Meanwhile, the water in the city's wells was almost dried up.

Besides working hard to store water and gather medicinal herbs from outside, he also had to be careful to prevent the people from dying from heatstroke and plague.

When Chi Yu arrived at the county government office, he had already put on his tattered clothes and was leading County Magistrate Zheng and the others, preparing to set off.

Upon hearing from Constable Lü that she had arrived, Fang Shizhong immediately put down his carrying pole and personally came out to greet her!

"Mr. Chi, when did you get back?"

Fang Shizhong's smile was particularly bright when he said this.

Although Guo Fu's men came to tell him in advance that they had sent the person back.

But he was still not entirely at ease when he didn't see anyone.

After all, Amu had mentioned in his previous letter that the Chi family might donate a batch of grain to the Northern Frontier.

Especially the grains, which were sweet potatoes and potatoes, which were rare at the time.

Currently, due to the excessively hot weather, Guantian is trying every possible means to collect it.

However, they only harvested one acre.

The yield of that one acre alone is incomparable to that of rice and wheat.

Therefore, he wanted to take this opportunity to exchange it for as much coarse grain as possible and transport it to northern Xinjiang.

In previous years, due to the constant harassment by the Northern Di people, 100,000 troops were stationed to guard the northern frontier.

Even after the truce and the weakening of their forces, they still retained 80,000 troops.

Even though he had made preparations beforehand, and in addition, Chi Yu had donated more than 10,000 taels of silver to buy grain some time ago.

However, this was still insufficient, far from enough, to support 80,000 soldiers.

The entire Great Chu Kingdom is currently experiencing extreme heat and drought.

He could foresee that in the next year or two, not only would the national treasury not receive any grain, but it would also have to continuously send relief supplies abroad.

Under these circumstances, the supply of provisions for the frontier becomes a problem.

We cannot rely entirely on the imperial court; we must be self-sufficient.

Therefore, aside from water resources, the only options for grain production were donations from people or planting by military households.

In this weather, even if you water ordinary seeds every day, they won't grow anything.

Therefore, the drought-resistant supplies donated by Chi Yu are especially important to the Northern Frontier and the Great Chu Kingdom!

To be honest, this was the first time Chi Yu had ever seen Fang Shizhong smile so sincerely.

Upon seeing the person, she first handed over the zongzi she was holding, and then said:

"Lord Fang, it's past midnight now, so it's the Dragon Boat Festival."

This rice dumpling is a small token of my appreciation; please try it.

Fang Shizhong personally accepted the zongzi and then distributed one to each of Zheng County Magistrate, Wang County Lieutenant, and others.

In the end, he only had one left in his own hands.

He didn't mince words; instead, right in front of the fish in the pond, he peeled it open and took a bite.

"Delicious, one bite and your mouth is filled with fragrance."

The triangular rice dumpling was small, and Fang Shizhong was a young man in his early twenties.

After speaking, he finished the zongzi in just a few bites.

He didn't throw away the bamboo leaves, but handed them to Officer Lü, telling him to keep them safe, wash and dry them later, and store them away.

After Officer Lü had walked away with the bamboo leaves, he looked at the fish in the pond and asked:

"Mr. Chi, you've come at this hour because of the grain?"

Chi Yu didn't expect him to be so direct, but since she was going to donate anyway, she didn't waste any more words.

"Yes, I have plenty of sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn."

I didn't manage to hold out for long, but I've brought quite a bit over these past two days. Sir, would you like to take some men over to check on it now?