It was raining in July and August.

Zhao Zhen almost died of anger in the palace by the old god.

I prayed for rain a few months ago, but the rain didn't come. It was a great harvest season, and it kept raining. This was a deadly rain.

At this time, people harvest it very easily. When the rapeseed is ripe, they are dried in the ground, placed on the oil cloth and rake it with bamboo strips, knock the seeds down, dry them, and then pressed into rapeseed oil. Wheat and sorghum are crushed with stones in the grain drying ground, and the rice must also be dried. Then, a wooden large valley bucket is dragged to the ground, picked up the rice poles, beat them hard, and knocked the grains into the barrel. In short, it takes a few days to shine on the sun. This is also nonsense. If there is no sunlight on for a few days, even if there is a harvester, it will not be able to get rid of the grains.

The rain continued to rain, especially in the south of the rice warehouse. After the Huangmei Queen, it was still rainy and it was difficult for the rice to fill the rice. Even if half a grain of rice grew, it was still rice. It was a matter of time. How could the rice be made after a few days of sunny days?

Not in a hurry, continue next year...

So Zheng Lang didn't want to enter the Secretariat. If there were no such big shots to restrain him, he would be at ease to save disasters. But there were too many big shots, and they were all complicated. Entering the Secretariat was a cause for suffering. If Wen Yanbo hadn't been close to Jia Changchao, he wouldn't want to enter the Secretariat next year.

No one knew Zheng Lang’s thoughts, and thought he was low-key and humble.

The situation was not very bad. After investigation by various censors, a lot of food was collected. With the food, the ministers were also confident. It was a good thing, but the Secretariat was severely divided, and the disaster seemed serious, but it was actually very scattered, so some problems occurred one after another in various places.

...

Jiangnan.

Jiangnan is even more powerful. Now Jiangnan is much better than in history. In the past ten years, 40,000 hectares of polder fields have been reclaimed, from Jiangnan West Road to Jiangnan East Road, covering a large area of ​​land and the population is much denser than in history.

The slow change is Liangzhe. The development here is more mature and there is not much room for development. Or you can compete with the mountains and the sea. There is not much room for competition. Under Zheng Lang's leadership, he realized the harm of occupying the lake, and there are still powerful people who occupying the lake, but the speed is slower than in history.

One Jiangdong embankment and the other two Zhejiang embankment (the difference between embankment and embankment is that embankment is a little lower than the river surface. There must be a large number of embankments, mostly located west of Jiangning.) became important hopes of the court.

But this year's situation is very bad.

The only rice cannot be harvested in Jiangdong. In July and August, the flood season is not so serious. Not only rice cannot be harvested in Liangzhe, but unlike Jiangdong, Jiangdong is a Yangtze River system with slow entry into the sea and large water capacity. The flood season is mainly in May and June, but the flood season of Liangzhe is different. Its water system is close to the sea. The water capacity is small, and the flood season is not serious in May and June. On the contrary, in July and August, due to the impact of typhoons, there are many mountain torrents and narrow rivers. In addition, in this strange weather, Liangzhe will be affected by autumn and slums.

The difficult August passed, and the situation still did not improve in September. Hangzhou, the prosperous place in the past, became terrible. It is an exaggeration to say that there is no harvest in the fields, but there is very little rice harvested. Originally, the rice price in Hangzhou was only about 300 stone due to the impact of Jiangdongwei, and then it kept rising sharply, and soon climbed to 1,000 stone and 1,500 stone.

If the rice in Liangzhe 1 stone rises to 1,500 cigars, how will the north, which is short of food, rise to?

Hangzhou Prefectural General Lu Xianggao urgently asked the court for help. The masters of the Secretariat had no choice. If the north had shortage of food, they could still transport it from the south. However, if the south had shortage of food, where would they transport it? Could they transfer it from Lingnan? Let Lu Xianggao order that the price per stone of rice should be controlled within 500 cents. If it exceeds this price, the grain shop will be checked and the violators will be beheaded and displayed.

This order was written by Chen Zhizhong and had nothing to do with Xia Shu. It also reflected from another aspect that Chen Zhizhong lacked flexibility.

