Ruan Yuan naturally knew that regardless of political affairs, whether he had any similarities or differences with Bailing and Jiaqing, water transport matters still had to be supervised as scheduled. Only a few days after returning to Huai'an, the second batch of northward water ships had also gathered in the Huai'an river.

Ruan Yuanbian also went north again, and soon arrived at the shallow water area. He thought that if the gate could not be built, this time he would have to let the water transport workers and sailors pull fiber across the border. Although he had a good relationship with the water transport gangs, it was not easy to open his mouth.

But what Ruan Yuan never expected was that on this day, Sun Xingyan and Jiao Xun actually took a fast boat and arrived at the post house where he was. Ruan Yuan was surprised and happy, and quickly asked Yang Ji to invite them over and asked

It's because the two of them came here.

"Boyuan, Brother Yuanru and I are in Yangzhou. We heard that there is something wrong with the situation in Huaibei now. Maybe...maybe something will happen. So we are really worried about your going north this time. Although Brother Yuanru and I have some inconveniences, we still have some inconveniences.

I had no choice but to make this trip." As soon as Jiao Xun saw Ruan Yuan, he said to him: "Bo Yuan, in the past six months, Yangzhou has only had a few rains, and the rainfall is not as good as before. We also heard that in Huaibei

Especially in these days, there are already no less than 100,000 hungry people in Huaibei! Have you ever seen these people when you were supervising the canals in the Jianghuai area?"

"Litang, you are right. Just outside our post house, many hungry people gathered and built hundreds of sheds. I also saw some of them when I came back from Luoma Lake." Ruan Yuan

Listening to Jiao Xun's words, I immediately remembered that I had gone north several times to survey the river for building a sluice. On the way, I had seen many people who were suffering from hunger and cold and had no harvest all year round. I also continued to ask Jiao Xun: "But what if it's like today?"

Given the situation, the emperor should consider providing relief. You said that... there will be changes, but what do you mean? "

"Bo Yuan, I think this matter is a serious matter and cannot be underestimated." Sun Xingyan also said to Ruan Yuan: "Just a few days ago, Li Tang and I were outside Yangzhou and saw many hungry people seeking help in Yangzhou.

It would be fine if they were just asking for food, but among them, there was actually a rumor that... I remember it was September 15th, the heavenly tribulation was coming, and something would start on that day to cope with the heavenly tribulation! Bo Yuan, this

Such an incident, if it is true, is it a serious matter to rebel?! Moreover, if only one or two groups of people think so, it does not matter. This line along the canal, not to mention anything else, is what we saw when we were crossing the Yellow River.

There are thousands of victims who arrived. All in all, there are no less than 100,000 people. If these 100,000 people really believe this nonsense about a catastrophe, then there will probably be a big disaster along the canal.

?!"

"Mr. Sun... Mr. Sun, how could this happen?" Yang Ji asked in confusion: "Even if someone really wants to... want to cause trouble, are these people confused? Why should they follow them?

Woolen cloth?"

"It's not that the people are confused, it's that tens of thousands of people along the canal have no way to survive." Sun Xingyan couldn't help but sigh: "We all know that there is a severe drought this year, but I heard that the emperor is only going to Henan and Shandong.

Relief has not yet reached our side. I heard that the people's spring plowing has either been delayed until early summer, or they are simply unable to plow their fields. At this time, it happens to be the time when they are out of work, and they are most hungry. At the moment, the prefectures and counties have no food.

The only solution was to set up some porridge factories to provide relief. However, with so many victims, without the emperor's decree to distribute more relief grains, wouldn't the power of the prefectures and counties alone be enough? The people have no food and clothing, and their future is uncertain. In recent years,

There is no telling how many years or months it will take for the natural disaster to get better. In such a situation, many of them must have already had thoughts of despair. If they are instigated like this again, then even if this natural disaster is ridiculous, some people will do it.

Let’s give it a try blindly! If we can’t stabilize the people now and support this autumn, I’m afraid something big will happen on September 15th?”

"But Brother Yuan Ru, it's already August now. Even if Bo Yuan goes to Emperor Shu and asks the Emperor to allocate grain for relief, by September 15th, the relief grain may not be able to reach Huaihe River. What's more, the section of the river in front of it,

We still need to haul fiber to cross the canal, so how can we transport grain from other places to Huaibei?" Jiao Xun thought about the reality of natural and man-made disasters, but for a moment he ran out of ideas.

"Stretching fibers, providing relief, victims..." Ruan Yuan read these words, and said to Yang Ji first: "Yang Ji, go and take a look near the sheds of the victims over there, and listen to what they are saying.

, and listen to see if someone is really thinking about the so-called 'Heavenly Tribulation'." Yang Ji looked at Ruan Yuan's expression, which was also quite solemn, and immediately nodded and went outside the post house.

Ruan Yuan and the others looked outside the post house, hesitating for a moment. After an hour, Yang Ji just ran back. When he saw Ruan Yuan, he quickly said: "Bo Yuan, I... I can see clearly.

