Chastity Layman 2

Chapter 331
The Mid-Autumn Festival has not yet passed, but the weather is getting colder every day.

Qin Qiong sent a letter back from Lingwu and said that it was snowing in Hetao, not only in Fengzhou, but also in Lingwu.It's only August, and it's snowing heavily.

This snowfall was too unexpected. There had been several frosts before, and the crops froze to death. Then the snow came again, and the crops in Lingwu Field were almost destroyed.

It didn’t snow in the capital, but there were frosts one after another. When I woke up every morning, the ground and the roof were all white, and the ground was frozen hard.

Qin Lang also had to put on the mink and bear skins hunted from the Xianbei Mountains.

Breath into ice.

"Why is it so cold today!"

Chengqian's nose was red with cold, and his nose was runny.

Severe weather anomalies.

The crops in the field were frozen to death, the wheat was not yet full and ripe, and the beans were still a little shriveled, but now they are all dead.

Faced with this sudden frost disaster, the common people wanted to cry but had no tears. They thought that this autumn would be another harvest year, but who knew that the harvest would be a month away, but such a natural disaster occurred.

Qin Lang received reports from various villages that the crops in the Guanzhong villages were dead this year and had to be harvested in advance.

The production has been reduced by at least [-]%, and these early harvested grains are of poor quality and difficult to preserve.

Qin Lang asked Zhuangzi to start harvesting on sunny days, and then dried them for storage.

It is better to collect something than nothing. When there is a shortage of food, there is always enough to satisfy the hunger. It is a pity that this year's sweat has been lost.

"It's too cold, and people's lives are hard."

After breakfast, Qin Lang took Chengqian to the Zhuangzi on the slope of Changle first. In the farm, the chicken and duck sheds had started to burn fires in advance to keep warm, but there were still many chickens that were frozen to death by the sudden drop in temperature.

Wheatgrass is also added to pigpens.

"The Zhuangzi will start to build a kang immediately. We must ensure that everyone in our Zhuangzi has a kang to sleep at night and can keep warm."

The kang is warmer and saves more firewood. In the Guanzhong area, due to the large population, the use of firewood has always been a big problem. For example, in Chang'an City, the consumption of firewood is large, but firewood is not easy to transport. If you don’t sell salary for a thousand miles, you don’t sell rice for a thousand miles. If you sell firewood for more than a hundred miles, you will have no money to make, and the transportation cost is too high.

And Chang'an is located in the Guanzhong Plain, with a large population, which leads to a large consumption of firewood and high prices. The people who live by buying firewood, firewood is a large expenditure cost.

This even led to the rapid reduction of vegetation in Guanzhong, and soil erosion continued to aggravate.

The imperial court has a special hook and shield department, under the Si Nong Temple, which is responsible for supplying firewood and charcoal to the court, government offices, and officials.

"A home base is on the kang, and the expenses will increase a lot."

"That can't make people freeze. If you don't burn the kang, the weather can't stand it, and you will freeze to death."

Qin Lang's family now has many farms. These manors not only grow wheat and rice crops, but also develop chickens, ducks, pigs and sheep, and even do some manual processing, so they have a large population. Many northern slaves have been brought in from the north this year.

Too many people consumes a lot, but there is no way.

Looking at the Zhuang Ding who shrank their heads and necks from the cold when Zhuang Zi went to the cafeteria to eat, Qin Lang asked Zhuang Tou to improve quickly.

"Look, these people are still wearing such thin clothes. We need to give them winter clothes, which must be thick. And their shoes must also be kept warm. In addition, the quilts they cover at night must be prepared."

Zhuangtou nodded quickly, "It's too early this year, so I'm a little caught off guard."

From Zhuangtou's point of view, these slaves are very precious. If one of them freezes to death, it will cost tens of thousands of dollars. Most of them were sent just this year.

"In the cafeteria, burn a few more fires to keep warm when eating in the future, and see if everyone will be frozen."

The situation in the Qin family's Zhuangzi is not bad. After all, Qin Lang is a people-oriented person, and he is not the kind of person who is reluctant to spend money, so now the Zhuangzi took out the money and urgently started repairing the kang to buy firewood, and bought fabrics and cotton for winter clothes. be come.

However, the free people nearby are not as happy as the Qin Family Villagers.

Many children were still barefoot, wearing single clothes, their faces were blue from the cold, their noses were running profusely, and even their hands and feet developed many chilblains.

The days were just getting better, and I ate a few dry meals, but this catastrophe happened again.

The people are desperate.

When Qin Lang went to visit the nearby villagers, many villagers even proposed to sell the land to Qin Lang, and then become a client and be a tenant Zhuang Ding for the Qin family.

There are even more decisive ones who propose to be a part or servant of the Qin family directly. In this way, they don't have to pay taxes, let alone suffer.

Because they lived next to them, they saw that the tenants and even the servants of the Qin Family Manor lived a good life. They are building kangs for them, making winter clothes and buying firewood.

In comparison, they, the good people of Tang Dynasty, are like poor slaves.

The slaves of the Qin family are still under the care of their masters, but they are left alone.

Faced with everyone's request to sell themselves into slavery, Qin Lang definitely could not agree. Although it was a good thing to do if you love me, but this kind of thing can't be done.

"I have to find a way to help everyone!"

Cheng Qian also had a serious expression, "How can I help? There are so many people!"

