The Fierce Teacher of Zhenguan: Starting with Teaching the Crown Prince to Make a Comeback

Chapter 138 You've got a really easy job as an official.

The wary eyes inside the door were clearly stunned when they heard the announcement that "the Crown Prince's camp will exchange salt for grain" and saw the sample of pure white, fine, and unblemished salt on the tray in the guard's hand.

A look of disbelief flashed in his cloudy eyes, and the door finally opened slowly, revealing an elderly man with white hair and beard, dressed fairly neatly.

"This old man... this old man does have some grain stored at home, which is left over from last year, originally intended for famine relief and this year's grain seeds..."

The old man's voice still carried a hint of hesitation, his gaze shifting back and forth between Dou Jing's official robes and the plate of refined salt.

Dou Jing spoke in a calm yet authoritative official tone, following the established procedures.

"Old man, His Highness the Crown Prince is compassionate towards the people's hardships and knows how difficult it is for them to store up grain. However, now that the locust plague is raging and the dead are everywhere, His Highness has been ordered to oversee the relief efforts and will certainly not allow the Shandong region to be left barren for thousands of miles."

"This is 'Jade Salt' specially supplied to the Crown Prince's Palace, and its quality far surpasses that of commercially available coarse salt."

"His Highness has decreed that 'one ounce of refined salt can be exchanged for three liters of millet.' This is a fair trade, and there will be no forced collection."

"Furthermore, His Highness has already issued a clear edict that within twenty days, the grain supply to Yexian County will be restored, the market will be stocked with grain, and prices will return to normal."

He emphasized the words "twenty days" and "restored to normal prices".

As the old man listened, the wrinkles on his face smoothed out slightly. He tremblingly reached out, dipped his finger in a little salt, and put it in his mouth. Then, a glint of light flashed in his eyes.

He remained silent for a moment, then turned back and whispered a few instructions to the person inside the door.

Before long, a middle-aged man came out carrying a half-sack of millet, and placed the sack on the ground with a complicated expression.

"My family...we also need to survive, so this is all we can offer," the old man said in a low voice.

Dou Jing gestured for the accompanying clerk to come forward and weigh it, and it turned out to be exactly three liters.

The clerk handed the old man a small packet of fine salt carefully wrapped in oiled paper and announced loudly, "Old Chen, from Sanhuaifang, East City of Yexian, exchange one ounce of fine salt and three liters of millet. Record this!"

The sound was exceptionally clear in the quiet morning air. A faint rustling seemed to emanate from behind the tightly closed doors of several nearby houses.

Similar scenes were playing out repeatedly in various neighborhoods within Yexian County, as well as at temporary disaster relief registration points outside the city.

At first, it was a trial and a wait-and-see approach, but when the first transaction was completed, when the snow-white refined salt was truly in their hands, and when the Crown Prince's promise that "the grain route will be open within twenty days" gradually spread as the officials and clerks of the Eastern Palace repeatedly proclaimed it, a subtle change began to emerge.

Some people who still had surplus grain began to weigh their options.

Refined salt, especially this kind of high-quality refined salt, is a luxury even in times of peace, and not something that ordinary people can enjoy on a daily basis.

Although we are currently facing a famine and grain is as precious as gold, His Highness the Crown Prince's personal presence, holding the imperial banner, and the "twenty days" deadline, serve as a clear expectation.

If the grain supply routes can truly be unblocked and grain prices fall, then the value of exchanging three liters of millet, which may be worthless tomorrow, for one ounce of refined salt would be...

Some astute individuals have already calculated that once the market recovers, the value of one ounce of refined salt could be equivalent to the value of a bushel or even more of millet on a normal day, almost the entire year's salt cost for an ordinary farmer, or even more.

This expectation for the future, coupled with trust in the crown prince's authority, became the lever to incentivize people to hoard grain.

The results were quite impressive by the end of the day.

The various teams gathered at the temporary headquarters set up next to the county government office. After Wang Cong personally calculated the amount, they exchanged for approximately four hundred shi of millet and several dozen shi of miscellaneous beans.

While not enough to completely solve the food shortage in Yexian County, it has far exceeded expectations.

More importantly, with the arrival of these grains and the spread of news about their exchange, the previously desolate and hopeless atmosphere in the city seemed to be infused with a faint glimmer of vitality.

Some of the people who exchanged their salt for refined salt even showed a complex expression on their faces that they hadn't seen in a long time—an expression of calculation and hope.

Meanwhile, smoke rose again from the soup kitchens outside the city, where the Eastern Palace guards and local officials maintained order.

The porridge cooked this time, though far from being thick, was a world of difference from the watery soup that the government had cooked a few days before, which was so thin you could almost see your reflection in it.

At least, the number of rice grains is visible to the naked eye, and when the steaming bowl of porridge is handed to you, you can feel a real sense of warmth and fullness.

The line for porridge was still long, but the noise had lost some of the frenzy of impending doom and gained more of a numb wait.

Li Chengqian did not personally visit the soup kitchens; instead, he remained in his headquarters, constantly listening to reports from various parties.

