The refugee problem was the most difficult problem for all the countries in the Central Plains to solve. They had no food to eat and would do anything to survive. The various countries couldn't directly suppress these refugees. Otherwise, when the famine was over and there were no civilians left, who would the aristocratic families ask to farm for them?
"The refugee problem is indeed a big problem. If it isn't handled well, there might be a big problem. We can't chase them away now … Let me think about this. We'll talk about this tomorrow. Get someone to clean up the granary first. I'll fill it up later," Hua Kai said.
Perhaps only Hua Kai could say such bold words. Fort Wah Ka's granary could hold more than 300,000 dan of grain. This was enough to feed 150,000 people for a year!
Hua Kai returned to the West Court to visit his grandmother. His mother was living in Guang County City. He saw that the construction of Fort Wah Ka had been completed. The inner castle was filled with two-story wooden buildings. The density of the buildings was comparable to Linzi City. However, this meant that Fort Wah Ka had reached the upper limit of its population. Its development had reached a bottleneck. If it wanted to increase its prosperity, it would have to expand the third wall. However, Hua Kai wasn't willing to do that.
Guang County City's geographical location was much better than Fort Wah Ka. The two cities were only about 10 li apart. After the expansion, the difficulty of defending Fort Wah Ka would increase tenfold. He would rather find a place that was more suitable for defense and build a new base than let Fort Wah Ka and Guang County exist side by side.
Hua Kai appeared at the training grounds in the afternoon. When the members of the Hua family saw that the head of the family had returned, they put in extra effort in their training. Hua Kai guided some of the talented youths in the [Space Splitter Spear]. He found more than 40 members in the family's directory and asked them to find him in the main courtyard at night.
The familiar rhythm was back. Some of the old Household Servants of the Hua family were so excited that they couldn't close their mouths. Most of them hadn't entered the [Family's Secret Realm] for training for four years. Thinking back to the time when their strength increased by leaps and bounds, they missed it immensely.
In the past two years, the names of the family members in the list of 500 had changed countless times, but the last place had always been 94 loyalty points. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't rise any higher.
At night, more than 40 people entered the [Family's Secret Realm]. Among them, more than 20 were entering for the first time. Everyone's attributes had increased a lot. Seeing this, Hua Kai decided to stay at home for a few more days and send everyone who could enter the Secret Realm. By then, there would definitely be a few more Mortal Realm warriors.
In the [Family's Secret Realm Space], there were over 300 people in the Qi Transformation Realm. Many of them had already reached the late stage of the Qi Transformation Realm. In the next few days, he would help them reach the peak of the Qi Transformation Realm. After he left home, he would enter the Spirit Field and let Xu Hua use the [Wind and Fire Praying Mat] to help them level up. At that time, he would leave some [Barrier Breaking Pills].
The next morning, Hua Kai sent another 40 family members to the trial. It was already past nine o 'clock in the morning. Only one person could enter the three secret realms at a time. This was the fastest progress they could make each day.
Each person had to enter the secret realm three times. In three days, he could only complete the trial for 80 people. If he wanted to send all 200 people into the [Family's Secret Realm Space], he would have to stay at home for about 10 days.
Qi's situation was not stable. Hua Jiazhu had not returned home from the Yan Kingdom. Hua Kai could only be at ease when the family needed to increase their combat strength.
When he arrived at his third uncle's house, his third uncle was still calculating the amount of food used by the refugees. Today, more than 2000 refugees had arrived in Guang County. Two more refugee camps had to be set up to accommodate them.
"Kai 'er, the warehouse has been tidied up. I have already told the guards that no one is allowed to enter the warehouse for the next two days," Hua Zijie said when he saw Hua Kai.
"I will go and release the food at noon. More refugees came to Guang County?" Hua Kai said as he looked at his third uncle's account book.
"Every refugee camp produces 5 dans of food a day. 54 refugee camps produce close to 10,000 dans of food a month. If this continues, the food consumption will be like running water. More and more refugees have arrived in Guang County these few days," Hua Zijie said dejectedly.
"Guang County's current population, including all the refugees, has exceeded 100,000 people. It is comparable to the population of some counties!
I thought about it yesterday. It is not a long-term solution to let the refugees stay in the refugee camps. Just like the Great Wall of the Qin Kingdom, we should find something for them to do, "Hua Kai said.
"The expansion of our house has been completed. The city walls have been repaired a few times. Even the official roads in Guang County have been repaired!" Hua Zijie said.
"I have been to Shengjing in the Shu Kingdom. They have diverted the river water to the outside of the city and built intersecting small rivers. This can prevent dire beasts from attacking the city.
Most dire beasts do not know how to swim. Our Fort Wah Ka is only 80 li away from the Yan River in the west. "
Hua Kai's words made Hua Zijie fall into deep thought. To the west of Fort Wah Ka was a mountain range. It was a huge project to divert the river water. However, when he thought of the refugee camps outside Guang County, he nodded his head.
"If the refugees have something to do, they will not have the intention to riot. We can have more than 10,000 mu of fertile land outside the fort. When the time comes, we can build more villages outside the city. The refugees will have a foundation to survive here in the future. After the famine, the most precious thing would be population!" Hua Kai continued.
He took out a rough topographic map of Fort Wah Ka. The Yan River flowed 10 li north of Fort Wah Ka. There were dozens of man-made small rivers that led to the outer city walls. In the middle, there were countless small canals. There were more than 40 bridges of different sizes. If this project was completed, as long as the few bridges outside were defended, dire beasts would not be a threat to the civilians.
