Chapter 756 I'll Take You to Beg for a Living
Chapter 756 I'll Take You to Beg for a Living
In late July, Jinyang has begun post-disaster reconstruction.
In fact, there was nothing to rebuild. The fort was fine, but the thatched houses built in the fields were washed away by the water - of course, the food was also washed away.
Fortunately, the fields were drained in time and we were able to get some harvest, which was a blessing in disguise.
Before recovering Bingzhou, Liu Yao stationed in Taiyuan and made great efforts to resettle refugees. According to the household registration he established, there were approximately 24,000 households and more than 130,000 people, a significant increase from the time when Liu Kun was in power - these are all accounted populations.
Last year's war caused Taiyuan to lose a large number of households, and this time there was a flood. The losses are difficult to estimate, and I don't know how many are left.
As far as Shao Xun was concerned, many of the small aristocratic families in Taiyuan, such as Tang, Wu, Fan, etc., were reduced to only a thousand households of farmhands.
Some local tyrants with smaller businesses have gone "bankrupt" in the flood and have become refugees.
Shao Guang, the prefect of Taiyuan, was a military farm captain. He had no other choice but to redistribute the land, just as he had done when he gathered and settled the military farm troops.
This kind of thing of seizing people's land and even their population would certainly have aroused backlash in the past. But perhaps this year, the power of heaven and earth frightened people and made them lose their spirits. In the end, apart from some complaints, there was no big backlash. Everything was carried out slowly, with some bumps and bruises.
Shao Xun only stayed in Jinyang for two or three days. In addition to assigning tasks, he also accompanied Liu Ye.
She is pregnant.
Calculating the time, it should be the evening in Mengmenjin. He saw the big flag with the word "Shi" on the other side of the river, and suddenly he became excited...
That was the most satisfying and high-quality meal that Shao had ever had since he started eating meat.
This kind of enjoyment is hard to come by, and it is much more comfortable than doing official business and paying public taxes.
In addition to Liu Ye, there is another pregnant woman in Pingyang, that is Shao Xun’s mistress Pei Lingyan.
She got pregnant in Wenxi and should give birth at the end of December or the beginning of January.
After asking Guo to take good care of her aunt, Shao Xun led his personal army and part of the Yicong Army eastward and made a brief stop at Leping.
There are also many rivers in the five counties of Leping, and the county as a whole is mainly mountainous and hilly, so it was obviously hit hard this time.
When the prefect Guo Rong talked about what was happening in the county, he burst into tears.
When he sneaked back to Leping, the two local tyrants' fortresses that hosted him had been destroyed. Most of the personnel in one of them were killed or injured, while the other one was slightly better off. After learning that the army had no food, he, led by the fort commander, all went south to Shangdang to find food and became refugees.
This place had a small population to begin with, and it was the focus of the war between Hebei and Bingzhou. Countless people were killed or injured, and some had to flee. Then they were hit hard by the flood. Guo Rong burst into tears and said that there might be less than 10,000 people in the entire county.
Shao Xun remained silent after hearing this.
"When the next batch of grain arrives, I will transfer a group of civilians to you as appropriate." Shao Xun said.
"Where are the people coming from?" Guo Rong was a little stunned.
"Forget it. The people and the food will leave at the same time. Leping is still a strategic point after all." Shao Xun said, "The population of the Luyang Tuntian Army has become more and more prosperous in recent years. There are more than 11,000 households and nearly 27,000 men, women and children. These people have fought for me for many years, and it is time to give them some benefits and settle them as civilians. I will give you half of it. You can send people to search everywhere, prepare houses, divide the fields, and find some unowned farm tools and livestock. If you have time, try to plant winter wheat in September. If not, we can talk about it after the spring of next year."
"Yes." Guo Rong was overjoyed.
Without the people, there would be no point in being a prefect.
The Luyang farming army was organized and had fought in wars, and there were many strong and elite soldiers - there were only more than 20,000 people in more than 10,000 households. It was obvious that the population structure was mainly composed of young and strong people, and there were even many bachelors.
With these people around, Leping is much more stable. Once there is any change in Hebei, it can be suppressed immediately. At least Jingxing Pass can be defended to prevent the rebel army from rushing into Leping.
