The twelfth day of the first lunar month.
The news of the Shaanxi earthquake, like thunder on the ground, exploded in the officialdom of the capital.
The news reached the capital during the day. Zhu Youtang was already preparing to take a nap. Xiao Jing and Li Rong appeared in Xinuan Pavilion with the report from the northwest region.
“Your Majesty, more than 5,000 houses collapsed, four people were injured, and one person died. All of them were people who did not listen to the local government’s instructions and entered the houses without permission. There were also cases where local officials made improper arrangements and the people were helpless. In a warm place, some officials and citizens knew that an earthquake was coming, but they had to go inside their houses to take shelter from the wind. However, they ran outside during the earthquake, which at least minimized the casualties."
Xiao Jing is here When I reported the incident, I also felt regretful.
The time and location have been calculated. Although the time is not specific, for the local people, as long as you prepare for two days, nothing major will happen.
But after all, this earthquake happened in the cold winter, and it was also on the first day of the Lunar New Year, so many people knew that an earthquake might come and had to run to places with roofs to cover their heads. Just to escape the cold.
Li Rong added, "In Yan'an Prefecture and other places, on the day of the earthquake, the weather was suddenly cold, and it even snowed in some places. The people had no use in the wild to keep out the cold."
The implication is not that the people are seeking death on their own, but that they all have a sense of luck and have no choice in the biting cold wind.
Zhu Youtang said with emotion, "Everything the imperial court can do has been done. If the news cannot be conveyed to the local area due to delays in the transmission of information, it is the fault of the imperial court, but in the end there has been no delay in the progress of disaster relief." How?" Xiao Jing said, "The local authorities reported that the earthquake relief work is still going on. Many people are now displaced, and some soldiers and civilians failed to transfer their belongings in time. There are also reports of livestock deaths and injuries. The city walls have also collapsed, and spring has not yet begun, so it is not easy to rebuild the houses."
Zhu Youtang was silent for a while.
Knowing that a disaster might occur, the first thing that came to his mind was to avoid casualties. As for how to provide disaster relief, even Zhu Youtang himself had not thought clearly about it.
After all, Shaanxi is still too far from the capital, and it is impossible for the emperor to allocate money and food from the capital for disaster relief. Water from afar cannot quench the thirst of the people nearby.
"I order that places affected by the earthquake in Shaanxi will be exempted from taxes and taxes for one year, and 200,000 dan of military rations will be transferred from Yansui to coordinate with the affected places to provide relief to the victims. Order the Chief Envoy of Shaanxi to send When people go to the local area, the Chief Envoy will assign officials to open warehouses in different prefectures and counties to release grain, and if the government offices have not collapsed, they will resettle the victims to prevent the occurrence of plague after the disaster."
Zhu Youtang I don’t have any good ideas, I just give instructions and arrangements as much as possible.
Xiao Jing asked for instructions, "Your Majesty, should we send people to Shaanxi to coordinate disaster relief and other matters?"
"Send from the capital?" Zhu Youtang asked coldly, then shook his head. , "It's too far away. This earthquake was just as Bingkuan predicted. The collapse of the house was the most fatal, with only a few casualties.People can be regarded as benevolent and righteous. However, Bingkuan also said that in the future, there will be a series of earthquakes in Shaanxi Province, so local officials must not take it lightly. "
There is no such thing as earthquake magnitude these days, but the magnitude of the Shaanxi earthquake was at least six or above, and there were also aftershocks.
The scope of the impact is very wide. He said that it is still the twelfth lunar month of winter, and the people are also very passive in avoiding disasters.
"By the way, build more straw sheds. "Zhu Youtang suddenly thought of something and added, "The Yamen's public house is no longer appropriate. In the past few years, Bingkuan prophesied that among so many earthquakes, this earthquake was the most serious. I suddenly forgot about what I had encountered before. So far, what to do. ”
Li Rong reminded, “Your Majesty, whenever earthquakes occurred in the past, no preparations were made in advance, and local disaster relief and other matters were all done in a hurry, and it took a long time for the news to come back. Also longer. Nowadays, the local area has already made preparations before the disaster, so even if it is a hasty response, it is definitely easy to do. ”
“Yes. "Zhu Youtang sighed, "But why do I still feel that I have no master after knowing this? Is it because I am not fully prepared?"
Li Rongdao, "Maybe it's because the local government is still not prepared when disaster strikes. It is sufficient because the local officials were slack in their official duties. It stands to reason that such an accurate earthquake prophecy should not cause any more casualties, and the local area should have made preparations in advance, and the resettlement of the people would be in order. It is definitely not As for what we are doing now, knowing that a disaster will happen, we still have to wait until after the disaster to make amends. "
"Yes"
Zhu Youtang seemed to have finally found the crux of the problem, and looked very angry and said, "I sent someone to notify the place one month in advance, even if there were delays on the road. I gave them at least half a month to prepare, and they were able to respond so hastily. I really admire those local officials."
