The harvest season in the Taicang fields passed slowly, and all the grain was harvested by the industrious people of Taicang and transported to the nine huge granaries next to the royal court.

These nine granaries have a history of 100 years, and the grain harvested at each ripening stage has to be carried out from here.

And now the third ripening period has a very special significance for Taicang, because this is the last season of the year to harvest grain, and the endless and wild sun will come in two months.

After two months of sunbreak, the three suns rose again, the earth was revived, and the people replanted the seeds, followed by another harvest season after the next two months.

This means that six months after the third ripening period, the Taicang harvest entered a period of stagnation, and not a single grain of grain entered storage.

The people of Taicang have to spend these six months with difficulty.

"The unforeseen reduction in grain production in the third maturity was something that no one expected. In the Taihe Palace, Gu Shu was performing: "There are still fifty-nine days, and the sun is coming, and the Agricultural Master's Mansion has worked with the major departments to calculate the food quota for the people of Taicang for the next six months......"

Before he could finish speaking, a minister came out of the ranks, pointed at Dr. Nong, and scolded: "Your peasant master's office has not noticed the slightest sign of a decrease in grain production, and now that the harvest is so bad, is the remedy you have come up with is to reduce the rations of the people?"

Among the officials, several spoke out and jointly held accountable to the Agricultural Division's Office.

Gu Shu's face was extremely ugly, and when he saw so many ministers questioning him, he couldn't help but stiffen his neck and argue: "More than a dozen colleagues in the Farmer's Mansion have been observing the fields day and night, and there is no problem with the Taicang Fields at all, but the grain that grows is much less than in previous years, so what can I do in the Farmer's Mansion?"

"In the final analysis, it is your dereliction of duty as a doctor of agriculture! I can't find out the reason to prove that your agricultural attainments are insufficient!"

Gu Shu was furious when he heard someone questioning what he was most proud of on weekdays, and he was about to refute it out loud, only to hear Ji Xia, who was sitting lazily on the throne, and slowly spoke: "How much grain is stored in the fourteen granaries in Tai and Cang Ercheng now?"

Gu Shu replied: "About 48 million catties." ”

Ji Xia frowned and said: "More than 600,000 people, only 48 million catties of grain, and it will take half a year, that is to say, there is only about a quota of about three taels per person per day?"

The boundless wilderness is not comparable to the earth, the people of Taicang basically do not have any other food except food, if it is a child, if an adult only eats three or two taels of rice a day, how can it hold on?

Moreover, Taicang's food is not strictly average, and the officials' salaries and soldiers' diets will consume a lot of food, and there will be less and less left for the people of Taicang.

When Dr. Nong heard Ji Xia's words, he said ashamedly: "The Nongshi's Mansion is ashamed of Taicang. ”

His words of taking the initiative to admit his mistake immediately triggered a new round of accusations from hundreds of officials, Ji Xia waved his hand and said, "What are you arguing about? I don't think about how to solve the problem, what's the use of arguing here?"

He was the first to stand up: "Let's go, go to the granary." ”

Many people in the granary were busy, and they were busy processing the newly harvested grain, packing it in bags made of a strange leaf, and stacking it neatly in the granary.

The granary treasurer is accompanying the lord of the country and a group of loyal ministers of Taicang, constantly introducing the composition of the granary.

Ji Xia walked in the granary full of the smell of new grain, and the hard-working Taicang people were still working diligently, as if they would not be dissatisfied because of the lack of food, and their work would not be slack off in the slightest.

Ji Xia waved his hand to make the palm warehouse quiet, and walked in front of a middle-aged man who was about forty years old, who was trying to put the packed grain neatly in bags and bags.

"Uncle Clan, how does the newly harvested grain taste? You should have tasted it when you worked in the granary, right?" asked Ji Xia with a smile on his face.

The middle-aged man turned his head and saw that it was an extremely good-looking young man who asked, and grinned: "I haven't tasted it yet, and the third grain harvest of this year is not good, so this year, the treasurer did not distribute new grain to the people working in the granary according to the practice of previous years, and ate the old grain miles from a few months ago." ”

Ji Xia said worriedly: "The royal court is derelict in its duties, it did not supervise the Taicang fields, this harvest is indeed very poor, the people of Taicang are going to live a hard life again, and I don't know how many people will die this time." ”

The more the middle-aged man looked at the young man in front of him, the more familiar he felt, but for a moment he couldn't remember who the young man was, so he simply stopped thinking: "How can you blame Wang Ting? My wife also went to the field to take care of the grain this year, and came back to tell me that the officials of the Agricultural Teachers Academy worked as hard as they did every day, and they were exposed to the wind and sun every day, and their food was not much better." ”

"The people who take care of the grain fields can rest at night, but the senior officials are stationed in the fields day and night, and she even saw some senior officials put the soil in the fields in their mouths every day and chewed it, saying that it was to see if the soil quality had changed......

"You can't blame the royal court for this situation, the officials of the royal court have done their best, less food, less food, we sturdy people eat a little less, give more food to children and the elderly, and we will get through, I still remember when I was young, there was a time like this. ”

"That year, there was too little food, my father gave me and my mother, and we were afraid that we would die in front of us, so we walked out of Taicheng alone, and waited outside the city to die, and I was afraid that I would die in the dark, and the corpse would frighten the occasional pedestrian, so I buried myself in the snow, until the next day when the sun passed and the snow melted, and it was not found that people were found. ”

The middle-aged man told these things, as if he was telling a story that had nothing to do with him, always with a sincere smile on his face, and slowly told it while sorting out the grain bags.

Ji Xia listened to the middle-aged man's words quietly, his face was calm, but his eyes were like boulders thrown from the pond, and many ripples appeared.

He asked, "Uncle Clan, how much food do you think you can eat every day?"

When the middle-aged man heard Ji Xia's words, he waved his hand again and again: "I see that your clothes are so good-looking, you should be the heir of a great official, right? Where do we want to eat enough, it is enough to have two meals of porridge every day, anyway, the human race is the same everywhere, and life is hard!"

Ji Xia shook his head, his eyes were firm, and he asked again: "Uncle Clan, how much food can an adult who has not cultivated be able to eat?"

The middle-aged man saw Ji Xia's serious expression, stopped what he was doing, thought for a while, and then hesitated: "I won't tell you, I haven't eaten enough in my life, an adult man, a large amount of food, if you eat to a full stomach, you should eat a full pound of food every day, right? ”

After saying that, he grinned again, as if he was laughing at himself for talking about a dream.

Ji Xia took a deep breath and said, "Uncle Clan, do you believe that you will have a day when you will be able to eat enough?"

The middle-aged man Xu was annoyed by the question, waved his hand, turned around and walked to the place where the grain was bagged, and the voice came: "Life is still long, there will always be one or two times when I am full, it is useless for me to be full, everyone has to be full." ”

Ji Xia watched the middle-aged man get busy again from afar, stood in place and pondered for a long time before slowly walking out of the granary.

The ministers behind him may have seen that Ji Xia was in a low mood, but he was hanging far away and didn't dare to approach.

Outside the granary, the sun was shining, Ji Xia looked at the busy Taicang people with happy faces, and scolded in his heart: "There is not much food here that belongs to you, what are you stupidly happy about?"

He glared fiercely at the three suns above his head, and then looked at his lovely people again: "I don't believe that you can't be fed with plug-ins!