The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 270 The Bad Guy Gets Old
Time flies by, and it is late March [-] AD. From south to north, from west to east, Liangzhou, Yongzhou, Bashu, Bingzhou, Jizhou, Central Plains, Qingzhou and other places have not seen rain since the beginning of spring. The whole world was shrouded in this rare drought. The seedlings in the fields dried up and died, and the water level in the river dropped severely. Countless people were helpless and weeping silently in front of the might of nature!
The plan for a year lies in spring, and if there is no rain in spring plowing, it means that there will be no harvest this year.Although the waterwheel designed by Yang Tong has become popular all over the country, the fields near the river can be irrigated, but it is far away from the river, and there is no way to do it with the terraced fields in the mountains.

People depend on food, and without food, it means that people will starve to death.Without food, the world will not be stable. Once it is instigated and used by people with ulterior motives, mutinies and civil uprisings will occur one after another.

The extent of disasters suffered by various princes and counties is directly related to the government's drought resistance. In the Tang Dynasty, Prince Li Jiancheng personally served as a pacifier, went to the counties to supervise the drought relief, and distributed grain from Bashu and Jingxiang to the market to minimize the impact of the disaster.

The Sui Dynasty also attached great importance to this spring drought. When the drought occurred, Yang Gongren ordered Yang Shidao, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, to be the commander in chief of drought relief. He ordered craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry to go to various counties to guide local officials and people to build water diversion tools, and officials from the local imperial department to supervise them. Drought resistance of local officials.

Under the strict responsibility supervision and strong measures of the imperial court, the Sui Dynasty’s drought resistance was quite effective. Although the disaster was serious, the Sui Dynasty invested heavily in infrastructure in recent years. Since it entered Jizhou, there have been no rivers and canals in various places. The construction stopped, and the network of rivers and canals built by prisoners of war and slaves played a huge role at this time. Although many rivers dried up to the bottom, at least half of the harvest in various parts of the Sui Dynasty could be kept.The Jizhou and Youzhou plains with well-developed water networks are not even affected, so the focus of drought resistance is in Bingzhou and Yongbei areas.

At the same time, Yang Gongren immediately sent more than 30 Turkic slaves to Liaodong to reclaim wasteland, focusing on the development of the Liaodong Plain, a black land with no floods and no droughts, in an attempt to convert the sparsely populated Baitan County, Shuangliao County, Xiangping County and Lushun County were developed into major grain-producing areas in the Sui Dynasty that were no less important than Bashu.

The Sui court actually reached a consensus on this resolution, but it didn't want to overdraw the people's power, so it adopted a slow immigration policy, but now there is a lot of free labor, so they simply invested in it at one time. See results.

In addition, the Sui Dynasty itself had sufficient grain reserves, and it had repeatedly blackmailed tens of millions of shi grains from Li Yuan, and used bad money to buy the grain and supplies of the big families in Bashu, Jingzhou, and Jiangnan for many years. It has been three years without harvest, and it can be handled freely.

Precisely because the Sui court was well prepared and paid attention to infrastructure, the "supply and marketing cooperatives" in counties and counties sold grain at a fair price, and even Bingzhou and Yongbei, where the drought was most severe in the whole country, did not have any panic situation.

But Qingzhou controlled by Dou Jiande is a different scene. There are seven counties in Qingzhou, from west to east, north to south, namely Jibei County, Qi County, Beihai County, Donglai County, Lu County, Langya County, Gaomi County .

The seven counties were hit hard when the drought hit.Absolutely unavoidable.

The reason is still a man-made disaster.

In the seventh year of Sui Daye (611), due to heavy military service, Wang Bo and Meng Rang of the same county launched a peasant uprising based on Changbai Mountain.The activity was held between Qi County and Jibei County, and the people of Qingzhou responded one after another.The rebel army was so powerful that they stationed at the foot of Mount Tai.Due to paralysis and underestimation of the enemy, he was defeated by Zhang Xutuo, the general guard of Qi County in Sui Dynasty.Wang Bo led his army across the Yellow River to the north, but was chased to Linyi by Zhang Xutuo and defeated.Wang Bo was forced to go north to join Qi Sun Xuanya, Shi Yujia, Hao Xiaode and other rebels, with a total of 10 people, and then went south again to return to Zhangqiu City.Zhang Xutuo led [-] troops to reinforce Zhangqiu City and defeated the rebels again.Afterwards, Wang Bo led the rebel army to fight in various counties of Qingzhou.

