April passed, and May quietly came.

Since May is the day of the summer grain harvest, this month is full of festivity, especially the rice fields in the Gyeonggi area, which undoubtedly adds a bit of peace.

It's just that the heavens always like to make some jokes, but on the first day of May, there was a rare "solar eclipse" celestial phenomenon in the sky.

If the solar eclipse is placed in the future generations, it will only be a trivial matter after tea and dinner, but in this era, everyone still believes in the idea of "respecting heaven and protecting the people" originated in the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is believed that "heaven" only gives the "mandate of heaven" to rule the world to those who have "virtue", and once the ruler "loses virtue", he will also lose the protection of heaven, and new virtuous people can come into being and replace them, and as the ruler of the world, he should "match heaven with virtue".

Whenever such celestial phenomena appeared, the emperor and the ruling ministers would strengthen their own provincial cultivation activities around the government of the time, and remedy it through the cultivation of virtue and government.

Although after so many "lies", its deterrent effect on the emperor has declined, and even Yuan Wei's "no eclipse, that is, the same as no eclipse" and "one point of eclipse, the same as no eclipse" have been adopted by the emperor.

It's just that every time there is a solar eclipse, as an official loyal to the emperor, he has to go to the yamen of the Ministry of Rites to perform the rescue ceremony according to the custom.

Following the situation of Jiajing for 40 years, this time it is not only more visible, but also lasts longer. "If the solar eclipse is not seen, it will not be eclipsed" and "the eclipse will stop for one point, and it will be the same as not eclipse" are no longer in line, but are genuine "solar eclipse" celestial phenomena.

This solar eclipse occurred in the afternoon, which was a rare sunny day, so the solar eclipse phenomenon was very amazing, and the entire capital was in shadows.

"Solar eclipse?"

"Quick, let's go back and change into plain clothes and go to the Ministry of Rites to perform the rescue gift!"

"Don't go home, let people find a few plain clothes and let's deal with it!"

……

Since today is the day of rest, Lin Haoran was gathering with a group of people in the same year, and when he saw this celestial phenomenon, the first thought in his heart was to rush to the yamen of the Ministry of Rites to perform the salutation ceremony.

The same situation happened all over the capital, they were fine in the northern city, some people ran to Tongzhou City, and they had already rushed back directly with their soldiers.

Now that the solar eclipse has appeared, the officials do not give the salute salute, which is simply a manifestation of disloyalty, how to make the officials not panic.

When Lin Haoran rushed back to his yamen, it was already overcrowded, and he finally squeezed into the lobby and found Li Chunfang, who was greeting Yan Ne and other officials.

"Lord Shodo, this time you want to perform an ambulance ceremony?" Lin Haoran didn't want to repeat his father-in-law's mistakes, so he pleaded with Li Chunfang.

Yan Ne coughed suddenly, and found that Lin Haoran looked over, but he deliberately looked away.

Li Chunfang also glanced at Yan Ne, but said to Lin Haoran: "Yes, if you think it is time to do the rescue gift, then prepare it!" ”

"The subordinate obeys!" Lin Haoran found that Li Chunfang was very real, and he didn't plan to make a stumbling block for him, so he immediately bowed respectfully, and then retreated to arrange related matters.

Yan Ne watched Lin Haoran leave, but shook his head lightly at Li Chunfang and admonished: "Brother Zishi, this person is harmless and tiger-hearted, I'm afraid that the tiger will hurt people!" ”

"Brother Minqing, the top priority now is to perform the rescue gift!" Li Chunfang responded with a smile.

Yan Ne and Li Chunfang are fellow villagers, although his qualifications are deeper, and he is even more holy than Li Chunfang, but the pockmarks on his face make it impossible for him to reach the level of the first assistant, and he did not blame Li Chunfang much.

Since the two bigwigs of the Ministry of Rites and Yamen were of the same mind, there was no obstacle to the rescue ceremony, and the ceremony was soon held as usual.

The officials of the Qin Tianjian reported the situation of the daily loss, and the hundred officials were uniformly dressed in plain clothes, divided into five columns, and each class was led by an official of the Ministry of Rites.

"I really don't want to worry!"

After Jiajing learned of the situation, he also complained in his heart with great annoyance.

It's just that in the face of "iron-clad facts", he obediently admitted his mistakes to God, made a simple confession, and reflected on his own virtues and policies of governance.

However, Jiajing is a stubborn emperor, otherwise he would not have dared to fight against Yang Tinghe at a young age, and finally ascended to the throne with his "inheritance but not heir".

