Chapter 1686: Chapter 1515: Female-Dominated Society 19

When the drought caused by the lack of rain reached its first month, wells began drying up in succession, and conflicts over water sources frequently broke out.

People were no longer fighting for water to irrigate the fields, as the crops had long since dried up and died. The earth split into a network of ravines, resembling the hopeless wrinkles on the face of an old farmer.

At this time, the common people still had some surplus grain left in their hands, but it wasn’t much, as the autumn harvest was about to arrive.

Because of the minor drought of the previous year, the common people didn’t have much surplus grain to begin with. The stored grain was carefully calculated to last until after the autumn harvest.

Many households had even mixed rice husks and wild vegetables into their grain to barely make it through to the autumn harvest.

In recent years, the Emperor has been building palaces, repairing the Imperial Mausoleum, and collecting excessive miscellaneous taxes. The common people simply couldn’t save enough money.

Everyone was hoping for a good harvest this year, so that they could survive the autumn and have food to eat. Who knew that the heavens would be so unkind, continuing the drought, leaving no crops to harvest, and bringing people to the brink of starvation.

Not to mention during droughts, trees withered and died in large areas, wild vegetables disappeared early on, common wildlife fled, and the river fish had long been caught to emptiness.

With no way to get food from outside, the common people had to take out their accumulated savings at home, preparing to buy grain in hopes of enduring the hardship.

The mood of the common people was very heavy; scarcity years drove up grain prices. Those who had experienced disaster years knew, and even those who hadn’t heard from the elders at home how unscrupulous the grain merchants were during disaster years.

Their only hope now was that those grain merchants wouldn’t be too greedy, and wouldn’t raise the grain prices too high, or else there really would be no way to survive.

To their surprise, common people who went to the grain store with these pessimistic thoughts discovered that the grain prices at the store were unexpectedly low.

In fact, the prices were surprisingly low, even cheaper than during plentiful years, although it was clear they were old grain. But this grain was clean and not mixed with sand, all good quality grain.

Each grain store was guarded by several clerks and staff. Buyers had to bring their household registration and queue to buy grain, limited to ten pounds per person within half a month.

Ten pounds of rice used to make porridge could fully sustain one person for half a month without starving, and without suffering too much hunger.

Of course, there were also grain stores with fewer regulations, but the prices there were sky-high. They couldn’t buy more than a few pecks of rice even if they sold everything they had.

The common people weren’t idiots; it was obvious that some wealthy family was being charitable, pitying them. They ran home one after another to get their registration documents and then came back to queue obediently.

Occasionally, someone would try to buy grain again after already purchasing some, but unfortunately, the clerks outside the grain store weren’t blind. They recognized everyone who had come once.

Even if one clerk didn’t recognize them, others would. If caught trying to buy more grain than allowed, they would be penalized with one pound less.

A pound less of grain wouldn’t starve them to death, but they would certainly go hungry. Additionally, others who found out about someone trying to break the rules by buying more rice would angrily scold them.

The grain store was kind-hearted, willing to sell rice cheaply to help them, but the store’s grain also had a limit. If someone bought more, and there wasn’t enough for others, others wouldn’t get theirs.

Fortunately, the common people’s concerns about insufficient grain supply did not occur. As soon as the grain store’s stock was sold out, carts carrying large batches of grain arrived immediately.

In previous disaster years, the common people despised the sight of grain carts, and disasters often led to the looting of grain carts from wealthy families.

However, when the Qi Guan Family’s grain carts arrived, not a single disaster victim felt jealous; instead, they spontaneously formed a circle outside to supervise each other, ensuring none of the grain would be stolen.

After Shuangshuang completed a day’s business of fair grain prices, she specifically went to the government to request the Magistrate’s intervention in helping control the grain buying issue with common people.

After all, there were so many disaster-hit areas, relying solely on the Qi Guan Family’s own strength wouldn’t work. It was better to have the government assist, and the Magistrate could even coordinate with officials from other regions.

Faced with the great drought, ensuring the common people don’t starve or causing major disruptions was a considerable achievement for officials. Shuangshuang wasn’t afraid these officials wouldn’t be diligent.

Sure enough, the Magistrate gladly agreed. With government intervention, the Qi Gong Family’s pressure eased considerably, focusing solely on constantly supplying grain to stores for sale.

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