Changan. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Li Shimin has had a headache lately.

The drought in Guanzhong is also getting more and more serious, and large areas of crops have died. Li Shimin's skin peeling on the rain prayer platform was peeling, but he couldn't even see a dark cloud.

After a long drought without rain, and begging for rain did not come, Li Shimin had no choice but to stop praying, and then issued an edict to the world.

The rain stopped, but the price of food in Beijing began to rise again.

Although the price increase was expected, it was too fast.

Doumi is 200 yuan, which is already the highest price since the founding of Datang six years ago, but this price is still rising. It has been reported that the grain shops in the market now have to change their grain price signs several times a day, and every day in the afternoon, they close their doors and stop selling grain.

The regular closing position has long stopped putting grain.

Don't dare to put grain.

There is too little food in the warehouse, and if the food is exhausted, there is no way to do it.

There are more and more headaches, and the burden on my shoulders is getting heavier and heavier.

At this time, there are still people messing around.

Li Shimin beckoned, and the chamberlain brought a few large boxes and placed them in front of Du Yan, the imperial historian, and Fujia, the grandson of the imperial historian.

"See for yourself, these twists and turns are all about impeaching Wen Yuan. Now that the situation is difficult, I am worried day and night, and I have to eat and clothe at night, but I still have to see so many such twists and turns. Do you know what I want to say when I see these movements? ”

"I want to scold my mother!"

"These imperial historians don't know how to relieve the king's worries and make suggestions for the country. At this time, he is still attacking those who are serious about serving the court. Wen Yuan served as a local, worked hard, and worked hard, just to be able to share the worries and solve the difficulties of the imperial court, but because he moved the grain bags of the local heroes, these people rose up in groups. I know that many of my officials are from Shannan. It's all at this time, and it's so disappointing for me to still think about this. ”

"I'm also disappointed in the two of you, I handed over the Imperial Observatory to the two of you, but how do you manage the Imperial Observatory, is it for them to attack my prime minister?"

Du Yan and Sun Fujia hung their heads very low.

Regarding the impeachment of Li Chao by the imperial historians this time, in fact, Du Yan and Sun Fujia had a dispute in the imperial history platform. Sun Fujia felt that he should be intercepted, while Du Yan felt that what Li Chao had done in Shannan was a bit excessive, and let the officials flick it, and let the emperor know.

Du Yan is the chief of the Imperial History Observatory, and with his support, the final impeachment is like snowflakes.

It's just that the emperor's trust in Li Chao now is far beyond Du Yan's expectations.

As an emperor, of course, he will not trust ministers unconditionally, especially ministers of Li Chao's level. But for Li Shimin, he has only been the emperor for more than half a year, and Li Chao's help to him and his loyalty still make Li Shimin convinced.

The most important thing is that in the current situation, what Li Shimin urgently needs is a person like Li Chao who is willing to do practical things and can do practical things. At this time, it is not the time to think about other things, if you reprimand Li Chao now, even if you ask in the lightest tone, it will make the wind change greatly.

Maybe Li Chao will be forced to return to Beijing in the end.

Shannan is now inseparable from Li Chao, Li Shimin sent Xiao Yu and Chen Shuda to Henan and Hebei, at this time they have exhausted all means, how can they transfer Li Chao back.

As for everything Li Chao did in Shannandong, Li Shimin knew it.

Li Chao did a very good job in Shannan and bought grain, and in one of the 16 prefectures in Shannan Dongdao, he scraped together more than 5 million stones of grain in a short period of time. Now that he has come up with this grain stamp, and with the disaster relief cake, Li Shimin thinks the method is good.

Li Chao's method is indeed a bit tough.

Buying and buying is strong, unifying grain prices is using strong, and buying grain on the basis of grain stamps is also strong, and these have indeed greatly infringed on the interests of the powerful people in those localities.

In normal times, Li Shimin can't sit back and watch this kind of thing happen. The local power is also very strong, and the emperor does not dare to offend them all.

