Hexi Prefecture suffered the greatest losses.
All the sweet potatoes planted in Hexi Prefecture were destroyed. Although they have been replanted, the best planting period has been missed and there is insufficient sunlight. The yield of sweet potatoes will definitely be reduced.
Moreover, the sweet potato harvest period has been postponed. If the sweet potato workshop wants to start operations, it will have to buy sweet potatoes from other places. Even if plaster roads are built in various places, the freight will be quite expensive, which will increase the cost.
Now all the farmers in Hexi Prefecture are bleeding.
The little profit brought by catching locusts is nothing compared with the losses.
Thinking like this, Tao Zhu looked at Li Changfeng who had already pulled the locust skewers out of the fire.
The little guy was blowing air on the skewers with his mouth puffed out, so that the skewers would cool down quickly.
He raised his hand and gently poked the little guy's bulging cheek: "After our own sweet potato factory in the north of the city starts construction, the three of you can take one day out of every seven days to work there as a helper. How about it?"
"I'll pay you wages, and you can handle the wages you earn yourself."
"Um?"
"Why?"
"Daddy?"
The three little guys looked at him together, all three pairs of eyes widening in surprise.
"I want to let you know that making money is not easy. Although Sanliu Village is now wealthy, this wealth is earned with the sweat of the villagers."
"A locust plague has ruined everyone's hard work. This is not interesting at all. You will know after you go to the workshop and experience it yourself."
Tao Zhu explained the reason carefully.
"OK!"
But after hearing this, Li Xiaorui immediately raised his little hand and shook it: "I'm not afraid, I am willing to work in the sweet potato workshop."
As a young man, what are you afraid of with this little job?
Watch him make money hard!
Li Xiaorui is not afraid, and neither are Li Changfeng and Li Yunfan. They have been strong since they were young and are more suitable for hard work than their eldest nephew Ruirui.
The attention of the three little guys was diverted, and they chattered and asked questions while eating the crispy and fragrant grasshoppers.
Tao Zhu answered them one by one.
Now Pingcheng has decided to purchase sweet potatoes from neighboring prefectures and counties. However, in previous years, farmers throughout Hexi Prefecture first made their own sweet potatoes into starch, and then sold the starch to the sweet potato workshops in Pingcheng.
The harvest of sweet potatoes across the province is now postponed. If you want to buy sweet potatoes that can satisfy farmers across the province, the cost will increase a lot.
As the cost increases, the selling price will inevitably increase, and some foreign businessmen are dissatisfied.
But there is no way. The locust plague is a natural disaster. Who let the sweet potatoes in the entire Hexi Prefecture be destroyed?
"The people of Hexi Prefecture have really suffered heavy losses this year."
After Li Xiaorui finished listening, his little eyebrows couldn't help but wrinkle.
"No, now the farmers in my hometown are busy buying sweet potatoes from other places. When their own sweet potatoes mature, they have to go to the fields to harvest the sweet potatoes."
"The people in our village have suffered the most. In previous years, before the sweet potato factory opened, everyone would go to the fields to harvest sweet potatoes, so they didn't have to hire day laborers. But this year, when the sweet potatoes mature, they all work in the sweet potato factory. They will definitely have to hire people to harvest their own fields. Sweet potatoes in it.”
Tao Zhu wanted to sigh as he spoke.
The people of Sanliu Village and Zhujia Village suffered the most from this wave of locust plague.
But the people in these two villages were unwilling to cause trouble to the court and decided to bear the losses themselves.
Seeing that the faces of the three little guys were all wrinkled and looking troubled, Tao Zhu touched their little heads one by one.
"Let's not talk about this anymore. Go wash your hands quickly. It's time to have dinner."
The basket of grasshoppers looked like a lot, but not much edible meat was left after being burned. As they were talking just now, the basket of grasshoppers was easily wiped out.
Grasshoppers can only be used as snacks and cannot fill the stomach.
"Okay~" Li Yunfan responded crisply and put away his worries about the villagers. He raised his little face and asked, "When will daddy come back today?"
"It's definitely going to be very late. There's no need to wait for him. Let's have dinner first."
Tao Zhu thought of Li Qiao and couldn't help but glance in the direction of the palace.
He has been free these days, but Li Qiao is quite busy.
Although Li Qiao had a hand in all the six departments, his real job was to be the head of the household department. Now that the autumn harvest had begun, as an official in the household department after the minister and minister, Li Qiao was busy every day. land.
Sure enough, Li Qiao didn't return home until the two little guys fell asleep.
In the kitchen, the cook made some kebabs, ordered a bowl of clear noodle soup, and finally prepared a watermelon as an after-dinner fruit.
The couple sat under the lamp. Li Qiao slowly ate his midnight snack while talking to Tao Zhu about today's events.
"The people of Hexi Prefecture do not cause trouble to the imperial court, but the Holy One is not willing to let the people of Hexi Prefecture suffer. He decided to mobilize local garrisons from Hexi Prefecture and several surrounding prefectures to help transport sweet potatoes from other places."
"Huh? The Holy One really said that?"
Tao Zhu was originally holding his chin in his hand while watching Li Qiao eat his midnight snack. After hearing this, he immediately sat up straight, his face full of surprise.
"Yes, he said that the local garrison does not lack that training time."
Li Qiao nodded while chewing the starch sausage wrapped in barbecue ingredients.
