The southern part of the country was a land of fish and rice. For the past two years, the area had favorable weather and since the taxes were relaxed, they even had an abundance of crops leftover. On the other hand, the north had suffered from successive years of drought. Tanggu Town was near the sea, but the farmers in that area had suffered from decreased output from their fields. As for the northwest part of the country, the drought was in full force and nothing could be grown at this point. 

Transferring grain from the southern provinces to the north was the brilliant strategic idea of their current emperor. By opening up the imperial treasury, the government was able to buy large amounts of rice and ship it via the sea and river transport to the north. This helped to stabilize grain prices in the drought-stricken areas and lessened the disaster by a good amount. This was also the main reason why there weren’t a lot of refugees from the north travelling despite the successive years of drought.  

Imperial Prince Jing was the paternal uncle of the current emperor. Although he had mediocre abilities, his heart was in a good place and he was honest. As the person in charge of trade by sea, he often went himself to oversee the operations. In fact, he personally went many times to the south to escort the ships to bring the rice and grain to the north.   

The guest that Brother Six was receiving today was a capable person under Imperial Prince Jing. If one wanted to continue...