Daming Town Haiwang

Chapter 2224, Global Drought

In the native Henan of the Ming Dynasty, Liu Long, the governor of Henan, is inspecting the drought situation in Henan.

This year is another year full of disasters and disasters. At the beginning, the weather did not show any signs of warming up in March in Yangchun. After finally waiting for the weather to warm up, spring plowing began. As a result, from April to June, For three full months, not a single drop of rain fell in the entire northern part of the mainland of Daming.

On the contrary, there was a big flood in the south, which seemed to keep all the rain in the south, and nothing in the north.

"Even the Yellow River has dried up!"

Liu Long looked at the Yellow River in front of him. At this moment, the Yellow River was about to stop flowing. The original Taotao River has now become a small river, with only a few trickles remaining.

So dry!

There has not been a drop of rain for three whole months, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a thousand miles away, and according to the forecast of the imperial meteorological office, in the next 1-2 months, it is very likely that the northern area of ​​​​Ding Ming will also have a rainstorm. There is no rain, which means there will be no harvest this year.

"My lord, can we report to the imperial court to clean up the river bed when the Yellow River is dry, and clean up the silt, sand, etc. in the river bed, so that the height of the river bed can be lowered, and it will be very helpful for dealing with flood disasters in the future. .”

Beside Fei Yuan, Fei Yuan, the magistrate of Kaifeng Prefecture, suggested.

"This is a good suggestion. The riverbed in Kaifeng section is indeed too high. When it encounters flood disasters, accidents often occur."

When Liu Long heard this, he couldn't help nodding his head immediately, this Fei Yuan is fine, he is a person with ideas.

It has been a difficult problem to manage the Yellow River since ancient times, especially in this section of Henan. In some places, the riverbed is even much higher than both sides, and it is all resisted by dams, otherwise it would have been washed away long ago.

"It's also fortunate that we are in this good era. If there had been such a severe drought decades ago, the people would have been destitute, wars were raging, and starvation was everywhere."

Liu Long looked at the village in the distance.

Even though there was a severe drought, the people in the village still didn't seem worried at all. The old people gathered together and chatted, the children played carefreely, and the adults rushed to work on motorcycles. .

A peaceful scene, Yan Ran was not affected by the drought at all.

This made Liu Long sigh. When he was young, in the 11th and [-]th years of Hongzhi, there was a great famine in the three northern provinces due to heavy snowstorms. Where is the famine in his hometown of Shanxi? How many people froze to death on the side of the road.

Looking at the present, due to such a severe drought, the land is thousands of miles away, and even the grass on the ground is withered and yellow. However, the impact on the lives of the people of Ming Dynasty has been minimal.

As early as March, the Ming court had already issued an early warning that there might be a large-scale and large-scale reduction in grain production this year, requiring all localities to make relevant preparations in advance, check the granaries to ensure food supply, and maintain social stability.

So early on, the food reserves of the governments of various places in the Ming Dynasty were already full, enough for the people of the Ming Dynasty to eat for a year or two.

Even if there is a severe drought, the price of food is still very stable, without the slightest fluctuation.

"Yeah, it's fortunate that we grew up in such a good time, otherwise under such a severe drought, the whole of Henan might be empty."

Fei Yuan also nodded straightly. After all, he is young, and he can be regarded as a Daming person who grew up in the new era, but he still heard a lot of things about the previous era from his elders.

"Draft a plan here, and take advantage of the current flow of the Yellow River, we will clean up the silt, sediment, etc. in the Yellow River."

"Yes, my lord!"

The Great Plains in the middle of the North Gold Continent.

With the continuous growth of the population of the Ming Dynasty here in the Golden Continent, the development of the entire Golden Continent is also increasing, and one of the most important places is the Great Plains of the North Golden Continent.

The land here in the Great Plains is fertile, flat and open, and there is a large river running through it from north to south, which brings abundant water. At the same time, the humid water vapor of Penglai Bay in the south can also stretch from south to north to the Arctic region.

Such unique natural conditions also allowed the Great Plains to gradually develop into another important granary of the Ming Empire.

Because the land of immigrants here is vast and sparsely populated, from the very beginning, like Liaodong, Hezhong, and Heitu provinces, the agricultural model of large-scale mechanized farming was developed.

Relying on the mechanized farming model, only a small number of farmers can cultivate a large amount of land, with high efficiency and high output, so that at the beginning, because the food here could not be sold, everyone's enthusiasm for farming was not high. There is a lot of land, but people are still unwilling to farm it.