"Leping is the Leping of Liang State. You must take good care of it." Shao Xun warned, "After the flood, if there are fort commanders or manor owners who return home and want to claim their land and recruit farmhands, you must stop them. Do you understand?"
"I understand." Guo Rong's mood suddenly fell from the peak to the bottom.
There is no doubt that he will be scolded badly.
It was obvious that King Liang was taking the opportunity to suppress the powerful forces in the five counties of Leping, and taking advantage of the opportunity after the flood to re-clarify land rights and household registration and distribute them to newcomers.
All the nobles who left their hometowns during the flood could not come back. Even if they did, their power was greatly reduced, and most of them would be registered as common people - looking at what King Liang did in Henan, this was almost inevitable.
In fact, it is not just Leping that is like this.
The same was true for Taiyuan, Xinxing counties, and even Changshan, Zhongshan and other places in Hebei - Shangdang did not suffer much from the disaster, which is another matter.
For King Liang, this was not only disaster relief, but also a great opportunity to increase his ruling power.
On the first day of August, Shao Xun left Bingzhou via Jingxing Pass.
When passing Jingxing Pass, the road was mostly damaged.
Trees uprooted by the floods were everywhere, and one or two landslides were also seen.
This was an era when the level of development was very low and the vegetation coverage rate was extremely high, but it still suffered such a severe blow.
This year's flood is probably one of the worst in history.
On the fifth day of August, Shao Xun arrived in Zhending, the capital of Changshan County.
******
Most of the cities in Changshan have been destroyed.
Everywhere you look, there are trees lying all over the place, as well as the rotting corpses of humans and animals.
No one cleaned it up, or it was too late to clean it up.
The two counties of Changshan and Zhongshan were almost completely paralyzed, the officials were gone, and the people were displaced.
On a few high grounds, there were groups of hundreds or thousands of people, all in tattered clothes and with dull eyes.
After the "Prepare for Rain and Floods Order" was issued in May, no one cared at first, but as the rain got heavier, people gradually started to panic.
Some people moved food to higher ground in advance, which allowed them to barely survive. But most people did not have the conditions to do so. When the flood hit, they either had to flee or be trapped by the water and wait for death.
Cannibalism has been going on for some time.
The disaster in Yecheng and other places was very light, and the impact on grain harvest was limited, but the problem was that it was difficult to transport grain.
Wei, Yangping, Bohai, Qinghe and other counties conscripted a large number of laborers, and the first thing they did was to clear the trees in the river channels.
They were either towed to the shore or tied into rows and sent south into the Yellow River, and then transported to Bianliang via the Bian River.
Every time a section of the river was cleared, local people would use ships to transport food northward. However, this water transport route only went as far as Boling, and only a dozen or so ships of food had come so far. The government was too inefficient, and the food stored in the palaces was not sufficient.
Changshan and Zhongshan seemed to have been abandoned.
The disaster in nearby Fanyang, Gaoyang, Zhao, Julu, Anping and other counties was relatively minor, but there were still many people starving for food.
This year's severe flood hit the northern part of Jizhou, some counties and prefectures of Youzhou, and the northern part of Bingzhou hard.
These places have never been rainy areas, and some are even transition areas between agriculture and animal husbandry. However, a flood of the century broke out, which is incredible.
After Shao Xun entered Changshan, it was almost difficult to find supplies.
Chen Wu, the commander of Feilongshan Town, was probably the official who retained the most vitality. On the eighth day of the first lunar month, he led his men through the yellow mud and delivered hundreds of cattle and sheep.
Shao Xun asked his men to find a high ground and slaughter the cattle and sheep on the spot.
In fact, the war horses they brought were also short of food, and some were even sick, so they were slaughtered together, leaving only about twenty horses.
The water was extremely turbid, dry firewood was hard to find, and cooking utensils were even less available. Even with food, there were still many difficulties...
"How is Feilong Mountain?" Shao Xun asked.
"The losses are heavy." Upon hearing this, Chen Wu sighed, "The fields at the foot of the mountain are all gone, and many cattle and sheep grazing by the river have been washed away. Some people disappeared before they could be evacuated."
