Chapter 894: How are we supposed to deal with this matter?—-2
Yu Dong was not exaggerating the situation at all, the incident with the Big Stone Village reminded her of the time when the government refused to hand the resources to the commoners, in response to this action of the government, many commoners from all over the city went ahead and attacked the government headquarters.
When this attack happened, Yu Dong was in another city and did not have any idea what happened in the town where she lived. It was only when she returned from her mission did she find out that the rebels took everything from the base and did not even leave a single thing behind.
Even finding a single grain of rice in that scenario was difficult. With their current situation being faintly similar to the one in the past, Yu Dong was afraid that the villagers will rebel as well.
" I know that as well," Magistrate Li was also aware of the happenings which were taking place in the town and the villages, she knew that the villagers no longer had any grains and those who were in the town had long stocked the grains but were refusing to take it out, making it impossible for her to deal with them.
Especially the grain shop owners, they have simply stocked all the grains in the warehouse and refuse to comply with her orders. In the past few weeks, she had made repeated investigations but she did not find anything which was why Magistrate Li was now getting antsy by the minute.
" Why not hand down the order that anyone who is found stocking or hoarding the grains will be sent to yamen for a month?" Yu Dong suggested as she looked at Magistrate Li who frowned and then shook her head,
" I cannot make such a biased law, the money which they used to buy the grains belongs to them. How can I ask them to cough the grains out?"
" Why not?" Yu Dong blinked her eyes and then continued speaking in a calm voice, " While I do admit that they used their own money to buy those grains, they have a responsibility towards their country as well. When their fellow county people are suffering how can they be selfish?"
Yu Dong curled the side of her lips and then stated firmly, " Magistrate Li, if you want to save the villagers and the town people who do not have grain stocked up, you will need to be more firm with everyone and people who like to act as hoarders should also be punished."
" Simply hand down the decree that every official need to distribute ten catties of flour, along with 40 catties of dry grains and 20 catties of rice. Its going to be spring soon and the villagers cannot be abandoned, don't forget that these grains were offered by the farmers who worked hard by crouching in their fields. If they die what will the officials do next year?"
She paused and added, " I will do a good deed, even though I am not an official I will still hand you half of the number of grains which I mentioned such that you can distribute it to the commoners. I would have handed more but I cannot since I have my villagers to take care of as well."
Yu Dong had hoarded enough grains as well but unlike those selfish and greedy officials, she was willing to share it with others. Her hoarding of grains was completely different from those officials who did not even need so many grains but were still refusing to cough up.
When Magistrate Li heard Yu Dong's suggestion her eyes lit up with hope.
That's right as long as she could make everyone cough up just the right amount of grains, she did not have to worry about the villagers dying out of starvation.
" But what if they refuse?"
"Just tell them that they will be forced to give up on their title and position and will be sent to the farm lands to work since all the farmers will either die out of starvation or cold," Yu Dong shrugged as she ruthlessly spoke, she did not have an ounce of sympathy for those who cared about themselves alone.
Though now she was worried about the upcoming summers where locust plague will start, she needed to get past these winters first before anything else.
Magistrate Li also thought that what Yu Dong was saying made sense after all this matter was related to the harvest of the upcoming year and cannot ignore it.
Though Magistrate Li's expression was still heavy, she decided to use this method. Since those officials and the shop owners were not willing to listen to her when she was kindly asking them to hand the grains over, then she can only use this method to make sure that they will cough up everything.
" What brought you here by the way ?" Magistrate Li was done pondering as she turned to look at Yu Dong who was sitting in front of her. " I don't think that you came here because you wanted to discuss how to distribute grains?"
" No," Yu Dong smiled sweetly and then said in a heavy voice, " The reason I am here is because of the incapability of the imperial family. Because they did not hand over the disaster fund to you along with the grains, there is a group of villagers who started attacking the young children and mer. If I am not wrong they have eaten half of their own population along with a few kids from the neighbouring villages along with the ones in the town. Tell me how are we going to deal with this matter, Magistrate Li?"
Magistrate Li's hands trembled as she looked at Yu Dong who was sitting in front of her and waited for a long time for her to say that it was a joke but when Yu Dong did not say anything, Magistrate Li felt like hyperventilating.
Damn, those beasts!
The sourc𝗲 of this content is fre(e)webnovel