In a decent house in Jinan Mansion, Yang Peng and Yang Tong were sitting in the second hall, preparing to have a meal. Now Yang Peng does not have an office in Jinan. The official title of Shandong Military and Horse Dujian did not exist before, so there is no such thing as a Dujian Palace. Yang Peng asked people to buy several connected courtyards in the north of the city, and planned to demolish them and build a military governor's office as an office in Jinan.
However, it will take a long time to build a magnificent Military and Horse Supervisory Palace. For now, Yang Peng can only work in this decent private house and deal with various matters in Shandong. It was getting dark by now, and the servants lit six copper lamps in the second hall and served various dishes one after another. Yang Peng was tired after a long day and was indeed hungry. Looking at the table full of food and wine, he moved his index fingers and started eating various dishes.
But Yang Tong stayed aside, not eating a bite of food, just staring at the food on the table. Yang Peng was stunned, turned around and asked, "Don't you want to eat?" Yang Tong shook his head and said, "Husband, the people in Shandong are so pitiful. Each person can only eat one pound and eighty taels of sweet potatoes. Our table of food and wine, How many sweet potatoes can be exchanged for? When you finish eating, I will wrap up these leftovers and take them to the relief station tomorrow to feed orphans without parents."
Yang Peng smiled and said: "That's right, we have a lot of leftover food every day. It is also a good thing to give the leftovers to the orphans." After Yang Tong heard what Yang Peng said, he took it out from under the table. Several old pottery bowls arrived and began to put vegetables into the pottery bowls, as if they were preparing to use the pottery bowls to serve the orphans.
Yang Peng said: "How about you eat something?" 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. I have nothing to eat today. That little girl is so pitiful, she hasn’t eaten for three days. I don’t know if the sweet potatoes I gave her can keep her full today.”
Yang Peng was speechless. Yang Tong said that he lost his appetite and put down his chopsticks. Yang Tong saw that Yang Peng also put down his chopsticks and started picking vegetables faster, as if he was snatching food for the poor orphans. Yang Peng thought for a while and started to help Yang Tong pick up the food. Yang Tong put ten small pottery bowls on the table, and Yang Peng put the fish, meat and vegetables on the table into those pottery bowls one by one.
While holding them, Yang Peng said: "My wife can only feed ten orphans with ten bowls of food, so that's not a solution." Yang Tong pursed his lips and said, "I only have so much ability, then What should we do?" Yang Peng said with a smile: "Next spring, the people will plant wheat, and they will have to do physical work. Just eating one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes will not do it. Madam, don't worry, we will get some food so that the people of Shandong can eat it every day. Eat a few more taels of grain to feel fuller."
Yang Tong opened his eyes and asked, "Really?" Yang Peng nodded and said, "Of course it's true. Eat a few mouthfuls of food first so you don't starve." 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 of it. She seemed to be starving too, and couldn't help but pick up another piece of fish to eat. When she was eating fish, she saw Yang Peng looking at her, and her face turned red with embarrassment.
Yang Peng smiled and said: "Madam, you have to eat more fish. If you starve to death without eating, I will also be sad and sick. In that case, the people of Shandong will really have no one to care about. You need to eat more to keep your body healthy." Well, let’s have more children. From now on, our children will all be important officials in the court and work together for the people of Yanjing and Shandong, and the people will live a good life.”
Yang Tong blinked when he heard this, nodded, took another piece of fish and took a bite.
On the first day of September, Shen Congdao was sitting in a house in Yangkou Town, Shouguang County, Qingzhou Prefecture, looking through the latest issue of the "Dali Temple Announcement" with a frown on his face. This is not a luxurious private house. Compared with Shen Congdao's status as a wealthy man, living in such a house is a bit shabby. From time to time, farmers passed by the gate of the garden. Looking at the Shen family with the door closed, the farmers looked a little jokingly in their eyes.
The Shen family lost a lot of money because of hoarding grain, and even the big houses in the city had become the biggest joke in Yangkou Town. The day the Shen family moved back to Yangkou Town from Qingzhou Fucheng in embarrassment, half of the town crowded at the entrance to watch the excitement.
After the influence of the "Dali Temple Announcement" in recent years, the people of Yangkou Town no longer fear the Jin gentry as before. The common people have dared to express their disdain for the evil gentry who are unkind for the sake of wealth. The people hated the evil gentry who were enemies of King Yan.
