Landlord of the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 426 Two Locust Plagues
In Cangzhou, these big aristocratic families gritted their teeth at the merchants in Cangzhou, but there was nothing they could do except appeal.Because they discovered that their children and officials in this southern Hebei area have all become "clear" officials, but Qing is Qing.Want but not at all.Without the support of the government, this would be fine, and there would be no real suppression of businessmen in terms of class.The fact that a large family can survive for generations is of course deeply rooted, and it cannot be hit by a little commercial impact.

Several clans united to raise food prices.When the price of food is high, the common people will complain, so they can put pressure on the government.These people who said that they emphasized agriculture and suppressed commerce for the sake of the common people first harmed the common people for a little profit of the sub-commercial association.If the price of grain is high, there will naturally be grain merchants from other places who will bring grain here. After discussing with several families, they sent their own private soldiers to pretend to be thieves and block all the entrances and exits. The situation of siege.The food from the outside cannot come in, and the price of the food inside is priced a day, and the time has come when people will starve to death even if they hold gold.

Naturally, the price of grain in Cangzhou will not increase, and people from other states and counties in southern Hebei will definitely come here to buy grain.There is bound to be less food in Cangzhou. If it is snapped up, there will be not enough people in Cangzhou.

The people depend on food, and when the sky collapses, there will be complaints everywhere. Whether it is the governor of Cangzhou or the Daotai of southern Hebei, they cannot turn a blind eye.In this way, the family can open their mouths and enter the Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce.

This is the energy of the family. In the past, all the officials obeyed.And often the concessions have already been made before the common people can discuss them.

But this time, the Cangzhou Chamber of Commerce obviously did not want to make concessions immediately.Instead, it took a counter-offensive posture.First of all, the businessmen who traveled from south to north showed the sinister intentions of the aristocratic families, and let the anger of the people be imposed on those aristocratic families.Later, in order to prove that Cangzhou was not on the same side as the aristocratic family, Cangzhou opened Changping warehouses to suppress the rising grain prices.

This Changping warehouse, after the autumn harvest, Zhao Lu carried out several expansions intentionally or unintentionally, and purchased a large amount of grain.Up to now, even the whole of southern Hebei is scrambling to buy food, and it seems that they can't finish it.However, granaries are always limited. When Zhao Lu contacted Qin, the governor of Xingzhou, he asked him to suppress bandits in the territory and keep a passage in southern Hebei on the road.In addition, the fleet arranged by Xu Qing when he was in Qiantang also visited Cangzhou once. As long as this year's summer grain is delivered, a large number of grain ships will arrive, plus Cangzhou's own grain, so there should be no need to worry.

Suzhou and Hangzhou are familiar, and the world is full.

As long as the current food supply lasts until then, the siege of the clan will be resolved by itself.

The clansmen were complacent and the merchants had their own countermeasures. An official ran up to Zhao Lu and hurriedly said, "Master Zhao, Master Zhao, it's a locust plague!"

Zhao Lu suddenly stood up: "What did you say, say it again!"

"There are many other places in Xingzhou and Dezhou. The whole southern Hebei, except our Cangzhou, has already been plagued by locusts!"

Zhao Lu sighed and said, "I didn't expect that there were so many bugs born in such a heavy snow last year..."

At this moment, Chief Shi Zhanzeng said, "This locust plague is a big deal. Why is there no rumor in our county?"

The official explained: "I heard from the old man that we are near the sea in Cangzhou, where the wind is strong and there are many birds, so there are no locusts. However, once the locusts can fly, I'm afraid it will also harm our Cangzhou."

Zhao Lu stood up and said, "No, we must prevent the locusts from coming in. Come and issue a notice to let the people of Cangzhou come out to eliminate the insects."

The official quickly stopped him and said: "Master Zhao, no way, these locusts are the children of the Locust Immortal, if you kill them, the Locust Immortal will do harm instead."

But Zhao Lu scolded: "What locust locust, we have Mr. Xu in Cangzhou, afraid of a little monster? Come, call all the officials, let's go to Xugong's temple to worship, and bless me with a good summer harvest in Cangzhou."

There was indeed no locust plague in Cangzhou, and Xingzhou, which was under Qin Shi's jurisdiction, quickly organized personnel to extinguish the locust plague, because Qin Shi also firmly believed that the locust immortal was not as powerful as Xu Gong.However, when fighting insects in Qinghe County, they encountered resistance from local gentry.In the end, the plague of locusts flooded, the people suffered unspeakably, and the price of food increased further.The power of the family to last for thousands of years comes from its vast land and the people attached to the family.

Except for most of Cangzhou and Xingzhou, the situation in other places is similar to Qinghe County.The chief manager of Jinan Road immediately sent [-] people to Chang'an.But at this time in Guanzhong, due to Xu Qing's timely handling, the locust plague in the seven counties of Guanzhong was immediately extinguished.Instead, it was Xu Qing who asked the members of the Xu family to use money to buy a lot of property from down-and-out families.

Xu Qing's goal of enlightening people's wisdom has also been achieved. What kind of locust sage, we eat locusts, catch locusts, [-] catties a day, don't they come out?Mr. Xu said it well, what kind of locust locust is this, it is all rumored by those rich people, I advise everyone not to believe it, and beware of their excuses to seize our land.

And on the edge of Chang'an City, it's even more serious.For several days in a row, the palace would send people out to catch locusts one by one for a penny, causing people to go to the fields to catch locusts. Sometimes the whole family was mobilized, and children could earn a dozen big money.Later, more and more people were caught, and the locusts were worthless, ten pennies, one hundred, one catty...

At this time, Xuji Fuli Building in Chang'an City also launched a new dish called Fried Lu Shrimp. Lu Shrimp is the shrimp on land.For a while, all the distinguished guests in Chang'an City came to try it.Within more than ten days, the roasted locusts and fried locusts went from the palace to the dining tables of the common people.A few days later, there was not even a shadow of a locust in the field.Some hunters stopped hunting and went to the locust-infested counties to buy locusts.

Xu Qing inspected the seven counties and asked the farmers to plant melons and vegetables on the severely damaged land. The melons and vegetables have a relatively short maturity period and can be exchanged for money and food.This plague of locusts was quietly suppressed.And God, it seems that he is unwilling to let go of this opportunity for a locust plague, and there is another locust plague in Hebei.

There is nothing Xu Qing can do about it, the far water cannot save the near fire, if he rushes to Hebei to rescue the disaster, the trees will be eaten by the locusts, and the crops will be saved?Judging from the affected area and the extent of the disaster, the locust plague in Hebei was much more serious than that in Guanzhong, and the court had no choice but to come up with a disaster relief plan.

But Xu Qing didn't know that his old friend in the north, the descendants of the wolf god, had also learned about the locust plague outbreak.Since last winter, the Eastern and Western Turks have been fighting, and now it has reached the final stage.Ji Li Khan seems to have reached a consensus with the Western Turks to deal with Datang together, and the rest of the exchange of interests is just to buy cloth and send thread.

A good fighter can often detect the next opponent and smell the scars on the next opponent.

(End of this chapter)