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 Dujian Mansion.
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 palace 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 is already dark at this time, and the servants are in the second hall
Six copper lamps were lit in the room, and various dishes were served one after another. Yang Peng was tired after a long day and was indeed hungry. Looking at the table full of wine and food, he moved his index finger and started eating various dishes.
But Yang Tong stayed aside, not eating a bite, just staring at the food on the table. Yang Peng was stunned, turned around and asked, "Aren't you going to eat?" Yang Tong shook his head and said, "Husband, from Shandong.
The people are so pitiful. Each person can only eat one pound and eighty taels of sweet potatoes. How many sweet potatoes can be exchanged for our table of food and wine? When you finish eating, I will wrap up these leftovers and take them to the relief station tomorrow.
Parents’ orphans eat it.”
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 came over 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 a little speechless. He lost his appetite after Yang Tong said it and put down his chopsticks. Yang Tong saw that Yang Peng also put down his chopsticks and picked up the vegetables faster, as if he was snatching food for the poor orphans. Yang Peng thought
After thinking about it, he also started to help Yang Tong put vegetables. Yang Tong took ten small pottery bowls and put them on the table. Yang Peng put the fish, meat and vegetables on the table into those pottery bowls one by one.
While he was doing it, Yang Peng said: "My wife can only feed ten orphans with ten bowls of food, so that's not a good idea." Yang Tong pursed his lips and said, "I only have so much ability, so what?
What should we do?" Yang Peng said with a smile: "The people will plant wheat next spring, 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 in Shandong can eat it every day.
Eat a few more taels of grain and you will 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 her rice bowl and ate half a bowl of rice. She seemed to be starving and couldn't help but eat more.
Eat a piece of fish. When she was eating the 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 imperial court. Together they will work 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 "Dali Temple Announcement" with a frown. This was not a luxurious private house. Compared with Shen Congdao With Tao's status as a wealthy man, living in such a house was a bit shabby. From time to time, farmers passed by the gate of the house. Looking at the closed door of the Shen family, the farmers looked a little joking in their eyes.
The fact that the Shen family lost a lot of money due to hoarding grain and all the big houses in the city has now become the biggest joke in Yangkou Town. The day the Shen family moved back to Yangkou Town from Fucheng, Qingzhou in embarrassment, half the time People from all over the town crowded at the entrance to watch the fun.
In recent years, under the influence of the "Dali Temple Proclamation", the people of Yangkou Town no longer fear the Jin gentry as before. For the evil gentry who are unkind and unkind to get rich, the people have dared to express their disdain. For the evil gentry who are enemies of King Yan, the people have I hate it even more.
The people of Shandong were not only influenced by the "Dali Temple Proclamation", but also relied on the Dali Temple court to uphold justice. Now they even rely on eating King Yan's sweet potatoes to survive the famine. King Yan single-handedly saved the people of a province, what else is there? You mean? The people of Shandong have already been united with King Yan.
For an evil gentry like Shen Congdao 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 notorious now, and he usually did not dare to go out. He thought about it When this storm is over, he will donate to a volunteer school in the town to support scholars and restore some reputation for himself.
However, the tree wanted to be quiet but the wind kept coming. The wording of the "Dali Temple Announcement" became more and more severe these days, making Shen Congdao a little breathless. In the second hall, Shen Congdao grabbed the newspaper and read it, his forehead Sweat broke out on my face. My hand holding the newspaper couldn't help but tremble slightly. The headline on the front page of today's newspaper was: "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 the granary and did not open it 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 the King of Yan had no food to provide relief?"
"Nowadays, the people in Shandong only have one and a half kilograms of sweet potatoes per person 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 wife did not notice anything unusual about Shen Congdao. She was still playing tricks in the main room. She hugged her thighs and said: "Master, you have to make the decision for me! Today I came back from the county and passed by the town. I was spit on and thrown by several teenage children. Those spitters It didn’t matter if it was on the sedan chair, but those rocks 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 think you can live your life like this? ?”
Shen Congdao was already frightened by the "Dali Temple Announcement". Looking at the unreasonable principal, he couldn't help but get angry. He slammed the table and shouted: "You stupid bitch! Stop arguing!" "
Shen Congdao's wife was stunned for a moment, looking at the furious Shen Congdao with wide eyes. Suddenly he fell to the ground and rolled on the ground shouting: "Shen Congdao! You scolded me! Did you look at my natal family?" My uncle is a county magistrate, and he married me from my parents’ home in a big sedan chair. Now he thinks I’m old and dares 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 frightened Shen Of course, Shen Congdao knew that "raiding the gentry and forcibly opening warehouses to seize grain" was too arrogant. If King Yan did this, the gentry in the world would hate King Yan even more. If things come to that point, I am afraid that the court will All the princes and officials in the hall would ask about Shandong affairs.
