Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 298
"After singing a song, it comes on stage, ups and downs, it's really busy..."

On the fourth day of June, when a month passed by, Xichang did not act aggressively against Dongchang and Jinyiwei as the officials all over the world had paid attention to.

On the contrary, the West Factory did not take any action at all, and did not even maintain the regular inspections of the East Factory that Liu Ruoyu used to do on weekdays.

It's just that Wei Zhongxian and the Eunuch Party didn't dare to do anything, for fear of being caught by Wang An, and the Donglin Party members would be able to breathe.

As for the King Qi Party led by Gu Bingqian, it seems to be more law-abiding than the Eunuch Party.

The capital is so stable, all the officials in the world dare not stand up to the wind and commit crimes. After all, no matter who they are, they all have a party behind them.

When the officials do not act, the common people are not as they talk about in their daily life, and they cannot live without them.

Singing folk songs, some people in Lingqiu, Shanxi Province carried logs down the mountain. What they did was to add a wooden wall to their homes.

These people slowly walked down from Kongyu Mountain carrying logs, and there was a village at the foot of the mountain, also known as Gaojia Village, with more than [-] households and more than [-] people in the village.

The people were talking and laughing while carrying logs. This scene was unbelievable ten years ago.

Ten years ago, Gaojia Village and Kongjia Village lived together at the foot of Kongyu Mountain. The fields below the mountain were less than [-] mu, and the two villages had a total of more than [-] people. After a year, the people in the village were full and hungry.

At that time, the generals of Datong Town came here to select soldiers. When they saw the people with pale faces and skinny faces, they shook their heads. There were more than [-] people in the whole village, and no one was selected.

This kind of embarrassment was not until King Qi moved more than [-] people from Kongjia Village, and the people in Gaojia Village who remained suddenly became rich.

Almost every family has more than [-] mu of land, not only can they eat and drink well, but they can also sell a lot of grain every year.

The only thing that makes them feel a little embarrassed is that they need to pay a lot of food for the Liao salary every year.

However, this kind of embarrassment came to an end with King Qi's abolition of Liao's salary, and the people of the entire Gaojia Village could also raise some livestock to increase their non-staple food in their spare time.

"I heard that the price of salt in this city was raised by Qi Wang Shangshu on his own initiative."

"Although King Qi said he would give us land, he raised the price of salt and tea. Although we are still rich, we always feel that we have suffered a bit..."

"You are at a disadvantage? You are at a disadvantage. You should return the extra ten acres of land from your family!"

"Isn't this a joke, why are you so angry..."

On the mountain road, the people talked and laughed, and of course they couldn't help complaining about the increase in the price of salt tea after Zhu Youjian nationalized salt tea.

There are basically five or six people in each household. According to the policies of the two departments for Shanxi, a catty of salt in Shanxi is twelve coins, and five or six people have to eat seventeen or eight catties of salt a year at least.

If marinated meat is added, normally a household would consume twenty catties of salt.

In this way, a family of people spends more than [-] wen on salt a year.

Although it is said that the people in Gaojia Village have also gained a lot of money. The fields are divided, and each family can earn forty shi of grain per year. ten stone.

Although more than two hundred wen is only the price of seven buckets of rice, in general, no one wants to take advantage of it.

But although everyone wants to take advantage of it, not everyone wants to.

Just like the person who scolded him just now, he was the one who gained the most benefits after the land was divided.

This person is only about five feet four inches tall, which is considered a normal height in Shanxi, but he is extremely thin. It seems that the life at home has just caught up, and he has not yet had the big arms and round waist like other men.

Although he is lean and thin, others dare not underestimate him. In this Gao family village, he is called Gao Sanlang, also known as Desperate Saburo.

Due to the early death of his parents, the elder brother and the second elder brother starved to death at home. Gao Sanlang almost raised his four younger siblings by himself.

Originally there were only two acres of Susukida in the family, so the family had to go to Lingqiu County with Gao Sanlang to pick up some excrement and transport it back to the village to sell.

It wasn't until King Qi ordered the distribution of the fields, and the five members of his family got a total of fifteen acres of land, that the family's life became easier.

In the third year of Apocalypse, he paid taxes with the harvested grain, then sold ten shi of grain, and rented a yellow ox from the Yumajian.

