In July of the first year of Zhenguan, the great drought in the north has been raging for two months, but fortunately, the imperial court has prepared in advance this time, and there are many wells in various places, and it has also continuously transported grain from the south to the north for disaster relief!

In ancient times, the land output was too small, so the grain could only be accumulated through more farming, but the people of the world, not to mention slaves and tenants, only said that the people who owned their own land, the fields that each family could own and cultivate were also limited!

Although the imperial court encouraged the development of wasteland, the newly opened wasteland was not a field, and three years of continuous cultivation would turn into a good field with a harvest, so the good land that could be used as rations in various places was generally less than ten acres per family!

At that time, the yield of the field, per mu of good land, take the land of Sanqin as an example, planting wheat per mu can produce 200 catties is a bumper harvest, and the yield of 300 catties must be reported to the imperial court, and the heavens are grateful!

Generally, the output is 100 catties, almost dozens of catties, so for an ordinary family of three, 1,000 catties of good food a year is an eye-opener!

But in ancient times, people paid attention to having many sons and blessings, and passed on the ancestry! There are very few families of three, basically at least a family of four or five, like Ma Jiulang on Shu Road, there are only nine children in a family, so such a little food is not enough to eat the right year!

Normal people in the Tang Dynasty eat coarse grains on weekdays, or grains that combine coarse and fine, and they will only eat two good meals during the New Year's holidays!

This year, there was a great drought, and the people everywhere who had insufficient food in their homes were worried, but even more worried were the tenants who relied on farming for the landlords!

Tenants also make a living from farming, although they are not slaves, but they rent the landlord's land, which is a loan relationship!

In previous years, when the harvest was good, it was the landlord who helped the tenants or directly fed the tenants to eat, and the tenants paid rent, debts and grain every year, and the tenants who couldn't survive could not survive would sell themselves into slavery!

The landlord is not stupid, obviously there is a big drought this year, there will be no harvest in the field, he now spends grain every day to feed the tenants, and in a few months, the new grain will not be completed, but the old grain can not support so many people, and he is estimated to have to fall from the landlord to the begging for food!

Therefore, seeing that the momentum was not right, the landlords dissolved the lease relationship with the tenants one after another, and no longer provided grain to help others!

When the tenants have exhausted their family's small stock of food, they will really have to flee!

This is the reason why before the time of grain harvesting, there have been displaced people since May and June, and most of these people are mainly tenants!

Now that July is the time for the grain harvest, the old grain from last year in the homes of ordinary people is basically gone, and there is no harvest in the fields, so they are really going to flee the famine!

Thus, the second wave of displaced people began!

Datang was caught off guard!

In other words, it is not that there is no preparation at all, but the national strength of Datang can only be supported like this!

Because the team of transporting grain into Shu has fully mobilized the energy of Shudi, and there are people running around for drought resistance almost every day on the plank road into Shu and out of Shu, but although there is a lot of grain in Shu, it is inconvenient to transport grain, and it can only take care of Longyou Road and a small part of Guanzhong area!

If you want to take the grain from Shu to relieve Hedong, Hebei, the price of transporting grain alone will outweigh the losses, and the imperial court can't divide so many people!

Although it is more convenient to transport grain in the south, it is not easy to buy and collect grain in the south, and it is also a little powerless to deal with disasters in the north!

Li Er sat weakly in the council hall, the ministers were sent out to various places for disaster relief, during the catastrophe, although there were local officials assigned to deal with the disaster, but there must also be a special envoy of the imperial court to deal with it, so as to avoid which landlord official took advantage of the country to do illegal things, so that a bad one will cause a rebellion among the people!

Li Er understood in his heart that this was what Bai Fan said, and in the end, Datang was unable to take care of the two percent of the pressure!

Drilling wells everywhere can deal with up to thirty percent of the affected people, and transporting grain in the two places can relieve fifty percent of the people, although Datang is like a bottomless pit for this matter to fill in grain and fill money, but fortunately, the price of grain is controlled by the imperial court, the northern wool business is getting better and better, and the wealth is accumulating quickly, and it can withstand it!

If it was placed before there was no wool foreign trade, in the face of such a catastrophe, Datang could only watch it!

What is Bai Fan doing at this time? I knew in my heart that it was estimated that it had reached the most critical moment outside, and Bai Fan was still calm and comfortable in the courtyard of the dean's courtyard of Zhongnan Academy!

Until this day, Bai Fan was drinking tea by himself in the small courtyard, and he had been calculating in his mind how to protect the people to the greatest extent!

A flying insect fell into Bai Fan's cup of tea, Bai Fan looked down, this?

Locust?

Rubbed up from the Taishi's chair, sighed in his heart, the locust plague is coming!

Looking up at the sky again, the black spots like a rain of arrows flew through the air one by one, and from time to time there were many who fell to the small courtyard due to exhaustion!

Bai Fan planted a lot of flowers and plants in the small courtyard, but in less than a quarter of an hour, he was plagued by locusts in transit!

This was the mountain spring water that Bai Fan carried back from a distant place, and it was destroyed in front of his eyes!

Li Wanping, who rushed out of the house, was so frightened that her face turned pale, and asked, "Husband, this, this is a locust?" ”

Bai Fan stroked Li Wanping's long hair and said regretfully, "Yes! Look how arrogant they are, destroying our flowers and plants in front of us!

Because of them, the people of Datang will have a lot of suffering again!

Ping'er, get ready, take your sisters, we're going to Chang'an City, the locust plague is coming, the big event is coming, there is a shortage of people around Your Majesty now, we have to help! ”

Li Wanping nodded sensibly, and snorted in her mouth, "Hmph, damn locusts, didn't our academy raise so many chickens and ducks?" Wait a minute, I'll tell my uncle to let them all out, eat the locusts, and avenge our flowers and plants!" ”

Bai Fan smiled, "Don't worry, although the locusts are arrogant, but I have already prepared a big meal for them, and all places have been ordered by His Majesty to raise more chickens and ducks, and the locust plague is together, and the chickens and ducks from all over the country are out of the cage, hehe, when the chickens and ducks eat the old fat, I will ask the beggars to help the brothers harvest it, and this year the beggars will be able to eat meat for the New Year!" ”

Speaking of this, Bai Fan inadvertently glanced at the locust in his teacup, and laughed in his heart, in such a hurry, do you want me to make tea with you?

Tea? In a flash of inspiration, Bai Fan thought of a good idea!

When I went back to the room, I took a book that I had worked so hard to write, and rushed out as soon as I explained to Li Wanping!

"Ping'er, for my husband I think of an urgent matter, I want to go to the palace, you let Yuanba escort you back, and when I get to Chang'an, I will go to you as soon as I finish my business! A few sisters will take care of you! ”

Before Li Wanping had a chance to answer, Bai Fan had already run far away!

Li Wanping looked at the hot Ailang and smiled, this is her husband, a person who always has big things in his heart!

In the palace, Li Er looked at a locust in his hand that was angrily pinched into pulp, and he was angry and hateful!

Is an ant-like existence also coming to plague the people?

At this time, I heard a familiar voice outside the hall shouting: Your Majesty, the minister has a way to solve the locusts and the lack of food!

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(End of chapter)