In the palace, Li Chengyun, the head of the household department, was carefully reporting the state treasury revenue from April to June, and he held a thin booklet in his hand, on which was the total amount of grain, taxes, cloth, and other finances submitted from various places. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Empress Dowager Zhang sat on the top: "Listen to the mourning family." ”

"Yes. Li Chengyun lowered his head and unfolded the booklet in his hand, in fact, he only determined in the past two days that this year's grain output has been particularly serious.

His mind turned around, and he said in a deep voice: "Empress Dowager Qiqi, this year's abolition of the county state system, the number of taxable households in the country has increased by 1 million, and the total taxable population is more than 2,498,800. ”

Empress Dowager Zhang nodded, she was still very satisfied with this figure. This year is the first year of the abolition of the county state, so she firmly believes that without the county state of ten thousand households, the treasury of the Dajing Dynasty will definitely become more abundant.

Li Chengyun continued: "According to the laws of the Great Jing Dynasty, Ding Zhuang men occupy 70 mu of land, 50 mu of class land (handed over to Tianfu), collect 4 hu, except for the marginal areas, 4 million hu, 3.6 million hu, 6.6 million hu, 6.6 million hu, 2 million hu... Rice should be harvested 7 million hundreds, and the actual harvest is ... A million... Another six million horses of silk cloth and four million catties of cotton... Counting the money is 13,944,000 wen..."

The numbers behind him became smaller and smaller, and Li Chengyun's voice became lower and lower the more he spoke.

It's not as good as the income of previous years!

Empress Dowager Zhang asked in surprise: "How can it be less?"

Li Chengyun sighed: "Queen Mother, the rainy season in Jiangnan has not stopped since April. The first crop of rice was sown before and after Qingming, and it was precisely because of the impact of flooding that the harvest was reduced a lot. As for the second crop of rice..."Li Chengyun hesitated for a long time and didn't know how to speak.

What happened to the second crop of rice?

Empress Dowager Zhang felt a chill down her spine when she heard this, her eyes widened, and she asked, "What's wrong!"

"The Queen Mother is angry, and Weichen has just confirmed the news, the second-season rice in the south of the Yangtze River..."

"At the end of July, the flooding in the south of the Yangtze River was particularly severe, and the rice seedlings could not survive at all. Li Chengyun said that, and his throat choked.

The entire hall was silent.

After hearing this, Empress Dowager Zhang knew what she was facing next.

Famine!

Severe famine. Not only the people, but I'm afraid even Chang'an City was spared this time!

There are only two crops of rice in a year. Only 1 million hu was harvested last season! If it is calculated according to the degree of hunger, each person eats 30 stone of corn every year, and the population of the capital is as high as 300,000, so the annual supply of corn needs 10 million hu.

One million and ten million a year, the difference is too much, and this is only the capital, the richest place in the whole country.

What's more, outside the capital?

Can you imagine how severe the famine will be, wouldn't it be as good as purgatory on earth?

But why didn't she know about this until now!

Empress Dowager Zhang pointed at Li Chengyun tremblingly, gritted her teeth angrily, and wanted to break his body into pieces: "Li Chengyun! Why didn't these things be reported earlier?"

"The Queen Mother, Weichen has just gotten the news, in the past two months, even the carrier pigeons in the capital can't be sent!" Li Chengyun said with a helpless face.

Killing carrier pigeons everywhere is not an order given by Empress Dowager Zhang privately?

Empress Dowager Zhang was sweating profusely when she heard this, and sat on the throne with her ass, yes, she did let people intercept the carrier pigeons, but she didn't expect that the next person even stopped the carrier pigeons sent to the capital?

"It is said that the hungry people have gone to the fields to dig grass roots to satisfy their hunger. Li Chengyun said, and handed the book in his hand to the Empress Dowager Zhang.

Empress Dowager Zhang stayed where she was, unable to believe that all this was true. She clenched the booklet in her hand tightly, and her long nails wanted to poke a big hole in it.

Her eyes were wide open, panting, and she seemed to see the land of Jingzhou thousands of miles away, a flood in front of her!

"Niangniang, the time should be to immediately convene a court meeting, send people south to appease the affected people, open another warehouse to release grain, establish temporary shelter, and comfort the victims in order to reduce the disaster!"

Empress Dowager Zhang didn't listen to it at all, what she thought in her heart was, it's over! There is a great disaster from the sky, and everyone will think that it is caused by her, the Empress Dowager!

What should I do? How can I keep her position? Now that something has gone wrong, are the ministers of the court still willing to defy the heavens and help the abuse?

No, they will definitely force her to return to Su Xin!

The more Empress Dowager Zhang thought about it, the more frightened she became, and in the end, her face was discolored, and she fell from her position all of a sudden.

Li Chengyun silently helped her up, and said vaguely: "Why is the Queen Mother so troubled?"

Empress Dowager Zhang looked outside the hall and called out in a distracted voice: "Where is Zhang Haidong?

*

Outside the Royal Palace.

The clouds were thick, and a thunderclap rolled in, accompanied by lightning that seemed to tear the entire Chang'an City apart.

The white-bearded old man squinted his eyes and looked up at the dark clouds in the sky, which was about to change. He turned his gaze to the lieutenant in front of him, took a step back, made a frightened look, and said tremblingly, "I'm here... Only ordinary... The people who eat wine..."

Du Wei's expression was not affected by the weather in the slightest, he sneered, took a step forward with his knife and said: "Hmph, too, what is Lao Tzu talking nonsense to you! If you say no, there is no one? Then what else do you want Lao Tzu to do! Come on, go up and search for me!"

The team behind him flashed their swords with a roar and rushed up to the second floor.

Inside the second floor, the corpse that had been sealed by a chopstick was hidden, and everyone sat in their original positions drinking and eating, as if they had not noticed the quarrel downstairs at all.

The lieutenant saw that there were more than twenty men upstairs, dressed in tatters and patches, but at a glance he knew that these people were very strong.

The lieutenant took out his official authority and shouted: "In recent days, there have been frequent assassins in Chang'an City, and the head of the capital has been ordered by the Queen Mother to thoroughly investigate the entire Chang'an City. Please..."The soldiers were immediately surrounded, and it must not be good for them to get together in broad daylight!

"This chief, we are here to do some small business, and we have not done anything that violates the law. One of the skinny men said.

"Haven't you heard this the will of the Queen Mother? It doesn't matter what you do!

I thought it would take a lot of effort for these people to be willing to give in, but I didn't expect that no one resisted, but obediently tied their hands and was arrested.

It's okay, it saves you the trouble. The lieutenant went up again, and then grabbed some people from the other shops.