Facing the eloquent conversation between Zheng Yongji and Zhu Kaishan in the hall, Zhang Lingyang did not speak, but looked outside the hall from time to time.

At this moment, sparse raindrops drifted in the sky again.

"Hooray!"

At this time, Xiaofuzi broke into the hall in the rain, holding a basket of peanuts and corn in his hands.

Zhang Lingyang took a look, and his brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Because, the corn and peanuts in the basket were picked by Zhang Lingyang an hour ago when he ordered Xiaofuzi to go to the farmland on the outskirts of Luoyang City in person.

But the corn in the basket is moldy, and the peanuts are not much better, one by one the shell and moldy generally do not say, peel it off, although it is not an empty shell, but no peanut is full.

When Zhang Lingyang made a move, Zheng Yongji, Zhu Kaishan and others stretched out their heads one by one to look, and their faces were also full of gloom.

"It seems that this autumn Luoyang Mansion is going to be harvested!" Zheng Yongji sighed, "I hope other places can be better!" ”

"I'm afraid that the imperial court will be fully prepared!" Zhu Kaishan, the head of the household department, shook his head and said, "This autumn's rain in Luoyang is not the most serious, I heard that the rain in Kaifeng Mansion is much more serious than that in Luoyang, and now the water level of the groundwater is only about three feet away from the ground!" ”

"I've heard about it too!" On the side, Li Guangtai, the imperial historian of the left capital, followed and said, "Now the imperial court must be prepared, especially in terms of money and grain, and allocate materials to the affected areas as soon as possible, so that the people can spend this winter and next spring safely!" ”

Zhang Lingyang looked at Zhu Kaishan and asked, "How much grain is left in the treasury now?" ”

Zhu Kaishan said: "The treasury is still very sufficient, but the only trouble now is that there is not much grain in the treasury.

Because there have been many new projects in various localities in the past two years, the demand for grain is very huge.

Moreover, it was the time of the autumn tax, so the treasury could not come up with a lot of money and grain at once. ”

Hearing this, Zhang Lingyang said: "The cabinet hastened to draw up an order, and the Ministry of Household Affairs sent officials to the affected provinces to investigate the damage and losses in various places in detail. In addition, grain was transferred from Huguang, Jiangnan, and Liaodong. If it is insufficient, then large-scale purchases from Annam, Siam, Burma and other places must not let the people go hungry. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

……

When the imperial court was discussing how to relieve the disaster, in Lijia Village, near the White Horse Temple in the eastern suburbs of Luoyang, villager Li Ergou stood on his own ground and wanted to cry without tears.

Li Ergou planted ten acres of peanuts this year, and now it is the harvest season, but because of the autumn rain that has lasted for nearly a month, their family has no harvest this year.

Under the soak of rainwater, the roots under the seedlings have already rotted to the ground and cannot be pulled out at all.

Kneeling on the muddy ground, Li Ergou kept digging down with both hands, but all he could dig out were empty shells.

There are not a few farmers like Li Ergou.

Although the people's lives are gradually becoming richer, they can only solve the problem of food and clothing, and eat a few bites of meat during the New Year's holidays.

But now that he has been affected by such a disaster, not to mention the autumn tax paid, he is afraid that his family's food for the winter will not be enough, so Li Ergou reacted like this.

On the imperial court's side, after making a timely response, it began to send officials to investigate the losses in the affected prefectures and counties, and also began to continuously allocate grain from Jiangnan, Huguang, Liaodong and other places to the affected areas.

At the same time, the hospital also began to send doctors to the affected areas.

Not because there was any plague, but because it was to prevent it.

With groundwater levels rising dramatically, drinking water is no longer safe for direct consumption.

Especially in some rural areas, many farmers even drink raw water all year round.

In normal times, if you are sick, you will only suffer from headaches and brain fever, but now, unlike in the past, as the groundwater level rises, many rats, rabbits and other creatures living underground are drowned.

And the germs they carry will be scattered in the groundwater, so the epidemic prevention work during this period has become the top priority.

Because at this time of year, the people still have some surplus food at home, although they can't guarantee that their families will survive the winter and next year's spring famine, they can still hold on for a month or two.

On the contrary, there are some difficulties in preventing the plague.

In the eyes of some people, they drink raw water all year round and have nothing to do, so how can there be anything at this time?

Therefore, although the Tai Hospital's propaganda work in the affected areas is very good, a large number of people still do not listen to it and drink raw water directly.

As a result, the plague began to appear on a small scale in some of the affected areas.

However, fortunately, the Tai Hospital was well prepared, and all kinds of medicines to prevent the plague were also complete, and the spread of the plague was quickly contained.

In late August, the officials stationed in various places quickly sent back to the imperial court the losses in various places.

This large-scale autumn rain, which lasted for more than a month, caused a total of 31 provinces in southern Henan, Jinzhong, Hebei, Shandong, and Anhui provinces to be affected.

Among them, 15 prefectures, including Kaifeng, Zhangde, Luoyang, Ruzhou, Guide, Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Fengyang, Daming, and Luzhou, were the most severely affected.

These 15 prefectures are all located in the Central Plains, and the population is also very dense, if you add the other 16 prefectures that have been affected by the disaster, the affected population of these 31 prefectures is as high as more than 10,000.

With such a huge number of people affected by the disaster, relying solely on the relief food in the three regions of Huguang, Jiangnan, and Liaodong cannot be said to solve the problem of food and clothing for the people, and it can only be said that it is enough to stumble.

Therefore, Zhang Lingyang directly ordered to send Xiao Wuzi, the chief eunuch of the commercial superintendent, and a household servant to Annam, Siam, and Burma to purchase a large amount of grain.

At the same time, Zhang Lingyang also realized the importance of food security and began to order the construction of granaries across the country.

In addition, the decree also stipulates that every prefecture and county must have a grain reserve warehouse, and also stipulates the amount of grain reserves each year to prevent the recurrence of similar situations.

In the past, although the imperial court had also built some large granaries in various provinces, they were mainly aimed at important production areas such as Huguang and Jiangnan, and they were only built in the provincial capitals.

In fact, it is very inconvenient to concentrate the grain of the whole province in one place, not to mention what to do in case of a fire there.

Just talking about the transportation and allocation along the way, it will cost a lot of money and food, which is extremely cost-effective and extremely inconvenient.

In this way, in the midst of the hustle and bustle, the disaster situation finally stabilized, and the whole court breathed a sigh of relief......