To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 700: Chapter 313 Grain Price Famine

Surrounded by turmoil brewing among its neighbouring nations, the Chu State focused solely on its internal affairs, paying no mind to the storms brewing in the outside world.

Following the arrival of spring, the winter snows quickly retreated. The terrifying white disaster became merely a memory, rapidly forgotten by people welcoming the New Year.

A new year had arrived, and those who had hibernated at home throughout the winter were preparing to begin their busyness in this New Year.

The farmers started sowing and nurturing seedlings, while the city dwellers began seeking work in various workshops or shops. Merchants and travelers, carrying their goods, started wandering among different cities.

From top to bottom, the Chu State’s court also began working on strategies developed in the previous year.

The first to start were the numerous mines in Qianzhong County.

All trades need money as the premise; regardless of what one does, having money is of the utmost importance.

Therefore, following the New Year holidays, when all departments of the court resumed their duties, Lu Yuan convened numerous ministers. After consultation, he sent a specially-appointed imperial commissioner leading people to Qianzhong County, to take charge of the mining operations.

As for the manpower and supplies required for mining, local officials in Qianzhong County and the Yi People’s war prisoners temporarily under the control of the forbidden army were specially ordered to provide them.

With such support and arrangements, plus the diligent imperial commissioner sent to handle this matter, it is expected that before long, good news could arrive from Qianzhong County.

With that, the matter of money was almost sorted out.

However, money and grain have always been addressed together.

Therefore, once the issue of money was resolved, the court quickly dealt with the other issue – grain.

Today’s Chu State has two major grain-producing areas: the Jianghan Plain where Xiangyang Prefecture is located, and the Dongting Plain where Dongting County is located.

Both these plains are irrigated by rivers and lakes, boast fertile soil, and are top-notch grain-producing lands.

Parts of these regions have already been developed. Those yet to be developed are quite labor-intensive lands.

Not only is their development challenging, the grain yield afterward also falls significantly short of the previous top-quality lands.

Therefore, for these difficult-to-develop areas, Chu State, presently facing a labor shortage, naturally does not have much interest.

When the population increases and land becomes scarce in the future, perhaps those lower-grade lands can be developed.

But now, Chu State is largely unpopulated, and excellent farmlands await development everywhere, making it unnecessary to waste precious manpower on these difficult lands.

Thus, for Chu State, current development in Dongting and Xiangyang has reached its limit. There isn’t the capacity, nor the necessity, for further, deeper development.

Therefore, to increase grain production and enlarge the store of grain, making use of these two areas is not much of a solution; one needs to explore other areas.

That area, naturally, is Xichuan Prefecture.

The potential of the Xichuan Plain in Xichuan Prefecture rivals the Jianghan Plain and the Dongting Plain. If this could be developed, no, it has been developed long ago, and there is no need to spend much effort on reclamation. The point is to utilize it.

As long as the existing Xichuan Plain can be utilized, within two years, this could be another area producing tens of millions stone of grains and becoming a tax-revenue focus.

The Xichuan Prefecture, at its peak, possessed a population of over five million people. This population was sustained by the supplies from the Xichuan Plain.

Today’s Chu State, certainly, does not have as many people to develop the whole Xichuan Prefecture.

But with initial development and some farming of the many fertile lands on the Xichuan Plain, the generated grain would be sufficient to feed two or three million people.

It’s not only enough to feed the current population of Xichuan Prefecture, but every year, a significant excess of grain could also be kept to supply the Chu State’s army, or for foreign trade.

In recent years, all states of Nine Provinces have been entangled in continuous warfare.

Incessant wars not only bring death but also famine.

As numerous able-bodied men have been conscripted onto the battlefield, quite naturally, local food production in these countries has sharply decreased.

It’s the case of Su Country adjacent to the Chu State.

This country, which had been part of the former coalition, launched a war against the Southwestern Yi tribes. Although the fiscal deficit was initially resolved, a severe food shortage had emerged within the country due to the war.

Even now, despite the war having ended at the end of last year.

Several months have passed, but the food shortage in Su Country has still not been resolved.

In Su Country, the price of grain has skyrocketed to forty wen for a catty of rice. A significant number of people could not afford grains, had to sell their homes, farms, and even pawned their sons and daughters just for a bite to eat.

Many, unable to survive, fled into the deep mountains or even ran to nearby countries.

During the harsh winter, Su Country has received tens of thousands of refugees from Su Country.

These people from Su Country, risking last year’s terrible winter, traveled long distances, to flee to Chu State, escaping the hell in their homeland.

According to the report received by Lu Yuan,

During last winter, a massive wave of migration erupted in Su Country.

The fleeing Su Country residents numbered over a hundred thousand.

The directions of escape included Chu State, Nanhai Country, Song Country, and even countries like Dali and Kunhai.

Chu State was just one of many choices.

And of these fleeing hundreds of thousands, at least forty or fifty thousand people died on the way.

Last winter’s snowstorm was not easy to endure, especially when traveling in it. That was a deadly ordeal.