Chapter 123: The First Disaster Relief (VII)
After the Spring Festival, the drought-affected areas of Shandong Province finally ran out of food. Huo Chong no longer had time to dwell on his uneasiness. The reports from various branches made him feel very dissatisfied and in a sense of crisis. If these guys and girls were allowed to continue, disaster relief would soon be separated from disaster relief itself.
Qian Qing attended several internal meetings and felt that Mr. Huo Chong was simply inexplicable. When no one was disturbing Huo Chong, she went to talk to him. As expected, Huo Chong took her to the garden of the Mouping County Office. This was a good place to talk, and most importantly, it would be seen by others.
"Sir, shouldn't we rebel when the world is in chaos?"
"Do you think this is a peaceful and prosperous era?"
Hearing Huo Chong's question, Qian Qing was at a loss for words. In this era, there were many people who were hungry and cold, and the people were living a miserable life. However, compared with the descriptions of the chaotic times in history books, where bandits were rampant and wars were everywhere, this was not a chaotic time at all.
Qian Qing’s understanding of the world was not as good as Huo Chong’s, and he muttered in frustration: “Sir, by providing disaster relief, you are helping the Qing Dynasty.”
As expected, Huo Chong laughed and said, "Scholars always use words as a tool to expand their understanding of the world. You have suffered a lot, so you should know that it is not like that. If I were to help the Qing Dynasty, you would have been arrested and sent to the authorities long ago."
"That is..."
"If I am a rare person who has my own ideas, then what about your uncle? What about your relatives from your mother's side? Aren't they part of this world? From a textual point of view, they are also people of the Qing Dynasty. But why can you be so safe and sound until now?"
"...What do you want to teach me, sir?"
"The Qing Dynasty was definitely not a regime that claimed to be China, nor was it a regime that took the interests of the people as its own responsibility. Therefore, the Qing Dynasty itself had only a few people. The bannermen group, officials and their families, and some other messy things, those were the Qing Dynasty. Are these the people that the disaster relief is facing? Obviously not!"
Qian Qing thought for a while and felt as if she had realized something, but this perspective was indeed beyond her usual feelings. It was not as direct as the other things she learned from Huo Chong. In the end, Qian Qing could only narrow the topic, "Sir, these people will think that you are an official of the Qing Dynasty, and if they get benefits from you, they are getting benefits from the Qing Dynasty."
"No, no, no. These people have never considered the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty does not exist for them. Because these people do not have a complete world structure, it is naturally impossible for them to construct a concept of the Qing Dynasty from the perspective of the entire world. This is you judging others by your own standards."
…
After this conversation, Qian Qing felt very painful. This kind of pain has often appeared since he followed Huo Chong. Every time he received a new concept from Huo Chong, Qian Qing tried to integrate this concept into his own worldview. Thus, he built a broader world. Then the pain came. Although Qian Qing was not determined to learn Huo Chong's cognition as Huo Chong's disciple, this feeling was really bad.
Qian Qing simply put all this behind him and focused on the current disaster relief. At this time, Qian Qing was no longer distressed by what he had learned from disaster relief. In practice, Qian Qing felt that Huo Chong's description of disaster relief was really exquisite.
The so-called disaster relief is to allow everyone to recover from the uncontrollable abnormal state to the normal production process as much as possible. And this production process is not the moment of planting the land. From the preparation of seeds, land preparation, preparation of farm tools, and search for water sources, the production process has already begun.
The real busy farming season is completely based on the previous preparations. Without these preparations, the busy farming season is just a blind imitation.
Qian Qing didn't understand it at first, but after working on it for several years, she suddenly understood. Not only did the pain she felt from trying to understand disaster relief disappear, but even the pain she felt from trying to learn about agricultural production disappeared.
Thinking about organizing agricultural production and disaster relief, Qian Qing was neither anxious nor panicked. Apart from the helplessness and unhappiness he felt when he saw his brothers and sisters messing around, he also felt a little secretly happy.
For example, in Muping County, Qian Qing and the intelligence department have analyzed different methods of disaster relief in different places. It is inefficient to expect rural people to go to the county town to work. Not to mention that running back and forth for meals is likely to cause trouble, even if nothing happens, the energy released by eating is less than the energy consumed on the round trip.
Therefore, in rural areas, the main focus should be on providing porridge.
In contrast, porridge must also be distributed in the county town. But it can be supplemented with more means of work-for-relief. Because those who have no food to eat in the county town are landless farmers who earn money by working for others in the county town. They are also human beings and they also want to save face. Working to earn money is more respectable than simply receiving porridge.
Qian Qing understood all this, but he didn't say anything. The study class had already been held, and if he said too much, it would only annoy people. Qian Qing also found that the less he said, the more afraid other junior students and platform staff would be of him.
