Tang Taizong is my elder brother

Chapter 37 Camp Inspection
Yang Jun followed Changsheng to visit the battalion commander, his face was full of approval, he looked at the group of tents stretching left and right, and asked, "How many tents like this are there?"

"Returning to Your Highness, these are all supplies for the support of the Fubing Army. There are a total of one hundred, and they are already full."

"The Great General of the Right House has merit..."

Commander Liao on the side hurriedly came out to salute, "His Royal Highness wrote for the general, the general did not dare to leave his post without permission, but he cared about the people of Longzhou, so he sent a special officer to lead a team of soldiers here to assist the young prince." Lord."

Yang Jun nodded, and said loudly: "The army and the people are united, and the top and bottom are one, so why worry about not being able to tide over the difficulties together. Let's go and have a look in the kitchen."

After they walked for a while, they could smell the fragrance coming from the front. Yang Jun took a few steps and came to a big thatched shed.

The dozen or so cooks who were preparing dinner saw a large group of officials approaching in a hurry, and hurriedly put down their work and stood up.

Yang Jun ignored their gazes, walked to the stove, and saw sweet potatoes piled high on the huge chopping board, and baskets of wild vegetables, corn, various unknown beans, and wild fruits on the ground...

He looked here and there, and suddenly curiously picked up a wild fruit from the underground frame and took a bite, but he didn't expect the wild fruit to be sour and unpalatable, and he couldn't help but spit up after chewing twice come out.

"What, this is?" His Royal Highness's face wrinkled into a bun.

A cook at the side was anxious and couldn't help shouting: "You man, don't vomit if you don't eat..."

"Presumptuous! This is the Imperial Envoy, His Royal Highness the Fifth Prince, what's the matter with eating a wild fruit, don't hurry up and back down!" Chang Sheng pretended to be angry, and secretly gestured at the cook.

When the cook heard this, she retreated with a embarrassed expression, and muttered, "What a waste."

Yang Jun didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he looked at the fruit with a bite in his hand, he didn't want to throw it away, he didn't want to throw it away, he could only say embarrassingly: "I know it's a lonely person who eats something without people's consent, but this The wild fruit alone is really hard to swallow, so let this fruit be counted on my head, if I eat all of you, I will pay you all!"

After finishing speaking, he turned around and said to an old slave behind him, "Remember to buy a cart of fruit at the market for Gu, and pay it to the young master."

Long body clasped his fists and bowed, not even daring to say.

Yang Jun waved his hand with a smile, threw the wild fruit aside, and continued to ask, "Do you eat these every day?"

Changsheng nodded: "Yes, I mainly eat sweet potatoes, corn and some coarse grains every day." Some of these grains are relief grains just allocated by the state government, and some are bought from the market with money earned from gambling.

Yang Jun was taken aback after hearing this, and said, "That's right, your refugees can still eat coarse grains? When they patrolled several counties in Beidi alone, they didn't talk about grains, wild vegetables would be good, and The people are even gnawing bark."

"Returning to Your Highness, after a catastrophe, there must be a catastrophe. After the locust plague, the farmers have worked so hard for a year, but in the end they have no crops. If the family has no savings, they can't eat weeds and bark. My shelter Most of the people are like this."

"How much food do you need to eat every day?"

"Currently, there are more than 100 people in the camp. They consume [-] catties of grain, [-] catties of fresh vegetables, and [-] catties of wild vegetables and fruits every day. This is still two meals a day. Even so, in If there is no increase in one person, it will last for about ten days and a half months at most."

Yang Jun took a deep breath: "It's almost two thousand catties in a day, my nephew, my nephew, if I didn't see it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe it. You know how much the Liang family outside is getting for a catty now." Is it?" After Chen Liang inspected many places, he didn't have any idea about two thousand catties, and many county government offices didn't have two thousand catties in stock.

Changsheng smiled bitterly and said: "His Royal Highness, for the sake of these people. My nephew can only grit his teeth and persevere. I would like to thank all the adults for their full support. Without the food funds allocated by them, I would never be able to make it to this point."

After listening to Chang Sheng's introduction, Yang Jun sighed, "Nephew, you really love the people like a son."

It was strange for Changsheng to hear him praise himself for 'loving the people like a son'.

I said in my heart that I am not the parent official here, so it is my turn to love the people like a son.

But it was hard to refute, so I could only bite the bullet and say: "My nephew's wish is very simple. I hope that the people here can have food and be free from the pain of hunger and disease. If there is a chance, I hope they can all return to the Return to your hometown alive."

