In a decent house in Jinan Mansion, Yang Peng and Yang Tong sat in the second hall and were preparing to eat. Now Yang Peng has no office space in Jinan, and the official title of Shandong Soldier and Horse Governor did not exist before, so there is no statement of the Metropolitan Supervisor's Office. Yang Peng asked people to buy several courtyards connected together in the north of the city, and prepared to demolish and build a military and horse capital prison mansion as an office in Jinan.

However, it will take a long time to build a magnificent military and horse capital prison mansion, and at present, Yang Peng can only work in this decent private house and deal with various things in Shandong. At this time, it was already dark, and the servants lit six bronze lamps in the second hall and served various dishes one after another. Yang Peng was tired for a day, and he was indeed hungry, looking at the table full of wine and food, his appetite moved, and he ate all kinds of dishes.

But Yang Tong stayed aside, didn't eat a mouthful of food, and only stared at the dishes on the table. Yang Peng was stunned, turned around and asked, "Don't you eat?" Yang Tong shook his head and said, "Husband, the people of Shandong are so pitiful, each person can only eat one catty and eight taels of sweet potatoes." How many sweet potatoes can we exchange for this table of wine and food? When you're done, I'll wrap up the leftovers and take them to the relief station tomorrow for the orphans who don't have parents. ”

Yang Peng smiled and said, "That's too, we have a lot of food left over every day." It is also a good thing to give the rest to the orphans to eat. When Yang Tong heard Yang Peng say this, he took out a few old pottery bowls from under the table and began to put vegetables into the pottery bowls, as if he was going to use the pottery bowls to load vegetables for the orphans.

Yang Peng said: "How about you eat?" Yang Tong shook his head and said: "I won't eat it, the one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes I ate today have been given to the two orphans of the Huan family, and I have nothing to eat today." The little girl was so pitiful, she hadn't eaten for three days. I don't know if the sweet potatoes I gave her will make her full today. ”

Yang Peng was a little speechless, and was told by Yang Tong that he had no appetite, and he also put down his chopsticks. Yang Tong saw that Yang Peng also put down his chopsticks, and he picked up the vegetables faster, as if he was grabbing food for the poor orphans. Yang Peng thought about it and began to help Yang Tong pick up vegetables. Yang Tong took ten small pottery bowls and put them on the table, and Yang Peng sandwiched the fish, meat and vegetables on the table into those pottery bowls one by one.

Sandwiched it, Yang Peng said: "The lady can only feed ten orphans with ten bowls of vegetables, and it is not a way." Yang Tong pursed his lips and said, "I only have such a big ability, so what should I do?" Yang Peng said with a smile: "When the people want to plant wheat next spring, they will have to do physical work at that time, and they can't just eat one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes." Don't worry, let's get some grain, so that the people of Shandong can eat a few more taels of grain every day and eat more. ”

Yang Tong opened his eyes wide and asked, "Really?" Yang Peng nodded and said, "Of course it's true, you eat a few bites of food first, don't go hungry." Yang Tong thought for a while and said, "Then I'll eat half a bowl of rice." You can't lie to me! Yang Peng smiled and did not answer Yang Tong's words. Yang Tong finally picked up his rice bowl and ate half a bowl of rice. She also seemed to be hungry, and couldn't help but eat another piece of fish. When she was eating fish, she saw Yang Peng looking at her, and her face was flushed with shame.

Yang Peng smiled: "Lady, you have to eat more fish." If you starve to death without eating, I will be sick with grief. In that case, the people of Shandong will really have no one to take care of. You eat more and have more children, and in the future, our children will all be important members of the imperial court, and we will work together for the people of Yanjing and Shandong, and the people will have a good life. ”

Yang Tong blinked when he heard this, nodded, and took another piece of fish meat and took a bite.

On the first day of September, Shen Congdao sat in a house in Yangkou Town, Shouguang County, Qingzhou Prefecture, and looked at the latest issue of "Dali Temple Announcement" with a sad face. This is a private house that is not luxurious. Compared with Shen Congdao's status as a rich man, living in such a mansion is a bit shabby. From time to time, farmers passed by at the gate of the house, and looking at the Shen family with the gate closed, the farmers had some jokes in their eyes.

The fact that the Shen family lost a lot of silver because of hoarding grain and losing all the big houses in the city has now become the biggest joke in Yangkou Town. On the day when the Shen family moved back to Yangkou Town from Qingzhou Mansion in embarrassment, half of the people in the town crowded at the entrance of the town to watch the excitement.

