Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 777: Chapter 592 Natural Disasters and Man-made Calamities_2

Apart from the Yang Family Trading Company’s fleet, the Tenglong Guard’s fleet also frequently visits Star Moon Island.

Although Star Moon Island is not a compulsory passage for the shipping routes, it is relatively close to several routes in the East South Sea Domain.

The maritime trade of Tenglong Guard has already spread throughout the East South Sea Domain, from the Desheng Dynasty in the North to the Liusheng Dynasty, and further to the Lv Sheng Dynasty in the South, passing near Star Moon Island.

Many merchant ships from Tenglong Guard travel south along this route, and also eastward along the same route.

Five hundred li to the east of Star Moon Island is the territory of Divine Wood Island, and further southeast by five hundred li is the maritime domain of the Longdan Dynasty.

To the south of Star Moon Island lies Earth Fire Island, about three hundred li away, and to the southwest lies the Lv Sheng Dynasty, about eight hundred li away.

Further south, there are many island dynasties including the Sulan Dynasty, Zhang Dynasty, Mingde Dynasty, Suo Island Dynasty, Daluo Dynasty, among others.

Some of these dynasties have large territories, such as the Daluo Dynasty which encompasses thousands of islands both large and small; its maritime domain stretches over three thousand li and its population reaches thirty million.

There are also dynasties with small territories, like the Zhang Dynasty, whose main territory is just one large island with a population of over a million.

Currently, Tenglong Guard’s sea trade route extends eastward to Divine Wood Island, and southward to the Lv Sheng Dynasty, with Earth Fire Island being an important partner in the East South Sea Domain.

However, there is still a significant market in the East South Sea Domain that Tenglong Guard needs to expand. It is anticipated that breaking through these forces’ routes will require considerable effort.

The Yang Family Trading Company’s business will not be able to extend into the East South Sea Domain in the short term. There’s no helping it; the Yang Family Trading Company’s merchant ships and warships are still too few, just the coastline of Da Rong alone is enough for the Yang Family Trading Company to struggle with.

In mid-February of Xingyue First Year, Star Moon Island welcomed another group of immigrants.

Over three thousand immigrants from Fuhai Province of Da Rong arrived at Star Moon Island by boat.

Yang Zhenshan stood at the dock watching this group of raggedly dressed immigrants, his eyebrows deeply furrowed.

”Where did you get these refugees from?”

Luo Jingsong sighed faintly, ”Funing Prefecture.”

These people from Funing Prefecture were all emaciated and skeletal, clearly suffering from long-term malnutrition.

”What happened?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

Funing Prefecture is in the northern part of Fuhai Province. Previously when Yang Zhenshan visited Zhao Wu Guard, he passed near Funing Prefecture but never actually visited there.

Luo Jingsong explained, ”Last year there was a severe drought in Funing Prefecture, many fields yielded no grain at all!”

Yang Zhenshan’s eyebrows knitted together; Fuhai Province is mountainous with little arable land, and it has one of the largest populations among the southeastern provinces of Da Rong.

A large population with scarce land, coupled with a severe drought, the consequences are predictable.

”These people were originally tenants, not only did they have no harvest last year, but they also had to pay rent to the landlords, and...”

Luo Jingsong didn’t continue, but Yang Zhenshan already understood.

Landlords and tenants inherently have an exploitative relationship, and above the tenants, besides the landlords, there is another greater exploiter—the government.

Due to the Imperial Commerce Bureau, the court is not short of silver; theoretically, peasants’ taxes should have decreased, but in reality, the taxes payable by ordinary people have not decreased but instead increased.

This issue doesn’t lie with the court, but with the local government.

The court did not increase taxes, but local government officials frequently impose various harsh levies.

”Didn’t the court provide any relief?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

Luo Jingsong stated, ”I suspect the court doesn’t even know about the drought in Funing Prefecture!”

”You mean someone is covering it up?” Yang Zhenshan looked somewhat distressed.

”Yes, when I went to Sangshan County, the county government not only didn’t take any action to relieve the disaster victims, but they also shut the city gates, blocking tens of thousands of disaster victims outside.”

”When I got there, there wasn’t much that needed to be said; just offering them food was enough to have a large group follow me onto the ship!” Luo Jingsong explained.

Yang Zhenshan sighed heavily.

”Island Master, do you want to handle this?” Luo Jingsong asked.

”How can I handle it?” Yang Zhenshan himself didn’t know what to do.

Tell this to Emperor Yanping?

