I am an immortal in heaven and earth

Chapter 293 Cold Disaster
In the winter of the fourth year of Jitai, a snowstorm hit the north, crushing countless houses and affecting tens of millions of people. The four provinces were all hit by the disaster, and the court was unable to provide relief. Countless people froze to death, starved to death, and people ate each other.

The northern grassland tribes also suffered a great disaster, with countless cattle and sheep freezing to death. The Khan integrated the tribes, intending to cross the Yellow River and move south.

Not only in the north, but also in the south, there was a rare heavy snowfall.

It is said that auspicious snow means a good harvest, but right at the doorstep, the snow is already knee-deep.

This was still the result of Xu Jia ordering Ao Jin to repair the water Qi, but now even the Xinjiang River has frozen, enough for people to stand and jump on it.

At this time, Xu Jia was on the mountain, observing the world's fortune despite the severe cold.

The world is in complete chaos.

In the Dharma Realm, a terrifying demon is wreaking havoc in the north. This is not a demon sent down from the sky. It is the imagination and description of the people about the cold and hunger caused by the snowstorm. They feel so cold and hungry before they die...

According to the mythology of the northern grasslands, whenever it snows, it must be the Snow Girl who is spreading the snow. Taoism also says that the Snow God is a goddess.

But this demon is not a female. It is chaotic and cruel. It is born in winter and disappears when ice and snow come, until millions of people are frozen to death.

This is a "natural disaster".

Human power is useless.

It is not that the demon appears first and then the disaster occurs, but that the disaster occurs first and then the demon appears, taking advantage of the disaster.

Besides, Xu Jia could not subdue this demon.

The laws of nature run in cycles.

There are hundreds of years of warmth and the temperature becomes hotter, and there are hundreds of years of cold and the climate becomes colder.

“We need to prepare in advance.”

Xu Jia could tell from watching the snow that there would be several disasters in the coming year. First, the melting snow would cause floods, which was inevitable. Second, there would be a cold snap in late spring, which would freeze the seedlings to death, and even if they were replanted, it would be too late. Third, if there was a lot of snow in winter, there would be drought in summer, and after the melting snow and floods, there would be drought.

Not to mention that after the spring, a large number of corpses began to rot and then breed plague.

It can be said that Xu Jia basically saw the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse".

Plague, famine, war, death.

If it was the first year, it would be fine. Xu Jia observed the sky and the earth's energy and calculated the direction of the dragon vein.

This situation will repeat itself for more than five years. Unless there is a person with great supernatural powers who can heal the heavens, correct the "biased qi" of the heavens and the earth, put order into chaos, and restore the righteous qi of the heavens and the earth.

If we talk about the theory of "the interaction between heaven and man".

This means that the Daning court has lost its virtue, has lost the Mandate of Heaven, and is being chased by warlords.

"Fellow Daoist, are you here to observe the celestial phenomena again?" Zhang Fajing's soul, covered in golden light, came to Xu Jia.

"Last time, fellow Daoist made a vow, all the gods responded, and the heaven and earth responded. It was really solemn." Zhang Fajing said, "But in the blink of an eye, it has been millions of calamities. All sentient beings are suffering. Fellow Daoist has been determined to attain the Tao, but now a natural disaster has occurred. Millions and tens of millions of lives are powerless. I am afraid this is also the fate of fellow Daoist."

Xu Jia said: "If this disaster is really a test for me to become an immortal, it is my fault, my karma, and the punishment from heaven because I was unsatisfied with my great desires. But no matter how many reasons I give, it is not a reason."

"Heaven and earth do not change according to human will."

"As for life and death."

"The Yin Fu Jing says: The living are the root of death, the dead are the root of life, kindness comes from harm, harm comes from kindness."

"Life and death are interdependent, so how can natural and man-made disasters not be the meaning of gratitude and righteousness?"

"What does Master Zhang think?" Xu Jia asked back.

"Yes, only chaos can lead to redistribution and subversion. Disaster is the beginning of rebirth and the source of the reconstruction of morality and institutions."

Xu Jia nodded: "I plan to support my father in his career."

"It seems like something you can do." Zhang Fajing said, "But I thought you were going to establish the Dao Kingdom yourself."

"The Central Plains is not suitable for building a Taoist country." Xu Jia said, "The Tao Te Ching says that a small country should have few people, and a Taoist country should be governed by inaction. If the tax is high, it will be one-tenth, and if it is low, it will be one-thirty, or one-fifty... If the tax is low, it will not be enough to support the Taoist army. If the tax is high, the people will suffer. How can we talk about governing the country by Taoism?"

"Secondly, China has had this history since ancient times. If it is a Taoist country, then Taoists are traitors to the country. Look at those monks and Taoists. How much land they occupy and how much usury they collect. Not to mention other families, just take your Longhu Mountain as an example. I'm afraid there are 100,000 hectares of fertile land at the foot of the mountain and all of them are surnamed Zhang."

