Although Yang Yun was far away in his fiefdom, he was far away from Xijing City. But all along, he has been very concerned about everything that happens in the imperial court, even what is happening in neighboring countries.

Almost every day, he would carefully check all kinds of news that were urgently sent from Xijing City. And will organize some people of insight in the fiefdom to analyze the news from the Flying Eagle Department.

On this day, a piece of news caught Yang Yun's attention. To the east of the Chu River in the state of Chu, near the Dafu side, it had not rained for months, and the water in many lakes and rivers had dried up, and crops in many places were on the verge of withering.

As early as a few days ago, some people in the fiefdom had made a judgment that the state of Chu might suffer from a great drought that was rare in hundreds of years.

This news has no impact on Dafu. But when Yang Yun heard the news, he immediately became happy, and he found some of his brains and explained his thoughts to them.

When Yang Yun told his subordinates and everyone what he thought. Everyone felt that this was a plan that could be implemented.

For Ju Yuanguang and Yao Xia, they are accustomed to Yang Yun's different ideas from ordinary people. And Qiu Ze and the others, who had just joined Yang Yun's camp, were extremely surprised.

His Royal Highness King Wu is such a wise person. This is something that Qiu Ze didn't feel before, if he joined Yang Yun's camp before, Qiu Ze was still a little unwilling in his heart, but now he vaguely felt that this seemed to be a wise choice.

After Yang Yun told his subordinates his thoughts, everyone began to pay attention to the drought in Chu State. Yan Feifei, who is far away in Xijing, also sent a large number of people to collect information related to the drought.

At this time, almost all of Yang Yun's subordinates took action, trying to make all kinds of preparations to deal with the situation that might arise next.

After a few more days, judging from the information received, it still did not rain on the side of Chu. The crops in many fields have withered, and the few that survive have also been greatly affected, and the harvest should not reach 20% of the original harvest.

Officials in the state of Chu have thought of many ways to reduce the impact of the drought. But at this time, people's technological level was still very backward, and their strength was very weak in the face of nature.

Therefore, although the whole state of Chu has made great efforts. But there are still large swaths of crops that are dying because of the drought.

There was no other way, and these Chu officials made a helpless decision. Abandon crops, in mountains, on slopes, and far from water sources. Concentrate manpower and material resources to protect crops in low-lying areas and on land with easy access to water.

This decision of the officials of the Chu State caused half of the fields on the east bank of the Chu River in the Chu State to abandon watering, and these crops were left to fend for themselves in the fields.

It has not rained for several months on the east bank of the Chu River, and the water level of the Chu River has dropped to the lowest level in history.

In order to reduce the impact of the drought on the state of Chu, Zhao Yuanrang, the king of Chu, came to the east bank of the Chu River several times to personally inspect the drought situation. It also removed a number of officials who were not effective in disaster relief, and also transferred a large amount of silver taels and manpower from the DPRK to fight the drought.

Under the unified command of Zhao Yuanrang, the king of Chu, the officials and common people of Chu State worked hard to extract life-saving water from the Chu River and some lakes, and finally saved nearly half of the land on the east bank of the Chu River.

The east bank of the Chu River is flat

The land is fertile, it is the main grain producing area of Chu State, and it is known as the "granary" in Chu. However, this is the biggest drought since the founding of the Chu State, resulting in this year's grain harvest only reaching about three or four percent of previous years.

Looking at the ripening crops in the fields, the officials and ordinary people on the east bank of the Chu River were both happy and anxious.

The happy thing is that everyone has worked hard for many months, and finally protected the last half of the crops, and in a maximum of ten days, these crops will all be ripe.

The anxiety is that this year's food production has been greatly reduced, and many people may starve to death when they run out of food next year.

In order to cope with the predicament in the coming year, the court of Chu decided to deal with this situation from two aspects. First, when the grain is ripe, the grain will be transferred from the west bank of the Chu River to help the people on the east bank tide over the difficulties.

Second, a large number of officials were dispatched to contact grain merchants from various countries, preparing to buy some grain from neighboring countries after receiving grain.

As the so-called no businessmen and no traitors, these grain merchants who know the predicament of the Chu State. As if they had discussed, they all sat on the ground and raised the price of grain, which raised the price of grain a lot.

After knowing the attitude of these merchants, these officials of the Chu State hated it so much, but they had no choice but to reluctantly transfer a large amount of silver money from the yamen at all levels and sign a purchase agreement with these profiteers.

The crops in the fields were finally ripe, and when it was time to harvest, the officials and ordinary people on the east bank of the Chu River finally breathed a sigh of relief that they could finally harvest some grain.

While the people on the east coast were preparing to harvest the grain, God seemed to be joking with them on purpose, and it finally began to rain.