They didn't have any words of heavenly calamity, but there were more than a dozen people gathered next to a shed, facing the west, holding their hands on their shoulders, repeating a few words, what...vacuum, what...parents, Bo Yuan,

What's going on with them?"

However, at this time, Ruan Yuan was stunned like a thunderbolt, and remained speechless.

"Yang Ji, what they said was 'empty hometown, no biological parents'?" Ruan Yuan finally asked Yang Ji after hesitating for a long time.

"It seems...it seems so, Bo Yuan, how do you know?"

"This... Put it this way, this is not a natural disaster, this is a catastrophe!" Ruan Yuan thought repeatedly, and a series of rather difficult things happened in the past few years, like beads on a string, forming little by little.

Contact, the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the catastrophe, the so-called "mantra" in Vacuum's hometown, Lin Qing sitting in the palace, various actions among the people in Jianghuai...

"Bo Yuan, why do I feel that you actually know more about this matter than we do? How about you tell us what happened to you?" Jiao Xun looked at Ruan Yuan's expression and said,

He also took the initiative to persuade me.

"Litang, I'm thinking that there should be a group of people who have been planning this matter for at least three years." After Ruan Yuan connected these clues, he also guessed and said: "There is a group of people who want to do it.

In the name of great rebellion, they used the name of natural disaster to deceive the ignorant people and make them believe that the disaster was coming. They also agreed on a folk song to collude with each other. There have been many natural disasters in recent years, and most of the people were poor and helpless, and they did not know the inside story.

, so they believed their words, and they also believed in the old mother-in-law. When these people saw that the time was right, they immediately decided to make the leap month fifteenth this year, committing a great rebellion. Maybe they later found out that there was no leap month this year, so they changed it.

September 15th. Moreover, this kind of news has been spread by people from Beijing in the north to Fujian in the south! Our Jianghuai River is where the north and the south meet. If these people were deceived by traitors, they were deceived into committing crimes.

If you go against it, then...the consequences will be disastrous!"

"Bo Yuan, what did you say?!" Sun Xingyan and Jiao Xun were so shocked that they were speechless for a long time after hearing Ruan Yuan's words. After a long time, Sun Xingyan asked: "In that case, where are we in Jianghuai?

Aren't we going to cause a big chaos? If that's the case, then...then what can we do now?"

"Brother Yuanru, Litang, if you think about it, Jianghuai is not only very important, but also connects the north and the south. If there are such troublemakers in the south of the Yangtze River and cannot cut off Jianghuai, it will be troublesome." Ruan Yuan also said thoughtfully: "But I also

I remember that it rained several times in Huaibei in May and June this year. Even if the river water could not be sufficient and the farmland water was enough, it was enough. It was just that they were unable to spring plow in March and April, which resulted in the inability to harvest in time.

But even with this calculation, they should have returned home to harvest in September, but... if they can't survive this month, they may take risks. In this way, what we have to do is to try our best to help the people survive.

After this month." Having said this, Ruan Yuan seemed to have a plan in mind, and asked Sun Xingyan: "Brother Yuanru, it just so happens that we still have grain on board, so my idea is to call all the people along the Jianghuai River to go forward together.

Come and help us pull fiber across the canal! As long as they are willing to come to pull fiber, we will allocate food and give them a "fiber in lieu of relief"! We also have many canal boats on this trip, and it will take at least twenty days for them all to enter the Eastern Province.

After that, if they don't lack food and can survive these twenty days, then they can harvest and have a harvest later, so why take risks? If those traitors don't have many people to help them, they won't be able to succeed. By that time

, even if someone really wants to do something evil, they can't make any waves. The number of hungry people in the Jianghuai River is estimated to be around 100,000, so we will take out 100,000 stone grains for emergency use! Think about it, this method is good

?”

"Bo Yuan, I have been a Taoist priest on the path of luck. Your method should be the best method at the moment." Although Sun Xingyan nodded, he still hesitated and asked Ruan Yuan: "But you

Doing this... if nothing happens in the world in September, wouldn't it be equivalent to you using one hundred thousand stones of grain without permission? If the emperor blames you for this, then... you have just been restored to the second-grade governor, no?

meeting……"

"It doesn't matter, if the emperor really asks, I will answer truthfully." Ruan Yuan had already made up his mind at this time and said: "I'm not worried about the amount of grain, because this time I went north, I counted the grain in Huai'an and calculated it clearly.

In Huai'an, no grain was lost in these canal gangs. We will do our best to protect the canals in the future, so there will be no more losses. However, the collection of canal grains will originally increase the consumption. We spent 100,000 stones to help the victims, but we only used

For part of the increased consumption, we can still pay the full amount of grain when we arrive in Tianjin. As for the rest... I will tell the emperor the inside story one by one. If the emperor insists on not listening to me, and I still don't have enough to pay the full amount of grain, then
Chapter completed!