Prince of Song Dynasty

Chapter 1092 The Year of Drought
Everyone immediately stopped them in unison, but Kou Zhun's mind was broken. Su Zengshu and others couldn't dissuade them, so they could only turn their heads away and try to make Kou Zhun's trip a success.

Qi Haitao said: "Lord Kou, Chief of Staff, we have captured many prisoners, and one of the generals is from the Gao family, the largest family on this island other than the Yang family."

Kou Zhun's eyes flashed, and he said, "Bring this person over now, and I will talk to him personally."

.........

.........

Almost all the people on Sui Island gathered in his capital 'Chang'an' area, building various defensive facilities day and night, heightening and strengthening the city walls, and everyone was desperately rushing to work.

The farmland around the capital had long been wiped out, and replaced by small fortresses. Small fortresses of various styles were integrated into one, forming a complete defense system with the city walls of Little Chang'an.

"General Zhou, we have built so many fortresses, can we really stop the opponent's terrifying long-range weapons?" Little Chang'an was only three feet high on the top of the city. .

Zhou Wubin looked heavy, and said: "Master Gao, just now when the spies reported back, the enemy came to reinforce them, five or six times more than before. Hundreds of those giant catapults and crossbows have been added. The most important thing is that we tortured the former The few pirates captured in the past few days learned from their mouths that Jinyuan Island is now the overlord of the sea, with 3 to [-] sailors, and thousands of warships, and it is said that behind it is a powerful country on the mainland. Even if we exhaust the whole country Regardless of the casualties of the civilians, these [-] people were blocked, but how long will we be able to stop the enemy's continuous sending of troops."

Gao Zhengsi's face was also heavy, he sighed, and said: "How can I know these things, I just hope that our tenacious resistance will make them feel that the casualties and benefits are worthless, and then retreat, so that we can have a chance of survival what!"

At this moment, a man who looked like a domestic servant came to Gao Zhengsi and said, "Master, the third son is back."

Gao Zhengsi was stunned for a moment, and then said with a look of surprise: "Zhongzheng is back, hasn't he already died in battle?"

The servant said: "No, the third son said that he escaped by chance and recuperated in a commoner's home. Today, his injury recovered a little, so he was sent back by the three commoners. Master, the third son said that he has an urgent military situation to report Master report."

Gao Zhengsi said, "Okay, let's go home now."

.........

.........

When Gao Zhengsi returned to the mansion, he saw his son who escaped death, and at the same time he saw Kou Zhun sitting beside him, and two young men standing behind Kou Zhun.Although these three people were all dressed up as ordinary people on the island, Gao Zhengsi could tell at a glance that these three people were definitely not ordinary people on the island.

Kou Zhun is young, but the wisdom and depth in his eyes, and the calm and cold aura of the two young men are by no means ordinary.Gao Zhengsi looked at his son's expression again, and he roughly guessed what was going on.

With a lot of thoughts in his mind, Gao Zhengsi stood at the door and didn't dare to move forward, but he didn't leave immediately or call for guards either.Instead, he fixed his eyes on Kou Zhun and said directly: "Who are you from Jinyuan Island?"

Kou Zhun's expression showed surprise, and he said, "Gao Xiang is indeed a smart person, so it will be easy for us to talk about it."

After a pause, Kou Zhun said solemnly, "I am the master of Jinyuan Island, Kou Zhun."

Hearing this, Gao Zhengsi's eyes flashed brightly in an instant, he took a deep look at Kou Zhun for a while, and said, "It really is a young Yingjie, what do you want to talk to this old man about?"

Kou Zhun's eyes turned cold in an instant, and he said coldly: "If the Chuanguo Yuxi is in your hands, you will have a chance of survival, otherwise the people on the island can survive, and you little Sui Dynasty monarchs and ministers will perish. .”

Gao Zhengsi's face changed slightly, but then he smiled slightly and said, "So what if we destroy the Jade Seal of Chuanguo?"

Kou Zhun's pupils contracted, and he stared at Gao Zhengsi. After a while, he let out a long laugh and said, "Mr. Gao was just joking. If Mr. Gao likes death, I won't be looking for Mr. Gao."

Gao Zhengsi smiled slightly, and said: "Since your main goal is to pass on the jade seal of the country, then I think I have something to talk to you about."

Kou Zhun said: "In this way, Prime Minister Gao can get the Jade Seal of Chuanguo?"

Gao Zhengsi said, "That depends on your sincerity."

Kou Zhun thought to himself that there is such an old fox in this small island country.With no expression on his face, he said: "You take out the Jade Seal of Chuanguo, and we will help you become the lord of this island country. When my emperor unifies the world, you will naturally submit to my emperor."

"My emperor? Which country on the mainland is behind your Jinyuan Island, Song State, Wu State, or Wuyue State?" The forces on Sui Island are not completely closed, and sometimes they will send people out to sea to do business, or pretend to be Pirates eat black people, so they are not completely ignorant of the information on the mainland.

Kou Zhun sneered and said, "What are Song, Wu, and Wuyue? In front of my emperor, the emperors of these three countries are not bullshit. You heard clearly, my Jinyuan Island belongs to Xiangfu Kingdom. Since you know Song , surely you don’t know about Xiangfu Kingdom, you don’t know about my legendary emperor, right?”

