Jing Xiang chewed word by word on the front page of the latest issue of the Datang Weekly Newspaper, which was a warning of the high probability of a locust plague after the drought ended. In it, the evidence of a large number of locust eggs found in various places such as the Tang Sinong Temple and the Taiyi Department was cited, and their local government had been using lime to kill these insect eggs, and they even used the army to achieve the purpose of disaster mitigation.

After putting down the newspaper and being silent for a long time, Jing Xiang raised his head and looked at the dozens of officials in the hall.

Because of the failure of a large number of spring wheat harvests, in this season of green and yellow, Guanzhong and Henan provinces, the famine has begun to show its power. The number of displaced people has increased by a large margin, and people who have not eaten in the four villages and eight miles have begun to concentrate in the cities, and in the cities, grain prices have begun to rise in the same way, and in many areas, there has even been a situation of sparing grain and not selling it.

Riots have already begun to emerge.

Even in Chang'an County, there were several cases yesterday of people without food gathering to loot grain shops, and although they were finally suppressed by officers and soldiers, dozens of heads hung high on the streets, deterring possible further riots, but this was only a temporary expedient measure.

People are hungry, what can't they do?

The city gate is still barely at a minimum, because there are still wild vegetables to dig up, leaves, and bark to eat in the ground, but as more and more people flee, these things will be eaten.

"You must have read this issue of the newspaper too, right?" Putting down the Datang Weekly in his hand, Jing Xiang looked at everyone with a heavy face, he had been in the public hall for nearly ten days, sleepy, just took a little rest in the small room in the back, the whole person looked tired, his hair was unkempt, his eyes were red, but his eyes were more aggressive than usual.

With Dai Chao leaving, Wang Shu was just an ornament, and the power of the entire Liang court was once again concentrated in Jing Xiang's hands.

"Respect, could it be that Li Ze is playing tricks so that we can mess up our own position?" Zhu Youyu, the commander of the Praetorian Guard, who had just taken office, said with some disdain. Here, only he dared to question Jing Xiang face to face.

"Your Highness, why do they bother to be mysterious?" Jing Xiang sighed, "Fan Sheng, you tell His Highness!" ”

Fan Sheng nodded and stood up: "Your Highness, Honorable Minister, everyone, the spies of the front division of the palace in the north have all sent back reports recently, within the Tang Realm, a large amount of lime has indeed begun to be burned, and almost all the local governments have mobilized to exterminate the bare river beaches, tidal flats, wetlands and other places that are easy for locusts to hatch eggs, and in some places, they have even mobilized troops to assist, this is what they have seen with their own eyes, and there is nothing to say." ”

Jing Xiang continued: "The water conservancy construction in Beidi is developed, and although the spring wheat yield has decreased, it does not hurt its muscles and bones. Everyone also knows that in Guanzhong, Henan and other places, the spring wheat harvest is almost completely lost, and there is no doubt that there is a grain shortage. If there is another locust plague that affects the autumn harvest, we will have a big problem this year. Whether it is Guanzhong or Henan, it is our foundation place, and once there is a major famine, it will affect the safety of the community. Many people here probably remember the catastrophe and famine that swept the world in the past 20 years, right? At that time, Datang was much stronger than us now, but in the end, it still collapsed. ”

"Respect, since it's so serious, you just say, what should we do next?" Zhu Youyu said bluntly. "Prime Minister Jing is now in charge of political affairs, and he must have already advocated it in his heart."

Jing Xiang nodded: "Okay, then now, I'll talk about some measures first, and I hope His Highness can support it." ”

"That's nature!" Zhu Youyu said.

"Article 1, Chang'an, Luoyang and other places entered a state of wartime control, confiscated all grain, and implemented a rationing system according to the number of people per day and the number of days." The first one of Jing Xiang made most of the people in the hall change color on their faces.

"The price of food cannot go up anymore." Jing Xiang said with a pale face: "It won't last long to rely on killing people to deter like Chang'an County, people don't have food, what can't they do?" But as far as we know, Chang'an and Luoyang are not short of food at least now, where is the food? In the hands of grain merchants, in the hands of large households, I think that many of you here have a large amount of grain in their homes, right? ”

"Isn't it possible that the little food in our families must also be handed over?" A purple-robed official stood up and asked, "There are hundreds of people in our family, and we have handed over food, what do you eat?" ”

Jing Xiang sneered: "Zhou Shilang, your family has at least 1,000 stone of grain, and your family of more than 100 people can eat?" ”

Zhou Shilang's face changed greatly, his mouth opened, and he looked at Jing Xiang with both anger and horror on his face. He was horrified that Jing Xiang actually knew that his family had thousands of stones of grain in stock, and he was angry that Jing Xiang knew so much about it, so he naturally installed fine work in his home.