Although he knew that his virtue was lacking and that being an emperor was unqualified, he did not have the slightest repentance. After the matter passed, he was even more obsessed with cultivating the mysteries.

Perhaps this incident affected his mood and made him directly quit the Dragon Boat Banquet.

It's just that this "solar eclipse" seems to be a warning from heaven.

Daming is a traditional agricultural country, and the largest tax revenue comes from grain tax, with nearly 20 million stone of tax grain recorded in the account every year. However, there are great fluctuations in this income, and in good years, the fiscal revenue will naturally be more, but in the disaster year, the fiscal revenue will decrease accordingly.

With the arrival of May, the specific disaster situation of the two capitals and thirteen provinces has been reported.

Due to the lack of rain this year, some parts of the south have experienced natural disasters of drought, and the worst drought is in Guangxi.

Guangxi implements two systems, liuguan and local officials, but after all, these are the people of the Ming Dynasty, and whenever there is a disaster, the imperial court will also choose to carry out disaster relief.

After receiving a report on the drought situation in Guangxi, Xu Jie immediately ordered Wu Guifang, who was also the governor of Guangxi and Guangzhou, to verify the situation and prepare for disaster relief.

Originally, Wu Guifang's most important business was to quell the plague in Guangdong, but now that the plague in Guangdong has basically subsided, she has naturally become a suitable candidate for disaster relief in Guangxi.

It's just that this May is not destined to be peaceful, and only 10 days later, news came from Guangxi.

After receiving the appointment of the imperial court, Wu Guifang immediately arrived at the capital city of Liuzhou, where the disaster was most serious. However, during the inspection, he was suddenly assassinated by the Assassins who were hiding among the homeless people.

Fortunately, Wu Guifang dodged in time, otherwise he would have died on the spot. Although she avoided death, Wu Guifang was already seriously injured and had already said that she could not be responsible for disaster relief.

The dignified governor of Liangguang was assassinated in Liuzhou, which shocked the court.

"Lord Yuanfu, this matter must have nothing to do with the local government!" Yuan Wei had already participated in the affairs of the ticket plan one after another, and at this time, he took the initiative to find Xu Jiedao with Wu Guifang's share of the note.

Xu Jie buried his head in front of the table and planned to play a vote, and now he can be said to have the "quasi-final account power" of the two capitals and thirteen provinces, and raised his head to Yuan Wei who came and asked, "Yuan Ge Lao, what are you talking about at first glance?" ”

It has been two years since he joined the cabinet, and Yuan Wei is no longer a minister who can only write green words, and has gradually become a qualified cabinet elder.

Faced with Xu Jie's question, he said eloquently: "Guangxi is remote, and local officials are greedy for ink, and Chang Ping is afraid that he has already been hollowed out by them." Wu Shilang went to Guangxi to check the disaster situation this time, and he must have inspected Chang Ping first, so he was assassinated by local officials and forces! Speaking of this, it seemed that he wanted to confirm his judgment, and pointed to a certain content of Wu Guifang and said: "Guangxi is dry and rainless, two or three thousand miles of red land, Liuzhou and Wuzhou are the heaviest, and the ministers suspect that there are drawbacks in often closing positions, please quickly adjust the grain for disaster relief, otherwise I am afraid that the people will become ......."

"Elder Yuan Ge, what do you think should be done?" Xu Jie assisted Yan Song in handling government affairs for ten years and took charge of government affairs for two years, so he could naturally guess that the matter was often closed, but he asked quietly.

Yuan Wei's eyes narrowed, and he immediately said decisively: "We naturally want to transfer grain to the disaster relief, but we can't turn a blind eye to Wu Shilang's assassination and Chang Ping, I thought that we could send Qin to check Chang Ping's position and wipe out all the maggots on the ground!" ”

"Guangxi not only has the imperial court's regular liquidation, but also the toast's permanent liquidation, what about this matter?" Xu Jie picked up the teacup and took a sip of cold tea, and asked again.

Yuan Wei was like being poured a basin of cold water on his head, knowing that the chaos of the Tusi was not something that the imperial court wanted to see, so he immediately chose to back down and said: "It doesn't matter if the Tusi Chang Ping is closed, but the Chang Ping of the Liuguan will be strictly investigated and brought to justice these corrupt officials and corrupt officials!" ”

"In this way, you are planning to send officials from Guangdong to Zhumi to go to disaster relief and check Chang Ping?" Xu Jie knew that he didn't have enough time to transfer the Qin Cha from the imperial court, so he smiled and said.

