In the first month of the drought, wells dried up one after another, and battles for water began to break out.

It is not the water that people are robbing of watering the ground, because the farmer in the field has long since dried up, and the earth has cracked into vertical and horizontal ravines, like the desperate folds on the faces of old peasants.

At this time, the common people still have some surplus grain in their hands, but it is not much, because the time for the autumn harvest is approaching.

Because of the small drought of the previous year, the people did not have much surplus grain in their hands, and the grain they saved was calculated to survive until after the autumn harvest.

There are even many families who have mixed rice bran and wild vegetables into their grains and eaten them together, so that they will be able to survive until the autumn harvest.

In recent years, the emperor has built palaces, repaired imperial tombs, and excessively levied taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the people have not been able to save money.

Everyone is waiting for this year's harvest to be good, so that there will be food to eat after the autumn harvest, who knows that God is so faceless, and then there is a drought, and now there is no harvest, and people are about to starve to death.

Not to mention that in times of drought, the trees are all dead in patches, the wild vegetables are long gone, the wild animals that are common in the mountains have fled, and the fish in the rivers have long been emptied.

There was really no way to get food from outside, so the people had to take out the money they had accumulated at home and prepare to buy food, hoping to resist it.

The people's hearts are very heavy, the price of grain has risen every month in the famine years, everyone who has experienced the disaster year, even those who have not experienced it, and they have heard the old people in the family who have experienced it say how unscrupulous the grain merchants are in the disaster year.

Now they only hope that these grain merchants will not be too black-hearted, and don't raise the price of grain too hard, otherwise there will be no way to live.

Who knew that the people who went to the grain shop to sell grain with such negative thoughts unexpectedly found that the price of the grain sold by the grain shop was extremely low.

It should be said that the price is unexpectedly low, cheaper than the grain in the harvest year, although it can be seen that it is some old grain, but this grain is clean, not mixed with sand, it is good grain.

That is, there are several accounts and men guarding each grain store, and those who come to buy must take their household registration and line up to buy grain, and each person is only allowed to buy ten catties of grain within half a month.

Ten catties of rice are used to make porridge, which can feed a person for half a month without starving to death, and there is no need to starve too much.

Of course, there are also grain shops that don't have so many rules, but the grain in those grain shops is simply sky-high, and they can't buy a few buckets of rice even if they are bankrupt.

The people are not stupid, this looks like there are big families who are kind, but pity them, one by one, they all run home to get household registration, and then come back and obediently line up.

Occasionally, some people want to buy food again after buying it, but unfortunately the row of guys standing outside the grain store is not blind, and anyone who has come once will recognize it.

Even this guy doesn't recognize other people, and once he is found to want to sell rice repeatedly, he will be fined for buying one pound less grain.

If you buy a pound of food less, you won't starve to death, but you will definitely starve, and others will be angry and accuse others if they find out that they want to buy more rice unruly.

The grain shop is kind and willing to sell rice cheaply to help them, but there is also a lot of rice in the grain shop, and this person buys more, and if the amount of grain is not enough, others will not be able to buy it.

Fortunately, the problem of insufficient grain quantity that the people were worried about did not appear, and as soon as the grain in the grain store was sold out, a large amount of grain was immediately brought in by grain trucks.

In the past disaster years, the most disdainful thing for the people was the grain truck, and when there was a disaster year, the grain truck of a large family was robbed by the victims.

However, when the grain trucks of the Qi Guan's family were delivered, not only did not a single victim blush, but spontaneously gathered around the outside, supervising each other, thinking that the grain must not be robbed.

After the officials did the business of leveling the price of grain for a day, they went to the government to report and asked the prefect to help control the problem of the people buying grain.

After all, there are so many places that have been affected by disasters, and it is not enough to rely on the strength of the officials themselves, so it is better to let the government help, and the prefect can also communicate with officials in other places.

In the event of a major drought, not starving the people to death and not causing major turmoil is a great achievement for officials, and both officials are not afraid of the failure of these officials.

With the intervention of the government, the pressure on the Qi Gong family has been transferred, and it is enough to transport a steady stream of grain to the shops to sell.

However, the people don't have much money in their hands, and in the later period, many people have no money to sell grain, even if the officials and officials both reduce the price of grain to a slight loss, they still can't afford it.