The people of Shandong were not only influenced by the "Dali Temple Proclamation" but also relied on the Dali Temple Court to administer justice. Now they even relied on King Yan's sweet potatoes to survive the famine. King Yan single-handedly saved the people of a whole province, what else can be said? The people of Shandong have already been united with King Yan.
For Shen Congdao, an evil gentry who tried to obstruct the King of Yan's disaster relief and let the people starve to death, the people wanted to stone him to death. Shen Congdao also knew that he was now notorious and usually did not dare to go out. He thought that when the limelight passed, he would donate to a volunteer school in the town to support scholars and restore some reputation for himself.
However, the trees wanted to be quiet but the wind was not stopping. The "Dali Temple Announcement" had become more and more severe in these days, making Shen Congdao a little breathless. In the second hall, Shen Congdao grabbed the newspaper and read it, and sweat broke out on his forehead. The hand holding the newspaper couldn't help but tremble slightly. Today's newspaper headline: "Who gave the evil gentry the courage to drive up food prices?" 》
"When there was a severe drought in Shandong and the people had nothing to eat, the gentry in Shandong guarded their granaries and did not open their granaries to provide relief. Instead, they bought grain on the market to drive up prices. The King of Yan wanted to buy grain for disaster relief, and these evil gentry raised the price of grain to sixty taels. One stone. How many people in Shandong would starve to death if King Yan had no food to provide relief?"
"Nowadays, the common people in Shandong only have one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes per day to survive. They are all sallow and thin, but the granaries of the evil gentry are filled with rice, flour and rice they have hoarded. I want to ask, who gave them the courage to disrupt the market and drive up rice prices?"
"Is there no king's law in Shandong under the rule of King Yan?" After seeing the last sentence, Shen Congdao shook his hand and dropped the newspaper to the ground. Shen Congdao's first wife didn't notice anything unusual about Shen Congdao and continued to play tricks in the main room. She hugged her thighs and said: "Master, you have to make the decision for me! Today when I came back from the county and passed through the town, I was spat on and thrown stones by several teenage children. The spit was thrown on the sedan, but Those stones weighing several kilograms really broke my sedan chair and hit my legs!"
"Master, I have long said that moving back to the countryside is not possible, but you just don't listen to me. Now everyone in the town is laughing at our Shen family's jokes, and you don't even dare to leave the house. How do you want to live your life? ?”
Shen Congdao was already frightened by the "Dali Temple Announcement". Now looking at the unreasonable principal, he couldn't help but feel angry. He slammed the table and shouted loudly: "You stupid bitch! Stop making noise!"
Shen Congdao's wife was stunned, looking at the furious Shen Congdao with wide eyes, and suddenly fell to the ground, rolling on the ground and shouting: "Shen Congdao! You scold me! You thought my maternal uncle was a county magistrate, Bati The big sedan married me from my natal family, and now you think I’m old and you dare to scold me? I’m not going to live anymore!”
Shen Congdao thought about it all night in bed and stayed up all night. He rushed to the county town in a sedan chair early the next morning, preparing to sell off the grain he had hoarded at a low price. The loud questions in the "Dali Temple Announcement" really scared Shen Congdao. Of course, Shen Congdao knew that "raiding the gentry and forcibly opening warehouses to seize grain" was too outrageous. If King Yan did this, the gentry in the world would hate King Yan even more. If the matter reaches that point, I am afraid that all the princes and officials in the court will ask about Shandong's affairs.
The official gave Yang Peng the power to collect commercial taxes to make up for Yang Peng's disaster relief expenses. If Yang Peng forcibly robbed the gentry of food for disaster relief, the official would probably deprive King Yan of the right to collect commercial taxes. The "Dali Temple Announcement" promotes the protection of private property rights all day long, and the Dali Temple court frequently says that private property rights are sacred and inviolable. If King Yan robs the gentry of their food, wouldn't Yang Peng slap himself in the face? Although the Jin gentry's hoarding of grain was sabotaging Shandong's disaster relief, the Jin gentry's transactions were all fair and were bought on the market, so the accumulated grain could be said to be legal.
