Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 252 0247 [Floods, droughts and earthquakes come in turn]

Outside Tokyo, on the bank of the Yellow River.

Ministers of Civil and Military Affairs and three thousand Taoist priests gathered to watch Lin Lingsu pray for rain, and countless Tokyo citizens also came to help.

Whether you believe in Taoism or not, everyone wants to be successful.

Well, except Wang Zixi.

Two months ago, they prayed for rain once, and Lin Lingsu and Wang Zixi took turns to fight.

As a result, I prayed for a hailstorm...

Starving people are already swarming in all parts of the north. Although the imperial court ordered relief, it was only an order, and the specific operation depended on local officials.

The common people are also considered lucky to meet capable and responsible state and county officials.But more often than not, even the officials are powerless and can only persuade the gentry to take out their stored grain and give them porridge.

Fortunately, Da Song still has the skill of suppressing the bottom of the box: recruiting refugees as Xiangjun!
It just so happened that there have been successive wars in the past few years, and the soldiers have suffered a lot of losses.

When the refugees gathered to a certain size, the imperial court finally took action, transporting the grain from the south of the Yangtze River to the worst-affected areas, and ordered the state officials to recruit young and strong soldiers.The old and the weak gave out porridge in a symbolic way. Anyway, the young and strong were separated, and the remaining refugees could not make trouble.

The Liao Kingdom was equally bad, with golden soldiers outside, uprisings inside, and drought.

This spring, Yizhou (Yixian) Han nationality Dong Panger launched an uprising in Nanjing (southwest of Beijing) in the Liao Kingdom, and the team quickly grew to ten thousand.

Dong Pang'er turned all the way and fought the Liao soldiers in Yishui.Even though the rebel army was defeated in a row, they could always recover. Even if the rebel army was defeated, they quickly gathered tens of thousands of people and fled from Hebei to the surrounding areas of Datong.

Dong Pang'er secretly contacted Song Dynasty, and Song Huizong promised to make him King of Yan and give him the name Zhao Yi.

This operation is very embarrassing. Song Guo himself is a bunch of shit, and he went to intervene in the affairs of neighboring countries, making it clear that he was preparing for the future attack on Liao.

The two countries, Song and Liao, who have loved and killed each other for many years, have now become brothers in difficulty.

Rumble!
Lin Lingsu prayed for rain for the second time, and after only a few days, it rained heavily on all roads in the north.

"Mr. is really a god!" Song Huizong said while holding Lin Lingsu's hand.

Lin Lingsu looked like a master, and said calmly: "This is not the merit of the minister, but the blessing of your majesty. Since your majesty is the son of God, God has his own rain, and this minister is just communicating with the gods on your majesty's behalf."

Song Huizong trusted Lin Lingsu more and more, and the situation of Taoist priest Wang Zixi became more dangerous.

It's just that Lin Lingsu prayed for rain too much, like piercing a hole in the sky.It rained heavily for two days, and after clearing up for a few days, it began to rain continuously again.

The water levels of the Yellow River, Danshui, Xishui, Baihe...all soared.

From Hedong to Henan, from Kaifeng to Nanyang, from Tangzhou to Xiangyang Hongfeng came one after another.

It was rare for the Song court to operate at full capacity and build more dams on the Yellow River in Henan to protect Kaifeng from flooding.

I can't take care of other places. Both Hejian Mansion and Cangzhou have burst their embankments.Especially in Cangzhou City, half of the city wall was flooded, and the people in the city were forced to evacuate.Those who were too late to run were buried in the belly of the fish, and those who ran fast were hungry.

In the Yellow River Flood Area of ​​Hebei Province, more than 100 million people died of drowning, starvation, and disease.

And on Jingxi South Road, Nanyang, Biyang to Xiangyang, a large number of villages were submerged, and countless victims fled towards Jingxi North Road.

Immediately afterwards, the Xihe, Huanqing, and Jingyuan earthquakes were major earthquakes in which valleys were broken and rivers shifted.

