sbdcsierra Chapter 350 Drought
Chapter 350 Drought
Since the beginning of winter last year, the amount of snow in Shengjing and surrounding provinces has been significantly less than in previous years, and since the beginning of spring, spring rain has been even rarer. Fortunately, the people in Shengjing and its surrounding areas fought drought and conserved moisture in time, so that the wheat seedlings in the fields were able to be filled with juice.
Old Cai picked up an ear of wheat that had fallen on the ground, twisted it in his hand, and the brown and yellow wheat grains came out. Old Cai spread it in his palm, looked at it carefully, then sighed and said.
"It seems that the continuous drought in winter and spring has had a significant impact on this year's wheat harvest."
Ye Changyan and Liang Jingcheng accompanied Mr. Cai to the farm in Sanyuan County, where wheat was being harvested. The master and his disciples walked around the fields and saw the not-so-full wheat grains. A hint of worry emerged on Mr. Cai's face.
"Just now I heard from Manager Yang that Sanyuan County is relatively less affected by drought than other surrounding counties. This is due to the fact that there are three large rivers flowing through Sanyuan County. The tributaries of the large rivers are spread all over the county, which has greatly helped the people fight drought and conserve soil moisture. However, the drought situation in counties with fewer rivers is more serious. Although there has not been a total crop failure, a reduction in production is inevitable."
Ye Changyan looked at the twenty or so not-so-full wheat grains in Mr. Cai's hand and recalled what Yang Lin had just told him.
"The reduction in crop yields caused by this wave of drought will inevitably be transmitted to food prices. I hope the court will respond as soon as possible and not let those unscrupulous merchants who hoard goods to make a big fuss about food prices!"
Mr. Cai recalled that when he was young, he was urgently appointed as the prefect of Zhangzhou and went to Zhangzhou to fight floods. Grain merchants in Zhangzhou and its surrounding areas colluded, causing grain prices in Zhangzhou to soar, and the people were living in dire straits.
At the beginning, Mr. Cai obtained the approval of His Majesty, who allowed him to execute first and report later. Then Mr. Cai used thundering means to crack down on hoarding and profiteering. The cells in the government office were filled with profiteers who drove up the grain prices. In the end, he beheaded the two merchants who took the lead in driving up the grain prices in the street. He also transferred a lot of grain from other prefectures. Only then did he bring down the grain price.
Thinking of this, Mr. Cai sighed again and shook his head.
Seeing that Mr. Cai looked a little sad, Ye Changyan and Liang Jingcheng took him to pick strawberries.
The strawberries in the greenhouse have passed their peak fruit-bearing period. Only a few not-so-large strawberries can be seen hanging on the vines. Yang Lin has already started to propagate new strawberry seedlings by the method he taught. After autumn, they can be transplanted on a large scale.
After the Dragon Boat Festival, the weather in Shengjing gradually became hotter. Ye Changyan instructed Yang Lin and Dai Xing that after the wheat was dried and stored in the warehouse, they would turn the remaining land on the farm into greenhouses. The newly built greenhouses would be mainly used to grow strawberries and watermelons, with a small part left for growing other vegetables.
There were many helpers on the farm, and the wheat, which was not too much to begin with, was harvested very quickly. When Ye Changyan and his apprentice finished harvesting the wheat and brought it back to Shengjing, the Imperial College still had two days of leave for the students. Ye Changyan and Liang Jingcheng went to Yunfeng Tower as scheduled, and Li Ping promised to host a banquet for the two and celebrate for them.
"This is the prize you two earned by asking me to help you bet on the Guozi Tiangang team."
As he spoke, Li Ping took out a stack of silver bills and handed them to Ye Changyan and Liang Jingcheng.
"Here is a banknote of ten thousand taels, count them."
Ye Changyan chuckled, took it and put it in his arms. This silver note was not very popular in other provinces, but most of the large-scale capital transactions in Shengjing had already adopted the more convenient silver note.
"Why are you still ordering? You are embarrassing me!"
"I've always wondered where you got the confidence from. You two dared to ask me to borrow two thousand taels to bet on yourself. If I hadn't watched the live game, I would really suspect that you were bragging. After you came on the court, I finally understood why you dared to say that you were the killer of the Guozi Tiangang team. Was this a strategy you had planned long ago?"
Ye Changyan smiled and took over Li Ping's words.
"This really wasn't our planned strategy, but before Lu Xiaotong fell off his horse that day, I felt something was a little strange. First, when drawing lots, Lu Xiaotong was supposed to draw the lots, but I saw that Lu Xiaotong seemed a little nervous, so I suggested that Jing Cheng, who had just won the archery championship that morning, draw the lots. Afterwards, Jing Cheng said that when the lots were drawn, the people from the other three teams were all looking at the four lots in Yang Siye's hand, as if there was some secret hidden in these four lots."
When Li Ping heard Ye Changyan say this, he was curious, but he poured a cup of tea in his hand and pushed it towards Ye Changyan. Then he poured another cup and pushed it to Liang Jingcheng, and finally poured himself a cup.
As soon as Ye Changyan finished speaking, Liang Jingcheng took over the conversation.
"When we were drawing lots, I felt something was a little strange. I thought they were just being polite and reluctant to do anything, but when they were still hesitant to do anything, I took the lead and drew one."
Liang Jingcheng picked up the tea that Li Ping pushed over to him, took a sip, and continued.
"When they saw the color on the lot I drew, they seemed a little surprised. However, they were still unwilling to draw the remaining three lots, as if they still wanted to see something from the remaining lots. It was only then that Yang Siye became impatient and stretched out his hands to each of them before he finished drawing the lots."
"So if you say so, is there something fishy going on when drawing lots?"
Hearing Liang Jingcheng say this, Li Ping became even more curious, and he picked up the teapot to fill Liang Jingcheng's cup.
"At first, I was just suspicious of the draw. It seemed like someone had deliberately arranged it, and I suddenly decided to let Jingcheng draw the lots. It seemed that I had accidentally disrupted the other party's arrangement."
"You mean, if you hadn't suddenly decided to let Jing Cheng draw lots, your opponent in the first game might not have been the Fenghuo Cavalry?"
Ye Changyan picked up the teacup, took a sip, then nodded slightly.
"No wonder the Black Armor Cavalry team was eliminated with such a huge disparity in scores. With the Black Armor Cavalry team's level in the preliminaries, they shouldn't be so weak when facing the Wolf Knights!"
Ye Changyan took the teapot, refilled Li Ping's cup first, then poured himself a cup, and then continued.
"That's right. After we defeated Fenghuo Cavalry in the first game, Lu Xiaotong went to the toilet while everyone was resting. When he came back, I found that he was a little absent-minded. Lu Xiaotong, who entered the final, seemed like a different person. He was completely out of shape. The opponent scored four goals in a row from Lu Xiaotong."
"You mean to say that Lu Xiaotong was bribed and deliberately fixed the match?"