The Pingma Bank gradually emerged spontaneously in the upstream and downstream trade, and there is no official post from the Ministry of Household Affairs, so it does not have monopoly privileges. The competition among each family is fierce, so it is necessary to win the support of the "water customers" of the merchants.
Therefore, in the process of purchasing and selling on behalf of customers, advance payment is often required, which is a business that requires considerable capital.
Most of the businessmen of the local Rice Valley Chamber of Commerce also came from the Pingma trade. They have been trading in the middle for many years and are very familiar with the upstream and downstream customers. After accumulating more funds, they specialize in one line. However, the transactions of these Rice Valley merchants
Most of them still maintain the old habit of waiting for the food "water customers" from Guangxi to come to their doorsteps. After stocking up, they wait for the "water customers" from Guangdong to buy it. However, they earn the price difference instead of commission.
Already.
Before entering the city, Xie Erren had roughly read the booklet "Overview of Wuzhou" compiled by the Foreign Intelligence Service. This booklet has detailed information on Wuzhou's geography, humanities, commerce, customs, people's livelihood, society and "key figures".
The introduction gave the cadres in the receiving city a general understanding of the recipients.
Thanks to this booklet, he knew the details of the "Xiang Xian" attending the meeting very clearly, including family members, reputation, general economic status, etc. In general, the "Xiang Xiang" in Wuzhou and other places
There is not much difference among them. Except for a few who have excellent reputations and those who have extremely bad reputations, most people are roughly at the level of being able to do good as long as they do not harm their own interests: when encountering natural disasters, they will donate money, rice and soup to tide over the famine.
, it does not prevent them from taking advantage of this opportunity to annex land and buy slaves; they give coffins to corpses dumped on the road, and they also take tenants to the Yamen and beat them severely in order to force rent.
In fact, these bureau directors are not really "village sages" - not a single family from the local Jin gentry came. It is understandable that they are so reserved, but among the businessmen who came, there were quite a few Wuzhou Jin gentry.
"Relationship households" and "white gloves". For example, although no one from the Wu Zhixiang family who has a close relationship with the Senate has served as a bureau director, the bureau director Da Xinxuan came from his family. He is actually an agent.
"The first rat has two ends!" Xie Erren secretly despised it in his heart, but at the moment he was weak, lacked food and money, and had to make use of it. Therefore, he had to socialize with them politely, and he praised all the bureau directors for being "anxious."
"Good righteousness", "good deeds" such as setting up a porridge shed and collecting corpses. Then, he changed the subject and said:
"Now Wuzhou is experiencing a great calamity. The city and outside are devastated. The people are even more hungry and cold. All of this depends on the efforts of the public."
Everyone looked at each other uneasily, knowing the meaning of his words, but Director Xie had both a gun and a big hat, so they had to follow his words and immediately responded: "This is what our generation should mean.
"
"Xiong Wencan, this old guy, set a fire when he escaped. The city is now in ruins and the people are in dire straits..." Xie Erren first made it clear about the issue of responsibility: It's not me who wants you to pay for this, it's me.
Xiong Wencan’s fault, “I thought about it and there are several important things to do right now.”
While he was talking, suddenly the orderly came to report: The 12 clans in Wuzhou City and the 11 clans outside the city have all arrived and are waiting for orders outside.
"Invite them to come in and discuss things together."
He gave the order, and all the Paijia people came in. Most of the Paijia people were small businessmen with a bit of a charlatan attitude. They were familiar with the people on the ground and could handle them in the yamen. They were out-and-out "land lords".
The "land lords" know that no matter which dynasty or generation they are the emperors, they are indispensable for running errands. When it comes to money, they are not considered wealthy, so they don't have the uneasy look of the bureau directors. They kneel down in confusion when they come in.
kowtow.
"Everyone, get up. Our Senate does not like this." Although Xie Erren said this, he was still enjoying himself.
"...The things we need to do now are public security, city defense, and relief. If we do these three things, the next thing will be easy."
There is nothing unusual about these three things. The aftermath bureau had a private meeting yesterday and came up with an eleven-point aftermath plan. These three items were included in it, but the Australian prefect said so, and everyone agreed: "What the gentleman said
yes!"
"How many refugees are there in the city now?"
Mr. Qiao, the director of the aftermath bureau, quickly took out this information from his sleeve - the aftermath bureau was giving porridge on the streets and handing out bamboo chips every day. Based on this number, the refugee population could be roughly calculated.
"There are approximately more than 4,000 bamboo chips sent out from various porridge shacks."
"It's a lot less." Xie Erren couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that there were only 4,000 people, because before entering the city, he heard from Zhu Mingxia that there were more than 10,000 refugees who were captured out of the city at night.
"Master, that's a lot." Master Qiao frowned: During the Tianqi-Chongzhen years, the entire Cangwu County had only 6,698 households and 27,424 people - this also included a considerable part of the rural population.
Although the Yellow List figures are not accurate, and Wuzhou has a large migrant population because it is a regional commercial center, the population in the urban area and suburbs is only over 30,000 to 40,000 people. The proportion of more than 4,000 refugees is already very high.
