In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 918 The Power of the People

Even the most foolish person knows that the court's actions are wrong, so how could the old man not know?

The people were already suffering so much, yet the imperial court continued to increase their burdens, leading to a large number of beggars and refugees in Mingzhou, and the old man even witnessed the deaths of countless people in Mingzhou...

The old man, who had witnessed these events firsthand, instantly lost all goodwill he had toward the instigator, the imperial court.

After that, the old man personally experienced the two years of warlord rule in Mingzhou, during which the lives of the people of Mingzhou became even more difficult.

Because the warlords plundered the people on a large scale but had no intention of governing, the order in Mingzhou completely collapsed. Murder, looting and other heinous incidents continued to occur throughout Mingzhou. Every day, a large number of people in Mingzhou either died of hunger or died fighting for food and resources. Even a wild vegetable could cause a deadly fight among the people.

Those two years in Minnesota were like hell on earth.

It was precisely because of those two terrible years that the old man's impression of Yang Zheng, who later ruled Mingzhou, changed, and he even accepted Yang Zheng's rule.

Compared to the imperial court that disregarded the lives of the people and the local warlords of Mingzhou who rode on the backs of the people, Yang Zheng, who did not levy heavy taxes, did not plunder the people, distributed land to the people, and even cared about the people at all times, personally dispatching grain to provide disaster relief after learning that the people had a poor harvest, could not be called a sage ruler in the world!

The old man once only hoped that rebels like Yang Zheng could be wiped out by the imperial court as soon as possible, so that the land could be restored to peace.

Now, the old man only hopes that Yang Zheng can overthrow the imperial court as soon as possible, unify the world, and allow the people of Mingzhou and even the entire Kyushu to live a good life.

"Everyone be quiet."

After the people's excitement subsided a bit, the old man pressed his hands down and continued, "Although the grain brought by King Yang is free, there are conditions for receiving it. Only truly impoverished families can receive it; wealthier families cannot."

"A poor family?"

The people at the scene looked at each other in bewilderment.

Someone asked, "May I ask, sir, what constitutes a poor family?"

"Good question."

The old man smiled and said, "The notice also states that the standard for the so-called poor families is 200 catties of grain per person. If a family has three people and 600 catties of grain, they cannot receive this relief grain. If a family has five people and more than 1000 catties of grain, they also cannot receive it. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Uh……"

The people present counted on their fingers and found that most of them met the conditions. With the large-scale crop failure, most people did not have much grain left at home. Let alone 200 jin of grain per person, they would have a hard time even storing 100 jin of grain.

Of course, there are also a few families with a lot of surplus food. When they find that they do not meet the requirements, they inevitably have some ulterior motives.

A slightly plump middle-aged man asked, "Old man, what would happen if someone concealed the truth and received relief food?"

Upon hearing this, the old man glanced at the man. The man had a prosperous appearance and was dressed fairly neatly, so he was obviously not a poor person.

"Concealing the truth and fraudulently claiming the benefits?"

A ruthless glint flashed across the old man's face as he sternly declared, "Anyone who conceals their true intentions to receive relief grain can be reported by the people of the county. Once the government investigates, they will be severely punished, ranging from imprisonment to execution!"

The government could not, and did not have the resources, to investigate the financial situation of every person receiving relief grain, but this did not have a significant impact because the government could mobilize the power of the masses!

Those wealthy families who concealed their situation to receive relief grain might escape the eyes of the government, but they could never escape the eyes of the general public.

Yang Zheng also set very severe punishments for misappropriating relief grain. Even misappropriating just one pound of relief grain would result in imprisonment, and the more grain misappropriated, the heavier the punishment would be, with the most severe punishment being execution.

With such severe punishment and the public overseeing the process, Yang Zheng was convinced that no one would dare to break the law again.

As expected, as soon as the old man finished speaking, many wealthy households who planned to conceal the truth and receive relief grain instantly darkened their expressions and gave up their idea of ​​fraudulently claiming relief grain.

On the contrary, the truly impoverished people were very happy.

"Hehe! This is a good idea. I've been wanting to get rid of those rich people for a long time. Just don't let me find out they're fraudulently claiming relief grain, or I'll definitely report them to the authorities!"

"Me too!"

“This relief grain was brought here by King Yang to help us poor people. We must not let those rich households claim it.”

"They'd better be fraudulently claiming grain, then I might get to see them beheaded!"

"..."

Hearing the voices of the poor people around him, the wealthy man in the crowd darkened even more, completely abandoning his idea of ​​fraudulently claiming relief grain.

The government's move was undeniably ingenious; it exploited the widespread resentment towards the wealthy, encouraging ordinary people to report those who fraudulently claimed relief grain...

With this move, there might still be some wealthy households willing to risk their lives to fraudulently claim relief food, but there certainly won't be many.

After all, the reason why the wealthy are wealthy is because they have substantial assets and live much better lives than ordinary people. They have absolutely no reason to risk their lives for a pittance.

"Fortunately, my family didn't have much surplus grain, which met the requirements for receiving relief grain."

Old Meng smiled and said to Wu Zhijian and Mu Ma beside him, "I just don't know how to get this relief grain? And how much can we get?"

This question was clearly not unique to Lao Meng; someone at the front of the crowd asked the same question.

"Old man."

A square-faced man wearing patched clothes asked, "How do we receive this relief food? How much can we get?"

"The grain will be transported to Wuming County within three days and then stored in the county's granary."

Without hesitation, the old man replied, "The official distribution will begin in three days. There will be officials outside the granary responsible for distributing the grain. You can go there to collect yours. As for the quantity..."

The old man paused for a moment and continued, "Based on half a jin per person, a family of three can receive one and a half jin a day, a family of five can receive two and a half jin, and a family of eight can receive four jin."

"Half a pound each?"

The people present silently calculated in their minds that half a pound of grain per person was not much, after all, even a child would eat more than a pound of grain a day.

However, the autumn harvest had just ended, and although the crops had failed, most people still had some grain stored in their homes.

With their own stored grain, plus the half-pound of grain they could receive from the government each day, if they ate sparingly, it would be more than enough for them to get through the harsh winter.