Yecheng, Hussar General's Mansion, Tian Chou reported to Liu He with a worried face the recent news from all directions. After listening to this, Liu He frowned, didn't say a word, and turned to stare at the map of the territory of the Han Dynasty hanging on the wall.

"Zitai, according to your estimates, how many percent of the population will be affected by disasters in various places this spring?"

"Conservative estimates, at least thirty percent."

"What if it's not a conservative estimate?"

"Forty percent, or even more!"

"Shhhh Forty percent, counting tens of millions of people, this time it's really troublesome. ”

"Come on, go and call Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing, I want to question!"

The Yuan Jian mentioned by Liu He was the military advisor who was captured when he attacked Xuzhou, and was later awakened by Lu Zhi, temporarily incognito to Youzhou, and worked for Liu He in Jicheng. Now that Yuan Shu has become a dry bone in the grave, Yuan Shu has recovered his identity to the outside world and has become a senior staff member in the general's palace, specializing in civil affairs.

Another one named Cheng Bing, who was also selected by Lu Zhi in Xuzhou, was specially sent to Youzhou to be taught by Cai Yong and Zheng Xuan and others.

After Liu He moved the general's mansion to Yecheng, many people who stayed in Jicheng went south with Liu He to Yecheng, and now Liu He not only has Guo Jia and Tian Chou by his side, but also Li Ru, Xu Miao, Xiahoulan, Chen Yi, Zhen Yan, Yuan Lian, Cheng Bing, these people are assisted, and they can be regarded as full of talents, capable and efficient.

Not long after, Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing came to Liu He's study.

Liu He asked Yuan Lian: "How many stones of grain did you store last year?" ”

Yuan Lian replied: "A total of 14,570,000 stones." ”

"How much grain reserves are there in Liaozhou?" Liu He asked again.

"Four million two hundred and twenty thousand stones."

"How much grain reserves do Jizhou have?"

"Five million three hundred and twenty thousand stones."

"When Liaozhou was first built, it makes sense that the grain reserves were less, why did Jizhou's reserves only produce one million stones more than Liaozhou?" Liu He frowned, a little puzzled.

Cheng Bing explained on the side: "Only the four counties in the north of Jizhou really had surplus grain reserves last year, and the counties in the south were still under Yuan Shao's control at that time, plus the two battalions of Zhenwei and Zhenwu went out of the state to fight. The consumption of grain and grass is very large, so Jizhou's grain reserves last year were not abundant. ”

"Well, you can calculate now how much grain you can extract from Youzhou, Liaozhou, and Jizhou."

Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing immediately sat down, each holding a charcoal in their hands, and buried their heads in the calculations. Although charcoal is not as rich and durable as writing with a brush, it is better than simplicity and efficiency, and now it has become a few skills that Liu He's subordinates must know, so Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing are also adapted to this way of writing with a hard pen.

While the two staff members were immersed in calculations, Liu He carefully recalled some of the numbers he had seen in later generations.

According to the authoritative statistical analysis of later historians and agricultural experts. During the heyday of the population, the annual grain output of the Han Dynasty was about 32 billion catties, which averaged to each person's head, which was 500 catties of rations a year. If calculated according to the agricultural labor productivity at this time, it is about 2,000 catties of grain per agricultural labor force on average, and a family of five is about 5,000 catties. Youzhou now has a population of about 5.8 million, and I have been building water conservancy projects in Youzhou for eight years, promoting all kinds of new agricultural tools and keel treadmills for six years, and cultivating wasteland for seven years. Taken together, these factors have greatly increased the annual grain output of a single labor force, and I don't know how much it can be increased by ......."

While Liu He was pondering, Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing had already finished calculating. The two checked each other for each other, and then exchanged the algorithms and bases used in their calculations, and finally formed a number that they could both agree on.

"Tell the son, if you follow the autumn grain harvest as the time node. Then before that, the total amount of grain we can mobilize from Youzhou, Liaozhou, and Jizhou is 8.25 million stones, if we deduct the loss of grain transportation. In the end, the grain that could be transported to the destination was about 6.4 million stones. ”

"You do the math of how much food 10 million people will need to consume in four and a half months under the minimum standard, that is, to ensure that they do not starve to death."

"An adult gives twelve taels of food a day, which can ensure that he will not starve to death. The child's daily food is halved to six taels. The old man took the middle number and gave nine taels of grain...... Among the 10 million people, adults are counted as 40%, the elderly are counted as 20%, and children are counted as 30......"

Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing each grabbed an abacus in their hands and dialed the operator so loudly that it crackled.

"Qi Yu Gongzi, if you want to ensure that tens of millions of people will not starve to death within four months, then you need to provide at least 8.5 million stone coarse grain."

"Eight and a half million minus six million and four hundred thousand is a gap of two million and 1,100,000 stones, which is not easy to get." Liu He frowned and muttered to himself.

At this time, several people in the room already understood Liu He's intention to let everyone calculate these figures, although there was still a difference of more than two million stone of grain, but Liu He actually wanted to use the surplus grain of Youzhou, Liaozhou and Jizhou to save the tens of millions of Li people in the entire Han Dynasty who were threatened by hunger! What an exciting and crazy idea!

If Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing hadn't personally gone deep into the countryside of Youzhou to experience rural life, and had seen with their own eyes the piles of grain piled up like a hill in the public granaries of various villages, the two of them would never have believed that Liu He could actually grow so much grain in a place like the north, which was considered to be remote and barren.

"No, the gap of more than two million stones must be filled in a way! You think with me, if you don't want to come up with a way today, you won't have to eat dinner. I can't think of it tomorrow, and I won't be allowed to eat tomorrow's meal. ”

Yuan Jian and Cheng Bing glanced at each other, revealing a helpless wry smile. The son in front of him, everything else is good, he has no shelves, he doesn't like to engage in superficial articles, he does things really, but he is a little arbitrary, and he never changes what he says, since he says that he is not allowed to eat, that is, even when he is together, everyone can't eat, and no one can persuade him.

The two of them were engaged in thinking quickly about the dinner of the day and the meal of the coming day.

"There it is! If the grain in Youzhou and Liaozhou is concentrated in the surrounding wharves, then transported to the Bohai Sea by boat, and then transferred to the big ship, and then by sea into the Yellow River, all the way to the vicinity of Luoyang. It can save at least 800,000 stone of transportation loss! Yuan Jian thought from the perspective of throttling and narrowed the gap of 2.1 million stones to 1.3 million stones.

"Childe, when we counted just now, we didn't include the grain obtained by the soldiers of the border army who were self-sufficient in the fields. As far as I know, in the past two years, the Zhenbei Army has made remarkable achievements in Yuyang Tuntian, and the prisoner of war camps around Baishan Duweicheng and Jining Duweicheng have also grown a lot of grain, and if grain is requisitioned from these places, it can be replenished with at least 700,000 stones. Cheng Bing whispered.

As soon as Cheng Bing's words came out, Tian Chou immediately objected and said: "Childe, be cautious in this matter!" Grain harvested in military cantonments and prisoner of war camps. It is a reserve of food for the troops, and if this food is moved, our army will not be able to start a large-scale war for a year. ”

The reason why Tian Chou wanted to remind Liu He was because he knew that Liu He had begun to plan the use of troops against Yuan Shao some time ago, and now that there was a great famine in Yuan Shao's territory, it was a favorable time to attack him.

Liu He knew in his heart what Tian Chou was worried about. But he said firmly: "Now that the people everywhere are suffering from hunger every day, and there are tragic cannibalism in Guanzhong, Bingzhou and Jianghuai regions, I have decided to postpone all military operations indefinitely until this catastrophe is resolved!" ”

Now that Liu He has made up his mind. Tian Chou immediately stopped objecting, and in turn helped him think of ideas.

"Childe, if the military operation is postponed, I have a way to save food."

"Zitai say it quickly!"

"If only the hungry people everywhere stayed where they were and waited for our rescue. It will cause great difficulties to our transportation, which also involves the sensitive issue of cross-border grain delivery, and will also consume a lot of grain on the way to transportation. I think so. If we send people to set up relief points on the main transportation arteries of Guanzhong, Luoyang, Bingzhou and Jizhou, and then organize the hungry people to follow these relief points to our production areas, so that the hungry people can move to the north while eating relief food, so that a lot of food can be saved, and even if there is still a gap in the end, you can also collect food from large households in all parts of Youzhou to solve it. ”

"That's a great strategy!" Liu He couldn't help but praise.

At the beginning, when the three prefectures of Youzhou, He, and Hebei suffered from a rare drought and locust plague in a century, Liu He tried almost all the ways to finally make the people of Youzhou and Jizhou tide over the difficulties, but at that time, the people of these two states did not have nothing to do all day after the famine came, lying down and waiting for the relief of the government, they were all mobilized to participate in the construction of farmland and water conservancy facilities, public health facilities, road traffic, market towns and cities, etc., and even children were in the wild fields to pick wild vegetables, catch rats, snakes and locusts......

This time, Liu He wanted to help the hungry people in other states, and what these hungry people needed to do every day was to eat something that hung their lives, and then move to the place where there was food, they could not stay in place to work, let alone work for relief, so Tian Chou came up with this method to reduce the consumption of grain transportation during the movement was the best plan.

Moreover, Tian Chou did not make it clear that these hungry people moved towards Youzhou and Jizhou, and when the disaster passed, at least half of them might stay in the north, and the hungry people who were closer to the Youzhou production area could only be those young and strong people who walked fast, and many old people and children may not be able to go to Youzhou. Millions of young people poured into Youzhou and Jizhou, which is a huge invisible wealth, which can definitely offset the food that Liu He sacrificed for this purpose.

After the general direction is decided, how to implement it will involve the government organizations at the prefecture, county, county, township, and village levels, and the amount of tasks will be very huge; Liu He does not need to ask about everything, as long as he gives instructions to the government officials at the state and county levels and the commanders of various armies, these people will naturally grasp the concrete implementation according to his requirements.

Liu He's side quickly deployed, and three days later, Li Yan's urgent report from Luoyang for help arrived in Yecheng, and Liu He immediately replied to Liu Yu: Father, don't worry, everything is under control! (To be continued......)