After the liberation of Wuzhou, the refugees who left the city, all of whom had homes to return to and relatives and friends to seek refuge with, had dispersed one after another. All that was left behind were homeless and empty-handed refugees. Just providing food and accommodation for these people was enough.
It takes a lot of effort.
He glanced at the deputy director who was a naturalized citizen who was accompanying Wuzhou and asked:
"Is the exact number being counted?"
"We are counting, but the refugees are very scattered. It will take a few days." The deputy director of naturalized residents said, "But the number of people Mr. Qiao said is not much different..."
“Where are the refugees living now?”
"Most of them are scattered in the shelters of temples in the city, and some are also taken in at the school grounds outside the city. However, there are still many refugees on the streets."
There are two school grounds outside Wuzhou City, namely Sanhezui and Ximatan, both of which have original barracks for Ming army garrison troops. Among them, the school ground at Ximatan is on the north bank of the Xunjiang River, 2.5 kilometers west of the city, 2.5 kilometers west of the city.
Relatively far away, it is now Zhu Quanxing's third battalion, and the school field in Ximatan was used as a temporary detention place for Ming army prisoners. Zhu Quanxing also took some refugees here.
"If there are any temples or other large houses inside and outside the city that can accommodate refugees, they should open their doors to accommodate them," Xie Erren said in a serious tone, "No refugee can live on the street, do you understand?"
Refugees living on the streets not only hinder traffic, but also pose health and security risks.
"Here!"
"That's good." Xie Yiren nodded and pointed to the secretary next to him, "Take out the diagram of the lump sum."
The secretary next to him immediately hung up a map. It turned out to be a map of Wuzhou city. Neighborhoods in and outside the city were clearly marked. Different sizes were outlined in different colors. It turned out that each area in this area was clearly marked.
They were all numbered with the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, and a name was written next to them. Upon closer inspection, they were the names of the "village sages" from the aftermath bureau.
While everyone was puzzled, Xie Erren explained: "This is your assigned responsibility area. Since you are out to do things for the people of Wuzhou, naturally you can't just sit in the aftermath bureau and talk about it - this is your assigned responsibility area, and everyone is responsible for one.
Don't be afraid, I will naturally be afraid of the cadres who will take responsibility. All you and the card dealers in this district need to do is cooperate with him."
Xie Erren laughed a few times and then said:
"Each of you must share the responsibility and go on inspections with the bosses of each community. If you see refugees sleeping in the open, you must register them and send them to various reception points regardless of whether they are willing or not. If there are any missing ones, I will find out
I will send it to your home and ask you to raise it as an old man..."
This startled everyone, and they all said that they would do their best to handle it. The directors all looked sad. What kind of cadre was this? They were clearly the incarnation of Mr. Xie, but they did not meet Mr. Xie once in a few days.
These "cadres" who work on a divided basis must be seen all the time.
Then Xie Erren announced several regulations:
After the refugees are taken in, a register is created and a "refugee certificate" is issued. Refugees are not allowed to move around at will and must be taken back to the holding area for the night every day. During the day, they are organized into teams of ten based on "work orders" to act collectively.
The core policy of relief and aftermath work is to provide relief through work.
From now on, the relief station will only provide two meals of gruel a day to the elderly, the young, the sick, the disabled and pregnant women. All refugee men and women over the age of 13 will be organized into labor teams and given rations on a daily basis.
Rations are calculated based on work points, and a system of more rewards for more work is implemented. However, each person must work a certain basic amount of work every day in exchange for rations, and the excess can be settled as money.
If the refugees are simply forced to work, there will inevitably be a situation where the work is not productive, and Xie Erren does not have so much manpower to supervise and manage. If the local subordinates are abused, conflicts will inevitably intensify. In the end, the decision was still to focus on "economic stimulation"
.
Work points are based on specific workload requirements. This system has been implemented in Lingao for many years. There are mature examples of what kind of work, how much workload, and how many work points. You can check it. It is very convenient. This is why Xie Erren dares to use work points.
A confidence to make.
Xie Erren was actually planning to start the road and sewer reconstruction project after the city wall was repaired and the ruins were cleared. Anyway, the war would stop and the people would not dare to make a fuss, lest they be like Liu Xiang in Guangzhou, who spent half a year tearing things apart.
It caused a lot of complaints.
The refugees had contributed their efforts and needed the money and food. Naturally, they had to ask the Rehabilitation Bureau to "provide money if they had money."
"I know that no one's family has a mountain of gold or silver, nor does it have a mountain of rice and a mountain of rice. Although it is for the benefit of Sangzi, after all, it is not a house built for one's own family. It still hurts to take it out..."
"I don't dare, I don't dare." The local sages said "I don't dare" while frowning in distress.
"So, the money and food will be shared among the big households in the city - the common people in Shengdou have a weak foundation and cannot withstand the hardship, so I have to ask you to bear with me," Xie Erren said.
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Next update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 337