12dz Chapter 880 Relief for the Poor
Chapter 880 Relief for the Poor
After waking up, Lin Ping found Zhang Yueluyi continuing to distribute porridge outside the mansion. Even though she was covered in sweat from exhaustion, she was the most beautiful person Lin Ping had ever seen.
Throughout the entire day, Zhang Yuelu's face was always beaming with a genuine smile.
Without Cui Liangzhi's interference, the porridge distribution proceeded much faster and was completely finished before evening.
Looking at the dwindling grain reserves, the city lord of Weinan sighed repeatedly, "I'm afraid the Cui family is interfering, and buying grain won't be so easy in the future."
The Cui family was the largest grain merchant in Weinan City, and the grain purchases all went through Cui Liangzhi's hands, which is why he was able to discover the city lord's mansion's porridge distribution immediately.
This time they have completely offended Cui Liangzhi, and they can forget about buying a single grain of rice in the future.
Zhang Yuelu also showed a sad expression; she wished these days could continue.
"There's always a way out. Such a vast empire can't be dominated by just the Cui family as grain merchants," Lin Ping said with a smile, trying to comfort them.
Zhang Yuelu did not refute, because she knew that Lin Ping was just trying to comfort her.
She had seen too many cases of officials protecting each other and merchants protecting each other. As long as Cui Liangzhi was obstructing them, how could grain merchants from other places sell grain to them?
"Actually, this can't go on forever. It's like a bottomless pit that can never be filled," Lin Ping said in a low voice, afraid of discouraging Zhang Yuelu from making a mistake.
She lowered her head, feeling even worse.
As a murderer, she could indeed earn a considerable commission, but after meeting Lin Ping, she no longer wanted to continue indiscriminately killing innocent people.
This would only worsen the situation at the city lord's mansion. Not to mention feeding tens of thousands of people, even the food and drink of the servants and maids inside the mansion would be a problem.
“First, we need to recruit big philanthropists who are willing to spend money to support these poor people and establish facilities specifically for their care,” Lin Pinghuanhuan said.
"A great philanthropist? Is that a surname? Could he be a Mongolian from the north?" Zhang Yuelu asked doubtfully.
She had only heard of the Zhang family, the Cui family, the Zhao family... and also the Sima family and the Dugu family, but she had never heard of a great philanthropist. This surname was rather strange.
Lin Ping was speechless and hurriedly explained, "Great philanthropists are wealthy businessmen who are generous and willing to donate a portion of their money to charity in order to enhance their influence."
After hearing Lin Ping's explanation, Zhang Yuelu roughly understood what he meant.
They also knew what these great philanthropists' motives were, since businessmen have a very low social status and can improve it through this method.
“What are places specifically for supporting the poor?” Zhang Yuelu continued to ask.
“In our hometown, we call it a welfare home, but we can call it a relief home. The poor people here need to register. They can not only stay for free, but also receive food every day. Even if they can’t have enough to eat and wear, they won’t starve or freeze to death.”
Zhang Yuelu listened intently, muttering to herself, "Brothel... Hmm, what a nice name!"
“But I don’t know any wealthy businessmen, so where am I supposed to find these great philanthropists?” Zhang Yuelu asked again.
She's not a real businesswoman; she has zero connections in this industry, and the chances of getting a major philanthropist to come to her are slim.
"You don't need to worry about this; leave it to me," Lin Ping said with a faint smile.
Isn't he the greatest philanthropist in the world?
Even without the situation in Weinan City, he had long wanted to establish a charity hospital, since there are many poor people in the world, and this is a good place to pilot the program.
"Weinan City has a population of tens of thousands; we can't rely on others forever."
It wasn't that Zhang Yuelu didn't trust the great philanthropist, but rather that she felt it was indeed asking too much of him to support the basic needs of tens of thousands of people.
"So we need to take the next step: rent out the abandoned farmland to the Empire's soldiers, collect a certain amount of rent, and use the rest as military rations," Lin Ping continued.
"Collecting rent from soldiers?" Zhang Yuelu touched Lin Ping's forehead, her expression one of disbelief.
Historically, it has always been the government that provides land to the people for cultivation and collects rent from it; there has never been a case of the people giving their land to the government for cultivation and then collecting rent from the government.
This is tantamount to pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth.
To completely change the poverty here, we need to make full use of the large amount of abandoned farmland, so we must find people to cultivate it. Lin Ping also considered hiring people from the neighboring county, but even the nearest county to Weinan is fifty or sixty miles away.
It's simply unrealistic to expect ordinary people to travel fifty or sixty miles to and from work every day.
Furthermore, people in ancient times generally had a strong attachment to their homes and would certainly not live away from home for many years just to earn a little more money.
Therefore, Lin Ping gave up the idea of hiring ordinary people.
But the army is different. Soldiers are often away from home and have no fixed abode, so it doesn't matter if they are stationed near Weinan City.
By utilizing the breaks between training exercises to cultivate the land, a bountiful harvest can be achieved.
Throughout history, there have been numerous instances of this phenomenon of stationing troops.
Why not earn extra income during breaks in training?
"This is called garrisoning troops, a way for an army to be self-sufficient." Lin Ping didn't explain much, but he had a detailed plan in mind.
"It's a pity that this land no longer belongs to Weinan City." Zhang Yuelu shook her head dejectedly.
Although the method of stationing troops could increase the revenue of Weinan City and even solve the problem of poverty.
But if the army benefits from it, it certainly won't return the land.
"Don't worry, once the men of Weinan City have grown up, the army will naturally return the land to them," Lin Ping said confidently.
“The army isn’t yours to command, why should it listen to you?” Zhang Yuelu rolled her eyes at Lin Ping, dismissing his words as a pipe dream.
But she wasn't angry, because Lin Ping had only created this series of aspirations to comfort her; it was a manifestation of his care.
How could Zhang Yuelu refuse Lin Ping's concern?
Zhang Yuelu didn't take these fantastical claims to heart; her most important task right now was to improve her strength as quickly as possible.
She didn't want to imprison Lin Ping for life; she had to achieve the best results in the shortest amount of time.
For several days in a row, the two of them were happily engaged in cultivation.
Zhang Yuelu's body would always reach a limit, and Lin Ping would be highly vigilant in protecting her.
There was a reason why she made herself so weak. Zhang Yuelu deliberately gave Lin Ping a chance to escape. Whether to stay or leave was a decision she wanted Lin Ping to make himself.
"Trying to trick me into running away? Don't think I don't know this is a test!" Lin Ping thought to himself, determined not to fall for it.
In his view, this was Zhang Yuelu testing him.
Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse; although Zhang Yuelu looked very weak, she was still much stronger than him.
If Lin Ping has any intention of escaping, he will inevitably face severe punishment.