sjar Chapter 322: Response to Abnormal Weather 1
Chapter 322: Response to Abnormal Weather 1
Palace of Mental Cultivation
"Your Majesty, I observed the stars at night and found that the weather is very abnormal. There was drought first, and hail later. Now, the sun is coming out for longer and longer. Your Majesty, we must make plans early."
Chen Dou stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the layout of Dayong on the wall, and sighed after a long time.
"What do you think."
"It would be fine if the daytime hours were just longer, but the real concern is that the weather is getting hotter and hotter, and the crops in the fields will be dried up. This year is already a disaster year, and even the grain in the south has decreased by 50%. Your Majesty, we don't have enough food."
The atmosphere in the room was too depressing. The supervisor knelt on the ground and did not dare to look up. Food is the most important thing for people. If there is not enough food, the world will be in chaos.
"Little Plum."
"The slave is here."
"Go and summon the Grand Tutor, and the six ministers of state to the Yangxin Palace. Go and call them on horseback."
"Yes."
Little Leo knew that the matter was of great importance, so he called his two apprentices to go with him to speed up the process.
Su He here had no mood to sleep. She was very depressed at the thought of experiencing drought again.
We are already in the south, and it is impossible to escape. We can only find a more comfortable place to avoid the disaster.
Su He looked at the secluded and shady Lotus Village and had some plans in mind.
After eating the fruit, Wang Zhi regained his health and wanted to go out and play again, but was stopped by Su He.
"Azhi, go and get grandma, grandpa, and a few uncles to come over. Tell them that I think Hezhuang is a good place to escape the summer heat, and I want the elders to come and experience it first."
Wang Zhi scratched his head and went there obediently.
In less than half an hour, grandpa came with everyone with a serious look on his face.
He knew that Su He definitely didn't invite them to escape the summer heat, there must be something important going on.
"Lotus, everyone is here."
Su He led everyone to the kitchen and asked Wang Zhi to guard the door. She first talked about Wang Zhi's discovery and then shared her own ideas.
"Grandpa, I want to buy some land near Hezhuang and build some dormitories, which are similar to bunk beds. If it's true, we can have multiple places to avoid disasters. You should have felt it on the way here. It's much cooler here than at the foot of the mountain, and there are fewer people around. If anything goes wrong, we will have time to hide. At the foot of the mountain, we are too close to the people of Qingshan Village."
Su He had a bad impression of the people in Qingshan Village.
"I want to keep the matter of building a house here a secret for now, Grandpa. I want you to live here temporarily, using the excuse of staying here to escape the summer heat."
"Okay, it's up to you."
Su He was usually a warm-hearted person. When someone came to her for help, she would help them in a friendly manner as long as it was not too outrageous. But once she encountered danger, she would definitely think the worst of people.
Everyone is selfish, and she is no exception. She wants to keep the best for herself.
No one interrupted Su He, and grandpa motioned for her to continue.
"We won't grow rice next year. Rice uses a lot of water, and I'm afraid it won't survive. Let's grow something else. We can only keep 3,000 kilograms of sweet potatoes, and the rest will be handed over to the government. We'll grow potatoes and peanuts. The planting site will be here. Potatoes are drought-resistant and don't require high soil quality. We can also grow two crops a year. Peanuts have a short growing period and can be harvested in more than a month. They can also be used to extract oil, and I can find the seeds. Only a few of us know this, so let's treat it as our last resort."
"Lotus, are these two easy to grow? I'm afraid I'll mess it up."
This was said by Wang Jingui, a peasant who was still worried about not being able to grow crops well. Grandpa gave his nephew a cold look, saying he was useless.
Wang Jingui really had no confidence. He Hua had said that this was the last resort. He had experienced drought and famine before, so he felt the pressure was great. He was already thinking about planting sweet potatoes here.
"I have detailed planting methods here, uncle, don't worry. We have enough food, and I have connections, so our Wang family will never be short of food in the future. But it's useless if we are the only one that doesn't lack food. If this gets out, we will become the fat sheep that everyone wants to take a bite of."
Wang Jingui looked at his brother and uncle's sharp eyes, smiled innocently, and finally swallowed the idea of moving the sweet potatoes to another place to grow.
"Lotus, what about our tea stall? Should we continue to operate it?"
"Open, but we should arrange more affordable food in the future. Those that are too expensive should be removed."
Su He thought about it and decided that it would be better to keep a low profile.
"Grandpa, let grandpa and grandma come over and stay here with you to escape the summer heat."
Su He looked at her grandfather's reaction and immediately added a sentence.
"If the situation gets dire in the future, we can bring Grandpa Dacheng and his family over as well, but that may not be possible now."
"That's enough, haha. After all, we are blood relatives. We just need to do our best."
Grandpa was satisfied, and grandma also took the opportunity to speak.
"Hehua, I still have some silver here, you can spend it."
Wang Fugui and others also realized that now they had to buy land and build a house, which would definitely cost a lot.
"I have some too, Lotus. Let's pool our money together and you don't have to pay."
Su He shook his head and refused decisively.
"If you guys pool the money, you won't be able to hide it from the others, so there's no need to do that. I have enough money, so just use mine."
Su He took out two thousand taels of silver.
"This should be enough. We will live here by ourselves, so we should use sturdier materials and dig a well."
Grandpa took the silver and nodded in agreement.
Yangxindian
"You have all heard what the supervisor said, so please share your opinions."
The six ministers lowered their heads and said nothing. Tutor Zhang sighed.
"Your Majesty, the answers to our experiences are in the book. We need to find ways to increase food production and start saving from now on. Your Majesty is the ruler of a country, and I think you should take the lead in reducing expenses."
This is easy to do. Chen Dou has already gone through hard times, so it is not difficult to cut some expenses.
"I agree. I will issue an edict soon. All the food, clothing and other expenses of the people in the palace will be reduced by 60%. I will reduce it by 70%. Also, 50% of the palace maids will be released. All the princes will have their benefits reduced by half. Little Li, you go and inform the queen of the changes in the palace. Give her four days. Master, you go and inform the princes."
Tutor Zhang had a bitter face. He didn't want to go. None of these princes were easy to deal with.
"Your Majesty, it's not that I don't want to go. Several princes said that they don't want to see me except during class time. Last time, the Fourth Prince sent someone to stop me and scolded me for meddling in other people's business. And the Sixth Prince........."
Chen Dou took a deep breath and said, "Xiao Dezi, pass on my order and ask Chen Shi to urge the eight princes to reduce their expenses. If anyone resists, their property will be confiscated."
My God, the emperor is confiscating his own son's house. It seems that he has made up his mind to teach his son well.
The Grand Tutor and the six ministers were all very happy.