Chen Zhizhong made a mistake, and Lu Xianggao's ability to adapt was even worse. Unexpectedly, after receiving the order from the Secretariat, he immediately issued a notice. A few days later, he sent his confidants to various counties for inspection. After a while, his subordinates came back to report that the prefect, it was not good. There were starving people everywhere on the streets, and some of them starved to death. You should find a way to ask the court for help.

Lu Xianggao didn't believe it and went out to see it in person.

The situation is worse than what the minor officials reported, which is good. Hangzhou also implements this policy. It is raining and there is no way to work. It can only organize the victims and set up a porridge shed. This method seems to be fine, but the food prices are rising, and ordinary citizens want to save money, especially those poor people, who squeeze into the porridge shed together to queue up. In this way, the porridge shed has become a bottomless pit, and there is no way to effectively relieve the victims who really need relief.

This is the dilemma of fragmented disasters.

It is really like the disaster in the past few years, and it was a drought, and all the victims were successfully organized. But there is still a way, and the main root is still in the Secretariat. Chen and Xia’s struggle became more and more intense, and even Zheng Lang did not dare to intervene. Therefore, not only Hangzhou, but also other places have experienced bad situations one after another.

Hangzhou has financial resources, but it has to be handed over to the treasury. Lu Xianggao is not as brave as Zheng Lang, Pang Ji, Han Qi and others, so he dare not use this financial resources. Therefore, the porridge shed is intermittent. This situation actually makes the situation worse.

After the ban on price, no grain merchants dared to violate the will of the court. However, there are policies and countermeasures from the superiors, and they also have solutions. If you don’t let us raise prices, we will not sell rice. The consequences are even more serious. Although the rice is a little more bitter, even if the rice is a little more expensive and half full, it will only take a day to survive. Now rice merchants join forces to not sell rice, and even if they have money, they can’t buy rice. How can the people live? Especially because of the emergence of Ping An Supervision, more people make a living by working in Hangzhou City are “workers” and they all rely on buying rice to make a living. All grain stores are closed together. Is it possible to organize people to rob the rice shops?

So in the most prosperous city of the Song Dynasty, many people starved to death. Some people fled to other places when they saw that the situation was not good. Lu Xianggao was anxious. In the Zhao Zhen Dynasty, people paid more attention to human lives. In the year of disaster, some people were starved to death, which would happen, but not many. The key was in Hangzhou. What did the bosses in the capital think? What did the emperor think? He ignored his face and asked for trouble. The Secretariat was also dumbfounded. Since the Song Dynasty took over the Southern Tang Dynasty, the south had transported grain to the north. So what would the food be transported from the north to the south? How much would it cost to go? Therefore, it was told to Lu Xianggao that since last winter, Shaanxi and the entire north had suffered drought. The granary did not have much rice.

This is wrong. The major granaries in the north have rice, but not much, and I am afraid that there will be another disaster next year. So I am unwilling to reverse the transition to the south. I also said that Lu Xianggao, there should be still grain in Jiangnan, so you can find a way for yourself.

Lu Xianggao was in trouble.

When he was worried, one of his subordinates hurried in and reported: "Governor, something is wrong in major affairs, something happened in Shan County."

"Shan County?" Lu Xianggao asked suspiciously.

There is nothing else. At this time, there was a famous figure in Shan County, Wang Anshi.

After Wang Anshi's father died of Dingyou, Zheng Lang returned home to Dingyou. Jia Changchao was in the court. Under his intentional suppression, Wang Anshi promoted him very slowly and deliberately asked him to travel around Jiangnan and Zhejiang, away from the capital's important places. After making changes, he did not go to Yin County, but to Shan County. One was in Mingzhou and the other was in Yuezhou.

Everyone knows that he will not be in Shan County for a long time. With Zheng Lang's return, Wang Anshi will sooner or later take office. But compared to Yin County, the situation in Shan County is even worse. Behind it is a hilly area with continuous rain and rain. In addition, the autumn wind kills people, the autumn slums are flooded, which is far worse than Yin County.

