The drought in Shuzhong is getting worse and worse, and the fields in Xuzhou are full of farmers carrying buckets of water between the river and the fields to irrigate their crops. The rice was on the verge of dying, but there was no one carrying water on the top of a field, as if he had given up the grain on the land.

Hearing that this piece of land was planted by Chen Peishi's family, Chen Xunzhou frowned: "Chen Peishi? When the weather is drought, why didn't his family send someone to fetch water to water the ground? ”

The master explained: "Chen Peishi's land is the farthest from the river, and his father Chen Yuanen is old, so he basically can't do any farm work. As a result, it doesn't rain in the spring and summer of this year, and people are being recruited everywhere to water the ground, and his family can't hire long-term workers. ”

Chen Xunzhou said angrily: "Is his family unable to hire or does not want to hire?" Chen Peishi is a talent, and his family has provided him with books for 20 years, so he can't even afford to hire long-term workers, right? As long as the price is higher, I don't believe I can't hire it! ”

The master's expression was indescribable: "As you said, my lord, his family ...... Most likely, they don't want to be hired. What's that, Gu Tongju hasn't always wanted to promote artichoke planting, Chen Peishi followed him wholeheartedly, and persuaded his father a long time ago that if the crops can't be saved, he won't save them, and he will still have food to eat when he changes to artichokes, and his father also listened, and he hasn't taken much care of the crops in the field since then. ”

Chen Xunzhou was so angry that he blew his beard: "Planting artichokes?!" Chen Peishi is quite bold, and the clan has not spoken, and his family, a side branch of Yibin County, actually dares to give up crops and plant artichokes? Call me Chen Peishi! I have to set rules for him today, and now the young offspring is really going to turn the sky upside down! ”

The master looked embarrassed, and said, "...... My lord, during this time, Gu Tongju was busy planting artichokes, and Chen Peishi was his master, and he followed him around every day until he couldn't see anyone...... I don't know where he is, so I won't be able to find him for a while. ”

Chen Xunzhou was incredulous when he heard this, and scolded: "Is Chen Peishi a son of my Chen family, or is he Gu Yunji's dog's leg?" The clan worked hard to cultivate him, gave him a tie, let him go to the county school, and I also specially found someone to teach him criminal names and official duties, and the feelings were all for outsiders to make wedding dresses, right? ”

"I asked him to obey Gu Yunji's dispatch at the beginning, it was polite words, and he really listened to it?! No matter how you say it, his surname is Chen, he is my Chen family, everything is not towards his own family, but he listens to outsiders, and he still says that he has a bright brain, a bright light? Idiot! ”

Chen Xunzhou was so angry that he greeted Chen Peishi's eighteenth generation ancestor with spittle, and the master watched his nose and nose on the sidelines, not daring to remind Chen Peishi's ancestor that he was also his ancestor Chen Xunzhou, otherwise he was afraid that he would be even more angry.

After venting, he finally let out some of the restlessness in his chest in recent days, Chen Xunzhou smoothed his breath and said: "Gu Yunji is busy planting potatoes every day, I don't bother to care about him." What about Yan Zhengqian, what is he doing during this time? The drought is so severe, you can't let me take care of everything alone, right? ”

The master said: "Governor Yan set off to Chengdu Mansion a few days ago to meet the political envoy, saying that he was reporting the drought situation and asking the officials to formulate disaster relief regulations. ”

The anger that Chen Xunzhou had just suppressed instantly rose again, and he gritted his teeth angrily: "When I don't know? Was he going to report on the drought? It's obviously hiding official business and currying favor with Shangguan by the way! In the past two years, Yan Zhengqian has become more and more passive and slack, either idle at home all day long and not on duty, or looking for various excuses to go to the political secretary to dredge up and down the relationship, so as to pave the way for his promotion! ”

Speaking of these, Chen Xunzhou couldn't be angry: "One is the son of a family from the capital, and the other is an old fritter in the officialdom, and there is no one to worry about at all!" ”

"Yes, they are liuguan, whether it is Gu Yunji or Yan Zhengqian, they will not stay in Xuzhou Mansion for a long time anyway, and they will all be promoted and transferred away in a few years! Only I am a local, and I am a fellow acquaintance who has been replaced by a nominal prisoner, and I have no hope of being promoted in this life, so I can only stay here until I die of old age. ”

"They just can't run away, so they leave everything to me! I'm not three heads and six arms, I only have two legs and two hands, can I be busy? I'm just exhausted! ”

Chen Xunzhou scolded and scolded, so angry that he couldn't wait to pick a picker on the spot. But scolding is scolding, and after scolding, you still have to pat your ass and continue to do things.

Fortunately, God finally has a little conscience, and after nearly three months of drought in Shuzhong, on the last day of mid-May, it rained heartily and heavily, moistening the dry and cracked earth.

When it rains, the drought is solved, but the crops that have been dried up and killed cannot be saved. The rice harvest is not yet in season, but the results of a drastic reduction in production are already predictable – the drought is over, but the real difficulties are just beginning.

In the government office, the prefect, the same knowledge and the general judge rarely gathered together to discuss what happened after the drought.

Gu Yunji sighed sadly and said, "I have probably looked around the fields around Fucheng, and the silt crops in Linjiang are not bad, they have not been affected by the drought, and the yield has been reduced by one to two percent at most. ”

"Some fields far away from the Yangtze River are not so lucky, the drought has been too long, the irrigation water source is far from enough, it is estimated that the yield is generally reduced by three to fifty percent, and some especially remote, in the middle of the mountainside of the field, there is a possibility that there will be no harvest. All in all, the situation is far from optimistic. ”

Yan Zhengqian was not in a good mood, and said in a stiff tone: "At the end of last year, a number of water conservancy facilities were repaired, and it was originally said that this year I would work hard to get more grain, and with a medium-sized state capital, now it's okay, it's all gone." ”

There are more than 100 prefectures in the country, which are divided into upper, middle, and lower according to the amount of grain tax, and those with more than 200,000 stone are the upper government, those with 100,000 to 200,000 stone are the middle government, and those with less than 100,000 stone are the lower government.

Xuzhou has wells and salt and river ports, and the overall situation is considered to be the state capital in the southwest, but although the economy is good, agriculture has not been able to keep up. Xuzhou Mansion is located on the edge of the Sichuan Basin, the terrain is not as flat and fertile as the Chengdu Plain, with many mountains and hills, and less cultivated land.

In previous years, the grain of Xuzhou Mansion has been hovering around 100,000 stones, sometimes a little more than 100,000 stones, sometimes more than 90,000 stones, because it has been unstable, so it is still assessed as a lower mansion by the imperial court.

Yan Zhengqian originally planned to pay more food in the last year of his term of office and strive to evaluate the central government, so that even if he left office and was transferred, at least he would be transferred from the middle government to the upper government, not from the lower government to the middle government.

As a result, in the spring and summer of this year, most areas in central Shu suffered from a major drought, not to mention whether it was rated as the central government or not, and whether it could pay enough taxes and grains were two words.

The reduction in grain production is directly linked to the interests of Chen Xunzhou, who owns the most land, and when he thinks of having to pay taxes and grain in the face of such a big drought, he is in pain, and he can't help but ask Yan Zhengqian: "Lord Yan went to the political department two days ago, did the political envoy say how to pay the summer tax and grain this year?" Can it be waived? ”

(End of chapter)