Spring comes to the desperate place

Fortunately, the rules formulated by the Gu family were quickly finalized. Except for the seeds reserved for their own family, the government took half of them. However, they did not take them for free. Instead, they purchased them at the price of fifteen cents per pound.

This was what the Third Prince specifically requested. He planned to give it to the people in the Ministry of Agriculture to plant. In the future, the potatoes and sweet potatoes grown would be distributed to various states and prefectures, and would be promoted across the board by local officials.

Gu Fengyun asked for 800 kilograms. He planned to have several farms under the name of the Marquis' Mansion planted together. The remaining several hundred kilograms were taken up by several other villagers in Yongle Village.

Having just finished harvesting the crops in the fields, Song Dazhuang did not take a rest and immediately prepared to start planting autumn sweet potatoes. Because it was his first time planting them, there were no vines left for cuttings when harvesting, so he could only cut the sweet potatoes into pieces again to promote germination and then plant them in the fields.

When Song Dazhuang was planting, several officials from the Ministry of Agriculture followed him the whole time. They wrote and drew on books while watching Song Dazhuang planting. When they were not recording, they would also go to the fields with Song Dazhuang.

Song Chunlin had thought that those who could become officials were weak scholars, but he did not expect that the officials of the Ministry of Agriculture were all burly and strong with dark skin. If they were not wearing official robes, they would look like experienced farmers from a distance.

The villagers of Yongle Village were taught to plant crops by Song Dazhuang. This time he did not plant in fertile fields, but planted all in wasteland. With the help of other people, their process of reclaiming wasteland went extremely smoothly.

After more than half a month of busy work, it was finally the end of May. Song Dazhuang and his family had finally planted all the remaining sweet potatoes, leaving only some for themselves to eat.

In the hot summer, Song Chunlin was too hot to go out, so he just stayed in his room all day, continuing to study his corn.

The corn watered with spiritual spring water has now grown its sixth ear, while the corn watered with space water has only grown its fourth ear, and the corn not watered still has only three ears. Although Song Chunlin's method is stupid, it has shown initial results.

This

On the morning of June 6th, Gu Fengyue brought Xiaojiu here early in the morning. They had been living and eating in the Marquis' Mansion recently, so Xiaojiu was obviously not as shy as she was at the beginning. As soon as she arrived at the Song family, she walked with her short legs as if she was familiar with the place and went to play with Song Xiaobao.

Song Chunlin privately asked Gu Fengyue about Xiaojiu's background, but Gu Fengyue just said it was not something to be told.

Song Chunlin still had a vivid memory about the rebellion that night. He had not forgotten the Ninth Prince mentioned by Concubine Wan that night. He was about four years old. And looking at the appearance of the Little Prince, he was somewhat like his biological mother. Song Chunlin could roughly guess it.

It seems that the new emperor is kind enough not to kill this little brat, but then again, what can such a young child understand? It is just a shield that the adults are looking for to satisfy their own greed.

People in the capital city would slaughter chickens and ducks at home on June 6th to celebrate the harvest. This year, families cannot hold grand celebrations for the national mourning. At most, the family will just get together and have a sumptuous meal.

The Song family are not native to the capital, and their hometown does not celebrate June 6th, but this year they still followed local customs. Song Dazhuang slaughtered a chicken, and Song Amo marinated the chicken according to the method taught by Song Chunlin and put it into the oven. This is today's main dish.

The chickens raised by Amao Song were very fat, each weighing at least eight kilograms. They were roasted in the oven for more than an hour before Amao Song dared to take the chicken out.

The roasted chicken was golden and fragrant. The two little ones twitched their noses, ran over, and looked at Grandma Song eagerly. Grandma Song felt softened by their looks and quickly took the two of them to wash their hands and prepare for dinner.

The eight-immortals table was filled with dishes. In addition to the roast chicken in the middle, there was soup made with chicken offal and seasonal vegetables, braised pork and quail eggs in rich sauce, stir-fried river shrimps with leeks, tender and smooth steamed eggs, and a whole sweet and sour carp.

Xiaojiu really liked the sweet and sour carp. The carp cooked by Song Qinshi was not fishy at all, and the fish meat was sweet and sour and delicious. Xiaojiu ate a whole dinner with that fish, and in the end, like Song Xiaobao, his belly was bulging from eating so much.

Song Dazhuang asked Gu Fengyue: "Today is a festival, why didn't the Marquis come? Is he busy with official business?"

