If it is just a simple reader, whether it is a student from Jinyuan County School or a student from Chang'an Guozi School, Li Xi has no opportunity or interest in getting in touch with some current affairs.

However, don't look at the fact that he has only been in the past for half a year, but he has served as the chief secretary of Jinyuan County, presided over disaster relief matters, and opened his own winery, for a period of time, he has to deal with food almost every day, so for this issue related to the national economy and people's livelihood, he is naturally not a layman.

Since the beginning of spring, Jiannan Province has not stopped raining, and after coming to Chang'an, I know that not only Jiannan Road, including Gyeonggi Province, where Chang'an is located, and even Dugi Province, where Luoyang is located in the east, and even Hedong Province, Henan Province and other places, this year is also more than rain, it seems that the 21st year of Kaiyuan is destined to be a year of great flooding, and the whole country is flooded everywhere.

Heavy rain everywhere naturally affected the grain harvest, but firstly, the imperial court rescued in time, and secondly, the Tang Dynasty at this time was definitely rich, and the grain reserve base was not low, so this flood that spread throughout the country and lasted for a long time did not cause any too bad impact, to say that the biggest impact is probably the rising food prices.

Li Xi has always been a hands-off shopkeeper, even when he was in Jinyuan, he was only responsible for some major policy decisions, and the family said that things such as living expenses, first Wulan, and then Ah Jin were in charge, and the family was in charge of those fixed Dingkou, even if there was to store grain, it was only tens of thousands, at most hundreds of thousands of dollars, and Li Xi, who was more wealthy than the other, was too lazy to ask.

It's just that because it involves the matter of growing vegetables in waste grain land, it is necessary to make up a large amount of rice grain to the people who grow vegetables and the county government, and the rice and grain consumed by the winery opened at home is also a large amount, Liu Rong and the third uncle will have a report almost every few days, of which the price of grain is an extremely important one, so before coming to Chang'an, Li Xi has always kept an eye on the grain price in Jiannan Province.

Until he left Jinyuan to come to Chang'an, even if he suffered a disaster, but because of the two levels of peace and control at the prefecture and county levels, the price of grain in Jinyuan has always fluctuated within a reasonable range, and a bucket of rice is only sixteen yuan at most, and when it is low, it only fluctuates between twelve or thirteen yuan as usual.

But after Li Linfu left, Li Xi asked Geng Xin, who was in charge of these ordinary affairs in the house, to find out that the situation in Chang'an was far from the case.

According to Geng Xin, in a normal year, the price of rice in Chang'an is about 30 to 40 yuan a bucket, but this year, it has rained in Guanzhong for a long time, and the price of rice is difficult to fall, and now the price of rice in Chang'an City has climbed to the point where 50 to 55 yuan can buy a bucket of rice.

Hearing this result, Li Xi's brows furrowed tightly: Chang'an is the capital of the world, and it is natural for the price of rice to be high, but it is a little abnormal when it is so expensive.

Although there are many powerful and wealthy families in Chang'an City, it can be said that it does not matter to them whether the price of grain is 30 yuan a bucket or 60 yuan a bucket, because even if they are not paid by the state, they are not short of those few money to buy rice, but you must know that even in Chang'an City, there are mostly ordinary people.

Normal people are busy for a day, and they only get thirty or forty big dollars, as for those who are small traders and hawkers, their income will be slightly higher, but at most a few hundred dollars, a normal family, calculated by five people, three or four days afraid to eat at least one bucket of rice, that is to say, for a family of five, a day income of dozens of dollars, just food, has to spend about fifteen dollars, this is a huge expense.

No wonder some people say that it is not easy to live in Chang'an, it seems that not only the price of the house is high, but the price of rice is also ridiculously expensive.

Thinking that Li Linfu mentioned the food issue with deep meaning when he was leaving, and got some rough news about the price of rice in Chang'an from Gengxin's mouth, Li Xi had a vague understanding in his heart.

Probably Li Linfu learned from somewhere that Emperor Xuanzong had long been dissatisfied with the high price of grain in Chang'an, and he knew that he had a good reputation for economy when he was in Jinyuan, so he thought of letting himself sort out the price of grain?

Thinking of this, Li Xi could no longer sit still.

You must know that in all dynasties, it is a great university to stabilize prices and guide the market, of course, it is also a very difficult thing, and because of the special status of the capital, prices have always been used to high surnames, and it is the most difficult of the difficulties. What's more, what Li Linfu wants to recommend himself to deal with is the most complicated and difficult grain price issue?

Seeing that Su Jin should be resigned, Li Xi asked someone to prepare a carriage and went straight to Su Mansion.

Su Jin had just arrived home from his job under the ministry, and he didn't even have time to change his clothes, when he heard that Li Xi was coming, he ordered someone to bring him in, and he went to change into his household clothes, so he came to talk to Li Xi.

Li Xi only came for food, so he got straight to the point.

Hearing Li Xi ask about the price of grain, Su Jin's eyes immediately narrowed, as if he vaguely guessed something, but he didn't say anything about it, just answered truthfully according to what Li Xi asked.

