After Transmigration: Building a Kingdom in Turbulent Times

Chapter 1292: Chapter 1258: Disaster Relief (Part 2)

The military general immediately said, "Since you feel guilty, then plant more. Both sorghum and millet can be increased."

"Millet is alright, but isn’t it too late to plant sorghum now?"

"It’s not too late, not too late," said the military general, "We asked the Ministry of Agriculture before coming, it’s around the time of grain in ear, and there’s still ten days. Anything planted now will be fine."

When the villagers heard this, seeing their piercing gaze, they could only nod reluctantly, "Alright then."

However, this means selecting more seeds.

Once the seeds are chosen, the household’s grain reserves become even less. By the time the grain in ear passes, many households will have no food left.

At this time in previous years, winter wheat would already be harvested. Even if it wasn’t a bumper harvest, it wouldn’t be entirely barren, but this year’s winter wheat...

Although the rain no longer fell continuously, it would come every few days, lasting until now. The winter wheat hasn’t received enough sunlight, so the spikes haven’t grown well, and many have gotten sick after the heavy rain, resulting in very little harvest.

Most households had a complete crop failure for winter wheat.

As a result, the grain price which went unnoticed due to being busy with the grain in ear skyrocketed, and the next day, the bulletin reported that Yuan Li arrested three families in Jixian for maliciously inflating grain prices. He confiscated the property of the three families and executed the leader on the spot, while the remaining male members of the family were conscripted into military service.

Of course, the bulletin reported this incident because someone accused Yuan Li of abusing private punishment and bypassing the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice in making judgments.

Zhao Hanzhang immediately handed the impeachment to Zhao Yunxin, who directly published it.

The Imperial Censor, in an attempt to highlight Yuan Li’s wrongdoing, detailed his errors but described the details of Yuan Li’s investigation and confiscation so vividly, including the punishment and the misery of those punished, as well as the innocence of those implicated, aiming to evoke Zhao Hanzhang’s sympathy.

Indeed, it aroused Zhao Hanzhang’s empathy, so she handed the article to the bulletin for publication, then demoted him from chief officer of the Investigation Department to deputy officer, ordering him to inspect counties and investigate illegal merchants hoarding for profit, as a way to atone for his crimes.

Then she ordered the county government of Jixian to rearrange mouth-share fields and permanent fields for the confiscated three families, and to halve the military service terms of their male members conscripted.

Once published, the common people did not fear Yuan Li but instead sympathized with him, discussing, "Such merchants who profit from national calamity deserve to be beheaded. General Yuan did nothing wrong, why is the Imperial Censor impeaching General Yuan?"

"The Great General is too soft-hearted, giving them fields. I say their entire families should be conscripted."

"These damned profiteers, the grain price has surged to thirty-eight cents a dou, our families can’t even afford food."

"You can buy together as a whole village, buy a shi at a time, it’ll be cheaper."

"I asked about the price, it’s not much cheaper, buying a shi is three hundred seventy-five cents."

"I think the trend suggests grain prices will rise further."

To the surprise of Luoyang’s people, the next day, the grain prices not only didn’t increase but dropped by one cent.

And as the bulletin spread layer by layer, local grain prices also fell back somewhat.

The people thought the grain prices had peaked and were starting to decline, so they were overjoyed. Only officials in the court and some scholars saw that some people were afraid.

This impeachment that Zhao Hanzhang published seemed to criticize Yuan Li on the surface, but it was actually threatening those hoarding and inflating grain prices.

The grain price in Luoyang paused briefly at thirty-four cents for two days, then subtly rose again to thirty-five.

The people sighed, glanced at the thin copper coins at home, refrained from the impulse to buy grain, and began to lead their families to pick wild vegetables at the edge of fields and mountain foothills.

As soon as there was a large number of people picking wild vegetables and leaves outside the city, Zhao Hanzhang knew at once. She summoned Ting He and Uncle Cheng, saying, "Notify all regions that our stored grain can now be sold, with limited price and quantity—one dou of grain for twenty-two cents, each person can only buy one dou at a time."

Ting He and Uncle Cheng nodded in agreement.

Ting He mainly stayed in Luoyang, while Uncle Cheng went to inspect surrounding counties. Of course, this message was not sent by people, but by telegraph, with Uncle Cheng leaving after receiving the message.

After instructing Ting He, Zhao Hanzhang called for Ji Yuan and Chang Ning and other ministers, saying, "The court’s disaster relief grain can now be distributed."

Chang Ning, who had long proposed distributing disaster relief grain, breathed a sigh of relief and immediately went to make arrangements.

They were already prepared, the regulations were set long ago, and the manpower was readily available—students from the Imperial College and various academies.

The disaster relief grain didn’t need to be transported from a different place; when purchased, Chang Ning had already calculated for local storage, with the Ministry of Revenue dispatching personnel to inventory it and soldiers to guard it.