Gu Fengyue's mouth was full of food. He chewed it hastily and swallowed it before saying, "Brother was recently ordered to go to Yingchuan to provide disaster relief."

As soon as these words were spoken, most of the people at the table stopped eating.

Grandpa Song asked anxiously, "Yingchuan is not far from the capital. Did something happen over there?"

"It's a severe flood. Yingchuan had heavy rain for half a month last month. Many villages were flooded, and the crops that were about to mature were all flooded. Yingchuan is now harvesting nothing. My brother was ordered to escort the relief food to get through the current difficulties first, so he set out yesterday and didn't come today."

"The most important thing is business. Yingchuan has suffered such a great disaster, and we don't even know anything about it..."

Grandpa Song: "After a long drought, there will be a flood. We can't be too optimistic. Fortunately, the grain has been stored in the warehouse. As for the grain in the fields... we'll just leave it to fate."

Because of this incident, the atmosphere at the dinner table suddenly became very dull. It was not until everyone had eaten their fill that Aunt Song and Qin-shi Song cleared the table and put some fruit on it. Only then did the atmosphere liven up a little.

"By the way, you two brothers can stay here tonight. The Marquis is not at home, so you can stay here for a few more days. It's just right that Xiaojiu can still keep you company."

When Xiaojiu heard that she could stay overnight at the Song's house, she immediately danced with joy. Song Xiaobao was infected by it and also danced with joy like a little puppy.

Gu Fengyue was naturally happy as well. His brother was not at home, and he and Xiaojiu were the only ones left at home. He still had to go to class during the day. To be honest, Gu Fengyun had to report to the yamen on weekdays, so Xiaojiu was often left alone in the marquis's mansion. Gu Fengyue felt sorry for him seeing him all alone without a playmate.

Only in the Song family, when he is with Song Xiaobao, his 'peer', does Xiaojiu's face reveal the childishness of a child. Gu Fengyue feels that living in the Song family seems not bad.

A few days later in Yingchuan, Gu Fengyun stepped into the disaster area where tents were temporarily set up, and he smelled a foul odor. Although he was not a mysophobe, the smell was so strong that he almost vomited.

"My lord, this must be my lord Gu, right? Oh, we've finally got you here!" A middle-aged man with a big belly came up to him cheerfully. Judging from his attire, he should be the governor of Yingchuan.

However, after searching his memory, Gu Fengyun still could not match the pot-bellied middle-aged man in front of him with the frail scholar with broad shoulders and narrow waist in his memory.

Gu Fengyun said hesitantly: "You are... Wen Yan?"

The man was flattered: "My Lord, you still remember me!"

Gu Fengyun: No, I don’t remember.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Wen Yan got straight to the point: "To be honest, my Lord, I'm short of food and clothing right now. You and these food and grass are my saviors!"

Gu Fengyun: "I remember that all the wind and rain warehouses in Yingchuan were built on the mountain. How come all the warehouses were flooded?"

When Wen Yan mentioned this, his face turned bitter: "Hey, don't mention it. It's true that the Fengyu Warehouse was built on the mountain, but the rain was too heavy. The foot of the mountain of six warehouses was washed away by the flood. The whole warehouse collapsed. Forget about the rice. Not even a single board of the warehouse was salvaged."

"Although there are still villages in the remaining four, as you can see, these are only the victims of the prefectural city. There are also various counties under the prefectural city. No one can get close to Pei County, which was the hardest hit. The entire area has become a water area. We are seriously short of ships and manpower, so we can only let them save themselves."

Wen Yan sighed heavily when he said this: "After three years of drought, the fields have not harvested any grain. The grain in the storm granaries has long been gone. The ten storm granaries combined are less than 30% of the grain in previous years. Now six more are gone. Everyone is now just drinking water to get by."

Gu Fengyun also sighed deeply after hearing this. He took Wen Yan to unload the food they brought. This time, in addition to the coarse grains for everyone, there were also 300 kilograms of sweet potatoes, which they planned to let the people of Yingchuan grow first.

Wen Yan held the clods of earth and looked at them over and over again.

"Is this thing really edible? How do you eat it? You have to plant it. How do you plant it? It's all watery here, and the mud in the ground is all mushy. If you plant the seeds, they will just rot."

"Then you can wait until the weather is clearer before planting. This time I will bind the planting instructions into a book for you. When the time comes, you can just find someone to copy what is written in the book and do it."

After saying that, Gu Fengyun added: "This thing can be grown on mountain land. Your fields cannot grow it, but can't it be grown on mountain land?"

