Time passed day by day, and the grain in Datang's warehouse slowly began to bottom out. The newspapers urging grain in various places were piled up with Li Er's bookcases, and looking at a large number of songs, Li Er couldn't help but have a headache. There are 27 prefectures and counties in the country that have been affected by the locust plague, and about 500,000 people have been affected. With so many people, it has only been more than half a month now, and the grain in stock is about to be eaten, and if other places mobilize grain to come, the loss along the way is not a small number, and even if it is transported at any cost, I am afraid that it will have to wait for more than ten days, that is to say, these 500,000 people are still short of at least ten days of rations, where can we get so much food?

Li Er didn't say that he didn't think about misappropriating the grain stored by the army first, but he dispelled this idea in a blink of an eye, after he and Li Jiancheng fought a battle the year before last, the Turks seized the opportunity to raise troops to the south, and this locust plague may still have such a situation, the army's reserves must be preserved, not only to prevent the Turks, but also to suppress the role of the people at all times. Therefore, the army's grain reserves cannot be moved, so how can these 500,000 people save and eat 4,000 stone of grain in one day, and it is 40,000 stone in ten days, where will they get so much grain for a while and a half? Li Er rubbed his eyebrows and took a sip of the lotus seed soup placed at hand, which was boiled by the eldest grandson himself, although this virtuous queen's cooking skills have always been bad, but this lotus seed soup is quite authentic, and it will always be placed in Li Er's hand at the right time, and when he is tired, he can always drink this warm and just right lotus seed soup. These details are not picky for the eldest grandson.

"40,000 stone of grain, it has to be loaded into two large ships. I'm afraid that the consumption on the road from other places is almost half of this number, which is another 20,000 stones! Li Er muttered to himself. Now every grain in Datang is precious, and children fall on the table when they eat. Adults will pick it up and put it in their mouths. People who have never been hungry do not know what it is like to starve to death. Li Er himself has never seen it, but one of his generals, Niu Jinda, has seen it. He said that this man can die of illness, be killed, drowned, fall to death, but don't starve to death, that is the greatest punishment God can give to people. At that time, his family was full of several brothers, and in that famine era, the brothers left the last piece of millet flour bread to the youngest, and all the brothers starved to death that year. The year that the current prince saw as a nightmare.

Li Er didn't dare to think about it anymore when he thought of the tragic phenomena such as the homeless riots that would appear, the change of children and the food.

On the other side of the palace, Zang Yuzhai, the two little Loli were complaining about their second brother, and they didn't bring themselves when they went out of the palace to play such a fun thing, and they ignored him in the future, but the longing in the eyes of the two couldn't hide it, Xiao Tianxiang stayed at the side of the two princesses and didn't intervene. She listened quietly, but her eyes began to fill with fog, and she was thinking about the little brother who gave her warmth.

"Good, Tianxiang doesn't cry! Wait for the second brother to come back. Let's clean him up together, huh! Li Lizhi comforted.

"Hmmm! Dare not take Wei'er, don't get along with the second brother! Xiao Yuzhang nodded his little head and echoed Li Liqian.

The three little loli are all thinking about the same person. Except for the youngest Xiao Yuzhang, the other two couldn't sleep well that night.

Taiyuan. This place Li Kuan has never been, and this is the place of Li Tang's Longxing. It was here that Li Yuan raised the banner of resistance against the Sui explosion, although there were many unexpected factors, but he also raised his first rebel army here, and then moved to the Central Plains, and finally sat on the country.

It is very peaceful now, the war is far away, only the distant shouting and killing is still echoing in the depths of people's memory, and the people here have long lived a peaceful life, the sun rises and the sun sets. Now is the time for the people of Datang to have dinner, this day of two meals a day, the people of Guanzhong have passed one or two thousand years, but they are still satisfied with this life. Wisps of smoke rose, and the small village was surrounded by a faint smoke, making it seem quieter and more peaceful. There is no locust plague here, even if it is not very far from Chang'an, the straight-line distance is less than 600 kilometers, but it is also out of the scope of the locust plague. The people here don't even know that on the other side of the Yellow River there is a large swarm of locusts wreaking havoc. They still live their regular lives, poor but content.

Li Kuan rode a horse, along the path in the field, walking slowly, he had already arrived in Taiyuan, and saw the shopkeeper of the wine fairy residence here, a kind old man, explaining the intention, and after checking the imprint, the shopkeeper prepared all the money, just waiting for the short man in front of him to find what to buy.

Li Kuan inquired all the way in the past two days and said that there is a large open-pit coal mine here, of course, it is not called a coal mine at this time, it is called Shitanshan. This mountain belongs to a nearby village, and in ancient times it was like this, and whoever was close to it belonged to it.

"This old man, dare to ask how to go to this little Wangzhuang?" Li Kuan dismounted and asked an old man who was rushing home. He bought this horse again, and the previous one didn't know where to run when he encountered locusts, but there was still a horse that was faster, and it took more than nine days to get here.

The old man stopped and looked at the short figure in front of him, not tall, a little more than six feet (about 1.4 to 1.5 meters), this one was short in the Tang people, with long narrow eyes and a mustache on his chin, which didn't look like a local. He didn't know that Li Kuan was actually only eleven years old, and such a height was already very tall.