The people of Yangkou Town have been affected by the "Dali Temple Announcement" over the years, and they are no longer as fearful of the gentry as before. The common people have dared to express their disdain for the inferior gentry who are not benevolent to the rich. For the inferior gentry who are enemies of King Yan, the people are even more hateful.

The people of Shandong are not only affected by the "Dali Temple Announcement", but also rely on the Dali Temple court to uphold justice, and now they rely on eating Yanwang's sweet potatoes to survive the famine. King Yan saved the people of a province with his own strength, what else does this say? The people of Shandong have long been of the same mind as King Yan.

For Shen Congdao, a bad gentleman who tried in vain to obstruct King Yan's disaster relief and let the people starve to death, the people were eager to stone him to death. Shen Congdao also knew that he was now infamous, and he generally didn't dare to go out on weekdays. He pondered that when this limelight passed, he would donate a volunteer student in the town to help him save some reputation.

However, the tree wants to be quiet and the wind does not stop, and the wording of the "Dali Temple Announcement" has become more and more severe in the past few days, which makes Shen Congdao a little breathless. In the second hall, Shen Congdao grabbed the newspaper and looked at it, and fine sweat broke out on his forehead. The hand holding the newspaper couldn't help but tremble slightly. Today's newspaper front page headline: "Who gave the inferior gentry the courage to raise the price of grain?" 》

"When the people in Shandong had no food to eat, the gentry in Shandong guarded the granary and did not open the warehouse for disaster relief, but bought grain in the market to raise prices. King Yan wanted to buy grain for disaster relief, and these inferior gentry raised the price of grain to six taels and one stone. If King Yan has no food for disaster relief, how many people in Shandong will starve to death? ”

Nowadays, the people of Shandong only have one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes per person a day to survive, and they all have yellow faces and thin muscles, while the granaries of the inferior gentry are full of rice, flour and rice that they have hoarded. Who gave them the courage to disrupt the market and raise the price of rice? ”

"Could it be that Shandong under the rule of King Yan has no royal law?" Seeing the last sentence, Shen Congdao's hand shook and he dropped the newspaper to the ground. Shen Congdao's daughter-in-law didn't notice Shen Congdao's abnormality, and she was still playing tricks in the hall. She hugged her thighs and said, "Master, you have to make the decision for me!" Today, when I was returning from the county seat and passing through the town, I was spit and stoned by several teenage children. Those phlegm spit on the sedan chair forget it, but those few pounds of stones really smashed my sedan chair and smashed it on my legs! ”

"Master, I said a long time ago that it would not be possible to move back to the countryside, but you just won't listen to me. Now that everyone in the town is looking at our Shen family's jokes, you don't dare to go out of the door, how do you say you live this day? ”

Shen Congdao was originally frightened by the "Dali Temple Announcement", and at this time, looking at the unreasonable main house, he couldn't help but be angry. He slammed the table and shouted, "You stupid woman! Stop arguing! ”

Shen Congdao's main room was stunned, his eyes widened and he looked at the angry Shen Congdao, and suddenly fell to the ground as soon as he rolled, rolling on the ground and shouting: "Shen Congdao!" You scold me! When you saw that my maternal uncle was a magistrate, he carried a sedan chair to marry me from my mother's house, but now I think I'm old and dare to scold me? I'm not alive anymore! ”

Shen Congdao thought about it in bed all night, stayed up all night, and rushed to the county town in a sedan chair early the next morning, ready to sell the grain he had hoarded at a low price. The loud questioning on the "Announcement of Dali Temple" really scared Shen Congdao. Of course, Shen Congdao knew that the behavior of "copying the gentry and forcibly opening a warehouse to seize grain" was too arrogant, and if King Yan did this, the gentry in the world would hate King Yan even more. If the matter comes to that point, I am afraid that all the princes and officials in the court will inquire about the affairs of Shandong.

If Yang Peng forcibly robbed the gentry of grain for disaster relief, the official family would probably deprive King Yan of the right to collect commercial taxes. "Dali Temple Announcement" all day long to promote the protection of private property rights, Dali Temple court at every turn said that private property rights are sacrosanct, if King Yan robbed the gentry of food, Yang Peng would not slap himself? Although the gentry's hoarding of grain is sabotaging Shandong's disaster relief, the gentry's buying and selling are all fair, they are all bought in the market, and the accumulated grain can be said to be legal.

