Chang'an.

Li Shimin has had a headache recently.

The drought in Guanzhong is getting worse and worse, and large areas of crops have died. Li Shimin has been going to pray for rain every day recently, but God has no face at all. Li Shimin peeled off the rain prayer platform, but he can't even see a dark cloud.

After a long drought, the rain did not come, and Li Shimin had no choice but to stop praying and then issued a crime to the world.

As the rain stopped, the prices of grain in Beijing began to rise again.

Although the price increase is expected, it has increased too quickly.

Two hundred coins of rice are already the highest price since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, but this price is still rising. It is reported that the grain store in the market now has to be replaced several times a day, and it closes and stops selling grain every afternoon.

Changping warehouses has long stopped releasing grain.

Don't dare to release food.

There is too little grain in the warehouse, and if the grain is left, there is even more no way.

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

At this time, there were still people making a fuss.

Li Shimin waved his hand, and the eunuch brought a few big boxes and placed them in front of the censor Du Yan and the censor Sun Fujia.

"You can see it yourself. All these memorials are impeachment Wenyuan. The situation is difficult now. I am worried day and night, and I have to read so many such memorials. Do you know what I want to say most after seeing these memorials?"

"I want to curse myself!"

"These censors did not know how to relieve the worries of the king and the country. At this time, they were still attacking those who were serious about serving the court. Wen Yuan took up the local area, worked hard and worked hard to help the court, just to share the worries and difficulties for the court. But because he moved the food bags of the powerful people in those places, these people attacked. I know that many of my censors were from Shannan. It was time to think about these things, which disappointed me so much."

"I am also very disappointed with you two. I have handed over the Censorate to you two, but how do you manage the Censorate? Is it just for them to attack my prime minister?"

Du Yan and Sun Fujia hung their heads very low.

Regarding the impeachment of Li Chao this time, Du Yan and Sun Fujia had an argument in the Censorate. Sun Fujia felt that it should be intercepted, but Du Yan felt that Li Chao had done a little too much in Shannan, and that the emperor could also let the censors know by banging it.

Du Yan was the chief censor. With his support, the memorial for impeachment was like a snowflake.

However, the emperor's trust in Li Chao now is far beyond Du Yan's expectations.

As an emperor, of course, he would not trust ministers unconditionally, especially ministers of Li Chao. But for Li Shimin, he had only been emperor for more than half a year. Li Chao's help and loyalty to him made Li Shimin believe in him.

The most important thing is that in the current situation, what Li Shimin urgently needs is someone like Li Chao who is willing to do practical things and can do practical things. At this time, it is not the time to consider other things. If you scold Li Chao now, even the lightest tone of asking will change the wind direction.

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, he had tried his best. How could he transfer Li Chao back?

As for everything Li Chao did in Shandong, Li Shimin knew.

Li Chao bought grain in Shannan and was very beautiful. In one of the sixteen states on the east side of Shannan, he raised more than 5 million stones of grain in a short time. Now he has made this grain coupon and cooperated with the disaster relief cake. Li Shimin thinks the solution is good.

Li Chao's method is indeed a bit tough.

And buying is to use strong, unifying the price of grain is to use strong, and buying grain based on grain coupons is also to use strong, which has indeed greatly infringed on the interests of the local tyrants.

If it were normal times, Li Shimin could not sit idly by and watch such things happen. The power of local tyrants was also very powerful, and the emperor would not dare to offend them all.

But when is it now?

Offending the powerful and damaging their interests will indeed lead to future troubles. But if we do not do this, millions of people in the Central Plains will become hungry people, and the hungry people will move and become refugees, which will be even more terrifying.

The two evils are the least.

Li Shimin could only make helpless choices in this.

He was considering whether he should also implement these tough policies of Lu Chao in Guanzhong, Henan, Hebei and other places.

Unify grain prices, plan quantitative allocation of grain, process grain into disaster relief cakes to increase the amount of grain

All of them are ruthless moves. Once these moves are used, they will inevitably greatly damage the prestige of the court, but Li Shimin didn't have many choices.

The two evils are the least!

The more famine is, if the court does not use some powerful means, the harder it will be to control the situation. The food prices will rise more and more outrageously, and the rich will hoard food.

Just as Li Chao said, on the one hand, there were hungry people without food, and they changed their children to eat. On the other hand, there were rich landlords full of granaries at home, but they didn't take out a grain of food.

After the famine, millions of people starved to death, and those precious foods may become moldy and rotten in the warehouses of rich people.

After letting Du Yan and Sun Fujia retreat, Li Shimin watched what Li Chao did in Shannan and fell into deep thought.

Should Guanzhong learn from Li Chao's method and take over the grain merchants' grain? Should we also have a unified grain price, and should we implement a grain-based grain coupon system?

Li Shimin was still a little hesitant.

Guanzhong is no better than Shannan.

In the south of the mountain, there are all local tyrants. However, in the Guanzhong and Jingzhou, those who have food are generally honorary and powerful people, and these people are the foundation of the court.

If you implement the methods of overweight, you will offend all these people with one blow.

But if you don’t have to force yourself, it would be too young to expect these people to think about the court and take the initiative to help the court overcome this difficulty.

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

During the meal, Li Shimin asked Empress Changsun about this problem.

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

"Your Majesty, this kind of military and national affairs should not be interrupted by a woman."

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

Empress Changsun walked behind Li Shimin, rubbed his head for him, and said softly, "Then I will say a few words. This matter has a great impact. Your Majesty might as well let Li Xiang, Xiao Xiang and Chen Xiang implement it in the local area, but it is not a public edict. As for the capital of Guanzhong, we should not implement such radical strategies for the time being. If the Central Plains can alleviate the disaster, it is not bad for Guanzhong. If the Central Plains cannot solve it, Guanzhong will not be enough."

Li Shimin thought to himself after hearing this. The queen meant that he could leave some room for advancement and retreat.

"Your Majesty, I think that Li Xiangguo's strategy to catch locusts in Shannan is quite good. It is too difficult to completely eliminate locusts. If you miss a piece of land, there may be billions of locusts in the coming year. But while there is still time, try to catch locusts as much as possible, and then turn the locusts into disaster relief cakes with food. This is real."

"I heard that one stone of grain can be used with locusts and other other things to make five stones of disaster relief food, which is equivalent to a four-fold increase in food out of thin air. If 10 million stones of grain can be transferred to process disaster relief food, then 10 million stones of grain will become 50 million stones of disaster relief food. How many hungry people will be saved at that time!"

"Your Majesty might as well disclose the recipe for disaster relief grains, so that grain merchants and the people can make their own disaster relief grains. No matter who makes disaster relief grains, every stone you process can increase the grain several times!"

When Li Shimin heard this, he slapped his thigh.

"What the queen said is right!"
Chapter completed!