Chu Qing went to look at the announcement and saw it read:

A severe drought has hit the country and there has been no rain for several months. The rice seedlings are weak and weak, and food prices are difficult to control.

For the sake of the common people, starting today, all grain shops in the government will take turns selling rice at low prices, with a limit of one bucket per household, while supplies last.

The signature is: Yibin Chamber of Commerce.

Who is this announcement fooling?!

"Fair price" is a joke. Grain prices have continued to rise since early February this year, but the increase is not large. After all, grain prices will rise after the first month of every year, and only during the autumn harvest are the lowest grain prices.

There is also "while stocks last". What is the total amount sold out? It can be said to be one stone, or it can be said to be a hundred stones, there is no definite number!

At a time when food prices are rising steadily, publicly saying that "food prices are difficult to control" is not to scare the people and create panic?

This year is a drought. The drought is not particularly serious at present. People can still carry water to irrigate the fields, but there is no water to irrigate the fields.

Furthermore, after all, there are many rivers in the south. Even if there is a drought in one or two places, the food harvest in the six provinces in the south of the Yangtze River will not be lost.

If the Yibin government office really cared about the people, why didn't they transport food from various places earlier, suppress food prices, and lead the people to tide over the difficulties together?

Instead, he secretly and overtly made a promise to Chu Qing to choose a site to grow cotton?

He was flatly rejected by Chu Qing the day before, and the next day he made a chamber of commerce issue an announcement, causing the people to panic and have no food to eat. Then there was a rumor on the street that the cotton clerk was allowed to raise chickens and ducks?

Combined with the letter from Deputy Wang Qianhu Toru just now, the Gaozhi Prefecture has spun a web for Chu Qing!

It's a pity that there are no mobile phones in this world, so we can't take screenshots or record videos. Otherwise, we would have to record today's scene. If there are pictures, then there is the truth!

But it doesn’t matter. The scene of people all over the street going to grain stores to buy food is something everyone can see. Chu Qing first made a note to the prefecture: let the situation develop in a bad direction and condone the expansion of panic.

If there is a picture and the truth, change the word "condolence" to: guidance.

This matter still needs to be observed and fermented, Chu Qing turned around and left.

There is another important thing to do today: inspect the locusts.

Now that we have thought that "there will be locusts in extreme drought", we have to carefully visit local farmers to understand where the floods reached last year and where there are more locusts in autumn.

Locusts are found everywhere, more or less. Even in modern rural areas, you can still catch a few if you go to the fields.

Therefore, success or failure does not depend on whether there are them, but on whether they are abundant or not.

When we came to the field, we saw that the seedlings were really thin and looked wilted. The farmers were organized by the village and gathered a few donkeys to pull carts, and the old men drove them to the river to pull water.

The young and strong men hung buckets on their poles and went in groups to fetch water.

Chu Qing had a horse, so he and Xiangzi rode first to the river to have a look.

The drought was so severe that the washing stones by the river stood high and were completely exposed.

In the past, they were only one instep higher than the water surface.

Chu Qing stood beside the stone, which was as high as a palm above the ankle bone.

There is only dry sand and gravel under the stone, and you have to walk two steps forward to reach water.

The river has become thinner.

An old man squatted on the ground in the distance and was groping for something. There was a donkey cart next to him. He was waiting for the people who went to deep water to carry water back.

"Old man," Chu Qing walked over and greeted him: "I want to ask you, do you know if there is anyone selling chickens or ducks around here?"

While he was talking, his eyes were staring at the dirt twisting in the old man's hand.

The sand by the river was relatively loose, and Chu Qing saw that the old man had dug out a fist-deep hole in his hand, and there were a few neatly arranged, yellow, cylindrical objects in the soil in his hand.

Those are locust eggs.

When the old man heard someone talking, he instinctively turned up the back of his hand so that no one could see what was in his hand.

"Oh, ducklings? They don't seem to be for sale. No one can hatch many. You have to keep them for yourself, otherwise there won't be enough." The old man replied, and at the same time asked: "Do you want to buy ducklings?"

Chu Qing knelt down next to her father-in-law: "Yes, I want to buy more."

The old man moved to the side, then moved again, and finally stood up. He looked at Chu Qing with some vigilance, and then at Xiangzi who was leading two horses not far away.

"What do you do?" the old man asked, very wary of the man in front of him who was dressed in men's clothing but had a woman's voice.

In the distance, there was a young man fetching water, carrying a pole and walking this way. The old man unconsciously moved his body in that direction, as if he was looking for support.

"I am in business and want to buy some ducklings and chickens to sell in the city. I saw that the government office posted a notice asking people to raise chickens and ducks!" Chu Qing said.

She was still wearing men's clothes today, and she looked like a clerk in a shop, but she didn't look like a businessman.

The old man looked it up and down, but it didn't look like he was doing business.

When purchasing ducklings and chickens, you only need to ride a horse, without a cart or a box. What should you use to store and transport them?

While he was talking, the young man carrying water had already approached and asked, "Second uncle, who is this person?"

"I'm in business," Chu Qing repeated what he just said.

When the young man heard this, he immediately put down his pole and asked: "Can two-month-old chickens and ducks be okay? Why do you want to buy chickens and ducks? It's bad luck and it's not easy to feed them. Two-month-old ones can live well."

live!"

"Qijin, go do your job!" the old man scolded.

"Second uncle, if someone buys it, let's sell it! Otherwise it will stink and cost food!" The young man named "Qijin" muttered, a little afraid of this second uncle, but also wanted to express his thoughts.

"Get out of here! Go to work!" The old man still scolded Qijin, who had no choice but to pour the water into the big tank on the cart, and then walked towards the river carrying the empty bucket.

Chu Qing smiled: "Two-month-old chickens and ducks cost a little food, but it's okay. How much do they cost?"

"I won't sell it!" the old man said firmly.

"Why? I think the official will allow no less than fifty. If you have any extra, can you sell them to me?" Chu Qing continued.

I don't really want to buy it, but I want to see if everyone has raised it, whether it continues to hatch, and also to see the people's attitude towards this matter.

The old man held Tu's hand tightly, turned his back and ignored it.

Chu Qing ignored the old man. She crossed the old man and walked two steps in front of him. She squatted down, grabbed a handful of soil, looked at it, shook it off, and dug deeper with her hands.

The sand he took out was switched between his hands, and he muttered: "Oh, don't think this soil is too dry to support the crops, but it may be able to support a lot of things. Look at this thing..."

As he spoke, he blew the locust eggs out of his hands and muttered: "As the saying goes, the drought is extreme..."

The old man behind him suddenly jumped over, knocked the sand out of Chu Qing's hand, and shouted in a low voice: "Shut up!"

This move was a bit reckless. Although the old man looked angry, he still looked back guiltily and saw Xiangzi looking at him with an unkind expression and walking towards him.

The old man was a little at a loss and looked towards the villagers carrying water, hoping that they would come over quickly.

Chu Qing stretched out his hand to signal Xiangzi not to be nervous, and then said to the old man: "Old man, let's sit down and talk here."

Chu Qing pointed to a large washing stone by the river. The water here was too shallow to fetch water with a bucket, and the young and strong people were far away.

The old man didn't move. Chu Qing smiled and said, "I am Mr. Cotton."


Chapter completed!