In the 13th year of Chongzhen, from March, there was only one word "drought" in the north and south of the Yangtze River. It was often three or four months, or even five or six months. In history, this year was the year of the rise of bandits such as Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and finally it was because of the severe drought that millions of people lost their livelihoods, and millions of people became the continuous source of troops for bandits.

These refugees became the last straw that broke the Ming Dynasty.

Since early April, a number of refugees have begun to flow in Shaanxi, Henan, Beizhili and other places. They left their hometowns and begged along the streets, hoping to survive. I don’t know how many people are starving on this road, and I don’t know how many people are on the way to escape from famine.

It is even more common for children to eat each other and sell themselves to bury their father. The so-called lucky few have become slaves, more of them have become hungry, or become bandits, and those who survive by chance in the future become members of Li Zicheng's army.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty did not always ignore them. The Ming Dynasty had always had a tradition of helping refugees. At the beginning of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang set up a charity house in various places to accommodate disaster victims, and helped the orphans, poor, disabled and helpless people, and set up a tomb tomb to bury the remains. During the Yongle period, Zhu Di also set up a canteen in various places to help refugees. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, he also set up porridge factories to help disaster victims. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, as the imperial court treasury became more and more difficult, he was powerless. Even if the court squeezed out thousands or tens of thousands of taels of silver, such a little money was just a drop in the bucket for millions of refugees.

Either starve to death or rebel.

It seems that refugees have only two ways to go, at least in history, they only have two choices.

However, now, refugees seem to have another choice - I don’t know when, especially as merchants from all over the country spread the news that Prince De opened a porridge factory in Shandong and could survive after he went there, thousands of refugees walked from all over the place toward Shandong every day.

On the official road leading to Shandong, groups of begging refugees could be seen everywhere. They dragged their children and daughters, holding broken empty bowls with their families, begging along the way, and walked towards Shandong.

Arriving in Shandong means life! It means life!

Of course they cannot enter Shandong directly. I cannot enter Shandong from the official road. There are refugee resettlement sites on both sides of the road, but no one will avoid it because food will be provided there.

Because there are too many refugees, the refugee resettlement office only gives porridge, but it is just a porridge that holds life. But even a bowl of clear pea porridge that can see the bottom means life and hope for refugees.

In fact, for refugees, resettlement can not only provide life-saving porridge, but also very safe. There is no kingly law among refugees. In order to survive, people can do whatever they want. The strong can bully the weak, rob property, and even rape orphan widows in public, which is very common.

When people are on the verge of despair, they never know what they will do. After all, human nature is evil.

However, here, let alone bullying the weak, you have to line up even if you receive porridge. If you see someone rushing in line, the village soldiers will pick up the spears in their hands and go forward with the hardwood gun bar and beat them up without any mercy.

Almost every day, people who take the lead in looting are beaten. If they dare to resist, it will not be as simple as sticking on their body, and they may even be directly rectified on the ground.

"…Those who gather in the resettlement office will cause trouble will be killed!"

The village soldiers riding on horseback ran around the team of refugees, shouting loudly, and the spear in his hand stabbed a bloody head.

Use heavy sanctions in troubled times!

In order to avoid refugees becoming bandits, an iron fist is the only choice to protect the vast majority of people, and it is even the best choice.

Facing his bloody head, most of the refugees outside the resettlement office were frightened and honest. Even those who were unruly would become docile. After all, in the face of power, most people would choose to remain silent.

First check in to the record book and then get the license plate, and then queue up for dinner. Because there is enough supply, there is no need to rob. Therefore, refugees can also voluntarily line up.

"Where is the name?"

"Li Liujin, Huai'an Prefecture, Nanzhili..."

...

When the refugees were registering in the resettlement office, there were several scholars next to the resettlement office, looking at the scene in front of them with a serious expression, watching the refugees enter the resettlement office in an orderly manner.

They were just watching so quietly, but they seemed to be watching something incredible, even incredible in their eyes. After a long silence, Huang Zongxi asked.

"Young Master, if everyone in the world sets up resettlement offices like Shandong to resettle refugees, how could there be a scene where "a thousand miles of barren land, a million refugees, and thieves are rising" now?"

Qian Bangju nodded and sighed.

"But even so, there are also rumors in various places that Prince De helped the people and bribed the people's hearts."

"If you have to abuse the people with my Ming Dynasty, you will be considered a royal family?"

Huang Zongxi sneered.

"If my Ming Dynasty royal family was like Prince De, how could the situation in the world be like this? You and I went north from Nanzhili, where is the world? Like Shandong, although it was a severe drought, there were no thieves and no refugees everywhere..."

"Hey, there is only one Shandong."

Qian Bangqian's long sigh made the scholars around him shook their heads and sigh. As scholars, they knew why Shandong was so unique. If Prince De had not had the arbitrary behavior in Shandong, I am afraid that the current Shandong would be thieves and refugees everywhere.

“What a pity…”

Huang Zongxi couldn't help but sigh. Perhaps only he knew in his heart why this sigh came out.

"Yes, it's a pity..."

After sighing, the few people continued to go north along the official road. In fact, when they looked north, they walked on the canal. However, due to the severe drought, the canal was cut off, so they could only go north along the official road. However, because of this, they had to see Shandong, which was like a large construction site.

Because the official road is being renovated, I can walk and stop along the way and see people everywhere, dragging huge stones tossing the official road. The continuous straw huts on both sides of the official road are the residences of craftsmen. You can also hear the laughter of women and children in the huts. If you don’t know, you may think this is a market village.

When they passed by the "village", they paid special attention to the women and children in the "village". Compared with the yellow-faced refugees in the resettlement site, although their clothes were worn, their faces were a little bloody.

After walking around the "village", Huang Zongxi, Qian Bangqi and others came to a tea stall on the side of the road. After ordering a few bowls of tea, Qian Bangqi asked while serving tea.

"Brother-in-law, how much does these people have to work on the construction site for a day?"

"Wage?"

"Just say that they are not given wages on this construction site?"

"Wage, is it useful to pay wages?"

The old man who sold tea was stunned and asked back.

"Young Master, do you know, what is the price of grain on this street now?"

“Grain price?”

Qian Bangqian was stunned for a moment, and Huang Zongxi on the side said:

"At least it should be three or four taels per stone."

Speaking of this, he stopped, stared at the people working on the construction site, and said in surprise:

"Can't it be that the people on this construction site don't pay wages? They only pay porridge?"

"It's not about serving porridge, it's about giving food, one and a half pounds of grain a day!"

The tea-selling father-in-law looked at the construction site and sighed.

"These people are meeting good people. If our prince was not kind and righteous, they would have obtained so much food, one and a half pounds a day. This is the wages of a person, and it is clearly the food for them to support their families. Look..."

The father-in-law pointed at the wooden boards in the distance and said.

"If someone needs money, take the grain there and sell it, how much can a pound of grain be sold? How many young men, these days, you can get silver with your food, but you may not be able to get food with your money!"

The father-in-law's words made them silent. At that time, money was indeed not necessarily allowed to be exchanged for food, but...

"I suddenly felt a little worried."

Suddenly Huang Zongxi said.

"What if one day the prince used up all the food, what would these people do?"
Chapter completed!