As soon as the words were finished, several cooks fell to their knees and shouted: "Master, don't drive us back, we petition to stay here, it doesn't matter how hard it is."

Yang Jun was surprised and asked them why.

After some questioning, they found out that these people had fled thousands of miles from Longxi County in the west, and they had seen horrific scenes of fratricide and child-eating on the way. My hometown is now like a purgatory on earth, and just thinking about it makes my whole body tremble.

Everyone was silent after hearing this.

After a long time, Yang Jun said in a low voice: "Getting the right way will help you a lot, but losing the right way will help you a lot. You are truly popular. Well, they don't want to go back, so let's live here well, but you have to work hard."

"His Royal Highness, since my nephew has taken them in, I will work hard and be responsible to the end. Fifty acres of farmland have been reclaimed in the camp in the past few days. Do you want to take a look, Your Highness?"

"And cultivated the farmland?" Yang Jun was even more surprised, "How much relief money did the Master Zhou give you?"

"Return to Your Highness, a total of 500 taels, 500 taels of which I won from a bet."

"Bet 500 taels...? Tell me about it." Yang Jun was very curious when he heard this.

Changsheng then talked about how he made a bet with Mr. Chen, how he took in these people, how he organized everyone to go up the mountain to collect medicine, resume production, reclaim wasteland, and how he won 500 taels from him and Mr. Wang. He talked about it from beginning to end. .

After hearing this, Yang Jun sighed, "Spending money to buy refugees in the people's market, you are taking the burden of thousands of dollars on yourself. A few years ago, the nobles in Daxing met refugees who fled, but they just donated some porridge and rice. That's all, it's good that you not only take care of food and housing, but you have to take care of it for the rest of your life."

"Money is after all an external thing, not as good as the rice and white noodles in the common people's bowl." Chang Sheng said with his fists clasped.

They also suffered from natural disasters, and they are also the people of Longzhou. Yang Jun traveled all the way, and saw the people under the rule everywhere as if they were begging for food, "...the tens of thousands of taels of relief food in Beidi and Anding are spent every year. Where did you go?"

Yang Jun thought about what His Majesty said when he came, and said to himself.

Chang Sheng, who was standing by the side, thought to himself: Sure enough, it was exactly as I expected.

The idea I gave to the adults in the state capital was to do the opposite. The imperial court did not allocate funds to Fufeng County for relief. The 2000 taels of silver from the state capital alone solved the livelihood of more than 2000 people. If it was allocated to Longzhou If all the money is given to Fufeng County and Changsheng, isn't the efficiency ten or a hundred times that of others?
Yang Jun raised his head and slapped his hands suddenly, "Go, let's go and see the fields you cultivated."

After watching the fields, Changsheng led Yang Jun to watch the fishing, hunting and medicinal work.

"After collecting these herbs, I asked them to clean them up and pack them directly, and sent them to the pharmacy designated by the state government office, where a special person brewed them into medicines, and then distributed them to the counties. The rest of the herbs were picked up and exchanged for some money Come back, so you can earn more than ten taels a day."

Yang Jun watched the process of collecting herbs with great interest, and asked casually: "Eh? Why aren't the collected medicinal materials or prepared medicines sold to other states and counties? The medicine for the epidemic can now be sold for 30 taels of silver."

"His Royal Highness, if my nephew wants to make money, just sell the medicine to rich local merchants directly. You can easily earn 20 taels of silver for a pair of medicine, and you can sell more if you buy it in other counties. But I don't want to do that."

Yang Jun was curious: "Why, aren't you short of money? Isn't it possible to feed more people by selling medicinal materials and buying food with money?"

"Your Highness is a good question. I discussed this matter with Mr. Sun. He said that this medicine is for the common people. If you sell all the medicinal materials to drug dealers for money and provide all the medicine to rich merchants and big households, you will be poor." How can the common people in the city use the medicine, and the epidemic will inevitably spread beyond control, so this matter must not be done." Thinking of Sun Simiao, Chang Sheng became excited again, and his voice became high-pitched:
"Mr. Sun said: 'Human life is as big as the sky'. Mr. Sun would not even take his life for the sake of the people. How could I care about this mere money? Even if this herbal medicine needs to be paid for by myself, I would not even think about using it. This drug earns a penny.”

Yang Jun stared at the impassioned young man in front of him, nodded again, and suddenly said loudly: "Nephew, I want to reward you personally!"

Chang Sheng was stunned, and hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed: "This is a barren mountain, and there is nowhere to spend the money His Highness rewards me. Why don't you do a little favor for my nephew."

(End of this chapter)