Chapter 619 Unexpected Discovery
Chapter 619 Unexpected Discovery
Time soon came to the end of the year. The 20th day of the twelfth lunar month was the day for unannounced visits. Every year, high-ranking officials from the Jiangnan Province would make unannounced visits to the people on this day to understand their sufferings.
Of course, the Jiangnan Road also had special officials who visited the people and reported every month, so the unannounced visit day on the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month was more of a ritual.
Even if it was a ceremony, it had to be done. Early in the morning, officials went to various places for unannounced inspections, mainly to four places, Jingkou County, Jinling County, Jiangdu County and Jiangning County.
Xiao Xia went to Jiangdu County. This time, after the emperor returned Jiangdu County to Jiangnan Dao, Xiao Xia went to Jiangdu County for the first time, and it was a private visit in disguise.
After crossing the Yangtze River on an ordinary passenger ship, Xiao Xia did not go directly to Jiangdu County, but came to Jiangyang County.
Jiangyang County is located in the south of Jiangdu County, close to the Yangtze River. It was originally built to accommodate craftsmen, but as the Jiangnan Road General Administration Office moved south, the craftsmen also went to Jingkou.
Jiangyang County became empty. At this time, Jiangyang County had become a refugee resettlement county, and refugees fleeing from various counties in Hebei filled the small county.
Xiao Xia came to inspect Jiangyang County today, and also wanted to understand the refugee situation in Jiangdu.
The official who accompanied Xiao Xia on his visit to Jiangyang County was Chen Guangzhi, deputy director of the UNHCR. There were not many refugees fleeing to Jiangnan Road, and they had basically been dealt with in the Shandong Peninsula. The only thing left was to deal with the refugees left in Jiangdu County.
When I came to Jiangyang County four years ago, I felt it was well-organized and the streets were clean and tidy. Now it has completely changed. Garbage is all over the ground, sewage is flowing, and the air is filled with the stench of urine.
Not far from the entrance to the city gate, there was a large porridge stall. There was a very long queue in front of the stall, which was as long as a mile. It would be fine if only the elderly and children came to get the porridge, but Xiao Xia saw that there were many men in their thirties and forties also queuing up.
"How long have the relief porridge been provided here?" Xiao Xia asked.
Chen Guangzhi bowed and said, "Your Highness, I have seen it since April last year."
"It's been a year and a half, why is there still relief porridge?"
Generally, only refugee camps will provide porridge relief. After the refugees are dispersed and resettled, they have to start to make a living on their own. Of course, they will also be given food subsidies during the transition period. Only the elderly and orphans will be placed in special institutions and provided with porridge and rice every day.
Chen Guangzhi smiled bitterly and said, "Your Highness, you don't know that the Jiangdu refugees are managed by the imperial court. The imperial court's management method is to move the residents of Jiangyang County to Jiangdu County, empty the county town, and then settle hundreds of thousands of refugees in Jiangyang County. So what Your Highness saw was not the county town, but a large refugee camp. They were only responsible for providing relief porridge every day, and then they didn't care about it anymore."
No wonder the conditions were so bad, it turned out to be a refugee camp. Xiao Xia felt it was more like a slum. Xiao Xia shook his head and walked into a residential area. Almost every wooden house in the area was full of people, and even various shacks were built in the yard.
He couldn't stand the pungent stench and quickly retreated.
One leaf can herald the coming of autumn. After walking through several residential areas, Xiao Xia didn't want to look any further. Everywhere was dirty, crowded, and if a plague patient appeared, the consequences would be disastrous. All the refugees in the city had to be repatriated and resettled.
Xiao Xia said to Chen Guangzhi, "Starting tomorrow, we will register all the refugees in the city. After the New Year, we will start sending them to Jian'an County in batches for resettlement."
"I humbly obey my orders!"
Previously, Wang Anbang, the governor of Jian'an County, wrote a letter hoping to relocate 100,000 refugees to Jian'an County. In fact, this was a major plan that Xiao Xia had deployed last year. Xiao Xia asked the governor Wang Anbang to come up with a practical resettlement plan.
Officials and troops of Jian'an County spent more than a year measuring a large amount of arable land and residential areas and came up with a 100,000-word resettlement plan. However, when it was handed over to Princess Cui Yu, only the application form was submitted and the resettlement plan was omitted.
After Cui Yu approved the report to the Shangshu Xingtai, Liu Wenjing discovered that the resettlement plan was missing, which was a major administrative accident. For this reason, the main person responsible, Wang Que, the deputy director of the Secretariat, was demoted one level, and Lu Miao, who handed over the documents, was also reprimanded for not discovering it in time.
At this time, Xiao Xia saw a row of shops at the city gate, including a rice shop, a pickled vegetable shop, a grocery store, and a cloth shop, but there was no official salt shop.
A personal soldier ran to ask, and came back to say to Xiao Xia: "Your Highness, the salt shop is at the North City Gate. There was also a salt shop at the South City Gate, but it was burned down in a fire last year."
"Burn down?"
Xiao Xia was stunned for a moment, and he immediately remembered the incident of setting fire to the salt shop in Jinling County that year. He had to get someone to investigate it.
Xiao Xia asked his men to wait outside and he walked to the rice shop alone. There was a long queue in front of the shop and a price sign was hung at the door. The price of rice was 40 wen per dou, the price of flour was also 40 wen per dou, and the price of wheat was 30 wen per dou. The price was the same as in Jingkou.
People in the queue pay first and then get a sign of a different color to get the rice. The rice and flour have been weighed in advance and poured directly into the bag of the buyer, which is quite efficient.
At this time, Xiao Xia suddenly found someone holding a small red sign, and actually went to the pickle shop next door, took a straw bag and left. The pickle shop next door had almost no business, and almost everyone who went to the shop was holding a red sign to get a straw bag.
This made Xiao Xia a little curious. He came back and said to a personal soldier, "Go and see what's in the straw bag taken from the pickle shop?"
A personal soldier chased after the man with the straw bag. After a while, he came back with a paper bag in his hand. He smiled at Xiao Xia and said, "It's pickled fish, 30 cents a piece. I gave him 50 cents and he gave it to me."
Xiao Xia nodded. It should be pickled fish for the New Year. He didn't ask further questions and ordered, "Go to Jiangdu County!"
The carriage slowly left the city and headed for Jiangdu County. Not long after leaving the city, the county lieutenant Wang Jinwu stepped forward and stopped the carriage, "Your Highness, there is a problem!"
Xiao Xia opened the car window and asked, "What's the problem?"
Wang Jinwu handed the straw bag of salted fish into the carriage and said, "Your Highness, take a look. This fish looks a bit strange. It seems that there is too much salt."
Xiao Xia opened the bag and saw that the surface of the fish was covered with a thick layer of salt. He took out a dagger and opened the belly of the fish, only to see that it was also filled with salt.
It was pickled fish, yes, but too much salt was used, at least two or three pounds, and it was not coarse salt, but fine salt.
Xiao Xia's mind moved, and he immediately understood that this was not selling pickled fish, but selling private salt. The official salt was 20 cents per pound, but here 30 cents could buy two pounds of salt, and a fish was included.
This kind of private salt selling is very secretive! On the surface, it seems to be selling pickled vegetables, pickled meat and pickled fish, but in fact it is selling salt.
"How much does a live fish like this sell for in the market?"
"About ten cents!"
Xiao Xia nodded. That’s right. Twenty cents for two pounds of salt and ten cents for fish. It was indeed private salt.
(End of this chapter)