The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 132

Three days later, Zuo Liangyu made arrangements and took dozens of family members to Nanjing by boat, while the army was handed over to his son Zuo Menggeng as commander.

It is said that they are going to Nanjing to report on their duties, but in fact it is also a negotiation, but this time they are not qualified to raise conditions, and all thunder and rain depend on the attitude of the court.

Hou Xun did not follow back to Nanjing, but was preparing to leave for Beijing to take up his post. He said he was sick and stayed in Nanjing. Now that he has traveled to Wuchang after a long journey, it is unreasonable to go back and continue to recuperate. He can't let go of his old face. .

And with Zuo Liangyu going to Nanjing, Zhang Xianzhong temporarily surrendered. It can be said that the entire Ming Dynasty ended the war for more than ten years at once.

This may be that prosperity must decline, and decline without perishing will lead to great prosperity.

Hou Xun took his servants and servants along the Han River to the north, and after passing Xiangyang, seeing the ruins along the way, he felt deeply moved.

The four fields are sparsely populated, the fields are barren and overgrown with weeds, and the official roads where business travelers used to come and go frequently did not meet a car or horse for dozens of miles.

"Master, Xinye County is just ahead, it's getting late, let's go to the city for the night!"

"Ok!"

Hou Xun nodded in the carriage, let alone the post station, walking all the way from Xiangyang, almost all the bustling market towns along the way have been abandoned, and the group can only spend the night in the abandoned houses.

Seeing that a large number of people finally gathered outside the city, Hou Xun's complexion became better, seeing that he was giving porridge, so he got off the carriage and wanted to have a look.

As the Minister of the Household Department, today's son is obviously a sage, and Hou Xun also wants to do something, so he wants to experience the people's sentiments along the way and understand the current situation in the north.

"Everyone line up, don't squeeze, just wait a while and it'll be over!"

At the gate of the city, thousands of people in ragged clothes were holding bowls, all of them eager to see through and swallowed.

A group of soldiers with knives was on hand to maintain order.

A civil servant led a group of yamen servants but watched from the sidelines, as if he wanted to help but didn't know how to help, not to mention how embarrassing it was.

On the other side, more than a dozen gentry in fine clothes were also watching with their servants.

Coming closer, Hou Xun obviously also noticed this abnormal scene. It stands to reason that the imperial court's disaster relief should be organized by officials and gentlemen.

But now he found that soldiers were responsible for maintaining order, and it was obviously a woman among the people who was responsible for cooking porridge.

The arrival of dozens of people led by Hou Xun also attracted everyone's attention, and soldiers came to question immediately.

After the guard revealed Hou Xun's identity, the soldiers ignored him without saying anything, which undoubtedly made Hou Xun's beard stick up with anger.

Fortunately, after a while, the county magistrate rushed over with a group of gentry to pay a visit, which allowed Hou Xun to find a little dignity of the Minister of the Household Department.

But his face was still ugly, and he pointed to a woman who was obviously in charge of serving the porridge and said, "Wuzhi County, what's going on? Why do you let a woman handle such a big disaster relief matter? You and the others just stood by and watched." ?”

"Hey! Hou Butang doesn't know something. It's not that the lower officials don't want to help, but they don't want me to intervene."

Wu Zhixian was a little embarrassed, and all the gentry nodded aggrievedly.

"What's going on? Who is that woman? Shouldn't the disaster relief be presided over by the yamen?" Hou Xun frowned suddenly.

If it is said that the woman is the wife of a local rich family, and she is giving porridge spontaneously, it is obviously unreasonable.

At least those soldiers were not available in this small Xinye County, they looked like old soldiers who had been on the battlefield.

"Huibutang, this girl from the Liu family is the shopkeeper of the royal branch in Xinye County. Those soldiers were also sent by General Gao. They began to give out porridge half a month ago. The imperial court issued a document about the disaster relief in several northern provinces. , the shopkeeper of the local royal branch is in charge, and the local governments are not allowed to intervene."

Wu Zhixian explained carefully.

