At the beginning, there were three or two fine and dense light rains in Xuzhou Mansion before and after spring sowing, but now it is the early summer of April, and more than a month has passed, and every day is a big sun, and half a drop of rain has not fallen.

If it doesn't rain again, the drought will be obvious, and if the grain is severe, there will be no grain harvest, and I don't know how many people will die at that time.

Gu Yunji looked at the blazing sunshine outside, and sighed sadly: "Although there are not as many people who plant early rice as there are those who grow late rice, but after all, it is grain, and if there is no harvest, the family will have no rations. ”

Xuzhou Mansion is located in the southwest of Shuzhong, the climate is relatively warmer than the north, and two crops of rice can be planted in a year. Early rice is sown in February, harvested in June, ploughed after harvesting, and then planted with late rice, which can be harvested from mid to late September to October.

In addition, there is medium rice, which is sown at the end of April or early May and harvested in September and October.

Although the grain harvested in the two seasons of rice is large, it can be arranged in full swing, which hurts the fertility of the land too much, and the yield per mu is not as high as that of single-season rice. However, the sowing time of medium rice is not appropriate, the planting cycle is longer, and there is not much time left before sowing and after harvest in a year, and it is inconvenient to do anything before and after.

Therefore, in order to maximize food income and sustainability, most people still choose to plant single-season rice, either early rice or late rice, and the remaining half a year is used to raise and fertilize the land, or plant some vegetables that do not harm the fertility of the land.

Now is the important growth period of early rice, summer is coming, evaporation intensifies, rice is particularly thirsty for water, but there are still two months before the ripe harvest, if it does not rain, farmers can not even harvest early, can only watch the rice dry death in the ground.

Thinking like this, Gu Yunji's heart gradually sank: "The most direct consequence of the reduction in grain production is that you don't have enough to eat, and you will starve to death, and you may even starve to death." It triggered a series of events such as civil uprisings and riots. It's like this, and the devil knows when it will rain, and we can't just keep an eye on God, but we still have to make preparations. ”

Xu Dong was puzzled: "What kind of afterhand preparation?" ”

Gu Yunji said in a deep voice: "Hurry up and promote the cultivation of artichokes. Artichoke has a high yield and is drought tolerant, as long as the planting starts from now, even if the rice grains are not harvested in a few months, and there are artichokes, the people will still have a bite to eat, and they will not end up starving to death. ”

Xu Dong was so worried that his eyebrows were wrinkled together: "But you tried this last year, but the effect is not ideal, and the elders are unwilling to plant, let alone those villagers." What's more, you still have the seeds that Fan Yuan shipped back last year, where do you get the seeds now? ”

Gu Yunji said firmly: "If the effect is not ideal, we must do it, in the past, I just wanted to try my best to promote it, and to what extent the people can accept it, there is no need to force it." However, now that it is not raining, the drought is beginning to appear, and the time is pressing, even if the people do not want to, they have to let them plant! ”

"As for the matter of seeds-" Gu Yunji frowned slightly, and thought about it, "Last year, the government left a thousand catties of seeds and entrusted them to Zhang Cuiying to plant, excluding storage losses, there should be about six thousand catties left." There are also some villages that were more successful in promotion at the beginning, such as Zhangjia Village, there should be leftovers, but I personally paid for them. ”

The business of Spicy Fairy is booming, and Gu Yunji, as one of the owners, even though he only has a 10% dividend proportion, he still got a lot of dividends in the last quarter. With money in his hand, he can do things in vain, and Gu Yunji is now subconsciously much more confident than before.

What's more, the artichoke has a high yield, and the high yield is naturally cheap, with Gu Yunji's current financial resources, it is still easy to buy a few thousand catties of artichoke.

The sun is gradually rising, because it has not rained for a long time, and it is still the early summer season, and the pedestrians outside are already sweating. Today's rest, Gu Yunji was going to buy seeds tomorrow, but when he thought about it, he couldn't sit still more and more, so he simply slapped his ass and stood up, and immediately went out to buy seeds.

Last year, Zhangjia Village, where Zhang Cuiying is located, was the most active in growing artichoke, with the widest planting area and the highest yield. At present, Gu Yunji's first destination for purchasing artichoke seeds is Zhangjia Village.

At this moment in Zhangjia Village, many villagers are gathering at the entrance of the village in a noisy manner, as if discussing something.

“…… Artichoke, each family left 100 catties, and the rest was handed over to the governor for public ownership. The public part, we can give it to relatives and friends, we can send it out, if we can't send it out, we will plant it ourselves, in case of drought at that time, which village needs it, we will give it to which village......"

In the crowd, Zhang Cuiying was arranging the distribution of artichoke with the villagers in a loud voice, and it seemed that she had become the backbone of the villagers in Zhangjia Village, and even the chief listened carefully on the side, without showing the slightest dissatisfaction.

Yu Guang glanced at Gu Yunji's figure, Zhang Cuiying was stunned, and hurriedly greeted him: "Master Gu, why are you here?" ”

Gu Yunji glanced at the villagers gathered around him and asked, "What are you doing here?" ”

Zhang Cuiying showed a wry smile: "Isn't it that God hasn't rained for almost two months, seeing that the crops are about to die of drought, our village is not afraid, everyone has surplus grain, and they also plant artichokes, there is always a mouthful of food to eat, but the surrounding villages don't grow artichokes much." ”

"Especially in Wangjia Village, which is next door, we have often had marriage contacts with our village for many years, and they are all relatives, so we can't watch them starve, so we think that every family will get some potatoes out and send them to the surrounding villages."

Speaking of this, Zhang Cuiying was a little embarrassed: "Although I have moved to the city to run a chili pepper business, in the end, I am from Zhangjia Village, and it is rare for the villagers to trust me, and if they want to leave this matter to me, I naturally have to do my best to do it." ”

In the understanding of the villagers of Zhangjia Village, Zhang Cuiying knew such great figures as the general judge of Xuzhou Mansion and the businessmen of the Hui School, and she also started a business, so she naturally became the most promising person in the entire Zhangjia Village, and even the chief respected her very much.

Gu Yunji smiled: "This is a coincidence, I just wanted to tell you about the artichoke seeds." ”

Hearing what Gu Yunji said she meant, Zhang Cuiying's eyes showed joy: "Isn't this just right!" Master Gu, you are a general judge, and the promotion of artichoke is definitely much more effective than those of us, so don't talk about buying or not buying. The original artichoke seeds were all given to us by Master Gu for free, how dare we take Lord Gu's money again? How much does Lord Gu want, even if he opens his mouth. ”

Knowing that Gu Yunji was going to take the seeds to other villages for distribution and planting, the villagers of Zhangjia Village all said that they wanted to give him the seeds, and resolutely refused to accept the money.

Gu Yunji hesitated for a while, but nodded and said, "Okay, as for how much you want, of course, the more the better, you can keep enough for your own family, and you can give me the rest." ”

Zhang Cuiying said: "We were talking about this before, and we are going to reserve a hundred catties for each family, and the rest is less than five thousand catties in total, is it enough for Master Gu?" ”

This is already a lot more than Gu Yunji imagined, and after thanking the villagers of Zhangjia Village, he rushed to the next village to buy artichokes non-stop.