The immortal of the Tang Dynasty, but the game starts at Xuanwu Gate?

"Oh no, you've got a bad pot!"

As Chen Huai'an walked out of the East Palace, he chuckled to himself, thinking, "I'll personally pay you the copyright fees later!"

Hmm? That's not right!

Chen Huai'an suddenly thought, how can the affairs of scholars be called plagiarism?

Since there was no plagiarism, where does the copyright fee come from?

It should be Li Bai who pays himself royalties!

With a single thought, Chen Huai'an felt at ease and leisurely went to the Ministry of Works to find Yu Shao, Chang Gui, and Ouyang Shu.

"Today, I reported the possibility of a locust plague. Instruct your men to dig up any locust eggs, collect a batch, and send it to His Majesty for his perusal," Chen Huai'an instructed.

"Yes, Minister." Yu Shao immediately agreed.

Chang Gui tentatively asked, "Minister, do you really believe there will be a large-scale locust plague next year?"

"Otherwise what?" Chen Huai'an retorted. "Many people down there have dug up locust eggs; haven't you seen them?"

"I did see him... but..." Chang Gui murmured, unable to find the right words to describe it.

"I don't want to admit it," Ouyang Shu said, revealing his true feelings.

Chang Gui immediately fell silent.

That's true; he really doesn't want to admit it.

But he also knew very well that it was useless for him to refuse to admit it; the locusts wouldn't care whether he admitted it or not, they would still come.

"Minister, is there really no other way?" Chang Gui asked, still somewhat unwilling to give up.

Chen Huai'an shook his head: "No, who can do anything about this kind of natural disaster?"

"It's like when God doesn't send rain, the only solution is to perform a shamanic ritual to pray for rain, but you all know how ineffective it is. It only comforts yourselves and has no other effect."

"However, the locust plague is at least a little better. We can dig out the locust eggs now, so we can turn them over and freeze them to death. The scale of the locust plague next year will at least be a little smaller."

"It won't be like a drought, where there's absolutely nothing we can do!"

Before arriving in this era, Chen Huai'an had only seen how terrible locust plagues were in history books.

The locust swarms were so large they blotted out the sky, flying hundreds of kilometers a day, leaving nothing but ruins in their wake.

In the first year of the Yongxing era of Emperor Huan of Han, in the fifth month of summer, the whole country suffered a severe drought.

In July, locust plagues broke out in thirty-two prefectures and kingdoms. The Yellow River overflowed, exacerbating the locust plague. People were starving and impoverished and fled. Hundreds of thousands of households begged along the way, and the tragedy of cannibalism occurred in Ji Province.

He had seen these things in books, but he didn't really have any real feeling about them.

Because he had never seen anything like it before, he found it hard to imagine such a scene, and even thought at one point that there was some exaggeration involved.

Two years ago, Chen Huai'an witnessed a locust plague that seemed insignificant to the locals but was utterly unbelievable to him.

Locusts swarmed everywhere, and it seemed that only the sound of their wings could be heard in the world. Wherever they passed, not a blade of grass grew.

Chen Huai'an even witnessed locusts eating the hair off cattle and horses!

At that point, Chen Huai'an completely believed it.

It turns out that locust plagues in ancient times were really this serious!

Therefore, Chen Huai'an never dared to be careless. He worked hard to earn money and spent it frugally, all for the sake of contributing his meager strength to the three difficult years before the arrival of the Zhenguan era.

And another thing, let's not even talk about eating.

If this thing were actually edible, it would have been eaten to extinction long ago!

Starving people would even eat Guanyin soil, let alone locusts.

The locusts of today are completely different from those of later generations; some are indeed poisonous, and eating too many can really cause problems.

"..."

"Minister, shall we continue with land reclamation and water conservancy projects?" Ouyang Shu asked calmly.

Chen Huai'an nodded: "These are the most important things. Also, we need to build one hundred charitable granaries in the locations I have chosen."

"This matter needs to be handled as quickly as possible, before next year's spring harvest."

"One hundred?" Ouyang Shu was no longer calm. "Minister, isn't that too many?"

"Last time, the Ministry of Works spent a considerable amount of money just on repairing three granaries. Now, to build a hundred more... Forgive my bluntness, but the financial burden is too great and it's not worth it."

Chen Huai'an raised his hand: "I'm not asking you to build the kind of public granary you did last time. That was almost the size of a central granary. My current requirement is to select one hundred counties and then have you build small public granaries according to the size of each county."

"Of course, even small granaries are still under considerable financial pressure, after all, war is about to break out, and even if we finish fighting this year, we may have to fight again next year."

"However, financial pressure does not mean that we cannot sustain it. Currently, the income from ironware, refined salt, and papermaking is over a million strings of cash every month."

"I've calculated it carefully, and this amount of money is more than enough to support us in doing these things."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "Sometimes, disaster relief doesn't have to wait until disaster strikes! If people have some money in their hands, they will naturally have the ability to withstand risks, so when disaster strikes, they won't be left without a way to survive and become displaced people."

The group were all intelligent and instantly understood Chen Huai'an's meaning. Chang Gui suddenly realized, "So, this is why the Minister has always promoted work relief instead of using corvée labor?"

"You can interpret it that way," Chen Huai'an said casually. "The tax base of the Tang Dynasty is too weak. The land issue makes the contradiction between the common people and the privileged class irreconcilable. Therefore, it is necessary to free some people from their dependence on the land."

"And also... paving the way for the future."

While Yu Shao and Chang Gui were still pondering Chen Huai'an's words, Ouyang Shu swallowed hard: "Minister, are these words something I should be listening to?"

"What do you think?" Chen Huai'an asked meaningfully.

Ouyang Shu said with difficulty, "It probably won't work."

Yu Shao was a craftsman, and only experienced craftsmen could hold his position. He didn't know much about officialdom or politics.

As for Chang Gui? It's not that he lacked talent or ability, but Chang Gui was somewhat of a hothead. It was only because he was promoted by the former Minister of Works that he was able to become the Vice Minister of Works.

Of the three, Ouyang Shu was the quickest-thinking and most worry-free subordinate for Chen Huai'an.

Therefore, after Chen Huai'an said these words, Ouyang Shu immediately realized many things.

Is the conflict between ordinary people and the privileged class irreconcilable?

It doesn't matter who this privileged class refers to; what matters is that they are absolutely not to be trifled with.

Then Chen Huai'an said it was to pave the way for the future.

The meaning is very clear: from now on, Chen Huai'an and Li Shimin behind him will definitely fight against these privileged classes.

This is quite dangerous.

Ouyang Shu said with a mix of helplessness and relief, "The Minister has treated us well, and besides, I have no other choice."

"Whether I'll be remembered in history or infamous for eternity, I, your humble servant, am willing to follow you to the end, Minister!"

"..."