Gao Zhengsi's body shook, and he was ecstatic in his heart, but he said calmly, "The legendary emperor is really powerful. He is far away in the northwest, but the sea has already become his world. If the old man guessed correctly, the Wa country in the north is already Your territory."

Kou Zhun smiled and said, "I don't want Gao to know the mainland forces so well. It seems that your little Sui Kingdom has never given up the desire to return to the mainland and restore the country for hundreds of years."

Gao Zhengsi said: "If it wasn't for my emperor's stupidity and weakness, I would have brought people back to the mainland more than 20 years ago, when the Five Dynasties were in chaos."

Kou Zhun said: "I don't want Prime Minister Gao to have the ambition to become a great star. Our imperial court lacks such talents as Prime Minister Gao. If Prime Minister Gao is willing, I can introduce him for you."

Gao Zhengsi said: "The hero of the founding of the country is exactly my lifelong wish."

.........

.........

Li Mingxuan looked heavy and frowned. It was already the end of June, and it was too hot this year compared to previous years.At this time he was walking in the palace, although there was no sound of cicadas outside the palace to make people feel restless, but the draft wind blowing in front of him was actually very hot.

There was no cloud in the sky, and the scorching sun shone directly on the ground without any shelter. The sunlight reflected from the glazed tiles on the roof of the pavilion dazzled the eyes.

A few days ago, Lu Yuqing went to the eastern suburbs to pray for rain on behalf of Song Emperor, which was obviously wasted again.

The climate is dry this year.In particular, Qinfeng Road, Guanzhong, and Hedong in the northwest of the Song Dynasty have reported drought one after another, which already covers nearly one-third of the current Song Dynasty's land.

The drought in the Central Plains is equally severe, and there hasn't been much snow this winter. Fortunately, several torrential rains in the spring have kept the crops in the fields from failing.However, after the summer harvest, the rain disappeared again, and there was no rain in two months. Not to mention that many lakes are dry to the sky, even the water in the Yellow River has shrunk. You can see what the people on the other side of the river look like, and the deepest part is only three Chi Yu.

Originally, they wanted to recuperate and hoard arms, but now it seems that the national treasury has not increased, and in order to prevent the victims of the disaster from dying too much, most of them have to take out some food.

Therefore, the court of the Song Dynasty, who had just experienced the pain of splitting the country, was very worried about this matter.Zhao Dezhao had already broken a lot of things, if it wasn't for the Queen Li Siyan who was pregnant with the dragon son, and Zhao Dezhao listened to the Queen's words very much, how many eunuchs and maids would have been killed by sticks.The only thing that can be thankful is that the summer grain has already been collected in the warehouse, and the land of Jianghuai and Sichuan and Shu are in a year of great abundance, otherwise the imperial court would not be able to provide food for disaster relief when famines occurred in the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Hebei.Under such circumstances, Zhao Dezhao even frantically proposed several times to send troops south and take back Jiangnan.If Li Mingxuan, Lu Yuqing, Li Jixun and others tried hard to dissuade him, Song would be in danger of subjugation in an instant.

In order to keep the scale of the possible drought as small as possible, under the suggestion of Li Mingxuan, Zhao Dezhao successively issued edicts yesterday: "Where the water on the river hinders the irrigation of the people's fields, it is a violation of the system, and the connivance of the lawsuit is the same." In other words, in order to irrigate the fields, no water can be wasted, even water-driven stone mills.Rollers and water reels are not allowed to be used.Otherwise, it would be violating the system and disobeying the imperial decree. This crime is serious enough, and if officials condone and ignore it, they are also guilty of the same crime.

At the same time, in order to keep the Bian River open to navigation, Biankou was opened six times within two months. The influx of Yellow River water not only restored the water level of the Bian River to a fixed depth of five feet, but also brought the estuary to The riverbed in this section of Kaifeng has been raised by nearly half a foot.The boats traveling in the Bian River were actually higher than the roofs on both banks, and the situation of boats traveling on the houses became more and more serious.

The Bian River is still a trivial matter, as long as the embankment is raised and the navigation is maintained, there will be no major problems.The most troublesome thing is the disaster after the drought.Since ancient times, droughts and locust plagues have often occurred at the same time. There is a severe drought in summer and locust plagues in autumn.Even if it doesn't happen this year, it will happen next year.By that time, famine may be inevitable, and the food in Changping warehouses in the Song Dynasty has not been replenished after being consumed by several wars.

The Jingdong and Jingxi roads near the capital are fine, because they are close to the capital, and Li Mingxuan is in direct control of the situation of the Changping warehouse, and he will send people to check it every few days. Even the capital is short of food. If there is another famine, let alone the issue of disaster relief, people's hearts will be confused.

It's just that Qinfeng Road, Yongxing Army Road, and Yuhe Road in the northwest are in trouble. In the past two years, in order to fight against the Xiangfu Kingdom, the Northwest Frontier Army has increased its troops by [-]. The food and grass are all provided by these three roads, and several major battles have been fought. The official warehouses of these three roads were exhausted, and they originally wanted to rely on the autumn harvest to fill them up, but who knew that there were droughts on both roads.

Just as he was pondering with a heavy heart, Li Mingxuan stopped walking and had already arrived at the gate of Chongzheng Palace. He asked the gate officials to report inside, and Zhao Dezhao summoned him immediately.

(End of this chapter)