The second year of the Han Dynasty's Qianyou can be described as smooth first and then difficult, with a calm start in the spring. The four realms are stable, the wind and rain are smooth, and the spring ploughing that Liu Chengyou attaches great importance to is carried out in an orderly manner, and the situation of the DPRK has further entered a stable situation. The harem has been pregnant, the Son of Heaven has accepted newcomers, and the royal family has spread out. The grain tax smoothly entered Beijing, the princes submitted to the table, and the "Criminal Union" was recompiled and published......

It's really a good start, but after the summer, bad news comes one after another. In April, a major earthquake occurred in Hebei, affecting more than a dozen states; In May, the locust plague is coming, covering the north and south of the river.

Compared with the earthquake, Liu Chengyou and the imperial court paid more attention to the locust plague, after all, at the critical moment of the summer harvest, if they were careless, the work of the "bitter people" of the Han Dynasty would be in vain, and there would be famine and chaos again. When it comes to the issue of food, it is impossible not to worry about the Han monarchs.

Since the founding of the Han Dynasty, it has been suffering from food shortages. However, Liu Chengyou issued a strict order, urging the prefectures and counties of the world to prepare for the locust plague. However, with the execution ability of the current Han bureaucrats and generals, problems cannot be avoided at all.

Moreover, the severity of the locust plague and the wide spread far exceeded the estimates of Liu Chengyou and the Han monarchs. After entering June, Hebei and the Central Plains prefectures played locusts one after another. Slippery, Pu, Shan, Cao, Yan, Yun, Zi, Qing, Qi, Su, Huai, Xiang, Wei, Bo, Chen and other prefectures, the Central Plains, the essence of Hebei, almost everywhere locusts, the government and the people suffer.

What caught Liu Chengyou off guard even more was that more than a dozen counties under the rule of Kaifeng Prefecture were also not spared, and they were very serious. Locusts are overwhelming, widely heard, and even insects fly over the imperial city of Biangong.

Under this catastrophe, Liu Chengyou and the princes of the Han court reacted quickly, and drafted an edict to issue the world and order the officials and people everywhere to catch locusts. Even, the river work was stopped and the Tokyo Forbidden Army was sent to do locust hunting.

In this case, it is no longer a matter of worrying about the reduction of summer grain production, but a timely stop loss, which can reduce the loss of a wheat, which is also good.

At the same time, the Imperial Historian and Lang officials were dispatched from Tokyo to supervise the situation of locust hunting in various places.

Some local generals, in the face of locust plague, only want to conform to the will of heaven, and tell the gods of the mountains, forests, rivers and rivers where they are located, and this is enough, and it is strictly forbidden to exterminate locusts among the people under their rule, so that the people who cultivate the territory suffer heavy losses. For such generals, it is not surprising that not only the dismissal and dismissal of officials were disposed of, but they were all sent to Tokyo, where they were sentenced to prison and dealt with severely.

Even though the "Great Han Criminal System" has been much milder and abolished many harsh laws on torture, the strictness of the Han law is still vividly reflected in this matter. In the midst of sorrow, Liu Chengyou found that the central government of the Han Dynasty had restored some of the most basic administrative control over the localities. Of course, on the matter of exterminating locusts and saving food, the central and local governments have a common understanding and demand, after all, no one wants to go hungry.

In fact, there is the experience of exterminating locusts in Hebei last year, and this time the court and even the local government were not too busy in the early days, but this time, the trouble was too big and too serious, and some of the Han monarchs and ministers were caught off guard.

Not surprisingly, the summer grain production has been reduced, and the spring seedlings have also been damaged, which has led to the predictable difficulty of a bumper harvest of autumn grain.

Fortunately, Liu Chengyou's ministers, in this large-scale locust plague, had a firm attitude and resolute actions, and recovered a lot of losses. Liu Chengyou also personally went to the countryside to inspect and encourage the officials and the people, appease the people, and brush up a wave of prestige.

In just half a month, the locust plague in Gyeonggi and the Central Plains prefectures, which were heavily radiated by the majesty of the imperial court, were greatly contained. The festivals, defenses, regimental training, and stabbing histories in various places have been reported one after another, and the results of locust hunting have been achieved.

For example, Liu Chengyou's father-in-law, Ye Du Gao Xingzhou, Yanzhou Fu Yanqing, and Yunzhou Zhecongruan, the three families caught nearly 100,000 locusts. Coupled with the locust hunting data of the rest of the states, a rough calculation shows that there are more than 500,000 locusts.

Hearing this, Liu Chengyou also said self-deprecatingly, God gave me 500,000 grains, and I should go to the Taoist Palace to pay tribute and thank you. also said that he would do it, which is probably one of Liu Chengyou's few "superstitious" behaviors. Of course, this can be regarded as a pleasure in suffering, after all, locusts are so delicious, and the extent of the destruction of crops by so many insects can be imagined.

