Rise from eight hundred.

Chapter 1468 Disaster Relief (Part )

To be precise, this family does not have any courtyard gate. Through the bamboo fence, one can see two earthen houses made of rammed earth.

Being poor is normal, not only in the Central Plains, but also in the whole country.

"When a country prospers, the people suffer; when a country perishes, the people suffer!" This line from the poem by Yuan Dynasty composer Zhang Yanghao is not just a casual remark, but a true portrayal of China's thousands of years of feudal dynasty rule.

The so-called prosperity and prosperity actually have little to do with the common people at the bottom.

In such a chaotic world, it is good enough to have a place to shelter from the wind and rain.

Sitting under the eaves was a ragged girl of seven or eight years old wearing a coarse cotton coat. She looked at the group of people who walked into the yard uninvited, her eyes full of fear.

"Nier, where are your parents? Why are you the only one sitting here on New Year's Eve?" the village chief stepped forward and asked.

"My sister is sick. My parents wanted to get her something to eat, so they went out early in the morning and asked me to look after my sister at home." The girl looked at the village chief who seemed familiar to her, her fear still evident, and she answered tremblingly.

Tang Dao couldn't help but frown.

  It's snowing now. Although Henan Province is in the Central Plains, it's actually more in the north geographically. The temperature has long been below zero. What can you find to eat at this time? Most importantly, isn't this food just purchased? Even if you really don't have money, can't you give out a few dozen kilograms for free?

It’s New Year’s Eve and there are patients, so at least making some noodle dumpling soup will be fine!

"You two, your parents are exaggerating. Didn't your family just bring back 100 kilograms of flour the day before yesterday? Can't you steam some buns for the child? It's so cold today, the bark on the trees has been peeled off, what can you find outside?" The village chief's face changed slightly, and he immediately shouted at the girl.

The girl's eyes were already filled with tears, but she refused to speak again.

"Sir, their parents are not at home. Why don't we go to another house?" The village chief could only turn around and suggest.

"Let's wait for them here!" Tang Dao's face was as gloomy as the sky.

Instinctively, he felt that there was something fishy going on.

Even if the village chief in front of him was not the instigator, he should know something about the inside story. His heartbeat just now was one third faster than before.

Someone was planning to take the food. If Tang Dao had not been concerned about the little girl, his murderous intent would have burst out uncontrollably.

However, from an angle that no one else could see, Tang Dao's hands behind his back had already made a gesture.

Xia Dayu, who was standing outside the door, understood what he meant and turned away.

Tang Dao came with not only the security battalion and the reinforced guard squad assigned to him by General Jiang, but also a reconnaissance company that Lei Xiong urgently transferred to him a week ago.

Tang Dao knew very well that in this era, only those with the strongest fists have weight in their words. Otherwise, how could the "Zhui Ming Tai Sui" of the Military Control Commission dare to throw a provincial-level administrative inspector with the same rank of major general into the Yellow River?

Of course, such a small village would not require Tang Tuanzuo to mobilize troops to surround the village to get the truth. Tang Dao asked his guards to go to the village to investigate the truth, and the scouts on the periphery needed to be prepared for battle.

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. No matter who is involved, Tang Dao must use thundering means to cut off the evil hands reaching out to food, so as to prevent more people from coveting disaster relief food after the summer when greater disasters occur.

The number of people affected by the disaster is relatively small now, but by then the famine will involve 3000 million people and kill 300 million people.

The life and death of a few or even hundreds of people, when faced with millions of people, even a fool would know what to choose.

Tang Dao stood in the yard as still as a mountain, his face gloomy and silent. The village chief who was accompanying him felt very uneasy.

The village chief is an old man in his 50s, and he should have some prestige in the village. This is a major feature of rural China today.

The so-called village chief is actually not an administrative position, and no one pays him a salary. He is elected by the villagers themselves, and his main job is to help the village and the township communicate.

Such a small character is naturally not qualified to participate in the distribution of this interest chain, but it does not prevent him from knowing some rumors and warnings from people above.

The village chief had no idea who Tang Dao was. He only knew that this young man in military uniform was sitting in a car with a blonde and blue-eyed foreign woman standing next to him. Behind them were more than a dozen trucks full of fully armed soldiers, and the soldiers were all very respectful to him. The scene was even more grand than that of the county magistrate he had seen.

The girl got a few candies from Laura. With Laura's patient help, she carefully peeled off the candy wrapper and put the candy into her mouth. An indescribable sweetness rushed to the tip of her tongue. The girl hurriedly spit it out and held it tightly in her hand.

"It's delicious, you eat it!" Laura was a little surprised.