But not afraid of 10,000, just in case. What the gentry hoarded, after all, was such a sensitive commodity as grain. In case King Yan gets angry, it doesn't matter so much, and sends troops to forcibly raid the gentry's property, it will be troublesome. This kind of behavior sounded a little impossible before, after all, Li Zhi talked about the legal system and order everywhere, but under the intimidation of the "Dali Temple Announcement" for several days, Shen Congdao felt that the possibility of being raided was getting higher and higher. The tone of the "Dali Temple Announcement" is becoming more and more severe day by day. If tomorrow's front-page headline becomes "King Yan copied Jinan's illegal grain hoarding gentry", Shen Congdao would not be surprised at all.

The loss of family wealth is a small matter, and it can be saved in the future. If the house is raided and destroyed, the matter will be big. Shen Congdao finally stopped hesitating and rushed to the county town to sell the seven thousand eight hundred stone grain in his house. This time, Shen Congdao was really bankrupt. His family's savings of nearly 40,000 taels and his family's big mansion in Qingzhou City have all been turned into these 7,800 stone grain. Now he is selling grain under the intimidation of the "Dali Temple Announcement", and he doesn't know how much silver he can sell.

Shen Congdao has a grain store in the county town, he found the shopkeeper of his grain store, and asked: "Shopkeeper Xi, if I want to sell all the more than 7,000 stone grain now, what price can I sell it for?" Shopkeeper Xi blew the beard on his lips and said, "Boss, now is not the time to sell grain. In the past few months, it is said that more than 2 million stone of grain was sold to Shandong, and all of them were bought by the gentry of Shandong. Now that Yanwang is using sweet potatoes for disaster relief, he doesn't buy grain, and the grain on the market in Shandong suddenly becomes more than needed. ”

In addition, the announcement of Dali Temple has been continuously publicized these days, saying that Yanwang will vigorously develop water conservancy facilities and expand the planting area in the future. It can be seen that Shandong's grain output will increase in the next few years, and there will be no shortage of grain. With this outlook, food prices are declining these days. ”

Hearing the words of the shopkeeper Xi, Shen Congdao sighed. Yang Peng can be said to have used the power of the newspaper to the extreme, when he secretly sold grain to the unjust head of the grain hoarder, the announcement of the Dali Temple exaggerated the drought and shortage of grain in Shandong every day, and deceived the gentry who hoarded grain. Now that the grain is rotting in the hands of the gentry, the "Dali Temple Announcement" began to introduce the future grain surplus scene, and vigorously suppressed grain prices.

Yang Peng monopolized public opinion in Shandong, and Shandong's grain prices were like a marionette manipulated by Shandong Daily, up and down, hollowing out all the gentry's silver. Shopkeeper Xi sighed and said, "Owner, I don't know how many rich people have come to our store to ask about the price of grain in the past few days, and they all want to sell grain. Now the old men who have food in their hands feel that the grain is hot, and the price is constantly pressing. ”

"Yesterday, the Weng family's grain store has pushed the price down to one or two ninety-nine yuan. But now that the "Dali Temple Announcement" is so fierce, vigorously denouncing the gentry who hoard grain, who dares to take over at this time? The Weng family's rice noodles cost one or two nine dollars and one stone, but no one bought them. Hearing the news that no one in the Weng family bought one or two or nine dollars and a stone, Shen Congdao's face turned white and said, "It has fallen to such a low price?" ”

The shopkeeper said, "Yes! Owner, I think it is better to transport the grain to Nanzhili to sell. The current grain price in Nanzhili is about 224 yuan a stone, and the price of our large-scale sale will be lower, even if we can get 223 yuan of silver. Counting the road expenses, as well as the banknote tariff for crossing the checkpoint, you can get one or two or eight dollars per stone for transporting grain to Beizhili and selling it. ”

"Compared to not being able to sell it in Shouguang County, you can sell the grain at once when you transport it to Gyeonggi." Hearing Shopkeeper Xi's analysis, Shen Congdao took a breath. The price of grain in Qingzhou Mansion has fallen to the floor price, and now it is more cost-effective to transport grain all the way to Beizhili than to sell it in Shandong. However, it is not easy to transport grain to Beizhili, to organize people to transport, to contact sellers, but also to transport the silver back thousands of miles, all kinds of affairs are very cumbersome. If you encounter thieves along the way, the gains outweigh the losses.

