Chapter 864 Jiang Yuhan Starts a Society at Wangjiang Tower (Part 4)
The wheels rolled, gradually leaving the still-glamorous Wangjiang Tower behind.
However, Sun Shaozong's mind was still on the moment when he said goodbye to Jiang Yuhan.
Although Jiang Yuhan had been scheming and resourceful in the past, he always showed a sense of weakness, which made people involuntarily think of the man behind him.
But today was different. The uncontrollable excitement in his every move, as well as his deliberately bold and loud voice, were all announcing to the world: from now on, he, Jiang Yuhan, was no longer a submissive person, but a man who could stand tall and proud.
until……
King Zhongshun came out with a group of slaves.
Then Sun Shaozong enjoyed the face-changing...
No!
It is the decision to change sex .
Jiang Yuhan was still a manly man the moment before, but he became charming and seductive the next, without a trace of masculinity left. The sweet and naive "Prince" he called made the two dancers in the palace, who had just recovered from the effects of the drug, stare at him in awe.
Seeing him being so humble in front of King Zhongshun, Feng Ziying and Liu Xianglian who were present all felt sad and aggrieved for him.
Only Jia Lian looked dazzled, as if he had found the goal of his life.
"I'm talking to you, get up, get up for me!"
"Why are you still rolling up this broken thing? Just hold it in your arms!"
"Why are you running? Come back, come back quickly, and stop right there!"
Just as he was recalling the scene of Jiang Yuhan's 'sex change', he heard shouting and cursing on the street ahead, and then the carriage suddenly braked.
“What do you do?!”
Zhang Cheng shouted angrily, and then a cautious voice said, "I'm sorry, sir, we are also doing our job... Eh?! Isn't this Master Cheng Liu?!"
It sounded like I ran into someone I knew.
As expected, Zhang Cheng then lifted up half of the carriage curtain and reported in a low voice: "Second Master, there are runners from Shuntian Prefecture outside, saying they are ordered to drive away the disaster victims."
Just as Sun Shaozong had expected, the two heavy snowfalls in early October indeed brought considerable trouble to the Gyeonggi region.
The first to be hit were the Hebei refugees who suffered from the flood three years ago.
At first, it was said that the imperial court allocated funds to allow the victims to return home and be properly resettled. However, from Zhili Governor Zhou Ruqing onwards, the officials in charge manipulated the funds and food, and it was good if only 20% or 30% of the relief funds and food were distributed.
By the time the matter was exposed by Sun Shaozong and the court reallocated funds, the golden period for the resettlement of disaster victims had been missed.
It’s okay for the wealthy families who have savings, but the poor and lower-middle peasants have not received enough relief, so how can they have the spare money to renovate their homes?
There was no other choice but to patch up the ruins and find shelter for the time being.
And this "for the time being" is three years that have passed.
Fortunately, during these three years, the weather in the vicinity of the capital was good, and even though the house was on the verge of collapse, it managed to hold up.
However, two heavy snowfalls in early winter this year disrupted this barely-maintained situation.
In the original flood-stricken areas, there was a large-scale collapse of residential buildings, and then the victims who could not be properly resettled once again habitually flocked to the capital.
In the cold winter, it is definitely not possible to settle down outside the city as we did in the past.
Fortunately, the scale of this refugee crisis is far smaller than that of the previous flood, with only about two to three thousand people.
In addition, with the Empress Dowager taking the lead, all the nobles in the court donated a lot of silver.
So Shuntian Prefecture simply stepped in and set up several temporary camps in the city to gather the disaster victims together for relief and management.
Let’s get back to the story.
However, when Sun Shaozong heard that it was Shuntian Prefecture's yamen runners who were ordered to drive away the disaster victims, he was very surprised and asked, "Why are there disaster victims around here? Aren't they all settled in the outer city?"
When the yamen runner saw him coming out to ask questions, he quickly threw away the disaster victim he had just captured and said flatteringly, "My lord, everyone else stayed in the outer city honestly, but those ruffians sneaked into the inner city and did nothing else all day long but guard this porridge stall. At night, they slept on the street wrapped in quilts and spread out straw mats. They got up at dawn to line up and eat more than anyone else!"
