"Tony, what's wrong with you?" Seeing Tangning's frown, Heidi asked with concern.
Tangning didn't answer, but handed over the letter in her hand. Heidi took it and looked at it, and couldn't help but exclaimed: "Oh my God! Is New Orleans so short of food right now?"
This letter was written to Tangning by Rob, Tangning's old butler who stayed in New Orleans to look after her house. Basically, she wrote one letter a month. Each letter would detail various major events and minor events that happened in New Orleans that month. This time
Although this letter is long, it actually only contains two words - food shortage!
"This is normal, because most of the land in New Orleans and even the entire South is used to grow cotton. There is not much food at all. At most, some corn is grown to feed livestock. Originally, wheat was purchased from the north and the United Kingdom.
, but the North will definitely not sell it now, and Britain has suffered disasters this year, food production has been reduced, and the sea route has been blocked, so there is naturally a shortage of food!" Tang Ning explained.
Heidi breathed a long sigh of relief and said: "Good thing you reminded Rob to secretly save a lot of food before you leave, otherwise you will be in trouble!"
Tang Ning echoed: "Yes, look at how miserable it is written in the letter, and if there is no food, how can we continue to fight this war!"
In fact, New Orleans at this time was much worse than what Rob wrote in his letter. Not only was its food production low, but a lot of food was taken away after being occupied by the Northern Army. Fortunately, there were only a few housekeepers left at Downing Abbey.
, so the Northern Army thought that there was not much food and did not come to search for it. Of course, in fact, it was not much, but it was abundant compared to Rob and the others.
As for other slave-owning estates, they were not so lucky. All the grain stored in the family was forcibly bought. As a result, grain shortages would naturally occur, and grain was not like other commodities. Its reduction would cause panic.
Fortunately, New Orleans was under martial law at this time, so it was relatively stable, but it also provided conditions for the activities and development of underground organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, the army is most short of food now. The entire Southern Army, from the commander-in-chief, General Robert Leigh, down to the lowest level military officials are worried about the problem of food and grass. (There are still a lot of cavalry and carriages during this period, so they need fodder.)
Relatively speaking, the food supply for Union soldiers was very good. Each soldier could get 12 ounces of pork or 1 pound and 4 ounces of beef every day; one pound and six ounces of soft bread or 1 pound and 4 ounces of cornmeal. And
Each 100 portions of the ration is also paired with a certain amount of sugar, salt, tea, coffee beans, vinegar, candles, dried apples and peaches, and even honey.
So much so that General Mike Owen Doyle angrily claimed, "The food we waste is enough to supply a French army equal to half of our army!" This shows the abundance and waste of the Northern Army's supplies. Of course.
, occasionally there were teams that were defeated, had their baggage robbed, and then fled hungry.
Heidi didn't know much about the war. After echoing a few words, she seemed to suddenly think of something and said: "Yes, the prices in London have indeed dropped a lot recently. At first, I thought everything in London was so expensive.
, I later heard from Kelly that the price of various things had increased because of the increase in food prices in the previous period."
"Then do you know why food prices in London have dropped?" Tangning asked.
Heidi shook her head and replied: "I don't know!"
"Because the wheat harvest in the north was bumper this year, and it couldn't be sold to us, in order to gain support from the UK, we sold it in large quantities at low prices!" Tang Ning explained.
"Looking at it from now on, it's best to grow food. If you don't wait until you see Sister Nicole next time, Tony, please advise her!" Heidi suggested.
Tangning waved her hands and said: "That's not necessary. After all, it is impossible for the whole world to experience a reduction in food production, so it can still be bought. Moreover, Nicole and her black slaves can only grow cotton now. They will consider it after stabilization.
Let’s switch to growing coffee or tea!”
"Well, Brazilian coffee beans are indeed good!" Heidi nodded in agreement.
"Actually, the coffee in Vietnam is pretty good!" At this time, Tang Ning thought of G7, her favorite drink before traveling through time.
"Vietnam? Where is Vietnam?" Heidi asked curiously.
"Right next to China, where the French are now." Tangning explained.
"By the way Tony, I heard that hundreds of thousands of people starved to death in Ireland a few years ago. Was it also because of disasters that reduced food production?" Heidi asked again.
Downing shook his head and said: "The fact that people are starving to death in Ireland is really not because of the reduction in food production. In fact, in 1846, the most serious period, Ireland exported a lot of food. The main reason was that the landlords, church forces and the British did not treat the Irish as human beings."
, so it led to this tragedy, so now the Irish have the largest number of immigrants!”
While the two were chatting, Caroline asked Isabel upstairs: "Isabel, do you think we can return to New Orleans?"
Isabel shook her head and replied: "I don't know. According to the master, even if the war is over, it will not be suitable to go back for a long time. Why do you miss New Orleans?"
Caroline also shook her head and replied: "No, actually I think London is pretty good, or New York is pretty good too, but I just don't want to go back to New Orleans!"
Isabel nodded in agreement. "Actually, I do too, because in London and New York, no one knows that we are the master's slaves, they only think that we are his maids."
"What, you don't want to be Master's slave girl anymore?" Caroline asked jokingly.
Isabel quickly covered Caroline's mouth and said anxiously: "What are you talking about? How could I not want to be the slave girl of the master? It's just that it's best to be a slave girl only in front of the master. I don't want to be regarded as such by others."
Let the female slaves take care of it!”
Caroline sighed and said: "Don't worry, Isa. In fact, I think so too. After all, who likes to be a slave? Fortunately, the master only needs to be a slave when in bed. He treats us well at other times."
OK!"
Then he changed the topic and said: "Actually, the only thing I'm worried about now is Michael. I don't know what the owner will do when he grows up."
Isabel reassured: "I heard the master say once when he drank too much that Michael might be sent to Brazil in the future. After all, the manor there needs to be managed by a reliable person, and the master cannot be there often.
"
PS: Thanks to the book friends "Want to Stay 2", "The Second Young Master of the Yang Family", "The Thicker Fatty", "The Jealousy of the Jianghu", "The Residual Warmth", and "The R-order Equation of One"!