“Do people in Huaibei eat rice?”

Zhao Jiu walked out of a thatched adobe house, holding a rice jar in his hand, followed by a nervous old man, but he made an empiricist mistake as soon as he opened his mouth. "I see that there are only wheat stacks and bean stalks around here, and very few rice stalks, but why are there so few beans, and there is less flour than rice?"

"Reporting...Reporting to the king."

The old man was trembling with nervousness, while the village head, who had obviously seen through the identity of this great king, simply lay on the ground with his butt sticking out. There was no other way, so Yang Yizhong, the know-it-all, had to do it himself. "North of the Yellow River, everything depends on river transportation. Huainan's rice and cloth are all transported to Tokyo, so most people north of the Yellow River can eat rice. In addition, wheat is not easy to store, and beans are precious, so people in Huaibei eat steamed bread made of flour early, and then sell beans. When they need to store grain, they store corn for the distant and rice for the nearby."

Zhao Jiu suddenly realized. Combined with the previous data of the Song Dynasty's population of 120 million, he understood that when the population reached a certain level, the social division of labor became more refined, which then led to the development of the commodity economy!

According to Yang Yizhong, it is obvious that the rice in Huainan was naturally circulated and supplemented to the Huaibei area due to its large output; and bean feed was more like an economic crop at this time, used to exchange for money; corn, also known as millet, was actually far inferior to rice, flour, and bean feed in terms of output, value, and even taste, but because it was extremely resistant to storage, it maintained a certain value for a long time.

"Is there any millet at home, father-in-law?" Thinking of this, Zhao Jiu turned around and faced the old man.

"No, no!" The old man was already a little confused, and when he saw the 'king' guarded by dozens of cavalrymen, he was so shocked that he couldn't even speak smoothly.

Fortunately, this is the heartland of the Central Plains, and the accent is relatively native to Zhao Jiu, so communication is manageable.

"Prepare some!" Zhao Jiu sighed slightly upon seeing this and returned the rice jar in his hand.

"Thank you, thank you, Your Majesty." The old man was so surprised that he hurried to hug him, not knowing whether he noticed the other party's reminder or not.

Zhao Jiu returned the rice jar and got on his horse without saying much. He paid no attention to the headman who was already trembling on the ground, and slowly left the second village he visited under the protection of a group of Red Heart Knights.

To be honest, Zhao Jiu was feeling very complicated at this moment.

First of all, today he visited two villages next to each other, and the scenes in both places were not as bad as he had imagined... According to his sense of superiority as a modern man, and his imagination of the low productivity and severe class contradictions in ancient times, plus the so-called cruel rural environment in the war years that he learned from those online articles.

Therefore, the village here should be "white bones exposed in the wild, no roosters crowing for a thousand miles", plus "old men climbing over the wall, old women going out to look".

But the reality is half and half.

It is true that there was no crowing of roosters for a thousand miles, but there were really no bones exposed in the wild; it is also true that the old woman went out to look, but the old man had not yet climbed over the wall, so he also went out to look... Among them, there was no crowing of roosters, only the old man and the old woman went out to look. It is obvious that this is because this place is too close to the military camp, and the common people have left to avoid possible war disasters.

But at the same time, the roads in the village are neat, and although there are some particularly dilapidated thatched mud houses with local characteristics, suggesting the complete bankruptcy and escape of the owners, overall, the mixed colors of old and new and the vitality that cannot be concealed in most of the houses and courtyards still show that the two villages are still healthy.

In addition, the coarse cloth clothes of the elderly and weak who stayed behind in the village were also clean. The head of the village just now was even wearing a neatly dyed silk straight-sewn suit with hidden patterns.

In short, productivity is low, because internal oppression caused by the war in the north also exists, the gap between the rich and the poor is even more obvious, and the people at the bottom of society can be seen counting the rice in the rice jar to make a living... But as long as the war does not affect this place, it is still a normal countryside.

Besides, when Zhao Jiu was in Mingdao Palace before, he had gone out to see it, but it might be because it was further north, and the surrounding area was mostly the "imperial farm" of Mingdao Palace. He rode on horseback in the early morning and then hurried back. Therefore, it was difficult for this official Zhao to get in touch with the real grassroots style. So much so that in his mind, the Song Dynasty, which had been governed by the Taoist Emperor for decades, was regarded as the scene after the death of Wanli, that is, the end of the world that seemed to be foolish, but in fact it would be broken with a single poke.

But now it seems that this place can be regarded as the Jiajing period at most. The so-called Jiajing Jiajing every family was clean. Because of the exploitation of the self-righteous Emperor Daojun and the corruption of the bureaucrats, it was true that the people were struggling on the brink of bankruptcy, but it seemed that there was still some distance before the whole society got out of control and went bankrupt and was hopeless.

But if we say this, doesn’t it make the Taoist emperor look even more capable? Jiajing’s name also has a “Jing” in it, so he could also be capable, but he didn’t do anything like the Jingkang Shame? !

Of course, considering this official's poor level of historical knowledge and his rough and general imagination, plus the fact that he has never worn the clothes of Jiajing and Wanli, it can be said that his imagination is just wishful thinking!

"Your Majesty is truly a kind-hearted emperor."

Seeing Zhao Jiu unconsciously walking towards the boundary ditch while thinking about random things, Yang Yizhong finally couldn't help but speak again. "Knowing that there are bandits ahead, if a war breaks out in winter, the Yingshui and Huaishui rivers will certainly be cut off. Coupled with the winter ice, it is possible that transportation will be difficult for the entire winter, so I reminded the old man to store some corn."

"The old man may not listen, and the world is in chaos. Hebei and Hedong have basically fallen. You said that the Song Dynasty has a population of 100 million to 200 million. At this time, there are more than 10 million or 20 million people suffering from war. In the future, there will be more than 30 or 40 million people suffering from war." Zhao Jiu came to his senses immediately, but he spoke slowly without turning his head. "So as the Son of Heaven, doing this little kindness is like a joke..."

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