After a little thought, Sun Shaozong understood the twists and turns.
Although porridge was provided in the disaster relief camps, not only were there too many monks and too little porridge, the quality was also far inferior to that in the porridge stalls in the inner city.
After all, there are so many dignitaries in the inner city, and it is possible that some of them will have nothing and come to supervise the porridge stalls set up by the court.
If faults were found at that time, it would be a disgrace to the Empress Dowager and even many nobles in the court - although the authority of the Empress Dowager is not as great as before, if she gives an order, it would be something that the petty officials would not be able to resist.
After thinking this through, Sun Shaozong questioned again, "Have they violated any rules? If not, aren't you afraid of being reported to the censor for driving them away with such fanfare?"
"Oh!"
When the yamen runner heard the word "censor", his face was filled with bitterness, and he sighed and said, "Your Majesty has been impeached for a long time, otherwise there would not be such a thing today!"
Then he explained in detail: "At first we didn't pay much attention to it. After all, this porridge stall was not opened by our Shuntian Prefecture. But we couldn't stop these people from eating too much! The number of people collected by the Health Department in the past seven or eight days is almost as many as last year, and all of them froze to death near the porridge stall!"
"Even the Minister of Rites came to our door in person for this matter. Your Majesty was forced to let us take these ignorant creatures back to the outer city at night."
Although Shuntian Prefecture was in charge of disaster relief, the porridge stalls in the inner city were set up by the Ministry of Rites.
Originally, the Ministry of Personnel wanted to gain some fame, but now there are batches of dead people near the porridge stall. Those who know about it understand that they were frozen to death; but those who don’t know about it don’t know what kind of rumor it will spread.
It is estimated that the Ministry of Rites is now overwhelmed by various impeachments. No wonder even the Minister of Personnel could not help but put pressure on Shuntian Prefecture.
Near the porridge shed, there were already twenty or so disaster victims gathered in the shadows, and more than half of them were young and middle-aged people.
Sun Shaozong couldn't help but frown again. It was understandable that young and middle-aged people needed more nutrition than the lonely, old and weak, but couldn't these strong and healthy people find a job in the city?
Or did Shuntian Prefecture issue a ban on disaster victims working?
"this……"
When Sun Shaozong asked about this matter, the yamen runner became hesitant, as if he wanted to say something but didn't dare to.
Zhang Cheng, who was standing next to him, had no scruples and explained in a low voice: "Second Master, since the beggars' baojia system was implemented, many beggars couldn't stand the many rules and simply became good people."
"They have files with the government, so they are well-known. In comparison, no one is willing to hire those disaster victims who are of mixed quality."
Tsk~
After all, it's still my own fault.
No wonder the bailiff was hesitant and didn't dare to answer.
After this incident, Sun Shaozong felt a little uncomfortable. Although he had become a lot colder and harder-hearted in recent years, he was still compassionate as long as his own interests were not involved.
But for a moment, he couldn't think of how to help these victims.
Increasing the supply of refugee camps will definitely not work.
Even if the budget allocated by the court is generous, who knows to what extent the number of disaster victims will eventually swell?
If we increase the supply now, and then when the expenditure is insufficient to cover the income, we will have to reduce the supply, which will cause more trouble - after all, 'it is easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality'.
Besides, from the perspective of Shuntian Prefecture, they would not dare to serve these disaster victims too comfortably, otherwise it would be difficult to send the gods away even though it was easy to invite them in.
If after the winter, these disaster victims still stay and refuse to leave, or even invite their friends to come and eat at the rich people's houses, then Jia Yucun will have much to cry about.
The best way is to increase temporary jobs.
With the young and strong leading the old and weak, we can get through this winter safely and steadily, and earn some hard-earned money at the same time, which will be beneficial for post-disaster reconstruction.
but……
This winter is the slack season for farmers and civil engineering projects have basically stopped. This is the period of the year when there is the largest surplus of temporary workers.
Even if there are some jobs, most of them are taken up by local natives. It is not easy to find a suitable opportunity.
That's all~
I'll talk to Yu Qian when I have time. Even if I can come up with a solution on my own, it would be more appropriate to let the censors report it to the court than to do it myself.
