Han Shizu

Chapter 345 The Difficult Second Year of Qianyou

The second year of Qianyou in the Han Dynasty can be described as smooth first and then difficult. The beginning of a spring was calm.The surroundings are stable and the weather is smooth. The spring plowing that Liu Chengyou attaches great importance to is proceeding in an orderly manner, and the court has further entered a stable situation.The harem is pregnant one after another, the emperor accepts newcomers, and the royal family is flourishing.The grain and tax went to Beijing smoothly, the princes submitted their submissions, and the "Xing Tong" was re-edited and published.
It was really a good start, but after the summer, bad news came one after another.In April, a great earthquake occurred in Hebei, affecting more than a dozen states; in May, locust plagues were about to come, covering the north and south of the river.

Compared with the earthquake, Liu Chengyou and the imperial court paid more attention to the locust plague. After all, at the critical moment of the summer harvest, if one is careless, the hard work of the "suffering people" of the Han Dynasty will be wiped out, and there will be famine and chaos again. up.Issues related to food cannot be ignored by the Han monarchs and ministers.

Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, it has been suffering from food shortages.However, Liu Chengyou issued a strict order to urge all states and counties in the world to prepare for locust disasters.However, with the executive ability of the current big Han bureaucrats and generals, problems cannot be avoided at all.

Moreover, the severity of the locust plague and its spread far exceeded the expectations of Liu Chengyou and the Han monarchs.After entering June, Hebei and the states of the Central Plains played locusts one after another.Hua, Pu, Chan, Cao, Yan, Yun, Zi, Qing, Qi, Su, Huai, Xiang, Wei, Bo, Chen and other prefectures, the essence of the Central Plains and Hebei, are plagued by locusts almost everywhere, and officials and people suffer.

What made Liu Chengyou even more unprepared was that the dozens of counties under Kaifeng Prefecture were also not spared, and it was very serious.The locusts covered the sky and covered the earth, and their sound was widely heard, and even some insects flew over the imperial city of Biangong.

Under this catastrophe, Liu Chengyou and the princes of the Han court reacted quickly, and drafted an edict to issue to the world, ordering officials and people everywhere to catch locusts.Even, the river workers were stopped and the Tokyo Forbidden Army was dispatched to catch locusts.

In this case, it is no longer a matter of worrying about the reduction of summer grain production, but to stop the loss in time to reduce the loss of a grain of wheat, which is also good.

"Locust catching envoys" were also set up to go to various places to supervise the catching of locusts and fight disasters. At the same time, censors and officials were sent from Tokyo to monitor the situation of locust catching in various places. Disposal by Zhongshu.

Some local officials, in the face of the locust plague, only wanted to obey the will of heaven and prayed to the gods of the mountains, forests, rivers and swamps where they were, and that was all.For this kind of generals, it is no surprise that they are not only dismissed from office, they are all sent to Tokyo by car, sent to prison and sentenced, and dealt with strictly.

Even though the "Great Han Xingtong" has become much gentler and abolished many cruel laws, the strictness of Han law is still vividly reflected in this matter.Sadly, Liu Chengyou discovered that the Central Committee of the Han Dynasty had restored some of the most basic administrative control over the localities.Of course, the central government and the local government have a common understanding and appeal when it comes to exterminating locusts and saving food. After all, no one wants to go hungry.

In fact, based on the experience of exterminating locusts in Hebei last year, the court and even the local government were not too busy at the beginning, but this time, the disturbance was too big and serious, and some of the great Han monarchs were caught off guard.

Not surprisingly, the production of summer grains has decreased, and the spring seedlings have also suffered considerable damage, which has led to a predictable, difficult harvest of autumn grains.

Fortunately, Liu Chengyou and his ministers, in this large-scale locust plague, had a firm attitude and resolute actions, and recovered a lot of losses.Liu Chengyou also went to the countryside to inspect in person, encouraged the officials and the people, comforted people's hearts, and gained a wave of prestige.

In just half a month, the locust plague has been greatly contained in Gyeonggi and the Central Plains states that are heavily radiated by the majesty of the imperial court.The festivals, defenses, group training, and governors of various places have been reported one after another, and the results of locust catching have been reported.

For example, Liu Chengyou's father-in-law, Gao Xingzhou in Yedu, Fu Yanqing in Yanzhou, and Zhecongruan in Yunzhou, all three families caught nearly [-] dendrobium locusts.Combined with the locust catch data of other states, a rough calculation shows that there are more than [-] dendrobium.

Hearing this, Liu Chengyou also laughed at himself and said that God gave me 500,000 hu of grain, and I should go to the Taoist palace to pay homage to him in person.He also did what he said, which is probably one of the few "superstitious" behaviors of Liu Chengyou.Of course, this can be considered a joy in bitterness. After all, locusts are so delicious, and with so many insects, one can imagine the extent of damage to crops.

Because of the locusts, the progress of this year's summer harvest has been greatly delayed, and the collection of summer taxes has also been delayed until autumn.Until the autumnal equinox, there will be a rough report on the disaster situation and tax situation in various places.

