The news of the drought in the Three Jin Dynasty quickly reached Zhu Rong's ears, even before the imperial court knew about it.
He had long prepared for the drought in Shanxi and sent spies to investigate the situation in advance.
Zhu Rong sighed. It was just as he had expected. Right now, the most important thing was to deal with the incoming large number of refugees.
Whether it was building asphalt roads, building houses to earn money, or building King Qi's mansion, the priority had to be pushed back.
Zhu Xiong only knew that there would be a great drought in Shanxi, but he did not have the confidence to know how many refugees would come and whether the food he had prepared could cope with them.
This was different from a family eating. This was tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of mouths!
On the one hand, Zhu He joined forces with the governor of Jinan, Tie Xuan, to collect the king's tax and send all the grain he had to Qingzhou.
In Tie Xuan's eyes, it was just a small action of a greedy prince and he didn't take it to heart.
As a vassal king, what was the hurry to collect the king's tax? The tax paid to the imperial court had not even begun. However, Tie Xuan knew that he had also benefited from King Qi's glory. It wouldn't be long before Zhu Yuanzhang's praise would come. He might even be promoted and enter the court. This was all related to the bumper harvest of potatoes.
Hence, they cooperated very well.
On the other hand, Zhu Xiong sent out soldiers to cut down wood deep in the mountains. He was preparing to build a porridge stall and temporary residence.
Once the refugees arrived, they were not allowed to enter the city.
Once a large number of refugees flooded into the city, it would trigger a large number of conflicts, causing public security, plagues, and other uncontrollable situations. Therefore, the refugees had to be properly settled outside Qingzhou City.
Once the refugees of the Three Jin entered Qi, they would beg from the west to the east.
No matter which prefecture or county it was, it would definitely not be able to take in so many refugees.
The refugees would head east and arrive at Qingzhou City. He wanted to settle all the refugees outside Qingzhou City and not allow them to continue spreading east to ensure the overall stability of the land of Qilu.
At the same time, he had the caravan contact the landowners and farmers who had signed the contract earlier. After the second harvest of the potatoes, they would immediately send 30% of the profits, as well as the king's tax, to Qingzhou City as soon as possible!
Now, in the land of the Three Jin, the disaster was only confirmed. The people had not yet become homeless. When they arrived in Qi, the second harvest of potatoes would probably be finished.
At the same time, he invited all the doctors from the counties east of Qingzhou City to Qingzhou City in case of emergency.
Even if he planned ahead, there would definitely be many victims who would starve to death or die of illness. Even if it was winter, it might not be resolved. If not, many people might even freeze to death.
They had to prevent the plague from spreading.
And all his actions had to be supported by silver.
He was also looking forward to the 200,000 taels of silver that he was about to receive. He planned to use this 200,000 taels of silver to purchase a large amount of food to deal with the disaster.
This year was considered a bumper harvest year for the land of Qilu. Although the harvest of crops such as wheat was not satisfactory, the potatoes that he had planned in advance would have a bumper harvest. When the refugees arrived, it was almost time for the sweet potatoes to harvest.
Now, the landowners and farmers who participated in the potato and sweet potato planting held 70% of the profits. They definitely could not eat it. They bought it with silver and tried to hoard as much food as possible before the merchants raised the prices.
Whether it was the taxes on potatoes or the grain purchased by the caravan of King Qi's manor, they were all sent back to Qingzhou City one after another.
At the same time, the price of food in the Qilu Great Land was also rising gently. It was not yet time for the refugees to enter, so most merchants had not reacted. When the refugees flooded in, the price would skyrocket.
At that time, even if they had money, they might not be able to buy food.
No matter what dynasty it was, there were always merchants who profited from disasters. It was impossible to control them. High profits would make people dizzy. Even if they risked their lives, they would not hesitate.
This was caused by human nature, and Zhu Rong could not change it. He could only hope that he had placed his chess pieces step by step in advance.
Marquis Jiang Yin was very dissatisfied with this." Your Highness, our cellar is already full. Why are we still buying so much food?”
"Father-in-law, is there still too much food?" Zhu Xiong explained with a smile.”
Marquis Jiang Yin didn't mind,"Rather than buying food, it's better to directly buy land."”
After all, this was an era where agriculture was the most important. Whether it was ordinary people, merchants, landlords, bureaucrats, or even royal relatives, their first reaction was to buy land when they had rich money. They would buy land until they exceeded the quota set by the imperial court.
In this day and age, good land was the real currency.
After Marquis Jiang Yin became famous, he bought a large amount of land for the Wu family.
Zhu Rong didn't explain much, but Duke Jiangyin urged Zhu Rong,"Quickly pack your luggage and prepare to return to the capital at any time. Since the Emperor has agreed to your return to the capital for marriage, you must seize this opportunity and try your best to stay in the capital and think of a way to enter the court again.”
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。