Emperor Yanping might consider him too meddlesome.

Not only Emperor Yanping, perhaps many ministers in the court would find him overly intrusive.

Does the court really not know?

Perhaps Emperor Yanping doesn’t know, but are there really none among the numerous ministers who know?

Obviously impossible, since many officials in the court come from Fuhai Province. Last year when the drought struck, even if the news spread slowly, many officials should have heard about it.

Even they don’t report it, what can Yang Zhenshan do?

”You brought so many people here, doesn’t anyone care?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

”No!” Luo Jingsong said.

Yang Zhenshan thought for a while and said: ”Don’t we still have a few islands?”

Luo Jingsong nodded, ”The islands of Star Moon Sect are all ours, no one dares to come and snatch them!”

”Four islands in the east, south, west, and north are all cultivable.”

Previously, Star Moon Sect owned sixty-four islands of various sizes, among which more than ten have fresh water resources suitable for habitation. The cultivable islands are fewer. The islands in the east, south, west, and north were formerly the bases of the Four Flag Army of Star Moon Sect. Although these islands are not as large as Star Moon Island, each island also has tens of thousands of acres of farmland.

”You go recruit some more disaster victims, put them on those islands to farm, and provide them with some food every month! Help as much as you can!” Yang Zhenshan said.

Settling the disaster victims was something the Yang family was very familiar with, especially since Yang Zhenshan had settled over a million victims in Chongshan Town back in the day.

However, they now own fewer islands, and even fewer that can be cultivated, at most they can accommodate twenty thousand people.

Yang Zhenshan wanted to help the disaster victims of Funing Prefecture, but he didn’t realize the number of victims this year in Da Rong far exceeded his expectations.

Only the northern part of Fuhai Province, Funing Prefecture, and Jianyang Prefecture experienced a drought, whereas the western part of Jiangnan, the northern part of Yun Gui, the southern part of Longnan, and the eastern part of Shu Province all faced severe droughts last year. This year, during the spring famine period, there are countless famine victims crowding outside the city and county towns awaiting relief.

The court has already dispatched a disaster relief Governor to inspect the relief efforts in five provinces, but half of the court’s relief food and money was pilfered before it even reached the disaster areas. Once it arrived, corrupt officials at the local government embezzled it, and less than twenty percent of the actual food reached the famine victims.

What’s more egregious is that many unscrupulous merchants took advantage of the situation by hoarding, making it impossible for many disaster victims to purchase food even if they had silver.

However, this is not the most critical issue; the most crucial issue is that Da Rong Court is running out of grain.

The large grain-producing areas of Da Rong are in the western part of Jiangnan, the northern part of Yun Gui, the southern part of Longnan, and the eastern part of Shu Province. With these four areas stricken by disaster, the entire country’s grain production is severely affected.

The grain shortage is not confined to the disaster areas but is spreading to the surrounding counties, even affecting the price of grain in the Capital City.

The court now does not lack silver, but it literally has no grain.

The court was already short on relief grains and various government offices took advantage of the situation to embezzle funds meant for disaster relief, preventing famine victims from receiving aid.

By this time many of the afflicted regions exploded.

In the northern part of Bashu, within the city of Dachang in Kui Prefecture.

Thousands of famine victims have stormed into the city, rampaging like rioters, slaughtering and looting major households clean.

Inside the county government, County Magistrate Zhao Yuankai, along with hundreds of Government Officials and constables, was desperately defending the main gate of the government office.

Zhao Yuankai, with a face full of panic, watched as the starving people climbed over the walls, and he screamed desperately: ”Quick, quick, kill him, kill him!”

Zhao Yuankai was very unlucky, having just taken his post in Dachang County less than a year before encountering a riot.

But Zhao Yuankai very much deserved it, because he embezzled the grain that was supposed to be disbursed to relieve the famine victims.

While the court’s relief grain did not arrive, many of the wealthy households in the city still gave some old grain to the county government to aid the victims outside the city, yet he wasn’t even willing to give this old grain to the famine victims.

The city’s major households were not particularly benevolent either; they lived within the city without concerns for food or clothing, but having thousands of disaster victims blocking the outside of the city was also problematic, affecting both their businesses and their own agricultural activities.

As the spring planting season approached, the major households together decided to gather a batch of 1,200 bushels of old grain hoping to send the starving people outside back to their hometowns.

If these victims were willing to return to their hometowns, then they could take advantage of this to issue high-interest loans, consolidate the self-employed farmers’ lands, and recruit more tenants to work their lands.