Of course, if there are refugees who are unwilling to participate in building reservoirs and digging canals, earning hard-earned money with their own hands, and are unwilling to pay sweat and labor to support themselves, they just want to stay at the city gate every day and survive on two meals of porridge provided by the government.
Refugees like this are not worth helping at all, and he will not help such people.
Because after the government posted a notice informing the refugees that they would build reservoirs and dig canals, the government stopped providing porridge after the official start.
If the refugees want to survive, there is only one way to go, and that is to join the water conservancy project construction team.
In this way, refugees who fled to Wuning County could not only fill their stomachs with food for themselves and their families, but also save some money.
As long as they work hard, I believe that in three years many people will be able to own houses and land and truly settle down in Wuning County.
It is also possible that some refugees have a strong attachment to their homeland and are unwilling to settle in Wuning County. For these people, once the irrigation project is completed and these people are gathered together, the government can send soldiers to escort them back to their hometown.
These were all said by Meng Yue, but he felt that they made a lot of sense and were even more thoughtful than he had imagined. He couldn't find any reason to refuse.
Although the plan was perfect, he also had some concerns, namely food and money.
Not to mention food, which you may not be able to buy even if you have money now, but each person has to be paid ten cents a day, which is not a small amount of money.
Ten coins per person, ten coins for ten people is one hundred coins, one hundred people is one tael of silver, one thousand people is ten taels, and ten thousand people is one hundred taels.
Assuming there are 40,000 refugees in Wuning County, the daily wages alone would be 400 taels, not counting other expenses.
However, if 40,000 people were to work together to complete the entire Wuning County water conservancy project, it would take at least two months.
After two months, the wages would cost at least 24,000 taels of silver.
Twenty-four thousand taels of silver may not seem like a lot, but these are just labor expenses. To complete the entire county water conservancy project, the cost is not only for labor, but also for tools, including ox carts, carts, baskets, etc., as well as food and vegetables. In this way, money is spent like water every day.
However, Wuning County's annual tax revenue is only 8,000 taels. Paying wages to refugees will use up Wuning County's tax revenue for three years. If other expenses are added, it is estimated that Wuning County's tax revenue for the next five years will be used up.
He was not very worried about this because he believed that under his governance, the people of Wuning County would become richer and richer, and tax revenue would increase.
What he was worried about was food. Ever since he learned that there were refugees, he had people buy food as soon as possible, but the result was not satisfactory.
The price of food has risen sharply compared to before the locust plague. Coarse grains that used to cost three cents per catty have risen to fifteen cents, and fine grains are ten cents per catty.
The key point is that even at this price, we can't buy a large amount of food. Buying a dozen or so pounds is not going to solve the problem.
However, what he didn't expect was that after he expressed his concerns, both Xie Ruiyuan and Mengyue remained calm and didn't take it seriously at all.
He was extremely anxious, but the two people seemed to be indifferent and even comforted him, saying, "It's a small matter, don't worry, there will be more food."
How could the issue of food be a trivial matter? In his opinion, not to mention planning to start the irrigation project in the entire Qingshan Prefecture, even Wuning County would be difficult to implement. After all, the amount of food consumed by the refugees every day is not a small amount.
But since those two are not in a hurry, why should he be in a hurry here?
But to be honest, seeing how calm Xie Ruiyuan and Mengyue were, he was more or less influenced and was no longer so anxious.
In fact, Mengyue was not really worried about the food problem. After all, the mountains of food in the space were not just piled up, but were actually going to be used and given to the refugees.
Only when the refugees are saved and go from despair to hope, will they be truly grateful to those who saved them and pulled them out of the quagmire. She will also gain more gratitude points and will not have to worry about not completing the mission.
As for Xie Ruiyuan, he still had some headaches about food before Mengyue gave him one million kilograms of food.
Even though his cousin had left Xinghua Village and mobilized all his connections to get food, he was still a little worried.
After all, the burden on him was not light. In addition to preparing a large amount of food for disaster relief, he also had to support 300,000 troops.
Otherwise, when Mengyue asked him for money, he wouldn't have been unable to come up with even a few thousand taels of silver. He was really short of money.
Regardless of the palace's apparent business, or whether his cousin was in charge of the business secretly, all the money earned was used to maintain the army.
You have to know that even though he is the third prince, the food and fodder allocated by the Ministry of Revenue every year is only enough for 100,000 troops, and the remaining 100,000 troops all depend on him.
Of course, the 100,000-strong army was not on the surface, and only his father knew about it, so he had to willingly take on the responsibility of supporting the 100,000-strong army.
As a result, there would be no extra food and supplies to help the refugees.
Fortunately, he believed that Princess Yu was capable and could easily give him a million kilograms of grain to help him solve his urgent problem.
He didn't know where the food came from, and he had people investigate, but there was no clue.
You know, he found out that Mengyue left the capital and it took her a month to reach Xinghua Village.
Now, Ruyi has lived in Xinghua Village for more than three months. During this period, Mengyue's daily life has been very busy, and she has basically been in the city and town.
Later, when there was a locust plague, he went to another county in Qingshan Prefecture and led the duck army and the people to kill the locusts.
These are all well-known facts, and anyone you ask in Xinghua Village will be able to tell you.
But this made him very confused and he didn't find out anything.
Another point is that the Mengyue he knew and the Mengyue in the Prime Minister's Mansion in the capital had completely different temperaments and personalities, as if they were two different people.
He couldn't explain this doubt clearly, so he asked people to stop the investigation.
Since Mengyue is the princess he has chosen and he will be with her in the future, as long as there are no problems in their relationship, they should not be suspicious of each other.
Besides, he believed that everyone had secrets, not to mention Mengyue, but he himself was the same.
Therefore, he believed in Mengyue and believed that Mengyue would not let him down. The food that was currently giving him a headache was naturally not a big problem.
It was just as Xie Ruiyuan thought. Not to mention feeding hundreds of thousands of refugees, there was more than enough food for Mengyue to feed the entire Qingshan Prefecture.
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