Du Ruhui still did not answer Li Chengqian's question, but continued to ask: "Have you ever heard that in the spring, summer and autumn, in addition to encountering major natural disasters and man-made disasters, can the people die in a large number of deaths?"

Li Chengqian was stunned. Thinking about it, this is true. Except for winter, only large-scale casualties will occur in other seasons only when encountering floods, droughts, etc. However, no matter whether there is a disaster or not in this winter, there will always be deaths!

"Your Highness can tell, what is the biggest difference between this winter and other seasons?"

"Different?" Li Chengqian frowned, "There seems to be no difference except the cold weather!"

Du Ruhui nodded, shook his head again, and said, "Indeed, compared with other seasons, winter is indeed cold afterwards. However... in other seasons, even if the people do not have food to fill their stomachs, they can still find things to fill their hunger in the wild. However, in this winter, everything is silent, the plants and trees wither, there is no thing to fill their hunger in the mountains, and the people who do not have food to fill their stomachs... Alas!"

Du Ruhui did not continue to say it, but Li Chengqian probably understood what he meant and said with some uncertainty: "Uncle Du means...those people were not frozen to death, but...starved to death?"

Du Ruhui nodded slightly and said, "That's right, in addition to these people, the number of deaths reported by the local government, who died due to frostbite failure in time will also be included in the freezing death!"

Li Chengqian frowned deeply and said angrily: "Why is the cause of death of the people reported by the local people to death by freezing to death, not starving to death?"

Du Ruhui said: "This is related to the standards for assessing the political achievements of officials in the Tang Dynasty. When assessing officials, whether there are starvation deaths under the jurisdiction is a very important part. Therefore, when reporting, local officials will mostly use the grounds of freezing to death rather than starving to death!"

"Since Uncle Du knows about this, the court should also know that those local officials dare to report it in such a false way. Do they conceal the reports?" Li Chengqian seemed a little angry, with a tone of reproach!

Du Ruhui smiled bitterly and said, "If the people starved to death in other seasons, it is easy to see it, but in winter... can Your Highness tell whether a person was frozen to death due to hunger or was directly frozen to death?"

Li Chengqian understood everything now and suddenly said, "No wonder, no wonder so many people were frozen to death, it turned out that they were all starved to death!"

Du Ruhui shook his head and said, "No, although most of them died of hunger, many people were really frozen to death! For example, children, and elderly people!"

Li Chengqian understood that children and the elderly are weak in nature and are not as strong as adults. They do not have good heating conditions in winter and are indeed easily frozen to death!

He understood that most of the 1,000 people who reported to the local government to freeze to death were starved to death, and only a small number of them were actually frozen to death!

"Hmm? No, Uncle Du, since the majority of people die of hunger due to food scarcity in winter, why are the death tolls this year so fewer than in previous years? Logically speaking, it shouldn't be reduced?"

"Haha, your highness should know the most about this issue!"
Chapter completed!