Tianqi had cattle for more than four years, and he managed his [-] mu of land well, and after King Qi ordered the cancellation of Liao's salary, his life improved.

In the fifth year of Tianqi, he saved money and bought the rented cattle from the Yumajian, becoming one of the few "rich households" in Gaojia Village who owns cattle.

Others are still buying new clothes, but he is accumulating property in tattered clothes.

All the men in the village admired him, so after he spoke, no one blamed King Qi again.

People joked about him: "Sanlang, after the autumn harvest this year, I'm afraid your family has enough money to buy a scalper?"

"Sanlang is about the same age, maybe he will marry with money."

"It's human nature to spread branches and leaves..."

"Ha ha ha ha……"

There is happiness in the countryside. A group of men carry two or three hundred catties of wood down the mountain, and they can talk and laugh. If this kind of physique can be used as a high-quality military source in all countries in the world, they are just a microcosm of Shanxi. That's all.

Everyone hurried back to the village, and each carried the wood to the man's house to help process the wood.

The man is serving tea and water, while the woman in the other's family is killing chickens and cooking, making the courtyard smell of meat.

There are so many twists and turns in the countryside. When every household eats and drinks the same food, the folk customs are often simpler.

Men don't need any wages, just a meal, a glass of wine, and a bowl of tea, and the matter is settled.

It's just that the autumn harvest is not far away, they have been working until dark, and then they start to eat at the table.

One by one, holding sawdust, punching and drinking, they are very comfortable.

It's just that it was getting late, and Gao Sanlang in the crowd was thinking about his younger brothers and sisters at home, so he spoke first:

"I'm afraid I don't feel at ease when my siblings are gone. I have to go back first."

"Okay!" Everyone knew the situation in his home, and they just reminded:
"Sanlang, don't forget to set off at three o'clock in the morning. The work of Gao Laosi's family will take half a month."

"Understood, I'm leaving first." Gao Sanlang shook his head with a wry smile, then walked out of the campus with a hint of alcohol, put on his clothes and rushed home.

The late night in Shanxi in June was still a bit chilly. Gao Sanlang walked very slowly, but after walking for a while, he felt that there were flowers in front of him, as if the earth was moving.

But after he wiped his eyes, he felt that there was no shaky image, and he just thought that he had drunk too much and started to rush home.

A quarter of an hour later, when he walked back home and was just about to enter the house, he only heard a hula, and the thatched house on the side collapsed.

Seeing that the eaves had fallen, Gao Sanlang thought it was a strong wind, but at this moment he heard someone in the village yelling "Dilong turn over", and immediately rushed to the door, kicking open the unlocked door.

"Dilong turned over! Little sister, run!"

After all, Gao Sanlang grabbed one of the younger brothers and sisters who were dim, and pushed them out of the house, while the other two older brothers were stupid and ready to wear pants.

Before they were dressed, the house began to shake, and Gao Sanlang grabbed the two of them and dragged them out.

After escaping from Shengtian, Gao Saburo looked up, and from the northeast, clouds like red cloth almost covered the entire sky and floated over.

Accompanied by the earthquake and ground crack "Kaba Kaba", a sound like thunder sounded, but this sound came from underground.

The entire ground formed waves, rising and falling from time to time.

The highest wave was five feet high, and Gao Saburo only lay on the ground protecting his four younger siblings.

He wanted to avoid it, but was overturned several times by the ground waves.

Earth waves swept across the entire village, chickens crowed and dogs barked, and livestock broke through the stables and ran out.

Some strange flashes of light appeared, and within a quarter of an hour, the ravages of the earth dragon leveled all the buildings, and wherever the earth wave went, all collapsed.

"Are you okay?"

"fine……"

The whole village was silent for a long time. Gao Sanlang made sure that his younger brothers and sisters were all right, so Dang even dragged them back to the village.

The houses in the village collapsed. When some people saw Gao Sanlang, they called him to help. Many houses collapsed and their family members were buried.

In the whole village, even the low chicken coops fell down, the heels of the three-foot-diameter trees were broken, and the century-old trees were all down.

In just one night, Gao Sanlang and others picked up more than ten dead bodies.

In the whole village, together with Gao Sanlang and other five people, there are only more than a hundred people who are able to move and pick people up.