Huo Chong was the chairperson of the meeting, so Qian Qing went to inspect the porridge distribution area. He saw someone coming, lowering his head, and took out a bowl when he arrived at the porridge distribution area. The porridge distributor poured a bowl of thick paste into the bowl and gave some food made of maltose. The person who received the porridge lowered his head and left.
Some people ate the porridge and went to the job recruitment point near the porridge shed to seek some short-term work. The lines on both sides were not long and no one was making trouble. Qian Qing looked at them and turned around and left. After all, she also had a lot of things to do.
It was the Dragon Raising Day on February 2. It was raining, and Qian Qing felt much more at ease watching the drizzling rain when he arrived in Linzi County. Even though the Zhongfu platform was operating very well, the disasters for two consecutive years were beyond the platform's capabilities.
Just as he was happy that there might not be a drought this year, Qian Qing suddenly remembered that he had something to do today. A batch of goods here needs to be shipped out. Although Yongzheng sent his younger brother, the Fourteenth, to guard the body of Kangxi after ascending the throne, Huo Chong no longer had any orders for glazed fire from the general Wang. However, Nian Gengyao, who was in charge of the Northwest War, placed a new batch of orders , and they were needed urgently. If there was an obstruction on the road, I'm afraid it would be delayed.
I quickly changed my clothes, put on my higher rubber boots and went out. As expected, I saw that the transportation department had given me a day off because of the rain. Qian Qing had a gloomy face, but he didn't blame them. He just put on his rubber raincoat and asked the guys in the transportation department to load the goods together.
The guys in the transportation department lowered their heads and worked obediently. When the goods arrived at Zibo Wharf, the rain stopped. The boatmen hurriedly loaded the goods, and it seemed that this batch of goods could be shipped out.
After finishing his work here, Qian Qing passed by the porridge distribution point on his way back to the office. There were not many people here, and those who were looking for short-term jobs began to work. Farmers who had land at home and had survived until now also began to discuss borrowing grain from the Zhongfu platform, trying to survive until the autumn harvest. If there is no major disaster this year, everyone will be able to resume normal production and life in the autumn.
Walking past the orderly porridge distribution area, Qian Qing began to feel puzzled again. If the drought ended and the people lived a normal life, would these people follow Huo Chong in a rebellion if the Qing court took action against him?
Qian Qing even wondered if this group of people would follow the government to arrest Huo Chong. As he walked, Qian Qing felt something was wrong, something indescribable behind him. He stopped and turned around. He saw a tall man standing seven or eight steps behind him.
Seeing Qian Qing turn around, the man looked a little embarrassed. But after a moment, this embarrassment disappeared without a trace, and the man stared at Qian Qing up and down, and even had an admiring look on his face.
Qian Qing felt his hair stand on end, and felt something was wrong. He took a few steps forward, angrily yelled, "You thief, wait for me!" and started to punch him.
This man had practiced martial arts, and he was not powerless against Qian Qing's punches and kicks. When their arms crossed, Qian Qing felt relieved. Compared , this man was really not good enough. The strength of the two was not much different, but the man's muscles were not as strong as Huo Chong's and his bones were not as hard.
Since he had no advantage in bones and muscles, the opponent's only advantage was height. However, this height was not higher than Huo Chong, and Qian Qing had practiced with Huo Chong for several years. He already knew how to deal with tall people. Soon, this scoundrel was hit by several punches and a kick. He could not stand steadily and fell to the ground.
"Girl, girl. Don't be violent." The man was not angry at all, he just begged.
"Why are you looking at me like that!" Qian Qing said angrily.
"The girl is so beautiful, I can't help but want to take a closer look."
After hearing such shameless words, Qian Qing felt the urge to kick this guy to death. However, Qian Qing also found that he didn't really want to kill this guy.
However, the man had already stood up, rubbed the sore spots from the punches and kicks, and then saluted Qian Qing. "Miss, my name is Lei Hu. May I know your name?"
"Get lost!" Qian Qing cursed and turned away. It's better not to bother with such a pervert.
Although he didn't know how to describe it, Qian Qing just felt that the guy in front of him was someone who should not be provoked.
The next day, Qian Qing went to meet Huo Chong. The shipment was urgent, and Huo Chong was also in a hurry.
On the third day, Qian Qing went to see Huo Chong and saw a guy sitting in front of him. Looking at the faint stains on his clothes and the back of his figure, Qian Qing felt that something was wrong.
Then Huo Chong asked, "What are Brother Lei's strengths?"
"I am just a scholar. Scholars are useless. I just know that if I am full, I won't be hungry."
"Haha." Huo Chong was amused.
Qian Qing had already walked around to the guy and saw that he was indeed Lei Hu. Qian Qing was furious and shouted, "What are you doing here?"
Lei Hu stood up and said calmly: "I'm here to find a job and make a living."
"What on earth are you here for?" Qian Qing was really anxious. If he let this guy succeed, it would be a shame!
