Chapter 901 Donating food
When 200,000 soldiers and horses from the capital went to Jiangnan, the emperor gave the army 20,000 tents. Chu Jingqi was shady. In order to stabilize the people and calm their hearts, he let the soldiers rest in the open air and let the people live in tents.
On this hot day in June, sleeping outside was more comfortable than sleeping in a tent, and the officers and soldiers had no complaints. Chu Jingqi not only won the favor of the officers and soldiers, but also made the common people say good things to him.
As for food...
Princess Qinghui lowered her voice and said, "Recently, rumors have leaked out in the capital, saying that starting from next month, the emperor will issue an order for us to donate food and materials. Your grandmother has ordered several village heads to collect the goods next month. Peanuts and soybeans, all donated.”
Peanuts and soybeans are short-term crops, and harvest will begin at the end of June.
Xia Zihan curled his lips and glanced at Princess Qinghui, "Your cousin is really extremely shrewd. He not only wants to get the name of a holy king, but also wants some blood from these wealthy families. Let him save a sum of money and always plot against these innocent wealthy families.”
"Huh, what are you innocent about? The country is in trouble and everyone is responsible. Why, Chu Yu, don't you want to donate food?" Qinghui glared at her. If she shook her head, she would pounce on her and teach her a lesson. Posture.
Xia Zihan blinked and said with a smile, "I have prepared the food a long time ago, and I am just waiting for the emperor's decree."
Having learned from the past, she still had a small amount of coarse grains left in her hand that she had not sold, and planned to donate them to the people in Jiangnan.
Princess Qinghui then grinned and said, "That's more or less the same." She added, "I heard that your Aqi is also quite powerful. After staying in Jiangnan for only a few days, the wealthy households in Jiangnan took the initiative to spend their personal savings. The grain that came down was given to the people, especially the richest man in Jiangnan, the Zheng family, who took the lead in donating one million kilograms of grain.”
Otherwise, her cousin would not be so careless. He has not issued an order to donate food to Jiangnan for so long. He is just waiting for Jiangnan to have enough food before sending it.
Xia Zihan knew about this.
Chu Jingqi mentioned something in the letter.
Rich households in the south of the Yangtze River did not donate food to the people affected by the disaster in vain. According to the amount of food they donated, next year, the court would reduce their tax on food accordingly. The more they donated, the more the tax would be reduced.
Which of the wealthy households did not have a few villagers to grow grain? Although the taxes collected by the court were not very heavy, they were still considerable.
If you donate part of the food this year, you can get more tax-free food next year, and you can also gain a good reputation as a good person for the country and the people. More importantly, you can also curry favor with Prince Chu of the Prince of Shang'an County. This account, Even a fool can figure it out, let alone a group of profit-seeking businessmen.
Take Zheng Wenting, one million kilograms of grain is less than 20,000 taels of silver. But next year, the imperial court will give him tax exemption for more than this amount.
Also, the Zheng family took the lead in donating food this time, which also won the praise of countless people. Chu Jingqi wrote a letter saying that since donating food, the number of people going to Zheng's shop to buy things has increased by three points. Therefore, Zheng Wenting came to the capital to hide. The disaster plan was also shelved, and he stayed in Jiangnan to fight the drought with the people. He also handed over more than 200 servants under his command to Chu Jingqi and asked them to dig water channels.
Xia Zihan and Chu Jingqi exchange letters every month. Xia Zihan knows everything about Jiangnan.
"By the way, Chu Yu, my sister-in-law gave birth to a nephew for me a few days ago. My mother-in-law happily held her grandson all day long and even arranged for the child to live next to her dormitory."
When Princess Qinghui talked about her happiness, she mentioned Princess Mingzhu again.
Ao Tianchen finally fell in love with Princess Mingzhu and became interested in her. This time, Princess Mingzhu was pregnant and wanted to arrange a marriage for him, but Ao Tianchen did not agree.
Ao Tianchen thought of the day when the palace was in chaos, and how his mother-in-law was almost killed by his father's concubine. Therefore, he was determined not to sleep in the same room and not give other women a chance to kill his legitimate wife and legitimate son.
Moreover, this obsession has always followed him, and because of this, he personally dismissed several of his previous roommates.
Princess Mingzhu was smart. She saw that he was repelling the marriage, so she didn't arrange any more maids for him, but she felt very happy in her heart.
There is no woman in the world who does not wish to have her husband all to herself. Nowadays, Ao Tianchen is inexplicably rejecting his concubine, and Princess Mingzhu is the happiest one.
When Xia Zihan learned that Princess Mingzhu had given birth to a son, she was happy for her, "When is the full moon? We haven't seen her for a year. I should also go to the Second Prince's Mansion to visit Princess Mingzhu."
"Let's wait until the full moon banquet is held. Let's go together." Princess Qinghui said with a smile.
Princess Qinghui asked Xia Zihan many more things about Chu Yuexi, and she had to say goodbye and go home when it was getting dark.
That night, the emperor's secret guards came quietly to look for Xia Zihan.
He brought a thick stack of banknotes and handed them to Xia Zihan, "Princess, this is the banknote prepared by the Emperor. It is the number agreed upon by the Princess and the Emperor. Count it."< br>
Xia Zihan took it and put it directly on the table without counting, "I believe the emperor, he will not give less money."
Especially at this time, when Dasheng needs food the most.
Due to the drought, the price of grain outside has also increased by nearly half. In the past, rice cost nine cents per catty, but now rice costs sixteen cents per catty, and she still pays the usual market price of nine cents per catty. Selling it to the emperor meant she lost nearly half of her money.
If the emperor still gives her less money, then if the emperor wants to buy grain from her in the future, she will definitely not sell it.
And she sold it so cheaply, so she didn't take the opportunity to make a fortune from the emperor. First, she wanted to relieve the emperor's urgent need and let the emperor owe her a favor.
The emperor's favor cannot be bought with any amount of money.
Secondly, I also want to help a group of people in Jiangnan. I don't want the people in Jiangnan to experience the same miserable and bloody things in my previous life.
Especially the plague.
Thinking of the plague in his previous life, Xia Zihan felt horrified and shuddered.
Chu Jingqi and Chu Yuexi are both in Jiangnan, as well as dozens of stewards and servants under her. Once a plague breaks out in Jiangnan, she will worry that they will be infected.
Therefore, she sold half of the grain and gave half to the emperor, hoping that the emperor would transport it to Jiangnan as soon as possible to prevent the people in Jiangnan from starving.
Jiangnan is so hot that it cannot kill people.
Otherwise, once the corpse rots, it will easily cause plague.
The secret guard spoke again, "The emperor said, let the princess send someone to prepare all the food and hand it over to Zeng Zhifu in Huaihuaicheng. Zeng Zhifu will arrange a ship to send the food to the south of the Yangtze River."
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Shipping from Huaicheng to Jiangnan is much faster than traveling by land. It takes a month to reach Yunzhou by land, but only half a month by water.
Early the next morning, Xia Zihan sent someone to Tuihuai City and notified Tianzhuangtou and Zeng Yiran in Tuihuai City to discuss the matter.
(End of chapter)