"It's definitely not enough to rely on personal strength. The court still has to come forward."

Chengqian is willing to use money to help the victims, but Qin Lang thinks this is not the best way.

Eat food in one bite, and do things one by one.

Qin Lang reported to the court that the disaster was serious, and at the same time, he also began to use the power of the East Palace and the Qin family to help the victims.

Both Jiade Bank and Jiade Pawn under the name of Donggong began to provide a special disaster relief loan to the victims. The money was used to help the affected people build a kang for each family and purchase a certain amount of firewood.

In any case, first of all, it must be ensured that no one will freeze to death.

After a family has a kang, at least they can survive the night.

The village also called on the people to unite and help each other. Qin Lang arranged for people to provide technical guidance, and then the village organized the villagers to buy materials and build pits together.

Try to use the fastest speed to build a kang for each household.

The response from the government was also quick. First, it repaired kangs for free for all orphans, widows, and disabled people, and sent charcoal to make up for their houses.

The Qin Family Villa in Changlepo.

In the morning, long icicles hang from the eaves.

As soon as Cheng Chumo entered the door, he quickly closed the door again, rubbing his hands together and went straight to the stove.

"This damn weather, who would have imagined that it's only mid-August."

"Yes."

Qin Lang sat in front of the stove and warmed his hands.

"Your stove is good." Cheng Chu sat silently in front of the stove, feeling the warmth, and couldn't help but make a sound.

This is a tin stove, very simple, but very practical. During the daytime, the stove can be turned on for heating, as well as boiling water for cooking, and the whole room can be very warm.

Of course, there are also many disadvantages. First, it takes up space, and second, there is a lot of dust and smoke.

But compared to the warmth, that is not worth mentioning.

In fact, a noble family is not afraid of winter.

Winter is the most unfair to the common people, because the nobles have fur and charcoal fire, and their houses will not leak air everywhere. Some people even have flues in their houses, so the whole house is warm.

But the life of the common people is not so easy. The north wind is like a knife to shave their faces, and they have to go out to work. Even if they stay at home, there are leaks everywhere, and there is no difference between the house and the outside.

It's freezing cold, and the clothes on my body can't keep any warmth.

"Get me two sets of your set!"

Cheng Chumo's body finally felt warmer, and he stopped trembling when he spoke. He felt that Qin Lang's stove was very good.

"Where did you buy it?"

"I made it at home."

The tin stove and the tin chimney are paired with the tin kettle. This tin heating set is indeed very good, but it is a waste of iron after all.

Since it is something that costs money, it has nothing to do with ordinary people.

Ordinary people's homes don't even have an iron pot, let alone the iron stove, iron has never been cheap.Of course, for Cheng Chumo, the son of a Duke, and a fifth-rank military officer, it's not worth mentioning.

Because Qin Lang didn't have a source of iron materials, he simply did the business with the Donggong team, built an iron workshop, recruited a group of blacksmiths, and now they are producing the iron stove day and night.

The sales volume is still good, the weather is so cold, families above the middle class, especially those in Chang'an City, are willing to buy a set of this thing, although it costs a little money, it is worth it.

As for the poor, it would be good to directly burn a fire pit, or get a pottery brazier.

"What are you talking about? Isn't it charcoal?"

Cheng Chumo was surprised to see Qin Lang pick up a black thing and put it into the stove, "Why does it look like black soil or stone?"

He originally thought that Qin Lang was burning good charcoal, so there was no smoke.

"Charcoal, this thing is very rare."

Coal is also coal. It is not widely used in Chang'an City, but some blacksmiths have some. Qin Lang bought some and had someone process it into briquette according to his requirements. full.

"Can stones be burned?"

"Ok!"

Qin Lang had already inquired about the coal seller's information from the blacksmith, and then sent someone to find out where the coal mine was located, and planned to dig a large amount of coal.

Coal was already used in large quantities in the Song Dynasty. It is said that Kaifeng, the capital of the Song Dynasty, used a huge amount of coal, and it felt a little foggy.

Although coal pollutes a lot, it is better than cutting down all the trees in Guanzhong.

"Why do you need such a long chimney, can't you not use it?" Cheng Chumo felt that the iron chimney was a waste of iron and increased the cost.

"There is a chimney and the stove will not smoke, so it burns well."

Of course, the main reason for Qin Lang to engage in chimneys is because he burns charcoal here, whether it is coal or charcoal, a too closed environment is very likely to be poisoned.

"Many people have froze to death recently." Cheng Chumo sighed.

Of course Qin Lang knew this long ago, and he also knew that many people died of freezing in this cold current.

He is doing his best, but his efforts are still limited, and he can only keep the two things of cotton and coal in mind while sighing. He has to step up the promotion of cotton planting and the search for coal mines.

Now the imperial court is making every effort to promote heated kangs. Like Jiade Bank, Kaiyuan Bank and Royal Bank have released low-interest loans for disaster relief to the people, allowing governments at all levels to organize materials and the people to contribute to build heated kangs together.

The imperial court worked hard, but many people still froze to death.

"It's not the coldest time yet!" Qin Lang sighed, it's only September, if the cold current of this evil sect this year gets worse, how cold will it be in the next three to nine days?

For many people, after the fire pits are repaired, the firewood they can burn is also a big problem, especially for those who buy charcoal living in Chang'an City, this year's charcoal will increase greatly, and the price may also increase significantly.

(End of this chapter)