Bury the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 103 Father and Son Eat Each Other!

As Shakespeare said, it is a question of whether to claim the title of king first or directly.

It's just that before Zhu Jinsong could decide whether to become king first or directly to become emperor, Ke Zhiming, the head of intelligence, brought Zhu Jinsong a very painful news.

Famines in Yicheng, Xinghua, Suizhou, and Zhijiang in Hubei, people eating bark, floods in Jian'an, Fujian, Pingxiang, Jiangxi, etc., Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Zhili, and Shandong, Henan and other places under Zhu Jinsong Drought is widespread, especially in Hubei, Henan, and Shandong.

Zhu Jinsong's face immediately turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

Zhu Jinsong remembered the 50-year record of Qian Deaf in the history books.

Earthquake in Yumenbei, Gansu.There was a great famine in Yicheng, Xinghua, Suizhou, and Zhijiang in Hubei, and people ate tree bark.Floods hit Jian'an in Fujian and Pingxiang in Jiangxi.Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Zhili and other regions suffered from drought, especially in Hubei, Henan and Shandong.In autumn, the counties of Shouguang, Changle, Anqiu, Zhucheng and other counties in Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong suffered from severe famine, and father and son ate each other.The provinces needed more than [-] million taels of relief money for disasters.

Father and son eat each other!

Zhu Jinsong has never experienced such a tragedy, and he can't figure out what kind of starvation a person must have to have the tragedy of cannibalism between father and son!

By the way, in the original history, the celebration of the 50th anniversary of Qian Deaf's ascension to the throne and the banquet of thousands of old men who killed many old men were held at the beginning of the year.

At this moment, Zhu Jinsong didn't have time to think about whether to become king first or directly to become emperor. After hurriedly returning to Jinan Mansion, Zhu Jinsong summoned all the big and small leaders of Meng Lianggu's anti-thief group.

"The news of the severe drought in various places, the big guys should have heard of it."

"Not to mention the wells we drilled. Although there are many wells, compared with this level of drought, the wells we drilled with the people are not even a drop in the bucket."

"Let's call the big guy here, just to see if the big guy can do anything?"

As soon as Zhu Jinsong's words fell, the leaders of the Meng Lianggu anti-thief group, large and small, frowned.

If there is only drought in Shandong and Henan, then the problem will be easier to handle. After all, the biggest problem with disasters like drought is that it will affect the grain harvest. As long as the Mengliangmeng rebel group is willing to provide food for relief People, then the problem of drought is actually not very serious.

The problem is that droughts have occurred in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Zhili.

The occurrence of drought in these places basically means that several places with outstanding production in the world are facing a situation of grain shortage. food.

Or to put it more bluntly, that is, every time the Menglianggu rebel group buys one more grain, one more person may starve to death in other places.

After a long silence, Zeng Cheng, the leader of the civil service system, tapped the pot of dry smoke and said: "Continue to call on the people to dig wells. Although digging wells will not be of much use, it will be a little bit if it can be relieved. It’s better than just sitting there waiting to die.”

"In addition, the grain we had previously stored in Changping warehouses in various places will also be brought out at that time."

But after setting the tone of digging more wells and opening warehouses to release grain, Zhu Xiaosong's expression remained solemn: "Don't think that we can sit back and relax by digging more wells and opening warehouses to release grain."

"Big fellows, don't forget that now not only are the people in Shandong and Henan provinces, but also those people who fled from Zhili. These burdens are all on our shoulders."

"As for how long this drought will last and how severe it will be, no one can say right now."

"So, it is probably not enough to just dig more wells and open warehouses to release grain. The focus must be on drought-tolerant crops such as sweet potatoes."

As Zhu Jinsong's voice fell, the room fell into silence again.

People like Zhu Erdan, Liu Heming, and Liu Huaiwen may not know that corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, crops with strong drought resistance, have already been introduced to the Central Plains, and the earliest records of introduction can even be traced back to the Hongwu period.

It is a pity that it takes time for any kind of crop to go from introduction to adaptive planting to large-scale promotion and planting. However, due to various messy reasons, Daming only had time to promote the planting of corn on a small area, and did not wait until these three days. The large-scale promotion of planting crops finally gave Jianu a big bargain, and the credit for promoting these drought-tolerant crops also fell on Qian Deaf's old dog.

Some people on NetEase said that the ability to eat roasted sweet potatoes in future generations is due to Qian Deaf's old dog.

Of course, the credit now belongs to Zhu Jinsong, because Qian Deaf Laogou’s large-scale promotion of sweet potato planting was slowly tried in Laizhou Prefecture between 48 and 50 years of Qian Deaf, and because of Zhu Jinsong’s existence, Qian Deaf old dog directly retreated to Zhili, and the promotion of sweet potatoes naturally had nothing to do with Qian Deaf old dog.

The question before Zhu Jinsong now is how to make the people in Shandong and Henan accept sweet potatoes and grow these three crops in large quantities.

It is impossible for you Zhu Jinsong to say that these three major crops are drought-resistant and high-yield and take the lead in planting them. The people in Shandong and Henan will happily take the seeds of the three major crops back to plant them on a large scale, because sweet potatoes are only grown by the people in Laizhou Prefecture. , the people in other places may not believe it.

Forcing the people to plant it is of course no problem on the Shandong side, but not necessarily on the Henan side. After all, the people in Shandong are more willing to trust Zhu Jinsong. In contrast, the people in Henan have just been included in the Meng Lianggu rebellion. Under the rule of the group, there is not such a high degree of trust in Zhu Jinsong.

Before seeing the actual output, the people are more willing to seek stability. This has nothing to do with whether they believe in Zhu Jinsong, but out of instinct.