Su Jin has been an official for many years, including more than ten years before and after being an official in Chang'an, and he has been an official in a high position for a long time, so the same food problem and rice price problem are eloquently talked about in his mouth, but it is immediately more than one or two times larger than the realm of Gengxin, a little housekeeper, and the meticulousness of the matter is also incomparable.

As soon as he said it, Li Xi immediately basically grasped the reason for the high price of rice in Chang'an.

The high price of rice in Chang'an is first of all due to insufficient supply.

The Guanzhong Plain, where Chang'an is located, is known as a fertile field for thousands of miles, in fact, the acres of land that can be cultivated are limited, and after thousands of years of reclamation and cultivation, the land gradually tends to be barren, and the output is not high, even if the Tang Dynasty has been founded, it has actively repaired a lot of water conservancy projects left by the previous dynasties, and tried its best to guide the people to farm, but only relying on the output of the Guanzhong area, after deducting the people's own rations, it is still not enough to supply the needs of Chang'an City.

And Chang'an is located in the Guanzhong Plain, to the west, to the north, are more barren than the Guanzhong region, self-sufficiency is not easy, it is impossible to provide Chang'an with too much excess rice grain, to the south of the Jiannan Road is rich, but the difficulty of the Shu Road is difficult to go to the sky, the transfer is extremely difficult, so basically can not be counted on.

As for the east, whether it is Henan Province or Huainan Province in the east, or even Jiangnan Road further south, it is a grain-rich area, and it naturally has the strength to support Chang'an, and in fact, the imperial court has Cao Yun from the land of Jianghuai to Chang'an every year.

However, it is easy to transport rice and grain from the east to Luoyang, but it is extremely difficult to enter Chang'an. Luoyang to Chang'an, seven or eight hundred miles of road, most of them are difficult to travel mountain roads, the letter is dangerous, the gods are frightened and worried, if you take the land route, hundreds of miles of road down, the cost of transportation is high, times the price of rice, not the government can afford it.

And if you take the water route, it is too difficult.

The Yellow River came through the east of the river, and suddenly made a 90-degree straight bend in the place of Fengling Pass and Tongguan, and changed its course to the east, all the way about 200 miles, running to Sanmen.

Sanmen, that is, Sanmenxia. It is also known as Sanmen Mountain or Pillar Mountain.

Sanmen Canyon, the two banks are sandwiched with water, the wall stands thousands of thousands, the strange rocks are craggy, the terrain is dangerous, there are two stone islands in the middle of the river to divide the river into three streams, respectively called "human gate", "ghost gate", "god gate", so it is called "Sanmen Gorge". The pillar is facing the three gates, the river water grabs the door and comes out, rushes straight to the pillar, and then diverts the pillar to pass through, so it is called "the mainstay". It is also known as the three-door natural insurance.

It is conceivable that with such natural dangers as obstacles, no matter how much rice and grain there is in the east, it cannot be transported to Chang'an.

Therefore, although there is grain in the east, but across a Sanmenxia Gorge, the residents of Chang'an can only sit and look through the high price of grain. The road conditions are so bad that people can't help it.

According to him, the rice grain that arrives in Chang'an from the Jianghuai land every year is only about 200,000 stone in the post-Gaozong Wu period, and it has increased since the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, but it is only 400,000 to 600,000 stone per year.

Corresponding to this, there is the second point, that is, the population growth of Chang'an.

In the early days of the dynasty, Chang'an was not so prosperous, these rice grains were enough, but as the country became stronger day by day, Chang'an, as the capital of the Son of Heaven, became more and more prominent, and the foreign population was extremely large, coupled with the breeding of the local population in Guanzhong, in more than 100 years, the population of Chang'an City jumped from 200,000 to more than 100,000, and it has been one million so far.

Not to mention anything else, just a comparison provided by Su Jin can give a glimpse of one or two.

According to him, during the Zhenguan period of Taizong, there were only 642 court officials at least, and there were books to check in the official department, but at present, last year, that is, in the 20th year of Kaiyuan, the statistics of the official department were that there were more than 17,600 court officials in Chang'an City, nearly 30 times more than Taizong's time!

Therefore, in the past ten years, there have been repeated food shortages in Chang'an City. As early as 24 years ago, in the third year of Zhongzong Jinglong (that is, in 709 AD, author's note), the Guanzhong region suffered a catastrophe, and the then Minister of Civil and Military Affairs suggested that Zhongzong move the capital to Luoyang. It can be seen to what extent Chang'an was short of food at that time.

To this day, even if Emperor Xuanzong is the Son of Heaven, he still has to be forced to take a large group of court ministers to Luoyang every once in a while to "eat", and he is used to being a "Son of Heaven".

If what Li Linfu said about the grain is not a lie, once he really recommends Li Xi to serve as an official in the relevant aspects, then it is obvious that this mess will immediately press on Li Xi's shoulders.

The problem of feeding a million people is as heavy as a mountain.

(To be continued)