Continuing to the north out of Yongzhou, Li Su and his entourage slowly walked in the direction of Puzhou.

This is still the Guanzhong region, the Guanzhong of the Tang Dynasty is relatively rich place, after all, it is centered on Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, many domestic businessmen and foreign businessmen have flocked to Chang'an with goods and specialties in order to pursue profits, but Chang'an is only so big, and the amount of goods that can be digested every day is only so much, which gradually caused a serious backlog and surplus of goods, what should I do at this time? There was no problem in the world that could stump the merchants, so the merchants spread to the vicinity of Chang'an with a good sense of the times, dumping their goods into the neighboring cities of Chang'an.

Yongzhou, Puzhou and other cities, is a typical beneficiary, they are not far from Chang'an, only hundreds of miles, Chang'an City can not digest the goods, it is natural to digest by these surrounding cities, which has caused Chang'an to be rich, and the surrounding cities are not bad, from the point and spread to the surface, and finally radiate the entire Guanzhong area, driving the prosperity of the Guanzhong area.

However, after all, the Tang Dynasty is still based on agriculture, food crops determine the people's livelihood, so the annual spring sowing, autumn harvest, for the people of the Tang Dynasty are a first-class event, every year after the beginning of spring, the emperor has to lead the hundred officials in the Taiji Palace of the agricultural altar to pray for blessings, for a year of wind and rain, every year after the autumn harvest, the queen also has to lead the courtiers of the family members to go down to the field in person, the autumn harvest left in the field of wheat grains one by one, in order to express the blessing of the people in the world, from the first year of Zhenguan, Empress Changsun personally presided over this ceremony, which was the case every year until her death.

It can be seen that farming is very important to the people, and the vast majority of the people in the world are farmers, and the farmers cannot ask for food and clothing, so the daily climate is a life-critical event for the farmers.

After Li Su and his entourage left Yongzhou. The scenes I saw were very shocking.

Now is the spring sowing season, it is the golden period for farmers to work in groups to work and sow seeds, but there are no people in the fields outside Yongzhou City, a bleak scene, there is still a little snow on the road, and the team walks along the road for half a day to see farmers in twos and threes. Everyone had a sad face, sighed for a long time, and squatted on the edge of the field and stared at the field in a daze.

Li Su's mood became heavy in vain.

I didn't think it was fashionable to be in Chang'an, but after really traveling north, Li Su realized how serious the snow disaster was this year, and what irreparable consequences it had caused to Datang and the people.

A whole year's livelihood is wiped out in the unmelted snow!

Here, it still belongs to Guanzhong, and the fields are already so serious. If you enter the territory of Jinju Jinyang, I don't know what kind of situation it is?

Riding on the horse, Li Su pursed his lips, and his eyes showed an extremely solemn look.

If it was said that when Li Shimin sent him out as a messenger to deal with the post-disaster affairs, he still didn't take it to heart and only regarded it as an ordinary tolerance, but today, Li Su finally faced up to this snow disaster.

Thirty miles out of Yongzhou. As far as the eye can see, there is a vast plain. Li Su was born in a peasant family, and knew at a glance that this was a good piece of fertile land, with flat terrain, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and a leisurely pastoral scene, but today it can be seen. In the thousands of acres of fields, there is not even a single farmer who sows in spring, and there is a good piece of fertile land, silently revealing a trace of death, and there is no vitality in sight.

"All stopped!" Li Su rode on a horse. Suddenly raised his hand and ordered loudly.

The team of more than 1,000 people stopped according to the order, Li Zhi in the carriage lifted the curtain inexplicably, and saw Li Su dismount with a gloomy face, Li Zhi also got out of the carriage, jumped to the ground, and followed Li Su with a bumpy.

Li Su didn't say a word, got off the horse and walked to the field on the side of the road, stepped on the land, jumped a few times, the land was hard, like a complete stone, and he couldn't feel the soft and fertile soil that a good field should have.

Li Su's brows furrowed tighter and tighter, squatted down and picked up a piece of soil, held it in the palm of his hand, and brought it to his eyes to look at it carefully.

The black clod of soil was very hard, and it was cold in the palm of my hand, and when I broke it open, it was mixed with some unmelted ice slag, and scattered it casually, and what fell was a piece of dry and hard granular soil.

Li Zhi watched Li Su's actions curiously from the side, and seeing that Li Su's face was getting more and more ugly, Li Zhi asked cautiously, "Brother Zizheng, what's wrong?" ”

Li Su handed him the remnants of the soil in his hand, and said in a deep voice: "It's a little troublesome, Your Highness takes a look at this soil ......"

Li Zhi took the soil, looked at it carefully for a long time, and still couldn't understand it, and asked, "What's wrong with the soil?" ”

Li Su sighed and said: "This soil, simply put, is frozen soil, that is to say, the winter ice and snow have not yet thawed, and now it has begun spring, the sun and rain are still insufficient, and some places are even still snowing, which causes the land to be nutrient enough, completely unable to sow seeds, this year's spring sowing is wasted, once the spring sowing is wasted, what do farmers eat and wear throughout the year?" ”

Li Zhi is not very old, but after all, he was raised by Li Shimin himself since he was a child, and he has some knowledge, and his eyes widened in shock when he heard this, and said, "Can't sow seeds?" This ......"