In any case, transporting grain to other provinces to sell is the last resort. Shen Congdao sighed and said: "The shopkeeper will sell it in Shouguang County at the reserve price of one or two or eight yuan, if there is really no one to buy it, we will transport the grain to Beizhili." ”

On the second day of September, Shandong, which had been dry for seven months, finally ushered in a large-scale rainfall. The heavy rain seemed to have been held back for a long time and burst out all at once, breaking through the sky. In the rumbling thunder and dazzling lightning, the rain rushed to the earth with enough strength, and fell on the dry Qilu land one by one. The rain fell on the hard, dry and yellow wasteland, on the dry and cracked riverbed, on the fields where there was no harvest, and all at once the dry land became full of water.

Rainwater seeps through the surface soil, seeps downwards, and gradually seeps deep into the soil. The so-called spring rain is as expensive as oil, which refers to the importance of spring rain to rice sowing in the south. Although the heavy rains in Shandong fell in September, the main crop in Shandong is winter wheat, and September is the time for sowing. The heavy rain at this time is as precious as the spring rain in the south of the Yangtze River.

The people of Shandong watched the pouring rain and sang and danced. The people who had been in drought for a long time rushed outside their houses to enjoy the rain despite the heavy rain, laughing. There is no air pollution in this era, and the rain is the cleanest. The women took all the pots and pans outside the house to receive water and enjoyed the gift from heaven.

Many people flocked to the Dragon King Temple with umbrellas, thanking the Dragon King's men for their mercy and only working for seven months. In the next year, I am afraid there will be no more drought. While the people were rejoicing, they were also a little worried. Now King Yan is providing disaster relief and giving each person a pound of eight taels of sweet potatoes to eat every day, which is enough to keep the people from starving to death. But when winter wheat is sown, heavy physical work is required, and where can this catty and a half of sweet potatoes support the farmers' labor?

At the beginning of September, Yang Peng began to buy grain from the gentry in the Shandong market. At this time, all kinds of news that is not conducive to food prices have been released by the "Dali Temple Announcement". After Yang Peng's repeated suppression, the price of grain in the market has become very cheap, basically one or two or eight dollars and one stone. Yang Peng had previously earned more than 7 million taels of silver by buying grain low and selling it high, and at this time, he took out 4.5 million taels of it and bought 2.5 million stone of grain in the Shandong market.

More than 2 million stones of grain from other provinces turned around and returned to Yang Peng's hands. The gentry in Shandong had previously bought more than 2 million stone of grain at a price of more than 5 taels and 1 stone, and at this time they sold all of them to Yang Peng at the price of 128 yuan and 1 stone, and the price difference between one in and one out was as high as 327 yuan per stone, and Yang Peng earned 8 or 9 million taels of silver, and the loss was not unbearable.

Yang Peng's purchase of more than 2 million stone of grain was first of all to provide sufficient heat for the farmers who planted in the autumn and harvested in the summer. Winter wheat is generally sown in the ninth lunar month and matures in May of the following year. The time for sowing and harvesting wheat is the busy farming period, which adds up to about a month. During this month, the labor intensity of farmers is very high, and they cannot get enough calories by eating only one and a half catties of sweet potatoes. During this time, Yang Peng provided each "man" and "strong woman", that is, adult men and women, with adequate food. In addition to one and a half catties of sweet potatoes, each adult male and female also has a catty of rice or rice flour.

The peasants of this era had a high labor intensity, and there was no meat in their food, and the consumption of grain was far greater than that of ordinary people who ate meat every day in later generations. If it is a period of heavy physical labor, it is normal to eat one and a half catties of rice a day. The food provided by Yang Peng to them is equivalent to the calories of one and a half catties of rice.

This month's food supply will probably consume Yang Peng's 800,000 stone of grain. Yang Peng told Yang Tong that he wanted the people to eat a few more meals, not to let the farmers eat enough food all year round. Yang Peng's funds and resources are also limited, to be honest, even if Yang Peng smashes the pot and sells iron, it will not be able to make more than 10 million people in Shandong eat ten percent of the whole year. Yang Peng asked the people to eat a few more meals, so that the people could be full when the farm was busy, and not let the farmers delay the farming time because they had no food.

Since the eighth day of the ninth lunar month, all the strong men who need to work in the fields have been led from the relief station to produce one pound of rice or rice per day. The farmers were worried that they would not be able to hold up one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes when they were busy with farming, but when they learned the news that King Yan had given another grain, they were moved to tears one by one.

There is enough food to eat during the autumn planting and summer harvest, and the agricultural time is not delayed, and this year's harvest is guaranteed. When the winter wheat matures in May of the following year, the lives of the people of Shandong will be back on track. In the Song Dynasty, Taoism was the state religion, and Yang Peng, the king of Yan, was very kind and virtuous, and he was regarded as a god by the people. In many places in Shandong, there are people who are the ancestral hall of Yang Peng, the king of Yan.

