Reborn as Murong Fu: This time I am the protagonist

Chapter 563 Money and Grain
Gongye Qian's arrogant words had already ignited the anger of the underlings present. Seeing how contemptuous he was, they exchanged a few glances and made up their minds: regardless of life or death, they would make this ignorant, arrogant scholar suffer a lot!
A dozen or so underlings surrounded Gongye Qian, like hyenas surrounding a lion.

Gongye Qian held his hand in a folded position, showing no intention of making a move.

"on!"

Hou Si shouted, his arm suddenly extended, and a series of cracking sounds came from his joints. He leaped forward and used a Tongbei Fist with considerable skill. No wonder he dared to jump; he did have some ability.

Gongye Qian smiled contemptuously, flicked his sleeve, and a gust of wind swept towards the eyes of the enemy rushing towards him.

All the enemies facing him subconsciously narrowed their eyes. Gongye Qian suddenly leaped up from the ground, then did a somersault in the air. As he landed, he kicked out a series of kicks, knocking over several of the underlings behind him. Several others collided with the people in front of him who couldn't stop themselves and fell flat on their backs.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of those still standing on the field were gone.

The others became frightened and fell silent, their initial arrogance of "Heaven is number one, and I am number two" greatly diminished.

Seeing his seemingly imposing and powerful companions fall like wheat in a gust of wind before Gongye Qian, Hou Si felt a growing fear, but he couldn't bring himself to back down just because of his pride.

Gongye Qian's eyes stared at him like a pair of incense sticks, so deep they seemed to suck his soul in, making him extremely uncomfortable, like the sultry heat before a storm.

To get rid of this uncomfortable feeling, Hou Si finally let out a strange cry and threw a punch straight at his center. Gongye Qian smiled slightly, neither dodging nor avoiding, letting the punch land on his chest.

Hou Si was overjoyed, thinking that the other party was being arrogant, using his vital points to take his punch head-on, and that he must have practiced some kind of external martial arts like Iron Shirt or Golden Bell Cover.

But how profound was his Tongbei Quan skill, honed over thirty years? Even ordinary iron armor could be pierced with a single punch, let alone flesh and blood. He was about to break a few of his opponent's ribs with this punch when, unexpectedly, the moment his punch touched the opponent's body, it was as if he had encountered an extremely slippery fish, and the force of several hundred pounds suddenly lost its support.

"Oops!"

Hou Si hurriedly tried to pull back his fist and withdraw his force, but a powerful rebound force, like a burst dam, struck his wrist. With a "crack," his wrist broke.

Before he could recover from the sudden, excruciating pain, Gongye Qian kicked Hou Si away as easily as kicking a small pebble. Hou Si groaned and immediately passed out.

There's no need to win over such useless bandits who love to cause trouble; just beat them.

"Excellent, excellent, excellent! Master Gongye's skills are extraordinary. And the leaders here are no ordinary people either!"

Just then, a series of crisp claps rang out, easing the awkwardness of the situation.

However, Murong Fu spoke up at the opportune moment, bringing the conclusion to this one-sided so-called contest.

The group of petty leaders were filled with shame, but they were as wilted as eggplants and dared not utter another sound.

Murong Fu said, "This is just a small amount of money, Mr. Gongye, please accept it."

Gongye Qian glanced at the stack of silver notes and said, "Thank you for your generosity, young master! I would like to give this money to the brothers who were injured earlier. I hope you will allow me to do so."

Murong Fu said, "You decide what you've earned yourself; there's no need to ask me."

Gongye Qian clasped his hands in a fist salute and then beckoned the group of underlings over. The underlings hesitated for a moment, but ultimately could not resist the temptation of the large sum of silver notes. With someone taking the lead, they rushed forward and, amidst profuse thanks, each received several hundred taels of silver, having long forgotten the beating they had suffered earlier.

Long Er was overjoyed: "Now, do any of you brothers still have any objections?"

"In that case, from now on, everyone in Black Cloud Stronghold will obey the orders of Patriarch Murong!"

That night, after the banquet ended, Murong Fu handed the advance map he had obtained from Murong Bo to Long Er, ordering him to gather the various mountain strongholds. Afterwards, he took Gongye Qian and went down the mountain overnight, returning to Qingzhou Prefecture.

Under Zong Ze's overall planning, the work of providing relief to the disaster victims proceeded in an orderly manner.

Soup porridge stalls were set up along each main road, overseen by county officials, to provide two meals a day, ensuring timely and sufficient porridge distribution. Next to the soup porridge stalls, there were doctors providing medical care for the elderly and infirm.

Zong Ze specially purchased a batch of coffins from a coffin shop to bury the deceased. The scene from a few days ago, where a thin-skinned coffin could be exchanged for a young girl, was no longer seen.

Murong Fu made a special exception and approved all the grain stored in the state government office for government loans. The loans were issued at the same interest rate as the Green Sprouts Act during Wang Anshi's reforms, to small households whose land had been flooded. This helped them get through the famine caused by the flood and prevented most small households from mortgaging their land and becoming tenant farmers.

Murong Fu walked along the main road, not in his official robes. Despite his current rank of third-grade official, he still disliked the formal attire. Correspondingly, Zong Ze, walking behind him, was also dressed in casual clothes.

Murong Fu walked to a porridge stall, picked up a chopstick, and stuck it into the porridge that was still cooking. The chopstick stood firmly on the surface of the porridge and did not sink.

Murong Fu nodded in satisfaction: "Lord Zong did a good job. With your overall leadership and comprehensive planning, Qingzhou Prefecture has finally come back to life."

Zong Ze looked troubled: "I dare not accept such an honor. I do have a difficult matter to discuss."

Murong Fu asked, "Is the state government's current grain reserves insufficient?"

Zong Ze smiled awkwardly: "Exactly."

The Song Dynasty implemented a policy of strengthening the central government and weakening local power. Transport commissioners were established in every prefecture and military region to transport the majority of the local government's funds and grain to Kaifeng, leaving only a small portion for local official expenses. Therefore, in situations like the current one, local governments alone simply could not cope. However, the Song Dynasty nominally lacked a higher-level institution above the prefectures and military regions, and even the transport commissioners had no real authority over disaster relief. Coupled with the Song Dynasty's bloated and inefficient bureaucracy, people were often driven to desperation without receiving aid. This explains why, even without major natural disasters or man-made calamities, the Song Dynasty experienced so many small- to medium-sized peasant uprisings.

Murong Fu smiled and said, "I'll help you figure out the problem of money and supplies. You just need to focus on disaster relief."

Zong Ze hesitated for a moment before speaking, "My lord, if we send someone to the capital to request an imperial edict to coordinate the allocation of funds and grain, I'm afraid the disaster victims cannot wait."

Murong Fu laughed and said, "You don't need to worry about that. However, there are many wealthy households in this prefecture. In this time of great disaster, why don't we see those wealthy merchants and philanthropists from this prefecture come out to donate money and grain?"

At this point, Zong Ze was furious: "Those wealthy merchants in the city have driven up grain prices fivefold in the past two weeks! Last time I hosted a banquet to invite all the major grain merchants to discuss purchasing grain at a fair price, but not a single one showed up."

Murong Fu laughed and said, "Cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. We have already broken a taboo by resuming the Green Sprouts Act. I wonder how many people have already started to use their connections in the court to impeach me."

"grown ups!"

Murong Fu smiled nonchalantly: "It's no big deal. Does the croaking of frogs stop the rain? Let these flies buzz a few times. Issue my order to send invitations to all the wealthy merchants in the city. Tomorrow at noon, I will be hosting a banquet at Deyue Tower in the city."