Chapter 454 Refugee Migration

In late July.

The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple arrived at Dongyang Prefecture.

On the same day, they arrested Ning Dongsheng.

Ning Dongsheng, who had been frightened for half a month, told everything without being interrogated.

Including how Zhao Yunxing colluded with salt merchants and grain merchants, how he planned to drive up grain prices, which officials were involved, and which merchants were connected with it.

He said it so happily, even clearer than the confession obtained by Ding Qiu.

However, he was a little vague about Zhao Yunxing's plan to incite refugees to riot, after all, this was originally a crime fabricated by Ding Qiu.

However, he did not dare to change his confession. After being interrogated by officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, he could only say that these were all arranged by Zhao Yunxing and he did not know the whole story.

Originally, this matter was false, but after the officials from the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple investigated, they found that this matter was not completely false.

Because they did find out that someone was planning to incite the people to riot and take the opportunity to embezzle the relief grain allocated by the court.

And it was not just one person. The prefects of Guangning Prefecture and Fuzhou had such ideas and took action for it.

In addition, Zhao Yunxing died without evidence of guilt, so the shit pot was put on Zhao Yunxing's head.

At the end of July.

Luo Ren, the right assistant minister of the Ministry of Revenue and the right deputy censor of the Censorate, arrived in Dongyang Prefecture with the first batch of money and grain to start disaster relief.

It was at this time that the drought in Pingyuan began to break out.

A large number of people had to leave their homes and find a way to survive in the absence of water and food.

For a time, a large number of people with ragged clothes and chapped lips appeared on the official road and moved towards the south.

For the people affected by the disaster, their first target of escape was not the bitter and cold Chongshan Town, but Jizhou and Shanhe Province in the south.

This is also the reason why Yang Zhengshan was not prepared to accept all the refugees.

Tens of thousands of people began to flee, and wherever they passed was like a swarm of locusts, and almost everything that could fill their stomachs was eaten by them.

What was even more terrifying was the corpses that could be seen everywhere on the withered and cracked land, and the hellish scene was gradually unfolding before the world.

In Dongyang Prefecture, Luo Ren stood in the lobby of the Provincial Administration Commissioner's Office, looking at the officials in front of him with a sullen face.

"The court's official document was issued ten days ago, why don't you open the warehouse to release the grain?"

Pingyuan is actually not at the point of being at the end of its rope now. Most people can actually drink a sip of water and have some stored grain.

But the problem is that Luo Ren just arrived in Dongyang Prefecture and found that tens of thousands of refugees were gathering together to flee south.

He had just taken office as the governor of disaster relief, and this happened. How could he explain this to the court?

The key is that Dongyang Prefecture is now fully capable of stopping these refugees, but the officials of Dongyang Prefecture let the refugees pass.

"Sir, it's not that we don't want to provide disaster relief, but we really have no power to do so!"

"Now many wells in the city have dried up, and the people in the city are already in panic. If we open the warehouses to release grain at this time, if the victims rush into the city, there may be chaos in the city!"

"And the prefect was arrested by the Ministry of Justice two days ago, and I really can't make the decision!"

Bai Shutang, the co-magistrate of Dongyang Prefecture, said with a bitter face.

Bai Shutang felt so bitter in his heart!

At this juncture, his immediate superior was arrested, and he, the second official, could only take over, but he was not the prefect after all, and he could not make the decision in the city.

Besides, there are many government offices in Dongyang Prefecture, and the adults of the Provincial Administration and the Provincial Inspection Commission did not speak, so how could he, the co-magistrate, come forward?

Luo Ren rubbed his eyebrows with a headache.

The situation in Pingyuan was far beyond his expectations.

The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple arrested a large number of officials, which also had a great impact on disaster relief.

"Go and invite Lord Lu from the Ministry of Justice!"

The Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple can't arrest anyone anymore. If they do, he will have no one to use.

Although these corrupt officials are annoying, he must ensure that government offices at all levels can operate normally at this time, otherwise he will not be able to provide relief to the victims.

But before the officials from the Ministry of Justice come over, Luo Ren's followers report outside the lobby: "Sir, Song Ying, the governor of Chongshan Town, is outside the door asking for an audience!"