"I want to give it to little girl. She is sick." The girl tightly grasped the candy that brought her unprecedented sweetness and explained uncomfortably.

"This is for you and your sister. I have more here." Laura felt sad and took out a few more from her pocket and stuffed them into the girl's pocket.

The little girl walked into the house happily and stuffed the dirty candy in her hand into the mouth of a four-year-old girl whose face was red due to a high fever under the tattered quilt.

"It's really not easy for you Chinese." Laura looked at this scene with eyes full of pity.

"The war did not destroy our will, but greed could!" Tang Dao took a deep breath, closed his eyes and lay face up.

The cold snowflakes sprinkled on his face, but they could not extinguish the growing anger in his chest.

More than forty minutes later, a couple wearing tattered cotton jackets and with muddy feet and legs returned home carrying tools.

The woman supported the man. One of the man's trouser legs was still empty, swaying gently in the cold wind. The woman's thin body looked even thinner like a piece of paper, as if a gust of wind could blow it away.

His face was extremely yellow, showing that he was extremely malnourished.

The two men were obviously not mentally prepared for the people standing in the yard. They also looked at the village chief with fear in their eyes.

"What are you two doing? Where have you been instead of staying at home during the New Year? You made the master from the province wait for so long." The village chief started scolding the thin couple as soon as he met them.

"Little girl is sick, so her mother and I are thinking of going to the ditch to get some fish and shrimp to nourish her body, and also to celebrate the New Year." The man replied with a bitter face. "Look at the river in the west, is there any water there? Can it reach your ankles? There are fish and shrimp! People from all over the country have gone to fish for them countless times, and even a water grasshopper is thrown into the pot and cooked. Where is the 100 kilograms of flour you got from the county the day before yesterday? I don't believe you can eat it all in the past two days." The village chief continued to scold.

Both the husband and wife were disabled. Two years ago, the man was digging trenches for the army, and a shell exploded and cut off one of his legs. The army simply bandaged him, threw him a silver dollar, and left him to fend for himself.

As it turned out, the man was lucky enough to return to the village with the help of his fellow villagers and miraculously survived.

  I guess he was thinking about his deaf and dumb wife and two young children who had no one to take care of them!

But after losing a leg, the situation of this family without its main labor force can be imagined. This year, due to the drought, food production is almost total, and this family has to eat one meal for three days. It is a miracle among miracles that four people did not starve to death in this famine year.

They finally managed to hold on until the provincial government showed mercy and bought grain at half price. Many families were able to buy grain by selling the silver bracelets given as dowries by their mother-in-law or daughter-in-law, or other heirlooms from the bottom of their boxes. However, this family had nothing of value except two mud houses and a torn quilt.

Fortunately, the county also issued a notice that for people like this who really cannot afford the money, as long as the village or township acts as a guarantor and the officials come to their home to review and approve it, they can get free grain.

There are five families in the whole village who are similar to this couple. The village chief reported it early on. After people from the county came to check it out, they all approved it and were notified the day before yesterday to go and collect their food and go home.

  I just heard that there seemed to be a slight discrepancy between the weight and the notice, but the head of the village warned these village heads not to ask what they shouldn't ask and not to say what they shouldn't say. It's good to have a stutter. The county and provincial officials have been busy for so long, shouldn't they get some benefits?

This is a very normal truth, and the experienced village chief would definitely understand it.

"Brother, don't be afraid. I came down from the province to see how everyone is doing after receiving the relief grain. You can save the grain and hold on until April or May. There should be another batch of relief grain arriving. Now the country is at war with the Japanese and the economy is in a difficult situation. I can't say that I can make sure everyone has enough to eat, but at least I can make sure everyone has a way to survive." Tang Dao took the initiative to step forward and talk.

"Sir, it's not that I'm reluctant to feed the kid, it's really..." After hearing Tang Dao's words, the man choked up in his throat and could hardly continue.

"Brother, tell me what you want to say. I won't hide it from you. I am the deputy commander of disaster relief appointed by the Executive Yuan. I am responsible for assisting the commander of the First War Zone in all disaster relief matters in the province. As long as it involves disaster relief grain, it is under my jurisdiction." Tang Dao said seriously.

The man and the village chief were stunned. They had no idea what rank the deputy commander held, but they knew how high the rank of the theater commander was. He was the king of a province.

Such a young man is actually the deputy of the king of a province?

"For example, your village chief said that you received 100 kilograms of noodles. Let alone one or two kilograms less, even if it's one or two taels less, I can seek justice for you. Don't worry that they will cause trouble for you in the future. I have a saying when I was a soldier, 'a man should be desperate'! People are starving to death now, and you are still thinking so much? Think about your two daughters, can you bear to watch them starve to death?" Tang Dao encouraged.