Huang Qianshan, who was in Hanzhong last year, was recommended by Wang Fu and has been transferred back to the central government since the beginning of spring.He was ordered by the emperor to inspect the earthquake disaster and found that it was a mess, so he simply concealed it and did not report it.When he returned to Beijing, he said that it was only a small earthquake, and the victims had been properly resettled, so he was promoted again because of his meritorious service.

The war in the Northwest was temporarily suspended due to the disaster, and Song and Xixia couldn't care less about fighting.

However, Song Huizong was still thinking about joining Jin to attack Liao.

When the disaster victims in Hebei were fleeing everywhere, Gao Yaoshi, Cao Xiaocai, and Seng Jirong of the Liaodong Han Dynasty took more than 200 relatives to escape the chaos and go to sea.They set off from Suzhou (Dalian Jinzhou) and planned to go to Korea, but they were blown to Bohai Bay by wind and waves.

The magistrate of Dengzhou obtained more detailed information about the Liao and Jin Dynasties from these populations.

It turned out that the Liao Kingdom had lost all its territory in the Northeast. Song Huizong was overjoyed when he got the news, so he called Cai Jing, Tong Guan and others to discuss.

Cai Jing suggested: "Maybe in the name of buying horses, you can send Gao Yaoshi and others to contact the Kingdom of Jin across the sea from Dengzhou. First, to check the facts of the Kingdom of Jin, and second, to test the attitude of the Kingdom of Jin. Even if you can't agree, you won't lose The style of the Great Song Dynasty."

Song Huizong was very satisfied: "This is an old and solemn statement, ordering the selection of generals and schools, and sending Gao Yaoshi to the Kingdom of Jin to buy horses in a military ship."

Cai Jing was actually unwilling to attack Liao. Floods, droughts and earthquakes came together, disaster victims were everywhere, and the mess in Xixia hadn't been dealt with. Why would he want to recover Yanyun in this situation?
But Cai Jing could not get off the tiger. He had to please the emperor and do things according to the emperor's wishes. Only in this way could he consolidate his position and not be overthrown by political opponents such as Zheng Juzhong and Wang Fu.

As for Tong Guan, he only thought about becoming the king.

That was promised by the first emperor, whoever can regain Yanyun will be crowned king!
……

The Hanzhong and Shangyong areas also began to rain, perhaps blocked by the Qinling Mountains and Daba Mountains. The rainfall here was just right, just ending the drought in the first half of the year.

Zhu Ming went out of the city with his entourage and government officials, and did not ring the gong to clear the streets, but the people voluntarily avoided wherever he passed.

This year's life is very difficult, but with Zhu Taishou around, I can barely get through it.

Only those grain merchants were dissatisfied, and Zhu Ming allowed them to raise prices.But how much and when the increase will be raised is entirely up to Zhu Ming, and he will not give the slightest chance to hoard, and some grain merchants will even lose a small fortune.

Outside Jinzhou City, thousands of disaster victims are queuing up to receive food.

The work-for-work has ended, and everyone took a bucket of food home.The government will send ships to take them away in batches and disembark at places closer to home.

A bucket of grain will not last long, and they will have to beg to survive when they go back.But at least it rained, and the plants came back to life, and digging grass roots and eating bark can last for a while.

Wealthy landowners will lend seeds to the victims so that they can replant late millet quickly, and they may be able to harvest before the snow falls.Borrowing grain and seeds is definitely a usury loan, and you can't afford to repay the interest in this lifetime, but you can survive the crisis and save your life.

Zhu Ming had nothing to do about it. Qian Chen only got back more than 5000 shi of grain and was unable to continue helping the victims.

Batch after batch of disaster victims boarded the boat, and many people kowtowed in the direction of the state city in gratitude for the prefect's kindness.

Huang Gui stood on the top of the city tower, watched the ship go away, and said in a low voice: "It has been found out that some of the grain in the Changping warehouse has been sold to grain merchants. There is still a lot left, which is piled up in the couch on the outskirts of the city." , it is estimated that Li Tongpan is reluctant to sell, and the more you delay, the higher the price will be. The prefect has been suppressing the price of grain, and Li Tongpan has never made a move."

The couch room was called Didian in Sui and Tang Dynasties, and warehouse in Ming Dynasty.