Seeing more and more people squatting outside the grain store, begging for a small amount of grain from the people who had money to sell grain, they knew that they could not continue like this.

Since all the good deeds have been done, it is better to do half of the work than to the end, and soon the victims who have no money to buy food will get the good news that they can receive food for free.

Of course, this free is not free of money, it is how much grain you take today, and after the autumn harvest of the next year, you can make up the grain in the same amount.

Moreover, the grain planted in the coming year can also be received from the grain shop of the Qi Guan's family, and the time comes, as long as the same weight of grain is returned.

Those people who couldn't afford to buy food and still had a little money were crazy with joy when they heard the news, and they didn't know who started it, and a group of ordinary people knelt on the ground and thought about the grain shop of the official family.

Their faces were full of tears, they were sincerely grateful, if it weren't for the official family, they didn't know what it was like now, at least the children in the family must have been sold.

Seeing this scene, the shopkeepers and guys who were sent out by the officials to sell grain at a low price, but did not understand what the officials did were also moved.

When you do a good deed, even if you don't ask for anything in return, when the people who have been helped sincerely thank you, you will inevitably feel moved.

The shopkeeper and the men came out and helped these people up one by one, and before they had time to comfort them, they began to continue selling grain, but this time, everyone was a little more active.

Although they can receive food for free, these people still calculated and calculated and carefully chose the amount they received, after all, the official family is really kind, but the court is not really kind.

Next year, even if it is a good year, after removing taxes and necessary expenses, we must set aside enough food for the next year, so everyone chooses not to take away much food, and it is the amount that does not starve to death.

In the midst of this drought, the grain transportation team of the Qi Guan's family became a magical scenery, and the grain trucks lined up in a long line, swaggering through the state and province, and passing through villages and towns where there was nowhere to be affected.

This would not have been possible in previous years of famine, where would a convoy of grain dare to pass by a place with a large number of people on the bright side.

However, the grain transportation team of the Qi Guan's family not only passed in front of the victims in an open and honest manner, but the victims would also take out water that they were reluctant to drink more and that was very precious to every household to entertain the people of the grain transportation team.

When the imperial court's envoys arrived late with the relief food that had been transferred with great difficulty, the people had even waited for a small light rain.

After the imperial court provided disaster relief food, the grain shops of the Qi officials' families were also closed, because the food that the Qi officials got was basically exhausted.

……………………

Zhao Laoyi is the village chief of Zhaojia Village, and it has finally started to rain in the past two days, and some of the dry and cracked soil has also recovered, and she has been wandering around the fields for the past few days.

At this time, if there is no disaster, it is just about to be harvested, and the climate in this place is warm, and they can continue to grow winter wheat.

This year, because of the severe drought, the imperial court is exempt from taxes, and the winter wheat planted can completely repay the borrowed grain of the Qi official's family, and it can also be left for next year's food.

Just thinking about it, he saw a few villagers outside coming back with bulging cloth bags hanging their heads, and Zhao Lao looked a little strange when he saw their depressed appearance.

She came out of the field, stomped the dirt on her feet, and said strangely: "Didn't you go to get the relief food from the imperial court?" How did you come back like this? ”

The leader made a depressed face, and sighed at Zhao Laoyi: "The disaster relief food was given, but it was really ...... The village chief, you can see what's going on with this grain. ”

Saying that, several people were opened in the food bags in their hands, and Zhao Lao looked down and found that something was wrong, two of the food bags in the bags were moldy and obviously inedible.

Although when they are very hungry, the moldy grain is also a treasure, but they have not yet reached that portion, and the moldy grain is easily inedible.

The remaining bags of grain look good, but the sand inside is visible to the naked eye, and I don't know how much time it will take to pick up the grain, and when the grain is finished, half of it can be left.

Zhao Laoyi's brows were furrowed, this is really, too much, and one of the villagers couldn't help muttering: "The disaster relief grain of this imperial court is not as good as the low-priced grain sold to us by the head of the family."

