Chapter 392 Shen Xiangwan's Suggestions
"Um···"

This is indeed a very troublesome problem.

Shen Xiangwan hesitated for a moment, and then suddenly said in surprise: "Got it, we can do the work-for-relief program."

“Credit for work?”

Raising his eyebrows, Wei Chengyi looked at her in confusion.

"Yes, work-for-relief."

Shen Xiangwan was a little excited. After organizing his words, he further explained, "Didn't we hire a lot of people to mine charcoal? At present, the people in Chenzhou basically have enough food. Why don't we fire them and let the refugees take their place? We will give them food as wages, and use the money we save to buy the surplus food in the hands of the people. In this way, we can not only reduce our pressure and settle the refugees, but also let the people exchange some cash. When the people have money, they will spend it, which can boost the economy of Chenzhou to some extent."

"This is a good way to kill several birds with one stone."

Hearing this, Wei Chengyi lowered his eyes and pondered carefully. After a while, he said, "This method is good, but we only need a thousand people at most to mine charcoal, but there are hundreds of thousands of refugees. It is impossible to completely solve the difficulties we face. The most important thing is that people are lazy. Those who are assigned to mine charcoal will see that others can get relief food without doing anything. I'm afraid they will make a big fuss at that time."

Of course, they can also arrange other jobs for the refugees, such as placing them in snowflake salt or glass workshops. Regardless of whether their production process will be leaked in this way, the number of people needed is limited, and it is impossible to arrange all the refugees.

“Why limit ourselves to mining black charcoal?”

Blinking, Shen Xiangwan asked back in confusion. Seeing that he didn't seem to understand what she meant, or perhaps he understood but didn't fully comprehend, Shen Xiangwan continued, "Last year, we deployed troops in three counties, but still let some Western Hu people break in. It seems that there should be other gaps between the three counties on the border that allow Western Hu people to sneak in. Why don't we build a large-scale city wall to completely connect the three counties? Then our soldiers can be deployed inside the newly built city wall, leaving no opportunity for Western Hu people to take advantage of."

"In addition, as the saying goes, if you want to get rich, you must first build roads. Many official roads in Chenzhou are full of potholes. It's time to organize people to repair them. By the way, extend the official roads to various villages as much as possible. It will be much more convenient for us to transport food in the future."

At this point, Shen Xiangwan paused to take a breath: "In this case, do you still think that we can't make arrangements for hundreds of thousands of refugees? Moreover, we all know that this winter is very cold. Instead of letting them stay in simple houses and starve and freeze, it is better to let them all work. It won't be so cold if they move around, right? Maybe we can even prevent them from freezing to death."

"As for the cost of building the city walls and roads, we will collect a lot of taxes after the cabbages are harvested. We will have to pickle them into kimchi and store them. In addition, every household in the people will pickle kimchi, and there will be too much to eat. At this time, the government can buy the excess kimchi from the people at an appropriate price, and then organize people to sell them to neighboring Jiaozhou and Mingzhou. It will definitely bring in a lot of income."

In winter, not to mention ordinary people, even wealthy families can't afford to eat vegetables. Their kimchi will certainly be very popular. Of course, the price can't be too high. After all, the original price of vegetables is there. If it exceeds the price of meat, who would give up meat to buy kimchi? This requires them to set prices in a targeted manner.

These are all minor problems. The most important thing is that they can not only completely solve the refugee problem, but also build city walls to prevent the Western Hu people from sneaking in like they did last year. With roads extending in all directions, it will be more convenient for people to travel. It is simply killing several birds with one stone and is very suitable for their current situation.

She has said so much, if Wei Chengyi still doesn't understand the huge benefits of work-for-relief, then he has really lived in vain.

"Wanwan, you are really our lucky star!"

Coming back to his senses, Wei Chengyi pulled Shen Xiangwan up and held her in his arms, saying excitedly that being able to marry Wanwan was really a blessing he had earned in several lifetimes. Work-for-relief was enough to solve the biggest problem they were facing now. Even if many more refugees poured into Chenzhou in the future, they would no longer have to worry about how to resettle them.

The strategy of using work for relief was enough to solve their biggest problem at the moment, but it was easier said than done. The next morning, Wei Chengyi took a few guards to the city. This matter was too big, and he needed to supervise it in person. Yuan Xiu stayed at home and assisted the counties in dealing with miscellaneous trivial matters. Three days later, Mu Yunran also left. She had learned how to drive in the past few days, and she drove back in an off-road vehicle by herself. However, Shen Xiangwan still sent two guards to drive behind to escort them, so as to avoid any accidents on the way.

It was not until late September that Lin Wei returned to the Wei family and brought back the good news that Chu Liang and his men had successfully killed the messenger. He also brought back a little wolfdog for Xiaotuanzi. It was said that Liang Yuting and Chu Liang had picked it up at the foot of the mountain when they were personally leading people to open up wasteland. Thinking that the little cub had a white wolf, it was impossible for the little junior brother to have nothing, right? Liang Yuting asked Lin Wei to bring it back.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

"Ow!"

At 3:30 pm, Xiaobai and the little wolfdog rushed into the yard, barking. Soon after, Ang'er and Xiaodongzi came in as well. "Xiaohei, Xiaobai, slow down and wait for us."

"Wang Wang Wang!"

“Ahh…”

Completely ignoring them, the little wolfhounds named Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai rushed to Shen Xiangwan and kept shaking their heads at her.

"They are two wolf spirits."

After patting their heads one by one, Shen Xiangwan got up and went upstairs, and soon came down with a large bottle of spiritual well water.

“Woof woof woof…”

“Ahh…”

Seeing this, Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai, who were playing with the cubs, rushed towards her quickly. Shen Xiangwan shook her head and poured the spiritual well water into their troughs. Not to mention Xiao Bai, after Xiao Hei was brought back by Lin Wei, she saw that he was too thin, so she fed him some spiritual well water at night. The little guy seemed to have come to his senses, pestering her for water every day, and throwing tantrums if she didn't give him water. He was more naughty than human cubs.

"Pa bang bang..."

When they got the water from the spiritual well, the two of them stopped making noise and moved closer to the trough, licking up the water with their tongues, drinking it with great joy.

"Auntie, what kind of water is this? Why do Xiaobai and the others like to drink it so much?"

The little cub asked curiously, feeling like he wanted to go up and give it a try.

【End of this chapter】