Everyone raced against time to save people, because the whole house was pressed down, and the people below could live if they picked up a stick of incense early, and they would easily be suffocated to death inside if they picked up a stick of incense late.

It is said that after a catastrophe, everyone is close to each other. When Gao Sanlang and the others saw a living person appearing in front of them after digging up the earth, no matter whether they were familiar with each other on weekdays or not, they felt very close!

Until dawn, when they came out of the ruined village and saw that no one was killed or injured, they felt extremely lucky!
Whenever they met, they greeted each other, and asked if anyone in the family was dead, and if they needed help to pick up and bury the body.

"Anyone who can move will follow me to Lingqiu County!"

The sky was still gray, and when everyone was celebrating in the aftermath of the catastrophe, the sound of horseshoes sounded, and a police officer from the Yamen came to Gaojia Village at some point, and he called all the men out of the mouth.

Although Gao Sanlang and the others have some abilities, they are white bodies after all, and they can only go on foot when they are called by the government.

From Maoshi to Chenshi, when they came to Lingqiu County, they only saw a mile-long wall of corpses with white stripes flying everywhere.

The naked corpses were piled up to form a wall, and all the villages outside Lingqiu County collapsed. People randomly dumped the corpses on the road, and the road into Lingqiu County was covered with dead bodies.

As far as the eye can see, the bodies of nearly ten thousand people are all over the road and the side of the road.

Gao Sanlang and the others were not surprised when they saw such a scene. It seemed that even their thoughts were numb during the rescue last night.

After arriving at the place, they were just doing rescue work mechanically.

Because it was midsummer, when some officers and soldiers dispatched from Datong participated in the rescue the next day, they found that they could not wear masks because the corpses became hot and swollen to twice the size of their original bodies.

When these corpses were stabbed with iron hooks, corpse water would come out, and the smell could be smelled in a radius of ten steps.

Even the soldiers of the Outer Arch Guard Battalion were unwilling to do such a thing.

Gao Sanlang was used to it, but when he was carrying the corpse, the officers and soldiers beside him sighed:
"I heard that the earthquake was not only here, but also affected other counties in the east. I just don't know..."

"Buzzing..."

Suddenly, an earthquake appeared again, Kosaburo instinctively lay down on the ground, while other people who were caught off guard were shaken by the earthquake waves.

Because the strength was too great, everyone couldn't stand up, there were calls for help and screams everywhere, and Gao Saburo could clearly feel the scope this time, it was bigger than the first day when Dilong turned over!

"Long live!"

As Gao Sanlang thought, the scope of the earthquake this time was larger than that of the first day, even the capital hundreds of miles away was affected.

Zhu Youxiao, who was dealing with the memorial, only felt that the table and chairs were shaking, so Wang An grabbed his wrist and dragged him out of Qianqing Palace without any respect.

"Rumble--"

The dull sound that made people ring in the ears kept ringing, and Zhu Youxiao, who was dragged outside the Qianqing Palace, was still a little confused, but he reacted in the next second:
"Dragon turned over?"

"Long live, don't worry, there are slaves here!"

Suddenly, it was Wei Zhongxian who ran to the front of Zhu Youxiao with the shaking seismic waves, and hugged Zhu Youxiao tightly.

It's just that the strength of his hug is not like protecting someone, but like hugging Zhu Youxiao as a life-saving straw.

Such a scene was not only in Qianqing Palace, but also in Kunning Palace, Wenhua Palace, Wuying Palace, and the entire capital began to shake.

Wang Chengen and others who were on official business in Prince Qi's Mansion remembered the self-protection method taught by His Royal Highness, and immediately got under the desk, holding their heads in their hands.

The raging earthquake waves made millions of people in the capital panic. After a quarter of an hour, as the earthquake waves receded slowly, everyone began to pant for the rest of their lives.

Zhu Youxiao, who was hugged tightly by Wei Zhongxian, also frowned and pushed Wei Zhongxian away, then patted the dust on his body, and said with a dark face:

"Let Lu Wenzhao find out where the earth dragon's turnaround started, and how about the casualties near the capital!"

"Yes..." Wang An responded quickly, while Wei Zhongxian stood up staggeringly, and looked at Wang An with a disheveled face.