It was impossible to complete this project without tens of thousands of people.
"Okay, I will ask the Lu family's craftsmen to design the construction drawings in the afternoon. The family has accumulated 100,000 taels of gold over the past few years. It is enough to complete the project." Hua Zijie looked at the drawings that Hua Kai took out and nodded his head.
"In addition, give the refugees who perform well some bone coins as a reward every day. This way, they will have the capital to settle down and will not have any thoughts of rioting.
I'll go to a few refugee camps in the next few days. Those with good aptitudes can be accepted into the Hua Clan, or the affiliated clans can accept them. After the reorganization of the State of Qi this time, our Hua Clan will definitely make all the aristocratic clans sit up and take notice of us! "
As a reincarnator, Hua Kai knew the importance of the civilians better than anyone else. They may not have any fighting ability or craftsmanship, but they were the foundation of all development. After the famine, these refugees would become the new driving force for the development of the Hua family.
After walking around the refugee camps outside the fort, there were quite a number of refugees with good qualifications.
Two years had passed. The refugees with abilities above the Initial Element Stage had already been selected by various forces. Most of the young girls had also made up for the imbalance in the ratio of males to females in Fort Wah Ka. Hua Kai found an A- youth in the first refugee camp and 17 people with B- and above aptitudes.
Hua Kai, who was tired from selecting refugees, went back to his room to sleep and continued to comprehend the essence of the great works in his dreams. He had been doing this for the past half a year.
In the afternoon, he recovered his mental strength and continued to select refugees with good qualifications. In the evening, he sent his family members to train. After three days, he had selected all 54 refugee camps outside Guang County. There were a total of 76 people with A- and above aptitudes and 1235 people with B- and above aptitudes.
Among these refugees, the highest was a 9 year old girl with A + aptitude. She was taken in as a first class maid in Fort Wah Ka. Hua Kai wanted to see if he could find anyone with S aptitude and above, but he was disappointed.
On the afternoon of the 8th of April, Hua Kai was waiting for the arrival of his family's trainees in the main courtyard. At this time, a Household Servant came to report that Princess Ji Le had returned.
Princess Ji Le had always been in the Hua Manor of Guang County and rarely returned to Fort Wah Ka. Today, she came back specifically to look for Hua Kai.
"Greetings, Princess!" Hua Kai saw Princess Ji Le enter and bowed.
"Kai 'er, there is no need to be so polite. I have already married into the Hua family, so I am a member of the Hua family. You can call me Aunt or Ji Le. The one who should be bowing is me!" Princess Ji Le said.
"Fifth Aunt, why did you come back to Fort Wah Ka today? Is there something you need from me?" Hua Kai asked.
"Sigh!
These few days, my Lord Father sent me a letter saying that all the food in the family has been used up. The palace has already restricted the food supply. Many cities in the Lu Kingdom have already been invaded by the refugees. My Lord Father is very distressed!
He hopes that the Hua family can provide us with some grain seeds. In the future, we will return it ten times! "Princess Ji Le said with a heavy expression.
Princess Ji Le knew that the Hua family had grain. As the princess of the Lu Kingdom, she couldn't watch the Lu Kingdom continue to be in chaos. The Hua family had already used more than a hundred thousand dan of grain for the refugees. If they could provide ten thousand dan of grain to the Lu Kingdom, then they would still be able to replenish the wheat this year.
"On account of Fifth Aunt, it is necessary to provide assistance to the Lu Kingdom. I wonder how much grain the Lu Kingdom needs to survive this crisis?" Hua Kai asked.
"The Lu Kingdom has more than five hundred thousand citizens. If they have a hundred thousand dan of grain, then the kingdom would be able to stabilize. Just the spring plowing alone would require more than forty thousand dan of wheat seeds." Princess Ji Le said.
"A hundred thousand dan of grain …" Hua Kai muttered softly as he paced around the living room. He was thinking about the pros and cons of helping the Lu Kingdom.
If it was before King Qi's illness, Hua Kai definitely wouldn't help the Lu Kingdom as it would only make King Qi resent him.
Now that Qi's internal affairs were starting to become unstable, if he revealed his relationship with the Lu Kingdom, many of the aristocratic families in Linzi City would have to reconsider their attitude towards the Hua family. After staying in Jixia Learning Palace for a long time, he had a deeper understanding of the relationships between the aristocratic families.
Princess Ji Le waited anxiously. She knew that Hua Kai might not be at home most of the time, but Hua Kai was the one in charge of the entire Hua family. Although she didn't know how much grain they had left, as long as Hua Kai was willing to help the Lu Kingdom, then the Lu Kingdom would suffer fewer losses and riots.
"Three days later, the Hua family will form a convoy to send the grain to the Lu Kingdom. At that time, I would like to personally meet with King Lu." Hua Kai remained silent for a while before speaking.
"I will go too … I have not been home for three years. I want to go home and take a look!" Princess Ji Le looked at Hua Kai and said.
It wasn't easy for a princess like her, who had been married to another nation, to return home. She had to obtain the approval of her family head.
"Alright, Fifth Aunt, you will go with us this time!
Bring more Household Servant with you when you go to the Lu Kingdom. You cannot tarnish the reputation of the Hua family when you return to Qufu City, "Hua Kai said.