Yixiu's Rebirth: Sending Bai Lianhua's Sister to Become a Concubine

Chapter 225 Disaster Relief

As soon as we left the capital and arrived in Hebei, we could see scattered victims along the way.

Most of them have thin faces and haggard expressions.

Wandering the earth like the walking dead.

Seeing these victims, Yinzhen looked at Yixiu worriedly, fearing that he could not bear to see such dangers.

Yixiu shook her head slightly at him, "Fourth Master, I'm fine."

Yixiu had done a lot of bad things in her previous life and had been a villain, so she was not afraid of these things.

Yinzhen said: "If you feel unwell, don't force yourself and go sit in the carriage."

Considering that it was not convenient for Yixiu to ride a horse, Yixiu and Randong both dressed up as Wenxumo's medicine boys.

Following the imperial physician, he would not be very conspicuous, and he could even ride in a carriage all the way.

Yixiu naturally wouldn't try to be brave, so she got on the carriage with Randong.

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Wen Xumo was beside the carriage and asked her if she needed anything else.

Yixiu shook his head. "You don't need that many things. You just need to prepare the herbs for the plague and do a good job of epidemic prevention along the way."

Their trip was to the twelve prefectures and counties under Jinan Prefecture and Yanzhou Prefecture, as well as the twelve prefectures and counties of Dongping, Xintai, Tai'an, Tancheng, etc., to provide disaster relief and distribute grain and clean up the bureaucracy.

One of the most important tasks is to prevent and control epidemics. There will be a major epidemic after a major disaster. Even if everyone understands it, it is still difficult to implement.

After the incident with Wen Shao, Wen Xumo felt concerned about practicing medicine in the capital.

Although coming to Shandong is dangerous, it will be much easier for him.

Their first stop was Dongping County. The county magistrate had already received the news and came to greet the Fourth Prince and his entourage.

Everyone was a little surprised because the place where they met the county magistrate was far away from the county town.

Everyone was surprised to see the county magistrate.

Unexpectedly, the county magistrate of Dongping County was so thin and haggard, and the yamen runners and guards around him were the same.

The common people suffered from the disaster, and the county magistrate and the government officials also went hungry.

The situation is far more serious than they imagined.

Fortunately, the imperial court's official document had been issued, implementing tax exemption.

So as not to make things worse for these people.

In the previous life, all taxes from the 41st year of Kangxi to the 43rd year of Kangxi were exempted.

So when Yixiu made suggestions to Yinzhen in this life, she directly asked Yinzhen to propose a three-year tax exemption.

Of course, the reason given by Yixiu was not that the disaster would last for three years, but that he took into account the overall human strength and situation of Shandong Province.

Although Emperor Kangxi did not agree to a three-year term, he exempted two years.

After all, the disaster is happening right under our noses.

The county magistrate saluted Yinzhen, but his eyes kept looking behind him.

"What is County Magistrate Zhou looking at?"

County Magistrate Zhou smiled bitterly and said, "I subconsciously wanted to see if you brought any food. Dongping County had no harvest last year, and the only food that was sold was sold at a sky-high price. Even though the government office gave out porridge a few times, the people were still having a hard time, and many of them have already fled to Hebei."

"So I developed this habit. The grain in the county granary is running low and won't last long."

Yinzhen said, "Don't worry, County Magistrate Zhou. I came here to solve these problems. The food arrived later than us."

County Magistrate Zhou nodded, hope appearing in his eyes again.

There may be cases of corruption in the officialdom of Shandong today, but it is definitely not the case in Dongping County.

On the way to the county town, Yinzhen learned about the current situation in Dongping County.

Nowadays, most people in Dongping County are almost unable to survive, but there are still a few wealthy families who are on high alert and try to make a fortune by selling grain at high prices.

Moreover, every time the county government distributed porridge, servants from these wealthy families would pretend to be hungry people and come to get the porridge.

"unacceptable!"

Back in the carriage, Ran Dong couldn't help but say.

"They clearly don't lack food, so why are they competing with disaster victims for food?"

Yixiu guessed that this was probably just human nature, where greed is insatiable.

Although Ran Dong is smart, he really doesn't see enough of these things.

As soon as they entered Dongping County, Yixiu lifted a corner of the carriage curtain.

This is an incredible sight.

The eyes of those disaster victims, who looked like corpses, suddenly lit up when they saw the carriage.

Are there rich people coming to provide them with disaster relief?

They even have carriages, so there must be a lot of food in the caravan.

The victims rushed to the carriage, and Yixiu clearly saw a woman holding a child.

"Please, sirs, save my son."

Yixiu tightened his grip on the curtain, then quickly pulled Randong back into the carriage.

Ran Dong’s face turned pale.

"That child...that child is dead."

Yixiu's expression was a little heavy.

The woman's mind was probably not clear anymore. Perhaps the loss of her relatives one after another was too much of a blow to her.

She suggested that Yinzhen come to Shandong. Although it was for Yinzhen to achieve success, she was also mentally prepared.

But when she really saw it, Yixiu still felt very uncomfortable.

"Fujin, should we go and help them?"

"No, once we stop, these disaster victims will gather around us. We have already arrived in Dongping County and we can start distributing porridge soon."

When he arrived at the county government office, Yinzhen quickly learned about the current situation in Dongping County. According to the method they had discussed in advance, he first issued a notice for free porridge and asked literate government officials to read it to the people.

Secondly, Yinzhen summoned local landlords and persuaded them to reduce rent and taxes and provide relief to tenants.

There were two wealthy families who were unwilling to respond, so Yinzhen calmly told them what they and their families had done.

The two wealthy families immediately behaved themselves.

During this special period, Yinzhen came to provide disaster relief, not to investigate cases, so he did not intend to send them to jail, but he had to give them some deterrence when necessary.

As long as these people can cooperate with him in disaster relief, things will be much easier.

Because the porridge was to be distributed the next morning, the servants of the county government office and the Eight Banners descendants who came with them all started busying themselves with making fire and cooking the porridge the night before.

Wenxumo added a little warming and tonic medicinal materials into the porridge. After it was cooked, they added a bag of coarse sand that had been washed clean in advance into the porridge.

If it is pure bran porridge, I am afraid that there will be people who are not short of food and will come to claim it.

After adding coarse sand, only real disaster victims will come to get the porridge.

The next day, before dawn, a long line formed in front of the county government office.

Perhaps because Yinzhen had arrived, the people knew that the court had not given up on them, and their faces were full of hope.

Everyone's faces looked a little more lively than yesterday.

After adding coarse sand, the people who came were indeed ordinary victims. Even if there were one or two servants from rich families who came, they were there to see their parents and brothers.

After distributing porridge for three days, the victims began to feel more energetic.

Xinghui, who was escorting the intercepted grain, also arrived.

Yinzhen then arranged for the Eight Banners descendants to register the victims here and distribute relief grain.

Each person was given two months' food rations, and the extremely poor were given a little extra silver.

If there are people who have nothing to wear, they can also get old clothes from them.

The magistrate of Dongping County was very excited. Although his monthly salary for several months had been used for disaster relief and he himself lived a very poor life, he was very happy to be able to do something for the people.

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