When Tao Hongfang came here, he was only thinking about how to organize food relief so that the refugees could survive, but he did not carefully consider the disadvantages. After listening to Fan Chengchao's words, he realized that his idea was indeed simpler.
With the current number of refugees outside Nanjing, it is obvious that the government cannot accurately distribute the required rations to everyone. For the sake of efficiency, it can only adopt the current method of centralized distribution of food at fixed points and rations.
While there is no guarantee that every refugee will have enough to eat, doing so will ensure that as many refugees as possible have access to food.
If rice is distributed directly to refugees, I am afraid that some people's rice will be snatched away by able-bodied people before it is cooked into the pot.
The government's manpower is limited, and it is difficult to do everything personally. However, the amount of food distributed to each porridge station every day is basically fixed. How many pots of porridge can be cooked? What is the consistency? Is sand and gravel mixed in to balance the weight? That is also obvious at a glance.
As long as the government supervisors are more responsible and pay closer attention to the few places where porridge is given out, although we cannot say that we can completely eliminate corruption, we can at least ensure that the grain merchants, transporters, and temples that provide porridge are not so easy to play. tricks.
Fan Chengchao introduced the situation while leading the way. Tao Hongfang nodded repeatedly, thinking that fortunately these subordinates had experience in this field and were fairly reliable in doing things. If you let yourself handle relief matters from the beginning, it is inevitable that something will be missed.
About half a mile away from the Dabaoen Temple, Tao Hong conveniently saw several long queues of refugees waiting to receive porridge outside the temple. There were probably two to three thousand people in the queue.
Tao Hongfang asked: "When does porridge start here?"
Fan Chengchao responded: "Sir, the Dabaoen Temple gives out porridge twice a day, at noon and at Youshi."
Tao Hongfang raised his wrist and looked at his watch. It was only after nine o'clock in the morning, and there was still an hour before noon. Then he asked again: "It's still early for porridge soup, and they are already in line?"
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Fan Chengchao said: "Sir, you will definitely not be full after just two meals of gruel. Some people look forward to the next meal after finishing the first meal, and no one knows if there will be another meal after this meal... … They are just afraid of being hungry. For them, food can only be felt when it is in their stomachs, and the queue starts at dawn.”
Tao Hongfang was inevitably a little sad when he heard this explanation.
These refugees may have been ordinary people with families and property before the outbreak of the war, but now they are displaced and can only rely on the government to distribute relief food to survive. Moreover, they cannot see the hope ahead, so naturally they feel no sense of security. Word.
Fan Chengchao seemed to have anticipated his boss's thoughts and continued: "Sir, this is actually a good thing for maintaining order in the refugee camp. If you think about it, these people have come to line up early, so they don't have the time to worry about other things."< br>
Tao Hongfang nodded and continued to ask: "Are these people who maintain order in the team recruited from refugees?"
He saw some people with red cloth hoops on their arms in the team, who had been slowly patrolling back and forth. But looking at his clothes, he doesn't look like one of his own.
Fan Chengchao responded: "Sir, we don't have enough manpower to deploy here. After all, we have to recruit some people to do things for us."
Thousands of people are waiting to receive porridge at the gates of various temples every day. If no one maintains order, these refugees will not wait in line for hours. Someone must use the status granted by the government to stop those who try to jump in line and cause trouble. . The management committee's yamen has extremely limited manpower. If the Haihan Army is asked to do this kind of work, it will obviously be overkill. If we hire people from the city, we will have to apply for a separate budget. Therefore, recruiting people from the refugee camp locally is the only way to do this. is the simplest solution.
The work these people do is very simple. They just maintain order in the team and help carry things, so they don't need to be paid. They just need to arrange a little more food for them every day to keep them full.
Seeing Tao Hongfang walking slowly surrounded by a group of naval and Han troops, the refugees in line didn't know who he was, but seeing Fan Chengchao following closely behind, they also knew that this young man was by no means an ordinary person. Quickly and consciously retreat to both sides to make way.
After hearing the news, Master Hongjin, the abbot of Dabaoen Temple, led a group of monks out of the gate to greet Tao Hongfang's arrival.
"I didn't know that I was a bit disappointed in your visit today. Please forgive me."
Tao Hongfang quickly stretched out his hand to support Master Hongjin, who was bowing and saluting, and responded warmly: "Master, you are so polite. I also made an impromptu decision to come to Dabaoen Temple today to have a look, so I didn't let anyone inform me in advance."
Master Hongjin lowered his eyebrows and seemed to have no airs at all, but Tao Hongfang did not dare to look down on him. Being the abbot of the Great Baoen Temple is not a job that ordinary people can do.
Dabaoen Temple is one of the oldest temples in the local area. It is said to have been built during the Eastern Wu Dynasty by Sun Quan for the monks of Kangju State. It is also the first temple in the Jiangnan area and has been around 1,400 years ago. .
This temple was first named Jianchu Temple, and was renamed Changqian Temple in the Jin Dynasty. Later, it was renamed Baoen Temple, Tianxi Temple, Cienjing Zhongjiao Temple, etc. many times in subsequent dynasties.
During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, this temple was destroyed by fire. Zhu Di, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, organized the reconstruction of the Dabaoen Temple and the nine-story glazed pagoda in the name of commemorating Taizu of the Ming Dynasty and Queen Ma.
It is said that 100,000 craftsmen and civilians were used during the construction process, and more than 2 million taels of silver were spent. It took 19 years to complete, and was named Dabaoen Temple by Zhu Di himself.
Master Hongjin took Tao Hongfang into the temple and introduced him to the current situation.
The Dabaoen Temple has a prominent reputation, so even though the armies of the two countries faced off at the gates of Nanjing some time ago, it was not affected by the war. But precisely because of this, a large number of refugees fled the war and gathered in several temples near Yuhuatai, especially the Dabaoen Temple.
Therefore, the time when the Great Baoen Temple began to provide asylum to refugees actually started during the war between the two countries and continues to this day, which is almost two months ago.
Although Dabaoen Temple has a profound background and a strong family background, it cannot afford food and accommodation for a large number of refugees. Before the peace talks between the two countries, the Great Baoen Temple was almost unable to support itself because it took in too many refugees.
Master Hongjin thought of many ways to raise food. Dozens of acres of vegetable land in the temple had long been cleared, and everything that was edible or not was boiled in a pot and distributed to the refugees and the monks.
If Haihan hadn't provided food here after taking over Nanjing, these people inside and outside the temple would have been out of food long ago. Now, thanks to the ration of food sent by the Haihan government every day, we can finally survive.