Chapter 275 Wild Rice
Minister Cui calmed himself down and said, "My son has gathered some information. It's said that they have tamed some wild buffaloes. They are huge and extremely ferocious..."
The Lingnan border had various checks to prevent anyone from secretly spreading Lingnan's high-yield varieties and important news from Lingnan. However, these noble families also had their own methods and always found ways to get some information out.
However, the information they could obtain was limited, and most of what they spread was things that the people of Lingnan already knew.
Xiao Ye’s own people also knew the news that Minister Cui had just mentioned.
However, the people he sent out still don’t know how many people there are in the Lingnan army and what its strength is.
Xiao Ye recruited these people today not to gather information from them, but to have them work for him.
His purpose was the same as last time, still wanting to capture Jiang Tangtang. But this time, it was not just to capture Jiang Tangtang to threaten Lu Shiyan, but for something more important - the magic medicine.
In addition to the first group of imperial guards sent to capture Jiang Tangtang, he also sent several other groups of people. These people did not bring him any military secrets, but they did bring back an important piece of news.
Cao Lesheng, whose hand had been disabled for most of his life, suddenly had his hand healed miraculously.
Xiao Ye asked someone to investigate the major events that happened to the Cao family before they moved to Lingnan, and discovered a serious situation.
That is, the eldest grandson of the Cao family, who was diagnosed as incurable by doctors from major medical clinics in the capital, suddenly recovered from his illness.
In addition, Cao Lesheng's hand, which had been disabled for decades, suddenly recovered. After combining information from all sides, Xiao Ye deduced that the reason the Cao family moved to Lingnan was to repay a favor.
After Xiao Ye deduced the reason, he sent people to try to bribe several daughters-in-law of the Cao family. Later, Meng, the third daughter-in-law of the Cao family, sent a message saying that her father-in-law was taking a strange pill every day.
For a man who has been to the gates of hell and still possesses supreme imperial power, how could he not covet such a magical pill?
Xiao Ye’s current idea is to catch Jiang Tangtang and get the pills no matter what.
After the failure of the last time he sent out the imperial guards, he decided to change his strategy, which was to lure Jiang Tangtang out of Lingnan.
Xiao Ye talked with this group of court officials in the Yangxin Palace for an entire afternoon until it was completely dark. Only then did Minister Cui and others tremble and leave the Yangxin Palace.
Only after he got on the carriage did Minister Cui dare to show any emotion.
The capital was in danger at the time, and he wanted his son to take people to Lingnan secretly to find another way out for the Cui family. However, he did not expect that this would also become a hindrance to the Cui family.
*
The war and drought caused more and more refugees to flock to Lingnan.
"Madam, there are more than 3,000 refugees gathered outside the city gate outside Cangwu. What should we do? Can we accept so many refugees?" Yuan San walked in from outside with sweat on his head.
It's already autumn, but the weather is getting hotter. Because of the continued high temperatures and drought, Cangwu has already experienced its third wildfire.
Jiang Tangtang rubbed his temples and asked, "How's the situation with the search for wild rice?"
In addition to selecting people to go to the shipyard, they also had another important task when they came here, which was to look for sea rice.
She didn't know how long the drought would last, but she had to be fully prepared. A few days ago, while she was at the Bay Fishing Ground, she saw the saline-alkali land by the sea and suddenly remembered the sea rice she had heard of in her past life.
It is said that before sea rice was cultivated, someone first discovered wild rice growing in mud on the seashore.
This kind of rice is resistant to drought, flood, diseases and pests, lodging and salt and alkali.
If we can find this wild rice, we may be able to solve the food problem caused by drought.
Yuan San shook his head and said, "I haven't found it yet."
Jiang Tangtang knew that it was not easy to find wild rice, so she turned around and asked about the harvest in several places in Cangwu.