"If I establish a kingdom in the Middle Earth, there will be many heroes who will attack me, thinking that I am the Huangtian Sect, the Changsheng Sect, or something like that. After all, every time the end of the world comes, there will be Taoists who will rebel, and they will ruin their reputation."

"It is better to explore overseas first. If we can get good governance, we can rule the Central Plains again. At least we will not give up these two counties, Yushan and Dexing. If there is a real chaos, we can seize Xinzhou and Raozhou, and move towards Huaidi, including Nanchang, Wuhan, and Changsha. The place we rule is the granary of the world. We should work hard to cultivate the land, develop it, and then expand outward one by one."

Zhang Fajing was a little speechless. Why are you talking about this? Are you talking about my family?
However, there is some truth in what Xu Jia said. Religious rebellion has no soil in the Middle-earth and will be notorious.

Better to go overseas.

He thought about it and said, "If Longhu Mountain wants to build a Taoist country overseas, how about that?"

"There are many islands and territories overseas, enough for all the Taoist sects in the world to build a Taoist country. Didn't the Changsheng Sect build a Taoist country overseas?"

"The Longevity Sect…" Zhang Fajing snorted, "That's the Demonic Country."

"Where are they?"

"I don't know either. I just heard it's in the East China Sea, maybe Ryukyu, or an island near Japan."

Xu Jia had in mind a place suitable for farming, Java.

Java has a suitable climate and fertile soil, so it is possible to grow three crops in a year without much fertilizer.

In the next five years of Middle-earth, the cost of farming is huge, and natural disasters and climate will destroy people's hopes and expectations again and again. There will be a big gap in food. The sooner we plant crops overseas, the sooner we can transport food and disaster victims, and the sooner we can build a country overseas.

It was not difficult for Xu Jia to go to Java, or even to unify the Southeast Asian archipelago through Java, but the shipping industry was always a problem.

"Let's see how you do first, and I'll consider it at Longhu Mountain." Zhang Fajing said, "But we can't live in peace in a corner." Xu Jia nodded, "I know all about this."

Zhang Fajing's spirit dissipated, and Xu Jia also stood up, no longer looking at the vast expanse of white.

Although the mountain was covered with snow, the mountainside temple was very warm because of the coal stove.

Before winter, charcoal was expensive, so merchants brought in coal. Coal was cheap, but it smelled bad. However, the Salt and Iron Administration invented a "desulfurization" method, which was actually just like charcoal refining, but it was simmered again in the kiln.

The technology provided by Xu Jia has already produced initial results at the Salt and Iron Institute, including using hot air to increase the furnace temperature and coal to make coking coal, which are the basis of the "Great Leap Forward in Steel Production".

What's more, there is the blessing of "Taoism" here. Some key technologies can actually be "thought about". Folk science mixed with folk law, unorthodox methods, and miscellaneous wisdom can actually directly produce "steel".

In addition, the most basic "lathe" has already taken shape. Precision parts are difficult to make, but they can be done manually. After all, some tools can be "refined into magical tools", such as wrenches, hammers, and chisels... Those that carve stone and jade can't carve steel?
It’s a pity that there is only one Salt and Iron Institute, and its production capacity is really limited.

However, even if these technologies are limited, if we reveal a little bit of them to civilian use, it will be enough to benefit the people.

For example, coal stoves are very popular in mountain dwellings. They can be used to boil water, keep warm, and even make elixirs.

For example, the newly refined "three-eyed gun" has also become a new magic weapon for the Taoists who practiced thunder magic in the mountain temple.

After all, with the first, second, and third things, it won't be difficult. Xu Jia's shooting of the thousand-year-old black fish spirit with a musket was already well-known without any publicity.

What’s different from before is that there are more than 500 Taoist children at Shanju Temple, all of them are around 11 or 12 years old.

At this time, many people were standing in the square, wearing only single clothes.

Originally, the Taoist temple could not accommodate them, so they were given blueprints and asked to build a dormitory building on their own on the flat ground at the foot of the mountain. It was in a circle shape and three stories high. There were no steel bars, but instead bamboo tendons. The adhesive was made from smelted bricks, burned ash, and mixed with straw, yellow mud and rice paste.

Although he is young, he works fast. From the Mid-Autumn Festival to now, he has built the tube-shaped building from scratch. Apart from listening to scriptures and giving lectures, and practicing at noon, he does not have much free time. However, he still managed to complete the building in less than three months.

It doesn't look particularly beautiful, but it can accommodate thousands of people. It is designed according to the 8864 hexagrams. There are 64 rooms on each floor, and 192 rooms on the third floor. It also includes a small kitchen, stairs, and toilets as partitions for every eight rooms.

Each room was designed as an eight-person dormitory with four bunk beds, so it was no problem to accommodate thousands of people.

The so-called square is the "circle" in the center of the tube-shaped building. (The kind of building in Big Fish and Begonia)

Jiang Qi and Shen Bao, because they got the steamed buns made from Xu Jia's Tiangang Qi, became as strong as an ox and a tiger, so they have become the "leaders" among these students.