The staff also felt a headache, and Wang Anshi didn't have to worry. But behind him was a huge giant. Under Lu Xianggao's urging, he took out a sealed official notice, and ignored the imperial price limit order, and made a clear announcement to allow the price of rice to rise and to buy rice for three thousand yuan per stone.

All regions are restricting rice prices. I heard that the rice prices in Shan County have risen to 3,000 meters per stone. It turned out to be more than 3000 cents, which has increased by nine times. Rice merchants in Jiangnan have gone crazy and hired ships to transport rice to Hangzhou along the Grand Canal, and then from Hangzhou to Shangyu along the Liangzhe Canal (Hangzhou to Ningbo Canal) to Shangyu, and from Shangyu along the Cao'e River to Shan County. Fortunately, after the Cao'e River passed through Shan County, the water in the upper reaches of the Shanxi River became shallow, and the water level in the Cao'e River is still very deep, which does not affect the ship's navigation. Not only other places, but also local rice merchants in Hangzhou also transported rice prices to Shan County in large quantities.

After reading the list, Lu Xianggao was shocked and said that he had committed a crime of beheading, but he clearly stated that he had committed a serious crime against the imperial edict. But Wang Anshi was a student of Zheng Lang. How could he do such an irrational thing? Although he was puzzled, he was still cautious and led his subordinates to go straight to Yan County regardless of the taboo of whether he could cross the boundary. Human life was at stake, regardless of whether it could cross the boundary.

When he arrived in Shan County, Wang Anshi heard that he had arrived, he led his men to the outside of the city gate. Lu Xianggao asked furiously: "Wang Anshi, did you write this list of articles?"

“That’s right.”

"Wang Anshi, are you guilty of raising the price for the prodigal business?" As he said that, he ordered someone to tie up Wang Anshi.

At this moment, a minor official ran over and looked at Wang Anshi with a look of dismay. Lu Xianggao looked at him sneakily and asked his subordinates to capture him, and asked, "Your magistrate is about to become a death row prisoner in the court. What's there to say?"

The little official lies on the ground and dares not make a sound.

Wang Anshi said: "It's okay to tell the truth."

"Reported to the magistrate, since the magistrate Wang issued the order, rice merchants from all over the country have flocked to Shan County. In order to thank my magistrate, they have been giving my magistrate silver. However, some rice merchants unconsciously pretended to be deaf and dumb, so my magistrate sent me to ask them for it. If they don't give it, they won't let them sell grain in Shan County. Those rice merchants finally agreed."

Lu Xianggao was crazy. We are starving to death in Hangzhou every day. It doesn’t count if you help these profiteers raise the price of rice, but you also have to blackmail and collect bribes. Even if your teacher is here, we also want to make a reason. We roar like thunder and shout, “Bring those rice merchants.”

After a while, several obese rice merchants brought them up. Seeing this, even the county master was tied up and frightened. A businessman said, "Prince, the grass-roots are guilty, but it is not all the grass-roots fault. The Shan County Announcement clearly stated that the price of rice and grain is allowed to increase. I am a businessman, so I will naturally pursue profits. As for gifts, it has nothing to do with the grass-roots. The county magistrate sent someone to force blackmail. If I don't give me a generous gift, I won't let me sell grain. He also said that if I receive gifts according to the amount of rice and grain, I will give him at least one thousand cents of money per stone. When we ship the grain here, we can't transport it back. To calculate the accounts, in addition to a thousand cents of money, there is profitability, so I have to give them gifts."

Lu Xianggao was even more upset when he heard this. He received a gift of 1,000 gifts from a stone of rice. How many bribes have been received in Tianxia County these days? This is simply the worst case of corruption since the founding of the Song Dynasty. Looking at the Lord Bo, he asked: "How many bribes have you received in total? Do you have any accounts?"

"Report to the prefect, there are accounts, and all accounts." The Lord Bo brought the account book under the escort of the yamen runners. Lu Xianggao flipped it. This was a clear evidence of the crime. Even if there was Zheng Lang, you would not be able to protect you. Suppress the anger in your heart and report the matter to the court.

...