After the siege of Yanmen ended, Yang Guang's face was disgraced, and the grand plan of the great cause has become a thing of the past.At that time, the world was in turmoil, and the Sui Dynasty was in danger, like a candle in the wind.After this battle, Yang Guang was overwhelmed, lost the courage and confidence to reorganize the rivers and mountains, fled to Jiangdu, and lived a life of drunkenness and dreams.

Pei Changcai, Shi Zihe, Zuo Xiaoyou, Xie Xiang, Lu Mingxing, Shuai Rentai, Huo Xiaohan, Lu Mingyue, Zhai Rang and others may have seen the weak nature of the Sui Dynasty, followed Wang Bo one by one, and rose up one after another, fighting against each other on the land of Qingzhou The Sui army led by Zhang Xutuo fought hard.Since then, the military disaster in Qingzhou has continued to this day, and infrastructure such as farmland and water conservancy have been devastated.

After this year, military disasters once again hit the land of Qingzhou. First, Xu Yuanlang was dissatisfied that the military power was seized by Dou Jiande, and with the support of Li Mi, he suddenly attacked Dou Jiande. Dou Jiande defeated Xu Yuanlang in Lu County, and Xu Yuanlang fled to Langye County. By the sea, killed by angry fishermen.

Immediately afterwards, Dou Jiande and Li Mi broke out in the Qingzhou War. The war lasted until the end of March. Donghai County, Langye County, and Lu County controlled by Dou Jiande all fell, and all the land bordering on the ally Du Fuwei fell into the hands of Li Mi. If it weren't for Du Fuwei's vigorous response, even the remaining four counties of Qingzhou would not be able to keep it.

Although Dou Jiande got a respite, the severe drought was irreversible. The war and drought caused the death of seedlings in the four counties of Qingzhou. In addition, Dou Jiande fought all the year round and ignored the people's livelihood. Doumi has risen to a terrifying ten guan, a price not to mention ordinary people, even well-to-do families can't afford it.

The people in Qingzhou complained that a large number of hungry people starved to death every day. Hundreds of thousands of hungry people fled to Yanci and Putai counties in Bohai County in the Sui Dynasty, and then crossed to the north bank of the Yellow River with the help of Bohai officials. Went to Liaodong to settle down.Wherever the hungry people passed by, the grass roots were dug up, and the bark was stripped and eaten.

The people in the four counties of Qingzhou fled all over the city, and many counties were reduced to dead cities and ghost cities. There was no trace of human habitation on the land of thousands of miles of wilderness, and there were skinny dead bodies everywhere on both sides of the official road.

And when the drought was raging across the country, officials of the Sui Dynasty used a large number of ships on the water of the Yellow River for thousands of miles from Hedong County, Jiang County, Hanoi County, Ji County, Wuyang County, Qinghe County, Pingyuan County to Bohai County, day and night. To transport the victims, a boatload of victims from the Central Plains was transported from the south bank of the Yellow River to the north bank.

The officials of the Sui Dynasty had rich experience in robbing people and resettling victims. When the order arrived in each border county, they immediately acted. In addition to sending spies to the enemy forces to publicize the Great Sui policy, there were also relief centers established in each border county. It is used to receive the hungry people who fled from the south, and then they are arranged in groups of ten to each county and village.

The imperial court headed by Yang Gongren pre-allocated one million shi for emergency food relief for this robbing operation, and appointed [-] officials from the imperial court to preside over the relief work, and at the same time mobilized thousands of students from Tsinghua Academy to assist, study, and supervise!
The resettlement site for victims in Yangxin County, Bohai County is located on the bank of the Yellow River. Since the famine in Qingzhou is the worst, Yangxin County has become the busiest place among the resettlement sites along the northern bank of the Yellow River. The resettlement center here consists of tens of thousands of tents, covering an area of More than 40 acres, from the beginning of the year to the end of March, more than [-] hungry people from Qingzhou have been brought here.

The entire camp was crowded with people, and more than 200 officials and [-] students were responsible for resettling and registering the information of the victims. The county governor, Gao Yaxian, responded to the order of the court and led [-] soldiers to maintain order.

This morning, Wei Zheng, Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment, came to inspect accompanied by several officials, and Gao Yaxian accompanied him all the way.

Tens of thousands of tents in the resettlement center were overcrowded, all kinds of smells rose to the sky, and the crying and shouting of children made people feel anxious and irritable.

