Chapter 277: Disaster Relief

Xiong Buyou was well aware of the situation in the county granary: the accounts and the stored grain quantity matched perfectly, but the quality was a different story. A large portion of the unhusked rice reserves was old and spoiled, suitable only for animal feed by modern standards. There were barely a hundred dan of rice fit for human consumption.

Therefore, Xiong Buyou’s idea was to target the “ever-normal granary.” In ancient times, with poor communication and transportation, it was unrealistic to expect the imperial court to provide disaster relief for general local natural disasters. In most cases, local officials had to solve the problem themselves. Besides the county granary, the magistrate also had control over warehouses that stored grain collected from the people.

Generally, the local gentry and landowners would donate some grain each year, which would be stored and used for relief in disaster years. The idea and method were both good, but as soon as they were implemented, they went awry. The grain reserves of the ever-normal granary were often embezzled by the government, so it had long been a granary in name only. The ever-normal granary in Lin’gao was built quite magnificently, but not a single grain of rice had been stored in it for over a hundred years.

Xiong Buyou’s idea was to have Magistrate Wu issue a notice, calling on the gentry and landlords to “joyfully donate” to the ever-normal granary. This kind of trick was played every year, and the gentry were used to it. When the magistrate came to “persuade” them to donate, they would have to contribute ten or twenty dan to be sociable. This way, they could collect two or three hundred dan of grain.

“That’s easy,” Wu Mingjin was quite satisfied that the Transmigration Group, despite having seized actual power in the yamen, still sought his approval for everything. “I will issue a notice.”

He immediately ordered a notice to be issued, calling on all the gentry and landowners in the county to “joyfully donate” to replenish the ever-normal granary for disaster relief.

“We’ll have to provide the bulk of the relief grain,” Xiong Buyou said to Wu De. “I asked the magistrate, and he said he can only raise about two hundred dan of unhusked rice and miscellaneous grains each year.”

“How much relief is needed?”

“The Planning Committee is still assessing the damage,” Xiong Buyou said. “But two hundred dan plus what’s in the county granary is definitely not enough.”

“If we have to provide it, then we’ll provide it. As rulers, we have to fulfill some obligations,” Wu De said in frustration. “Now we have to waive some taxes. This is a bit of a losing deal!”

The Australians were the first to donate, and no one else dared to refuse. This “joyful donation” was surprisingly enthusiastic, and four hundred dan were quickly collected from various places.

Wu De ordered some of the rice to be sent to the gruel sheds to be cooked and distributed to the disaster victims.

“Note, the grain ration should not be too small—it should not be less than their usual daily calorie intake,” Wu De instructed Jiang Qiuyan, who was in charge of the disaster victims’ health. “And send some pickles to ensure their salt intake.”

“Is that necessary? We just need to maintain their minimum physiological needs so they don’t starve, and keep them alive until next spring.”

“No, I don’t plan to keep them alive,” Wu De said with confidence. “They will keep themselves alive.”

“What do you mean?”

“Next, we need to feed them even better,” Wu De said, explaining the plan he had already discussed with the Executive Committee.

His disaster relief plan was simple: work for relief.

Work for relief had always been an effective method in the history of disaster relief in China. It not only saved a large number of disaster victims but also created many large-scale local projects. The successful experience of the ancients was naturally applicable to modern people.

At the disaster relief meeting, the Executive Committee decided to use the disaster victims as the main labor force to start a comprehensive road construction project in the winter, including the hardening of all roads.

“It has been proven,” Shan Daoqian said, “that simple projects built in pursuit of cheapness and speed are actually the least economical.” He added, “This typhoon has taught us this lesson.”

The damage to the transportation and communication lines was the most severe. The hastily built roadbeds had already loosened after a summer of rain, and this typhoon had washed away more than a quarter of the total road mileage. Only the road from the county town to Nanbao was unobstructed. This was partly because the inland areas were less affected by the typhoon, and also because this section had been the first to undergo roadbed and surface reconstruction for heavy vehicle transport.

Wen Desi said, “All the disaster victims this time will be assigned to you as laborers. If they work until next March, will that be enough to repair all the roads? At the very least, get all the roads open first!”

“I’m afraid it won’t be that fast…”

Wu Nanhai said, “Spring planting begins in March. We need to help the disaster victims resume production and get them back to their land as soon as possible…”

“In my opinion, why help them resume production?” Ma Qianzhu said leisurely. “We don’t need a large number of small agricultural producers. Let’s take this opportunity to turn them into industrial workers. We’ll buy back their land. This is a good opportunity to promote large-scale agricultural production!”

This line of thinking was a bit counter-intuitive, jumping from simple relief to the grand scheme of things. The attendees exchanged knowing glances: this was not a bad idea. The Transmigration Group’s guiding ideology in agriculture was large-scale production, and they didn’t need a large number of small farmers. The opportunity presented by the natural disaster to transfer this group of farmers from the land was significant not only because it increased the labor force directly controlled by the Transmigration Group, but also because it could help to dismantle the old rural structure.

