Qiao Xuan's health is getting worse and worse, and his state is also very unstable.

In the past few months, he has been sometimes sober and sometimes confused. When he was sober, he would teach Chen Xu, Dian Wei, and Qiao Yu wholeheartedly, and he was always inarticulate when he was confused.

Qiao Yu also invited a lot of medical workers, but they all said that it was not a disease, and once people got older, it would be like this.

After a few months of getting along, Chen Xu admired this old man very much, his profound knowledge and noble feelings were worth learning from Chen Xu for a lifetime.

In the courtyard of the mansion, there is a bed made of wood, which can be moved freely, and when the weather is hot, they will put it under the big tree and let Qiao Xuan lie on it to enjoy the shade.

During this time, there were several young people who accompanied him, and Qiao Xuan often became very excited, especially after seeing Chen Xu's amazing understanding of military affairs, he was even more happy, and he hated to teach him every day.

However, his health is good and bad, and he can't work too hard every day.

Chen Xu also knew this, so every time Qiao Xuan taught him, he would listen carefully.

In the sixth year of Guanghe, there were many places in the Han Empire that were all in drought.

Coupled with the ravages of locust plagues, the harvest season is approaching, and there is not much food left in the fields.

Chen Xu walked to the yard, took out a small flag, and found that it was still the east wind, and couldn't help sighing: "The drought will continue for a long time, and it seems that this year's grain will really be harvested." ”

When Qiao Xuan heard Chen Xu's words, he smiled with relief and beckoned to him. Chen Xu didn't dare to slack off, and immediately came to Qiao Xuan's side.

"How do you know how long the drought will last?"

Chen Xu looked at the small flag and said slowly: "Qiao Gong taught me that as a general, when you know the sky, know geography, and understand people. ”

"Now although I am not proficient in the time, but I also understand some superficial truths, now it is June, but some time ago there was a south wind blowing every day, as the so-called 'south wind in June, ten flushes dry nine flushes', this is a sign of a great drought."

"Recently, I finally changed the direction of the wind, but it blew the east wind for five days in a row, 'one day of east wind and three days of rain; The east wind is empty for three days', so how can there be rain? ”

"Bang Bang!" Qiao Yu clapped his palms and praised happily, "It's not in vain that I taught you!" The three of you, Guofu only loves martial arts and doesn't like to read; Ah Yu doesn't like military affairs; Only you can inherit my mantle. ”

"Xiao geography, this matter is easy to hear; It is not difficult to communicate with each other; Only when you know the sky, it is very difficult! ”

"Although the time is not as good as the location, the location is not as good as the people. However, if you can only employ people and know geography, but do not know the time of day, or if you are trapped by wind and rain during the march, the time will go by, and the morale will drop greatly, and at the worst, the whole army will collapse. ”

"The time is unpredictable, but some clues can be deduced from life."

"For example, the weather in the future can be judged by the different behaviors of animals; You can also judge whether it will rain or not by the time and wind direction. ”

"If it is judged that it will rain continuously, you can deceive the enemy and lure the enemy to go deeper, and when the heavy rain falls, the enemy will not be in a hurry to retreat, and if the grain and grass cannot keep up, it will definitely be defeated."

"You can also use heavy rain to block the enemy, and the wind direction can break the enemy's ......"

As soon as Qiao Xuan spoke, he was full of energy and gushing.

Chen Xu listened carefully and desperately remembered every word Qiao Xuan said.

He often thinks that in this era of the Three Kingdoms, which is full of heroes, Qiao Xuan is already old, if he is still young, I don't know what kind of light will bloom in this troubled era?

There was a commotion, and Qiao Yu came in with seven or eight house slaves, watching Qiao Xuan tirelessly teaching Chen Xu again, very worried about his body.

"Ahem!"

The more Qiao Xuan spoke, the more excited he became, and finally he coughed violently.

Chen Xu hurriedly stepped forward and gently patted his back with his right hand.

Qiao Yu also walked over quickly, poured a glass of water for the old man, hesitated, but still persuaded: "Boweng, you still have to rest more, your body is important." ”

The old man came back to his senses, smiled disappreciatively, and said, "If it weren't for Da Lang accompanying me every day, I might not have been able to survive to this day." ”

Hearing the gloom in the old man's words, Qiao Yu hurriedly said: "Bo Weng Hugh wants to speak like this, now that the Han is in turmoil, you must take care of your body as soon as possible and continue to serve the country." ”

"Big Han, big Han."

The old man muttered unconsciously, and then sighed, "The roots have rotted, can they still be saved?" ”

This sentence was a bit rebellious, and Qiao Yu's face changed when he heard this.

Chen Xu admired the old man's wisdom in his heart, the big man was indeed terminally ill and could not be saved.

When Cao Cao was not yet famous, Qiao Xuan said to Cao Cao: "The world will be chaotic, and talents who are not destined for the world cannot help." Those who can be safe, who are in the king? ”

Chen Xu, who has the memory of later generations, knows that this sentence was completely said by him, he has long seen the root cause of the Han Dynasty and Cao Cao's talent, with such a vision, although the world is big, how many people can reach it?