Xiao Jing hurriedly reminded, "Your Majesty , even if local officials act improperly, they should wait until the disaster relief is completed before dealing with it. ”
“Yeah. After Zhu Youtang thought about it, he nodded reluctantly, "We should still send people to provide relief." When issuing the decree, I made it clear to the people in the Shaanxi Chief Envoy's Department that if trouble occurs in the area where someone is responsible for disaster relief, they will be investigated to the end and become a rule. I don't believe it. I have to beat a group of people hard. It will make the officials of the country know what it means to put the people first. If they can't even do this, what use do I want them to do?"
The emperor personally issued an order for disaster relief, but The timeliness is obviously inferior.
It takes at least twenty days for the news to come back.
After coming out of Xinuan Pavilion, Xiao Jing said to Li Rong, "Your Majesty has arranged it this way." The officials of the Shaanxi Chief Envoys Department went down to provide disaster relief. Did they ever think that if they waited for the news to arrive more than ten days later, then they would have to wait until after February, and what would be the point of providing disaster relief? /p>
Li Rongdao, "Perhaps His Majesty just wants to set an example with this. If there is an earthquake in the future, all provincial vassal offices mustImmediate dispatch and relief work, rather than waiting for orders from the court. "
"Alas," Xiao Jing sighed, "I'm afraid that the degree of disaster relief is not easy to control. In the past few years, the amount of grain stocks in various places in the northwest has been declining sharply. If they are less, they will be easily questioned by their superiors and become a stain on their official status. How many people will really take responsibility?"
Li Rong nodded and said, "Perhaps this also reflects that Cai Guogong is a A responsible person. He can completely pretend not to know about such things, so as not to cause trouble for himself, and he still has no hesitation to tell His Majesty clearly, so His Majesty relies so much on Cai Guogong."
Xiao Jing obviously doesn't want to hear it. Those words praising Zhang Zhou.
The more responsible Zhang Zhou is, the more he wins the trust of the emperor.
Xiao Jing has a history with Zhang Zhou. He is also very aware that he is gradually falling out of favor among the internal officials who are competing head-on. Xiao Jing is even thinking in his heart that maybe it won’t be long before his position as Chief of Ceremonies and Eunuch of the Eunuch will be given to someone else. What’s the point of me praising Zhang Bingkuan< /p>
The disaster relief document was immediately sent to the Hubu Yamen.
After the cabinet learned the news, Xie Qian also went to the Hubu Yamen to find Zhong Zhong on behalf of the cabinet. Talking about the relief work for the earthquake disaster in Shaanxi
Seeing Xie Qian's cautious look, Zhong Zhong couldn't help but asked in a low voice, "But I have to raise some matters with His Majesty because of this unusual disaster."< /p>
The implication is that you attach so much importance to it because you want to use this disaster to let the people below to impeach Zhang Zhou
Xie Qian said, "The Ministry of Revenue did not know in advance that Cai Guogong prophesied about the earthquake." "It's something"
Zhong Zhong nodded and said, "I've heard a little bit about it." However, His Majesty did not order the Ministry of Household Affairs to make preparations for disaster relief. ”
“Ahem. Xie Qian cleared his throat and said, "That's because in the past, no one would make preparations for earthquakes predicted in advance. You said that if this money and food were transported to Shaanxi, there would be another earthquake halfway through." If it didn't happen, who will bear the loss?"
Ji Zhongdao, "We can't expect to allocate money and grain from Taicang to provide relief for such a disaster. Is it possible that the local government is unprepared?"
Xie Qian sneered. He said, "This is interesting. As far as I know, the local government only informed the people about the earthquake, and did not even send anyone to mobilize in the houses. Only a few casualties were reported, but who knew that the remote farm Are there any widows or widowers who were not aware of the disaster, and no one even reported their deaths?"
"This"
Only then did Ji Zhong know that the original place was here When preparing for the earthquake disaster for the first time, he was so irresponsible.
Xie Qian said with emotion, "Perhaps he really relied on Cai Guogong Zhang's reputation. If the court didn't say that this came from him, the disaster would be a disaster." The local people probably didn't even pay attention to it. More than 5,000 houses collapsed, including city towers, city walls, and government houses. You can imagine the huge impact this disaster will have. Now I'm afraid that there are still cases of concealment at the local level. "
Zhong Zhongdao said, "Your Majesty does not seem to have summoned his ministers to discuss countermeasures.”