“Since most people don’t like to engage in land reform,” Ma Qianzhu said, “we must seize this opportunity.”

“Isn’t it a bit unseemly to take advantage of people’s misfortune?” Wu Nanhai expressed his concern.

“No enclosure of sheep, no industrial revolution,” Ma Qianzhu said without a care. “Besides, we are conducting fair trade. As long as we don’t use force, no one can say anything.”

Thus, it was decided that all the refugees in the camps would be converted into laborers under the control of the commune, with housing and private plots allocated according to the standards for commune members, and their children would be enrolled in school.

Those willing to sell their land would have it purchased by the Agriculture Committee. Those unwilling to sell could keep it—in reality, once they became commune members, their labor would be completely controlled by the commune, and even if they kept their land, it would only lie fallow. In the end, they would still have to sell it to the Agriculture Committee. This so-called freedom to sell was just a facade.

“This method is really…” Wu Nanhai expressed his regret.

“Compared to land nationalization, don’t you think we are still quite benevolent?” Wen Desi said. He was not interested in tricks like land reform, but he was very interested in comprehensive land nationalization.

Thus, the fate of the hundreds of people already in the refugee camps and the thousands who were about to be admitted was decided. This portion of land gradually fell into the hands of the Agriculture Committee. Especially in some severely affected areas, the land of entire villages changed hands this way. However, the gains in land were not as great as imagined. Families with more land often had better disaster resistance, and the refugees were mostly poor peasants and tenant farmers with low economic capacity.

In addition to establishing refugee camps to accommodate the fleeing refugees, the Civil Affairs Committee also provided relief based on the disaster situation in each village—the affected villages were exempted from this year’s “reasonable burden.” For villages that were not severely affected but whose crops were damaged, Wu De’s relief plan was to have them carry out self-help production activities. The Delong Grain Company would provide them with loans to rebuild their houses and also lend them seeds for disaster relief crops such as buckwheat—these crops had a very short growth period and were cold-resistant, making them very suitable for rush planting in late autumn and early winter. In the spring of the following year, they would be lent rice seeds and farm tool loans.

By calculation, the currently raised grain was not enough. Just the seeds for spring planting would be a huge expense.

Relying on modern management experience and a large number of well-trained junior administrative personnel, the disaster relief soon got on the right track. The scene of refugees begging on the streets in and out of the county town quickly disappeared, replaced by well-organized refugee camps. At the same time, the action of providing assistance to the affected villages was also proceeding in an orderly manner.

But Wu De was not very at ease with this. A major feature of grassroots administration is that no matter how good the intentions and determination of the upper echelms are, it is still difficult to control the actions of every grassroots administrative personnel, especially when the rules and regulations are not perfect and have loopholes. And the wrongdoing of a single grassroots administrative personnel is enough to ruin the image of the entire administrative staff. This was a situation he absolutely did not want to see.

Since ancient times, disaster relief after a natural disaster has always turned into a feast for the grassroots in power. This has become an open secret. Even the imperial court was helpless—knowing that the relief money and grain would be skimmed off at every level, and only a fraction would reach the disaster victims, they still had to continue to allocate it, otherwise the natural disaster would trigger a popular uprising—sometimes it would trigger a popular uprising even if it was allocated. The so-called important difference between a prosperous age and a decadent age is that in the former, some of the disaster relief materials can be distributed to the disaster victims, while in the latter, it becomes a complete division and embezzlement.

“In the final analysis, it is the decline of administrative capacity,” Wu De said in a conversation with Ran Yao. “In a prosperous age, the institutions operate normally, and the corruption of officials has not yet affected the administrative execution capacity. As corruption becomes more and more serious, the execution capacity of the administrative system also declines.”

Now, for disaster relief, many trainees who were still in the training class yesterday have been mobilized to participate in the front-line work. A large amount of disaster relief materials are distributed through their hands—many of these materials are not difficult to embezzle if one has the heart: mixing a little sand and bran into the unhusked rice, as long as the amount is controlled well, it will definitely not attract attention. And the common people do not have the strong awareness of reporting and protecting their rights like modern people.

Registering disaster victims is another task with many loopholes to exploit. Just like the low-income security Wu De had seen in the past. People who needed low-income security didn’t get it, while many who didn’t have to worry about food and drink were playing mahjong with their low-income security. If even the modern society’s government with its strong control over the grassroots had so many loopholes, how much worse would it be for the Transmigration Group with its dozens of times worse conditions? Wu De was very clear that it was impossible for him to check one by one whether those who received relief rice and were exempted from the grain tax were really disaster victims. If someone wanted to fish in troubled waters, the possibility of not being discovered was very high.

“You mean you want us to fight corruption?” Ran Yao understood his meaning.