Today, Li Xiu finally did not go to the Ministry of Agriculture, after a lazy sleep at home, he walked to the river, he would definitely bring a fishing rod when he came here, but today he came empty-handed, and his face was not as leisurely as before, but when he came to the river, his face showed a little sadness. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The Yellow Canal in front of you is a semi-artificial river, mainly formed by the stream water flowing down the branch of Zhongnan Mountain, the amount of water in the stream is very large, which also makes the water level of the Yellow Canal all year round very good, such as the waterwheel built by Li Xiu, which is very suitable for use on the Yellow Canal.

However, compared with the surging Yellow Canal of the river in the past, the Yellow Canal has now become a small stream, the riverbed has been exposed for most of it, revealing tortoiseshell-like cracks under the sun, only there is a thin stream of water at the bottom of the river, but it seems that it may be cut off at any time, and the only remaining fish are floating on the water, opening their mouths and spitting bubbles, and the riverbed is full of sunburned fish and shrimp.

Li Xiu walked along the Yellow Canal, while thinking about the current situation, the locust plague is not over, after the locusts left Chang'an last time, they swept all the way through Guanzhong, and many crops that were about to mature were also devoured by them.

But fortunately, at the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Agriculture began to plant a lot of sweet potatoes in various parts of Guanzhong, so after the locusts, these sweet potatoes became the life-saving food in Guanzhong, although they were not full, but they would not starve to death, not to mention that the imperial court also prepared a lot of food for disaster relief, so eating in a short period of time is not a particularly big problem.

But the locust plague has always been accompanied by drought, since last winter, the sky has not rained much, in the early summer of this year, there were two light rains, but only wet the ground and stopped, and this year's sun is also extraordinarily poisonous, people can not stay under the sun at all, the green smoke on the river surface is simply visible to the naked eye.

Under this scorching heat, the drought is becoming more and more serious, for example, the Yellow Canal, one of the eight rivers in Chang'an, is about to dry up, and the water level of the Qujiang Pond downstream of the Yellow Canal has also dropped by nearly half due to the lack of water, and the painting boats in the pond have been stranded on the shore.

In addition to the Yellow Canal, almost all eight rivers near Chang'an are in this state of imminent closure, and even the Yellow River's water volume has been greatly reduced, which has further exacerbated the spread of drought.

Just after the locust plague, the drought came one after another, which made the Tang Dynasty court also worried, and the burden on the Ministry of Agriculture was also very heavy, mainly under this drought, the Ministry of Agriculture needed to organize local governments to give priority to ensuring the irrigation of sweet potatoes, so that sweet potatoes could survive, so that when the autumn came, at least there would be grain to harvest, and these sweet potatoes would allow the victims in Guanzhong to have food to eat in winter, otherwise God knows how many people will die of freezing and starvation?

Thinking of the continuous natural disasters this year, Li Xiu was worried about Li Shimin, in fact, during this time Li Shimin was also about to go crazy, locust plagues and droughts, the key is that there are many people in the court clamoring for him to make an edict against himself, but Li Shimin is stubborn and stubborn, as a result, whether it is the court or the people, there are many people who are quite dissatisfied with him, coupled with this catastrophe, in order to prevent civil unrest, Li Shimin simply put the troops in various parts of Guanzhong on alert, such as Chang'an City, where patrol soldiers can be seen everywhere.

"Big brother, what do you want?" Just when Li Xiu was pondering, he suddenly only heard a crisp voice interrupt his thinking, and someone patted him on the shoulder, and he didn't need to look back to know that the only one who could get close to him and not let the guards around him warn him was naturally his good sister Qi Niang.

"Why are you so idle today that you don't have to learn shipbuilding from your husband?" Li Xiu turned his head to look at Qi Niang and smiled, he found that Qi Niang was in a good mood during this time, and he didn't go to Yuwen Yi to study every day like before, as if he had regained his previous cheerfulness, and even he was not as rebellious as before, which made him very happy in his heart.

"Sir said, he has nothing to teach me anymore, and the rest is up to me to accumulate experience and my understanding of shipbuilding, and today is a little cooler than usual, so I will go out for a spin with Sister Hate'er!" When Qi Niang said the end, she also deliberately pointed behind her, and then Li Xiu realized that Ha'er was also not far behind, and she also showed a shy smile when she saw him.

"Big brother, you haven't answered my question yet, what were you thinking just now?" Qi Niang asked again at this time.

"What else can I think, look at this dry weather, the sweet potatoes grown all over Guanzhong don't know if they can survive, I'm dying of worry now!" Li Xiu spread his hands at this time, although sweet potatoes are drought tolerant, but they are only relative, in fact, when sweet potatoes are growing vigorously, they also have a great need for water, and the vines were eaten up before, and they need water to grow.

"It turned out to be this matter, I remember that you once said that there is a method called artificial rainfall, which can make it rain all day long, why doesn't big brother use this method?" Qi Niang tilted her head and thought for a while, and then asked, artificial rainfall was mentioned by Li Xiu when he was teaching them physics, so she wrote it down.

"Artificial rain is not something that can be done now, and if you look at this blue sky, you can't even find a cloud, even if you have this kind of technology, I'm afraid it will be difficult to make it rain all day!" Li Xiu smiled bitterly when he heard this, artificial rain can only play a greater role when the clouds have rained or are about to rain, but now there are no clouds in the sky, and secondly, he does not have this kind of technology, so it is simply a fantasy.

"Sir, since you can't let the heavens rain, it's better to borrow water from the earth, and let the imperial court dig wells in various places and take out the water from the ground to irrigate the land!" At this moment, Ha'er also opened her mouth to propose, as Li Xiu's oldest student, she also learned more, although she couldn't compare with a little genius like Qi Niang, but her knowledge was not comparable to ordinary people.

"This is a solution, in fact, the imperial court has begun to do this, but it takes time to dig wells, and there is too much land that needs to be irrigated, and it can't be irrigated by wells alone, and I heard that some places are even difficult to get water, so even if you dig wells, I'm afraid you have to give priority to supplying drinking water to the people." When Li Xiu said the end, he couldn't help but sigh again, even if he had knowledge far beyond this era, he was helpless in the face of this natural disaster.

"Stop!" Just when Li Xiu was talking to Ha'er, he suddenly heard someone shouting from the guards not far away, and then he saw someone surrounded by the guards, and he didn't know what was going on?