Qiao Yu was reluctant to continue this topic, and said to the old man: "Boweng, if there is a big drought today, many counties and counties have no harvest, I want to hoard grain and grass, I don't know if it is possible?" ”

Since ancient times, 'scarcity is precious', and a major drought will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in the grain harvest, so it is a good idea to stock up early, whether you keep it for emergencies or sell it for money later.

"Hoard grain and grass for a rainy day; If it's to make money, don't. ”

After Qiao Xuan finished speaking, he stood up tremblingly, Chen Xu and Qiao Yu immediately stepped forward and helped him to the house one left and one right.

After Qiao Xuan returned to the house to rest, Chen Xu and Qiao Yu came out, and Yu Yu Xu said: "What do you mean by Bo Weng's words? ”

Chen Xu thought for a while and replied, "I don't know. ”

The two later discussed that it was always right to hoard more grain, so they began to buy grain everywhere, and many wealthy families had the same plan, and for a while, the price of grain soared.

The grain in Yuzhou is harvested twice a year, and the days pass day by day, and after the crops are harvested, the farmers all want to cry without tears.

The drought and locust plague have caused a serious reduction in grain production, and some farmers have even failed to harvest.

Although the Han Dynasty said that taxes could be reduced or even exempted from taxes in disaster years, the war between the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Western Qiang lasted for a hundred years, which made the treasury empty, and the ten permanent servants had the right to play with it.

For a time, many families scattered their wealth and even sold their fields to pay taxes, and the people who lost their fields left their homes and became displaced people, and the Han Empire became even more turbulent.

Walking on the street, I saw many people in ragged clothes, hungry for food, and many people were skinny and cowered in the corners with blank expressions.

Chen Xu couldn't help but feel sour in his heart, and sighed alone: "Natural disasters continue, the government is corrupt, the powerful and rich take advantage of the fire to rob, how innocent are the ordinary people?" ”

Although the government says that the porridge is scattered every day, how can so many refugees be able to eat enough?

Chen Xu saw with his own eyes that an old man could only look at the world because he was weak and couldn't get porridge, and slowly closed his eyes.

That glance contains too much nostalgia and sadness.

He also saw a mother with shriveled and skinny breasts, who had to cut her fingers and feed her baby with blood.

Chen Xu has seen too much of the things mentioned above.

He also wanted to help these people, but he was just a fugitive who was taken in by others, even if he could help one person, or even ten people, could he still help a hundred or a thousand people?

At this time, he couldn't help but think of the Taiping Taoist who had been to Chenjia Village.

Once heard him say that he was living a miserable life of homeless people, Chen Xu didn't feel it yet, and after seeing it with his own eyes, he was deeply shocked.

"Is the Yellow Turban Rebellion about to break out?"

Chen Xu didn't know in which year the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, he only knew that because of the national drought, the crops were not harvested and the taxes were not reduced, and the desperate peasants rose up one after another under the leadership of Zhang Jiao.

What has been described in history is so similar to what it is today.

Now Chen Xu's beard has grown a little, and his dress is different from before, and this place is far away from Dongjun, and no one knows him, so even if he appears on the street, he is not afraid that someone will recognize him.

Chen Xu walked unconsciously on the street, and when he walked to a grain store, he suddenly heard someone in the store talking about something in a hurry, he was a little curious, and couldn't help but listen carefully.

"It's really unlucky, I thought that in a famine year, I could take the opportunity to sell grain at a high price by hoarding grain in advance, but I didn't expect that after such a long time, the grain could not be sold, and now the price of grain has fallen lower than the purchase price."

The voice of the speaker was a little angry.

How is it possible that the price of grain will fall in disaster years?

After Chen Xu heard this, he felt incredible, he ran several grain stores in a row, and found that few people went to buy grain, and the price of grain was really low.

According to the law of the market, the supply of grain in a disaster year is absolutely less than demand, and there is absolutely no possibility of a drop in grain prices in a disaster year.

Scratching his hair in distress, Chen Xu was puzzled.

In fact, Chen Xu only knows one but not the other.

As far as market demand is concerned, there is nothing wrong with the supply of food being less than demand, but he does not think about the problem from the position of the poor people.

The famine and heavy taxes have squeezed out almost all the savings of poor families, and some people cannot support themselves to become homeless, so how can they have the money to buy food?

Even if some families are struggling to support them, their lives are frugal and frugal, and they dare not add clothes when they are cold, and they dare not eat food when they are hungry, so how can they go to buy food?

Most of the rest of the rich and noble families spent huge sums of money to hoard a lot of grain, and there was no need to buy grain at all, but they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to make more money.

As a result, a strange phenomenon has been formed, where the rich and noble families have a mountain of grain, and they all want to take it out and sell it to collect funds; The poor people could not afford to buy food.

In this way, the whole market is turned upside down, so that supply far exceeds demand, so that the price of grain falls.

Seeing this, some people may wonder, where did the money spent by those rich people buy grain?

First of all, it is always the rich who control large tracts of land, and they have far more food in their hands than the poor people.

Even if the poor people sold their grain and got some property, most of it was used to pay taxes, and eventually the money was gathered in the hands of eunuchs and corrupt officials.

Thinking of this, Chen Xu clenched his fists and said secretly in his heart: "In such a society, how can the people not rebel?" It seems that the Yellow Turban Rebellion is not far off! ”