The August night was already a little cool, the breeze blowing through the pool, bringing a hint of coolness to the surface of the water, and in the long corridor, two maids carrying lanterns led the way, and the faint orange light sprinkled all the way.

Behind is Pei Minqiu, the princess of Chu, carrying a delicate snack box, wearing a fine linen white skirt, and a short shirt, with a long red silk draped over her shoulders, her steps are swaying, and her demeanor is light.

Pei Minqiu's eyebrows frowned slightly, her husband barely moved his chopsticks for dinner today, she thought she had eaten in Jinyang Palace, but when she asked his personal soldiers, she realized that he did not dine in Jinyang Palace, and the personal soldiers said that he was a little preoccupied, which made Pei Minqiu a little surprised in his heart, what happened?

Walking to the inner study, Pei Minqiu knocked on the door, "Husband, it's me!" ”

"Come in!" Yang Yuanqing's voice came from the room.

Pei Minqiu pushed the door in, only to see that the light in the room was dim, there was no light, the window was open, and a round of moonlight sprinkled into the room, smearing the room with a layer of silver and white, her husband was leaning on a soft couch with a back, and he could faintly see his golden crown exposed above the soft couch.

Pei Minqiu smiled and shook his head, is it so poetic? She placed the food box on the table and lit the lamp, and the soft light filled the room.

She saw that there were quite a few mosquitoes in the room, so she hurriedly stepped forward to lower the screen window, turned around and smiled: "Do you know how to chant poetry, or give up your life to feed mosquitoes?" ”

Yang Yuanqing slapped two mosquitoes and said with a wry smile: "Did I send the food?" ”

"What do you say?"

Pei Minqiu asked her husband resentfully, opened the food box, put a few plates of side dishes and a bowl of rice in front of him, and took out a small bottle of peach wine and a cup from the food box.

"Eat it while it's hot!"

Yang Yuanqing was really a little hungry, so he picked up his chopsticks and ate his rice bowl. Suddenly, he stopped his chopsticks and asked, "How much is the rice now?" ”

"About forty bucks! The wheat is a little cheaper, I heard it is thirty-five cents. ”

"It's not cheap!"

Yang Yuanqing frowned, he remembered that before the Central Plains War, it was twenty-five dollars a bucket, and in a few months, it actually rose by fifteen dollars.

Just as the price of pork is an important indicator to measure prices, in the Sui and Tang dynasties and even for a long time, the price of grain was the direct criterion of prices. The people regard food as the sky, and if they don't have food to eat, they will rebel, so the rulers of all dynasties have regarded the price of grain as more important than the sky.

Yang Yuanqing pondered for a while and asked his wife: "Do you think this year is really a disaster year?" ”

He knew that his wife was not pampered in the courtyard of the deep house, and she often communicated with her subordinates. Very aware of the outside world.

Pei Minqiu then understood why her husband had no appetite for dinner, it turned out that she was worried about the disaster year, she also sat down, picked up a small wine bottle and poured a glass of wine for her husband. Softly persuaded him: "Isn't it normal to have a disaster year? How can there be a good harvest every year, and the grain is poor. The days are a little tighter, the grain is harvested, everyone is a little more comfortable, for thousands of years, haven't they all come like this? Why should you be so worried? ”

"But this year is extraordinary. The Great Sui has two major burdens in Hebei and the Central Plains, and there is a possible outbreak of hunger in Qingzhou. If you don't do it well, you have to rebel again. ”

"In fact, as long as the people can survive a little, no one will want to rebel, the key is that the government must be effective in disaster relief, don't be like the end of the Sui Dynasty, when there is grain in the official warehouse, they refuse to release grain. People had to rebel, that's what my grandfather told me. ”

One sentence reminded Yang Yuanqing. When he had time, he would like to visit Pei Ju and listen to his opinion.

Thinking of this, he took a drink from his wine glass and said to Pei Minqiu: "Early tomorrow morning, I will go outside the city to inspect the farmland to fight drought, and I am going to take Ning'er to inspect it together." ”……

In the south of Taiyuan City, after a village, is an endless farmland, according to the Sui Dynasty's uniform land system, in addition to ordinary farmers, the officials of the Sui Dynasty also have Yongye Field and Duty Field, according to the official rank, a total of nine and eighteen levels.

The highest is the prince, only Yang Yuanqing, his Yongye field is 10,000 acres, but Yang Yuanqing still has two farms in the past, one in Yanshi County, and the other in Jiangning County in the south, but these two farms are not included in the new Yongye field.

How to distinguish between the old field and the new field has always been a matter of heated discussion in the imperial court, and most officials believe that the old field cannot be considered in the division of the new field.

This is also a reality, Yang Yuanqing is because of his special status, so that Wang Shichong, who controls Yanshi County, and Li Mi, who controls Jiangning County, dare not touch his grange.

Other officials were not so lucky. With the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, most of the officials' old fields were deserted, or changed owners, Yang Yuanqing finally agreed with the opinion of the vast majority of officials, and the old fields were not considered when allocating new Yongye fields.

Although the system of permanent fields for officials was introduced last year, and officials at all levels can go to the household department to collect their own permanent fields, in fact, the vast majority of officials have not moved, which is not because they are self-disciplined.

Instead, they knew that Taiyuan would not be the capital for too long, and the officials wanted to receive the Yongye field near the capital after the new capital was determined, so as to leave it to their descendants.

