After the Shangyuan Festival, it basically means that this new year is completely over.
At this time, whether it is officials, merchants, or ordinary people, they have to break away from the festive atmosphere of the New Year and start to seriously think about their livelihood this year.
It was also at this time that people after the joy suddenly discovered that this year's climate seemed to be extremely abnormal. Heavy snow fell in the sky one after another, the cold wind blew from the north one after another, and there was still no sun in the sky. temperature.
When I came to the field, I saw a vast expanse of white in the field. Although it has always been said that auspicious snow heralds a good harvest in farming, how can the more than one foot of snow be considered auspicious snow? This is clearly a white disaster on the grassland!
It doesn't matter if the snow is thick now, but if the snow still doesn't melt in spring, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for the wheat that has turned green in the ground!
This cold winter has had a huge impact on Datang!
If we say that Guannei, Hedong, and Hebei Province still have some hope, they hope that the weather will get warmer soon and the snow will melt, allowing crops to grow quickly.
So areas where temperature-loving grains are grown, such as Jiangnan Road and Huainan Road, are doomed to have a bad harvest!
According to the information sent by the local government, the crops in the fields have withered and died in large numbers due to the cold and freezing weather! Seeing that the outcome of the disaster year was a foregone conclusion, food prices began to rise unchecked. By the time of the Chinese New Year, even in the richest Jiangnan Province, food prices had risen four or five times, almost doubling those of previous years. price!
Before that, Xiao Han originally thought of following the old path and continuing to purchase food there to cope with the upcoming disaster this year.
But this idea is still a bit optimistic after all, because he originally expected that disasters would only occur in the north of the Yangtze River. He never expected that this disaster would spread so widely, even to Jiangnan, which is known as the granary of the world. The earth will also suffer disaster!
As expected, the people he sent there wrote back and reported: Not only has the price of food in Jiangnan and other places increased dramatically, but the supply is also extremely small! For example, large-scale grain transactions worth tens of thousands of dan in the past are nowhere to be seen now! Even grain transactions worth hundreds or thousands of dan are rare.
Those big granary owners are now tightening their pockets and are not willing to sell food at all. The food in the charity warehouse is even more closely watched by all the people. Let alone selling it, even if an outsider takes a second look, it will cause trouble. The old man holding the dung fork glared at him!
Xiao Han was helpless about this.
After all, who knows that in a disaster year, only food is the last resort!
Those gorgeous jewelry, gold and silver are good, but when there is really no food to eat, they are just a pile of waste that cannot be eaten when hungry and cannot be drunk when thirsty!
In addition to food, the continuous heavy snow also seriously blocked transportation and trade routes in Datang.
Several commercial roads in the Qinling Mountains are all covered by heavy snow. Now no one dares to go there. They have to take a detour from the east. Not only does the distance double, but other expenses on the road have also increased seriously. They also have to beware of bandits who have fallen prey to bandits. ,robber!
The same is true for commercial roads, and the same is true for canals!
At this time in the past, the canals would begin to melt and recover, but this year, there is no sign of melting on the canal ice?
In the past two years, the Caobang boatmen and others who have relied entirely on the water for a bowl of rice are now staring at the ice every day, hoping that the ice and snow will melt so that they can start working quickly to make money so that they can buy the increasingly expensive rice and noodles. Come and feed your family.
"Your Majesty! The food supply in Guanzhong has increased to three times that of the autumn harvest, and it is still on the rise."
In the Tai Chi Palace, Li Shimin was overwhelmed by bad news one after another in just a few days. When he went to court today and heard the news about the soaring grain prices reported by officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs, his heart suddenly burst into flames!
"Are there profiteers here driving up food prices?" Li Shimin, whose eyes were bloodshot, suddenly raised his head, stared at the Ministry of Household official who reported the report and shouted word by word: "If there are, then kill them! If there is a profiteer, kill every profiteer." , if there are a hundred profiteers, kill a hundred! Kill all these profiteers, and see who dares to raise the price!"
"Your Majesty, no!"
As soon as Li Shimin said this, not only the officials of the Ministry of Revenue suddenly changed their expressions, but even the other ministers were worried and hurriedly came out: "Your Majesty! Now, whether it is the east and west cities in Chang'an or the markets in other places, the food supply Prices have risen dramatically! And not only are all grain merchants raising prices, but farmers and landlords who sell grain are also raising prices! If you kill rashly at this time, Fei Dan will not be able to calm the trend, and it will make the matter worse. It got out of hand in the end!”
"Then tell me! What to do!"
Li Shimin listened to the words of the ministers and suppressed the fire in his heart. In fact, he also knew that he just said kill! Just angry words when anger attacks your heart! Nowadays, not only grain merchants are raising prices, but everyone who has grain in their hands is raising prices. Who can he kill? How many can be killed? !
"Well……"
After Li Shimin finished speaking, there was silence in the court again. Everyone, including the ministers who had just left their duties, looked at each other, and no one dared to be a leader.
"Say it!" Seeing that everyone was silent, Li Shimin's suppressed anger rose again! At this time, how could he still look half as gentle and elegant as usual? Not only was his voice full of anger, but even the eyes he looked at the ministers carried an indescribable pressure that made people shudder just by looking at it!
"I thought..."
Seeing that the ministers on the left and right remained silent, Dai Zhou, the Minister of Household Affairs, had no choice but to stand up. After all, whether it is food or people, they are within the scope of his jurisdiction as the Minister of Household Affairs. He should come out to provide a solution to the situation.
"I believe that the most important thing now is to stabilize the people's hearts! If the people have confidence, they will naturally not rush to buy food! And if no one rushes to buy, the price of food will naturally drop!" Dai Zhou walked slowly to the center of the court, with a sad face. , said with cupped hands.
"Then how to calm the people's hearts!" Li Shimin stared closely.
Dai Zhou, who was standing in the hall, thought for a while and continued: "If you want to stabilize the people's hearts, you need the court to give the people confidence! Your Majesty can impose low taxes on the disaster-stricken areas, or you can suspend large-scale projects and stop the use of troops..."
"Stop mobilizing troops?"
As soon as Dai Zhou said these words, the already quiet court became so quiet that you could hear a pin drop!
Nowadays, it is no longer a secret in the Tang Dynasty that the Tang Dynasty wants to use troops against Goguryeo. Generals such as Cheng Yaojin and Li Ji have also set off to the north a long time ago. Now Dai Zhou says he wants to stop using troops? Didn't everything you did before become useless?
