As Shakespeare might say, to reign or to rule, that is a question.
But before Zhu Jinsong could decide whether to proclaim himself king or emperor first, Ke Zhiming, the intelligence chief, brought him a piece of news that was utterly vexing.
Great famines struck Yicheng, Xinghua, Suizhou, and Zhijiang in Hubei, with people resorting to eating tree bark. Floods occurred in Jian'an, Fujian, and Pingxiang, Jiangxi. Widespread droughts plagued Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanxi, and Zhili, as well as Zhu Jinsong's territories of Shandong and Henan, with Hubei, Henan, and Shandong being particularly severe.
Zhu Jinsong’s face immediately turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
Zhu Jinsong recalled the historical records concerning the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign.
Earthquake north of Yumén, Gansu. Great famine in Yicheng, Xinghua, Suizhou, and Zhijiang, Hubei, with people eating tree bark. Floods in Jian'an, Fujian, and Pingxiang, Jiangxi. Droughts in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Zhili, especially severe in Hubei, Henan, and Shandong. In autumn, great famine struck Shouguang, Changle, Anqiu, Zhucheng, and other counties under Qingzhou Prefecture, Shandong, with people cannibalizing their own kin. The disaster relief funds needed for all provinces amounted to over fourteen million taels.
Cannibalizing one's own kin!
Zhu Jinsong had never experienced such a tragedy and couldn't fathom how hungry people would have to be to resort to eating their own relatives.
As a side note, in the original timeline, Qianlong’s fiftieth anniversary celebration and the Thousand Elder Feast, which led to the deaths of many old men, were held at the beginning of the year.
Zhu Jinsong no longer had time to consider whether to claim kingship or emperorship first. He hurried back to Jinan Prefecture and summoned all the high-ranking officials of the Menglianggu rebel group.
"You should all have heard the news of the widespread drought," he began.
"Don't even mention the wells we've dug. While we've dug many, compared to the severity of this drought, the wells we dug with the people are less than a drop in the bucket."
"I've called you all here to see if anyone has any solutions."
As Zhu Jinsong finished speaking, the various officials of the Menglianggu rebel group frowned.
If only Shandong and Henan had experienced drought, the problem would have been easier to handle. The biggest issue with drought was its impact on grain harvests. As long as the Mengliang Mengzao rebel group was willing to provide grain for relief, the drought wouldn't be a critical problem.
The issue was that droughts had occurred in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, and Zhili.
The occurrence of drought in these regions essentially meant that several of the empire's most productive areas were facing crop shortages. Even if the Menglianggu rebel group was willing to use money to purchase grain for relief, they wouldn't be able to buy enough.
To put it more plainly, for every extra grain the Menglianggu rebel group purchased, another person elsewhere might starve to death.
After a long silence, Zeng Cheng, the leader of the civilian official system, tapped his pipe and said, "Continue to encourage the people to dig wells. Although digging wells may not be of much use, any relief is better than sitting idly by."
"Also, we should take out all the grain we previously stored in the granaries across the various regions."
After setting the tone of digging more wells and opening granaries, Zhu Jinsong's expression remained solemn. "Don't think that digging more wells and opening granaries will allow us to rest easy."
"Everyone, don't forget that it's not just the people of Shandong and Henan provinces, but also the refugees fleeing from Zhili who are now our burden."
"And no one can say how long this drought will last or how severe it will become."
"Therefore, relying solely on digging more wells and opening granaries will likely not be enough. The focus must be on drought-resistant crops like sweet potatoes."
As Zhu Jinsong spoke, silence fell upon the room again.
For people like Zhu Erdan, Liu Heming, and Liu Huaiwen, they might not have known that crops like corn, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, which are more drought-resistant, had already been introduced to the Central Plains. The earliest records of their introduction even dated back to the Hongwu era.
Unfortunately, any crop requires time to transition from introduction to adaptive cultivation and then to widespread planting. The Ming Dynasty, due to various complex reasons, only managed to implement small-scale planting of corn and did not live to see the widespread cultivation of these three crops, ultimately allowing the Jurchens to gain a significant advantage. The credit for promoting these drought-resistant crops all fell to Qianlong.
There were even people on the internet saying that the ability to eat roasted sweet potatoes in later generations was Qianlong's merit.
Of course, this credit now belonged to Zhu Jinsong. Because Qianlong's large-scale promotion of sweet potato cultivation was gradually trialed in Laizhou Prefecture between the forty-eighth and fiftieth years of Qianlong's reign, and due to Zhu Jinsong's existence, Qianlong retreated directly to Zhili, and the promotion of sweet potatoes thus had nothing to do with Qianlong.
The problem facing Zhu Jinsong now was how to get the people of Shandong and Henan to accept sweet potatoes and cultivate these three crops on a large scale.
It wasn't as if the people of Shandong and Henan would enthusiastically take the seeds of these three crops and plant them widely just because Zhu Jinsong said they were drought-resistant and high-yielding and he led by example. This was because only the people of Laizhou Prefecture had cultivated sweet potatoes, and people in other regions might not believe it.
Forcing the people to plant them would be fine in Shandong, but it might not be the case in Henan. After all, the people of Shandong were more willing to believe Zhu Jinsong, whereas the people of Henan had only recently come under the jurisdiction of the Menglianggu rebel group and did not have such high trust in Zhu Jinsong.
Before seeing the actual yield, people preferred stability, which had nothing to do with whether they believed Zhu Jinsong but was a matter of instinct.
Therefore, Zhu Jinsong was in a dilemma, and all the officials in the room were also in a dilemma.