Tang Dao knew what these lower-class people were thinking. No matter how high Tang Dao's official position was, it would not be of much use.

What does it mean that the county magistrate is not as good as the county manager? Tang Dao is here, and it seems that he can seek justice and punish some people for them, but he can't be here forever. Once he leaves, those people can do whatever they want to them.

Tang Dao could only use the most basic logic of life and death to encourage him. If he spoke out, he might be killed, but if he didn't speak out, his whole family would starve to death. They would all die anyway, so it would be better to drag those corrupt officials into the water first.

Tang Dao couldn't tell them now that those people would not persecute them, because if Commander Tang got angry, anyone who dared to cause trouble would lose their heads.

Tang Dao's words certainly aroused the father's blood. With the help of his wife, the man took out a bag of grain from the shallow cellar at home and put it in front of the few people, with a sad face: "This is what I got from the county. The county lords said that this can be used as seeds for our spring plowing. The grain we grow can be ground into flour far more than 100 kilograms."

Not to mention that the village chief was shocked, even Tang Dao, who was mentally prepared, couldn't help but open his eyes wide and look carefully again and again.

First of all, the bag of grain was no more than 20 kilograms, and four-fifths of the 100-kilogram ration was deducted. Besides, it was not flour, but wheat, at least two years old.

The idea of ​​using it as seeds during spring plowing is simply nonsense. You can't grow wheat with this stuff.

If we use the ratio of one pound of wheat to produce 0.8 pounds of flour, this would be equivalent to 16 pounds of flour.

The 84% deduction rate was indeed an eye-opener for Tang Dao.

"Sir, the drought has not eased at all and may be even worse next year. So we dare not touch these crops. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if my husband and I starve to death, but I'm afraid that my older daughter and younger daughter will end up like the people in the neighboring county." The man burst into tears as he spoke.

Eating one's own children! This is the most horrific phenomenon during famine in ancient China. It actually happened in two counties last year.

  The trees in the plain counties are far less lush than those in the mountainous counties. What can we do when there is not even tree bark or leaves to eat?

The man is at least a very qualified father! He is doing his best to protect his wife and children in this disaster year.

"I promise, I will seek justice for you and all the people here, and you don't have to worry about anyone looking for you Mafa anymore, I promise." Tang Dao waved his hand and asked Xia Dayu, who was jogging over, to bring over 50 kilograms of flour first, then turned and left.

The murderous aura all over his body was so strong that even the two ordinary farmers could feel that the cold wind suddenly became even more fierce.

"It is quite common for families in the village to be shortchanged when buying food. And it is not all white flour. Basically, it is half white flour and half wheat. Most of the free relief is wheat, and the quantity is seriously insufficient." Xia Dayu followed behind Tang Dao and reported in a low voice.

"Let someone spread the word that Deputy Commander Tang is making secret visits to various villages with a gloomy face, and is continuously sending encrypted telegrams to the theater headquarters." Tang Dao gave orders as he walked.

"Tang, I remember you said you sent an inspection team and issued an order to enforce wartime military law if there is corruption. Why are some people still doing this? Is money more valuable than life?" Laura asked angrily and puzzledly as she walked towards the car.

Poverty and suffering had already had a great impact on this kind and straightforward Western woman, but she did not expect that there was such a disgusting greed lurking behind it.

"Laura, Marx said in "Capital": When the profit reaches 10%, they will be ready to move; when the profit reaches 50%, they will take risks; when the profit reaches 100%, they dare to trample on all human laws; when the profit reaches 300%, they dare to risk being hanged." Tang Dao stopped.

"And this kind of profit is as high as 500%. Do you think anyone will extend their hands to it?"

"Now I'm not worried about anything else, I'm only worried about one thing." Tang Dao sighed before getting into the car.

"What are you worried about? Are those people's backgrounds too strong?" Laura couldn't help but show some worry in her blue eyes.

  She knew Tang Dao's personality, he was fearless on the battlefield, just like he once said: I will go forward even if there are tens of thousands of people against me!

That kind of heroism is exactly the perfect model of a man in her mind.

She didn't believe he would stop because of the darkness.

"Haha! I'm just worried! The person behind this matter is not powerful enough. If he is not powerful enough, his head will not be important enough." Tang Daolang laughed.

The convoy set off in the snow, and did not go to the county town that had been prepared in advance, but headed straight for another county.

  Tang Dao knew that the more places he traveled, the more likely some people would suffer from insomnia on New Year's Eve!

And those who are hiding behind the scenes are bound to surface.