Chapter 295: Resolving the Disaster

The disaster in Hedong was far more serious than expected. In just two days, more than 200,000 victims fled from all over Hedong to Guanzhong. They almost instinctively gathered in Chang'an, the heart of the Tang Dynasty, as if only there was hope for their survival.

In Chang'an, the porridge sheds and tents prepared by Wannian counties could not meet the needs of the victims at all. The hungry victims began to attack the city of Chang'an. Although the court officials were willing to keep the victims outside the city, more than 100,000 victims still broke through the obstacles of the soldiers in the city gate and rushed into Chang'an City.

The order in Chang'an City was in chaos. Several yards near Mingdemen, Anyifang and Baoningfang broke out in robbery. The hungry people smashed grain shops and vegetable shops to rob grain and all food supplies. More than a dozen shop clerks and hungry people were trampled to death during the looting.

Immediately afterwards, the vast hungry people marched towards the Xishi where food was the most concentrated. At this time, tens of thousands of troops stationed in the imperial city, including Jinwu Guard, Qianniu Guard, Wanqi Camp, Longwu Army, etc., dispatched to suppress the riots of hungry people. The gates of Chang'an were closed urgently, and more than 100,000 hungry people and the army broke out on Zhuque Street. The cavalry beat them with sticks, whipped them with whips, and even stabbed them with knives, ruthlessly suppressing the unarmed hungry people.

The streets of Zhuque were filled with refugees running around. They were extremely frightened and cried loudly. The mother hugged the children and cried by the walls. The white-haired old man knelt in front of the soldiers and begged hard. The streets of Zhuque were bleeding and chaotic.

In Xingqing Palace, hundreds of ministers knelt at the palace gate to petition, begging the emperor to open a warehouse to provide relief. In the Datong Palace, Li Longji and a group of important officials discussed disaster relief matters.

"Your Majesty, there are still 30,000 stones of grain in the PAS. Before the hungry people can cause a surge in food prices, we must provide disaster relief as quickly as possible to calm the panic. Otherwise, the panic will spread to the residents of Chang'an, which will trigger a soar in food prices and the situation will be serious."

Li Linfu was nervously giving Li Longji advice. His body seemed to be on a roller coaster. He had just improved a little a few days ago, but he had made a sudden move in the past two days and was bedridden. But today the situation was urgent, and Li Linfu could only force his illness to give Li Longji advice. He knew the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty so well that only he could persuade Li Longji to make the right choice.

Li Longji did not say a word. He stood in front of the map of Longyou with his hands behind his back, staring at the majestic plateau covered with snow. It was his dream. For a hundred years, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo have been stalemate by war and compromise. The Tang Dynasty is always passive. When Tubo was tired of fighting, he came to make a contract to rest, recuperate, and then tore up the contract to continue the war, plunder the Tang people and materials, and occupy the land. Year after year, time and time again, Gaozong, Wu Wu, Zhongzong, and his father and himself were all reincarnated in a passive vicious circle, and they never knew when the end would be.

Fortunately, Tubo Zanpu died in the Battle of Shibao City. When young Zanpu was unable to control the situation, causing civil strife in Tubo to fight for power. As Geshuhan said, if you do not seize this opportunity, the Tubo people will make a comeback one day.

Li Longji's intention to attack Tubo was as iron as stone and irreversible as the incident of the Hedong disaster victims could not change his determination.

"I want to know how much food is needed to provide relief to these victims and to what extent will it affect my Longyou Battle?"

Li Longji's voice was very cold. He was the supreme emperor. He didn't need to consider if disaster relief was provided. He only needed the results. He only needed his ministers to tell him how to solve the problem.

"Your Majesty, there are a million disaster victims in Hedong and southern Hebei. More than 200,000 victims fleeing into Guanzhong are still coming. This disaster will last at least until the summer grain harvest in June. I will calculate that at least 500,000 stones of disaster relief food is needed to cope with the entire famine, and the victims fleeing into Guanzhong also need 200,000 stones."

"No! Too many."

Li Longji interrupted Li Linfu in anger. The military rations were insufficient at the last meeting, so he thought it was too much to take out 100,000 stones to provide disaster relief. Now he asked him to take out 200,000 stones or even 500,000 stones of food. How could it be possible!

"Your Majesty, please calm down your anger. I have two solutions to ensure that the Longyou Campaign will be carried out as scheduled, and that the disaster victims will be protected from relief."

Li Linfu's words calmed Li Longji's face a little, "Please say it!"

Li Linfu stabilized his physical condition and said slowly: "The first plan is to mobilize the fields and farms in Guanzhong to donate grain. I have statistics. The accumulated grain in Guanzhong over the years is at least three million stones. They don't need to donate them all. Just take out the old grain, which is at least one million stones. Of course, I also know that the last meeting was decided to buy it, but this purchase also takes time. In order to gain time, you can use the method of first goods and then money, or borrow money from major cabinet shops first to buy it, and then return it to the cabinet shop after the money from various places has arrived. In this way, you can get at least a part of the food first and alleviate the disaster of hunger people."