The stance that one stands in nowadays is the "vital energy stance" modified by Xu Jia, which is a method of stimulating vitality in the body and promoting development. The purpose of this stance is not primarily to increase strength, but to fully tap a person's innate potential.

In fact, the essence is the effect of "Yi Jin Jing and Xi Sui Jing", which is to prevent these young people from growing up ugly.

After practicing the stance for an hour, everyone was starving.

At this time, an eight-foot strong man came over, pushing a cart with a large pot of soup on it, with the words "Dragon and Tiger Innate Soup" written on it.

All the usable flesh and blood of the little dragons in Poyang were sent here without wasting, and mixed with tiger bones, ginseng and ganoderma lucidum to make external medicine to nourish them.

The young men, with shining eyes, took their bowls to get the soup. There was no meat in the soup as the meat had been stewed under high pressure. The soup was in the form of an oily paste, which became jelly-like after cooling.

After taking a sip of the soup, his face turned red and smoke came out of his head.

The big man laughed and said, "You are in luck. When I took the military examination, my family supported me in martial arts training, but I only found bear hearts, tiger bones, and leopard gallbladders, which cost hundreds of taels of silver. As for the spiritual fish produced in Poyang, you can only catch two fish a year after becoming an official, which can help you grow blood, flesh, and essence."

"What are you eating? It's a dragon, a dragon from Poyang Lake. Even the emperor may not be able to eat a bite of it, so it's in your stomachs!"

"After you eat it, you must practice hard and cultivate your energy. Only then can you become a useful person in the future and achieve superior results."

"After you finish your soup, go and practice your old farming skills for me. Take the hoe and turn the soil!"

The soil is hard in winter, but it is more suitable for turning the soil, which can turn up the insect eggs and freeze them to death.

The young men then carried their hoes and went to practice the old farming exercises, which build up strength.

However, the land they turned over was not ordinary land, but was considered "spiritual land".

Yushan now has a mountain god, who can build a blessed land outside. This is the achievement of Chang Yu.

It is difficult for ordinary people to farm, and they need to have "belief" while farming, because the so-called spiritual fields are the combination of the blessed fields of the Dharma Realm and the real land, relying on the power of the mountain gods and the veins and energy of the earth.

If ordinary people plant vegetables, it cannot be considered as "spiritual fields". Only those who practice Taoism can plant them. Why? Because "cultivating fields and growing vegetables" is also a form of spiritual practice, and thoughts and intentions are involved.

The Old Farmer's Kung Fu perfectly fits the bill. It is a method of farming. It is both a life-saving martial art and has the artistic conception of "farming".

While farming, these young people may also recite scriptures, discuss and debate, or even sing loudly. Only in this way can they turn over the field of blessings in the Dharma Realm.

"This piece of land is full of Polygonatum odoratum. Polygonatum odoratum is the food of immortals and also a bait medicine. It is the minor medicine for your future cultivation. You need to be careful. When it grows up, a Taoist priest will come to teach you the skills of refining pills and making medicines."

After tilling the field for an hour, these people stopped. After all, they were still young and too much was as bad as too little.

In addition to these, there are actually Taoist music classes, which teach music theory, practice theory classes, Taoist medicine classes, divination classes... However, there may be only one class in a decade, which means that there will be such courses once every ten days. If you are really interested, you need to study by yourself and then find the corresponding Taoist to ask for advice.

Xu Jia stood on the top floor of the tube building and looked at the group of young people.

"Will they be the five hundred earthly immortals?" Xu Jia was not sure in his heart what they would achieve in the future, but their fate was completely different from before.

When Xu Fu took young boys and girls with him to travel overseas in search of elixirs, Xu Jia thought that they might also be the reserve talents of the Taoist country and his direct descendants.

After going down the mountain from the tube building, Hu Jinhua came up. She had changed into an old woman again, which made it easy for people to trust her. She was well-pampered and had a lot of visitors in the Fox Fairy Hall. She also embarked on the "immortal path" and was on the right track of cultivation.

She said happily, "Kan Yin Wu's little mice found a businessman who had been to Southeast Asia for business. He has seven large ships, which are enough to withstand the storms on the sea. I have already started to contact him."

"How did you find out?"

"There were rats on the ship, too." Hu Jinhua said, "After the rat got off the ship, it boasted to the local rats, and Kan Yinwu found out. Only then did he know that the man had been overseas."

"Yushan is well managed by Jinchan Duobao, so there are many merchants. This merchant is in the business of spice wood. The construction of Sanqing Palace on the mountain requires a lot of wood, which is rare locally. We can only find it in the deep mountains and old forests of Yunnan and Guizhou, but it is also difficult to find. This merchant heard that we were short of good wood and took the initiative to negotiate. But we only knew that he had wood before, and didn't know that his wood was brought from overseas."

(End of this chapter)