Because of the locusts, the progress of this year's summer harvest has been greatly slowed down, and the collection of summer taxes has also been delayed until autumn. At the time of the autumn equinox, there will be a rough report on the disaster situation and tax situation in various places.

Of course, the result is not happy, and the subjects of the Han Dynasty are going hungry again.

The hungry people were numerous, and Liu Chengyou wanted to order the opening of the warehouse to release grain, but in the end he was silent...... Only a euphemistic and ambiguous edict was issued, and the local government tried its best to relieve and resettle the victims, so as not to disperse and wander to other states.

Then, there were many civil unrest in various places, and the attitude of the imperial court was much more resolute in this regard, and those who did chaos were suppressed with all their might. It's cold, but it has to be done in order to keep it in order, and to avoid greater turmoil.

Of course, for Kaifeng, Liu Chengyou still squeezed out some grain from between his teeth for relief. And the edict was issued to the world, calling on the subjects of the Han Dynasty to tide over the difficulties together. And Liu Chengyou was in the palace, and he also wore sackcloth, and put away all the few bright ornaments in the Han Palace. For the officials and generals in Beijing, there is luxury and waste, and all of them are punished and investigated.

At the same time, the rise in grain prices is expected, and for those who hoard and make a fortune, one will count one and bring them all to justice.

What can barely be regarded as a fortunate thing is that after the peace agreement with the Southern Tang Dynasty, the ban on the Huai River was lifted, the merchants of the two countries exchanged exchanges, the old and new fields were opened, and the grain of the Jianghuai River was transported northward, which did not become an obstacle. The Southern Tang Dynasty merchant travel, Jia grain went north, and sold to the Central Plains, which also alleviated the grain shortage in the Central Plains to a certain extent. At the same time, it also caused the outflow of money and goods from the Han Dynasty.

Although Liu Chengyou suffered, compared with the hunger in his stomach, the things outside his body were nothing, but the people of the Han Dynasty were poorer.

From the national level, Liu Chengyou also took the initiative to buy grain from the Southern Tang Dynasty, and showed a lot of sincerity, bartering cattle, horses, donkeys and sheep in the north, and even giving 1,000 war horses. You must know that even in the north, suffering from the source of horses, war horses are also very important and scarce strategic materials for the Han Dynasty.

Sure enough, on the side of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Li Jing was very generous, and the courtiers were very happy...... It was Han Xizai, who made a final effort, and proposed that the Tang lord send troops to the Northern Expedition, but was rejected without hesitation, after all, the two countries have only been friendly for less than a few months, and peace is not easy to come by, how can he start a sword soldier lightly.

If the Han army is forced to be in a hurry, 100,000 hungry wolves will go south to eat, but it will be too late to regret it. Coupled with Liu Chengyou's previous discordant tactics, Li Jing still had some ideas about Han Xizai, and coupled with the politically correct opposition of the enemy party, Han Xizai, who did not hold real power, had no chance to realize his ambitions.

It is reported that after the failure of the speech, Han Xizai got drunk in the mansion, and bluntly said that the Tang Dynasty will no longer have the opportunity to enter the Central Plains and restore the old capital......

On the Han side, although the locust plague was violent, he tried his best to control it. It's just the treatment of sequelae, some headaches.

However, almost simultaneously with the locust plague, there was a drought. Also in June, at the end of June, the scope of the impact was also not small, Sui, Ning, Ze, Lu, Jing, Yan, Yan, Fang, Jin, Jiang and other prefectures, almost the entire Guanzhong, Hedong area was also slightly affected......

In the context of continuous disasters, it is inevitable that people's hearts will fluctuate, and there are rumors in Beijing that the Son of Heaven is not virtuous and Liu Chengyou is not good at governance. For such abusive talkers, Liu Chengyou's performance did not fluctuate excessively, but Wu Desi spies went out, Kaifeng Mansion arrested a large number of people, and sentenced them quickly, and at the same time, several officials in the court were also arrested and exiled because they couldn't keep their mouths shut, and then died in exile.

Under the heavy punishment measures, coupled with Liu Chengyou's continuous efforts to promote his merits, he reversed public opinion, and Jingzhong was safe.

Earthquakes, locust plagues, droughts, and almost nationwide natural disasters struck, but the Han Dynasty, the nascent regime, was like an old traveler, undergoing the most severe tests, struggling and walking.

Fortunately, in the past two years, Liu Chengyou has taken many measures to consolidate his regime, so that he will not collapse, and he can even struggle to face the difficulties. It is conceivable that in the original history, it was a natural disaster, a military disaster, and the generals were greedy, how sad the Han Dynasty was at that time, and what a scene of water and fire was for the people of the Central Plains.

Liu Chengyou was very emotional, the original owner died in the country, and he was not wronged.

Of course, even though the road ahead is difficult, for Liu Chengyou, who has been tempered as hard as stone, he cannot be shaken in the slightest.