"Governor of Chongshan Town!" Luo Ren was stunned.

Why did the governor of Chongshan Town come to Dongyang Prefecture instead of staying in Chongshan Pass?

And as the governor, he has no control over Chongshan Town!

"Please come in!" Luo Ren thought about it and decided to see Song Ying first.

After a while, Song Ying was invited into the hall. He glanced at the officials in the hall, and then bowed to Luo Ren and said, "The subordinate Song Ying greets the governor!"

"Yes!" Luo Ren was really in no mood to be polite with him, and asked directly, "What are you doing here?"

Song Ying took out a document from his arms and said, "Governor, this is the refugee recruitment certificate signed by Jing'an Hou, the general of Chongshan Town, and Pang Da, the governor of Chongshan Town!"

He handed the document to Luo Ren, and took out another document, saying, "This is the refugee resettlement certificate issued by the cabinet to Chongshan Town."

The certificate and the certificate are both a kind of official document. The certificate is mainly used for communication between government offices that are not affiliated with civil and military officials, while the certificate is mostly used for notifications and orders from higher-level government offices to lower-level government offices.

Relocating millions of people is naturally not something that Yang Zhengshan and Pang Tang can decide on alone.

It must be approved by Emperor Yanping and the cabinet, so there is this certificate issued by the cabinet.

Luo Ren opened the two documents and looked at the contents. He was not surprised. He just asked, "Are you going to relocate the people now?"

It was already known to everyone in the court that Chongshan Town was going to resettle the refugees from Liaodong. After all, Emperor Yanping had allocated one million taels of silver to Chongshan Town before. Even if this one million taels of silver was just Emperor Yanping's private money, he had to give an explanation to the officials in the court.

"Well, we are going to accept a small number of refugees for resettlement first." Song Ying smiled.

"How many do you plan to accept?"

"30,000 to 50,000!"

Luo Ren's eyes lit up. Now there are almost 40,000 to 50,000 refugees gathered on the official road south of Dongyang City. If these refugees can be relocated to Chongshan Town, it will help him solve a big problem.

"What do you need us to do?"

"We have set up a refugee reception point on the official road in the south of Chongshan Town. As long as the refugees arrive at the reception point, we will distribute rations and water to them, and immediately send them to the resettlement point in the north!"

"In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, I hope that colleagues from Pingyuan and Liaoyuan can escort the refugees to Chongshan Town!"

"Before arriving at the reception point, the refugees are the responsibility of colleagues from the two provinces, and after arriving at the reception point, the refugees are the responsibility of us!"

Song Ying briefly described the refugee migration procedures.

Luo Ren nodded, and he naturally had no objection to such an arrangement.

As long as the refugees are sent to the reception point in Chongshan Town, it is equivalent to letting Pingyuan and Liaoyuan get rid of a big burden.

"I know, I will arrange officials to escort the refugees to Chongshan Town as soon as possible!"

Afterwards, Song Ying discussed some details with the staff and officials around Luo Ren.

In order to get rid of the refugees on the official road as soon as possible, Luo Ren urged the officials of the Provincial Administration Office to start driving the refugees north the next day.

That's right, drive them away!

Although there is also the intention of persuasion, in fact, it is to drive away.

A group of soldiers, holding weapons in one hand and distributing relief food in the other, forced the refugees to go north to Chongshan Town.

There is no other way. Under the current situation, it is almost impossible to guide the refugees to move to Chongshan Town on their own initiative.

Because in the eyes of most people, Chongshan Town is a bitter and cold place.

Chongshan Town is colder and poorer than Liaodong, and wars often break out.

Since the people have moved once, they naturally want to move to a more suitable place to live.

Obviously, Chongshan Town is not a suitable place to live in their eyes.

However, this is only a temporary measure. While driving refugees to Chongshan Town in Dongyang Prefecture, Pang Tang also arranged a large number of runners and clerks in the Chongshan Town Governor's Office to go to the worst-hit areas to publicize Chongshan Town's policy on refugee resettlement.

Chongshan Town's policy on refugee resettlement includes three aspects.

First, in terms of supplies, after the refugees arrive at the resettlement site, they will be issued three months of rations and daily necessities such as salt and cotton cloth according to the population.

