The eunuchs who came to deliver the imperial edict this time were Xiao Yang and Xiao Sang. Liu Quan'er had been on duty in the Communication Department earlier and was familiar with them. (eng.com) When the three of them met, they were extremely affectionate. Liu Quan'er went straight to the point: "Do you two have anything to eat?"
Xiao Sang was two years younger and had a lot of snacks, so he took out a paper bag from his arms, which contained two pieces of braised beef with soy sauce leftover from his lunch in Maozhen. When Liu Quan'er saw the braised beef in soy sauce, his eyes turned green. He immediately reached out to grab it, opened his mouth wide and ate one piece. There was also a piece of beef that was still wrapped and stuffed into his arms to hide it close to his body.
Xiao Yang and Xiao Sang were dumbfounded. Liu Quan'er smiled cheekily and pretended to be calm and explained: "I kept it for Mr. Tang to replenish food in the evening."
Xiao Yang asked Liu Quan'er privately: "Brother Liu, why do you look so ragged?"
Liu Quan'er couldn't help but complain: "There are refugees and hungry people everywhere. They follow the imperial envoy everywhere to buy rice and transport food. They eat and sleep in the open. They are always on the road. They eat and sleep in a tight schedule. They haven't bathed or changed clothes for almost a month, and they are still clean. Where to go?¡±
Hearing this, Xiao Yang had a look of sympathy on his face. He had originally envied Liu Quan'er in his heart for coming to Jiangnan to enjoy the benefits of natural treasures, but now he felt that he was extremely lucky to be able to return to the capital immediately after reading the imperial edict.
"Xiao Sang is two years younger, but he is not used to observing words and expressions. He secretly tugged on Xiao Yang's sleeves and asked him quietly: "Brother Yang, why doesn't Mr. Tang give us a red seal?"
Xiao Yang quickly covered Xiao Sang¡¯s mouth, dragged him to say goodbye to Tang Bin and Liu Quan¡¯er, and immediately got on his horse and left. On the way back, Xiao Yang gave him a slap with all his strength: "You're such a shameless big stick, you don't even know how poor those people are. If you don't run away quickly, he may also ask for our money." Let¡¯s go.¡±
This is really a good thing to say. The night before yesterday, Liu Quan'er was frightened awake by a nightmare. In the dream, Liu Quan'er actually starved to death. His face was pale and his whole body was emaciated. He was still clutching a small ingot of silver tightly behind his back. Recalling that scene, Liu Quan'er broke out in a cold sweat. He then raised his hand to touch the slightly raised lump at the bottom of his baggage, feeling a little resentful in his heart.
Because along the way, there were all the victims who were so hungry that their eyes were starving. Tang Bin, the imperial minister, was sometimes overflowing with kindness and would often share his own rations with others. The few things Liu Quan'er had in his baggage had already been taken care of by Tang Bin. They asked for it together and bought a lot of chaff in a market. Liu Quan'er also secretly hid a tael of silver with him for emergencies. Unfortunately, with the spread of famine and refugees, prices became more and more expensive. No matter how much money he had, it was still not worth half a pocket of food. What's more, there is only one tael of silver left, which cannot be exchanged for a few cooking cakes.
¡¡
" Here, Tang Bin and others are busy raising food for disaster relief. Emperor Kangxi, who is in charge of the Forbidden City, is also trying his best to recall the key points of disaster relief and construction in his previous life. Fortunately, the ancients were not pedantic. Although the ministers in Kyoto were a bit cunning, many officials were promoted from local subordinate officials and were not completely ignorant of various natural disasters.
For example, after deliberation, everyone at Taiyuan Hospital has petitioned the emperor to issue a decree. Taiyuan Hospital will organize manpower to purchase large quantities of licorice, forsythia, honeysuckle, polyporus, ganoderma, atractylodes, cinnamon, and firewood as soon as possible from the Gyeonggi region and Henan and Shanxi areas. Hu, clove, talcum powder, etc. are Chinese herbal medicines that have the effects of detoxifying, clearing away heat, dispelling plague, and dispersing evil spirits. Many disinfection and isolation items such as quicklime and fine cotton gauze have been prepared and shipped to the disaster areas in Jiangsu.
¡°After a major flood, there will be a plague.¡± This is actually common sense among doctors. When Emperor Kangxi had earlier popularized epidemic prevention knowledge to the royal doctors, he had emphasized various precautions regarding the approximate causes of the plague and its spread. For example, after a flood, the number of corpses of hungry corpses in the countryside increases. If they are not burned and buried in time, they will inevitably rot and pollute the water source. In ancient times, people did not understand the importance of drinking boiled water and maintaining intestinal hygiene. They often tried to make things easier and drank raw water directly or ate raw food. This reduced their resistance and increased the probability of infectious diseases. Ancient people believed that the cause of plague was caused by the invasion of evil spirits into the human body. The reason is roughly the same.
