Since the beginning of June, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the entire Yangtze River basin have entered the dry season, and this drought has lasted for more than three months, and there is no sign of easing until September.

Because the drought is so severe, even the Yangtze River near Nanjing has seen an extremely rare interruption.

In the face of natural disasters of this intensity, Chongzhen was not in the mood to continue to stay at the foot of Qingliang Mountain to forge cement, of course, mainly because the quality of the forged cement was too inferior, which made him a little impetuous.

So Chongzhen simply took Zhu Cixiong, Zhu Cijiong and Zhu Cijiong to the river to fetch water and water the ground.

Chongzhen took his three sons to carry water to water the ground, but it was not a show, it was really picky, and after a few days of picking, the shoulders of the father and son were all calloused, and Zhu Cizhi cried.

Gao Qiqian, the old gelding, also called.

But it's useless, Chongzhen's heart is like iron.

Zhu Cihong felt sorry for his younger brother and wanted to pick a section for Zhu Cizhi, but was stopped by Chongzhen.

"Boss, you have your own burden to pick, let him pick the fifth pick, you can help him pick for a while, but it's impossible to pick a lifetime for him, right?"

Zhu Cihong didn't dare to carry this burden for his fifth brother anymore.

Because he heard it, there was something in his father's words.

But Zhu Cizhi's temper has also come up, this bear child is not like the two elder brothers who have been teaching Chongzhen for a long time, but is surrounded by a group of eunuchs, and he is used to being arrogant, where can he endure such hardship?

"I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it." Zhu Cizhi threw the bucket on the ground and said angrily, "Erchen is also the respect of the prince, even if the seedlings in the world are dead, I don't need to carry water to water the ground, right?" Father, don't you just want to be a show, you want a good reputation? Okay, if you want a good reputation, you can pick it yourself, and your son won't accompany you. ”

Looking at Zhu Cizhi, who was pouting and angry, Chongzhen couldn't cry or laugh, twelve years old, it is really the age when people hate dogs, you say that he is not sensible, even children can be born at this age, but you have to say that he is sensible, the three views have not yet taken shape, and no matter which aspect of thinking is naïve.

And it seems that it is useless to fight at this age.

So Chongzhen could only scare him: "Prince? The father told you that it was not necessarily true. ”

"What do you mean?" Zhu Cizhi was stunned for a moment and said, "Father, you want to take away the title of your son?" ”

Chongzhen shook his head: "It's not that my father wants to take away your princely title, but maybe from your generation, the rule that the emperor's heir must be crowned a prince will become history." ”

"Won't it?" Zhu Cizhi was anxious, "This also has to be changed?" ”

Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong also felt a little surprised, they hadn't heard of this statement yet.

Chongzhen smiled: "Then who knows? Anything can happen before the final result is out, if one day you lose your title as a prince and are forced to go to your own overseas territory, and then your territory suffers a severe drought, if you don't carry water, I'm afraid you will have to starve to death. ”

Zhu Cizhi's little face immediately fell: "Why do you want to go to overseas territories?" ”

"It's very simple, because there is no territory left for you in the sea." Chongzhen said, "So I can only go overseas." ”

Zhu Cizhi had no choice but to pick up the burden again, and walked forward while crying, but he hated Chongzhen very much in his heart, and said that he would never return to Daming when he came to his own territory overseas in the future, and he didn't want to see you.

The father and son poured the ground a few more times, and waited for the sky to gradually get dark before leaving to return to Nanjing.

When entering the city from Tongji Gate, I saw that the embroidery towers on both sides of the Qinhuai River had been lit up one after another, and the sound of silk and bamboo, the sound of commenting on the bullet, the story of commenting and even the song of the warbler and the swallow language were endless.

The search for visitors in and out of the old courtyard is still endless.

The drought that swept across the Ming Dynasty did not have the slightest impact on these seekers.

At this time in Nanjing, other neighborhoods were even in a hurry to drink water, but in this part of the Qinhuai River, Guinu still took the clear and sweet well water to clean the streets and sprinkle them.

If it is Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, it is estimated that all the seekers in the old courtyard will be arrested, and then they will all be reduced to lowly status, but Chongzhen has no such idea at all, one yard is one yard, and the two have nothing to do with each other at all.

If you don't come to the old courtyard a few times and prostitute a few girls, the drought in Daming can be alleviated? Isn't that?

On the contrary, looking for a few more people to come to the old courtyard and prostitute a few more girls will make the entertainment industry in Jiangnan more active, the entertainment industry will be more active, the economic life will be richer, the economic life will become more colorful, and the number of jobs will increase, which is the most fundamental problem.

Of course, the entertainment industry is just one of them.

Relying on the entertainment industry alone cannot support Daming's job market.

But there is a saying that if you don't accumulate steps, you can't reach thousands of miles.