Therefore, Zhu Jinsong had a headache, and so did all the people in the room, big and small.

After a while, Zeng Cheng tentatively said, "Master, do I have an idea?"

Seeing Zhu Jinsong looking at him, Zeng Cheng said: "I think, if you tell the people directly that sweet potatoes are drought-resistant and have high yields, the people may not believe it. Why not lure them to plant them?"

To lure the people to plant?

Zhu Jinsong suddenly became interested and asked, "Tell me?"

Zeng Cheng said: "For example, we circled a block on Mount Tai, and after we planted sweet potatoes, we sent soldiers to guard them, saying how good these things are, how precious these seeds are, and we lured the people to steal the seeds. Ah, let's say sweet potatoes can..."

Speaking of this, Zeng Cheng couldn't help laughing again: "We said that sweet potatoes can give birth to sons! As long as it spreads that so-and-so in Menglianggu eats sweet potatoes and gives birth to sons, the people will definitely be willing to plant them."

Zhu Jinsong was shocked right away—just thinking about it, why did this guy become a prefect of Tai'an before?

It's a pity that I am not the emperor yet, otherwise at least I have to arrange for him a position as the chief assistant of the cabinet or the governor of the East Factory.

Seeing that Zhu Jinsong looked at him with something wrong, Zeng Cheng couldn't help laughing again, and slowly explained: "The old dog Qian Deaf also made a decree before, saying that he wanted to promote these things, and I was at that time These ideas came up."

"But, if you want to promote these things to get promoted and make a fortune, it's far faster than flattering Shangguan, so I don't take it too seriously."

After thinking for a while, Zeng Cheng went on to say: "By the way, there is a man named Chen Shiyuan who used to be a supervisor in Fujian Province. He took the lead in trying to plant sweet potatoes in Laizhou. If Chief Ke can let people find this Chen Shiyuan, we can do both. , While leading the people to steal the seeds, Chen Shiyuan taught the people how to grow sweet potatoes."

Zhu Jinsong knocked on the table with his fingers, and looked at Zhu Erdan: "When you attacked Denglai, did you ever hear of this Chen Shiyuan?"

Zhu Erdan nodded and said, "I've heard of it, and I've seen him."

"At that time, the old man was writing an agricultural book about planting sweet potatoes, and his subordinates quickly reported it after they found out. Later, I went to meet the old man in person, and the old man even called me a traitor."

"But I thought that this old man is already in his eighties, so why should I argue with him? Later, I thought that the promotion of planting sweet potatoes is a great merit that can save countless lives, so I let people live in him. He protected his yard and left two soldiers to follow him and serve him."

Zhu Jinsong laughed at that moment.

Fortunately, Chen Shiyuan ran into Zhu Erdan instead of a Roman soldier. Fortunately, Zhu Erdan didn't directly draw his knife to kill people after being scolded. Otherwise, the promotion and planting of sweet potatoes would have become a big problem.

After relaxing a little in his heart, Zhu Jinsong looked at Ke Zhiming and said, "Send someone to Jiaozhou to see if Mr. Chen Shiyuan's book is finished?"

When Ke Zhiming bowed and agreed, Zhu Jinsong made another calculation in his heart.

In the face of drought, organizing people to dig wells is one way, and promoting drought-tolerant crops is also a way.

However, it will take time to promote drought-tolerant crops. As the saying goes, long-distance water cannot quench thirst. It is obviously unrealistic to hope to overcome this drought by digging wells and promoting drought-tolerant crops.

The most reliable way is to find a way to get food.

And want to get food...

If people in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Zhili, etc. were also affected by the drought, Zhu Jinsong had plenty of ways to get food. After all, money can solve most of the problems in the world. The food problem is obvious is also among them.

After thinking about it, Zhu Jinsong simply looked at Liu Huaiwen and said, "How much money do we have now? How much food is enough?"

Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's question, Liu Huaiwen shivered unconsciously.

The head of the family is planning to use the money to buy food?
The whole of Shandong plus the whole of Henan, as well as the people who fled from Zhili, how much food do they need?

Liu Huaiwen wanted to say that he had no money, but when he thought of the people who might starve to death, he couldn't say the word no money.

After being silent for a while, Liu Huaiwen tapped the pot of dry smoke and said: "We, Meng Lianggu, have some money. The sum of last year's autumn tax and this year's spring tax should have been more than 300 million taels, but with Zhili Over there, there are people fleeing from disasters, and they spend a lot of money one after another, and we still have more than 700 million taels."

"If the usual price of grain is converted to one tael of silver per shimi, we can buy more than 700 million shi of grain, which is almost [-] million catties."

"The people in Shandong, the people in Henan plus the people who fled from Zhili, there are probably more than 2000 million people. Even if it is 2000 million people, each person consumes a catty of grain every day, and they have to consume 2000 million catties of grain a day. "

"Seventy million catties is only enough for more than a month."

"Of course, if you count the original food storage of the common people's homes, as well as the ones we originally stored in Changping warehouses in various places, it should be able to last for a longer period of time."

"Especially at the end of the year, we can still receive another autumn tax. I estimate it will be several million taels, and then it will be several million stones of grain. If we save a little, we can survive this drought." It shouldn't be a big problem."

Speaking of this, Liu Huaiwen became a little hesitant again, "The biggest problem now is that Henan has just been attached to us for a short time, and the Changping warehouse there should not be counted on."

"Moreover, with the severe drought in the world, the price of grain will inevitably soar. Even if a stone of grain soars from the original one tael of silver to three taels of silver, it is not uncommon."

Zhu Jinsong hummed, curled up his fingers, and tapped on the table slowly.

Food, or food!
(End of this chapter)