This incident had a far-reaching impact, and at least it made Wang Anshi and Zhang Fangping have a bad idea. They did not believe in businessmen and believed that businessmen were cunning. Therefore, in their economic thoughts, they both agreed with the national economy. Therefore, Wang Anshi later lost equally and had a market change, and this experience was not unimportant.

The court still doesn't know that it was raining too much, so Zhao Zhen had to send a ritual official to pray for the sun. It was not just praying for the rain that made God want to die.

In fact, Zheng Lang wanted to remind him several times. But at this time, Chen Zhizhong and Xia Shu were so angry that they were in Zhongshu that Zheng Lang had no way to participate, so he had to manage his own acre of three-point land. September is approaching, and Zheng Lang comes to the secret camp again.

Wang Song forced Zheng Lang to jump, so he had to select fifty smart people from the middle and keep training. He brought these fifty people, and at Zheng Lang's request, he used medicine to wipe off the tattoos on their faces. There were still some traces. However, it was not very obvious, and it would not be seen after a while.

Zheng Lang looked at the fifty people and asked, "Are you ready?"

"I am ready." I answered together.

"It will take a long time to go there. The court will recall you within three or two years. It may be ten or eight years later, and you cannot return to your country. If you do not agree, it is still time to leave now."

This time is not easy to establish. Some may complete their mission quickly and return to China. Some may have more than ten or eight years. Some may have one-time tasks, and some may have multiple tasks. As for the effect, Zheng Lang is also not sure.

No one answered.

In fact, Wang Song and Wang Yong mentioned this matter many times during this period. It would be impossible not to explain it clearly. Otherwise, when they arrived at the enemy country, they would immediately rebel, which would become a huge joke.

Zheng Lang looked at their firm expressions and was very satisfied. At least it looked reassuring now. He pulled Wang Song aside and whispered for a while. After saying that, Wang Song came back and ordered twenty people out. These were the best among the fifty people, not only clever, but also knew many words. The latter was very rare for ordinary soldiers. In fact, no one of them was poor when screened to the point where these fifty people were selected. After saying that, Wang Song took the remaining thirty people away from the capital and went to Shaanxi.

But there were not the remaining twenty people who were important yet, and Zheng Lang did not say much about the specific tasks, but took them back and stuffed them into the palace patrolling the imperial guards. This is to cultivate their momentum, at least you will not be frightened when you see the noble figure.

Then they were asked to enter the Imperial Academy for some superficial learning after the time of the time. In order to further cultivate their momentum, they could live in Zheng Lang's own residence at night. At least they often saw the emperor and Zheng Lang was not nervous, so they would not be nervous when they saw Wu Zang Epang.

Zheng Lang was still not relieved, and often called some beautiful prostitutes to perform singing and dancing at home, which allowed these twenty soldiers to watch. Zhao Zhen didn't know the inside story. He heard that Zheng Lang was abnormal and often called a large number of beautiful prostitutes to perform singing and dancing at the mansion. He was very puzzled. Could it be that Zheng Lang also began to fall into depravity? He actually went to the Privy Council in person to inquire about the situation.

Zheng Lang replied: "These people, I asked them to join Mozang Epang."

"That new prime minister of Xixia?"

"It was him, I got some news that Yuan Hao was stupid. Yu Li Palace ignored the government affairs and used beauty to make fun of it, and handed over the government affairs to this person. His sister was originally Yeli's wife, who was attracted by Yuanhao for a while, and she was lucky enough to get a son and became the new queen of Western Xia. However, Yuan Hao did not favor this woman at this time, and he only favored the unrelocated clan. Therefore, the brother and sister were excluded. The original Queen Yeli was deposed, but the prince was the biological son of Queen Yeli."

"Zheng Qing, you mean..."

"So I set up a special agent camp for this reason. The private salt passage has been retained. Some people in our dynasty are ashamed of learning from Zhang Yuan and often fled to Xixia. However, these people are mostly like Gao Yanei, without talent and cannot be of great use. Therefore, I asked these twenty people to conduct some training to see if they can approach Wuzang. Your Majesty, once Wuzang becomes the empress dowager of Xixia, his husband was killed by our dynasty with counter-espionage strategy, and he will have a disgust towards our dynasty."