The official gave Yang Peng the right 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" was promoting the protection of private property all day long. Regarding property rights, the court of Dali Temple always said that private property rights are sacred and inviolable. If the King of Yan robs the gentry's food, wouldn't Yang Peng slap himself? Although the Jin gentry's hoarding of food is sabotaging Shandong's disaster relief, the Jin gentry's transactions are fair. , all bought in the market, and the accumulated grain can be said to be legal.
But don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of the worst. After all, what the gentry is hoarding is a sensitive commodity like grain. If the King of Yan gets angry and doesn't care about so much, and sends troops to forcibly search the Jin gentry's property, it will be troublesome. This kind of thing This behavior sounded a bit impossible before. After all, Li Zhi always talked about the rule of law and order. However, under the threats from the "Dali Temple Announcement" for days, Shen Congdao felt that the possibility of having his home confiscated was getting higher and higher. The "Dali Temple Announcement" The tone is getting harsher day by day. If tomorrow's front page headline becomes "The King of Yan Conquered Jinan Gentry and Conquered Jinan for Illegal Grain Hoarding", Shen Congdao would not be surprised at all.
Losing the family's wealth is small, but they can still save it in the future. Having their house confiscated and destroyed, the matter becomes bigger. Shen Congdao finally no longer hesitated and rushed to the county town to sell off the 7,800 shi of food in his home. This time Shen Congdao really 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 grain. Now he is selling grain under the threat of the "Dali Temple Announcement". Who knows? How much silver can it be sold for?
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 said. Blowing the 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 uses We stopped buying food during the sweet potato disaster relief, 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 grain output in Shandong will increase in the next few years, and there will be no shortage of grain. Under such a prospect, grain prices these days Continuous decline."
Hearing what Shopkeeper Xi said, Shen Congdao sighed. Yang Peng could be said to have 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. The gentry who had been deceived into hoarding grain were very happy. Now that the grain was all spoiled 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. The price of food in Shandong was like a puppet manipulated by the Shandong Daily, rising and falling, wiping out all the money of the gentry. Shopkeeper Xi sighed and said: "My boss, these days God knows how many wealthy people have come to our store to ask about the price of grain, all wanting to sell it. Now, the gentlemen who have grain in their hands feel that grain is too hot to touch, and the price keeps pushing down."
"Yesterday, the Weng family's grain store had already lowered the price to one tael 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 One stone of rice and noodles, but no one buys it." After hearing the news that the Weng family paid one liang and nine dollars and no one bought a stone, 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 being unable to sell it in Shouguang County, you can sell the grain immediately by transporting it to Gyeonggi." Hearing shopkeeper Xi's analysis, Shen Congdao took a breath. The price of grain in Qingzhou Prefecture has fallen to the floor. Nowadays, 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. You need to organize people to transport it, contact the sellers, and transport the money back all the way. This kind of task is very complicated. 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 the base price of one to two yuan. If no one buys it, we will transport the grain again." Go to Beizhili."
On the second day of September, Shandong, which had been in drought for seven months, finally received a large-scale rainfall. The heavy rain seemed to have been held in for a long time and burst out, breaking through the sky. Amidst the rumbling thunder, In the dazzling lightning, the rain rushed to the ground with all its strength, and fell one by one on the extremely dry land of Qilu. The rain hit the hard dry yellow wasteland, the dry and cracked river bed, and the On the fields where there was no harvest, the dry land suddenly turned into water everywhere.
Rainwater seeps through the surface soil, penetrates below, and gradually penetrates into the depths of the soil. The so-called spring rain is as precious as oil, which refers to the importance of spring rain for rice sowing in the south. Although the heavy rain in Shandong falls in September, the main crops in Shandong are It is winter wheat, and September is the time to sow. The heavy rain at this time is as precious as the spring rain in the south of the Yangtze River.
People in Shandong looked at the pouring rain, singing and dancing. People who had been in drought for a long time rushed outside to enjoy the washing of rainwater and laughed, regardless of the heavy rain. In this era, there is no air pollution, and the rainwater is the cleanest. Women put the water in their homes All the pots and pans were brought outside to collect water and enjoy the gifts from God.
Many people held umbrellas and rushed to the Dragon King Temple to thank the Dragon King for his mercy and only worked for seven months. In the next year, I am afraid there will be no more drought. While the people were happy and encouraged, they were a little worried. Now Yan In order to provide relief to the disaster, the king gave each citizen one pound and eighty taels of sweet potatoes per day, which was enough to prevent the people from starving to death. But when sowing winter wheat, they had to do heavy physical work. How could this one and a 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 unfavorable news about grain prices were constantly released by the "Dali Temple Announcement". After Yang Peng's repeated suppression, the price of grain in the market was already very cheap.