Jing Xiang ignored him, and continued: "Except for Chang'an, Luoyang's food for the army cannot be moved, and everyone's food must be handed over and arranged by the imperial court. The first is to stabilize the price of grain in the city, and the second is to provide relief to the victims outside the city. ”

"With so many people outside the city, how can we help them?" Someone jumped up again and objected.

"Even if it's just giving them a bowl of porridge a day, it can keep them alive and let them see hope without taking risks." Jing Xiang said coldly: "After surviving this period of time, everything will naturally be fine." ”

"If there is a plague of locusts, what will happen then?"

"All the staff are mobilized, and we must also learn from the Tang people, and do our best to kill the insect eggs and reduce the disaster!" Jing Xiang intercepted. "All localities should organize these victims to do these things while providing disaster relief. Find something for them to do. ”

"Respectfully, these measures of yours are all methods of reducing expenditure, if you can't open up the source, then even if you collect all the food in our people's homes, it won't last long." A red-robed official stood up and arched his hand.

"Open source, of course!" Jing Xiang nodded and said: "The war of the Third Highness in the south is going relatively smoothly, and some grain has been raised from Huainan, Wuning, and some areas of Eyue, and it will arrive in Chang'an in about a month, and then after the Third Highness completely takes Eyue, there will be more grain to be transported back." As long as there is food coming in from outside, people's hearts will not be in turmoil. ”

Speaking of this, Jing Xiang glanced at Zhu Youyu and said, "If General Dai can quickly send troops in Shannan Dongdao, capture Jinghu as quickly as possible, and obtain a large amount of grain and grass from Jinghu to make up for the shortcomings of Guanzhong and Henan, then our life will be a little better." ”

Zhu Youyu's face suddenly became gloomy.

In the lobby, many officials were also silent, and they didn't even dare to look up at Jing Xiang or Zhu Youyu. After a long time, Zhu Youyu laughed a few times and said: "What the prime minister said is that it is a strategy set by my father to make up for the shortage of the places in the customs with grain from the south, and of course it must be resolutely implemented, but the acting general has just arrived in Shannan Dongdao, and the army still needs to be reorganized and prepared, but by the end of this month at the latest, it will be able to march to Jinghu." ”

"That's good, that's good!" Jing Xiang stroked his messy beard and laughed: "The march of the army is not a trivial matter, of course, it must be well prepared, after the Third Highness takes Eyue, he will also march into Jingnan, and when the time comes, the two armies will work together to take Jinghu in one fell swoop. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youyu's face became even more ugly.

"Respect, the soldiers and horses in Shannan Dongdao have not moved for a long time, and it is not just the reason I said before, the acting marshal thinks more, he is afraid that Li Ze in the north will take this opportunity to launch a large-scale attack on us, if our main force goes to the south, when the border changes, it will be difficult to return reinforcements."

Jing Xiang smiled slightly and said: "The acting marshal is too worried, I dare to pack the ticket, at this time, Li Ze will never launch a large-scale attack on us." ”

"Why not?" Zhu Youyu said with a dark face: "Didn't Xu Fu send an excerpt, has Weizhou Liang Han provoked many times?" His cavalry has appeared on the banks of the Yellow River. ”

"Between us, the skirmishes never stopped, no harm!" Jing Xiang said lightly: "If Li Ze launches a large-scale attack on us, then he will be crazy, isn't this to benefit Xiang Xunyuwen?" Li Ze will do such a thing? If the acting marshal can quickly take Jingnan, then His Royal Highness will transfer to Jiangxi and go straight to the southeast, so that Xiang Xun understands that in the overall situation of the world, he wants to intervene, and his qualifications are not enough! He's a spoiler at most, and he wants to stand on three legs, hehe! ”

"When we call Xiang Xun, aren't we helping Li Ze from another aspect?" Zhu Youyu asked.

"Your Highness, Xiang Xun is fighting for territory with us, not with Li Ze. If Xiang Xun's forces are stronger, we will be weaker, and if Xiang Xun is strong, it will naturally be unfavorable to Li Ze. Li Ze saw this precisely because he would not attack us at this time, but would sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight. But helplessly, we had to follow his train of thought. Jing Xiang said. Your Highness, think about it, if Xiang Xun takes Jiangding completely, he will inevitably go to Hunan, and then it will really sweep the southeast region. ”

"The second child has been stagnant in Shannan West Road for too long, let him plot Hanzhong, and then plot to seize Shuzhong, the country of Tianfu in Shuzhong, once it is taken, then the general trend of the world will be different."

"Shu Road is difficult, it is difficult to go to the blue sky!" Jing Xiang sighed. "But you can still give it a try."