The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 451 Resettlement of Refugees
Zhu Linmei frowned when she heard this, this small gang in Shaoxing City actually has thousands of subordinates!He glanced at Second Uncle Zhang, and said coldly, "How long have you been in business? The power is not small."

"Bold and unreasonable, how dare you hide the firecrackers privately?!" A loud shout came from the corner of the street, and then a fat man walked quickly with his official robes in hand, followed by nearly a hundred officials.

The man saw that although the hundreds of people in front of him were wearing casual clothes, they were all holding firecrackers of the same specification. He immediately guessed that they must be officers and soldiers, so he quickly changed his tone and cupped his hands to Shi Lin: "I don't know this general. How to call it?"

"The commander of the Longwei Army Battalion, so is Shi Lin."

Dragon Guard officer? !The fat man was taken aback when he heard the words, and hurriedly bowed earnestly, "Your official, Li Jinyi, the official of the Shaoxing Mansion, has met General Shi."

He glanced at Second Uncle Liu and the others who were tied aside and the sticks thrown all over the floor, and he probably understood in his heart, then cupped his hands and said, "But these blind people want to plot against the general?"

Zhu Linmi said in a deep voice: "There are people in your Shaoxing mansion who dare to rob in the street in broad daylight, and have more than a thousand accomplices. You have done a good job in promoting officials?"

Li Jinyi only saw Zhu Linmi once when the Dragon Guards marched into Shaoxing City, how could he remember it now.But seeing that Shi Lin was still standing half a step behind the young master who was speaking, he knew that this person's status must be extraordinary.

Pushing officials is the responsibility of being in charge of the prisons of a government. Naturally, he cannot absolve himself of the responsibility for gangsters to rob officers in his jurisdiction.

He faltered and waved his hands, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and called a small official behind him, pointed to Uncle Zhang and others and asked in a low voice, and then hurriedly said to Zhu Lin: "This... ah, my lord, do you have any questions?" As everyone knows, these people are not the ones who have always done evil."

Zhu Linmei nodded, "Go ahead." He was also wondering just now, if these thousands of people robbed people all day long, Shaoxing City would have been in chaos long ago.

"They came from Huizhou and Ningguo Prefecture, and there are also local hungry people in Shaoxing." Li Jinyi bowed cautiously, "These people usually gather in the south of the city and the suburbs, and mostly do odd jobs and coolies for a living. When there is not enough to eat, I will have some crooked thoughts..."

Zhu Linmi lowered her face and said, "Why doesn't the Shaoxing government help Anmin?"

"Your Excellency, you don't know," Li Jinyi spread his hands, "When Zhejiang was hit by war for a long time, the city was fine, but the outside of the city was plundered by bandits, and the people were displaced. There are at least [-] to [-] refugees gathered around Shaoxing alone. The masters of Futai sent people to help and provide relief many times, but they had no choice but to have limited money and food, so it was difficult to be comprehensive..."

Fifty or sixty thousand refugees?Zhu Linmi's heart tightened. If these people are not handled well, they will become Li Zicheng's second in minutes!

He also knew that the Shaoxing government would definitely not be able to spend much money to settle these people, so he sighed lightly, raised his hand and said, "Take me to the south of the city."

"The subordinate obeys the order."

The place where Zhu Linmei was robbed was not far from the south of the city, otherwise Uncle Zhang would not have recruited people so quickly.Before he reached the place where the refugees gathered, he smelled a stench from afar.

When he got close, he was even more shocked by the sight in front of him - on a piece of wasteland in the city, thatch was strewn with branches in disorder, and there were some skinny and starving people sitting or lying underneath, as if the whole world had nothing to do with them.

"Daddy, I'm hungry! I want to eat brown rice!"

The crying of a child not far away awakened Zhu Linming, and he turned his head to look. The child's arms and legs were as thin as matchsticks, just like the African refugees he had seen on TV before.

Li Jinyi leaned closer and said in a low voice: "My lord, there are only 5000 people in this city, and the situation is not bad. The people outside the city are even more..."

With the rustling of footsteps behind him, one person got off the sedan chair profusely in sweat, and looked around. It was Fan Jun, the prefect of Shaoxing, who learned that the refugees had robbed the Dragon Guards, and rushed to inquire about the situation.

When he saw the young man talking to Li Jinyi from a distance, he was taken aback.As the leader of the Shaoxing government, he has met the assistant king several times, so he certainly recognizes him.

He came at a trot, bowed his head and bowed, "I have seen..."

Zhu Linmi stretched out her hand to support him, then shook her head to signal, "Master Fan, you don't need to be polite."

Fan Jun glanced at the refugees nearby, and his heart skipped a beat. Could it be that His Royal Highness the Coordinator was hit by refugees? !He wanted to kneel again in panic, "Here, this official is guilty, this official..."

Zhu Linmei supported him and said, "Master Fan, I know you are not capable, so I don't blame you this time. There are fifty or sixty thousand refugees here?"

"Yes, yes, there should be more than [-]."

Zhu Linmin nodded, "I'll give you 5 taels of silver. You should find a way to properly resettle the refugees, and you must not let Shaoxing become chaotic."

"I obey the order. I thank the common people... my lord."

Mu Zhiqing whispered a few words to Zhu Linmi again, and the latter continued: "By the way, the expenses of Andu refugees are reported to the chief envoy's yamen every day, and if half of the money is spent elsewhere, they will not be lightly forgiven. "

"Yes, the officer obeys."

After doing this, Zhu Linmi was no longer in the mood to go shopping.So a group of people returned to the original Lu Palace surrounded by more than a hundred soldiers of the Dragon Guards and a large number of government servants.

On the carriage arranged by Fan Jun, Mu Zhiqing saw that Zhu Lin was frowning and remained silent for a while, patted the back of his hand, and sighed: "Under the chaos of war, the common people always suffer the most. Your Highness has done everything for the country and society. , but don’t worry too much.”

Zhu Linmei nodded silently, "I don't know how long this 5 taels will last."

"Your Highness, I have brought some silver here, or..."

Zhu Linmi shook her head, "Relief alone is not a long-term solution." His eyes became firm suddenly, "I planned to wait until after the Northern Expedition, but now it seems that the 'Huangzhuang Contracting System' must be implemented earlier."

"Huangzhuang? Contractor?" Mu Zhiqing asked doubtfully with her big eyes flashing.

"Oh, this is a key step in the 'land reform' I planned." Zhu Linmi then explained to her the Ming version of the "household contract responsibility system for joint production", "...that's roughly the case. Every citizen of my Ming Dynasty, every day Those with less than two mu of arable land can apply to 'contract' the local Huangzhuang land. Unless they buy the land themselves or give up for some reason, they can continue to cultivate the contracted land."

"Your highness just said, 'All that is given to the emperor, the rest is yours'?"

"Oh, this is to make it easy for the people to remember." Zhu Linmi said, "In the future, the grain payment will not be based on the harvest, but will be based on the degree of fertility per mu. Ten to fifteen catties of brown rice or [-] to [-] catties of potatoes and sweet potatoes will be paid. Jin. The rest, regardless of the court or the local government, can no longer be collected. This is "the rest is your own."

He added: "Of course, in case of natural disasters and man-made disasters, the payment to the emperor will be reduced or exempted."

Mu Zhiqing nodded thoughtfully, "In this way, any hungry people can get a piece of land. Since life is settled, how can the world be unstable."

(End of this chapter)