Yuan San thought about what he had seen in the fields over the past few days and sighed, "The bananas and lotus roots that Madam found are very drought-resistant, so the people have managed to get some harvest, and it's not like they've completely lost their crops."
"Refugees can still be allowed into the city, but the refugee office staff must carefully screen them and be wary of people other than refugees entering the city. Also, the speed at which refugees enter the city must be slowed down," Jiang Tangtang said.
"Then should we continue to provide porridge and disaster relief?"
"We'll continue distributing porridge to the victims. We'll cook it with bananas, lotus roots, and cassava. But we can't give it away for free. We'll ask them to make ropes in exchange."
Jiang Tangtang comforted herself that she only gave up a few tree roots, but she could get a steady supply of labor, which was a huge profit.
Yuan San said, "Are we buying bananas, lotus roots, and cassava from the common people? I'm afraid they won't be willing to sell them at this time."
Jiang Tangtang said, "Five pounds of bananas, lotus roots, or cassava for one pound of fish meal."
Fish meal is made by drying fish caught from the sea and grinding them into powder. It doesn’t taste very good, but people in Lingnan all know that fish meal is nourishing and can help people stay fuller than anything else.
For those who have patients at home or women who have just given birth and cannot eat meat, they will find ways to replace it with some meat to replenish their bodies.
Although it takes five pounds of bananas, lotus roots or cassava to exchange, if the family really needs it, I will still bear the pain and exchange it for one pound.
In addition to food shortages, drought also causes water shortages.
Jiang Tangtang had already arranged for people to dig underground wells to find water sources to solve people's drinking water problems.
Sometimes they could find groundwater successfully, but sometimes they would work for ten or twenty days in vain. No matter how hard or tiring the work of digging a well was, the common people rushed to do it.
Well diggers were provided with three meals a day, and all of them consisted of fish meal. Fish meal was very filling, and the more they worked, the healthier they became.
People think that it is because fish meal is nutritious, but they don’t know that the main reason lies in the water.
In order to allow the workers to work with full energy, Jiang Tangtang added spiritual spring water to the workers' water.
Not only the workers who dug wells, but also the workers who went out to sea to fish and the workers in the fishery, Jiang Tangtang would add spiritual spring water to these people's water whenever he found the chance.
The common people all thought it was good to work for the government, and they all rushed to do the work.
Jiang Tangtang had easily selected over two thousand workers to take back with him during his visit. After bringing these two thousand workers back to Lingnan, most of them were sent to the shipyard to build ships, while a small number were assigned to work in various places, such as fishing grounds.
Due to the drought, neither planting nor animal husbandry can develop, and now the focus is entirely on the sea.
The demand for ships is also increasing.
It was still not enough to put all the old ships into use, and the people in the shipyard worked day and night to build new ships.
The people Jiang Tangtang picked this time were mainly to do rough work like logging.
Although drought has countless disadvantages, it has only one advantage, that is, the felled trees dry faster than usual and can be put into use more quickly.
Since Jiang Tangtang transformed the aromatherapy ball into a "leveling frame" two months ago, and Lu Shili led the crew to systematically learn navigation knowledge, the big ship can now sail farther and bring back more fish.
In addition to fish meal becoming an important supplement for the people of Lingnan, the kelp from the kelp farms also brings infinite hope to everyone.
Today, Lingnan's kelp cultivation technology has become very mature, and the ten kelp farms have achieved considerable harvests of kelp.
It’s a pity that there are disasters everywhere and riots are frequent outside. The families with grain are also starting to get nervous. Even if the price is raised several times, they will no longer sell grain easily, and trade can only be postponed.
These seafood products, which were already in short supply, can only be sold internally for the time being. However, kelp is not as good as grain, so it can solve the problem temporarily, but it is not a long-term solution.
Fortunately, in mid-September, the people Jiang Tangtang sent out to look for wild rice finally brought good news.
Someone discovered wild rice in the mud on the seashore. The rice looked like rice on the outside but had red grains inside.
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