Under the comfort of County Magistrate Zheng, the people of Rongcheng lived a relatively comfortable life. In contrast, the people in other areas of the jurisdiction did not have such good luck.
Just like this, five or six days passed. Seeing that more and more refugees gathered outside Yuncheng, the people in other counties became more and more panicked. They hoarded supplies more and more frantically, causing the prices in the city to change every day. In this vicious cycle, theft and robbery occurred.
The county magistrate was even more troubled. The refugees had not yet entered the city to cause trouble for them, but their own people were already in disarray!
Just when these county magistrates didn't know what to do, a big news came from above.
The crown prince who was in charge of the country was removed!
Floods hit the Central Plains, killing and injuring over 10,000 people, and leaving another 40,000 people homeless. The prince did not even think about comforting the people, but absurdly let them fend for themselves.
If these refugees are not properly dealt with and regional riots occur, the consequences will be unimaginable.
Although the old emperor indulged in pleasure, he still knew what was important and what was not. At this time, he learned that the prince he had trained was so useless and so easily deceived that he actually ignored the displaced people.
The aged emperor naturally stirred up a bloody storm in the court. He dismissed the crown prince from his duties as regent and punished him to reflect on his mistakes in seclusion for half a year. At the same time, he dealt with the court officials who instigated the crown prince and appointed important officials to go to the Central Plains to provide disaster relief.
Even though by this time in the Central Plains, only one in ten local people were left, we still had to put in some effort to maintain the appearance of being alive!
As for those civilians who escaped, most of them fled to the north, and there were as many as 30,000 of them.
The main reason was that the terrain in the south was low-lying at that time, and the river blocked the people's escape route.
After dealing with the superficial issues, we need to solve the practical problems. How should those refugees who have left their hometowns be resettled?
When the emperor asked the officials in the hall how to resettle the refugees, they all bowed their heads and remained silent.
The emperor's sharp eyes swept over the ministers present one by one, and his eyes fell on the Minister of Revenue. Then he spoke and pointed at this person.
The Minister of Revenue was also an old fox in his sixties. He knew that the national treasury was empty and he had no ability to help the people. However, since the emperor wanted to take care of it, he let others do it.
Having made up his mind, he first went forward and cried poor for a while before saying, "Your Majesty, the cities to the south are very wealthy. It's just these hooligans. The local governments are able to accommodate them. Your Majesty can order the local governments to allocate land and seeds to these people. Now is the time for things to go, and we can harvest in autumn!"
The Minister of Revenue paused, glancing at the Emperor from the corner of his eye. Seeing he showed no sign of trouble, he pondered for a moment before continuing, "As for the northern region, where there are more refugees, why not hand them over to the General as military households? The northern region is vast and sparsely populated, so allocating some land to these people is no problem. This way, they can be self-sufficient and grow food for the soldiers. What do you think, Your Majesty?"
By passing the problem of refugee resettlement to others, the court not only saved the cost of resettlement, but also had an excuse to evade General Qin when he asked the court for food and fodder in the future. It was simply killing two birds with one stone!
The emperor thought this idea was good, but he didn't want to show it too obviously, so he asked the officials in the hall for their opinions.
Now that there is an opportunity to pass the buck, all the officials present agree with the Minister of Revenue's opinion without exception. Even if they really disagree, there is no other way!
The refugees could not be ignored, but the treasury was empty. Seeing that none of the ministers objected, the emperor finally made the final decision: "Except for the widows, widowers, orphans, and those without male heirs, all others will be classified as military households. As for these widows, widowers, orphans, and those without male heirs, the counties under his jurisdiction will bring them back for relief!"
All the officials in the hall knelt down and praised the emperor for his wisdom!
The Yuncheng prefect who received the news was delighted. Standing on the city wall, he said to Xing Yun who was standing beside him, "Congratulations, young general! Your Majesty has given you so many more men!"
Xing Yun stood aside, looking at the soldiers who were responsible for counting the refugees' information at the bottom of the city wall, without answering.
In fact, such an arrangement is not a bad thing for the Northwest Army in the long run.
The emperor had already been in arrears with food and fodder for the Northwestern Army, and even if he gave them some, it was pitifully little, not enough to feed an army of hundreds of thousands. Now he had given them 30,000 military households. The north was already vast and sparsely populated, and having so many more people to grow food for the soldiers was a good choice.
But given the current predicament, the general has to be responsible for the food supply for so many people!
Looking at the silent Xing Yun, the prefect who had gotten the advantage touched his nose and finally stopped gloating.
After all, he doesn't have to take the blame himself. Even if there are widows, widowers, orphans and lonely people among these 30,000 people, they are a minority. Even if there are, there are only about 1,000 people. Even if there are 3,000 people, there are 300 to 400 people in each of the 13 counties under his jurisdiction, which means 500 people at most, which is easy to arrange.
When County Magistrate Zheng received the news, he was also stunned. He didn't expect that after thinking of various countermeasures, he would end up like this.
"We don't need to worry about this anymore?" asked the county magistrate.
In fact, the county government has not been having a good time these days. As time goes by, the people in the city will feel uneasy if the problem of refugees is not resolved.
The entire county government office was on high alert, and the officers patrolled the city twelve hours a day, fearing that people with ulterior motives would take advantage of the opportunity to cause trouble and extort protection money.
You know, there are many businesses living in the inns of all sizes in the city. These people are mobile publicity tools. After they leave, if anyone says something bad about Rongcheng, it will be really damaging to its reputation!
"Not really. Doesn't the official document say that there are still some widows, widowers, orphans, and families without male heirs who don't need to be military households? Most of them will be assigned to us in the future!" said the county magistrate, stroking his sparse beard.
County Magistrate Zheng finally reacted and no longer hesitated to be confused. He immediately ordered Li Erlang to draft the official document into a notice and post it at the city gate.
The atmosphere in the city these days has been really bad. Although County Magistrate Zheng has restricted the price increases of various shops, there are still people who pretend to obey but actually disobey. For example, the Zhao family, after selling all the grain in the grain shop, changed their words and said that there was no grain in the shop. If it weren't for the help of Young Master Qin, I'm afraid that this would have aroused public resentment!
For this reason, County Magistrate Zheng naturally kept a good account of the Zhao family in his heart!
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