Xie Qian said, “Your Majesty probably knows that if something like this happens, the local government must save itself.” What Taicang, the capital, can only do is fill the vacancies in the local treasury. It also has to wait until the local treasury can first mobilize the Ministry of Household Affairs to report disaster relief matters at the rate of two taels of silver per household. ”
“Twenty taels per household affected by the disaster”, calculated in a few minutes, this is an astronomical figure.
Xie Qian said angrily, “It is calculated based on the collapse of the house, and the general damage to the house Yes, it depends on the location. Alas, it happened so suddenly that we don't know much about it, and we have to wait for the subsequent local report. ”
Zhang Zhou did not go out that day, and it was his holiday.
There was not much going on in Shang Ting Chu after the New Year. It was a rare day for him to take a day off, and he was enjoying the beauty at home. Wen Cun was holding a pot of tea in one hand and a book in the other.
He knew that Li Rong had come to the door in a hurry.
Zhang Zhou could only tidy up a little. , came out of the study and went to the front hall to see Li Rong.
"Mr. Zhang, it is about the disaster in Shaanxi. It may be more serious than you expected, but there was not much damage to humans and animals. Disaster relief and other matters are very difficult."
Li Rong combined the reports from several local authorities, the reports from the Shaanxi local supervisory censor, and the reports from the Chief Envoy, and handed them all to Zhang Zhou came to see it.
After Zhang Zhou read it, he said, “It’s beyond our reach to talk about disaster relief from thousands of miles away. ”
Wang Mingshan, who came out with Zhang Zhou, didn’t think much after hearing this, while Lin Yi turned red, put down the ginseng tea prepared for Zhang Zhou, bowed and left.
p>"Eunuch Li, use tea." Zhang Zhou pushed the ginseng tea over with a calm expression.
Li Rong said helplessly, "Sir, I can't take care of it at this time. "
Li Rong didn't come here just to drink tea.
Zhang Zhou said, "I also explained that I did everything I could do on the first day after returning to Beijing. It's no use telling me more. I don’t think His Majesty is asking me to issue a suitable disaster relief memorial.”
Li Rong thought for a while, and the emperor really didn’t “embarrass” Zhang Zhou so much.
Knowing that The mountains and rivers are far away, and the timeliness is very poor. In addition, Zhang Zhou has successfully completed even the prophecy of earthquakes, and he has been right in his words. This has to wait until afterwards to make amends.
" In fact, we are here more to inform Mr. Zhang that this is indeed the case. You don’t have to worry about any criticism from the outside world. "Li Rong is scheming and changes his mind quickly.
Zhang Zhou said, "That's good. If you don't blame me, then I will dare to mention it if I can speculate on related disasters in the future. But I'm afraid that it won't hit every time.
Li Rong said with a look of admiration, "Mr. Zhang, although our family has heard a lot about you in the past, we have never seen it with our own eyes. This time we have seen it. You said you are like this A loyal minister who is dedicated to serving the country and the people still cares about the rumors and rumors, not to mention that you are hit every time now, even if you can only hit once ten times a hundred times in the future, how can youThe local government dares not to comply with the regulations."
"Eunuch Li is exaggerating. If you can only hit once out of ten times, then I am no different from Hu Meng. I will not succeed in such an uncertain thing. That can. "Zhang Zhou seemed very calm.
As if he didn't feel at all how extraordinary it was that he could predict an earthquake in advance.
Li Rongdao, "Mr. Zhang, to be honest, His Majesty is very dissatisfied with the local disaster relief work and believes that the local authorities have failed to fulfill their duties as officials. What do you think should be the punishment for these local officials?"
Zhang Zhou said, "Your Majesty must want to wait until the disaster is over before punishing them."
"Yes. "Li Rong said, "After all, it is difficult to achieve effective replacement by temporary removal. It is better to let them take advantage of their crimes and make meritorious service. "
He was embarrassed to say that in fact this was Xiao Jing's suggestion.
Zhang Zhou flatly said, "I think if you want to punish, you can't tolerate it, otherwise I will do it in advance. Anyone who makes predictions will think that this group of people is messing around. Don’t wait until the disaster itself did not cause many casualties. On the contrary, the disaster relief was not considered appropriate, and some people died of cold and hunger, or even major disasters such as plague occurred.
“What will happen to those who do not pay attention to disaster prevention?” I hope they will work hard to provide disaster relief."
Li Rong was stunned for a moment after hearing Zhang Zhou's words.
After a while, he sighed, "That means you cannot tolerate adultery. ”
Zhang Zhou smiled and said, “That’s probably it. That's all I can do. After all, the decision is made by His Majesty. I'm afraid Eunuch Li and others will have to worry more about disaster relief. "Please remember to bookmark, the latest and fastest website without anti-theft and free reading