The place where Yun Yi traveled was roughly in the depths of the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains.
He followed Zhao Yun and Zhao Lang, crossing several mountains in a row.
Finally, he reached a familiar road.
Halfway there.
He wanted to ask why Zhao Yun would bring Zhao Lang so far into the mountains to hunt.
But everything he saw along the way answered his question.
With each mountain they crossed towards the outside.
The trees on the mountain became visibly shorter and yellower.
By the time they reached the outermost edge of the Taihang Mountains.
There were almost no towering ancient trees left, and even the low bushes were nowhere to be found.
Only scattered weeds and yellow earth remained.
On the road, he occasionally saw a few other people who had come into the mountains to hunt.
They were all pale and thin, with hunger etched on their faces.
Those who knew would say they were hunting in the mountains, but those who didn't would think they were going to be a meal for wild animals.
Seeing all this, Yun Yi's heart ached.
He suddenly realized.
The simple phrase "great famine" in the history books, for ordinary people in a certain era, was an incredibly large mountain.
Leaving the Taihang Mountains, the drought situation became even worse.
As far as the eye could see.
The fields that should have been lush green were now a desolate yellow.
The land was covered in cracks.
The once mighty rivers were now no more than a trickle.
Old farmers on the field ridges ran for miles, carrying water from the river, tirelessly watering their fields.
But this was ultimately a drop in the bucket.
The crops lay limp and withered on the ground.
Looking at the dying crops.
The old farmer did not cry.
Because his body could not squeeze out even a few drops of water.
He simply knelt on the ground, his eyes filled with despair.
The crops would die, there would be no harvest this year, how would they survive?
What about the taxes and corvée labor imposed by the government, how would they cope?
Yun Yi's heart grew heavier.
If the drought continued for a few more years.
The government would extort and oppress.
Bandits would run rampant.
Natural disasters and man-made disasters would come together, what would become of the people?
Perhaps this was also the reason for the Yellow Turban Rebellion.
After all, they were all going to die anyway.
It was better to take a gamble.
Finally, under Zhao Yun's guidance, Yun Yi arrived at a village.
This was Zhao Family Village.
As the name suggests.
Most of the villagers were surnamed Zhao.
More than a hundred years ago, the ancestors of Zhao Family Village had fled to this place because of a famine.
Once they arrived here, they knew that they could only survive by sticking together.
They formed a large family with blood ties.
They worked together to reclaim the wasteland.
Over the years.
As the ancestors of the Zhao family kept branching out, the Zhao family's population grew, gradually forming the current scale of Zhao Family Village.
Hundreds of people, three thousand mu of land (one mu of land in the Han Dynasty was 465 square meters).
Of course, this scale was far from a noble family.
Even in the area of Changshan Zhen Ding County, it could not be considered a local strongman.
It could only be said that the family was well-off.
It could be considered a wealthy household.
It was actually normal.
Poor in literature, rich in martial arts.
Ordinary farm families could not support Zhao Yun's study of literature and martial arts.
However, as with what they had seen on the road before.
The villagers of Zhao Family Village were also carrying water to irrigate their fields.
Before the drought.
Zhao Family Village, with its proximity to the Hutuo River.
They only needed to open the sluice gate to irrigate the fields.
The water from the Hutuo River would continuously nourish the fields.
They only needed a few people to watch over the fields, to prevent the river water from flooding the crops.
But times have changed.
The continuous drought for two years had almost dried up the Hutuo River.
Now only the riverbed had a little trickle.
That little water.
If they opened the sluice gate, the water would probably be absorbed by the surrounding land before it even reached the fields.
For the sake of their crops, they had to carry water to their fields, one bucket after another.
They did everything they could to save every crop.
Walking into the village.
Unlike the outside of the village.
Zhao Family Village was eerily quiet, with a sense of impending doom.
"Third Aunt, where are Father and the others?"
Zhao Yun asked an old lady who was weaving cloth by the door.
"Yun is back."
The old lady pointed to a big tree in the distance, "Your father and your uncle are discussing matters under the tree. Last year's drought, and this year's drought too, life's getting harder by the day."
"Thank you, Third Aunt."
After thanking her, Zhao Yun led Yun Yi towards the center of the village.
………
At this time.
Under the thick oak tree in the center of Zhao Family Village.
"Clan Chief, this year's drought is too severe, our villagers don't dare rest for a moment, but the crops still can't be saved."
"Even if we can't save them, we have to try, our food reserves are getting low, if the crops die this year, we'll have to eat the seed grain."
"Clan Chief, didn't the village raise a lot of money to buy from outside?"
Zhao An, the current clan chief of the Zhao family, sighed:
"I'm afraid that money won't buy us much grain."
"How is that possible? It's ten thousand coins, it used to buy more than two thousand dan of grain."
Zhao An shook his head:
"Times have changed, the drought is not just in one place."
"We have the Hutuo River, so our situation is a bit better, do you know how bad the situation is in the neighboring Julu County? I heard that people have already resorted to cannibalism this year."
"The southern states, although unaffected by the drought, have had grain merchants transporting grain there to hoard and raise prices, the price of grain has skyrocketed."
"One dan of grain costs more than five hundred coins, ten thousand coins won't even buy you two hundred dan."
Everyone present was furious:
"Two hundred dan? That's barely enough to feed our village for half a month?"
In the Han Dynasty, one jin was half a jin in later times.
One dan was 120 jin, but it was actually only 60 jin in later times.
The price of grain in the Han Dynasty during the peaceful years was only thirty coins per dan.
But now one dan costs more than five hundred coins.
It had increased by more than ten times.
They had finally saved some money during the good years, but now all that money could only buy enough food for half a month.
If the price of grain continued to rise, they would be able to buy even less grain.
What a desperate situation!
Everyone was silent.
"Clan Chief, should we also organize a grain convoy to go south to buy grain?"
Zhao An shook his head helplessly:
"Let's talk about this later."
Did they think he hadn't thought about buying grain himself?
But organizing a grain convoy to buy grain was not as simple as they imagined.
Although the south was not suffering from drought, some places had experienced floods.
So which place had cheap grain? What route should they take to and from the south? What if they encountered bandits? What if they encountered officials who made things difficult for them?
These were all problems.
Why could other grain merchants do this?
Of course, it was because they had cooperation with the government.
They transported grain and sold it for five hundred coins per dan.
They had to pay seven out of ten to the government as tribute, and the remaining three out of ten was their own income.
No tribute?
It seems you've never seen bandits who are well-equipped and disciplined.
Zhao Family Village wanted to cooperate with the government too.
But with the size of Zhao Family Village, they didn't even have a seat at the table.
Buying grain secretly was also an option.
But the risks were extremely high.
If they weren't careful, they would lose everything.
Zhao Family Village was too small to bear such a loss.
……………
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