Of course, the result is not happy, the subjects of the big man are going to be hungry again.

Hungry people came, and Liu Chengyou wanted to order the opening of warehouses to release food, but in the end he remained silent. He only issued a euphemistic and ambiguous edict, ordering local governments to try their best to relieve and resettle the victims, so as not to disperse them and flee to other states.

Then, there are many civil disturbances in various places. Regarding this, the imperial court's attitude is much firmer, and anyone who causes chaos will be suppressed with all their strength.It's cruel, but in order to ensure order and avoid greater turmoil, it has to be so.

Of course, for Kaifeng Kinki, Liu Chengyou still squeezed out some food from his teeth for relief.In addition, the edict was issued to the world, calling on the subjects of the great Han Dynasty to tide over the difficulties together.And Liu Chengyou also wore sackcloth in the palace, and put away all the few bright ornaments in the Han Palace.For officials and officials in Beijing who are extravagant and wasteful, they will all be warned and investigated.

At the same time, in anticipation of the rise in food prices, for those who hoard and make great fortunes, one counts one by one, and all of them will be brought to justice.

Fortunately, after the peace talks with the Southern Tang Dynasty, the ban on the Huaihe River was lifted, merchants from the two countries communicated with each other, the old and new discussions opened up, and the transportation of grain from the Jianghuai River to the north was not hindered.During the Southern Tang business trip, Jia Liang went northward and sold to the Central Plains, which also alleviated the grain shortage in the Central Plains to a certain extent.At the same time, it also caused the outflow of big men's money and goods.

Although Liu Chengyou suffers from it, compared with the hunger in his belly, the things outside his body are nothing, but the scholars and common people of the big Han are even poorer.

From the national level, Liu Chengyou also took the initiative to buy grain from the Southern Tang Dynasty, showing a lot of sincerity, exchanging cattle, horses, donkeys and sheep from the north, and even gave a thousand war horses.You must know that even in the north, due to the source of horses, war horses are also very important and scarce strategic materials for the big man.

Sure enough, in the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Jing was very generous and the courtiers were very happy. On the contrary, Han Xizai made a last-ditch effort and suggested that the Tang Lord send troops to the Northern Expedition, but was rejected without hesitation. Peace is hard-won, how can we lightly use weapons.

If the Han army is pushed into a hurry, and a hundred thousand hungry wolves go south to eat, it will be too late to regret.Coupled with Liu Chengyou's previously arranged alienation strategy, Li Jing still had some ideas about Han Xizai, and the enemy's politically correct opposition, Han Xizai who did not hold real power had no chance to realize his ambitions.

It is said that after the failure of the proposal, Han Xizai got drunk in the mansion and bluntly said that the Tang Dynasty would never have the opportunity to enter the Central Plains and restore the old capital.
On the big man's side, although the locust plague was fierce, he tried his best to control it.It's just the treatment of the sequelae, which is a bit of a headache.

However, what happened almost at the same time as the locust plague was the drought.It was also in June, and at the end of June, the scope of the impact was not small. Bin, Ning, Ze, Lu, Jing, Yan, Fu, Fang, Jin, Jiang and other prefectures almost covered the entire Guanzhong, and the Hedong area was also slightly affected.
Under the background of constant disasters, it is inevitable that people's hearts will fluctuate. There are rumors in Beijing that the emperor is immoral and Liu Chengyou is not good at governance.Liu Chengyou did not fluctuate excessively for such abusive talkers, but Wu Desi's spies came out everywhere, Kaifeng Mansion arrested a large number of people, and sentenced them quickly. , was captured and exiled, and then died on the way to exile.

Under the severe punishment measures, coupled with Liu Chengyou's continuous sending of people to publicize his meritorious actions, and to change public opinion, Beijing is safe.

Earthquakes, locust plagues, droughts, and almost nationwide natural disasters, the Han Dynasty, the new regime, was like an old traveler, accepting the most severe test, walking with difficulty.

Fortunately, in the past two years, Liu Chengyou has taken many measures to consolidate his regime so that it will not collapse, and he can even face difficulties with all his strength.It is conceivable that in the original history, there were natural disasters, military disasters, greedy generals, how sad the Han Dynasty was at that time, and how the people of the Central Plains were in a fiery scene.

Liu Chengyou was very emotional, the original owner's death was not wronged.

Of course, the road ahead is difficult, but for Liu Chengyou, whose will has been honed as hard as a rock, it cannot shake him in the slightest.

　Seeing that there are still so many supportive book friends, I was a little moved, so I cheered up and coded this chapter.Working in a hurry, coupled with dizziness, there may be some unclear logic.

　　I said a long time ago that if I don’t want to be a eunuch, unless I am 404, judging from the results of my previous writing, I haven’t broken my promise.

　　Life is not easy, so you have to leave a way out, in case you can't get along someday, you still want to write some words and earn some living expenses.

　　Therefore, although the update is slow, book lovers who follow the update can try their best to feel at ease.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)