In the 22nd year of the Marquis of Jinwu, Xia June.

This year is very strange. When the corn is not yellow, the corn ears are green and green, and it will stop raining. The sky is clear and there are occasionally a few white clouds, but not a drop falls. In this way, a month passed. Although it was cloudy for a few days in the middle, it was sunny again in two days.

On the outskirts of Yecheng, the ancestors and uncles of Ximen Leopard could only watch helplessly as the water in the ditches decreased day by day, the grains of grain drooped down, and at the end, large pieces of grains drooped their heads, and the grains of grain also appeared. An unhealthy state of dehydration. The elderly people in the village felt that this was a great event, and they were worried about how to live in the future if the drought continued.

The old people remembered the drought they encountered in Gujiang. It was a tragic event. The severe drought lasted for many years. There was no harvest in the farmland, and people died of starvation. At the same time, the ministers were indifferent to the disaster, and the Duke of Jin's tax was mentioned again and again, and the labor for the construction of the Xiqi Palace and the Tongqi Palace was not reduced or exempted at all...

Therefore, based on the experience of previous years, the old people advocated that the villagers should count the rice and put them in the kettle. Although last year, officials asked them to properly store grain, but the grain stored in the cellar was not much, and it could barely last a few months. For a time, no one dared to cook corn and rice, and they all boiled porridge to drink, even though the porridge was getting thinner and thinner, hoping to cook until the next season of corn and wheat harvest.

After a few days like this, Ximen Leopard was growing up, and his eyes were dizzy because of hunger, and he didn't even have the strength to go to the school.

This situation was stopped after his father returned from Yecheng.

"Didn't you just harvest the wheat? No matter how hard it is, you can't let young and old go hungry!"

Ximen Bao's father has successfully become a pavilion chief, and he has full trust in the Zhao family's government. The old people in the village are alarming, saying that if he doesn't save a little, he can only live by digging wild vegetables next year, but he said optimistically: "Why bother? Worrying so much, there is no way out of the sky, and Zhao Shangqing will not let us live or die."

Someone said in disbelief: "Although I saw grains from all over the country being transported to Changping warehouses by officials, and the chief of the village said that they would distribute grain to various li, no one saw that there was any grain coming, so I didn't dare to. All in all..."

Ximen Bao's father smiled and said, "I was about to tell the second and third sons a piece of good news. When I came, I saw that the Changping warehouses were sending out grains, dozens of cars a day! The grain prices in the city didn't go up!"

After raising the confidence of the people, he loudly appealed to the neighbors in the village: "Zhao Shangqing said that the world is not benevolent, and the people are miserable. As a parent of the people, how can I sit idly by?"

Sure enough, three days later, according to the disaster situation in their township, several truckloads of grain came from the county, which stabilized the price of grain in the local shops. The pavilions also began to set up drum carts, and soon, the water from the Zhang River was irrigated into the fields by itself, and everyone did not have to go to fetch water under the scorching sun every day.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, feeling that they had more confidence in surviving the drought. What they didn't know was that Zhao Wuxi and his entourage were walking in a light car, passing by outside the town pavilion...

...

The sun was very poisonous and the weather was sweltering. In the village pavilions on the outskirts of Yecheng, the Zhao officials in dark clothes and wide sleeves stayed for a short while, and their towels and clothes were soaked with sweat, but they dared not open them like farmers. He shook his chest and shook the fan to cool down, because Zhao Shangqing was still facing the sun, standing on the ground frowning and worrying about the people.

Zhao Wuxi squatted on the edge of a field of millet, grabbed a handful of dry soil, touched the millet seedlings with low ears, and looked worriedly at the field in the distance.

He is now full of admiration for Chang Hong's astronomical affairs, and he is also glad that he went to Zhou Shi to **** him over. Just as Chang Hong had predicted in the Xue Gong Tianguan, the severe drought in Jizhou came as promised. It had not rained for two months near Yecheng. The wet land had dried up, and some shallow streams had even ceased to flow.

This is a huge blow to agriculture. Fortunately, winter wheat is close to maturity, and it has been harvested into the government granary before the drought causes losses. Therefore, most of the affected are millet and Shu.

He waved his hand to Ji Ran, who was standing not far away, and asked, "Sir, what is the current grain price in Yecheng?"

Ji Ran is to govern the internal history of the millet, manage the agricultural economy of the Zhao family, equalize the output, iron smelting, salt industry, and coinage. Ji Ran's Seven Strategies "operate on a theoretical basis, and are naturally familiar with the high and low grain prices in various places.