Basically, it’s one tael 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 bought 2.5 million taels in the Shandong market.
Stone grain.
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 and one shi, and now they paid one tael more.
They all sold it to Yang Peng at a price of eight taels per shi. The price difference was as high as three taels and seven taels per shi. Yang Peng made eight to nine million taels of silver, which was a heavy loss.
Yang Peng bought back 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. The time for wheat sowing and harvesting is the same
The busy farming period lasts for about a month. During this month, the labor intensity of farmers is very high. It is impossible to obtain enough calories just by eating one and a half kilograms of sweet potatoes. Yang Peng gave every "male" during this period.
And "strong women", that is, adult men and women, are provided with adequate food. In addition to a pound and a half of sweet potatoes, each adult man and woman is also provided with a pound of rice or rice noodles.
The labor intensity of farmers in this era was high, and there was no meat in their diet. Their food consumption was much greater than that of ordinary people in later generations who ate meat every day. During periods of heavy physical labor, it was normal to eat one and a half kilograms of rice a day. Yang Peng provided them with
The food is equivalent to the calories of one and a half kilograms of rice.
This month's food supply for Guanbao will consume about 800,000 shi of Yang Peng's grain. Yang Peng told Yang Tong that he wanted the people to eat a few more taels of rice, not that the farmers had to eat Guanbao all year round. Yang Peng's
Funds and resources are also limited. To be honest, even if Yang Peng sells iron and steel, he can't make the more than 10 million people in Shandong eat 100% full all year round. Yang Peng allows the people to eat a few more taels of rice during the busy farming period.
Eat enough, and don’t let farmers delay their farming time because they don’t have enough to eat.
Starting from the eighth day of September, all the young men who need to work in the fields have received 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 survive eating one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes during the busy farming period. At this time, they learned that King Yan would give them another
The news about the food moved everyone 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 the people in Shandong will be back on track. Taoism was the state religion in the Song Dynasty, and King Yang Peng of Yan was a great benefactor.
The great virtue has been regarded as a god by the people. In many places in Shandong, people have 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 ask a craftsman to make a small clay statue of King Yan. But the people are sincere to Yang Peng.
Thanks to gratitude, incense is constantly burning 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 problem exposed by this severe drought in Shandong is the lack of water conservancy facilities. Water conservancy facilities have a great impact on food output and can help localities survive famines - it is not that the role of water conservancy facilities can turn disaster years into good years.
Rather, water conservancy facilities can expand the planting area and increase local grain production, keeping grain stocks at a high level. With enough grain stocks, even if there is a disaster in some years, 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 will still be able to eat 1,000 shi of grain.
Being able to rely on the one thousand shi of grain stored in the previous five years to survive the disaster 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. Grain production has not increased but has declined slightly. The land tax revenue of the Xianping Dynasty has been declining every year. Of course, there are gentry who hide their fields and do not pay taxes.
Another reason is the dilapidation of water conservancy facilities.
In such a situation, it's usually fine, and you can survive when you're hungry. But when there's a disaster, it's a chaotic situation. In disaster years, when the people don't have food to eat, they all turn into thieves and robbers, fighting each other and fighting for each other.
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 and use dragon tail trucks.
And dams irrigated dry land to develop new fields and expand food output.
The extra 150 shi of grain that Yang Peng bought is for the farmers who are clearing up wasteland. When clearing up wasteland, physical exertion is high, and the caloric supply must keep up. But labor alone cannot build water conservancy facilities, and there must be people who are proficient in water conservancy.
Take command. 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, wearing a second-grade red military attaché robe, arrived in Shandong on the 5,000-material ironclad Yangwei. He saw Yang greeting him at the dock.
Peng was so excited that he ran quickly from the ship's deck to the shore and knelt down in front of Yang Peng. He said loudly: "The king of Yan is so alarmed that he personally greets me. I am flattered by this!"
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:
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, 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 on 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 who 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. He knew that this must be a general under Zheng Hui's command, so he smiled and said: "Jing Yishan, I want you to help this time.
Already."
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, Lord Yan, this time I have brought five hundred 'water conservancy workers', most of whom are
I brought all the water conservancy workers from Hsinchu. We have been busy in Shandong for a year, and we will definitely improve Shandong's water conservancy facilities to a higher level." Yang Peng looked at the confident Jing Yishan, and looked at the hundreds of water conservancy workers coming off the boat.
, nodded.
What happened after all? Let’s look at the breakdown next time.