In a single day, he gained a deeper understanding of the situation in Yexian County through the words of local officials such as Dou Jing, Wang Cong, Zhang Langzhong, and Zhou Fu.

He was particularly concerned about the transfer of grain from the official granaries.

"Magistrate Zhou, do you still have the official document from the prefectural governor's office regarding the requisition of grain?"

Li Chengqian flipped through the files Zhou Fu presented, and asked without looking up.

Zhou Fu bowed deeply.

"Your Highness, the official documents...the official documents are naturally kept. However...the grain rations were urgently needed at the time, and the one who came was the registrar of the prefectural governor, holding the governor's order, saying that it was to assist in the 'urgent needs of the Pinglu Road army.' I...I dared not stop him."

“Pinglu Road?” Li Chengqian raised his eyes, his gaze sharp.

"Now that the world is at peace, although there are occasional disturbances from Goryeo and Mohe tribes in Liaodong, why is it necessary to urgently transfer grain from the Shandong interior? And in such large quantities?"

"What was the exact amount of grain that was transferred? Where was it transported to? Which military prefecture received it? Was there a receipt?"

His barrage of questions made Zhou Fu break out in a cold sweat.

Zhou Fu stammered, "Your Highness, please understand... The official document only says 'assistance in military supplies,' but the specific amount... is recorded in the files. A total of two thousand shi of grain from the official granary was transferred."

"The direction of transport...it is said to be towards Dengzhou. As for the specific military government receiving it...I am of low rank and did not inquire in detail at the time, nor...there was no receipt."

Li Chengqian snorted coldly and threw the case file onto the table.

"The supplies were allocated to the army, but there was no specific unit number, no clear purpose, and no handover receipt. Two thousand shi of grain were just transferred away in such a muddled way?"

“Magistrate Zhou, you have a really easy job as an official.”

Zhou Fu knelt down with a thud, banging his head on the ground.

"Your Highness! I failed in my duty! I am incompetent! Please punish me!"

Li Chengqian ignored his apology and turned to Wang Cong.

"Wang Qing, immediately draft a dispatch in my name and send it to the Shandong Circuit Office and the Prefectural Governor's Office."

"Inquire about the specific reasons, purpose, and recipient details of this allocation of grain from the Yexian official granary, and order them to report immediately on the current military grain reserves, whether they are truly so scarce that it is necessary to use grain from the inland Ever-Normal Granaries. The tone must be precise, but it must convey my skepticism."

"The minister obeys the order."

Wang Cong bowed and accepted the order, then immediately went to the desk to prepare a draft.

Li Chengqian then spoke to Dou Jingdao.

"Minister Dou, continue to push forward with the grain exchange program. Closely monitor the grain-salt exchange ratio and absolutely do not allow clerks to take advantage of the situation to embezzle or oppress the people. The daily grain consumption and porridge distribution at the soup kitchens outside the city must be recorded in detail and reported daily."

"Yes, Your Highness."

As night fell, Yexian County fell silent in a strange atmosphere, a mixture of faint hope and profound suffering.

Inside the camp, candlelight blazed brightly. Li Chengqian looked at the summary document of today's grain exchange presented by Wang Cong, but his brow remained furrowed.

Four hundred bushels of grain may seem like a lot, but how many days can it sustain the disaster-stricken people of a county?
The promise made in twenty days hung like a sword over his head, urging him to find a more stable and larger-scale source of grain as soon as possible. The next morning, Li Chengqian ordered the camp to break camp and head to another severely affected area of ​​the locust plague—the neighboring Linyi County.

Regarding the affairs of Yexian County, Zhou Fu was instructed to leave some subordinate officials and a troop of soldiers to assist him in maintaining order, while awaiting replies from the provincial and prefectural governments.

The procession set off again. As they left Yexian, some people gathered at the city gate, silently watching the prince's entourage.

Their eyes were still complex, but compared to the utter stillness of the day before, there was now a faint, indescribable glimmer of light.

Upon arriving in Linyi County, the scenery was very similar to that of Yexian County.

The devastated fields, the scattered groups of refugees, and the similar atmosphere of unease permeating the air.

With the experience gained in Yexian County, Li Chengqian and his entourage were able to proceed with ease.

Similarly, without alarming too many local officials, they directly set up their headquarters outside the city and then dispatched many subordinate officials with samples of refined salt and notices to the county town and surrounding towns to explain the policy of exchanging salt for grain and the prince's promise to open the grain route in twenty days.

However, this time, the situation is somewhat different.

The dispatched officials returned one after another, and the amount of grain they brought back was actually more than when they were in Yexian County. A preliminary count showed that there were nearly 500 shi of millet.

However, almost all the subordinates wore expressions of confusion and unease when they reported.

“Your Highness,” a Chamberlain of the Eastern Palace reported.

"As is customary, when the people heard about the exchange of salt for grain and Your Highness's promise of twenty days, there was some initial commotion. However... however, when they received the refined salt, there was little joy on their faces, and they were even... even somewhat numb."

"Judging from their expressions, they are not like the people of Yexian, who are calculating and hopeful."

Another subordinate official also said.

"That is indeed the case. Many people exchanged it, and they received a lot of grain. But when they received the refined salt, most of them remained silent, carefully putting it away, their faces... showing only sorrow, a deeper sorrow."