The place where Li Daochong stored grain was the official couch, which also had the functions of inspecting tax clearance and temporarily storing goods.

"Let's go." Zhu Ming left the tower.

He stepped onto the cornucopia, took his entourage and government officials, and went straight to the official couch on the outskirts of the city.

The subordinate officials there are all Li Daochong's confidantes.

But the eunuch came in person, and they dared not stop him.

Until Ju Ming ordered to open the couch, someone finally stood up: "No one is allowed to enter without Li Tong's permission!"

"What are you?" Zhu Ming scolded.

The man said, "I am Li Tongpan's personal follower!"

Zhu Ming stretched out his hand to press the hilt of the sword: "Officials are with us and are not allowed to meddle in local affairs. Hurry up and get out of the way!"

Zhang Tong, Li Bao, Bai Sheng and others were usually responsible for conveying orders, or they followed the officials, and never led people to perform official duties alone.

This is the rule of the Song Dynasty.

The man didn't dare to move away, he couldn't deal with Li Daochong.

Now that he was given the opportunity to be ignorant, Zhu Ming had nothing to say, and angrily shouted: "You stole food from the Changping warehouse behind your master's back, and you still dare to resist arrest!"

"I didn't..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhu Ming had already slashed out with a sword, and blood spurted from the opponent's throat.

Just when everyone was horrified, Zhu Ming ordered: "Send this guy's body back to Li Tong. He said that he stole and sold official food without telling his master. I will help him clean up the door so that he doesn't have to come to pay his respects. Let me tell you later." Jinzhou grain merchants, let them come once every five days, and I will sell them grain below the market price."

Although the drought is over, food is still in short supply.

This batch of grain stolen from the Changping warehouse can just hold up for a while, preventing the price of grain from becoming too high.

Zhu Ming did not allow the government to sell grain directly, but sold it through grain merchants, in order to leave room for merchants and try not to use violent means to control grain prices.

Half an hour later, Li Daochong looked at the corpse of his entourage, his face was gloomy and he said nothing.

Li Bao grinned and cupped his hands: "My family lord said that even though he cleared up the door for Tong San, Tong San doesn't need to thank him too much."

Li Daochong gritted his teeth, but he couldn't hold back after all: "Of course I want to thank you, I will keep this kindness in my heart, and there will be rewards in the future!"

"Then my husband will wait for the judgment to repay his kindness. Farewell!" Li Bao turned and left.

Bang!

After Li Bao went out, Li Daochong couldn't hold back, kicked down the high stool next to him, and the vase on the stool fell down and smashed into pieces.

If it wasn't for Ju Ming's troubles, he could take advantage of this year's drought, stockpile and steal government food, and earn a fortune!
But Ju Ming didn't give him a chance at all, and kept an eye on the price of food every day.A meeting of merchants is called once every five days, so that all grain merchants have to sell at the official price, and whoever sells more expensive will double the fine.

In the end, Li Daochong didn't earn any money, nor did he gain any fame or political achievements, all of which benefited Ju Ming in vain.

How can there be such an official in the world?
Li Daochong is now very sure that Ju Ming is not greedy for half a penny, and he doesn't even take any gray income from unspoken rules.All the envoy treasury money that Zhizhou could normally embezzle was handed over by Zhu Ming to Qian Chen to buy grain in Xiangyang.

As for the iron smelting plant, there is a lot of investment in the early stage, and the ghost knows when the cost will be recovered.

Li Daochong was angry and frustrated. He couldn't fight such a person because he didn't know how to fight at all.

Everything he did seemed to be in vain.

I can only look forward to those impeachment memorabilia, the ten crimes listed will make the emperor angry, after all, the emperor's most important thing is the matter of sacrifice.

Moreover, the local officials did not sacrifice well, which shows that they did not take the emperor seriously.

"Sir, do you still want to compete with the chief examiner of the State Examination with the surname Zhu?"

"How to fight? He is the magistrate of the state, and I am only the general judge. Who dares to object if he insists on being the chief examiner of the Golden State?"

Li Daochong roared and vented, and then went back to the back house to drink.

If the impeachment of the ten crimes fails, he will lie flat and die in the future, and he just wants to get out of this damn place as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)