Only a part of the jobs can be provided by one industry, but the combined employment of hundreds of industries is enough to accommodate the influx of labor into the cities as a result of the drought.

It is conservatively estimated that the number of workers in the cities will be more than one million because of the drought.

In this great drought, the people who are close to the big rivers and lakes or rivers are quite good, but the people in the mountainous areas are afraid that they will be miserable, and if they don't want to starve to death in a large area, they can only go out to the big cities to make a living.

Therefore, the most urgent task at the moment is not to rectify the entertainment industry, but to invigorate the economy, increase jobs, and arrange for the peasants who are about to flock to the cities in large numbers to earn a living.

……

Almost at the same time, Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and Huang Dao also walked out of the duty room.

Lu Zhenfei sighed lightly and said: "Our Daming is really full of disasters and difficulties, there have been various natural disasters in the past fifty years, and the past two years have finally been smoother, but this year has a big one, and it has suffered a once-in-a-century drought." ”

"Once in a century?" Huang Daozhou looked up at the fading burning clouds in the sky, and said faintly, "Look at this posture, it will soon be a thousand years of encounters, and the servant has never seen a more serious drought than this in the history books." ”

"Well, what can I do about that?" Meng Zhaoxiang said worriedly, "It seems that many people will starve to death." ”

Zhang Shenyan said with a dark face: "Instead of lamenting what to do here, it is better to prepare food as soon as possible to help the people survive this once-in-a-century or even once-in-a-millennium famine year." ”

Huang Daozhou began to shirk responsibility at this time: "Our cabinet can't do this." ”

"What are you talking about?" Zhang Shenyan said angrily, "This matter is the business that our cabinet should be in charge of, what does it mean that our cabinet can't do it?" Do you want to say that this matter should be handled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs? ”

"It should be handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs." Huang Daozhou snorted, "There is a lot of money and grain in the warehouse of the Internal Affairs Office, and there are tens of millions of stones of surplus grain stored in the granary of Wuchang Town alone!" Just allocate some food, and this disaster year will pass. ”

"So our cabinet doesn't have to do anything, does Huang Ge always mean that?" Zhang Shenyan said.

Huang Daozhou was about to refute when he was interrupted by Lu Zhenfei: "Don't argue, when is this happening, it's still noisy." ”

Lu Zhenfei was also upset, since the two articles of Huangming Times and Hanlin Daily were published, Zhang Shenyan and Huang Daozhou began to compete, that is, they pinched when they met, and they kept pinching.

"The servant heard that Gu Yinxi has arrived in the Guozi Prison, and he wants to report this disaster to the Holy Lord in detail."

Speaking of this, Lu Zhenfei said again: "We also went to the country to listen together." ”

……

When Lu Zhenfei and the four of them arrived at Yilun Hall, Chongzhen's father and son had just sat down.

After the monarch and ministers saw the salute, Chongzhen said to Du Yinxi again: "Du Qing, since the four pavilion elders are also here, then you should tell the situation again." ”

"Yes." Du Yinxi replied and said, "In the past two months, the minister has traveled all over the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River, Shandong, Henan and Huguang provinces, and Jiangxi has also seen several prefectures close to the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake. ”

"You don't have to worry about Guangzhou, Yunnan, Guichuan and Fujian, there will be no big problems in these provinces." Zhu Cihong asked solemnly, "In addition to the above provinces, how big is the food gap in Daming?" ”

"Prince Qi, there is no gap." Plug Yinxi replied.

"No gaps?" Zhu Cihong was obviously stunned after hearing this.

"No gaps?" Lu Zhenfei and the other four elders also looked at each other.

After a long time, it was the bear child Zhu Cizhi who asked first: "How can there be no gap?" My father said that this is a once-in-a-century catastrophe year, and if there is no rain for half a month, it will be a once-in-a-millennium event. ”

"Back to King Yong's words, even if it is a once-in-a-millennium event, there is still no gap."

Du Yinxi said in an extremely determined tone: "This year's grain is enough to eat. ”

"Is it really enough?" Lu Zhenfei frowned and said, "More than half a month ago, I also went to Huzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou to walk around, and found that the drought is still very serious, and the large-scale failure of rice harvest has become a foregone conclusion. ”

"Shou Kuo's estimate is indeed a bit conservative." Du Yinxi said with a smile.

"This year, the food shortage in the eight prefectures and prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River is not 50 million stones, but 100 million stones!"

"What? A gap of 100 million stones?! "Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and Huang Dao were all discolored, this gap is too big to be filled, and Huguang's grain is not enough to fill.

"Yes, at least 100 million stones." "Because up to now, the number of mouths in the eight prefectures and prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River is far from more than 30 million, but at least 40 million!" ”

"What, are there already 40 million people in eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River?"

At this time, Chongzhen also felt a little surprised, this population is growing too fast.

[Happy New Year's Day 2023]

(End of chapter)