It seems that this god is deliberately trying to get along with the people on the east bank of the Chu River, either it will not rain for several months, or it will be a violent storm.

This rainstorm came specially, and it is said that ordinary rainstorms come and go quickly, but this rainstorm does not take the usual route, and it has rained for several days and nights in a row.

As a result, most of the areas on the east bank of the Chu River became an ocean, and the common people fled to relatively high places when they saw that the situation was not good.

A man may walk, but the crops in the field will suffer. Originally, due to the drought some time ago, everyone abandoned the mountains and slopes, leaving behind the low-lying land.

But now these crops that are about to be purchased are completely soaked in the flood, how can these crops that are close to maturity withstand the rain?

The common people stood on the high ground and watched as the crops they had worked so hard to grow over the past year had been completely submerged by the floods.

Countless ordinary people looked at the ocean in front of them. Their hearts were filled with despair, and they could not think of anything but curse God.

"God, you're so ruthless, do you have to force us to death?" An old farmer with gray hair, looking at the vast flood, said in despair.

Faced with a major drought that had not been seen in a century, followed by a catastrophic flood, almost all crops on the east bank of the Chu River were tormented by these two disasters and almost no harvest.

Receiving the news from the front, Zhao Yuanrang, the king of Chu, sat on the chair palace of his palace and did not speak for a long time.

Zhao Yuanrang felt that he was also a Mingjun who was quite brainy and could think about the people. But in the face of such a disaster, he has nothing to do.

The heavy rain lasted for seven or eight days, and by the time the flood waters had completely receded, it was already ten days later.

The crops, which had been soaked in water for more than ten days, had been completely soaked.

Looking at the collapsed houses and the crops that were washed away in the fields, the people of Chu Jiangdong were completely desperate.

The imperial court also sent it, and the disaster relief silver and grain. However, there are too many ordinary people, and the food gap is too large, and the little food sent by the imperial court can only be a drop in the bucket.

In this case, one human tragedy after another inevitably happened. The phenomenon of selling children and daughters, killing people and stealing food, and even changing children for food has appeared.

Many ordinary people on the east bank of the Chu River are unable to live their lives. I had to leave my hometown, where I had lived for half my life, and began a career of refugee.

At first, they wanted to cross the Chu River and go to the west bank of the Chu River, because it was the hinterland of the Chu State, and they wanted to seek food there.

Some areas on the west bank of the Chu River also initially accepted some refugees. But as the refugees poured across the Chu River and headed for the west bank of the Chu River, officials in the prefectures and counties near the Chu River panicked.

The east bank of the Chu River was affected, and a large area on the west bank of the Chu River was actually affected. The imperial court also transferred a lot of grain from them to the west bank of the Chu River for disaster relief.

And now hundreds of thousands of people on the east bank of the Chu River are coming to several county capitals on the west bank of the Chu River near the Chu River. So many hungry people have to eat, where can these county governments be able to settle them!

Therefore, some county governments on the west bank of the Chu River, after initially receiving some refugees, blocked the Chu River, prohibiting the refugees from crossing the Chu River to the areas under their jurisdiction.

Officials on the west bank controlled all the boats and did not allow the people on the east bank to go to them across the river. The common people on the east bank of the Chu River were worried, and in desperation, they turned their attention to the country of Fu, which was next to them.

These officials of the Chu State, because of the food they had at hand, were indeed unable to satisfy these hungry victims, so they did not stop them from leaving the Chu State to go to the territory of Dafu.

And just like that, the great crowds of victims. came to the junction of Chu and Dafu, and wanted to come to the territory of Dafu through here.

However, these things happened in the Chu State, how could the generals guarding the territory of Dafu not know that if these hundreds of thousands of disaster victims all came to Dafu, it would bring huge trouble to Dafu.

Therefore, the generals who guarded the gate unanimously adopted the practice of closing the gate and prohibiting the victims from entering.

For a time, several passes near Dafu to the Chu State, and many victims came. Hearing that Dafu did not allow them to enter the country, these victims were also completely desperate.

Back to his homeland, there was not a grain of grain there, and the pass to Dafu was tightly closed. The victims also had no strength to continue their journey, so they simply stopped outside the gate and waited for their fate to starve to death.

In this case, people starved to death almost every day. Those who barely survived were also yellow-faced and thin-skinned, and those who were extremely hungry even appeared to roast and eat the meat on the corpses.

It was under this circumstance that Yang Yun came to Xunyang Pass with Ju Yuanguang and Qiu Ze. When he stood on the top of this majestic city and looked down, he couldn't help but take a deep breath, the number of refugees far exceeded his imagination.

Yang Yun's plan, the Chu State is affected, and there will definitely be refugees rushing to Dafu's side. Therefore, a few months ago, he had already asked people to stock up on grain in the surrounding counties in advance, preparing to receive some refugees to his fiefdom.