Chapter 907 - 806: Not Good

Chapter 907: Chapter 806: Not Good

Prince Cheng’s expression didn’t look good either.

This was not Yunzhou, not that Yunzhou where everything moved at his command.

He had dealt with a batch of corrupt local officials, but there were still some local officials with no obvious handle on them; some even did real work and were competent. Still, one mustn’t underestimate these local officials.

Which local official hadn’t come up through the imperial examinations? Who wasn’t selected and appointed by the Ministry of Personnel in the Capital?

His elder and younger imperial brothers had long since used various means to draw people to their own sides! Even in a single Baoshan County, from the Prefectural Governor down through three Magistrates and nine County Magistrates, Prince Cheng had removed four corrupt law?bending ones; among the remaining, most belonged to one faction or another, and among those truly unaffiliated, who just did practical work, there were actually only two.

So long as they had a faction, they would naturally help their own patron do things.

Although it was obvious that Prince Cheng had been forced out of the game twenty?two years ago and had no share in that position, they still didn’t want his assignment done beautifully.

In fact, disaster relief itself is exhausting in mind, body, and spirit; it really can’t be called a good posting. But that is only for Prince Cheng; when the other princes come to "oversee" disaster relief, they do not have it so hard.

For example, the last time the Crown Prince did disaster relief, all the work was done by the people under him. He only concerned himself with eating, drinking, and having fun, occasionally showing his face and saying a few perfunctory words. Not only was he idle, he was idle enough to start scheming out of sheer boredom; he even dared to forcibly take a peasant woman, and dared to silence an entire family by killing them!

Even Prince Li, who had also been in charge of disaster relief, as well as Huangfu Yuxuan in a past life—others handled the actual matters while they only took charge of counting the silver.

If there were a million taels of relief silver, then by the time it passed through their hands, if they didn’t skim two or three hundred thousand taels to fatten themselves up, it wouldn’t count as "disaster relief."

But Prince Cheng was different. This time, no matter how serious the disaster, as soon as the Ministry of Revenue heard that Prince Cheng was in charge of relief, they immediately began to complain to the Emperor, saying everything cost money and they truly couldn’t allocate more silver; there were only two hundred thousand taels.

Two hundred thousand taels sounds like a lot, but two?thirds of all of Qingzhou had been struck by disaster. For such a vast region, with so many victims, it wasn’t exactly a drop in the bucket, but it was clearly far from enough.

The Emperor was likely not unaware that two hundred thousand taels were really insufficient for this disaster, yet he said nothing, as if producing two hundred thousand taels for Prince Cheng’s disaster relief was some extraordinary generosity. As for the time when Ningzhou’s flooding was not as severe, yet the Crown Prince had been given one million taels of silver for disaster relief, that he chose to selectively forget.

Indeed, the difference in treatment between a favored son and an unfavored one was like that between heaven and earth.

Of course, Prince Cheng’s exhaustion was not only because the silver was insufficient.

That, he was actually not worried about. As long as the Court’s initial allocation of two hundred thousand taels arrived, he could always make up the rest himself later. After all, he had a wife who was as wealthy as a nation, yet kept a low profile and never flaunted it.

He was exhausted because so many matters had to be done by himself. Prince Cheng had not hired a large retinue of Advisers to scheme and plan for him; he himself had no desire for that position. If this were Yunzhou, at a single word from him, there would be no end of people willing to be driven by him. But this was not Yunzhou; here, there were only people pulling him back.

The matter of the second batch of grain being robbed had not been made public.

But the consequences of the grain supply being cut off were very serious.

The grain in the city could only sustain them for two days, yet another batch of grain certainly could not be assembled and delivered within two days. Helpless, Prince Cheng could only order that the current grain be stretched out, that it must at least last six days.

At times like this, the importance of manpower and unity became clear. If this were Yunzhou, how could such ridiculous things happen?

These people pulling back on his sleeves still clung to their own selfishness even in the face of such a major matter; he truly wanted to throw each and every one of them into prison. Had it been him twenty?two years ago, he certainly would have done so. But now he acted steadily and no longer resorted to killing so easily.

Because the grain had to be stretched, the daily two meals were reduced to one; after two days, even that single meal became much thinner.

Looking at the gruel that had become far more watery, the victims could not help but develop new suspicions in their hearts. Was this imperial envoy also just putting on a show for the first few days? How long had it really been? Nine days— not even ten— and those fine?sounding words from before were already being discounted.

But what about those elderly, weak, women, and children who had little labor capacity? Did the imperial envoy think they were useless and intend to starve them to death?

Or did this imperial envoy feel that nine days of surface work was enough, and he could now become like those corrupt officials of old, no longer treating commoners as human beings?

More and more people began to speculate. No one knew whether some were deliberately stirring trouble, or whether this panic had truly begun to spread among the victims and was gradually being exaggerated more and more.

When Xia Wenjin heard of this, she was also surprised. She sent the brothers of Feiyun Pavilion’s Feige Hall to investigate, and naturally learned the inside story: the disaster relief grain had been robbed by rioters en route, and now there was essentially no grain left in the city.

The leader of the rioters who had seized the relief grain was surnamed Kong. He commanded more than five thousand men and had already gathered a bit of momentum. They were now recruiting on a large scale. The Government’s disaster relief had run out of grain, but they had it; anyone who followed them and worked well would henceforth be a "brother." As long as one joined them, he could still receive grain to bring home to his parents, wife, and children! Blessings would be shared, hardships borne together; one person taking refuge meant the entire family would have food and wouldn’t starve!

After such propaganda, quite a few victims were indeed moved.

Their ranks swelled by a great deal; it was said they now had nearly eight thousand men.

This was clearly a move to raise the banner of revolt and change the dynasty!

Xia Wenjin knit her brows.

The one who’d come from Feige Hall was a Squad Leader named Jiang Yi. After delivering the news, he stood quietly. Seeing the change in Xia Wenjin’s expression, he asked, "Pavilion Master, are we going to move on this batch of grain?"

"Where is Prince Cheng’s Heir now?"

Jiang Yi replied, "After leaving the Capital, Prince Cheng’s Heir took the route through Liangzhou. The counties there had good weather and harvests last year; he personally went to supervise grain purchases in that region. He has already secured a batch of grain and is currently escorting it toward Qingzhou. By the time, he has not yet entered Qingzhou’s borders."

So although Huangfu Jingchen had set out earlier than she did, Xia Wenjin, traveling all the way here, had instead arrived first, because he had never gone to the disaster area first, but had gone to procure grain.

This was probably because he believed that in other matters of disaster relief his father, Prince Cheng, would handle things very well. Only, however capable a housewife, she cannot cook without rice; the root of it still lay in having enough grain. Only when there was food would the victims not starve to death, so he had chosen to start from that end.

If it had not been for this second batch of grain being robbed, then even with some skimming and delays on the Court’s side, with Huangfu Jingchen’s assistance, the disaster relief would indeed not have met any major trouble.

Of course, disaster relief itself was never a light assignment; fortunately, there were still established regulations and past experience that could be followed.

"That will take at least five days," Xia Wenjin sighed.

If they really waited those five days, the victims would inevitably be driven to a drastic reaction by the contrast between having porridge to eat and having no grain at all. All the more so with those rioters who feared the world might not be chaotic enough deliberately spreading news as they tried to recruit men. The situation was not good at all!