Zai Chun's question was dumbfounded by everyone present, and there was no way to answer it, or you didn't dare to answer it even if you guessed the answer.

The Qing Dynasty has not conducted a census for many years. No one can tell how many people there were in the Qing Dynasty!

However, when Xiao Letian was in his previous life, during the Gengzi period, foreigners said that the Qing Dynasty had a population of one tael of silver, and the final settlement was 400 million taels. At that time, the total population of the Qing Dynasty was about 400 million.

But during the Tongzhi period, he had just recovered from the Changmao Rebellion, and the population must have reached less than 400 million, but there are still more than 300 million!

And Zhili, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong... are all large provinces with densely populated populations in the north!

The population recorded by the Ministry of Revenue in Zhili was checked once in the early years of Xianfeng, with more than 20 million people. After so many years of reproduction, it has to increase by at least 20 million, right?

But no one knows how much it has increased, and no one can calculate it!

Henan has a larger population than Zhili, so there are still about 25 million! Shandong has a slightly smaller population, which is about 20,000, and Shanxi’s Ministry of Revenue records that it has a population of 18 million.

Ninety million? This number just popped up in everyone's hearts and scared everyone to the point of being shocked!

With a total population of 90 million, how big is the affected area? The disaster in Zhili and Shanxi is relatively large, and two-thirds of the areas near the south have been affected.

Shandong and Henan are only affected in the northern part of the disaster area, and the population of the entire disaster area is at least 30 million!

If the rich and middle-class people are not included, the population will be reduced by 10 million, so the number of victims in the end...

Everyone's faces were pale. The 20 million people were affected by the disaster, and at least 20 million people were affected by the disaster. However, the court can only take out 200,000 stones of food to rescue the disaster. What is this enough?

Without four million stones of food, the current crisis cannot be solved at all!

Four million stones of grain, according to the metric ton algorithm of the Chinese people, it is 200,000 tons of grain!

Oh my God, where do you want to get so much food? 200,000 tons...

Zaichun also guessed the result, and he sighed helplessly, "Say whatever you have, it's not easy for me to know... I'm mentally prepared, you guys..."

Bao Jin was the chief military aircraft supervisor who could not escape at this time. "Your Majesty... the number of victims can only be estimated, and there is no accurate number at all. I calculated based on the population ratio and the area of ​​the disaster area. The poor people who were affected should be more than 20 million!"

"Preparation according to the minimum grain standard for half a month... We need four million stones of grain, and Chinese metric tons of 200,000!"

"It's really a drop in the bucket. We can only squeeze out 200,000 stones of grain, which is 10,000 tons. The gap is too big!"

"Didn't the local treasury store grain?" Prince Dun asked.

Baofeng said with a bitter face, "There is something in the account... but who dares to settle the accounts now? Even the accounts of the Thirteenth Warehouse of the Capital are not convinced!"

"Well, even if the local warehouse can raise some, allocate part from other provinces, and solve half of it... Then the court will have to prepare two million stones of grain!"

"100,000 tons! Two million stones... Where can we buy it? Before the New Year, when the rice price was the lowest, one stone of rice was six silver dollars. What about now?"

"The rice price in the capital has long risen to 12 silver dollars per stone. This is because our capital is afraid that the atmosphere is low... In the local area, haha, I'm afraid you can't buy a hundred silver dollars per stone!"

With a bang, the hall was like flying flies, "12 silver dollars per stone? Two million is 24 million silver dollars? My ancestors, where are we going to make money?"

"You are stupid. The price of 12 silver dollars is the capital. I'm afraid it will rise in the future and there will be no more head!"

Chengzhi shivered in pain and said in a low voice, "Or... or don't worry about the lives and deaths of these untouchables... Our court allocated 200,000 stones to provide relief at will, and it is worthy of them..."

"We can't steal so much food, so we can take it out for more than 20 million yuan in one breath to rescue the disaster? Let's stop doing anything, drink the northwest wind!"

Zai Chun glared at him fiercely, "Shut up your mouth! If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will copy your royal family to buy food!"

Chengzhi was so scared that he didn't dare to say a word! But Chengzhi didn't say that doesn't mean that everyone didn't think so. There seemed to be no other way to do it in an emergency.

From ancient times to the present, this natural disaster in China is to overcome the tribulation, and the people are working hard to repay blessings!

If you have life, you will die if you don’t have life! Many relief and disaster relief in history are all good things. The court can only open porridge sheds around the lowest level government # government in prefectures and counties!

How many people can live? The vast rural areas are giving up. When people die almost, the disaster will be alleviated!

This is also impossible. The lowest level of grassroots that the ancient dynasty governments sink to was prefectures and counties, and counties were the last link of the imperial court's control.

Administrative units that are smaller than the county are basically local clans, powerful people, and landlords discuss with the county magistrate to manage. As long as the local government has enough money and food, the county magistrate will turn a blind eye!

Most of the people are not prosecuted by officials, and the phenomenon of lynching is very serious.

During normal times, the government cannot go down to the towns and rural areas. Do you still expect them to go to the countryside to take the initiative to rescue disasters during major disasters?

People looked around and looked at each other with a lot of words. Prince Lao Li hesitated for a moment and still spoke, "Your Majesty... In fact, although Prince Zheng's words are unpleasant, there is no way to do it!"

"Please give a clear explanation... The disaster is so serious and the coverage is so large... It is true that everyone cannot save it, because food transportation is also a big problem!"

"What the court can do is to transport relief grains to the county town, and then open a porridge shed inside the county town... Disasters from all over the world come here to drink porridge and make the disaster happen!"

"It is impossible to expect dozens of yamen runners and dozens of gangs in each county to deliver all the food to the villages!"

"Food transportation is also expected to be transported by people. People who transport food also need to eat it! This is all cost..."

"What I mean is that the court will do its best to make food. When the time comes, you can live as much as you can in the disaster area. No one can guarantee that one will not die!"

"Hey... it's not that our court doesn't want to save people, we really can't afford more than 20 million silver dollars to save the disaster!"

"Besides... even if we take out more than 20 million silver dollars, can we buy food? Where can we get food? All four provinces have been affected..."

This sentence is about the point. Not to mention that you don’t have money, even if you have money, who do you go to buy food?

Zaichun's mouth was full of bitterness at this moment. He thought to himself whether he really wanted to give up these tens of millions of lives? There are too many, too many...

At this moment, the sky was gradually dimming, and all the ministers were waiting for the emperor's decision and could not be delayed anymore. After a while, the sky was completely dark and the follow-up work could not be carried out at all!

Zaichun felt a lot of pain but couldn't say it. At this moment, he regretted it very much. Why did he refuse the 3,000 tons of grain given by his master?

Where is the 3,000 tons of grain now? Can you still lick your face and ask for it?

"Fuqing... what can you do..." Zaichun asked tentatively.
Chapter completed!