Sitting on the handsome chair in the study of the council hall, I rubbed my sour and dry eyes, alas! Last night, I was like a hard night, my back hurts and my legs cramp, I am so tired.

It's not that she was tossed by the fierce bed battle, but that this smart and bright beauty had to ask me to teach her to fill in the lyrics, so she was entangled over and over again.

Alas! How can I have that ability, to be honest, in addition to plagiarizing some ancient masterpieces from time to time, in fact, my own talent is really limited, and I don't know the ink in my stomach!

But under the bombardment of curiosity and curiosity, I had to rack my brains and pour all my power to satisfy her studiousness. I have been working hard until the early hours of the morning, seeing that the sky is almost dawn, almost squeezing out all the inventory in my head, she reluctantly let me go to sleep, she is simply made her head bigger, in the long run, it seems that there will be no peace in the future.

When Lin Yi came to the handsome case with a thick stack of account books, he finally interrupted my flying thoughts. He looked at my slightly tired expression with some hesitation, and asked tentatively: "Marshal, the treasury has reported the details of the money and grain, do you want to take a look now?" ”

I hurriedly straightened up, snorted, took the stack of account books, and knew that I couldn't understand these vertical and traditional money and grain statistics, so I casually asked, "Hmm! It is said that the treasury is empty, and I don't know how much grain there is in Yunnan now? ”

Lin Yi's face was worried: "Dashuai, to be honest, after the lower officials carefully checked it, they were still quite worried. Up to now, including the six counties, we have only more than 4,000 stone of grain and more than 60,000 yuan of money in the entire Yunnan, which is barely enough to meet the expenditures of the last three months. ”

"And this year's continuous drought, although it has not been serious to the point of no harvest, but it is expected that the grain harvest will not be much better, so this year's life for the people is not easy, and the tax revenue is definitely far less than in previous years. If other effective measures are not taken, I am afraid that there will be a huge deficit this year, and even the operation of the army cannot be guaranteed. ”

"Oh! Is it so serious, no wonder the rain is so scarce this year, the people are relying on the sky to eat, if the grain output is not guaranteed, so many people are waiting to eat with their mouths open! ”

"What's more, there are still seven or eight thousand officers and soldiers waiting for rice to go to the pot, if one can't cope with it, and there is a rebellion, then it will be a big trouble. We have to come up with a good solution! By the way, do you have any good ideas for the current dilemma? ”

"Handsome, it's hard for a good woman to cook without rice! It's a bit of a tricky thing to do. The lower officials believe that it is not advisable to raise taxes alone at present, and it is not a long-term solution after all. In the face of natural disasters that have not been encountered for many years, the price of grain is high, and it is difficult for the people to guarantee their own livelihood now, once the tax is raised, the people's lives will be even more difficult, if they are forced to be urgent, just like the marshal said, I am afraid that it is difficult to say that it will provoke a civil uprising. ”

"Actually, our situation in Yunnan is much better than that in southern Sichuan, I heard that there has been no rain in southern Sichuan for nearly two years, most of the riverbeds have dried up, the land has cracked, the crops have plummeted, and the common people have reached the point of selling their sons and daughters, and eating human flesh."

"We in Yunnan still have some surplus grain from previous years, but we just can't hold on for too long. In my opinion, in the face of such a difficult situation, we should report to the imperial court and ask for some relief food in order to tide over this difficult time! ”

After listening to Lin Yi's briefing, I was suddenly a little worried. Oh, yes! The inability of the government to operate effectively is still a trivial matter, and these people who rely on the sky for food, once the crops are not good, it is like cutting off their life, and there is no other way to think of other ways than to flee the famine and ask for food, sell their children and daughters. If there is a drought for two consecutive years like in southern Sichuan, even the landlord's family will have no surplus grain!

'No food is unstable', this is a truth that cannot be broken in any era, not to mention that there are still limitations of the era, and the output of food alone is really limited. Although they also want to make money from all over the world, they have no other channels of living money, and only rely on planting a few acres of thin fields to make a living, how can the lives of the common people be better and better. You can't just look at the problem in front of you, just rely on the sky to eat, and if you want the people to gradually get richer, don't even think about it!

Alas! If I can't make a fortune for them and improve the people's livelihood, wouldn't I have failed to live up to the expectations of the majority of people, and what face would I have to survive here! We still have some sense of responsibility!

But the current difficulties must be over, otherwise nothing can be done.

But what can be done to solve the problem of eating for so many people? I'm already working on mining, but I can't see immediate results.

Want to increase food production? I don't have Yuan Longping's ability, this is really embarrassing for me. The point is that the crisis is now imminent, and there must be an immediate solution to the real problem.

After thinking about it, it finally dawned on me that people nowadays are monocropping, and the lack of means of livelihood is the biggest drawback. If we can plant both drought and flood crops, wouldn't it be another means to resist disasters? It's just that I'm also a layman in this regard, and I always have to find someone who understands and asks.

Of course, I also thought of a deeper problem, even if we have overcome the difficulties now, the next step is to find a channel that can enable the people to increase their income, and a variety of operations is our way out! A single breed of tooth alone is hungry.

When I was in school, I knew that some places in the late Tang Dynasty had begun to try to grow cotton, although the yield was not large, but this thing would be a hot commodity in the near future.

There is also wheat as a foreign product, although few people planted it in this era, but this relatively drought-tolerant crop is also very suitable for planting in Yunnan, if it can be promoted in Yunnan, these rare things, will definitely receive good benefits, I have this idea.

Other ways to get rich, when I have time, I will open up.

After making up my mind, I immediately asked Lin Yi: "Master Lin, I always feel that the varieties of crops we have here are too single, how much can the yield of rice be harvested once a year?" In the event of a natural disaster, I can't even eat. If you can grow several varieties of grain at the same time, and produce them in both dry and flood seasons, you can probably have a double guarantee, have you heard of cotton and wheat? Has anyone tried to grow it here? ”

"I've heard of both of these crops mentioned by Dashuai, and probably some of them are planted here, but the common people don't think they have any value and don't agree with this food crop. The point is, most people don't know how to plant, so the amount planted is very small. However, how could Dashuai think of this? Lin Yi smiled helplessly.

I smiled slightly and said, "Master Lin, don't underestimate these things!" In the north, in addition to traditional crops, wheat has been widely cultivated in some places, and although the yield is not very ideal, it is better than rice as a single crop. ”

"Especially in Yunnan, I see that there are many barren mountains, hills, and slopes, and it is more suitable to grow wheat. What I want to do now is to ask you to find some farmers who can grow cotton and wheat as soon as possible, all funded by the government, to help them expand production, increase production, and if the benefits are considerable, and then encourage other farmers to promote planting, what do you think? ”

"Alright! Since the commander commanded me, I will do it as soon as possible. It's just that in another three months, we will run out of food, and we can only buy grain at a high price in other places. Oh! Do you want to use the stolen money of the Sun thief and go to other places to buy some now? Lin Yi hesitated for a moment and asked with a slight hesitation.

I nodded and said, "It is necessary to take precautions, in addition to compensating the fallen soldiers and wounded, I don't know how much stolen silver is left?" Use what needs to be used, and get through this difficulty. ”

Lin Yi said helplessly: "There is a lot of money left, and there are more than 900,000 yuan, if it is all used to buy grain, it will not be a problem to cope with it for half a year." It's just that the commander still wants to build a pass in the west? Coupled with the funds for the construction of the temple, I am afraid that it will be a bit beyond my means. ”

I smiled happily: "You don't have to worry about this, buy food first, the construction of the pass has not been planned yet, and it will take some time." ”