Datang Library

In July of the first year of Zhenguan, the severe drought in the north has been raging for two months. Fortunately, the imperial court has made preparations in advance this time. Many wells have been drilled in various places, and food has been continuously transported from the south to the north for disaster relief!

In ancient times, the fields produced too little, so they could only accumulate food through more farming. However, the people in the world, not talking about slaves and tenants, only talking about the people who own their own land, each family can own and cultivate a limited amount of land!

Although the imperial court encourages wasteland reclamation, the newly opened wasteland is not farmland. It takes three years of continuous cultivation to turn it into a good field with a harvest. Therefore, good fields that can be used as rations in various places are generally less than ten acres per family!

At that time, the yield of the field was good per mu. Take the land of Sanqin as an example. If you can grow wheat to produce [-] catties per mu, you will have a good harvest.

Generally, the output is one hundred catties, and almost tens of catties, so for an ordinary family of three, one thousand catties of good grain a year is an eye-opener!

But people in ancient times paid attention to having more children and more blessings, and to pass on the family line!There are very few families of three, and basically there are at least four or five. Like Ma Jiulang on the Shu Road, his family only has nine children, so such a small amount of food is not enough to last a year!

Normal people in the Tang Dynasty eat coarse grains or a combination of coarse and fine grains on weekdays, and only eat two good meals during festivals!

There has been a severe drought this year, and people everywhere who have insufficient food at home are worried, but what is more worrying is those tenants who rely on farming for the landlord!

Tenants also make a living by farming. Although they are not slaves, they rent and plant the land of the landlord, which is a loan relationship!

When the harvest was good in previous years, it was the landlord who helped the tenants or directly fed the tenants. The tenants paid the rent, repaid the debts and grain every year, and the tenants who couldn't make it through would sell themselves as slaves!

The landlord is not stupid. It is obvious that there will be no harvest in the field due to the severe drought this year. Now he is spending food every day to feed the tenants. After a few months, the new food will not be harvested, but the old food will not be able to support so many people. I guess I will also be reduced from a landlord to a beggar!

So seeing that the momentum was wrong, the landlords terminated the lease relationship with the tenants one after another, and stopped giving food to others!

After the tenants run out of the little food in their homes, they will really flee!

This is why there have been refugees since May and June before the grain harvest time. Most of these people are tenant farmers!

Now that July is the time for the grain harvest, the old grain from last year in ordinary people's homes has basically been consumed, and there is no harvest in the fields. They really have to flee famine!

Thus, the second wave of refugees began!

Datang was caught off guard!

In other words, it wasn't that he was completely unprepared, but that Datang's national strength could only last so far!

Because the team for transporting grain into Shu has fully mobilized the energy of the land of Shu, there are people on the plank roads entering and leaving Shu almost every day to fight the drought, but although there is a lot of grain in Shu, it is inconvenient to transport grain It can only take care of Longyou Road and a small part of Guanzhong area!

If you want to take the grain from Shu to the east of Hebei, the cost of transporting the grain alone will not be worth the loss. Besides, the imperial court can't allocate so many people!

Although it is more convenient to transport grain in the south, it is not easy to buy and collect stored grain in the south, and it is also somewhat powerless to deal with disasters in the north!

Li Er sat powerlessly in the Palace of Political Affairs, and the ministers were sent to various places for disaster relief. During the catastrophe, although there were officials from all over the country assigned to deal with the disaster, there must also be special envoys from the imperial court to deal with it, so as to prevent the officials from taking advantage of the country to make difficult trips. Illegal things, such a bad thing will cause popular rebellion!

Li Er understood in his heart that this was what Bai Fan said, the [-]% pressure that Datang was unable to take care of in the end!

Drilling wells everywhere can at most deal with [-]% of the people affected by the disaster, and transporting grain in the two places can relieve [-]% of the people. Although Datang filled it with food and money like a bottomless pit for this matter, fortunately, the price of grain is controlled by the court, and the wool business in the north is getting better and better. The better and better, the accumulation of wealth is fast, and it can withstand it!