"That's true." Zhao Zhi became cautious.

"Your Majesty, don't worry too much. Once the Western Xia changes as I thought, the Khitan will take the opportunity to pick up the bargain, but it may not be able to really pick up the bargain. But no matter what, there will be some minor troubles on the border. It depends on whether these spies can use small things to make a big fortune. Now one question is whether they can fall down when facing wealth and beauty. I will not say it, but I deliberately use these prostitutes to perform and look at their expressions. If they can pass the beauty barrier, they can get close to the bargain."

"So that's it, but I've used you..."

"Your Majesty, don't underestimate it. For example, Wang Song, Wang Yong, Lu Ling... It's okay. The literati and officials are all taking prostitutes for fun. What's the point of asking a few beautiful prostitutes to go home to perform?"

Zhao Zhen laughed and cried in one sentence.

Many ministers are puzzled by the facts, but they cannot impeach them. If this is also impeached, two-thirds of the scholars and officials will be shot.

In addition to this incident, the Privy Council was quiet, but the war quickly spread to Zheng Lang.

Zhang Kang was transferred to Weizhou for his merits and was in charge of Jingyuan Road.

The rewards in the southern suburbs of the Song Dynasty were first money and second things, and the front line was divided into many. However, the prices of the capital were definitely different from those of the marginal areas. Sometimes the prices of the goods were good but the valuation was low, and sometimes the valuation was high. This caused some disputes in the front line.

Several ministers on the border had completely different attitudes. The three officials sent special branches to Qingzhou, and the matter was bad and the estimate was high. The army was fierce, so the superiors made people laugh. Sun Mian shouted angrily: "This is a special gift from the court, so why dare to impress the crowd?"

He ordered people to drag him out and behead him. The generals pleaded for mercy. This drama is not enough to be a serious crime. Sun Mian called back and sent a stick to Lingnan. Therefore, the soldiers dared not speak out. This was Sun Mian's approach, and he forced the soldiers to suppress them dissatisfied.

It cannot be said that it is wrong. Three corpses have three corpses, so they can be fully equipped.

Zhang Kang's approach was different, and he used the high-valued and the low-valued trading of each other, and he directly gave him a soldier. This seemed to be a good idea. The fortune-teller Zhang Kang was arbitrarily reducing the estimates of the three officials and submitted the court to the court. Xia Shu reported Zhang Kang to violate discipline.

Xia Shun’s statement cannot be said to be wrong.

Jingyuan Road still maintains the market, but no longer fights, Zheng Lang automatically took it back, limited to commercial market, and sergeants only have the right to escort and are not allowed to participate. After all, such market will have a lot of bad consequences. Moreover, the purpose of maintaining the market is not only to make money, but also some military uses. It has not been seen yet, but it is aimed at the entire Hexi plot. Zheng Lang deliberately explained it. It may not be successful, but it is not successful, and it is also good to accumulate a sum of money, and you can get some big livestock and war horses. It is better if you succeed.

Zhang Kang's approach obviously violates this rule and directly uses military rewards to trade. It seems to be a good idea, but often sets up some bad examples.

Xia Shun said that Zhang Kang had done something wrong, but he could also say it.

But things must not be that simple. Zhao Zhen looked at Xia Shu and then looked at Zheng Lang. Zheng Lang did not make a sound, so he had to promulgate Zhang Kang to instruct Cizhou.

The matter was not settled. The censor Song Xi discussed again, saying that when Zhang Kang was in Daizhou, he used the treasury and the market. There was also this matter. Zhang Kang loved the soldiers and wanted to improve some of the living conditions of the soldiers. So he studied Zheng Lang in Daizhou and did some things like the market. The money was not put in his pocket and was given to the soldiers. It was done very secretly, but people didn't know that it was impossible. Song Xi turned out Zhang Kang's deeds in the prefecture and then impeached Zhang Kang to embezzle public money.

This is all true.

So the Secretariat gave Zhang Kang and was demoted to the magistrate of Shouzhou, the general of the right-leading guard.

Hearing the word Shouzhou, Zheng Lang's eyes became furious and stared at Xia Shu and Chen Zhizhong. (To be continued)

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