"What are you doing in Xiaowangzhuang?" The old man looked at Li Kuan for a while before asking.

"I am a coal merchant, the price of coal in Chang'an is high, I want to buy the coal mountain next to Xiaowangzhuang, mine it and sell it to Chang'an!" Li Kuan said with a big grin, as if he saw countless white flowers of silver swept towards him, and his face was full of yearning.

Of course, this is all the old man's thoughts, in fact, Li Kuan really yearns for that carbonire mountain, because this mountain is bigger than the one on Leyou Plain, and the harvest will definitely not be small.

"That's not how you count. What price does this charcoal sell for in Chang'an? And at what price is it sold for here? How much does the difference between you have to cover your shipping costs? It's not close to Chang'an! After deducting the shipping costs between you, how much profit is left? The old man carefully counted Zhang for Li Kuan. It seems that this old man is not an ordinary person.

"Uncle! You mean you won't let me buy this carboniferous mountain? Li Kuan looked at the old man with suspicious eyes. No matter how you look at it, it looks like a competitor: "Do you want to buy it too?" ”

"Haha......" The old man laughed: "You are a descendant, you don't know what to do, the old man kindly reminded you not to faint the charcoal in Chang'an to sell, but you are so suspicious of the old man, no matter what, since you want to buy it, then the old man will be the master and sell it to you, don't complain if you suffer a loss!" The old man looked at him with a look that didn't know the hearts of good people, and Li Kuan's heart was a little hairy.

"Uncle. You are? Li Kuan came back to his senses, this old man should be from Xiaowangzhuang, and even a very prestigious clan elder.

"Old man Wang Sheng, the patriarch of the Wang family of Xiaowangzhuang!" The old man stroked his beard and said.

"In this case, the person I am looking for is you, hurry up and sell me the Shitan Mountain in your village, I am still waiting for this Shitan Mountain to bring me a steady stream of wealth!" Li Kuan said impatiently, there is an element of performance, but it also has seven points of truth. He knew that the inventory of the Datang granary was definitely not enough for disaster relief, and he knew that the wheat harvest planted by Datang now was not as high as that of later generations, plus the rent collected by the landlord's family, and other taxes. How much food is left in the hands of the people? And how much grain can the imperial court receive when it comes forward to buy it? The landlord class will not sell grain lightly, and they are all waiting for the price of grain to rise before selling, and this is the experience that these landlords have summed up over the past thousands of years. The imperial court must have a special need to buy grain. So if it drags on for a while, food prices will become higher. The landlords could afford to wait. Those victims won't last long. Therefore, Li Kuan didn't want to cheapen those landlords, so he could only quickly send grain to the disaster area before the imperial court raised the price of grain.

Then why didn't Li Kuan directly propose to Li Er to exchange coal for grain? This is Li Kuan's inner trouble, he doesn't want to shame the teacher he made up, this practice is a bit like making a fortune in the country, it is incumbent on him to help the victims, but if he and Li Er propose to exchange coal for food, it will be like taking the opportunity to put forward conditions, this is something that Li Kuan can never tolerate, how can such a school be passed down for thousands of years? How could a school that wants to benefit everything show favor to him Li Er for no reason? Is there a catchhole here? Li Kuan felt that in addition to his uneasy conscience, he was afraid that Li Er would also mumble in his heart, and even have the idea that scientists have big intentions. In that case, maybe he will go to the opposite side with Li Er, Li Kuan has never thought of opposing Li Er, because not only because his body is Li Er's son, but also because Li Kuan has never had any power ambitions, and he has lived for nearly thirty years in later generations, and he has exercised a heart that is willing to be plain, and he is too tired after sitting on the throne.

Li Kuan and the old man walked and talked all the way, slowly returned to the village, and finally negotiated the conditions, Li Kuan paid a monetary price and obtained the mining rights of Xiaowangzhuang, a stone coal mountain, but to mine, the villagers of Xiaowangzhuang must be employed, and the villagers must not be beaten and scolded, and they are not allowed to excavate and mine in dangerous situations. In short, Li Kuan agreed to the old man's conditions, anyway, he just wanted to absorb the energy in it, as for mining, he didn't even think about it, he just wanted to give some compensation to the villagers, plus the conditions of system restrictions, because he didn't pay to buy Shitan Mountain, Shitan Mountain does not belong to Li Kuan, so he can't absorb it!

To sign the contract, I have to go to the county seat, and here I am going to the county seat to report on my work, these village officials of the Tang Dynasty report their work to their bosses once every six months, and Li Kuan can complain that the time he came is unfortunate, so it will take two days, and there is not much time left for him. It's been half a month since he came out, I don't know if Xiao Tianxiang misses him, anyway, he misses the little girl who loves to laugh and has two dimples when he laughs. I miss the white rice porridge she boiled, as well as the soft little hands that rub my back and wash my feet. Li Kuan found that he seemed to be inseparable from this little Lori, it seems that he really has more contact with Little Lori, and some Lori is controlled! (To be continued......)