Chapter 219 Solving the Refugee Problem

The refugee problem is the most difficult problem for all countries in the Central Plains to solve now. They can do anything to survive without food. Countries cannot directly suppress these refugees. Otherwise, when the famine is over and there are no civilians, who will the noble families let work for them?

"The refugee problem is indeed a big problem. If it is not handled properly, it may cause a big problem. It is not good to drive them away now... Let me think about it. Let's talk about this tomorrow. You ask someone to clean up all the granaries first, and I will fill the granaries later." Hua Kai said.

Perhaps only Hua Kai can say such a bold statement. The granary of Huajiabao can hold more than 300,000 stones of grain, which is enough for 150,000 people to eat for a year!

After returning to the west courtyard to see his grandmother, his mother lived in Guang County. Hua Kai saw that the entire Huajiabao had been completed. The inner fort was full of wooden buildings with two floors or more. The building density was no worse than that of Linzi City. However, this showed that Huajiabao had reached its population limit and had encountered a bottleneck in development. To increase its prosperity, it could only expand the third wall outward, but Hua Kai was unwilling to do so.

Guang County City had a much better geographical location than Huajiabao. The two sides were only more than ten miles apart. After the expansion, the defense difficulty of Huajiabao would increase tenfold. He would rather find a new place that was conducive to defense and build a new station than let Huajiabao and Guang County coexist.

In the afternoon, Hua Kai appeared in the martial arts training field. Seeing that the head of the family had returned, the Hua family practiced harder. Hua Kai taught some qualified young people the [Sky Spear] and found more than 40 members in the family list and asked them to find him in the main courtyard at night.

The familiar rhythm is back. Some old servants of the Hua family are so excited that they can't close their mouths. Most of them haven't entered the [Family Secret Space] for the trial for four years. Thinking of the scene of rapid improvement in strength in the past, it makes people miss it very much.

The names of the family members in the 500-person list have changed countless times in the past two years, but the last one has always been 94 points of loyalty and can't be upgraded.

More than 40 people entered the [Family Secret Space] for the trial in the evening, and more than 20 of them entered for the first time. Everyone's attributes have been greatly improved. Seeing this, Hua Kai decided to stay at home for a few more days and send everyone who can be tried to the secret realm for a trial. By then, there will definitely be a few more people in the Qi training realm.

In the 500-person list of the family in the [Family Secret Space], more than 300 people are in the Qi dynamic realm, and many have reached the late stage of the Qi dynamic realm. In the past few days, he has upgraded them to the Great Perfection. After he leaves home and enters the spiritual field, he will let Xu Hua use the [Wind and Fire Futon] to upgrade them. At that time, he will leave some [Barrier Breaking Pills].

The next morning, Hua Kai sent 40 family members to complete the trial. It was already past nine o'clock. Only one person can enter the three secret realms at a time, and the fastest progress every day is this.

Each person needs to enter the secret realm three times, and he can complete the trial for 80 people in three days. In this way, if he wants to send all 200 people in the family into the [Family Secret Realm Space], he has to stay at home for about ten days.

The situation in Qi is unstable now, and the main force of the Hua family has not returned home from Yan. Hua Kai will feel relieved if the family needs to improve some combat power.

When he came to his uncle's house, his uncle was still counting the amount of food for refugees. Today, more than 2,000 disaster victims came to Guang County, and two refugee camps needed to be set up to accommodate them.

"Kai'er, the warehouse has been sorted out. I have told the people guarding the warehouse that no one can enter the warehouse in the next two days." Hua Zijie said when he saw Hua Kai.

"I will put out the food at noon. Are there refugees in Guang County again?" Hua Kai said while looking at his uncle's account book.

"Each refugee camp needs 5 dan of food a day, and 54 refugee camps need nearly 10,000 dan a month. If this continues, food consumption will be like running water. More and more refugees have come to Guang County these days." Hua Zijie said distressedly.

"Now the population of Guang County, including all refugees, has exceeded 100,000, which is no less than the population of some counties! I thought yesterday that it is not a long-term solution to let the refugees stay in the refugee camps. Just like the Qin State built the Great Wall, we'd better find something for them to do." Hua Kai said.

"The expansion of the house has been completed, the city wall has been repaired several times, and even the official road of Guang County has been repaired!" Hua Zijie said.

"I've been to Shengjing in Shu. They diverted river water outside the city and built a series of intersecting rivers to prevent wild beasts from attacking the city. Most wild beasts don't know how to swim. Our Huajiabao is only 80 miles away from the Yanhe River in the west." Hua Kai's words made Hua Zijie fall into deep thought. There were mountains to the west of Huajiabao. It would be a huge project to divert river water. But when he thought of the refugee camp outside Guangxian City, he nodded. "If we give refugees something to do, they won't want to riot. We can have tens of thousands of acres of fertile land outside the fort. Then we can build more villages outside the city. Refugees will have a basis for survival here in the future. After the famine, the most valuable thing may be population!" Hua Kai continued. He took out a rough topographic map outside Huajiabao. The Yanhe River passes through the 10-li diversion area in the north of Huajiabao. Dozens of artificial rivers lead to the outer city wall, and countless small canals are led in the middle. There are more than 40 bridges of various sizes. If this project is completed, as long as the few bridges outside are guarded, it is difficult for wild beasts to pose a threat to the people. It is impossible to complete this project without tens of thousands of people.