If it was placed before there was no foreign trade in wool, facing such a catastrophe, Datang probably could only watch helplessly!

What is Bai Fan doing now?Knowing in his heart that the most critical moment must have come outside, Bai Fan is still calm and composed in the courtyard of the president of Zhongnan Academy!

Until this day, Bai Fan was sipping tea by himself in the small courtyard, thinking about how to keep the people as much as possible in his mind!

A flying insect fell into Bai Fan's tea cup, Bai Fan looked down, this?

locust?

Standing up from the grand teacher's chair with a jerk, he sighed in his heart, the plague of locusts is coming!

Looking up at the sky again, black spots like rain of arrows flew across the sky one by one, and from time to time, many fell to the small courtyard due to exhaustion!

Bai Fan planted a lot of flowers and plants in the small courtyard, but within a quarter of an hour, the locusts crossing the border brought disaster!

This was irrigated by Bai Fan's mountain spring back from a long way away, and it was destroyed in front of his eyes like this!

Li Wanping, who rushed out of the house, turned pale with fright, and asked, "Husband, this, is this a locust?"

Bai Fan caressed Li Wanping's long hair, and regretted, "Yes! Look at how arrogant they are, destroying all our flowers and plants in front of us!

Because of them, the people of Tang Dynasty will suffer a lot more again!

Ping'er, get ready, bring your sisters, we are going to Chang'an City, the locust plague is coming, the big event is approaching, there is a shortage of people around His Majesty, we must go to help! "

Li Wanping nodded sensiblely, and hummed, "Hmph, you hateful locusts, don't we raise so many chickens and ducks in our academy? I'll ask my uncle to release them all later, eat the locusts, and avenge our flowers and plants!"

Bai Fan smiled, "Don't worry, although the locusts are arrogant, I have already prepared a big meal for them. His Majesty has ordered more chickens and ducks to be raised in various places. When the locust plague occurs, the chickens and ducks from all over the place will come out of their cages. Hehe, wait until the chickens and ducks come out. When the duck is too fat to eat, I ask the brothers of the Beggar Clan to take it away, and this year the Beggar Clan disciples will be able to eat meat for the Chinese New Year!"

Speaking of this, Bai Fan inadvertently glanced at the locust in his teacup, and laughed in his heart, in such a hurry, do you want me to make tea with you?

Make tea?In a flash of inspiration, Bai Fan thought of a good idea!

When I went back to my room, I took the volume of the book I wrote so hard, told Li Wanping, and rushed out!

"Ping'er, I think of an urgent matter for my husband. I have to go to the palace. Let Yuanba escort you back. When I get to Chang'an, I'll go find you as soon as I finish my business! I'll take care of my younger sisters! "

Before Li Wanping had a chance to answer, Bai Fan had already gone a long way!

Li Wanping looked at the fiery Ailang, and smiled knowingly, this is her husband, a man who always has big things in his heart!

In the palace, Li Er looked at the locust in his hand that he had squeezed into a pulp with his anger, he was angry and hated at the same time!

Does an ant-like existence also come to harm my people?

At this time, I heard a familiar voice shouting from outside the hall: Your Majesty, I have a solution to solve the problem of locusts and food shortages!

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End of this chapter

Chapter 161 The Arrogant Locust

Li Er suddenly got up from his seat, hurriedly ran out of the Hall of Political Affairs, and walked to the door, just in time to bump into Bai Fan who was rushing towards him!

"any solution?"

"Eat! Locusts are edible!"

"Eat? Eat locusts? Who will eat them? Kid, you don't want people to eat locusts, do you? Are you sick?" Li Er returned to his disappointed expression after hearing this.

"It's absolutely true, locusts are edible!" Bai Fan said anxiously.

"It's been unheard of since ancient times. Could it be that you have eaten it?" Li Er asked curiously.

Bai Fan smiled, he did eat it, but in his previous life, he patiently explained to Li Er, "Your Majesty, chickens and ducks can eat locusts to gain weight, but people can eat chickens and ducks without any problems, can this prove that locusts are not poisonous?

The reason why no one has eaten locusts since ancient times is because no suitable method has been found!