"I privately inquired with several people, but they all stammered and remained silent, or only said, 'Thank you for your grace, Your Highness.'"

Dou Jing, having gathered all the reports, frowned and approached Li Chengqian's tent.

"Your Highness, this matter is quite strange. The grain exchange in Linyi County went smoothly and yielded more than expected."

"However, the people's morale... did not seem to improve as expected; on the contrary, it became even more depressed. The people's reaction was very different from when they were in Yexian."

Li Chengqian was examining a general map of Linyi County at his desk when he heard the report. He looked up, his gaze calm.

He put down his vermilion brush and pondered for a moment.

The successful grain exchange in Linyi County, with the recipients receiving more, is a good thing. It shows that the policy is equally effective in this area, and may even be more readily accepted by the people due to the spread of the news.

However, the reactions of the people described by the officials—numbness, sorrow, and complete lack of joy—were by no means normal.

"Have you investigated the reason behind this?" Li Chengqian asked.

"Are there any irregularities among the local officials? Or... is there some other hidden story?"

Dou Jing shook her head.

"We are newcomers and have not yet had in-depth contact with the magistrate of Linyi County. Judging from his welcoming manner, he is similar to Zhou Fu of Ye County, fearful and at a loss. As for the hidden reasons... the people keep silent, and it is difficult to find out for the time being."

Li Chengqian stood up and paced back and forth inside the tent.

Outside the window was the gloomy sky of Linyi County, no different from that of Yexian County.

But the hearts of the people here seem to be shrouded in an even thicker fog.

The exchange of salt for grain, with the promise of food supply, should have been a glimmer of hope in the face of despair. Why then did it fail to stir up even the slightest ripple in this place, leaving only a deeper sorrow?
Beneath this unusual calm, there must be an unprecedented predicament for Yexian County, or even greater hidden worries.

"Send more people to investigate secretly."

Li Chengqian stopped and gave the order.

"The focus should be on investigating the situation of official granaries and charitable granaries in Linyi County, the movements of wealthy households, and... whether any unusual events have occurred recently."

"I want to know why the people here are so worried and suffering, and why they are so disheartened about the Crown Prince's plans."

"Yes!" Dou Jing responded sternly and immediately turned to go out and make the arrangements.

After Li Chengqian sat back down at his desk, his gaze once again fell on the simple map.

The name Linyi cast a shadow over his heart.

The road to disaster relief in Shandong appears to be far more complicated than he had anticipated.

Not only do we have to deal with natural disasters, investigate official corruption, and clear grain routes, but now we also have to confront the unfathomable depths of the people's hearts, which are like a mystery.

Li Chengqian rubbed his throbbing temples. He was exhausted from a day of running around and working on paperwork, but what weighed more heavily on his mind was the vigilance he felt towards the unknown and hidden worries.

The unusual apathy of the people of Linyi County was like a thorn stuck in his heart.

While Li Chengqian was reviewing the memorials submitted by the officials of the Eastern Palace, he discovered Li Yichen's memorial.

Li Chengqian unfolded it and examined it closely.

At first, he glanced at the first few points, such as "delineate areas, relocate residents to avoid overcrowding" and "designate clean water sources, erect signs to clearly indicate that drinking water from polluted ditches is strictly prohibited." Although he found them meticulous, he also felt they were necessary and considered ordinary and prudent measures to reassure the people.

However, as his gaze moved downwards, his brows gradually furrowed, and his breathing became slightly rapid.

"Establish a 'leprosy clinic' to specifically treat patients with fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, separating them from healthy individuals. Doctors must cover their faces with thick cloths and wash themselves frequently..."

"Buy large quantities of lime and spread it widely in areas where disaster victims gather, around latrines, and especially... especially where remains have been found!"

"Mobilize disaster victims who are still in good physical condition to form 'cleaning teams,' provide them with food rations as payment, and have them be responsible for digging deep pits to bury exposed corpses. After burying, the remains must be thickly covered with lime!"

"Public urination and defecation are strictly prohibited. Dry toilets must be dug and regularly covered with lime and cleaned..."

"Any dead rats or livestock found must be buried deeply immediately and must not be discarded..."

Each and every detail was so meticulous it bordered on trivial, and many of the practices were unheard of. In particular, the methods for handling corpses and filth, as well as the repeated emphasis on "lime" and "isolation," left Li Chengqian with a strange sense of shock.

"After a major disaster, there will inevitably be a major epidemic..."

He muttered to himself, his mind flashing back to the corpses he had seen lying on the road, and the faint stench of decay in the air.

A chilling fear gripped him.

Yes, if a plague were to truly rage, the death toll would likely be even greater than that of a locust plague!
He didn't understand why lime could have such a miraculous effect, but the strategy written by Li Yichen exuded an undeniable rigor and a kind of...

A deep, almost premonition-like anxiety.

Li Chengqian suddenly raised his head, his eyes flashing with a resolute light, his previous weariness and doubt replaced by a sense of urgency.

A natural trust in Li Yichen compelled him to act quickly.

　I'll update another chapter at 10 PM tonight!!!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)