In this regard, Wang An turned and left, while Wei Zhongxian followed Zhu Youxiao into the Hall of Mental Cultivation. However, in the aftershocks, the two ran back and forth several times. Garden office.

On the contrary, when they were going to the Imperial Garden, the Fusi of Jinyiwei Town also sent countless Tangqi, rushing towards all directions of the capital.

It's just that the intensity of the earthquake this time does not seem to be less than the intensity of the earthquake in Yanzhou, Shandong Province a few years ago. The earthquake continued to shake for more than a month. It was not until the third day of July that the news of the proximity of the capital was sent to the Hall of the Emperor.

"In six years, on the fifth day of the sixth lunar month, there was an earthquake in Lingqiu, Hunyuan Prefecture and other places. Lingqiu was shaken for more than a month, shaking dozens of times, and the whole city collapsed. There are more than a hundred people, and countless merchants come and go, and the water in the dry well is black."

"The earthquake belonging to the Datong Mansion started from the northwest to the southeast. Its sound was like thunder, shaking down [-] towers and walls, and killing more than [-] people."

"In Hunyuan Prefecture and other places, starting from the west, the city shook the mountains, and the sound was like a huge thunder. It knocked down the large city wall and the four official walls, and killed [-] people."

"Weizhou, Guangchang, and Longping were shaken like thunder, the city walls were crumbling, countless houses of officials and people were shaken, people were crushed to death, the ground cracked and water gushed."

"Beijing Normal University, Tianjin Three Guards, and Xuanda University were shaken dozens of times in a row, killing and injuring more than [-] people..."

"The earthquake affected Xiangyuan, Shouyang, Wuxiang, Pingdingzhou, Shanyin, Guangling, and Yushe in Shanxi Province..."

"Shuntian Prefecture, Dacheng, Jizhou, Wen'an, Hejian Prefecture, Renqiu, Xianxian, Jiaohe, Nanpi, Jingzhou, Guxian, Ningjin, Cangzhou..."

"Baoding Prefecture Qizhou, Suning, Shulu, Wuyi, Rongcheng, Xiongxian..."

"Zhending Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shandong Jinan Prefecture, Wuding Prefecture, Dongchang Prefecture, Yanzhou Prefecture, and one prefecture and six counties in Henan."

"This earthquake affected more than [-] prefectures and counties in four provinces, killed and injured more than [-] people, and affected more than [-] million people!"

At the Huangji Hall on the third day of July, when Lu Wenzhao revealed the whole situation of the earthquake with a heavy heart, all the courtiers fell silent.

They have experienced the earthquake this time, and looking back now, they still feel lucky to survive the disaster.

As the Minister of the Household Department, Bi Ziyan did not have time to immerse himself in the feeling of the rest of his life like a hundred officials, but immediately held the wat board and said:
"Long live, the top priority right now is to check how many of the nearly tens of millions of people in the four provinces need relief and how many are displaced."

"Right now, there are only more than [-] million shi of grain in Taicang, and [-] shi of wheat. Such grain and fodder must not be enough to relieve the disaster. I ask Long Live to send out internal funds for disaster relief."

Bi Ziyan bowed his head, and Zhu Youxiao also thought about the amount of silver taels in his internal funds after hearing the words, and then hesitated:

"Allocate one million taels of internal funds to relieve the disaster, and then the Yuma Supervisor will allocate silver, money and food to the victims of the disaster, and the disaster-affected prefectures, counties and villages in the four provinces will be exempted from taxation for one year."

"Long live, how much money and food can the Yumajian pay?" Bi Ziyan asked with a frown. After all, the Yumajian was responsible for the money and food for sweeping the north. It is really unknown how much money and food he can have now.

But at this time, Wang An, who was standing next to Zhu Youxiao, said:

"The Yumajian currently has more than [-] million taels of silver and [-] million shi of grain."

"In addition to paying more than [-] taels of salt and tea tax from the two departments, the rest of the money and food can be distributed."

"Also..." Wang An turned his head to look at Zhu Youxiao, bowed and said:
"Long live, His Royal Highness King Qi learned of the earthquake in the pass, and has already led the four cavalry guards to go south. Taining Mansion will be replaced by Tengxiang Guards."

