vrcanaries Chapter 1100: Political Affairs and Civilian Affairs
Chapter 1100: Political Affairs and Civilian Affairs
He looked at the crowd and said, "I know you have doubts, but don't worry. We still have more than 4 million shi of grain from this autumn harvest plus last year's, excluding the grain shipped to the south. Even if we take out 1.5 million shi, the remaining grain will still be enough to support us until next autumn harvest."
She clearly heard everyone's gasps.
Although they knew that a lot of grain was harvested every year, in recent years, because their family’s land had started to be used to grow crops, the yield from the salty and bitter land was higher every year, and the grain harvest was also increasing.
Adding the fat money that everyone in the North returned, they could guess a lot, but they really didn't know the exact amount.
Although he might have calculated it privately, he never realized that the master had so much food!
Millions of shi, how many people can be fed with this? !
Hu Zi said: "As long as the master thinks it's good, even if it's 1.5 million shi, it won't be easy to get it out of the warehouse in a short time if we rely on ourselves."
Most of the people they had were taken south by Laizitou, so there were not that many left.
One million and a half shi would require a lot of manpower.
During the autumn harvest, we just collected and moved the grain bit by bit, and hired a lot of temporary workers. Even so, it took two months to put all the grain in.
Even if there are so many of them working day and night, it will still take a very long time to move out.
This is what everyone is worried about.
They put the grain into the warehouse bit by bit this year. Now time is running out. It would be impossible to move all the grain out in a short time even if they worked themselves to death.
Zhou Guo said: "Don't worry about that. General Xu will dispatch tens of thousands of Xu's troops to help. All parts of the North are now recruiting civilians, so there are enough people."
Everyone frowned, "If this happens, won't everyone know about our granary?"
Then why go through so much trouble to find a granary?
Zhou Guo said: "Our people and the Xu family army moved the grain out of the granary, and the rest of the work is the job of these civilians. As for the Xu family army... they will know it when they know it. It doesn't make much difference whether they know it or not."
Anyway, the food in the past few years has been stored for Xu’s army, so in a sense, they are our own people.
Everyone was silent, just sighing silently. They had worked so hard over the past few years, but in the end all their work was in vain and ended up in other people's stomachs.
The meeting lasted from day to night, and started again after dinner, until noon of the next day, when everything was finalized.
Zhou Guo breathed a sigh of relief, rubbed his temples, and looked at the people below. Fortunately, they were all young people and full of energy. If they were older, I'm afraid they really couldn't hold on.
Even though they haven't slept for so long, most people are still energetic and don't feel tired at all.
As expected, people with strong abilities have more energy than ordinary people.
She said, "Let's eat, and then we can go home. You must not slack off on your work while I'm away. If you are unsure, ask our Chief Butler Tiger and Big Fat Butler. You can discuss it with each other. If you really have no other ideas, you can write to the south. If I can receive it, I will reply to you."
The Northland is so big. In addition to Hu Zi, the chief steward, there are several deputy stewards including Dapang, and Erpang will also stay to help.
Although his ability is not as good as the other two, he is already the most outstanding.
Once she leaves, no one knows when she will be back, so all these things have to be arranged. Only when the rear is stable will she have no worries in the front.
It was a hurry, so after eating, everyone dispersed and went back to their respective places to call for help. The granaries had to be opened to store grain, and all the idle people in each farm had to come and help.
Fortunately, with 1.5 million shi, it would be enough to open only one granary.
The room, which was packed just now, was empty in an instant.
Before leaving, Er Pang was still aggrieved, "Master, can't you take me with you when you go south?"
Zhou Guo said, "I can take you with me, but too many people have gone to the south in the past two years. The North is short of manpower now. You have to stay in the North to guard the home. I can't come back and leave the home. You can play a much greater role in the North than staying with me."
Erpang was just muttering to himself, how could he not understand?
He knew best how many people had gone to the south in recent years. All of them were selected from among the best. There were few people left in the north because of Zhou Guo himself, Hu Zi, Dapang, and the Zhou family.
Now Zhou Guo has to go to the south and it is unknown when he will be able to come back. So there will not be enough manpower, so he has to stay.
In the past few days, the whole north has been in turmoil. Conscripting laborers and transporting grain to the front line is not an easy task, and once you go, you don't know whether you can come back alive.
Many families want to collect taxes with money, but what we lack now is manpower. If we collect too much money, it will be useless later.
Every family still has to produce one.
The corvée labor was collected in Cangshan Village. Because it was the Zhou family's territory, the government gave them face and allowed them to buy it with money, five taels of silver per person.
Every household in the village can afford this money.
Therefore, no one in the village left.
Other villages are not so lucky, as every family must provide one.
They were originally required to perform corvée labor every year, and now they would be conscripted to open mountains, build roads and construct water conservancy projects. So they would just transport grain, it's just a long way.
The grain in Cangshan Village was not moved, so the Li family did not know that the grain was provided by their family.
I heard that everyone in the village had to pay for corvée labor, and I couldn't help but sigh, "In recent years, every household has to pay for corvée labor every year. If it were in previous years, who would have the spare money? Everyone had to work honestly."
Zhou Gu said: "I heard that only our village can buy it with money. Other villages can't buy it with money. They have to send people."
"Really?" Li was puzzled, then she let it go, "Transporting grain is so far away, and there are many people who want it. If everyone pays for it, then no one will work. I guess our village has too many people who pay for it, so it won't work later. It seems that everyone is still very lucky."
The old man was speechless. It was so obvious that they couldn't see it. What kind of luck was that? If Zhou Guo wasn't there, no matter how much money the village had, it would be useless.
The conscription of civilians went quite smoothly.
The situation in the north has been getting better and better in recent years. People have enough food to eat and will not starve to death in winter. The number of people born in the past two years has increased.
Life was getting better and there was hope, so they just had to perform labor service. If Xu's army could take over the world, their lives would remain the same as they were now. Thinking of this, no one had any resistance in their hearts.
It only took the local government and county governments about half a month to recruit all the people.
Several tens of thousands of troops were transferred from the Huaishan camp a few days ago. Holding the sign given by Zhou Guo and led by the Zhou family's steward, they went to the Zhou family's granary and carried bags of grain out of the cave.
Later, civilians took over and carried the grain onto the carts. Some of these vehicles were requisitioned from the public, as the government's supply was not enough.
It took almost a month until all these were ready.
They have been driven out day and night from all places.