The disaster spread from south to north, affecting most of the Xuan Kingdom, and was not unserious.

Not only are there continuous heavy rains in the south, but there are also strong winds, cooling and snowfall in the north. Some people in the north who make a living by fishing and hunting have no way of living.

The Minister of Household Affairs said that this was a "national disaster", worse than anything worse.

Disaster relief and disaster relief have become the top priority.

It is well known how important the Chinese New Year is in the hearts of the people. As the saying goes: "After the Laba Festival, it is the New Year." Starting from the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, it is the time for the people to prepare New Year's goods, clean their houses, and prepare for sacrifices.

Now that it is the fifteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, allowing the people to "pass the new year smoothly" has become the top priority of disaster relief.

The most important thing is food.

The emperor could mobilize donations of money and materials, but there had to be a limit. Not everyone could afford a month's salary.

For many low-level officials, rent is almost their biggest expense and biggest burden in Kyoto. Even with a "double salary", if one month's post salary is donated, the remaining grade salary will not be enough to maintain their living expenses.

Especially at this time, food prices are soaring.

Therefore, this fundraising is limited to officials of sixth grade and above.

Therefore, the food raised in this way is not much, and it can only serve as a model for other regions across the country.

The intention was to mobilize civilian forces to help the imperial court share the burden of disaster relief. This was called "persuading points" in Daxuan, which meant persuading the people to help each other.

However, granaries in various places were severely damaged, and the country's grain reserves were not enough to sustain such a large-scale relief effort, so grain had to be collected from the private sector.

This kind of "raising" is not free, but the state purchases food from those who have food at a certain price. This price is usually slightly higher than the normal price, which is also called "persuading people to sell".

Food is as good as gold during the disaster. In just a few days, the price of 300 wen per pound of rice has soared to 400 wen. Who will sell it at a fair price? If there is really cheap food, grain merchants will fight for it!

Under such circumstances, when the emperor heard that the jade river material had been sold for two million taels of silver, he had to temporarily put aside his worries about this "shutdown" behavior.

Because food prices are really difficult to control, more money can buy more food.

If tough measures are used at this time to attack unscrupulous grain dealers to control grain prices, it will easily lead to unrest, and even cause the Voss country to take advantage of others' danger and add insult to injury.

Since the means cannot be "quick, ruthless and accurate", more money has to be paid. In this way, the fourth prince turned thirty carts of stones into four million taels of silver, which can be said to have solved an urgent need.

What is the concept of four million taels of silver in Daxuan?

Based on the current price of 400 wen for a dou of rice, that is ten million dou of rice; one dou weighs about twelve kilograms. If you don't have enough to eat and just want to avoid starving to death in the cold winter, then about one dou of rice per person per month is enough.

In other words, four million taels of silver, based on the current price of rice, is enough to feed tens of millions of people for a month.

Coupled with the adjustment of national grain reserves, the food needs of the hardest-hit areas can be guaranteed.

Of course, just one month's worth of food rations is far from enough for disaster relief, because people can't live for just this month, but at the very least, we can survive this new year.

Therefore, the first thing the court needs to do now is to restrain grain merchants and control grain prices while purchasing grain.

But there is also a contradiction here. Since the Voss Kingdom, which has a deadly feud, is worried about adding insult to injury and dares not to severely punish the unscrupulous grain merchants, the intensity of controlling grain prices is not enough.

It is already a great effort to prevent it from rising again.

At the same time, in order to prevent civil strife in the disaster area and to prevent Voss from taking advantage of the situation, the imperial court ordered the garrison troops in various places to strictly guard against the disaster, and the border troops were required to intensify border patrols.

But as a result, the army's food and grass needs also became a big gap.

The result is that those who have grain in their hands will not sell it. Who knows whether the price of grain will return to normal?

"Persuading divisions" and "persuading others" did not work well, so the imperial court planned to forcibly apportion the money to "groups with spare capacity".

*************

"What? Are you asking for food from us?" A businessman's voice suddenly became louder. He was the second owner of the Xicheng pawn shop.

In a private room on the second floor of Blue House, four businessmen-looking people gathered here, one of them was Mr. Qin.

"I heard that too." Mr. Qin gestured to a few people with his wine glass, but unfortunately no one responded. They were shocked by the news brought by Mr. Qin.

Second Master Qin said: "Today I went to the 'Golden Jade Mantang' to ask the craftsmen to help unpack some pieces of jade ore I bought, but there were too many people waiting in line;

I heard someone say that the imperial court is about to levy grain from us businessmen, and each family must pay at least fifty dan;

When we sell rice, the court will charge us 2,050 fen per stone; if we don’t pay for it, we will pay 4,100 fen per stone.

It is also said that each family should not be less than one hundred dan, and those who run a farm will be taxed as "ten taxes and one tax", but I don't know whether the news is true or not."

"Jinyumantang" is Mrs. Hong's shop. It is now the largest jewelry store in Kyoto and has long replaced the former "Yongxingsheng".

Wu Jichang's daughter-in-law's dowry shop, "Yongxingsheng", has long been transformed into the Kyoto branch of "Sanshun Escort Bureau" under Zheng Xiaorou's control.

The second owner of the pawn shop was angry: "Is it over yet?!"

The owner of the tea shop was obviously more interested in stones. He was the first to care about the results of Mr. Qin's stone analysis: "Has Mr. Qin prescribed one full of meat?"

Second Master Qin smiled bitterly: "I am a foreigner with a small business, but I am not as rich as you. If I buy the big ones, I will naturally have the opportunity to buy meaty ones;

I bought three small pieces, which weighed more than 50 kilograms together, and I only solved one stone, which was nothing, just a stone."

Tea shop owner: "Why only one piece?"

Second Master Qin: "There are so many people waiting to unravel the stone in the 'Full Hall of Gold and Jade', and I can't afford to wait;

Later, their store clerk told me that the shop called "Xiaoxuzhuchao" across the street specializes in jewelry cutting and polishing. Their tools are good, so I went there;

But there were a lot of people queuing up there, so I untied one piece, which was just a broken stone. I spent so much money in vain. I felt bad and didn’t want to waste any more time, so I left.”

Hearing Mr. Qin say "break the stone", several bosses looked at each other.

Second Master Qin then asked: "Where are you guys? Have you found any good jade?"

The owner of the tea shop said: "How much did you spend on the two remaining stones? I will buy yours for the same price, okay?"

Second Master Qin: "Why? Those two stones look similar to the one I untied. They are probably broken stones as well. Why do you still want to buy them?"

The owner of the tea shop: "To tell you the truth, my family bought a lot of stones this time, but none of them were of good quality. I suffered a big loss;

The rest of us plan to pick up the cheap ones from the remaining unopened stones, and after the Chinese New Year, we will go to the south to do some digging and get back the money."

Mr. Qin: "That's it...that's a way. Thank you for taking care of me, a foreigner, otherwise I won't be able to live a steady life in the New Year;

However, you guys are really wealthy, why do you still want to spend money to collect rocks at this time?"

Tea shop owner: "What do you mean, Mr. Qin?"

Second Master Qin said: "If the court really wants to levy grain, isn't it just to compare expenses?" After a pause, Second Master Qin said: "My little family is angry, dozens of stones of grain are not worth anything, how can you

The position is worthy;
Chapter completed!