Wen Yan nodded, but still couldn't believe it at the end: "Can this thing really produce 1,000 kilograms per mu?"

Gu Fengyun said, "Of course it's true. I personally supervised the farmer to dig it. He grew 600 kilograms of crops on the wasteland. Your mountain land is definitely better than wasteland, isn't it?"

"That's true."

When they had almost finished discussing the serious business, Wen Yan was surprised to find that it was already past noon. He touched his big belly awkwardly.

"I was so busy talking that I forgot that the Marquis hasn't eaten yet. Come on, it's rare for the Marquis to come, let's have an extra meal today."

Although it was a snack, there was only a plate of scrambled eggs, a pot of fish soup, and a plate of vegetables on the table. The staple food was rice cooked with coarse grains mixed with a little glutinous rice.

Because the food was a bit simple, Wen Yan seemed a little embarrassed.

Gu Fengyun didn't mind. After all, it was a difficult time here and compared to those disaster victims, what he ate was already very good.

He stretched out the spoon and took a sip of the fish soup. The chef had good cooking skills. Cornus officinalis and fresh ginger were added to the fish soup, which effectively removed most of the fishy smell. The remaining smell was probably due to the addition of rice wine. The soup was rich. Gu Fengyun drank the soup with his rice. The coarse grain rice was too hard and he couldn't swallow it.

After the meal, Wen Yan finally had time to ask Gu Fengyun why he was the one to deliver the relief food. According to Gu Fengyun's previous health, it would not be his turn to do such a hard and tiring task involving traveling by boat and train.

Gu Fengyun smiled faintly: "I thought you have already seen that I have been in good health recently. It is only a five-day journey from here to the capital, so it is not considered tiring."

Wen Yan did not comment, but did not continue to ask. He could see that Gu Fengyun's face was rosy and he did not look as frail as before. Seeing that there was no discomfort between his brows, Wen Yan felt relieved.

However, it was too early for him to relax. That night, people in the camp for the disaster victims began to suffer from diarrhea and vomiting. The doctors prescribed some medicine for them, but it was of no use. The victims continued to vomit and have diarrhea.

In just one night, most people in the camp started to fall ill. By dawn, the whole camp was already stinking. Wen Yan was already angry for being woken up in the middle of the night, and when he smelled the stench, he almost vomited his dinner.

"Where are the doctors? Where have all the doctors gone?" Wen Yan took out a handkerchief to cover his mouth and nose. He walked into the camp carefully. The further he went in, the more filthy things there were on the ground. Finally, there was almost no place to step.

Wen Yan covered his mouth and nose and retreated. At this time, the first lady who had gone to see him came back and told him some extremely bad news.

"Sir, three of the doctors are also sick. Now there are few doctors willing to go near here. What should we do now? If they don't go in, these people will probably die on the spot!"

The man was speaking anxiously because his relatives were inside, and they were all infected with the disease.

Gu Fengyun just happened to arrive and saw everyone gathered at the entrance of the camp. Wen Yan had a grim face and someone was trying to persuade him. Gu Fengyun only caught the words "epidemic" and "burning". His heart skipped a beat. The thing he was worried about finally happened.

Gu Fengyun stopped Wen Yan and said, "After a disaster, it is easy for epidemics to spread. Governor Wen, you must separate the sick from the healthy as soon as possible. You cannot let the epidemic spread."

What Gu Fengyun said suddenly woke Wen Yan up. He immediately ordered everyone to gather the sick people together and send those who were not sick to the other side. As for the doctors, he could only ask them to prepare the medicine first, and then others would deliver the medicine to the patients.

Gu Fengyun looked at the camp that was gradually being put into order with a frown on his face. The disease spread very quickly, and perhaps it wouldn't be long before the same situation would break out in other camps.

Sure enough, the next afternoon, people came one after another to tell Wen Yan that plague had broken out in almost all the camps. Most people were like those in the capital city, suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. Some weak people collapsed in their own filth after being sick for a day and never woke up again.

Wen Yan was already overwhelmed. He had sent out all the other officials in Yingchuan, and he was the only one left in the city. Although Gu Fengyun had brought enough food, fodder and medicine, there were too many sick people, and it seemed that the plague was still spreading.

On the day the epidemic broke out, Gu Fengyun and Wen Yan had already sent people back to the capital at full speed. Wen Yan sent someone to tell the third prince to send some more herbs to treat the plague, while Gu Fengyun notified Gu Fengyue to ask the Song family if the water could cure the plague.