And if you don't get Yongye Field, there will be a sum of Lu rice into the account every month, if you get Yongye Field, Lu rice will be halved, if you get another job field, then Lu rice will be nothing, even if you get the field now, it is difficult to find tenants, but the gains outweigh the losses.

Therefore, the officials of the Sui Dynasty were not very enthusiastic about receiving Yongye fields and job fields, and almost all of the endless land in the south of Taiyuan were the land of the peasant households, with an average of about 50 mu per household.

At this time, the Taiyuan area, like Hedong and even the entire Central Plains, suffered the worst drought in the six years of Daye.

There is a proverb in Hedong, called 'In the year of the small year, the year of the disaster, the Layue family should be listed'.

This means that if the summer harvest is a small year, then the autumn harvest is likely to be a disaster year, and now it is indeed happening, the drought has lasted for three months, and there have been only two light rains in three months.

The rivers have bottomed out, the land has dried up, and the rice has grown low and thin, and there is no energy, and in the fields, there are peasants who are busy watering, and from time to time you can see the figure of officials, carrying water and watering the land with the peasants.

At this time, a team of hundreds of cavalry slowly stopped on the official road not far away, and the leader was Yang Yuanqing, the king of Chu, who turned over and dismounted, and another personal soldier picked up Yang Yuanqing's eldest son, Yang Ning, from his horse.

Yang Ning is only seven years old this year, studied under Li Gang, has been studying for more than two years, is knowledgeable, polite, and has a sense of youth and old age.

He didn't talk much, and he knew that his father took him out not to play, but to inspect the people's conditions, so he didn't have the naughty naughty nature of ordinary children in the wild, but followed behind his father, pursed his lips tightly, and his expression was very serious.

Yang Yuanqing glanced at his son and saw that he was wearing a fine linen white robe, a leather belt around his waist, and a flat scarf on his head, dressed very plainly, no different from ordinary children from small families.

But his expression was serious and nervous, not at all playful and mischievous as a seven-year-old, and when he happened to see an egret flying through the sky, his dark eyes would also stare at the egret, and his eyes showed the heart of a young child.

Yang Yuanqing felt a trace of pity in his heart, and sometimes, he would rather his son be like other children, catch grasshoppers, go up trees and dig birds' nests, so that he could enjoy the happiness of teenagers.

But after all, he was the eldest son of the king of Chu, and he had too many burdens on his shoulders, Yang Yuanqing sighed secretly and stretched out his hand to him.

Yang Ning held his father's wide and warm palm, and the attachment in his heart spontaneously arose.

"Daddy, I can ride a horse, not a pony given to me by Daddy, but a big horse given to me by Uncle Qin, which is a little smaller than Daddy's horse."

Yang Yuanqing touched his son's immature little brain melon and said with a smile: "Do you know why Daddy didn't come out in the carriage?" ”

"I know, Master said that now there are rules in the imperial court, and only the elderly can ride in the carriage, and Dad has to lead by example, so he must ride a horse when he is on official business."

Yang Yuanqing was relieved in his heart, and said with a smile: "It's very good, starting a business is difficult, you must be more frugal, has your master taught you?" ”

"Master also warned the children yesterday that if you are strong and thrifty, you can't be poor, this is Xunzi's words, and the children should remember, Master appreciates Daddy's call for frugality, he said that this is the foundation of a strong country."

The father and son said as they came to the ridge, where several young officials who were helping farmers had already seen Yang Yuanqing and bowed one after another, "See Your Highness!" ”

"Everyone has worked hard, which temple are you from?" Yang Yuanqing asked with a smile.

This is a resolution made by Ziwei Pavilion, all officials under the age of 40 must go to the fields to assist farmers in fighting drought, and the rest of the officials will take time out to help farmers according to the situation.

Several young officials hurriedly replied: "We are subordinate officials of Dali Temple. ”

Yang Yuanqing nodded, he walked to the bucket, and saw that there was more than half a bucket of water in the bucket, the water was quite clear, but a nearby irrigation canal had bottomed out, and there was only a little muddy mud left, obviously the water in the bucket did not come from the irrigation canal.

"Where did this water come from?" Yang Yuanqing asked, pointing to the bucket.

"Returning to Your Highness, we assisted the peasants in digging a well, which is right in front of us, and is now irrigated with well water."

A young official stepped forward to demonstrate, scooped up a ladle of water, and slowly poured it on the rice roots, "That's the only way, a little water on a rice plant, although people are very tired, but at least they can save food."

Yang Yuanqing stood up and looked around, only to see that the endless rice fields were full of watering farmers, but the rice was very thin, and he frowned slightly, "In this way, when the autumn harvest comes, how many harvests can be harvested in one acre of land?" ”

An old farmer stepped forward and replied: "Your Highness, the drought in the sixth year of the Great Cause is similar to now, but at that time the drought resistance was not effective, and in the end the yield was reduced by eighty percent, and most of the rice grew into empty husks. ”

It is only fifty percent of the harvest, and this is still in Taiyuan, and it is even lower in other places, not to mention Qingzhou controlled by Dou Jiande.

Yang Yuanqing now finally understands why Du Ruhui is so worried, afraid that the victims of the seven counties of Qingzhou will pour into Hebei and the Central Plains, and the Qingzhou disaster will be combined with war, and the outbreak of the flood of victims is inevitable