Turning his head to look at the vast and empty land with no one in sight, Li Zhine said, "Brother Zizheng, perhaps...... Is this an accident? Maybe it's just that this piece of land is frozen ground, and the rest of the land is okay? ”

Li Su smiled bitterly and shook his head: "With all due respect, I'm not so optimistic, Your Highness, why did Your Majesty send you and me out of Beijing to Jin?" ”

Li Zhi thought for a while and said, "Because Jinyang Palace was crushed by the snow more than ten palaces, and Jinyang City also has rumors that are unfavorable to my Li family, so that the local people are unstable......"

"These are just appearances, let's chase from the source, so, what is the source?"

Li Zhi was silent for a long time and understood.

"The source is a snow disaster. None of this would have happened without the snowstorm. ”

Li Su nodded: "The word 'disaster' is exquisite, the disaster of one city and one place is not enough to be called a 'disaster', only a large area of extensive damage can be called a 'disaster', so for the situation of Jinzhou and Jinyang, the minister suggested that His Royal Highness should not have too much confidence, what we want to do this time is not only to investigate rumors, but more importantly, to appease the people, allocate grain and grass to help the victims, reduce losses as much as possible, and eliminate the possible scourge of riots." ”

Li Zhi nodded, still a little ignorant.

Li Su sighed, don't blame him, when he was his age, he was still a young man who had just graduated from elementary school, and he was jumping up and down to catch turtles, what could he understand? In contrast, Li Zhi at this age, his performance is already remarkable, these days he has been riding a carriage bumpy, and he has never seen him shout bitterly, but he always shows a sunny and cheerful smile, it is not easy to do this.

Of course, it's one thing to be sunny and cheerful, and it's another thing to have an IQ, this little idiot sits stupidly in the car every day, and doesn't know how to change horses, except for a sincere "deserved", Li Su doesn't know how to evaluate his behavior.

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All the way forward, the further they go, the heavier the mood of Li Su and the others becomes.

Yes, it's getting worse. Almost every piece of land is barren, every farmer on the road is sad, a small number of people on some land have spring sowing, Li Su and others are happy to go down to the field to check, but find that the farmers who sowed seeds while sowing while wiping tears, seedlings planted into the land, half a day to wilt, the land is dry, the sun and rain are not sufficient, and it is freezing weather, seedlings are planted, the survival rate is almost close to zero.

The weather was gloomy and gloomy, mixed with the cold wind that should not be there after spring, and Li Su's mood was colder than the cold wind.

After walking for more than ten days, when I arrived in Puzhou, the scene I encountered was different.

This time there were more pedestrians on the road, very many, a group of thousands, they were wearing tattered clothes, carrying a lot of heavy luggage and belongings, and the mother-in-law behind them was holding the child in one hand and the old man in the other, staggering with the team slowly squirming forward, and the direction of travel was Chang'an, the national capital.

Li Su was shocked, he knew very well that this was a group of refugees who had fled.

The fleeing procession was silent, no one was in the mood to talk or laugh, and there was no glimmer of hope, as gloomy as the weather, with no ray of sunshine in sight, and the team walked slowly, silently revealing a breath of despair.

The guard of honor drove to the outside of Puzhou City, and Liao Jinsong, the assassin of Puzhou, led the officials in the city to greet him.

Under the suspension bridge outside the city gate, there were more than a dozen officials wearing green official robes, Liao Jinsong stood in front of him in a scarlet official robe, seeing Li Zhi's honor guard, Liao Jinsong stepped forward and walked a few steps quickly, and before Li Zhi got off the carriage, Liao Jinsong threw himself and knelt in the dust on the side of the carriage, and cried on the ground.

"Minister, Puzhou assassin Shi Liao Jinsong, deeply burdened by the emperor's grace, causing the people in the jurisdiction to fall apart, the minister asked His Royal Highness the King of Jin to punish the crime, please ask the court to allocate money and food quickly, to help the people of Puzhou survive this disaster, it is not a pity for the minister to die!"

As soon as the words fell, more than a dozen officials behind them all knelt down facing the carriage, crying loudly, and the scene was extremely depressing.

Li Zhi was frightened by this scene, his eyes were wide and he didn't say anything for a long time, his expression was panicked, he didn't know what to do, and he looked at Li Su as if he was asking for help.

Li Su got off the horse with a gloomy face, stepped forward to help Liao Jinsong up, and said slowly: "This is a natural disaster, I can't complain to you, this time His Royal Highness the King of Jin was ordered to go north, in order to deal with this matter, all colleagues and keep their duties, the money and food of the court will arrive soon." ”

The news that Li Su and his entourage were ordered to tour the north seemed to be known to the officials along the way, Liao Jinsong looked at Li Su, and then saluted: "Could it be that the foot is the Marquis of Jingyang County, the general doctor Marquis Li?" ”

Li Su nodded: "Exactly." ”

Liao Jinsong straightened up, stared at Li Su's face, and choked up: "Puzhou has been snowing heavily since last year, and it has not melted all day long, and it has not been sunny until today, and the day of spring sowing is completely missed, and the people under the jurisdiction have gone to the county government under its jurisdiction to ask for help many times, but this is a natural disaster, and the county government can't come up with a way, these days the people in the jurisdiction have begun to leave the local area with their families and mouths, and go to other places to escape and survive, and the people who stayed behind are also panicked, and they may move their families away at any timeIs it enough for the people of Puzhou to survive this calamity safely? ”

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PS: There is one more ...... (To be continued.) )