Steel Dynasty - Chapter 322

[Chapter 322 Corruption]

Chang’an, in the palace.

Xiao Wenxuan immediately summoned Fiji after reading the memorial from Qingzhou.

In the imperial study room, the two ministers were silent for a long time.

“Your Majesty, I have also received some news about Jizhou. As King Qi said, there was indeed a drought in Bingzhou and Jizhou last year, and it still hasn’t rained. Now the people in King Yong’s fiefdom have no surplus food in their homes. They are suffering. It’s

unspeakable.”

“It’s Bingzhou, Jizhou, and Qingzhou again. If it hadn’t been for the chaos in these three places decades ago, the imperial court would not have been severely damaged by the rebellion. Now that this natural disaster has happened again, what should we do? ?” Xiao Wenxuan’s eyes were full of worry.

He still remembered that he was still the second prince of the Great Chongqing Kingdom and was ordered to conquer the rebellion in the three places. At that time, the rebels were huge and had the potential to destroy everything.

In order to put down the rebellion, the Forbidden Army fought bloody battles. During this period, there were countless small and large battles. It took three years to kill the rebel leader Zhang Dong. However, for this reason, the Forbidden Army also lost six out of ten and suffered heavy losses.

However, it was precisely because of this rebellion that he took control of the military and won the battle for the throne in one fell swoop.

Fiji looked at Xiao Wenxuan, “Now there is no other way but to allocate food for disaster relief. However, the court does not have much food. Your Majesty must issue an order to raise food from the vassal kings, especially the King of Chu, the King of Wei, and the King of Shu. , King Yan, King Runan and other vassal kings in prosperous places.

“This is the only way to do it, but I’m afraid there is little hope.” Xiao Wenxuan sighed, how could these vassal kings raise food if they didn’t do it right? Disaster relief.

He knew very well that in times of crisis, these vassal kings would only protect themselves wisely.

Sighing, Xiao Wenxuan said to Fiji: “Immediately draw up a decree and send it to each vassal king. In addition, King Qi sent a method to restrain locusts. Although this method is a bit strange, it is a method now.”

Fiji clicked Nodding, King Qi’s solution was to eat locusts. This was indeed a weird idea, but for the victims it was better than starving to death.

Slowly exiting the imperial study, Fiji left the palace and returned home directly.

King Qi’s fiefdom had just improved in the past two years, but he did not expect to encounter such a disaster. The real person’s fate was not as expected, and now he was worried about Xiao Ming’s fate.

Hopefully he can pull through this time.

Thinking of this, he suddenly sighed.

“Dad, why are you sighing?” At this time, a soft voice sounded, but it was Fei Yue’er and Xiao Huan who came over.

There are things in Fiji that are never hidden from Fei Yue’er. He said: “The emperor just summoned me and said that there are signs of drought and locust plague in Bingzhou, Jizhou, and Qingzhou. I am afraid that there will be civil unrest in these three places.”

” Qingzhou?” Fei Yue’er covered her mouth in surprise, “Isn’t it just that Qingzhou had good weather last year?”

“Qingzhou was the least affected among the three places. However, if Jizhou merges with the state, Qingzhou will not be easy. The troubled people have always suffered. Looting rich places,” Fiji said with worry.

Xiaohuan exclaimed, “Ah, wouldn’t it be dangerous for the young lady to marry into Qingzhou at this time?”

“Xiaohuan must not talk nonsense. Now that the engagement has been made, King Qi and I are one body and should share adversity. That’s just To enjoy a blessing, you cannot suffer a loss.” Fei Yue’er frowned.

Fiji looked at Fei Yue’er with satisfaction. This was the daughter of the Fei family.

“The King of Qi is not afraid of the barbarians, so how can he be afraid of some random people? What the emperor is worried about is that the barbarians will take the opportunity to start war again. This King Yong and King Liang are not the kings of Qi.”

Fei Yue’er nodded slowly. This King Yong has a violent personality and is brave. Wumu never listens to other people’s advice, so this is really troublesome.

As if he didn’t want to talk about this bad thing anymore, Fiji said: “Yue’er, I see that your face has been rosy these days, and your body seems to have recovered to be like a normal person. In this case, you and Xiaohuan can go out for a walk if it’s okay. “Thank you, dad

.

” Fei Yue’er said excitedly.

Then Fiji told Fei Yue’er about King Qi’s method of controlling locusts, which made Fei Yue’er sigh again and become more and more curious about Xiao Ming’s strange ideas.

…

In Qingzhou, after Xiao Ming learned about the civil unrest in Jizhou, he stepped up the drought relief work in the fiefdom. It was not until a sudden light rain in early May that Xiao Ming breathed a sigh of relief.

At the same time, Pang Yukun and many people in the fiefdom were also relieved.

At least it shows that severe drought does not seem to be happening in the land of the six states.

“Although it is raining, we cannot take the matter of disaster prevention and welding lightly. The construction of water reservoirs in the fields must be accelerated, and the digging of ditches must be accelerated to save the damage as much as possible.”

In the governor’s house, Xiao Ming issued an order to officials from the six states. .

In order to avoid excessive losses, he personally supervised the drought relief and disaster prevention. These days, Li Kaiyuan sold a large number of chickens and ducks to the people for breeding.

At the same time, Pang Yukun also went to the private sector to organize production teams in various states and counties to fight the drought. In the newspaper, Xiao Ming also issued an order for all people to fight the drought.

There is a light rain now, which means that the disaster in Qingzhou will not be serious. Although the food production will be reduced this season, the people should have no problem making ends meet.

And the food he stored was enough for the army.

However, the fire at the city gate affected Chi Yu, and he had been asking the secret guards to pay attention to the situation in Yongzhou.

Now the imperial court has allocated food for disaster relief in response to the situation in Yongzhou, and has also requested food from other vassal kings. However, according to his understanding, as he expected, just like when he collected food and grass for the Battle of Cangzhou, the imperial court’s decree did not have much effect. Effect.

The vassal princes just offered 30,000 dan to send away the imperial court.

They wanted to see the court’s jokes at this time, but this was not what Xiao Ming hated the most.

Because according to the news from the secret guards, only 10% of the disaster relief food reached the hands of the people, and 90% of the food was exploited by officials in Chang’an and Jizhou. Li Kaiyuan even bought Jizhou’s disaster relief food on the market.

“The officials of Great Chongqing have become so corrupt that they can only be overthrown in an instant.”

After learning that the grain purchased by Li Kaiyuan contained disaster relief grain, Pang Yukun lamented and left Xiao Ming with a desolate figure.

In the next few days, Pang Yukun was handling government affairs like crazy. He could be seen from time to time in the fields.

This incident also shocked Xiao Ming greatly. He did not expect that the incident in the textbook of officials exploiting disaster relief food would actually happen now. He also understood why the people would rebel every time there was a major disaster.

With a bitter sigh, Xiao Ming could only place all his hopes on his own fiefdom. This decadent dynasty, like an old man in old age, began to smell of death.

After the last exchange of interests with the Cao family, the Cao family fulfilled their promise, and Yue Yun returned to Dengzhou with three Galen ships.

(End of chapter)