Li Longji nodded, saying that he was Li Linfu, and the plan was very practical. He thought for a while and said, "I can order the princes to take the lead in selling grain. It is probably not enough to borrow money from the counter. Borrowing money from the cabinet is a good idea. Please tell me the second plan."

Seeing that Li Longji agreed to his plan, Li Linfu was excited and quickly said: "The second plan of the old minister is to prevent the riots of hungry people in Guanzhong. They can be sent to Anxi, so they can be ordered to arrange for repatriation. Instead of letting them sit in Chang'an and other relief, there is no need to let them go while they go. In this way, the victims of Chang'an will be reduced, and the danger of riots will be eliminated invisible. More importantly, the situation in Guanzhong can be stabilized quickly and will not affect Your Majesty's Battle of Longyou."

As soon as Li Linfu's plan was released, not only Li Longji recognized it, but several important officials also agreed. Chen Xilie said: "Your Majesty, this is a plan of killing three birds with one stone, and I deeply agree with it."

Crown Jun Li Yu also said happily: "Minist and Sun agree, but we need to send more people to help along the way and send more herbs to prevent the victims from dying from the way."

For Li Longji, the most important thing is that he cannot affect his Longyou Battle. As long as this premise is guaranteed, he can say anything. This is also good, and it will be better to send the victims away, so that he will not be upset.

"I have approved the plan of Li Xiangguo. In addition, the Li Qing'an office will also handle the matter of transferring students from Imperial College and officials from all over the country to Anxi. It is also possible to order students from Imperial College to take care of the victims along the way, which is also given them a chance to exercise. The Anxi army will also go to Hexi to welcome the request of immigration to the immigration site, and I have also approved it."

Li Linfu struck while the iron was hot and hurriedly said: "The premise of these two plans is to stabilize the victims first. I beg your Majesty to agree and urgently level the food of the agency to provide relief to the victims to prevent serious situations."

"Accepted!"

The ministers slowly retreated, but Li Longji called Yang Guozhong.

After the ministers left, Li Longji asked him: "I heard that your nephew Yang Wang was murdered last night. What's going on?"

Last night, the Dianke Office of the Honglu Temple ordered Yang Wang to go to a famous weapon workshop in Xianyang to do private affairs. When he came back, he encountered a group of young and strong hungry people. He spoke rudely and was dragged off the horse and beaten to death by angry hungry people. The murderer still has no way to pursue it.

When Yang Li heard that his son was killed and he was bedridden, the Yang family was extremely angry and put pressure on Yang Guozhong, ordering him to find out the murderer and pay for his life.

Yang Guozhong repeatedly asked Yang Wang's entourage who escaped, and said that it was a group of young disaster victims in ragged clothes, all of whom were robbing passers-by. Yang Wang happened to be touched by Yang Wang, but the entourage didn't see clearly what the victims looked like. As for what Yang Wang went to Xianyang Sword Shop to do, the entourage was also confused.

This incident made Yang Guozhong very troubled. In fact, he didn't want to care about this matter. There were so many things recently that he didn't have time to ask about this headless case. It was just that under the pressure of the family, he had to investigate.

"Your Majesty, Yang Shuling encountered a victim outside the city and had a physical conflict. Unfortunately, he was injured by the victim. There were 200,000 victims outside the city, and I had no way to start an investigation."

Yang Guozhong did not dare to say much about this. The reason why Yang Wang did something private has not been found out. He only heard that Yang Wang had close contact with the big cannibal in the past two days, and seemed to have got gold from the big cannibal. Although Yang Wang was Dianke Office and it was his duty to contact the big cannibal, Yang Guozhong felt that there might be something else in the gold. He was worried that if the matter got a big deal and found something unfavorable to the Yang family, it would be a loss. So he tried to deal with the matter as low as possible, and even did not dare to tell the imperial concubine. However, where Li Longji got the news, he was a little confused.

Li Longji just asked casually, leaving Yang Guozhongyi behind. He sighed and changed the topic, "The disaster victims in Hedong made me very confused and the people in Chang'an are also eye-catching. It is a very popular thing to solve this matter. Although Xian Yu Zhongtong is Jingzhao Yin, I am worried that he is not familiar with the situation in Chang'an and cannot suppress the situation. Li Xiangguo's health seems to be ineffective. I can't bear to be tired, so I want you to be fully responsible for this matter, so I will send the victims away cleanly according to Li Xiangguo's plan. In addition, you are the Minister of Personnel, and it is your business to allocate officials. This matter is of great importance. I don't want you to bring personal grudges in. Do you understand?"