But don’t be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the unexpected. After all, what the gentry was hoarding was a sensitive commodity like food. If King Yan gets angry and doesn't care so much, and sends troops to forcibly search the Jin gentry's property, there will be trouble. This kind of behavior sounded a bit impossible before. After all, Li Zhi always talked about the rule of law and order. However, under the threat of "Dali Temple Announcement" for days, Shen Congdao felt that the possibility of having his home raided was getting higher and higher. The tone of the "Dali Temple Announcement" is getting harsher day by day. Shen Congdao would not be surprised at all if tomorrow's front-page headlines read "The King of Yan confiscated Jinan gentry and illegally hoarded grain."
If you lose a small amount of family wealth, you can still save it in the future. If your house is confiscated and everyone is destroyed, the matter becomes serious. Shen Congdao finally stopped hesitating and rushed to the county town to sell the 7,800 shi of grain in his home. This time Shen Congdao really went bankrupt. His family's nearly 40,000 taels of savings and their large house in Qingzhou City have all been turned into these 7,800 shi of food. Now he is selling grain under the threat of the "Dali Temple Announcement", and he doesn't know how much money he can get for it.
Shen Congdao owned a grain store in the county town. He found the shopkeeper of his grain shop and asked: "Shopkeeper Xi, if I want to sell all the more than 7,000 stones of grain now, what price can I get for it?" Shopkeeper Xi boasted. With a beard on his lips, he said: "Master, now is not the time to sell grain. In the past few months, it is said that more than two million shi of grain were sold to Shandong, and all of them were bought by the gentry of Shandong. Now King Yan is using sweet potatoes to provide disaster relief , stopped buying food, and the supply of food on the market in Shandong suddenly exceeded demand."
"In addition, the Dali Temple announcement has been continuously publicized these days, saying that the King of Yan will vigorously develop water conservancy facilities to expand the planting area. It can be seen that the grain output in Shandong will increase in the next few years, and there will be no shortage of food. Under such a prospect, the price of grain these days Continuous decline."
After hearing what Shopkeeper Xi said, Shen Congdao sighed. It can be said that Yang Peng used the power of newspapers to the extreme. When he secretly sold grain to the people who were hoarding grain, the Dali Temple announcement would exaggerate the drought and food shortage in Shandong every day, which deceived the gentry who hoarded grain into elation. Nowadays, the grain is rotting in the hands of the gentry. The "Dali Temple Announcement" began to introduce the scenario of grain surplus in the future, vigorously suppressing grain prices.
Yang Peng monopolized public opinion in Shandong. Shandong's grain prices were like a puppet manipulated by the Shandong Daily, rising and falling, wiping out all the money of the gentry. Shopkeeper Xi sighed and said: "Boss, I don't know how many wealthy people have come to our store these days to ask about the price of grain. They all want to sell grain. Now the gentlemen who have grain in their hands feel that the grain is hot, and the price keeps going up. push down."
"Yesterday, the Weng family's grain store had already lowered the price to one, two and nine cents. But now the "Dali Temple Announcement" is so fierce and vigorously denounces the gentry who hoard grain. At this time, who dares to take over? The Weng family's one two nine cents There is still no one to buy a stone of rice and noodles." Hearing the news that the Weng family's one-two-nine yuan and one stone were not bought, Shen Congdao's face turned pale and he said, "The price has dropped to such a low price?"
Shopkeeper Xi said: "Yes! Boss, I think it is better to transport the grain to Nanzhili and sell it. The current price of grain in Nanzhili is around two taels, four yuan and one stone. If we sell on a large scale, the price will be lower. Even if we can get Two taels and three cents of silver. Counting the tolls and customs duties on banknotes, you can get one tael or eight cents of silver per stone if you transport grain to Beizhili and sell it."
"Compared with not being able to sell it in Shouguang County, we can sell the food immediately by transporting it to Gyeonggi." After hearing Shopkeeper Xi's analysis, Shen Congdao took a breath. The price of grain in Qingzhou Prefecture has dropped to the floor. 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. We have to organize transportation, contact sellers, and transport money back all the way. All kinds of tasks are very cumbersome. If you encounter thieves along the way, you will lose more than you gain.
In any case, transporting grain to other provinces to sell is the last resort. Shen Congdao sighed and said: "Shopkeeper, we will sell it in Shouguang County at a minimum price of one or two eight cents. If no one buys it, we will transport the grain to Beizhili."
