Huang Zhenshan shook his big, round head and thought for a while: "I don't know."
Wang Fuzhi smiled and said, "Do you want to marry a wife and have a child?"
"think."
"Would you like to build a new house and buy new furniture?"
"think."
"Isn't this quite clear? Why do you still say you don't know?" Wang Fuzhi asked back.
"Hehe," Huang Zhenshan grinned, "Just do as you say."
"Everyone," Wang Fuzhi put away all his expressions and said calmly, "The demands you put forward are very high and very... difficult to handle!"
Everyone fell silent and looked at Wang Fuzhi quietly, feeling extremely uneasy.
To be fair, most of them are willing to be recruited.
After all, fighting and killing all the time is not a solution.
The right way is to live a stable life.
It would be even better if you could give me a position.
Now Wang Fuzhi said it was very difficult to deal with, and one can imagine how they felt.
"Take the first one for example," Wang Fuzhi continued, "As far as I know, there are tens of thousands of rebels. Do you know how much it would cost to keep all of them well-fed and clothed?"
"Let's take food first!" Wang Fuzhi began to calculate: "Based on the 50,000 rebels having two kilograms of food per person per day, the amount of food needed from now until the summer grain harvest in May next year is about 150,000 dan."
"Each dan of grain costs one tael and six cents of silver. 150,000 dan of grain costs 240,000 taels of silver!"
"There is also the issue of clothing!" Wang Fuzhi spoke at a moderate pace, trying to make sure everyone could hear clearly: "Winter is coming soon. Last year, the price of a cotton-padded jacket was about one tael of silver. Since the Ping Liao army is fighting in Liaodong, the demand for cotton has increased dramatically, so the market price of cotton-padded jackets this year is one tael of silver and two cents of silver per piece."
"Providing each of the 50,000 rebels with a cotton coat will cost another 60,000 taels of silver!"
"Adding the previous 240,000 taels, the total is 300,000 taels of silver!"
"Do you know how much silver the court has prepared for disaster relief?" Wang Fuzhi's eyes were like torches, scanning everyone's faces one by one: "The court has prepared 250,000 taels of silver!"
"There are five counties affected by the disaster, with a total population of at least 100,000, right? If I give all this money to you, the rest of us will starve to death or freeze to death!"
"Before they starve to death, they will definitely start another uprising!"
"You say, is this easy to do?"
The scene was silent.
The leaders of the Yuyuan Army, both big and small, looked at each other, at a loss as to what to do.
They had only made a few requests, but they didn't expect to encounter trouble with the first request.
Ren Qi, who made this request, couldn't help but ask: "Master Wang, can I tell you the truth?"
"Please speak!" Wang Fuzhi extended his right hand to gesture.
"The requirements of having enough food and clothing are not high. The court can't be unable to meet even this requirement, right?" Ren Qi said with a bitter face.
"Alas," Wang Fuzhi sighed, "You know how to take care of your brothers, and the court cannot abandon the victims of the five counties!"
"Can the imperial court provide more money for disaster relief?" Zhang Qi asked.
"It's difficult!" Wang Fuzhi sighed again, "Now the court has places to spend money everywhere, and there is not enough money to spend. The money for disaster relief was temporarily squeezed out of the army that pacifies Liao. If it is squeezed more, the army on the front line may mutiny."
Hearing this, Ren Qi's face changed, "From what Lord Wang said, there is no solution to this problem?"
"Yes, there is, but it's a bit far from what you want."
"Please clarify my doubts, sir." Ren Qi said.
"First of all, after you accept the amnesty, all your sins will be pardoned." Wang Fuzhi began to speak with his hands behind his back.
Everyone nodded, this was the minimum bottom line.
"Next, the soldiers in your army will be divided into two. The brave and good fighters will continue to stay in the army and serve the court. The rest will be disbanded where they are and receive relief from the court along with the disaster victims in the five counties. The relief food may not be enough to fill you up, but you won't starve to death. Once you get through this winter, everything will be fine."
Everyone blinked, each with their own thoughts.
Some people think this plan is acceptable.
Some people find this unacceptable.
They care more about whether they can stay in the army and serve the court. After all, only by serving the court can they eat the emperor's food and be included in the army.
As one of the leaders of the Yuyuan Army, Ren Qi was not only worried about whether he could eat the emperor's food, but also worried about the future of his soldiers.
He turned to Wang Fuzhi and asked, "Your Excellency, you just said that there are 100,000 disaster victims in the five counties. Even if the food rations of the disaster victims are reduced by half, each person must eat at least one pound of food every day to avoid starvation."
"I'm afraid the 250,000 taels of relief money from the imperial court won't last until next year's summer grain harvest. Winter is coming soon, and the victims still don't have clothes to keep warm. If we don't find a solution, they will freeze to death even if they don't starve to death."
"Don't worry, the court has already thought of this! Although the money for disaster relief is small, there is still money for repairing the river embankment." Wang Fuzhi looked calm, "Next, the court will recruit disaster victims to build the river embankment, using work as relief. In addition, the court also asked merchants to transport a large amount of cloth, cotton and cotton clothes from other places, all of which will be sold at a reasonable price."
"The victims can use their wages to buy food or to buy supplies to keep warm."
"Then..." Ren Qi thought for a moment, "What about the families with only orphans and widows? They don't have the energy to repair the river bank!"
"We cook and boil water for the people who are repairing the river bank. If we can't arrange for them to go, we can only go to the porridge factory to drink porridge, but it's just barely enough to fill our stomachs." Wang Fuzhi replied, "The surrounding counties will arrange for local bachelors to come to the porridge factory for blind dates, and try to settle all these orphans and widows."
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