Yang Guozhong understood Li Longji's meaning and wanted to take over Li Linfu's contributions, win the hearts of the people, and build prestige. At the same time, he was not allowed to deliberately make things difficult for Anxi to transfer officials. Yang Guozhong knew it very well, and this was a sign that he wanted to replace Li Linfu.

Yang Guozhong was overjoyed and hurriedly bowed and said, "I obey the order!"

The decision of Xingqing Palace finally gave the refugees a glimmer of hope. Before noon, a large number of officials and servants set up dozens of porridge sheds on Zhuque Street. At the same time, the counties of Chang'an and Jingzhao Prefecture set up tents and set up pots to make porridge. The refugees' anger finally calmed down, and the army also withdrew their garrison, leaving only thousands of soldiers from the Jinwu Guard to maintain order.

Soon, some wealthy households in Chang'an also began to follow the government to provide relief porridge. News that Jianghuai would transfer millions of grain to Beijing spread throughout the streets and alleys. The situation of Chang'an almost out of control finally stabilized. The rice price, which had just risen by 30 cents in the morning, fell rapidly, and various gates also opened one after another. The lives of the people in Chang'an gradually returned to normal.

Just after noon, Li Qing'an's convoy drove into Chang'an City from the chaotic Mingde Gate. The carriage was moving extremely slowly, and surrounded by refugees who were receiving disaster relief and were out of the city to find their family. In the carriage, Li Qing'an was considering various arrangements in Anxi. He would first face the arrival of a large number of immigrants. According to the original plan, all of this group of immigrants will be moved to Suye. They can first rest near Jinman County for two months, and then go to Suye. Five counties will be established in the Suye area. He has ordered the Yiwu army envoy Yang Zaicheng to lead his army to the Hexi Corridor to protect immigrants along the way and prevent being disturbed by Qiang and Hu.

For Anxi, the deadly problems are also food, military food, and civilian food. They also need to launch a war against Tubo and prepare to attack Tocharo. With Anxi's current resources, even if the cattle and sheep of herders are requisitioned, they cannot support so many major actions. He must first solve the food problem before launching the Battle of Tocharo.

Li Qingan gently rubbed his temples. In fact, he had already had a plan, but the conditions for this plan were not yet mature and needed to be improved slowly.

His eyes were on the Xindu River Basin on the map. This area is crowded with fertile land and abundant in grain. The forces of Dashi have invaded this area. The two governors' palaces of Xinde and Punjab were established, but they are still far from gaining a foothold. After the Battle of Talas, Khorasan was insufficient and would inevitably draw troops from these two places. In addition, a settlement agreement was signed with the Tang Dynasty, Dashi should not be too garrisoned here.

But this does not mean that Li Qing'an will attack here immediately. This is why the conditions are not mature. He cannot fight at the same time and must take steps one by one. However, the food here can indeed solve Anxi's urgent needs. He wants the cannibals to willingly dedicate the grain in the Xindu River granary to Anxi.

At this time, the carriage stopped after shaking, interrupting his thoughts. Li Qingan opened the curtain of the carriage. The carriage had entered the city. On Zhuque Street, there were noisy voices everywhere. Only the personal guards outside the carriage reported: "General, it is An Lushan, he wants to see the general."

"Yeah! Let me get off the carriage."

Li Qing'an got out of the carriage and saw a group of chariots coming from the opposite side. Hundreds of cavalry guarding a carriage. The convoy had stopped. The fat An Lushan got out of the carriage and smiled from a distance: "General, I want to thank you for your fire thunder recipe."

At Li Longji's request, Li Qingan gave An Lushan a fire thunder recipe the day before yesterday, but some things inside were extremely difficult to get, such as Gaochang's high wine, Beiting's light turbid oil, Shuofang Jiuyuan's black stone wood, etc. In less than a year or two, An Lushan would not have thought about getting all these ingredients. As for whether the ingredients can be successful after getting them together, it has nothing to do with him.

He also gave this recipe a portion of the cannibal through Zhao Xin. I hope they can succeed and it can be seen that An Lushan is extremely happy.

Li Qingan bowed and replied with a smile: "We are both Tang Jun, this is what we should do. You don't have to be polite. Where is An Shuai going?"

"Haha! I'm going back to Fanyang, I'm going to fight too, I have to go back and prepare, and the general must go back in advance!"

An Lushan was right. Li Qing'an had to stay in Chang'an for two months, but because of the Tubo battle, he had to change his plan and return to Anxi in advance. He nodded and smiled: "I'm going to leave at the end of the month. There is no way, we are all working hard!"

An Lushan laughed loudly, "It's okay for me to work harder, but the general is a newlywed! Just leave his newlywed wife and go back, isn't the general afraid?"

Li Qingan smiled slightly and said, "What do you think An Shuai is afraid of?"

"Haha! It's nothing! I can't attend the General's wedding. I specially prepared a gift and sent someone to Dugu Mansion. I wish the General would have a noble son soon."
Chapter completed!