"That's great. This way the cost of buying sweet potatoes for the folks won't have to increase, and businessmen from other places won't be dissatisfied."
Tao Zhu clasped his hands together and looked towards the palace with a grateful face: "The Holy One is so kind and considerate of the people."
"Yes. Moreover, Magistrate Tian of Hexi Prefecture has reported that he wants to open a warehouse to store grain."
Li Qiao said again.
After collecting taxes each year, the local government would set aside part of it for daily expenses and food reserves, and the rest would be sent to Shengjing.
Now Magistrate Tian, who takes over as Magistrate Ming in Hexi Prefecture, wants to distribute all the grain from previous years to the people.
Hexi Prefecture is rich, and the annual tax collection is sufficient, but it cannot be used up every year. People in the government do not like to eat miscellaneous grains, so a lot of grain is left. In addition to the grain reserves in the warehouse, the entire Hexi Prefecture There is a lot of food in stock.
Other prefectures affected by the disaster must open granaries to store grain, but every household in Hexi Prefecture does not lack this food, so there is no need to open the granaries in Hexi Prefecture.
But Magistrate Tian wanted to use this move to warm everyone's hearts. Sheng Hong thought this proposal was good, so he made it right with a wave of his hand.
"Prefect Tian is very considerate. Previously, Prefect Tian used his own money to buy seeds and seedlings for everyone. Now he has opened a warehouse to release grain. Now the villagers must feel comfortable."
The decision of Hexi Prefecture not to ask for free seeds and seedlings from the court was made by the prefect Tian alone after asking some of the people.
This is not the decision of the people of the whole government.
This is Magistrate Tian’s decision.
But now Magistrate Tian is spending his own money to set up bonuses, buy seeds and seedlings, and open warehouses to release grain. Now even if some people are still dissatisfied, they can only mutter a few words in their hearts.
The prefect has done this and is unable to find any thorns.
"No, Magistrate Tian has squandered all his family wealth this time. The Holy Emperor is full of praise for him. His promotion is just around the corner."
Li Qiao nodded and brought the noodle bowl to himself.
After finishing the skewers, it’s time to eat noodles.
The clear noodle soup tasted good. Although it was light, it was also flavorful. He finished it in a few mouthfuls.
At this time, Tao Zhu also cut the watermelon on the table. The couple took spoons and ate half of the watermelon each slowly.
The watermelon season has passed, and they don’t have many watermelons left.
At this time, the watermelon was cool without being put in ice cubes. Li Qiao had just eaten the skewers and was a little thirsty. The cold and sweet watermelon was just right for him. He dug the watermelon faster than Tao Zhu.
When Tao Zhu saw this, he pushed half of his watermelon to him: "Didn't the Holy One say that rewards should be based on merit? Has there been any results?"
Chapter 228 Li Qiao refuses the reward, and the promotion and demotion of officials in Xishan Province is half a trivial matter
"The results of Xishan Province are out, but only half of the investigation in Yuanhe Province and Dongshan Province has been carried out. The scope of this investigation is relatively wide, and the Holy Spirit is prepared to announce the final investigation results together."
Li Qiao shook his head and said, after all, it affected three provinces, and Sheng Hong even had to know the reaction of the village chiefs.
This is a slow job, and the results cannot be produced in a short time.
However, after swallowing the watermelon in his mouth, he added: "The Holy One said that this time it was thanks to our shop. Although the shop was opened for our own business, we accidentally killed a lot of locusts. The Holy One said that he planned to reward me. Something.”
"But I haven't decided on the specific rewards yet. He asked me if I still wanted the land."
"Then how did you respond?"
Tao Zhu was curious.
"I said I didn't make any meritorious service this time. The chickens and ducks that ate the locusts were not from our family, they were raised by the common people. How could I shamelessly say that I had meritorious service?"
After speaking, Li Qiao raised his eyelids and looked at Tao Zhu: "Do you think so?"
"Yes." Tao Zhu smiled and nodded: "That's the credit of the folks, it has nothing to do with us. Our duck shop and fried chicken shop are already making a lot of money every day, so how can we have the nerve to accept this reward. "
"So I told the Holy One that I don't need to reward me with anything this time. After all, the treasury is empty, and the Holy One is also bleeding heavily this time."
Li Qiao finished his half of the watermelon in a few mouthfuls, then took Tao Zhu's half and continued eating.
When he first learned that this huge locust plague had been eliminated, Sheng Hong was really happy. As long as the locusts did not gather in swarms and continue to gnaw crops unscrupulously, even though three provinces were affected this time, the losses could still be tolerated.
So Sheng Hong wanted to reward Li Qiao with something, and felt that the chickens and ducks raised because of Li Qiao were really a great effort.
But Li Qiao didn't think so.
He didn't raise those chickens and ducks himself, and it's not like he didn't make money in this area. He earned thousands of taels of silver a day from the duck shop and fried chicken shop.
Moreover, according to what Gao Zhiyuan wrote, the sixth prince in his previous life died in the border town.
This shows that the barbarians' attack this winter was very fierce.
He had to find a way to remind Sheng Hong to send more troops to the border town.
As soon as the troops and horses move, food, pensions, weapons, etc. will also have to be moved, which will definitely be a huge expense.
So he rejected Sheng Hong's kindness.
Tao Zhu also thought the same way: "Yes, this locust plague has affected too wide a range. It is the people and the Holy One who are suffering. We really didn't do anything."
