Yiyang Prince's Mansion.

There is a reception room outside Li You's study room with a huge round table inside. At this moment, Li You, Yin Hongzhi, Cheng Yaojin, Yuchi Gong and Zhang Liang sat together.

This was the first time Zhang Liang entered this room and sat at the round table. He found that this was a face-to-face discussion and felt very good.

Li You said: "Dear uncles and uncles, today I invite you to discuss an important matter. This matter is done both public and private, half of which is an imperial edict and half of our own business."

Zhang Liang is very cautious in his character and is very careful in his daily work. He was a little nervous when he was involved in the business with Li You. At this moment, he heard that he was doing his job according to the order, and he felt at ease.

Li You said: "Yesterday, my father and I talked about the disaster relief plan..."

Yesterday, Li Shimin and Li You played alone.

Li You said: "Father, the biggest point of disaster relief is to not cause panic. Natural disasters are terrible, but the most terrible thing is man-made disasters. Once the drought causes panic among the victims, they will flee on a large scale, causing greater turmoil and damage to the entire society. In order to avoid the leak of the plan, my son-in-law requested to play alone with you."

Li Shimin nodded and said, "Yes, once the victims start to flee, the land will be completely deserted, and the damage to production will intensify. The areas where the victims move through will also be greatly damaged. After the victims move, the government cannot grasp their dynamics and rescue will be more difficult. This is the natural disaster ahead and man-made disaster behind."

Li You said: "I have checked a lot of information in history and compared the meteorological conditions before the occurrence of previous droughts in Guanzhong. Unfortunately, the scale of this drought is probably much larger than the largest drought in the past 50 years. Because the earliest rain will probably not arrive until the end of June or early July."

"What?" Li Shimin was shocked and sweated. He asked, "Are you sure?"

"My son is sure." Li You said affirmatively.

Li Shimin collapsed and sighed: "How many people will die in such a big drought? My Tang Dynasty is so plaguing."

Li You said: "Father, the main areas of this drought will occur south of the Qinling Mountains, Liangzhou, and north of Xingzhou, which belong to the same climate zone. Specifically, the main places of drought will occur in Longzhou, Liangzhou, Xingzhou, Shangzhou, Fengzhou and Qizhou."

"It's such a large range." Li Shimin was deeply worried.

"I have calculated that 40,000 wells are far from enough. I'm afraid I have to dig 60,000 wells. I deliberately did not tell the truth, and no one would count anyway, so there is no need to increase the panic atmosphere." Li You said.

"Okay, it's done right." Li Shimin said.

"My son believes that the first step in this disaster relief is to drill wells. Every time a well is drilled, hundreds of people can be stabilized. The second step is to secretly mobilize grain to various counties. Before the drought starts to be severe, the areas with high terrain or no water underground will be distributed in advance. If the people have food in their hands, they will not have the idea of ​​escaping famine, and the drought areas will be settled." Li You said.

"Get food in advance. Good idea! In the past, the government had severe disaster relief. Being forced to release food and provide disaster relief was too passive, and it was easy to cause disaster relief to be untimely and lead to uncontrollable situations. OK, just do it like this." Li Shimin said excitedly.

"As long as the above two points are achieved, the emotions of the victims will be stable and social unrest will not be caused. There are two points involved. First, the issue of funds for digging wells. The imperial court cannot afford money now, but some people have it. A large amount of wealth is concentrated in wealthy families, wealthy merchants and tycoons, and at present they can only rely on them to help." Li You said.

Li Shimin asked in a little puzzled question: "These guys can only make money from the national crisis. Are they willing to pay for disaster relief?"

Li You said: "Of course I refuse, and the court has no right to force others to pay. However, my ministers have a way to make them pay willingly."

"Oh? What's the solution?" Li Shimin said with interest.

Li You smiled and said, "Of course I ate it."

He took out the white sugar and asked Li Shimin to taste it and said: "The area where the drought this year has always been a drought-free area. But beets happen to be suitable for planting in such places."

Li You checked the information and found that Shaanxi is a major beet planting province with an area of ​​more than 78,000 acres. Xianyang, Weinan and other places were prepared in the main areas of this drought.

Li You continued: "The output value of beets grown is much higher than that of grain. Not only that, beets are not only sugar-making, but also vegetable heads, waste shreds and other parts, but also good feed for raising pigs and cattle. In these areas, they play to their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, reduce grain planting, and promote beet planting is a good way to develop the local economy. The tax paid to the court every year is not only twice as much as the grain planting can be stopped.

The profits of sugar production are huge. Erchen plans to auction the distribution rights of the sugar industry, and the drought-resistant funds can be solved immediately.

As for grain, you can entrust grain merchants to transport them to the disaster area and then purchase them from grain merchants. If the funds are insufficient, the ministers will also have a way to let them sell the stored grain at a fair price. Grain merchants' ability to act is far higher than that of the government. As long as they are given enough benefits, they can ensure that the grain is in place in time..."

Li You explained his operation plan in detail to Li Shimin.

Li Shimin frowned and slowly stretched out as Li You explained. He looked at Li You with appreciation and said, "Good boy."

This is the first time when Li You grew up so old that he heard Li Shimin praise him sincerely, and his heart felt sad and tears almost fell.

He said, "Father, this is a huge benefit from the son-in-law. Otherwise, the son-in-law would be enough to be a rich man by just these."

Li Shimin smiled and said, "You little brat, I raise you so big, shouldn't you be filial to me?"

Li You said: "Father, you killed Cui Bingshi today and vented your anger on Erchen's mother's mother. She really looks a bit like my father."

Li Shimin glared at his eyes and said, "Bastard, what does it mean to be like your father? I am your father." After that, he burst into laughter.

Finally, Li Shimin said: "You are in full responsibility for this disaster relief. I will give you an imperial edict and all officials will wait for your order."

"My son follows the order." Li You said solemnly.

After Li You finished talking about the content of his conversation with Li Shimin, he presented the imperial edict to the people present.

Cheng Yaojin was a little depressed and said, "Your Highness, you have given up all the distribution rights, and the profit here is very large."

Li You smiled and said, "Your Majesty has given us the privilege of growing beets in Guanzhong, which greatly reduces transportation costs. We only eat the production part. Isn't it still a daily profit to make money?"

Yuchi Gong advised: "Yaojin, Your Majesty has given us such a great face, so don't be greedy anymore."

Cheng Yaojin was still a little unhappy, and he said, "That's the reason. But I have already talked to my wife. I originally wanted to hand over the distribution rights to Cui. How do I explain this?"
Chapter completed!