We didn't come when we were going to starve to death, and now that the head of the official family has helped us get through the difficulties, this court is grinding and chirping to send these inedible things over for what! It's better not to come at all! ”

Zhao Lao entered all of a sudden, raised his hand and patted the man's head: "What nonsense!" The imperial court is also something that we ordinary people can arrange, don't kill you! ”

The man puffed out his cheeks in disbelief, and finally shut up, bowing his head and carrying her bag of grain mixed with sand.

Feeling the weight on his back, the man couldn't help but sigh and said, "Forget it, I'll go back and let my husband pick one, it's for nothing, and it can last a few days." ”

The others also sighed, and left with their own food and Zhao Laoyi's farewell, the sand mixed with it was lucky, at least some of it could be eaten, and the moldy ones were really unlucky.

Zhao Laoyi looked at the backs of several people and sighed, they are all people who don't know how to be blessed in the midst of blessings, in their place, although the prefect and county orders are also greedy, they are not greedy without humanity.

Excluding the taxes of the imperial court will not charge too much money, so that these ordinary people still have a way to live, and the younger brother she married out is really miserable, and the officials in that place are very greedy.

Her younger brother's family starved to death in the harvest year, and now in this disaster year, there is a low-priced grain from the official family, and the family is enough to go over, probably only sold into slavery, and there is really no money left in the family.

But selling yourself into slavery basically means that the family will be separated from then on, because few people are willing to buy the whole family, basically buying the people they lack.

For example, some families only buy strong laborers who work or serve the mother-in-law who washes the pulp, while the longest for large families is the young maid, and the long-term followers who follow the young lady.

Zhao Laoyi thought about his younger brother for a while, and felt a little sad in his heart, she couldn't help her brother or anything, don't look at her as the village head, her family has too many people, and the extra money is not enough, so she can't support a family more.

Shaking his head, Zhao Laoyi continued to look at the ground, if there are two more rains, this winter wheat can be planted, as long as there is this stubble of wheat as a buffer, everyone can be relieved.

The common people are like this, like the toughest weeds, no matter what kind of storm they face, as long as they can give them a breather, they will recover again and live towards the sun.

……………………

Qi Guanshuang completely lost money for doing good deeds this time, and she didn't think about earning any benefits for herself, except for a plaque issued to Qi Guan's family by the prefect on behalf of the imperial court, with four words on it.

Of course, at the same time, Qi Gong Shuangshuang has also received the gratitude of countless people, these are also not important to Qi Guan Shuangshuang, and now for Qi Guan Shuangshuang, the most important thing is the beautiful man who appeared in front of her.

Here's the thing, after the drought passed, Qi Gong Shuangshuang suddenly received letters from several old shopkeepers, all urging her to inspect the industry.

The main reason is that after Qi Guan Shuangshuang took over as the head of the family, he only inspected some surrounding industries, and the industries that were far away, Qi Gong Shuangshuang never took the time to inspect.

At first, he was busy fighting Fang's family, and then he was busy selling food and couldn't make time, but now it's easy for everything to end, and the anxious old shopkeepers who are waiting for Qi Guan Shuangshuang to come to inspect the industry can't help but urge Qi Gong Shuangshuang to come.

Qi Guan Shuangshuang thought that he should indeed inspect the industry, so he did not refuse, and directly took the four small men of Meilan and Zhuju and went on the road with a light car.

In fact, the focus of the Qi Guan's family industry is in the capital, so the Qi Guan's family also has a house in the capital, and in the past, Qi Guanshuang's mother lived in the capital with Qi Guanshuang's father for most of the year.

And Qi Guan was a little overlord in Yuncheng alone, and her mother couldn't control it, which made her more and more sloppy character.

Qi Gong Shuangshuang arrived in the capital, the first thing to visit was the biggest backer of Qi Guan's family, Lord Hubu Shangshuzhuo, when he came back, Qi Gong Shuangshuang passed by a small noodle shop with a very hot business.

Qi Guanshuangshuang's biggest hobby is to eat food, and as soon as she saw that this small shop was so popular, she knew that the things in this place must be delicious, so she went in directly.

It was indeed full, and the people who greeted them were all small guys, but it was a novelty, and Qi Gong Shuangshuang casually found a place to sit down, ordered a bowl of signature noodles and waited to eat.

As a result, before the face on this side came up, the official saw an acquaintance first, that is, Dong Xinlian, who she had been unable to find!