"Okay, I will ask the craftsmen of the Lu family to design the construction drawings in the afternoon. The funds accumulated by the family in the past few years are also 100,000 taels of gold, which is enough to complete the project." Hua Zijie looked at the drawings that Hua Kai took out and nodded.

"In addition, give some bone coins to the victims who perform well every day, so that they can have the capital to settle down and will not have the intention of rioting. I will go to several refugee camps these days. Those with good qualifications can be accepted by the Hua family, or they can be accepted by the affiliated families. After the reorganization of Qi State this time, our Hua family will definitely make all the noble families look at us with new eyes!" Hua Kai said confidently.

As a reborn, Hua Kai knows the importance of the people better than anyone else. They may not seem to have any fighting power or skills, but they are the foundation of all development. After this famine, these disaster victims will become the new driving force for the development of the Hua family.

After a tour of the refugee camp outside the fort, there are really quite a few qualified refugees. Two years have passed, and the refugees with the ability above the Kaiyuan realm have long been picked up by various forces. Most of the young girls have also supplemented the imbalance of the male-female ratio in the Huajia Fort. Hua Kai found an A-qualified teenager in the first refugee camp, and 17 B-qualified people above.

Hua Kai was tired of selecting refugees and went back to sleep to continue to comprehend the essence of the great works of various families in his dreams. This is how he has been for the past six months.

In the afternoon, he recovered his mental strength and continued to select qualified refugees. In the evening, he sent family members to the trial. After three days, he had selected all 54 refugee camps outside Guang County. A total of 76 A-qualified people and 1,235 B-qualified people, of which men and women were almost half and half.

The highest aptitude among these refugees was a 9-year-old girl with A+ qualification, who was accepted as a first-class maid by Huajiabao. Hua Kai wanted to see if he could find anyone with S qualification or above, but he was disappointed.

On the afternoon of April 8, Hua Kai was waiting for the arrival of the family trialists in the main courtyard. At this time, the servant came to report that Princess Ji Le had returned.

Princess Ji Le had been in Huafu, Guang County, and rarely returned to Huajiabao. She came back today specifically to find Hua Kai.

"Meet the princess!" Hua Kai saluted when he saw Princess Ji Le enter the door.

"Kai'er, there is no need to be polite. I have married into the Hua family and I am a member of the Hua family. You can call me aunt or Ji Le. I should be the one to salute!" Princess Ji Le said.

"Why did Aunt Wu return to Huajiabao today? Do you have something to do with me?" Hua Kai asked.

"Alas! My father wrote to me these days, saying that the family's food has been completely used up, the palace has restricted food supply, and many cities in Lu have been breached by disaster victims. My father is very distressed! I hope the Hua family can support some grain, and I will return it tenfold in the future!" Princess Ji Le said with a gloomy face.

Princess Ji Le knew that the Hua family had grain. As a princess of Lu, she couldn't watch Lu continue to be in chaos. The Hua family has used no less than 100,000 shi of grain on disaster victims in recent years. If they can support Lu with 10,000 shi of grain, then it will still be in time to replenish wheat this year.

"For your sake, Fifth Aunt, it is right to support Lu. I wonder how much grain Lu needs to survive the current crisis?" Hua Kai asked.

"There are more than 500,000 people in Lu. If there are 100,000 shi of grain, the country can be almost stable. Just for the spring plowing, wheat seeds need more than 40,000 shi." Princess Ji Le said.

"100,000 shi of grain..." Hua Kai muttered softly, walking in the living room, thinking about the pros and cons of helping Lu.

If it was before the King of Qi was critically ill, Hua Kai would never help the State of Lu, as that would only make the King of Qi resentful. Now that the internal situation of Qi has begun to destabilize, if he shows his relationship with the State of Lu, many families in Linzi City will have to reconsider their attitude towards the Hua family. After spending a long time in the Jixia Academy, he has a deeper understanding of the relationship between the families than before.

Princess Ji Le waited anxiously. She knew that although Hua Kai was not at home, the entire Hua family was ultimately under the control of Hua Kai. Although she didn't know how much surplus food was left at home, as long as Hua Kai was willing to help the State of Lu, then the State of Lu would have less riots and losses.

"Three days later, the Hua family will form a convoy to send food to the State of Lu. At that time, I want to meet the King of Lu in person." Hua Kai said after a moment of silence.

"I'll go too... I haven't been home for three years. I want to go home and see!" Princess Ji Le looked at Hua Kai and said.

For a princess like her who married to another country, it is not easy to go home. She must get the approval of the head of the family.

"Okay, Fifth Aunt, you can come with us this time! Bring more family servants with you to Lu State. We can't let the Hua family's reputation fade when we return to Qufu City." Hua Kai said.