I'm worried about the weather in Shandong!

In fact, Zhu Guoqiang is not only worried about the weather in Shandong, but also about the weather in the entire five northern provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

When he was idle over there, he deliberately checked the major events of Chongzhen's thirteenth year, what was the most shocking? It's a great drought! This drought actually happened three years ago, but this year is a year of severe drought!

In history, the drought of Chongzhen in 13 years was called "a strange drought unseen in 300 years" by the Ming people, involving a wide range of areas and a large scope, which can be said to be unprecedented. As far as Shandong is concerned, it is recorded in the history books that in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, there was no rain in June, locusts in August, the people were hungry, a group of thieves and swarms, people cannibalized, and the grass was very woody. Yidu, Yishui, Linzi, Changle, Mengyin Dousu 2,000 Wen. The strange wilderness has been years old, and the rice is worth ten thousand dollars. Tuban bees, no pedestrians on the road, no men and women have children, especially strange changes.

Great hunger, thousands of miles of red land, and bandits everywhere!

Most of the records in other historical books are also written with these words.

There was no rain in June, it was after the snow in January, and there was not a drop of rain until June!

Such a strange drought not only cut off the flow of rivers and springs in Shandong, but also dried up the lakes. Even the well water has bottomed out.

In the face of such a drought, how should we deal with it?

After a sigh, Zhu Guoqiang continued.

"In the past two years, the drought has continued in various parts of Shandong, eleven years, Tai'an, Wu'an and other places first drought and then locusts, twelve years, Jinan, Dongchang, Qingzhou drought, I remember when the Song governor borrowed 300,000 stone grain from the government for disaster relief!"

Shi Ziye's words made Song Xuezhu nod and sigh.

"At that time, if it wasn't for the prince to borrow grain, I don't know how many people would have starved to death! The prince of the world is really as kind as the sea in Shandong! ”

Faced with such a sycophant, looking at the few people in front of him, Zhu Guoqiang shook his head and said.

"It's okay to borrow food, the key is what to do this year? I took a look at the data, and in the past ten years, one-third of Shandong has either drought or locusts, or first drought and then locusts, and in 12 years, it has increased to half, and the drought and locust plague are getting worse year by year, what should I do? If the people of Shandong want to give relief, then there will be so much food relief? ”

Drought and locusts continued one after another, which was the biggest characteristic of the late Ming Dynasty, and due to excessive drought, a large-scale locust plague broke out as early as four years ago. Since three years ago, the locust plague has spread westward to the Guanzhong Plain, eastward to Shandong and northern Nanzhili with Xuzhou as the center, and then to a vast area stretching from the Huai River in the south to Hebei in the north. Even to the south, the area of the locust plague has expanded to the Yangtze River valley, and a large disaster area has been formed, forming thousands of kilometers from east to west and 4,500 kilometers from north to south.

Droughts and locust plagues are continuous, but how can we save everyone by relying on disaster relief alone? In the end, the Ming Dynasty was dragged down by such a disaster, and it was not the rogues who defeated the Ming Dynasty, but hunger, because hunger turned millions of people into rogues!

In the eyes of many people, this drought may even be a sign that the sky is about to die. In this great drought, tens of millions of people starved to death, and millions of people became rogues.

But where is the heavens going to die? Obviously, the weather is going to die, but in fact, such extreme weather is not to mention the Ming Dynasty. It is impossible for any dynasty to hold up.

Why was it that before Chongzhen's 13 years, the official army was still able to defeat the Liukou? Can from this year onwards, the rogue will be unstoppable?

To put it bluntly, it is because of hunger that millions of people have become rogues, and the officials and soldiers are no longer composed of thousands or tens of thousands of rogues. Rather, millions of people will become outcasts.

No matter where Li Zicheng goes, he can get a sufficient supply of soldiers. Where there are people, there are his soldiers and horses.

How can we help so many victims? Grain?

That's tens or even tens of millions of refugees! Whatever is given to them. How can there be so much food!

In the face of Shi Ziye's rhetorical question, everyone fell silent, as local officials, how could they not know that what Shi Ziye said was the truth, but ...... This is a natural disaster, what can they do?

"Lord Shizi, the minister heard that ......"

After being silent for a long time, Song Xuezhu looked at the prince and said.

"At this time, the army went south and seized a lot of grain in Nanzhili."

The seizure in his mouth was the millions of stone grain that Abatai plundered when he put him on the ship, although the amount was quite large, but millions of stone grain were distributed to the refugees, after all, they lost everything in the entry of Jiannu, and many of those grains themselves were robbed in their homes.

"It's true that a lot of seizures have been seized, but it's not enough ......"

After shaking his head, Zhu Guoqiang picked up the teacup from the coffee table and took a sip of tea, taking the opportunity to drink tea with his head down, secretly wondering, should he directly say his plan now?