On the second day of September, Shandong, which had been dry for seven months, finally received a large-scale rainfall. The heavy rain seemed to have been held in for a long time and suddenly broke out, breaking through the sky. Amidst the rumbling thunder and dazzling lightning, the rain rushed to the ground with all its strength, falling one by one on the extremely dry land of Qilu. The rain hits the hard dry yellow wasteland, the dry and cracked river bed, and the harvestless fields, suddenly turning the dry land into water everywhere.
Rainwater seeps through the surface soil, penetrates below, and gradually penetrates into the depths of the soil. The saying that spring rain is as valuable as oil refers to the importance of spring rain to rice sowing in the south. Although the heavy rain in Shandong falls 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 Jiangnan.
People in Shandong watched the pouring rain and sang and danced. People who had been in drought for a long time rushed outside to enjoy the rain and laughed, regardless of the heavy rain. There is no air pollution in this era, and the rainwater is the cleanest. The women took all the pots and pans at home outside to collect water and enjoy the gifts from God.
Many people held umbrellas and flocked to the Dragon King Temple to thank the Dragon King for being lenient and working for only seven months. In the coming year, I’m afraid there won’t be another drought. While the people were happy and encouraged, they were also a little worried. Now the King of Yan is providing disaster relief and giving each person one pound and eighty taels of sweet potatoes to eat every day, which is enough to prevent the people from starving to death. But when sowing winter wheat, you have to do heavy physical work. How can this half pound of sweet potatoes support the farmers' work?
In early September, Yang Peng began to buy grain from the gentry in the Shandong market. At this time, various news that was not conducive to food prices were constantly released by the "Dali Temple Announcement". After Yang Peng's repeated suppression, the price of food on the market has become very cheap, basically one or two or eight yuan per stone. Yang Peng had previously made more than 7 million taels of silver by buying low and selling grain high. Now he took out 4.5 million taels of it and purchased 2.5 million taels of grain in the Shandong market.
More than two million shi of grain from other provinces went around and returned to Yang Peng's hands. The gentry in Shandong had previously bought more than two million shi of grain at a price of more than five taels per shi, but now they sold it all to Yang Peng at a price of 1 liang or qian per shi. The price difference was as high as 3 taels per shi , Yang Peng earned eight to nine million taels of silver, and the losses were not unbearable.
Yang Peng bought back the more than two million stones of grain, first of all to provide sufficient calories for farmers planting in autumn and harvesting in summer. Winter wheat is usually sown in September of the lunar calendar and matures in May of the next year. Wheat sowing and harvesting are both busy farming periods, taking about a month in total. Farmers' labor intensity is very high during this month, and they cannot get enough calories just by eating one and a half kilograms of sweet potatoes. During this period, Yang Peng provided adequate food to every "male" and "strong female", that is, adult men and women. In addition to a pound and a half of sweet potatoes, every adult man and woman also has a pound of rice or rice noodles.
The labor intensity of farmers in this era was high, and there was no meat in their meals. Their food consumption was much greater than that of ordinary people in later generations who ate meat every day. If it is during heavy physical labor, it is normal to eat one and a half pounds of rice a day. The food Yang Peng provided them was equivalent to the calories of one and a half kilograms of rice.
This month's food supply will require Yang Peng to consume about 800,000 shi of food. Yang Peng told Yang Tong that we should let the people eat a few more taels of rice, not that the farmers should have enough to eat all year round. Yang Peng's funds and resources are also limited. To be honest, even if Yang Peng sells iron and steel, he will not be able to keep more than 10 million people in Shandong fully fed throughout the year. Yang Peng asked the people to eat a few more taels of rice, so that the people could eat when the farming was busy, and not let the farmers delay the farming season because they had no food.
Starting from the eighth day of September, all the strong men who need to work in the fields receive one pound of rice noodles or rice from the relief station every day. The farmers were previously worried that they would not be able to sustain themselves after eating one and a half kilograms of sweet potatoes during the busy farming season. When they learned that King Yan had given them additional food, they were all moved to tears.
If you plant in autumn and harvest in summer, you will have enough food to eat. If the farming season is not delayed, this year’s harvest will be guaranteed. When the winter wheat matures in May next year, the lives of Shandong people will be back on track. Taoism was the state religion in the Song Dynasty. King Yang Peng of Yan was so kind and virtuous that he was regarded as a god by the people. In many places in Shandong, people built shrines to King Yang Peng of Yan.
