other two policies did not receive any response nor cause much resistance.
Of course, the victims were still full of resistance, and it was only thanks to the soothing efforts of some elders that they did not cause any trouble.
These old men were very cunning. They tried to comfort the young and strong members of the tribe by telling them to first give them food so that they could have a few full meals and then make demands when they had enough strength.
At the same time, he found Xiao Yuan and tried to persuade the Lord to revoke his decision.
After all, being buried in peace is a tradition passed down by our ancestors, and we are not treacherous or evil people, so how could we turn our bones into dust and scatter our ashes?
The centralized care for patients is more acceptable, after all, it is relatively safer to use patients from one's own village.
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