Together with the houses that have been built, the refugees' food, clothing and housing problems can be solved in a short period of time.

After that, food and salt will be distributed once a month to ensure the basic living needs of the refugees until August next year.

In short, Chongshan Town will support these refugees for nearly a year.

The second is land reclamation. After the refugees migrate to Chongshan Town, each household can get 30 to 100 acres of wasteland according to the population. The wasteland is tax-free for the first two years of reclamation, and only needs to pay general grain taxes from the third to the fifth year.

It takes time to reclaim wasteland, and it may delay the spring plowing next year, but as long as there is a piece of wasteland, the refugees will not be left with nothing next year.

At the same time, in order to reclaim wasteland, Chongshan Town will also distribute agricultural tools and seeds, and even allocate a few oxen to a village.

As for the third aspect, it is the household registration policy, that is, refugees who are willing to become military households can be incorporated into the existing guards in Chongshan Town, and can get more supplies. Young and strong people can immediately join the army to receive food and wages.

There is actually a large shortage of military households in the various guards in Chongshan Town. Some of the thousand-household and hundred-household guards have less than half of the full quota.

In addition, Yang Zhengshan also selected a group of military households from many guards last year to form the Black Cloud Guard, which made the shortage of guards in Chongshan Town even more serious.

And Yang Zhengshan plans to form several more guards in the future.

Just around the Black Cloud Mountain, Yang Zhengshan plans to set up five guards in the Black Cloud Front, Back, Left, Right and Center.

In addition to the Black Cloud Mountain, Yang Zhengshan also plans to set up some guards and garrisons in the areas near the Wulianghu tribe in the north, but this is a matter for the future.

In the short term, Yang Zhengshan only plans to set up the Black Cloud Five Guards.

For refugees, military households are definitely better than farmers. If they had not experienced a major disaster, no one would be willing to become a military household.

So in order to attract refugees to become military households, Yang Zhengshan can only be biased in resettlement policies.

In fact, the most attractive of these three aspects for refugees is the reclamation of wasteland, the allocation of wasteland, two years of tax exemption, and three and a half years of tax. Such policies are still very tempting for refugees.

Especially those tenants who have no land, they dream of having a piece of land of their own.

So after the officials and servants of Chongshan Town promoted it, many tenants were immediately tempted.

The tenants who were already penniless heard that Chongshan Town had such a policy, and many of them chose to go to Chongshan with their families.

At one time, a large number of refugees poured into Chongshan Town.

The refugee reception point set up by Chongshan Town on the official road was also busy.

A long row of wooden sheds had been set up on both sides of the official road outside Zhanghe County on the east road of Chongshan Town. Refugees walked along the official road with difficulty in ragged clothes. A large number of officers and soldiers on the official road maintained order.

"Here, here, don't run around!"

"I'm talking about you, be honest, if you dare to run around again, don't blame the officer for being cruel!"

"Whose child is that? How can you just throw him on the ground?"

"My mother fainted, who will save my mother!"

"Doctor, where is the doctor! Go and ask the doctor to come and see!"

The entire refugee reception point was noisier than a vegetable market. The officers and soldiers kept scolding, and the doctors were busy treating sick refugees.

Some refugees starved to death on the way before they reached Chongshan Town, and many refugees were already exhausted when they arrived at Chongshan Town, with only one breath left.

But there were more skinny refugees, each of them weak and lifeless, waiting for the officials' arrangements.

The scene was noisy and pitiful.

Dadada~~

A sound of horse hooves came from the north, and a cavalry galloped over from Zhanghe County.

After arriving at the reception point, the cavalry stopped one after another.

Zhang Chengzhi rode on the horse, looking at the messy scene, frowning slightly.

Next to him, the magistrate of Zhanghe County looked a little bitter.

The situation was more troublesome than he expected. Now, just a few thousand refugees came to Zhanghe County, which made him feel overwhelmed.

They had no shortage of water, food and other supplies. As early as half a month ago, a large amount of food was transported to them.

What really troubled him was the lack of manpower. Even though he had tried his best to urge the officials to do things, the speed of receiving refugees was still very slow.