After a while, Zeng Cheng tentatively said, "Leader, I have an idea?"
Seeing Zhu Jinsong look at him, Zeng Cheng continued, "I think if we directly tell the people that sweet potatoes are drought-resistant and high-yielding, they might not believe it. It would be better to lure them into planting."
Lure the people into planting?
Zhu Jinsong's interest was piqued. "Tell me more?"
Zeng Cheng said, "For example, we can enclose a piece of land on Mount Tai, plant sweet potatoes, and then have soldiers guard them, claiming they are incredibly good and the seeds are extremely precious. We can entice the people to steal the seeds. Or, for example, we can say that sweet potatoes can..."
At this point, Zeng Cheng chuckled sheepishly. "We can say that sweet potatoes can help people have sons! As long as it's spread that so-and-so on Menglianggu ate sweet potatoes and then had a son, the people will definitely be willing to plant them."
Zhu Jinsong was immediately shocked. With such a mind, why had this fellow only managed to be a prefect of Tai'an before?
Unfortunately, he wasn't emperor yet, otherwise, he would at least arrange a position as Grand Secretary or Director of the Eastern Depot for him.
Seeing Zhu Jinsong's gaze on him shift unnaturally, Zeng Cheng chuckled again and slowly explained, "Qianlong also issued an imperial decree earlier, stating the intention to promote these crops. It was then that these ideas occurred to me."
"However, to get promoted and become rich by promoting these things is far less effective than flattering superiors. So, I didn't take it too seriously."
After thinking for a moment, Zeng Cheng continued, "Oh, right, there's someone named Chen Shiyuan, originally a provincial student from Fujian province. He was the one who led the trial planting of sweet potatoes in Laizhou. If Commander Ke can send someone to find this Chen Shiyuan, we can proceed with a two-pronged approach: one, enticing people to steal seeds, and two, having Chen Shiyuan teach the people how to plant sweet potatoes."
Zhu Jinsong tapped the table with his finger and looked at Zhu Erdan. "When you attacked Dengzhou and Laizhou, did you hear of this Chen Shiyuan?"
Zhu Erdan nodded. "I've heard of him, and I've even met him."
"At that time, the old man was writing a farming book about planting sweet potatoes. When my men discovered it, they reported it immediately. Later, I personally went to meet the old man, and he even cursed me as a rebel."
"But I figured, considering the old man was already eighty years old, why should I bother arguing with him? Then I thought that promoting the planting of sweet potatoes was a great virtue that could save countless lives, so I had someone protect the courtyard where he lived and left two soldiers to serve him."
Zhu Jinsong laughed at that.
Fortunately, Chen Shiyuan had encountered Zhu Erdan and not Roman soldiers. And fortunately, Zhu Erdan didn't draw his sword and chop him after being cursed, otherwise, the promotion and cultivation of sweet potatoes would have become a major problem.
With a slight sense of relief, Zhu Jinsong looked at Ke Zhiming and instructed, "Send someone to Jiaozhou to see if Mr. Chen Shiyuan's book is finished?"
After Ke Zhiming bowed and acknowledged the order, Zhu Jinsong secretly pondered.
Facing the drought, organizing the people to dig wells was one method, and promoting drought-resistant crops was another.
However, promoting drought-resistant crops still required time. As the saying goes, distant water cannot quench nearby thirst. It was clearly unrealistic to overcome this drought by relying solely on digging wells and promoting drought-resistant crops.
The most reliable method was still to find a way to obtain grain.
And to obtain grain...
If Zhu Jinsong disregarded the lives of the people in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shanxi, and Zhili, which were also suffering from drought, he would have plenty of ways to acquire grain. After all, money could solve most problems in the world, and the grain problem was certainly among them.
After some thought, Zhu Jinsong looked at Liu Huaiwen and asked, "How much money do we have left? How much grain can it buy?"
Upon hearing Zhu Jinsong's question, Liu Huaiwen involuntarily shivered.
The leader intended to use money to buy grain?
The entire Shandong and Henan, plus the refugees from Zhili, how much money would it take to buy enough grain?
Liu Huaiwen wanted to say that they had no money left, but thinking of the people who might starve to death, the words "no money" just wouldn't come out.
After a long silence, Liu Huaiwen tapped his pipe and said, "We, Menglianggu, still have some money. The autumn taxes from last year and the spring taxes from this year combined should have been over thirteen million taels. However, with the continuous influx of refugees from Zhili, quite a bit has been spent. We now have about over seven million taels."
"At the normal grain price, one tael of silver per shi of rice, we can buy about over seven million shi of grain, which is about seventy million jin."
"The people of Shandong, plus the people of Henan, and the refugees from Zhili, amount to over twenty million people. Even if we assume twenty million people, each consuming one jin of grain per day, it would require twenty million jin of grain daily."
"Seventy million jin is only enough for a little over a month."
"Of course, if we count the people's existing grain reserves and what we had stored in the granaries across the regions, it should last longer."
"Especially by the end of the year, we will receive another autumn tax, estimated at several million taels. That will mean several million shi of grain. If we are frugal, we should be able to get through this drought without too much trouble."
At this point, Liu Huaiwen became hesitant. "The biggest problem now is that Henan has only recently rejoined us, and we probably can't count on their granaries."
"Moreover, with the widespread drought across the land, grain prices will inevitably soar. It wouldn't be unusual for the price of one shi of grain to rise from the original one tael of silver to three taels."
Zhu Jinsong grunted and tapped the table with his fingers.
Grain, it's still grain!