King of Song

Chapter 525 The Drought Strikes
Drought is a terrible disaster in any age.

Especially in the ancient times when agriculture was the foundation and the sky depended on food, the situation was even worse.

In the spring and summer of the fifth year of Xining, the Song Dynasty ushered in an unprecedented drought.From Jianghuai to Hebei, all have fallen into drought. After the New Year, I am afraid that only the Lingnan area has seen decent rain.

From the north of Meiling Mountain to the south of Yanshan Mountain, the sun is shining brightly, and there is almost no rain.

In fact, the drought started as early as last autumn. After the continuous rain that caused the Yellow River to burst, there was very little rain in the Yellow River Basin.

After careful calculation, there has been no effective precipitation for seven or eight months!

At the beginning, no one cared about this situation.Maybe it's because the rain lasted for too long and brought serious floods, so people are looking forward to clearing up sooner. They are a little disgusted with the rain, and feel happy if it doesn't appear.

So this kind of inertial thinking lasted for more than half a year, and by the time people woke up, it was too late!
McGai three-layer quilt, sleep on a steamed bun in the coming year!Maybe there is no heavy snow in winter, but it is extremely dry and warm. Experienced old farmers have already realized that there will be drought, but they realize that it is useless. After all, this kind of thing needs to be vigilant by the court and the government. .

But Emperor Zhao Xu, the Song court didn't notice this!
In the autumn and winter of last year, the imperial court mainly focused on the Hebei Road to control the Yellow River. The clear and rainless weather is conducive to the progress of the project, so everyone feels that the sky is as one wishes, and they all hope that the sunny days will last longer. As a result, God did Very face-saving.

As for Zhao Xu, his energy was even more scattered.Harnessing the river is one aspect, and attacking the old ministers headed by Han Qi is an important part of it. How can we care about other things?After a great success, it is natural to be complacent.In addition, the river control project is going smoothly, and the fiscal revenue at the end of the year has increased greatly. Zhao Xu is in a good mood, so he is more concerned about other things.As a result, after the New Year, it was the spring plowing period in an instant, only to find that it hadn't rained for a long time.

As for the ministers, the prime ministers sitting in the center may not have noticed this.For example, the ruling prime minister, Wang Anshi, is now focusing on reforms, and others don't care too much about the weather.There are some reports of drought and lack of rain in the local area, but after all, it is a sporadic situation in various places, and no one has integrated it into a comprehensive view.Furthermore, the lack of rain in winter seems to be a common thing. I think there should be more rain after spring and summer, so no one cares.

Regarding things like weather disasters, it stands to reason that Si Tianjian is the most responsible and capable of observation.But today's Sitianjian, Zheng'an Chongning, is not good at meteorological inference. The officials of the Sitianjian are not firm in their abilities and positions, so naturally they cannot come up with a convincing forecast.

Furthermore, it is an ancient tradition to report good news but not good news.Forecasting a drought is bad luck. Who would be happy to hear that?

Even if the forecast is accurate, it is a disaster, so what?Which one is not anxious, who cares about their predictions?

But in case the forecast is wrong, it will be false rumors to confuse the public. Words of disaster will have a great impact on the stability of the feudal dynasty. Can the emperor spare them?

The officials of the Sitianjian are not easy to be, and they are often in a dilemma.But in comparison, there is no benefit if the forecast is accurate, but if the forecast is wrong, it will be a disaster. Who would take the risk easily?If a disaster does happen, then it is just a crime of dereliction of duty afterwards, which is much easier than the crime of rumors and bewitching.

The sky is unpredictable, this will be their best excuse, at least it will be their life-saving talisman!Si Tianjian Zheng'an Chongning, as his name suggests, advocates tranquility, so it is natural to report good news but not good ones.There are two concubines in the harem who are pregnant, and the official family is in high spirits. It is definitely very unwise to make mistakes at this time.

As for Lin Zhao, Marquis of Weiyuan, who had a certain degree of foreknowledge, because he had other plans and ulterior motives, and with Di Qing's words: Little kindness is the enemy of great kindness, he also pretended not to know, and endured without saying anything.

Ever since, under the intentional or unintentional negligence of all parties in the Song Dynasty, the drought and lack of rain did not attract attention, and the drought came suddenly.

When everyone came back to their senses, it was already the beginning of April!
A lot of spring plowing has started and the seeds have been sown.At first there was no moisture in the soil, and the farmers tried to water it, or thought that there would be rain soon, and the seeds would always germinate.

But more than a month has passed, and there is still no rain.Only two or three out of ten seeds germinated, and the farmers carried water to irrigate the only seedlings, but soon they found that this seemed to be a drop in the bucket, the soil was too dry, and the little water picked could not sustain the growth of the seedlings at all.And soon, they discovered an amazing fact that the river around the village was much shallower and began to dry up gradually.In some places, even drinking water is threatened!
A drought happened unexpectedly, and it swept across the entire Song Dynasty in an instant.

In the Chuigong Hall, Zhao Xu sat on the dragon chair with a livid face.He was very annoyed, why was his road to emperor so bumpy?In the few years since he came to the throne, there has not been a year of peace.Just after the border troubles were lifted and the floods had just passed, the drought came again, and it was still as severe.

"In the past two months, except for Lingnan, there has been almost no rain in other places. The two sides of the Yellow River are particularly serious, such as Bianjing, which has not rained for seven months..."

"Spring plowing on the roads from Huaibei to Jingdong has been seriously affected, and production reduction is inevitable."

"The situation in Jiangnan is slightly better. After all, there are many rivers and lakes, which can be diverted for irrigation!"

"If the drought cannot be relieved in time, if the summer planting is missed again, many places may have no harvest!"

The prime minister and Hanlin scholars all gathered here to comprehensively report the disaster situation across the country.When the word "absolute harvest" appeared in everyone's ears, they were all shocked!
many places?How many places are there?Everyone knows it.Except for Lingnan and Southwest, almost the entire Great Song Dynasty fell into drought. If all harvests were lost, it would definitely be a terrible nightmare for the Great Song Dynasty!

"The worst is more than that. Because of the drought and lack of rain, the water level of the canal continues to drop, and ships in some sections of the river have been stranded, making it impossible to sail."

"what?"

Hearing this news, Zhao Xu was like a bolt from the blue.

Canal water transportation is the lifeblood of the Song Dynasty. Millions of people in Bianjing rely on the canal, Jianghuai, and food to support them. If the canal cannot sail, this main artery will be broken.Can Bianjing survive?Can Da Song survive?

Until now, the emperors and ministers of the Great Song Dynasty realized that the situation was far worse than imagined!
It's just that the bad luck has just begun, and more difficult troubles are coming one after another!

(End of this chapter)