Yin Hongzhi, the son of Yin Shishi, is in charge of this resettlement site, and his deputy is Gu Yan, the son of Gu Yi. It also received a lot of attention. Although they did not have the experience of being an official, they all possessed the ability of county guards. Yang Gongren sent them to resettle the victims, which was also a major test before he became an official.

Yin Hongzhi explained to Wei Zheng: "Yang Shangshu, there are too many disaster victims from Qingzhou, four 10,000+ people gather together, and each big tent is crowded with more than 500 people, which has brought a lot of public security problems. The perennial wars in Qingzhou have caused the people to be tough and brutal. As of last night, more than [-] people have been convicted of adultery and have been executed. Violence, tyranny, and bullying have happened frequently. Now The weather is getting hotter and people are restless and depressed. If they are not evacuated in time, civil uprisings are very likely to occur." Speaking of this, he said worriedly: "Fortunately, the army suppressed it effectively, and the officials below and the students from the Tsinghua Academy can also be repressed in time. Handling various cases, civil uprisings will not happen for the time being. The lower officials are most worried about the diseases caused by the harsh environment. If one person gets sick, the whole tent will suffer, and then an epidemic will occur."

Wei Zheng frowned and said, "There are a lot of tents handed over from the Turks, why didn't you make a request?"

Gu Yan next to him smiled bitterly and said: "Wei Shangshu, there are many tents that have not been erected yet, but no matter how many tents are erected, similar problems will occur. The two of us think that the best way is to evacuate the resettlement sites, and tens of thousands of households People set it as a resettlement point, so that all kinds of problems will be reduced."

Wei Zheng said: "It's a very good idea, why not implement it?"

"Insufficient manpower." Gu Yan said a very real problem, "We and Mr. Gao divided 5000 soldiers into three groups to carry out day and night inspections, and 40 people inspected the camps of more than [-] people. It is very reluctant. We also want to However, it is easy to separate the people from their relatives by taking out the young and strong from the victims, and the officers and soldiers will lead the inspections."

Wei Zheng didn't make a sound. He walked into a big tent, and suddenly he was greeted with a turbid smell. The blanket was covered with stinky tattered bedding, and all kinds of boxes, cages, and jars were piled up in every corner. A little bit of family property left.

There were more than 20 women, children and old people lying in the big tent, but none of the young men. Yin Hongzhi explained bitterly: "This big tent robbed another big tent of food a few days ago, so this big tent All the young and old were imprisoned in the barracks."

The anger in Wei Zheng's heart rose up, and his face became livid and ugly. It's not his fault for being angry. The officials and soldiers of the Sui Dynasty did not sleep, what was the reason?Isn't it to keep the victims from starving?But these evil people are lucky, not only cooperating restlessly, but also arousing fights, it's really damned.

When the victims in the tent saw a large group of officials coming in, they sat up in fright and held their children tightly in their arms.

Wei Zheng saw a few wounded old men sitting on the side, being served like uncles and humming, and asked coldly: "What's the matter with you?"

A few old men faltered and said: "I fell, I hurt myself."

"Wei Shangshu, don't listen to his nonsense. These old men didn't get hurt at all, they were injured." Gu Yan explained bitterly: "The six tents nearby are from the same family, and these old men It was the elders of this family, they instigated the clansmen to grab the rations of another tent, but they were attacked by everyone, and thirteen people died, and the legs of these culprits were also broken."

Wei Zheng snorted coldly, looked at the old men with white beard and hair, and said fiercely: "For this kind of thief who is hard to change, in the future, if you meet a person who kills a person, or a family who kills a family. Prohibition issued."

Seeing Wei Zheng's murderous look, a group of victims did not dare to complain, and kept silent like cicadas.

"Remember it!" Wei Zheng coldly glanced at the victims whose complexion changed drastically, and then thought of how these culprits were being served like uncles just now, his heart surged with anger: "Originally, you just need to insist In a few days, the imperial court will settle you down and give everyone [-] acres of land, so that the family can live in peace and beauty. But your relatives died before happiness came! Who caused your family to be ruined? I think It's not others, but these old thieves who provoked the fight, if they weren't greedy, your relatives would not have died. So, if you want to hate, hate these few people."

Thinking of thirteen perfect families being shattered before happiness came, Wei Zheng became furious, and he said angrily: "You are right to respect the elderly, but these old bad people don't deserve your respect, they don't deserve it." You wait."

In an instant, except for the close relatives of the 'thief old man', everyone looked at them with hatred. Wei Zheng ignored these gray-faced 'thief old men' and led the crowd to leave.

(End of this chapter)