Although farmers have no money, most of these temples are renovated from abandoned small temples. They are very simple and often only enshrine a tablet, or a craftsman is asked to make a small clay statue of King Yan. But the people were sincerely grateful to Yang Peng, and incense continued to burn in simple temples everywhere.
Yang Peng bought 2.5 million shi of grain, 800,000 shi for farmers during the busy farming period, and 1.5 million shi for farmers who were clearing up wasteland during the construction of water conservancy projects in Shandong Province. edible.
The severe drought in Shandong exposed the problem of insufficient water conservancy facilities. Water conservancy facilities have a great impact on food output and can help local areas survive famines. This does not mean that water conservancy facilities can turn disaster years into good years, but that water conservancy facilities can expand planting areas and increase local food production. Keep grain stocks at a high level. With enough food in stock, even if there is a disaster in some years, the people will not be displaced.
For example, the people in a place need to eat one thousand shi of grain every year. If there are enough water conservancy facilities and enough irrigated fields, they can produce 1,200 shi of grain every year. So even if one of the six years is a disaster year, the people can survive the disaster year by relying on the thousand dan of grain stored in the previous five years.
The actual situation in various parts of the Song Dynasty is that the population is still growing inertly, but water conservancy facilities have not kept up, and grain production has not increased but has declined slightly. The income from land tax during the Xianping Dynasty declined every year. Although there was a reason why the gentry hid their land and did not pay taxes, another reason was the dilapidation of water conservancy facilities.
Under such a situation, things are usually fine, and you can survive when you are hungry. But when there is a disaster, it will be a chaotic situation. In disaster years, when people have no food to eat, they all turn into thieves and robbers, fighting each other for limited food.
This tragedy almost happened in Shandong this year. Shandong has now been regarded as a treasure by Yang Peng. Of course, Yang Peng cannot let such a thing happen again in Shandong. Yang Peng plans to develop water conservancy projects in Shandong, using dragon tail trucks and dams to irrigate dry land, develop new fields, and expand grain output.
The extra 150 shi of grain that Yang Peng bought was for the farmers who opened up wasteland. Opening up wasteland requires a lot of physical effort, and the caloric supply must keep up. However, labor alone cannot build water conservancy facilities. People who are proficient in water conservancy must also be in charge. For this purpose, Yang Peng transferred Zheng Hui from Taiwan and asked him to lead the "water conservancy workers" from Hsinchu to develop water conservancy facilities in Shandong.
On September 12, Yang Peng met Zheng Hui at the dock in Jiaozhou. Zheng Hui wore a red military attaché robe of the second grade and arrived in Shandong on the 5,000-material ironclad Yangwei. When he saw Yang Peng greeting him on the pier, he was very excited. He ran quickly from the ship to the shore and knelt down in front of Yang Peng. He said loudly: "The king of Yan has been alarmed to greet him personally. I am 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. Now Shandong needs development, and your people need to show their skills." Zheng Hui stood up and said with his hands: "Your Majesty, don't worry, Shandong's water conservancy development will definitely not fail this time."
Zheng Hui pointed at a thin black man next to him and said: "This is Jing Yishan. He has been working with me in water conservancy in Hsinchu since the second year of Xianping. He has the most flexible mind and is very principled in his work. The water conservancy projects he has handled are... There is no one that is not strong and durable and brings benefit to one party." Yang Peng looked at the man and saw that he was wearing the official uniform of a third-grade military attache. Knowing that this must be a general under Zheng Hui, he smiled and said: "Jing Yishan, I want you to help this time. ”
Jing Yishan seemed a little arrogant, but he did not kneel down to Yang Peng. He bowed to Yang Peng, stood up straight and said, "Don't worry, Prince Yan, I have brought five hundred 'water conservancy workers' this time, and I have brought most of the water conservancy workers in Hsinchu. We are in Shandong." After a busy year, we will definitely improve Shandong's water conservancy facilities to a higher level." Yang Peng looked at the confident Jing Yishan and the hundreds of water conservancy workers coming off the boat one after another, and nodded.
What happened after all, let’s see what happens next.