In fact, while watching over there was frightened, Zhu Guoqiang had already begun to look for a solution. And he did find a way, but he still wanted to hear what they were going to do.

After a while, everyone said one by one, what is digging wells, what is "reclamation and locusts", this method is to develop all the "Heze" land where locusts breed into farmland, but as soon as it was proposed here, Deng Qian retorted there.

"This is obviously unlikely, not to mention the two years of Jiannu into the Kou, Chidi thousands of miles I don't know how much wasteland, not to mention, even if we reclaim all the wasteland in Shandong, locusts will still come from North Zhili, from Henan, from South Zhili and other places, of course, we can't reclaim the wasteland in Shandong."

Deng Qian's objection made Zhou Zhixun say.

"You can't do nothing!"

"To do is to do it, but not to do useless work."

Several people quarreled back and forth, but they still didn't say a reason, but in the end, they just said a long way.

"Lord Shizi, we are incompetent, we can't share the worries of the Lord Shizi, and I ask the Lord Shizi to punish him."

When they spoke before, Zhu Guoqiang did not interject. Just listen quietly to their words and suggestions.

In fact, those suggestions do not make any sense at all. The vast majority of them are just superficial words, in this era, in the face of such large-scale natural disasters. There are only two options.

The first is to have a strong army to kill the rogues at any time, no matter how many rogues there are, kill! After killing, the world will be saved.

The second is to let the rogue win the world.

As for disaster relief? Millions can be saved, but what are tens of millions? What are you going to do to save the victims of the disaster?

One stone of grain for one person is tens of millions of stones!

"Natural disasters are not the fault of people, what is there to blame?"

Zhu Guoqiang thought thoughtfully, drank the cup of tea, raised his head and put the teacup back on the plate.

"The key is food!"

Looking at them, Zhu Guoqiang deliberately emphasized.

"What's the core issue now? It is to prevent the people from starving to death, or to become bandits because of hunger, and then the lives will be ruined, and if you want to prevent the people from starving to death, you must have enough food! ”

In fact, Zhu Guoqiang also wants to introduce pumping machines to fight drought, as well as a large number of chemical pesticides to exterminate locusts, but not to mention that each crossing is limited by the size of the space, and can only carry a small amount of materials, not to mention, the entire Shandong Province, tens of millions of acres of land, without more than 100,000 pumping machines, how can it resist drought? As for pesticides, there are also massive,

What to do?

I can only think of another way!

What's the solution?

In fact, Zhu Guoqiang already has a plan in his heart.

"But, Lord Shizi, where can we go to find enough food?"

Facing Song Xuezhu's question, Zhu Guoqiang's fingers stroked the lid of the teacup, and then said slowly.

"Food! If we want to solve the food problem, we can go to find what we can't find, how much food can we raise? If this year's summer grain harvest is out of order, and millions of people run out of food, we will have to prepare 1 million stone of grain, and if there are 10 million people, we will prepare 10 million stone to give food to millions of people, not to mention us, even the entire Ming Dynasty, including the imperial court, can not raise it! ”

What Zhu Guoqiang said was extremely arbitrary, but this is a fact, how much grain is there in the Ming Dynasty in a year? It's just four or five million stones!

And these grains are the rations of the people of the capital and the officers and soldiers in the north, how can the imperial court use these grains for disaster relief? The result is nothing more than the people of the capital starving to death! Besides, there is more than one Shandong in the world that has been affected by disasters?

Chongzhen's reign was the most severe period of natural disasters brought about by the Xiaoice River Age, and he reigned for seventeen years, and the famine lasted for seventeen years! From north to south, from east to west, where is there no disaster? Shaanxi has been affected by the disaster for 15 consecutive years, and Shanxi, Beizhi, Henan, Shandong and other northern provinces and provinces have also been affected by the disaster for more than 10 years.

This is true in the north, and the same is true in the south, Yao Tingxuan recorded in the "Chronicles" that the drought in Shanghai in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign - the streets in the city were full of dead people, and there were so many corpses that when they returned home at night, pedestrians would stumble to the point of corpses on the side of the road if they were not careful. And the orphans who beg on the streets become the crusts of cannibals, who will specifically target these children.

In the northern provinces, which have been ravaged by wars, droughts and epidemics, human flesh has appeared in the market in a grand manner, and the cruel scene of butchers removing human bones like pigs and sheep, and even the cruel scene of being dismembered as soon as a passer-by falls without support also occurs from time to time.

There is not enough food in the world! At least in Daming!

"If you are looking for food, you will definitely not find it, if you want food, you have to ask for it from the ground!"

"To the ground? The prince of the world? If the summer grain harvest fails, how can you go to the field to ask for grain? ”

Song Xuezhu looked at the prince in puzzlement,

Putting the teacup on the coffee table aside, Zhu Guoqiang took out something and put it on the teacup, and then gently pushed it forward.

"That's it! If we want to live, if we want food, we have to use it! ”