Chapter 371 Food Shortage
Wei Chengyi and his colleagues had been focusing on the counties and completely ignored the provincial capital. It was not until they received a letter from Yan Junling that they learned that many wells in the provincial capital had run out of water. Water resources had become extremely tight, and food prices had skyrocketed. The people were in panic, and the officials and wealthy families were looking for people who were good at digging wells, hoping to dig their own wells deeper. Unfortunately, they were a step too late. All the people who knew how to dig wells had been recruited by Wei Chengyi and his colleagues a few months ago.

No matter how poor the officials and wealthy families were, they could always find ways to get water. Wei Chengyi and his men were not worried, but they had to take care of ordinary people. Therefore, he dispatched a team of people to the provincial capital that day. In the name of the military, they specifically searched for water sources for the people, dug deep wells, and tried their best to alleviate the shortage of water resources.

"Congratulations, Master's wife. You will be out of confinement tomorrow."

Shen Xiangwan checked Yun Mengyi's pulse as usual, and congratulated her with a smile after confirming that there was nothing wrong. Logically, she should have been out of confinement a long time ago, but Zhao Yuping and Ji Shaohan were worried that she would develop some kind of illness, so they made her stay in confinement for two full months. Fortunately, the couple were both people from the martial arts world, and they didn't have as many requirements as ordinary people. At least they washed their hair and took a bath every night, otherwise, she would have smelled bad after two months.

"Finally I'm going to be free."

Yun Mengyi smiled helplessly. Although neither she nor the old man were pedantic, Yuping was afraid that they would do something wrong, so she kept a close eye on them during the day, especially their food, which had no salt and no taste, and she almost vomited after eating so much.

"Master's wife, are you going to prepare a full moon banquet for our little Tuanzi tomorrow?"

Getting up from the bed, Shen Xiangwan walked to the crib and poked the little boy's fair and tender face. After two months of feeding, he had grown up completely and looked more like his master's wife.

After exchanging a glance with Ji Shaohan, Yun Mengyi shook her head and said, "Forget it, don't bother yourself. Let's just have a good meal as a family."

Although she had been in confinement, she was more or less aware of what was going on outside. The drought had caused a lot of trouble, and Cheng Yi and Wan Wan were having a hard time too. There was no need to cause them trouble.

"Okay, I'll tell the cooks to make something rich for lunch tomorrow. I'm sure you're craving for it, too, right, Madam?"

Looking up at her, Shen Xiangwan smiled and teased. She had seen the confinement meals that Zhao Yuping personally ordered the cook to prepare every day. They were really bland, not even with much salt. It was a wonder that the master's wife could eat them. If it were her, she would probably have been unable to bear it long ago. Therefore, in order to avoid that kind of suffering, she did not plan to have children in recent years.

However, will things really go as she wishes? If God really wants to give her a child, how can she refuse?

"Isn't it? I'm almost tortured to death by your mother."

Speaking of this, Yun Mengyi was also full of grievances. She didn't want to suffer that kind of pain again in her life.

"Ha ha···"

Shen Xiangwan laughed very impolitely. It has to be said that the mother-in-law is really stubborn in some aspects. The master's wife is in trouble this time.

"Is Wanwan at home?"

Zhao Dashan's voice suddenly rang out from outside. Shen Xiangwan and Yun Mengyi nodded and walked out of the house: "Uncle Zhao, why are you here?"

Seeing that he had already entered the yard, Shen Xiangwan asked as he walked towards the main room.

"I have something to ask you."

Zhao Dashan entered the hall sweating profusely. Feeling the coolness inside, he couldn't help but look around every corner of the hall: "Where did you get so much ice?"

It rarely snows in Chenzhou in winter, and ice is a rare thing for them, especially ice in summer.

"It was sent from the capital." Shen Xiangwan didn't want to say more, and asked him to sit down: "What do you want from me? It's so hot, why don't you wait until the evening when it's cooler?"

July was really hot. Staying in the house was like staying in a steamer. Even if she used a lot of ice to cool down, she still couldn't stand the heat. When she had nothing to do, she would go back to the space to do research.

"This year is indeed hotter than previous years, and I don't know when it will rain."

Looking at the bright red sun outside, Zhao Dashan sighed deeply: "It's like this, Wanwan, although our village dug a lot of wells last year, in recent days, we found that the water in the wells is getting less and less. We dare not waste it casually, but our workshop uses a lot of water every day. I want to carry the water from the ditch back to use in the future. Do you think it's okay?"

The ditch was dug by them and it is their private property. If they want to use the water in the ditch, they must obtain their consent. It is strange that the well water in the village has decreased a lot, but the water in the ditch has not decreased much. If those villages that are more short of water than them knew about this, they would probably be envious.

"Sure, what's wrong with that?"

These were all trivial matters, and Shen Xiangwan agreed without even thinking: "Uncle Zhao, no one in the village sells food outside, right?"

This year, everyone responded to the government's call and planted potatoes and corn in the first season. Now every household has more food than can be eaten.

"A lot of people sold some, what's wrong?"

After the bumper harvest of potatoes and corn, they immediately started planting sweet potatoes. Compared to other people, the villagers had seen the sweet potato yield with their own eyes. Since there was no shortage of food and the price of food outside was quite high, many people sold part of their food.

"Please don't sell them. Keep them if you can. The price of food outside is going to go up."

With a deep sigh, Shen Xiangwan said helplessly.

“Will it continue to rise?”

Li Yuntai frowned. Instead of being happy, he felt a little heavy. The soaring food prices were not a good thing.

"Ah."

Nodding, Shen Xiangwan said seriously, "According to the information we have received, grain merchants in Chenzhou will transport all the grain outside and sell it at a high price. Once this matter is exposed, grain prices will definitely rise sharply. It is estimated that only when the grain planted by the people in the second season matures, grain prices will have a chance to fall."

Recently, Wei Chengyi has also been trying to find ways to curb those grain merchants, but buying and selling are free, and the grain merchants have not violated any regulations. They just want to make more money. They can't do anything about them for the time being, unless they resort to violence and suppress them by force. But in that case, they will offend all the grain merchants and wealthy families, and it might even make the people even more panicked. So far, they have no good solution.

"Those people deserve to die! No, I have to go back and tell everyone not to sell food to those people."

As he spoke, Zhao Dashan stood up hurriedly and trotted out in the blink of an eye. Looking at his back, Shen Xiangwan couldn't help but sigh again. Now, apart from the military, the only ones with food were the wealthy grain merchants and the people of Datong County. If food prices continued to soar, the people in other counties would suffer.

【End of this chapter】

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