Although the peasants had no money, most of these ancestral halls were renovated from abandoned small temples, which were very simple, often only enshrined in a tablet, or asked a craftsman to pinch a small clay statue of the Yan King. But the people are sincerely grateful to Yang Peng, and there is continuous incense in the humble ancestral halls in various places.

Yang Peng bought 2.5 million stone of grain, 800,000 stone for the peasants during the busy farming period, and 1.5 million stone for the peasants who were preparing to build water conservancy and reclaim new fields in Shandong Province.

The problem exposed by the current drought in Shandong is the inadequacy of water conservancy facilities. Water conservancy facilities have a great impact on food production and can help local communities survive famine—not that they can turn a disaster year into a good year, but that they can expand the planting area, increase local food production, and keep food stocks high. With enough food stocks, even if there is a disaster in a few years, the people will not be displaced.

For example, the people in a place should eat 1,000 stone of grain every year, and if there are enough water conservancy facilities and enough irrigation fields, they can produce 1,200 stone of grain every year. Even if one of the six years is a disaster year, the people will be able to survive the disaster year by relying on the 1,000 stone of grain stored in the previous five years.

The actual situation in various parts of the Great Song Dynasty is that the population is still growing by inertia, but the water conservancy facilities have not kept up, and the grain output has not only not increased, but has declined slightly. The income from the fields of the Xianping Dynasty was declining every year, although there were reasons why the gentry hid their fields and did not pay taxes, and another reason was the dilapidated water conservancy facilities.

In such a situation, it is usually okay, and you can survive when you are hungry, but when you encounter a disaster year, it is a chaotic situation. In the year of the disaster, the people had no food to eat, so they all became thieves and robbers, fighting each other for their limited food.

This year's Shandong almost staged this tragedy. Shandong has now been regarded as a bag by Yang Peng, and Yang Peng certainly can't let such a thing happen in Shandong again. Yang Peng plans to develop water conservancy projects in Shandong, use dragon tail cars and dams to irrigate dry land, develop new fields, and expand grain output.

The extra 150 stone of grain that Yang Peng bought was for the farmers who had opened up the wasteland. When the land is cleared, the physical exertion is high, and the heat supply must keep up. However, it is not enough to build water conservancy facilities with labor alone, and there must be personnel who are proficient in water conservancy to take command. Based on this purpose, Yang Peng transferred Zheng Hui from Taiwan and asked him to take the "water conservancy" from Hsinchu to develop water conservancy facilities in Shandong.

On September 12, Yang Peng met Zheng Hui on the dock in Jiaozhou. Zheng Hui wore the red military attache robe of the second grade and came to Shandong on the 5,000-material ironclad ship Yangwei. When he saw Yang Peng who greeted him on the dock, he was very excited, and quickly ran ashore from the board of the boat and knelt down in front of Yang Peng, and said loudly: "Alarm King Yan to greet him personally, and the lower official is flattered!" ”

Yang Peng helped Zheng Hui up and said with a smile: "Zheng Hui, you have worked hard, you have done a good job in developing water conservancy in Taiwan, and now Shandong needs to develop, and you also need your people to show their skills." Zheng Hui stood up and arched his hand and said: "Don't worry, the water conservancy development in Shandong will definitely not miss this time." ”

Zheng Hui pointed to a thin black man beside him and said: "This is Jing Yishan, Xianping has followed me to engage in water conservancy in Hsinchu since the second year, his head is the most flexible, and he is also very principled. There is no water conservancy project he has handled, which is not strong and durable, and benefits one party. Yang Peng looked at the man, saw that he was wearing a three-grade military attache uniform, and knew that this must be a cadre under Zheng Hui, and said with a smile: "Jing Yishan, this time I want you to contribute." ”

Jing Yishan seemed to be a little arrogant, but he didn't kneel down for Yang Peng. He made a long bow to Yang Peng, then stood up straight and said: "Don't worry, Lord Yan, this time I brought five hundred 'water conservancy workers', and most of the water conservancy workers in Hsinchu have been brought by me. We have been busy in Shandong for a year, and we will definitely raise Shandong's water conservancy facilities to a higher level. Yang Peng looked at the confident Jing Yishan, looked at the hundreds of water conservancy workers who came down from the boat one after another, and nodded.

After all, what happens next, let's see how it will be broken down next time.