After hearing this, Hou Xun was also surprised, His Majesty obviously didn't trust their civil servants at all.

He asked solemnly: "Could it be that there are branches of Royal Stores in every county in the north?"

"Huibutang, officials in other provinces don't know, but there is one in every county in Henan, there are branches in the state capital, and there is a head office in Kaifeng, which will deliver food to branches in various places every half a month."

"So, this royal shop is only serving porridge, but doesn't sell grain and salt?" Hou Xun gasped.

"It's still for sale. It opens once every three days. It only sells polished rice and refined salt, and the price is too expensive."

This time it was a gentleman next to him who answered, obviously very dissatisfied.

"Wuzhi County, how many people are there in Xinye County?"

"This... Except for the city, the people in the four fields should be here."

Hou Xun looked at the thousands of people, his heart sank, and he didn't ask any more questions, but walked towards the thatched shed.

The shopkeeper of the woman was naturally an old maid, and she also knew Hou Xun's identity. When she saw him coming, she just bowed her knees and saluted, while Hou Xun just nodded.

"Why is the food cooked in the pot different?"

Hou Xun looked at the dozens of big pots and asked in puzzlement. More than half of the porridge in these big pots was obviously mixed with a lot of rice bran and wheat bran. Only a few of them were the real white rice porridge.

"Those whose height is lower than the stake, pregnant women and breastfeeding women, drink white rice porridge, while others eat these." The palace lady shopkeeper explained.

"How many times do you give porridge a day? How many times?" Hou Xun nodded and asked again.

"Once a day in the morning and evening, one bowl each time, after today, there will be no concentrated porridge."

The court lady was obviously also a little afraid of Hou Xun, the head of the household department, so she always answered his questions.

"There is a regulation above. After the population statistics of each county are clear, it will be changed to borrowing grain by household. Each person can borrow ten catties of coarse grains, five catties of refined grains, and two taels of coarse salt in one month. In addition, each household can borrow more Borrow five catties of cotton and one piece of cotton cloth." The old maid said slowly.

"This... this... have you counted everything clearly? There are enough supplies in the store? And how will the people pay back in the future?" Hou Xun's scalp tingled for a while, this is the work of the household department.

"Well, there are a total of [-] households and more than [-] people in need of assistance in the county. All materials will be converted into silver and repaid in five years. The materials must not be enough, and they will be shipped later."

The old maid picked up a dozen account books she had made and handed them to him, and explained.

At this time, the porridge in the pot was also cooked, and the speed of the people queuing up was amazing. Among them, children of two or three years old and pregnant women with big bellies were lined up together, but very few, only a few dozen out of 5000 people indivual.

The same old man in his 50s and [-]s didn't see any of them.

Hou Xun stood aside, watching the people orderly finish their porridge and squatted on the ground to eat it.

And the maids here also brought their assistants and began to lend food, salt, cloth and cotton to the people who had finished eating porridge. There was no mistake. Hou Xun also sighed, turned around and went into the city silently.

He naturally understood the virtues of officials at all levels. If they were allowed to do such a complicated and cumbersome work, it was really hard to say how much supplies these common people would get in the end.

Sure enough, the gentlemen and officials on the side watched the bags of polished rice and cotton cloth being carried away by the common people, with greedy eyes in their eyes.

From their point of view, rice bran and wheat bran are enough for these muddy legs, and it is a waste to give them rice, and it is also a waste to wear fresh cotton cloth on them.

But after looking at the old maid, everyone had no choice but to return to the city.

According to news from various places these days, almost all officials who dared to make up their minds were arrested by the East Factory, and officials and gentry ransacked their homes on the spot and were killed.

The next day, Hou Xun left Xinye and continued northward.

Along the way, the prefectures and counties he passed were almost the same as Xinye County, which made him, who was ambitious, inevitably become a little decadent.

When they arrived in the capital, it was already the end of November, and Zhu Cihong also returned to the capital from Datong.

Although Zhu Cihong had been staying in Datong for the past few months, his orders were passed on to the capital all the time.

(End of this chapter)