Historically, it was precisely because of this famine that the population loss in the Huaisi area was serious, and the people starved to death and fled to death, which led to a significant decrease in the population under Yuan Shu, and even the soldiers began to mutiny.

Yuan Shu originally had an army of 200,000, but after a battle between Huaibei and Lu Bu and Cao Cao, the number of troops was greatly reduced, and there was a drought, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses mutinied and went directly to become bandits.

The good situation of Yuan Shu directly collapsed, and in just one year, it directly became a dry bone in the grave.

Could it be because Yuan Shu has no money?

No, Yuan Shu is quite rich, first of all, the Yuan family of the fourth and third princes has accumulated hundreds of years of family business, which is basically inherited by Yuan Shu.

Secondly, Yuan Shu occupied a large amount of territory, and the taxes collected from these territories were also a lot of income, plus Yuan Shu had been an official for decades, and the family business he had accumulated was not a small amount.

Even though Yuan Shu is arrogant and lascivious on weekdays, he can't spend anywhere.

In history, when there was starvation outside Shouchun City, in Yuan Shu's palace, you could still sing songs every night, and there was so much wine, meat and wine that you couldn't finish drinking.

It is the stinky wine and meat of Zhumen that there are frozen bones on the road.

Yuan Yao went back to Shouchun this time, firstly, for the issue of grain, grass and military salaries under his command, and secondly, he wanted to persuade Yuan Shu to open a warehouse for disaster relief and relief for the victims.

As long as Yuan Shu can open a warehouse for disaster relief and help the victims survive this winter, and wait until the spring of next year, when the people continue to cultivate food, the problem of famine can actually be greatly alleviated.

Moreover, the disaster relief is not only to save the lives of the people, but also to protect the population of the Huaisi area, because once the people flee, even if it is past this winter, when spring begins, the land will become wasteland.

Although the war is fought with money, if there is not enough population to support it, even if there is more money, it will not help.

For this reason, Yuan Yao hoped that Yuan Shu could make the right choice at such a critical moment, and not continue to insist on going his own way, otherwise the Zhongguo established by Yuan Shu would really come to an end.

After entering Shouchun City, Yuan Yao was not in a hurry to go to the palace and greet Yuan Shu.

Instead, he went straight to the residential area of Shouchun City, where the Lord Bo Yan Xiang lived.

When he came to Yan Xiang's mansion, Yuan Yao said to the old servant who was guarding the door, and ordered him to go inside to report it.

Without waiting for Yuan Yao and Tai Shici to wait at the door for too long, the door of Yan Xiang's mansion opened, and Yan Xiang, an old man, walked out of it with a surprised face.

"Lord, why did you come back, the old man thought that you would have to wait two more days before you could reach Shouchun."

It has been a few days since Yuan Shu ordered someone to inform Zhang Xun and the others to return to Shouchun, but according to the distance, Yan Xiang guessed that the time was still two days away, and he didn't expect to see Yuan Yao so soon, and he was quite surprised.

When no one is around, Yan Xiang generally calls Yuan Yao the lord, and only on the occasion of many people will Yan Xiang call Yuan Yao his son.

"I'm worried about the people of Huainan, so I returned to Shouchun earlier."

Yuan Yao's face showed a look of solemnity.

When Yan Xiang heard this, he immediately frowned, but he still turned sideways, stretched out his hand, and led Yuan Yao and Tai Shici into the mansion together.

"On the way back, the lord must have seen the outcasts outside the city."

"Well, I see, the number of displaced people is much larger than I thought, and it seems that this year's drought has had a great impact on the people around it."

Yan Xiang sighed as he led the way ahead.

"Childe, it's not just because of the drought, but also because of the war."

"Lu Bu plundered Huaibei and displaced the people of Huaibei, and Cao Cao also took soldiers and horses to Huaibei, and the entire Huaibei became a pot of porridge, and hundreds of thousands of people were homeless, so they had to flee to the south to find a way to live."

"Not only Shouchun, but also Lujiang, Jiujiang and other places have a lot of victims, Shouchun is already because of the drought, the people are not doing well, and where is the surplus food to help the victims."

"Those big families also took advantage of this opportunity to buy grain on a large scale, raise the price of grain, and make the already turbulent society more unstable.

Yuan Yao thought about what Yan Xiang said, and couldn't help but continue to nod again.

In fact, there is no harvest for only one or two years, and the people's lives are not too hard, and everyone has the habit of storing grain, especially the big families, the granaries in the Wubao Manor, which may not be eaten in a few years.

But the big families never care about the life and death of ordinary people, they only care about profits.

In the year of famine, food prices skyrocketed, and behind this was naturally the ghost of the family.

"By the way, Elder Yan, before leaving, I asked you to buy more grain and grass, have you been careful?"

"Thanks to the reminder of the lord, there was already a drought in the Huaisi area at that time, and the price of grain had risen, but fortunately, I acted relatively quickly and purchased more than 100,000 stone of grain in several nearby counties."

"If this grain is only used for the relief of the people, it can manage 100,000 people, and they will not starve to death for five or six months."

Yan Xiang understood what Yuan Yao's intention was to let him buy grain and grass in advance.

Yan Xiang was able to purchase more than 100,000 stone of grain when the price of grain rose, which shows that Yan Xiang really acted with good intentions.

After all, under normal circumstances, Yan Xiang can buy more than 100,000 yuan of grain for 100 yuan a stone, and among them, Yan Xiang has taken out 10 million or 20 million yuan of funds.

Moreover, in the case of severe disasters, the price of grain must have risen a lot, and I am afraid that if you want to buy so much grain, it will cost at least 30 million dollars.

Although Yan Xiang has been an official for decades, he is not a big family behind him, and being able to come up with so much money to help Yuan Yao purchase grain is obviously a support for Yuan Yao.

"With so much food, Elder Yan spent a lot of money, this money is all counted on my head, and when I have money in the future, I will definitely pay it back!"

"It's not much, more than 100,000 stone of grain, and it only cost 10 million yuan in total."

"Huh? Why is it so little, shouldn't the price of grain on the market have risen wildly, even if it is only 100,000 stone of grain, it should need at least 20 or 30 million yuan. ”

"The lord doesn't know, the old man got the reminder of the lord and bought grain on the market, fortunately, the old man still has a little thin noodles in Huainan, and it is definitely not possible to buy it directly from the grain store on the market, so the old man directly found the major families in Huainan and bought food directly from them."

"These people will still sell a little bit of old and thin noodles, so the price is relatively small."