Now that Jiangsu is suffering from major floods, Kangxi quickly dispatched three groups of epidemic prevention teams, carrying a large number of masks, gloves, small iron pots (for heating and disinfection) and other items. Organized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a large number of civilians were recruited to transport a large amount of Chinese herbal medicine and epidemic prevention materials. Supplies rushed to the front lines of disaster areas.
The Ministry of Industry was originally busy preparing for the construction of several large-scale engineering projects, but for a while it was not very sensitive to the impact of the Jiangnan floods. Xu Yuanwen, the imperial censor of Zuodu of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, was a man of good temper and bold. He asked Emperor Kangxi in the court hall whether the project of building Zunhua Tangquan Palace could be temporarily suspended for a few months due to the shortage of labor and materials among the people, until everything calmed down a bit. Start work again. In fact, the implication was to tactfully remind the emperor that matters in the Cultivation Palace were too expensive.
After Xu Yuanwen, the censor of Zuodu, said that Kangxi just remembered that there were still several projects under construction. However, the purpose of building the Tangquan Palace in Zunhua was not only to send the Empress Dowager to recuperate and relieve the old lady's senile skin diseases. Another unknown purpose is to send Mrs. Wei there to wait for childbirth. Everyone can delay other things, but having a baby cannot wait until ten months. If you delay for a while, the secret will be exposed and you will not be able to leave the palace.
Kangxi sat on the dragon chair, frowning and saying nothing. Others only said that he was annoyed by Xu Yuanwen's bluntness. No one was willing to come forward to help, and they were all waiting to see the lively scene of the emperor admonishing Lao Xu. It's a pity that Kangxi's aura didn't match this line at all, and he was quickly calculating the pros and cons in his mind.
The project to build Zunhua Tangquan Palace has already started, and it has been budgeted for the preliminary project. Kangxi was not willing to do a loss-making business. Once the palace was repaired and put into use, the business lease fees and private land buyout fees charged by the newly built official towns along the way would You can make a profit immediately. And as long as the Emperor Kangxi's royal chariot went to the palace on an average every autumn and winter, the income from various projects, driven by the celebrity effect, would be about the same as the cost of the emperor's tour. In short, Kangxi's private treasury will never suffer losses.
After such calculations, Emperor Kangxi decided that there was no need to stop work on the Tangquan Palace. The Changchun Garden project was still in the early stages of the project, and the plan could be postponed temporarily without affecting the overall situation. However, the opinion raised by Xu Yuanwen, the imperial censor of Zuodu, also made sense. After the floods in Jiangsu, the refugees returned to their places of origin one after another, and they were bound to start building houses and homes. Engineering matters, including spring planting and plowing, required a lot of manpower and material resources.
Kangxi was silent for a long time, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration. He remembered that a project happened to be under construction. Kangxi had long wanted to stop the work to save money, but he could not find a suitable excuse. At this time, he suddenly remembered and immediately said: "Xu Aiqing The concerns are reasonable, but the Zunhua Tangquan Palace is for the Royal Empress Dowager's care and treatment, and all the expenses required are planned by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and work cannot be stopped. Since the people are in short supply of labor and materials, the project to repair Jingling Mausoleum has been temporarily suspended. Bar."
When the ministers heard this, they were all surprised, and their sympathetic eyes flicked over Xu Yuanwen. Old Xu was on the receiving end of a gun, and he actually bullied Emperor Kangxi in public to the point where he refused to even repair the cemetery. Jingling was the emperor. The mausoleum is no small matter. It seemed that the emperor was very angry.
Xu Yuanwen bit the bullet, bent over and complimented, "Your Majesty, the Holy Ming." In fact, where was Kangxi ever angry in his heart? People are thinking smugly: I am indeed a sage and wise man. Not only can you build a hot spring palace that you can enjoy now, but you don't have to continue to spend money repairing the tombs you will bury after your death. As long as nothing unexpected happens, I can live to be at least sixty years old, and it won't be too late to think about it after I'm fifty
Emperor Kangxi did not have a good rest for several days and nights, and he worked hard to process all the memorials. He was afraid that if he delayed the approval for even a moment due to his laziness, hundreds of poor people in the south might starve to death.
In addition, Qin Tianjian wrote a folding book, saying that he had chosen an auspicious day in the zodiac and respectfully invited the emperor to go to the Dragon King Temple to offer sacrifices in person. Kangxi was hesitant. It didn't rain at the beginning of spring, so he wanted to send the emperor to the Dragon King Temple to pray for rain. Now that there is too much rain in the south, flooding has caused disasters. He also wants to ask the emperor to go to the Dragon King Temple to pray for the rain to stop. Do you think the Dragon King is tired? I'm tired. The things I'm in charge of are too broad. The ancients firmly believed in this kind of activity of worshiping gods. Kangxi could not deny it openly, so he simply put the book aside for the time being and pretended to have omitted it.
¡¡
There are minor revisions to the first few chapters