"Winter wheat was harvested ahead of schedule and transported to the counties and counties that do not grow wheat, which solved the urgent need. There was no starvation in this season. In addition, the grain stored in the Changping warehouse last year entered the market. The merchants who sold grain at high prices were also attacked and arrested by the pacification officer, and the grain price was maintained at an acceptable range. The people of Yecheng eat less every day, but their hearts are still stable.”

Zhao Wuxi breathed a sigh of relief, "That's good, I left Yecheng for half a year, thanks to the proper management of Mr.

Ji Ran talked eloquently: "Guan Yiwu is the ancestor of Ji Xue. He once said when he was governing Qi for Duke Huan that those who are good at the country must first eliminate the five evils. The so-called five evils are water, drought, wind, fog, hail and frost. , plague, and insect plague. These five evils are very serious disasters. If those who have a family and a country deal with it improperly, the farmland will decline, the population will move away, and the country will be in chaos, robbers will be rampant, and even the country will be destroyed! If it becomes a fact, what Zhao needs to do now is how to rescue the disaster."

Ji Ran can be described as an expert in this regard. Since the drought in May, he has formulated a package of disaster relief plans. Needless to say, pre-disaster prevention, Zhao has been preparing for more than half a year. The food collected from other states and countries can ensure that the Zhao counties will not fall into the predicament of running out of food before the autumn harvest next year.

In addition to grain reserves, building water conservancy and improving agricultural irrigation systems are also important means of drought prevention. According to Ji Ran, in the Zhou Dynasty, there was a position of chief minister, whose responsibilities included "repairing embankments and beams, communicating with bridges, navigating turbulent waters, stabilizing rivers and floods, and determining blockades according to the seasons. Although the years are fierce, the floods and droughts make the people feel good."

Therefore, the twelve canals and weirs of the Zhangshui River built by Zhao, as well as the water conservancy network of several townships around Yecheng, are also conducive to solving the drought problem.

When the water is dry, the twelve low weirs along the Zhangshui River can also hold back the water flow and supply enough water to the channels. The water in these ditches flows through the action of drum carts and waterwheels, and then flows into the fields of the twelve townships around Yecheng. So that the 100,000 mu of farmland in Ye land can be irrigated, so that the grain will not be harvested because there is no rain.

In the past few days, Zhao Wuxi and the others have circled several surrounding townships. Most of the places are still green and yellow, and it should be no problem to hold on to the autumn harvest in July and August.

Only the ditches are not involved. The hilly areas with high terrain are severely lacking in water. Naturally, the people in these areas cannot be left alone. Ji Ran suggested digging wells to fetch water and organizing some people to irrigate the land. for it.

But the problem is that this drought has affected a wide area, spanning the east and west of Taihang, not only Yecheng, but also the seven counties of the Zhao family, Handan, Hejian, Hanoi, Taiyuan, and the eldest son were all affected to varying degrees. Several counties, Shangjun and Daijun escaped the disaster, but those places were sparsely populated and their food production was very low, so the Zhao family could not expect them to feed back.

Even the Han family, the Wei family, and even the state of Wei and the state of Qi and Jibei have been affected ~lightnovelpub.net~ Natural disasters know no borders.

Therefore, while stabilizing Yecheng, Zhao Wuxi also had to provide relief to the disaster-stricken areas with underdeveloped water conservancy and irrigation.

For these things, you can follow the experience of the predecessors. Ji Ran moved out of the classics, the "Twelve Articles of Famine Management" summarized by the Zhou Shi Da Situ, including the distribution of relief materials, light rationing, probation, opening of mountains and lakes, and suspension of business Taxes, reducing ceremonial activities, eliminating thieves, etc., are basically beyond the scope of later disaster relief.

However, Zhao Wuxi only restricted the "respect to ghosts and gods". Every disaster year is a time when religions are flooded. Although there is no popular religion except Nanzi's Tiandao religion in this era, the Yellow Turban Rebellion is terrifying. However, he had to guard against it, he didn't want to see the revived habit of offering sacrifices to the water **** Hebo along the Zhangshui River.

"I won't bow down to prostitution temples everywhere because of this drought." Zhao Wuxi was firm.

After returning to Yecheng, he issued the purpose of drought relief to the officials and all the people under the Zhao clan in the form of documents.

"Man will conquer the sky!"

(To be continued.)