Shao Xun frowned and asked, "Didn't you receive the order?"
Chen Wu was a little embarrassed and said, "The grass on the riverbank is too lush. That's great. I always thought it would be okay if I waited a few days. Besides, there is not enough space on the mountain."
Shao Xun glared at him, then sighed. What was the point of criticizing him at this time? Disaster relief was more important.
"Send people south to Anping and Yecheng to inform Liu Wangqiao and Lu Zidao that I am in Changshan. See if they want to starve me to death." Shao Xun ordered: "Every night, countless people will starve to death. If this matter is not handled well, you will have no chance to be a governor or a military commander. See if I can touch them!"
"Yes, sir." Chen Wu called his son Chen Chite and asked him to take people to do it personally.
The sound of wading in water was heard not far away. Everyone looked and saw a large group of people attracted by the aroma of the broth, mustering up their last bit of strength and stumbling forward.
Shao Xun stood up and saw about several hundred people coming from another high ground.
Perhaps they had been enduring for a long time and finally ran out of food. When they saw there were people and food here, they rushed over driven by the desire to survive.
There was also a dispute on the high ground.
A woman pushed several men like crazy, took two children out of the pot, and rushed towards this side while crying.
She was thin and pale, and looked as if she could be blown down by a gust of wind. But at this moment, she seemed to have infinite strength, holding her child, and rushed towards this side step by step.
She fell into the yellow mud several times, but finally she hurriedly picked up the child and walked towards this side with determination.
Shao Xun stood out from the crowd and waded into the mud.
"Your Majesty." Yang Qin rushed forward with his personal soldiers in a hurry to guard against possible attacks from irrational rioters.
The woman rushed more than ten steps away, as if her life had burned out and she could never get up again.
The two children fell into the mud and started crying loudly.
Shao Xun walked forward briskly and picked up the children, one in each hand.
The woman looked at him with pleading eyes.
"I promise you that I will raise them." Shao Xun looked at her and said.
The woman smiled and slowly closed her eyes.
"See if he can survive. If not, dig a hole and bury him." Shao Xun sighed, gave the order, then turned and left.
On the high ground, the bodyguards used their scabbards to beat the rioters to maintain order.
Chen Wu asked someone to bring wooden bowls to scoop soup for these people.
For someone who has been hungry for a long time, I don’t know if he will have the blessing to enjoy this soup. He can only leave it to fate.
"This is a gift from King Liang himself. After drinking this bowl of soup, don't forget the king's kindness." Chen Wu called over a dozen people and said.
The hungry people devoured the food without fear of the heat, and finished a bowl of meat soup in a moment. Only then did they come to their senses, kneel on the ground, and cry out: "King Liang, save my life. This life belongs to you, Your Majesty."
"Don't worry, drink some more soup and take care of yourself. I'll take you to beg for food." Shao Xun looked at the miserable victims and said, "There is always a way out. Just follow me and you'll always have something to eat."
Everyone was skeptical when they heard this.
In fact, until now they still don’t know what the “King of Liang” is.
No one can tell whether he is the real king or a self-proclaimed king in troubled times. Maybe he proclaimed himself.
However, looking at the smoked meat jerky and the fragrant broth, I'll just believe him for once.
Shao Xun said no more.
Yang Qin collected a dozen Hu pancakes from his personal soldiers, soaked them in warm water, and made them into a paste.
Shao Xun fed it to the two children, a boy and a girl, in his arms.
They were also very hungry and kept eating voraciously.
As the sun set, the commander of Puyang Mountain Town, Xubu Yan, appeared on the distant horizon with hundreds of draft animals loaded with food.
Everyone on the high ground saw this and couldn't help but cheer.
Shao Xun also stood up and looked to the north.
He knew that if he had not come, neither Chen Wu nor Xubu Yan would appear here, and these starving people would never have been able to survive.
Lu Zhi must have been extremely worried. He gave priority to providing relief to the victims in counties and prefectures that were easily accessible for water transportation. After all, the disaster affected more than just Changshan and Zhongshan counties, it was just that this place was the worst hit.
Surviving in this world is far from simple.
(End of this chapter)