But when is it?

If you offend Haoqiang and damage their interests, there will indeed be troubles. But if this is not done, then millions of people in the Central Plains will become hungry, and the hungry people will flow and become homeless, which will be even more terrible.

The lesser of two evils.

Li Shimin can only make a helpless choice among them.

He was thinking about whether to implement Li Chao's tough policies in Guanzhong, Henan, Hebei and other places.

Increasing the quantity of food by harmonizing food prices, rationing food programs, and processing grain into relief cakes......

are all ruthless moves, and once these tricks come out, they will inevitably greatly damage the prestige of the imperial court, but Li Shimin has not many choices.

The lesser of two evils!

The more the year of famine, if the court does not come up with some strong measures, the more difficult it will be to control the situation. Food prices will rise more and more outrageously, and the rich will hoard more and more food.

Just like what Li Chao said, on one side are hungry people who have no food, and they are easy to eat. On one side are the rich landlords whose granaries are full, but they don't take out a grain of grain.

After the famine, millions of people starved to death, and those precious grains could become moldy and rot in the warehouses of the rich.

After letting Du Yan and Sun Fujia retreat, Li Shimin looked at the things Li Chao did in Shannan and fell into deep thought.

Should Guanzhong also learn from Li Chao's method and take over the grain merchants' grain? Do you want to have a unified grain price, or do you want to implement a system of grain stamps?

Li Shimin was still a little hesitant.

Guanzhong is not better than Shannan.

Shannan is a place where it is strong. But in Guanzhong Gyeonggi, those who have food are generally the nobles and magnates, and these people are the foundation of the imperial court.

If Li Chao's methods are implemented, then all these people will be offended with a stick.

But if you don't have to be strong, it is too young to expect these people to think about the court wholeheartedly and take the initiative to help the court get through this difficulty.

After thinking about it for a long time, Li Shimin didn't come up with any good way, and it was difficult to make up his mind.

During the meal, Li Shimin asked this difficult question to Empress Changsun.

"Guanyin, what do you think I should do?"

"Your Majesty, such military affairs should not be interfered by a concubine and a woman."

"Tell me what you think, I really have a headache, it's hard to decide."

Empress Changsun walked behind Li Shimin, kneaded her head for him, and said softly, "Then the concubine just say a few words, this matter has too much impact, Your Majesty might as well let Li Xiang, Xiao Xiang and Chen Xiang implement it locally, but not publicly issue an edict, as for Guanzhong Gyeonggi, it is better not to implement such a radical policy for the time being." If the Central Plains can alleviate the disaster, it will not be bad for Guanzhong. If the Central Plains can't solve it, the relevant China will not be enough. ”

Li Shimin listened thoughtfully, the queen meant to let him leave some leeway, so that he could also have a room to advance and retreat.

"Your Majesty, the concubine thinks that Li Xiangguo's strategy of catching locusts in Shannan is quite good. It is too difficult to completely exterminate locusts, and if you miss a random place, there may be hundreds of millions of locusts in the coming year, but while there is still time, we can catch locusts as much as possible, and then add the locusts to food and other things to make relief cakes, which is real. ”

"The concubine heard that one stone of grain can be made into five stones of relief food with locusts and other others, which is equivalent to a fourfold increase in grain out of thin air. If 10 million stone grain can be transferred to process disaster relief grain, then 10 million stone grain will become 50 million stone disaster relief food, and how many hungry people will be saved by then! ”

"Your Majesty, it is better to make public the formula of disaster relief food, and let the grain merchants and people in the world make their own disaster relief food, no matter who makes disaster relief food, every stone processed, can increase the grain several times!"

Li Shimin listened and slapped his thigh.

"What the queen said is exactly right!"

As long as the grain increases, whether it is sold by the grain merchants or by the imperial court, there will be more grain, and the more people will be able to live, and as for the rest, it will be secondary! (To be continued.) )