Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 496: Chapter 455 Refugee Migration_2

Luo Ren opened the two documents and, looking at their contents, did not feel surprised but merely asked, ”Are you going to relocate the people right now?”

The resettlement of refugees from Liaodong in Chongshan Town was already common knowledge at court, especially since Emperor Yanping allocated one million Silver pieces to Chongshan Town, which, even if this sum was from his private funds, still necessitated an explanation to the officials at court.

”Yes, we plan to receive a small number of refugees for resettlement first,” Song Ying said with a smile.

”How many do you plan to accept?”

”Thirty to fifty thousand!”

Luo Ren’s eyes lit up. There were almost forty to fifty thousand refugees currently gathered on the official road south of the Dongyang Prefecture city. If these refugees could be moved to Chongshan Town, it would help him resolve a big problem.

”What do you need us to do?”

”We have set up a refugee reception point on the official road south of Chongshan Town, as long as the refugees reach the reception point, we will distribute rations and water to them and immediately send them to the resettlement sites in the North!”

”To avoid any unnecessary trouble, this subordinate hopes that colleagues from Ping Yuan and Liao Yuan can escort the refugees to Chongshan Town.”

”Before reaching the reception point, the refugees are the responsibility of colleagues from both provinces; after arriving at the reception point, the refugees are our responsibility.”

Song Ying briefly outlined the procedure for relocating the refugees.

Luo Ren nodded, he naturally had no objections to such arrangements.

As long as the refugees were sent to the reception point of Chongshan Town, it would mean that the provinces of Ping Yuan and Liao Yuan could rid themselves of a great burden.

”I understand. I will arrange for government officers to escort the refugees to Chongshan Town as soon as possible!”

Afterward, Song Ying discussed some details with Luo Ren’s aides and officials.

In order to resolve the issue of refugees on the official road as soon as possible, Luo Ren immediately urged officials from the Governor’s Office to start herding the refugees northward the next day.

Yes, herding!

Although there was also persuasion involved, in reality, it was herding.

A group of soldiers, one hand wielding weapons, the other hand distributing relief grain, forced the refugees northward to Chongshan Town.

There was no other choice under the current circumstances; it was almost impossible to persuade the refugees to voluntarily migrate to Chongshan Town.

For most people, Chongshan Town was seen as a barren and cold place.

Chongshan Town was believed to be colder and poorer than Liaodong, and it was also frequently plagued by wars.

Since the people were migrating, they naturally wanted to move to a more suitable place to live.

Clearly, Chongshan Town was not seen as such a place by them.

However, this was only a temporary measure. While they were herding refugees to Chongshan Town from Dongyang Prefecture, Pang Tang was also arranging for a large number of constables and civil servants in the Governor’s Office in Chongshan Town to promote the refugee resettlement policies in the areas most affected by the disaster.

Chongshan Town’s refugee resettlement policy included three aspects.

The first was material support; upon arrival at the resettlement site, the refugees would be issued three months’ rations as well as essential supplies such as salt and cotton cloth per the size of the household.

Coupled with the newly built houses, they could quickly address the refugees’ problems of food, clothing, and shelter.

Subsequently, rations and salt would be distributed monthly to ensure the basic living needs of the refugees, continuing until August of the following year.

In short, Chongshan Town was prepared to support these refugees for nearly a year.

The second aspect was land reclamation; after migrating to Chongshan Town, each household would be granted thirty to one hundred acres of wasteland according to the size of the household, with a two-year tax exemption before cultivation, and from the third to the fifth year only the regular grain tax would be required.

Land reclamation takes time and might delay next year’s spring plowing, but as long as they had a piece of wasteland, the refugees would avoid a complete crop failure the following year.

Furthermore, to assist in land reclamation, Chongshan Town would also distribute farming tools and seeds and even allocate a few oxen for plowing to each village.

As for the third aspect, it involves household registration policies, namely refugees that are willing to become military households can be incorporated into the existing garrisons of Chongshan Town. They can receive more materials, and the able-bodied can immediately enlist to receive food and pay.

Actually, there is a significant shortfall in military households among the garrisons of Chongshan Town, with some thousand households and Hundred Households’ military households not even making up half of the full quota.

Additionally, last year Yang Zhenshan had drafted a number of military households from several garrisons to form the new Black Cloud Guard, which further exacerbated the shortage of military households in Chongshan Town’s garrisons.

Moreover, Yang Zhenshan has plans to form several new garrisons in the future.

Just around Black Cloud Mountain alone, Yang Zhenshan plans to establish five garrisons in the front, rear, left, right, and center of Black Cloud.

Beyond Black Cloud Mountain, in the Northern areas close to the Wuliang Hu Clan, Yang Zhenshan also plans to arrange some garrisons and fortified settlements, though that is a matter for later.

In the short term, Yang Zhenshan only plans to establish the five Black Cloud Garrisons.

And for refugees, surely being military households is preferable to not being farmers; if it weren’t for the great disaster, surely no one would willingly become military households.

Therefore, in order to attract refugees to voluntarily become military households, Yang Zhenshan can only show preference in the resettlement policy.

In fact, what’s most attractive to refugees among these three aspects is the reclamation of wasteland—allocating wasteland, two years of tax exemption, and half-tax for three years—such policies are still very tempting for refugees.

Especially for those tenant farmers who don’t own any land, they can only dream of having land of their own.

Therefore, after the officials and constables of Chongshan Town promoted these policies, many tenants were immediately tempted.

Tenants who were already at the end of their rope, upon hearing about such policies in Chongshan Town, many chose to bring their families along and head to Chongshan.

For a time, a large number of refugees flooded into Chongshan Town.

And the refugee reception point set up by Chongshan Town along the official road also became busy.

On both sides of the official road outside the city of Zhanghe County in the east of Chongshan Town, long rows of wooden shelters had already been erected. Refugees in tattered clothes slowly made their way along the official road as numerous constables and soldiers maintained order.

”This way, this way, don’t run around!”

”I’m talking to you, behave! If you dare to run again, don’t blame the constable for being ruthless!”

”Whose child is that, how can you just leave them on the ground like that?”

”My mom has fainted, who will come and save my mom!”

”Doctor, where’s the doctor! Hurry up and call the doctor over to have a look!”

The whole refugee reception point was even more raucous than a vegetable market, as the constables and soldiers ceaselessly scolded and the doctors busied themselves treating the sick refugees.

Some refugees had already starved to death on their way to Chongshan Town, and many who arrived at Chongshan Town were exhausted, hanging on by a mere thread of breath.

However, even more were the emaciated refugees, each one listless, with hollow, lifeless eyes, waiting for the government officers’ arrangements.

The scene was both noisy and pitiable.

Clip-clop, clip-clop~~

A series of hoofbeats came from the North; a troop of Cavalry flew in from the city of Zhang Hee.

Upon reaching the reception point, the Cavalrymen all stopped.

Zhang Chengzhi, riding on horseback, looked at the chaotic scene and frowned slightly.

Next to him, the County Magistrate of Zhanghe County had a somewhat bitter expression on his face.

The situation was more troubling than he had expected. Now, with only a few thousand refugees arriving on the Zhanghe County side, he felt overwhelmed.

They did not lack water, food, or various other materials; indeed, a large quantity of food had been transported to them more than half a month earlier from above.

What really troubled him was the shortage of manpower; even though he had urged the government officials to conduct affairs to the fullest, the speed of receiving refugees was still very slow.