"My brother is coming back? Okay..." Hearing that Zhu Youjian was coming back, Zhu Youxiao breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to the courtiers:
"Let's make a quick decision on the disaster relief."

"Long live..." Gu Bingqian, chief assistant of the cabinet, said suddenly:

"According to the "Regulations on Disaster Injury Disposal of Loose Grain" stipulated by Emperor Taizu Gao, the victims of disasters should be divided into two categories according to the big mouth and the small mouth."

"Six buckets of rice for a large mouth, three buckets of rice for a small mouth, not for children under the age of five"

"Although the four provinces suffered a major earthquake, the food in the fields can already be harvested hastily to make up for part of it. In addition, the earthquake damaged canals, canals, roads, and embankments."

"I believe that the imperial court is short of money and food, so it can "replace relief with work", let the localities organize the victims of the disaster to work, and pay the victims to relieve the victims."

Gu Bingqian made a not-so-good suggestion, but Bi Ziyan frowned and added:

"The scope of work-for-relief is limited, and it is only applicable to those victims who are able to work, and it also depends on the needs of the project at that time."

"Taking Jiajing [-]th as an example, there was a famine near the capital in March of that year, in order to relieve a large number of people who flowed into the capital."

"At that time, the Ministry of Household Affairs issued a petition requesting that "everyone who is young and strong can obtain a yearly registration, and the Ministry of Industry will take care of it at its discretion, give wages, and not make them move. "

"The construction of the project during the famine is beneficial to the court and the people, but at the moment the court can only provide money, but not enough grain, so it must use money to buy grain and transport it to the disaster area."

"Without money, it would be unrealistic to use work for relief."

"Chen Jianyi divided the victims into "three classes and six classes" and built porridge farms in the disaster area, and the porridge farms had to serve porridge according to the "three classes and six classes"."

"The third class is the old, the sick, and the young. The old are impatient, and the other is the first class. The porridge is given first, and it is slightly thickened. The sick are not grouped together. The other class is the first. Give it last."

Bi Ziyan has his own adjustments for disaster relief, and has read many related memorials and documents, so he explained:
"The sixth class refers to the division of the third-class hungry people into men and women. The third class of men is on one side, and the third class of women is on the other side. It is called the sixth class."

"The men in the sixth class have three bowls of thick wrinkle a day, and the women have three bowls of gruel."

"In addition, according to the disaster relief measures set by the King of Qi, people in Shanxi, Beizhili, Shandong, and Henan all need to be relocated to Shibian in northern Xinjiang, so there is no need to use work as relief."

"Shanxi, Northern Zhili, etc. have no harvest, and people without three acres of land can move to Taining, Duoyan, and Kaiping."

"People in Henan, Shandong and other places have a large number of acres of land, so it is enough to set up porridge farms."

Bi Ziyan deserves to be the Minister of the Household Department selected by Zhu Youjian. When discussing disaster relief and money and food, he solved the current crisis of the Ming Dynasty with a few words, and added at the end:

"For this disaster relief, four million taels of silver and three million stones of grain will be distributed first."

"If there are aftershocks in the future that cause people to be displaced, they will be added after the autumn tax is paid."

After Bi Ziyan finished speaking, he stepped back and returned to his seat, indicating that he had finished his thoughts, and Zhu Youxiao nodded slightly when he heard the words: "But..."

It's a pity that just as Zhu Youxiao nodded, a cabinet scholar from the imperial court appeared outside the Huangji Hall. He said to the hall at the door:
"Long live, Nanzhili urgent report. At the beginning of July, a strong wind rose from the northeast of Jingjiang River. It roared and shook the ground. Roof tiles flew horizontally, and arched trees stood up. Among them, the floating corpse belongs to each other."

"The magistrates of the three places of Suchang Lake request the imperial court to mobilize the Gongwei Battalion of the Governor's Mansion of the Eastern Army to participate in the disaster relief. Please send money and food for the disaster relief!"

"..."

There was a wave of ups and downs, and the officials in the hall looked at each other in blank dismay when faced with the words of the Hanlin bachelor, and Zhu Youxiao also felt a lot more depressed.

Of course, as the most stressed person, Bi Ziyan has already started to think about where he is going to get money and food...

(End of this chapter)