Later, with the start of Ming Dynasty's colonial activities in South Africa and the development of grain exports to Europe, farmers here gradually became willing to cultivate grain.

But in general, the current cultivated area here accounts for a small area of ​​the entire Great Plains. Only in the southern part of the Great Plains has a large number of reclamation and planting, and the central and northern regions are still vast wilderness, which is the grassland nomads who immigrated here. Tribal ranch.

For the people of Gold Island, gold and adventure are their favorite things.

Here, stories of adventurers getting rich overnight are sung all the time.

As for farming, that's what women do.

That's right, here in Huangjinzhou, the gentlemen never go to farm, and all the farmers are women in the family.

The gentlemen here in the Golden Continent are basically yearning for adventure, looking for gold and silver, and now there is an extra oil, they are not taking risks on the way of taking risks.

The things at home are basically left to women to take care of, including farming.

Generally speaking, Ming people here in Golden Continent, in addition to their main wives, often take concubines, and there are quite a few of them, basically including concubines who are descendants of Yin and Shang merchants and white slave concubines bought from Europe.

There are as few as four or five, and as many as a dozen or dozens.

For the people of Ming Dynasty, the cost of taking concubines is very low, but the benefits are quite good. Not only can they give birth to their own babies and warm their beds, but they also have more labor in the family.

Whether it is helping to take care of his family's property, or taking care of his family's manor, planting land and so on is very good, and he can devote himself to the great cause of adventure.

At this moment, in the farmlands in the southern part of the Great Plains, the women are busy setting up water pumps to draw water from the river to irrigate the fields in their homes.

This year is too dry, and there is very little rain, but fortunately there is a river here, and there is still a lot of water in the river, and the water in the river can be pumped up for irrigation by relying on pumps.

"My lord, our place is very dry this year. If it weren't for the water of the Xibi River, our fields in the North Gold Continent would have been wiped out."

Zhong Bingxiu listened to the reports of the officials around him, and then looked at the great plain in front of him. The plain here is endless, very flat and open, and the big river in front of him is also a big river comparable to the Yangtze River.

"If a dam is built on the Sibi River, it will be easy to irrigate a large area of ​​land on both sides."

Zhong Bingxiu looked at it carefully and said, he is the chief envoy of the North Golden Continent who was just transferred from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty, and he is not very familiar with the situation in the Golden Continent.

"My lord, what you said is very reasonable, but the people here on the Golden Isle are not very enthusiastic about farming. In fact, a large amount of land here has not been reclaimed, and only a small amount of reclaimed land has been reclaimed."

"If there are a lot of fields on both sides of the Xibe River in the future, then a dam must be built on the Xibe River, not only to generate electricity, but also to irrigate the good fields on both sides of the river."

Beside Zhong Bingxiu, the officials under him also said with a smile.

"Is the enthusiasm for farming not high?"

"Agriculture is fundamental. If you don't cultivate the land, what do you eat?"

When Zhong Bingxiu heard this, he asked quickly. Looking at the vast field in front of him, it seemed that a lot of land had been planted, and various machines could be seen everywhere. The degree of mechanization is very high.

"My lord, if you take a closer look at the people working in these fields, you will know that in our Golden Continent, the old men don't farm the land, and those who farm the land are all women in the family."

Hearing such an answer from his subordinates, Zhong Bingxiu picked up the binoculars and looked carefully at the vast fields around him.

In this vast field, whether it is driving the machine, carrying the big bag, or wielding a hoe, all of them are women.

And after taking a closer look, Zhong Bingxiu soon discovered that these women were basically blond and blue-eyed white men, and they were all busy working, and there was no Ming master doing this period at all.

Even if you can see some old men of Ming Dynasty, they are lying comfortably under the tree, drinking tea and listening to the phonograph. the meaning of.

And these women in the family seem to have been used to this for a long time. They do their own things and bring cakes and snacks to their men from time to time.

"My lord, in our Golden Continent, gentlemen are all on adventures, looking for gold, silver, and oil. Farming is not what gentlemen should do."

The officials under him smiled and explained to Zhong Bingxiu that this is the custom of Huangjinzhou.

Farming does not make money at all, that is, to grow some food for the family to eat, feed some livestock and so on. The real money is to take risks and find gold, silver and oil.

Although there are many elders who have been busy all their lives without making a fortune, this is the tradition of Huangjinzhou. If they can't find gold, they can only go home and rely on women to support them.

(End of this chapter)