Chapter 100: Work-for-Relief

"My son!"

The middle-aged woman screamed, her voice like a cuckoo crying blood.

Behind her was a phantom of a huge python hundreds of meters long, its scarlet eyes cold and ruthless, filled with intense killing intent.

The Honghuang is too dangerous, and she couldn't keep her son by her side at all times, so she took him to the relatively safe Great Shang territory.

Seeing that the dragon transformation was imminent, she didn't expect that he would be harmed.

"No matter who it is, I must kill you!"

The middle-aged woman gritted her teeth, her voice extremely cold.

She really wanted to rush to Great Shang now to investigate the cause of her son's death and find the murderer to take revenge.

But at this moment, she had more important things to do.

If she missed it, she would have no chance in this life.

After a long period of ideological struggle, she still decided to go and verify it first.

As for hunting down the murderer, there was no rush for a moment.

………

Hongcheng.

When they heard that the flood dragon that had done evil had been slain, Prefect Jiang Yi and the others were excited, and they bowed one after another: "On behalf of the commoners of Hongzhou, we thank Your Highness for your great kindness."

Yin Qi smiled gently: "No need for formalities, eliminating harm for the commoners is also the responsibility of Great Shang. Since everyone is here, let's discuss the matter of post-disaster reconstruction together."

"Post-disaster reconstruction?"

Jiang Yi and the others looked at each other, some were confused.

Although it was the first time they heard the four words post-disaster reconstruction, they could also understand what it meant.

Yin Qi said sternly: "Hongzhou has experienced several floods, a large number of villages have been washed away, and countless commoners have been displaced. If the government does not help them carry out post-disaster reconstruction, when will they be able to turn things around?"

Jiang Yi's expression became solemn, and he bowed and said: "Your Highness is benevolent and righteous, we are ashamed of ourselves. It's just that there are too many disaster-stricken commoners, and we have to provide disaster relief and carry out post-disaster reconstruction, the cost is too high, we simply cannot afford it. Perhaps Your Highness can afford it, but supporting the locality with private wealth is very easy to become evidence for court officials to attack."

Regarding the time of the Crown Prince's assessment, he naturally knew.

Perhaps doing so could benefit the commoners of Hongzhou, but he also didn't want to see a benevolent and righteous person like Yin Qi lose the position of Human Emperor.

Others nodded one after another, they had a good impression of Yin Qi.

Yin Qi smiled lightly: "Don't worry, I have my own plans. Disaster relief and post-disaster reconstruction seem to be two things, but in fact, they are one thing. Although the overall cost is high and disaster relief supplies may not be enough, I will make up for it. Of course, this compensation is not free, but lent to the prefecture, and will be returned by the prefecture after I leave."

Jiang Yi and the others were puzzled and bowed: "Please enlighten us, Your Highness."

Yin Qi explained slowly: "Historically, disaster relief has always been the government supporting the commoners, as long as they don't starve to death, and then after the disaster, let them fend for themselves.

If the year is good, they can recover in three or four years.

But if the year is bad, it may take seven or eight years, or even longer.

Doing so seems to cost very little, but in fact, for the locality, it is a huge loss."

Jiang Yi asked puzzledly: "What does Your Highness mean by this?"

Yin Qi smiled gently and asked: "I will ask you a question, if it weren't for the flood, how many people could you conscript for corvée labor at most? And now, if we pay the commoners to work, how many people can we gather?"

Jiang Yi said thoughtfully: "If it were corvée labor, each household could send at most two people, but now, as long as there is food, their whole family will come, but what is the significance of this?"

Yin Qi shook his head and explained patiently: "Historically, disaster relief has been a waste of food to support commoners, which is too wasteful, and will also make commoners develop dependency, or even do nothing, leading to various crimes, or even criminal acts.

My idea is to give the commoners three days of rest first, and then hire them to work, rebuild water conservancy projects in Hongzhou, and build bridges and pave roads.

Once the water conservancy projects are done well, the commoners will be free from drought and flood disasters next year.

In this way, after a few years, the commoners will naturally be prosperous.

This is work-for-relief."

"Work-for-relief, good idea!"

Jiang Yi and the others' eyes lit up.

If so, all water conservancy projects in the state would be repaired, which is also their political achievement.

It's just that in this way, the cost of disaster relief would at least triple.

Yin Qi said again: "Work-for-relief, commoners must eat their fill when working, and at the same time, they must be paid, the initial estimate is that the cost will increase by about eight times. However, this money can be earned back by the prefecture.

I intend to establish brick, wood, furniture, and other factories in each county and town in the name of the prefecture, and then build villages in suitable places, all houses are brick and tile structures.

Then sell these houses to the commoners, the price is about what they earned during the disaster relief period.

In this way, all the money we paid can be recovered.

As for the consumption of supplies, we can sell these factories to the locality, so the consumption of supplies can also be recovered.

The final result is that we didn't spend any extra supplies, but completed the post-disaster reconstruction, all commoners moved into brick and tile houses, and there were many factories in the locality, killing several birds with one stone."

Jiang Yi and the others were almost dizzy by Yin Qi.

At first glance, this is absurd, how can post-disaster reconstruction be completed without spending a cent.

But following Yin Qi's train of thought, they didn't find any flaws.

It is really feasible, killing several birds with one stone.

Then, how can so much wealth appear out of thin air?

Wealth cannot appear out of thin air, but is the labor income of the commoners of Hongzhou, and cooperation has improved efficiency, which is equivalent to creating more social wealth in disguise.

Although a bit hesitant, the temptation was too great.

Jiang Yi and the others looked at each other, secretly made up their minds, bowed to Yin Qi and said: "We are willing to obey orders."

"Good!"

Yin Qi nodded and smiled: "By the way, tomorrow you summon the wealthy families in the city, just say I have important matters to discuss."

Finding wealthy families in the city is mainly because there is not enough copper coins.

He is prepared to use gold, or even pills and other supplies, to exchange for a large amount of copper coins from them, otherwise, he cannot pay the commoners.

……

The next day.

The wealthy families of Hongcheng all came to the prefecture yamen.

Hongzhou has been prosperous since ancient times, and there are many wealthy families in the city.

When they heard that it was Yin Qi summoning them, even if they guessed that Yin Qi was looking for them to donate, they were willing to cooperate.

After all, Yin Qi has always had a good reputation among the people, and is also a strong candidate for Human Emperor.

But they didn't expect that Yin Qi was actually looking for them to exchange for copper coins, and was even willing to take out many rare pills, which made them even more crazy, how could they not agree.

In Yin Qi's eyes, the pills were not worth mentioning, but in their eyes, they were hard to find even with a thousand gold.

So overnight, most of the copper coins in the city were transported to the prefecture.

……

Another day.

Yin Qi summoned the immortal cultivators who came to apply from all over the place at the prefecture yamen, totaling more than a thousand people.

Among these people, the highest cultivation was only at the Golden Core Realm.

Others were generally at the Foundation Establishment Realm.

As for the Nascent Soul Realm cultivation, they were already Human Immortals.

They were either living in seclusion or in closed-door cultivation, perhaps they hadn't received the news yet.

Yin Qi said: "Everyone, for the next period of time, I hope you can obey orders. According to different work, the daily remuneration is between one hundred taels of silver and one thousand taels of silver.

This remuneration will be recorded, and after the disaster relief is over, you can use this remuneration to exchange for various supplies from me.

Pills, magic tools, and even cultivation techniques are all available.

This is the exchange catalog I compiled, you can pass it around."

Everyone's eyes lit up, and they hurriedly took the cloth to watch.

Then there was a burst of exclamations: …… ===== CHAPTER 101 =====