Rise From the Humble

Xu Hai and his investigation team set off back to Beijing after lunch. They had completed the two main tasks of the trip and there was no need to stay any longer. Zhu Pingan, Tan Lun and others were sent all the way to the official road.

After sending Xu Hai and his party away, Tan Lun stayed in Jingnan for more than an hour, accompanied by Zhu Ping'an, and carefully inspected the East Lake Project Area to learn more about various aspects of relief-for-work, precautions, etc. Tan Lun had already made up his mind to imitate Zhu Ping'an in defining grain prices and implementing work-for-relief measures when he returned.

"Master Fu, please take a step to speak." Zhu Pingan saw Tan Lun's determination and said to him softly.

Some words are not convenient to say in public, so you can only say them one step at a time, and Zhu Ping'an won't recognize them after they are said.

"Master Zhu, I don't know if I have any advice." Tan Lun followed Zhu Ping'an to the side and asked with a smile.

"How dare you ask for advice? The government official wants to carry out work-for-relief work, but I don't know how much money the government has?" Zhu Ping'an cupped his hands and said.

"There are still more than 38,000 silver in the treasury, but there is not much food, only about 10,000 shi." Tan Lun is very knowledgeable about the treasury. He has saved all the money in the treasury with great effort and effort. The grain depot originally had more than 20,000 shi of food stored in it, but half of it was consumed by giving out rice porridge and relief work since the flood.

Zhu Ping'an shook his head slightly and said, "Master, more than 38,000 taels of silver may not last long. Take my small county of Jingnan as an example. Jingnan holds a work-for-relief program, and each person is paid 20 yuan per day, a total of ten Thousands of people and refugees participate, and the wages alone in one month are 60,000 taels, and the consumption of grain and rice is huge. Even if we charge for three meals a day, each person can only recover about 5 taels per day, which is a drop in the bucket."

Tan Lun froze when he heard this, as if a basin of cold water had been poured on him, and most of his enthusiasm was immediately dispelled.

Yes, there are costs involved in providing food-for-work relief. A small county in Jingnan District has to pay 60,000 taels a month, let alone the entire Taizhou Prefecture. There are no less than a million people in need of relief.

What can I do? !

Tan Lun couldn't help but frowned, but soon his eyes lit up. Our city couldn't afford it, so how did Jingnan do it? He immediately raised his hands and said to Zhu Pingan, "Master Zhu, what do you think?"

"I don't dare to teach you anything. I'm just a master of the government. After the grain price is defined, grain merchants from all over the country will definitely make a lot of money. They have made a fortune in Taizhou Prefecture, so they should make some contributions to Taizhou Prefecture's disaster relief." Zhu Pingan said something. pointed.

"Master Zhu, are you asking grain merchants to donate money for disaster relief?" Tan Lun's eyes lit up, and he shook his head at random, "These businessmen are the most greedy, and they always count every penny. They regard money as life, so how can they be willing to donate."

"If this is the case, I'm afraid the people won't agree. As parents and officials, we should make decisions for the people."

Zhu Pingan said meaningfully.

Without saying anything, Tan Lun understood, looked at Zhu Ping'an, and nodded vigorously.

Zhu Ping'an also suggested that Tan Lun wait until grain prices were defined and grain merchants poured into Taizhou Prefecture before launching a work-for-relief program.

Tan Lun understood deeply that the key to whether the work-for-relief banquet can be successful depends on the grain merchant's dish.

Soon, when Tan Lun returned to Taizhou Prefecture from Jingnan, Taizhou Prefecture posted a notice the next day, setting the price of food in Taizhou Prefecture at 2,500 yuan per stone. At the same time, Tan Lun also issued an official document to all counties and counties. The first part of the official document first praised and introduced Zhu Ping's experience in fighting floods and disaster relief in Jingnan. The second part asked all counties and counties to raise the price of grain within their jurisdiction to Two thousand five hundred yuan per stone.

Soon, the explosive news that Taizhou Prefecture raised the price of grain to 2,500 yuan per stone spread widely.

As soon as the news spread, it was like a basin of blood was poured into the shark pond, and all the sharks named grain merchants went crazy.

On the day when Taizhou Prefecture posted the defined grain prices, there were hundreds of grain dealers, large and small, doing their best to continuously transport grain into Taizhou through various methods such as horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts, ox carts, and shipping. boundary. They are on a first-come-first-served basis near the water and towers. A little further away, more grain merchants are coming.

For a time, grain from various parts of the Ming Dynasty was continuously transported to Taizhou through grain merchants.

The food shortage in Taizhou Prefecture was immediately alleviated. Although the price of food was very expensive, it was no longer priceless. As long as you could get money, you could buy food. Although the people of Taizhou have consumed their wealth accumulated over the years, they have finally survived this disaster. Taizhou, which was ravaged by floods, is developing in a good direction.

At the same time, Tan Lun also followed Zhu Pingan's example and accepted all the thank-you gifts sent by grain merchants in the form of disaster relief donations. For those whose number did not reach Tan Lun's expectations, or who did not come to donate, Tan Lun sent people to the other party's food store to ask them to donate to Taizhou's disaster relief.

Of course, for some unscrupulous grain merchants, Tan Lun sent officers to conduct clearance searches, interrogations, etc. in the name of "anti-bandit", "anti-theft", "detection of stolen goods", etc. In short, he used high-sounding reasons to make you Unable to operate normally. You know, time is money now. Opening a grain store is like robbing money to make money. If you delay for a moment, you will make a lot less money. How can grain merchants struggle with money. As a result, the grain merchants who had been taught a lesson became wiser and obediently made up their donations.

In this way, Tan Lun quickly raised enough silver and grain to carry out work-for-relief work.

Three days after the Taizhou government announced the defined grain prices, it issued another announcement - work-for-relief.

Tan Lun almost copied Zhu Ping'an's work-for-relief proposal, planning a series of sieges such as post-disaster reconstruction, water conservancy facilities, repairing city walls, anti-Japanese outposts, and land reclamation, and called on the people within the territory to participate in the work-for-relief effort.

However, in order to show the kindness of the official who loves the people as his own children, Tan Lun provided free three meals a day to the people who participated in the work-for-relief program. Of course, it was just the most basic porridge and steamed bread. In addition, the daily wages were reduced to 15 Wen.

In fact, compared with the work-for-relief treatment in Jingnan, Taizhou Prefecture is just a mess.

Because three meals a day are provided for free and wages are relatively small, the enthusiasm of the people is slightly lower than in Jingnan.

However, none of this matters.

Importantly, through the policy of defining food prices and providing relief for work, the flood situation in Taizhou Prefecture has continued to improve.

Affected by the positive influence of Taizhou Prefecture, neighboring Shaoxing Prefecture, Ningbo Prefecture, Jinhua Prefecture and other prefectures also began to increase domestic grain prices, or turned a blind eye to the rise in domestic grain prices and acquiesced to the rise in grain prices.

Food from all over the country is continuously shipped to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the flood situation in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is also constantly improving. Influenced by Zhu Ping'an's butterfly, floods in the south of the Yangtze River recovered faster than in history, with less losses and countless lives lost.