Yuan Wei shook his head gently, but said seriously: "The disaster situation in Guangxi is urgent, and I want to hand over this matter to Tan Lun, the right-hand capital of the former Metropolitan Procuratorate, to handle it!" ”

There are many officials in the Ming Dynasty who know the art of war, but there are not many who are as good at commanding and fighting as Tan Lun. During his tenure as the prefect of Taizhou, he trained 1,000 local township soldiers, created a brilliant record of three battles and three victories against the Japanese invaders, and then when he crusaded against Zhang Lian's remnant Lin Chaoxi, he led the troops of Zhejiang and the Guangdong army to pursue and capture Lin Chaoxi, and was ordered to take over as the governor of Fujian to recover the city.

It was only after quelling the Japanese rebellion in Fujian that he chose to resign from the imperial court and honestly returned to his hometown in Jiangxi to continue to keep filial piety for his father.

Xu Jie heard that it was this candidate, but he frowned and shook his head lightly: "Tan Lun has to escort grain from Jiangxi to Guangzhou, and he has to escort grain from Guangzhou to Guangxi, I'm afraid it will delay the imperial court's disaster relief!" ”

"It's just that if you don't send him, no one in Guangdong will be able to take on this big responsibility!" Yuan Wei's brows furrowed slightly, but he insisted on choosing this person.

Xu Jie's brows also frowned deeply, his gaze just fell on a note, and suddenly his eyes lit up, and he looked up at Yuan Wei and said excitedly: "How is Nanyang Patrol Lin usual?" ”

"Lin Ruoyu's sister?" When Yuan Wei heard this unexpected candidate, his eyes couldn't help but widen, and he looked at Xu Jie with a strange face and asked.

The smile on Xu Jie's face became even stronger, and he nodded lightly: "Yes, she was originally sent by the emperor to the local government, and now it is suitable to serve as the disaster relief envoy in Guangxi!" ”

"Her ...... I'm afraid the emperor won't agree! Yuan Wei originally wanted to say that Hu Niu's candidate was unreliable, but when the words came to his lips, he pushed the matter to the emperor.

Xu Jie's heart already had an idea, and he also wanted to explore Lin Haoran's background in Liangguang through this matter, so he immediately proposed to Yuan Wei: "Let's write Tan Lun and Lin Ping, and the two candidates will be decided by the emperor himself, what do you think?" ”

"That's great!" Yuan Wei's preferred candidate is Tan Lun, and he nodded in response.

Compared with Tan Lun whom he elected, Lin usually had no power to fight back. Not to mention that the other party has no fame, and he is still a little girl, how can he take on such a heavy responsibility?

By the end of May, there was still no rain in Guangxi, and the crops in the fields had already been sunburned.

Without water, there will be no harvest in the field, the so-called account in later generations: in the summer of the forty-third year of Jiajing, there was drought and no rain, and the red land was two or three thousand miles.

However, by this time, there was still no rain in the sky, which made people feel like they were in a big steamer, which undoubtedly increased their physical exertion.

In fact, there was also a drought in Guangxi last year, and the imperial court also exempted some prefectures and counties from taxes and grain. It's just that no one expected that there would be a bigger drought this year, which undoubtedly made this continuous drought undoubtedly worse for the region.

In a small mountain village in the Liuzhou region, a swarm of green-headed flies is buzzing around a family's house, and a strong putrid smell emanates from the maggot-strewn corpses.

The drought was exacerbated by the scorching heat, and many people had to leave their homes and live in the fields, where the search for food became their first rule of survival.

A group of homeless people found a cave on the hillside and quickly gathered dry wood to smoke the hole.

In the expectant faces, a small black shadow burst out of the hole, causing a commotion in the crowd immediately. In the midst of this commotion, a young man became the lucky one.

Ignoring the shouts of the leader behind him, he ran forward and stuffed the vole into his mouth to bite, and his mouth was instantly full of blood, and several victims of the disaster came after him, and when they caught up, the young man had already swallowed the vole into his stomach.

In this season of food scarcity, snakes, voles, frogs and grasshoppers have become a source of food for the victims, and cooked food has become a luxury.

The vole was eaten by the young man, and everyone seemed helpless to return to a prestigious little old man, but asked, "Patriarch, are we going to Liuzhou City now?" ”

"Liuzhou City is too far away from us, and the grain has long been greedy for ink from the government, so it's useless to go!" The little old man's eyes flashed with wisdom, but he shook his head gently.

"Even if there is no grain in Chang Ping, I'm afraid the imperial court will transfer grain from Guangdong, right?" A middle-aged man was unwilling to say authentic.

The little old man sighed lightly, and then analyzed: "The imperial court should transfer some grain, but it will definitely not be too much!" The most important thing is that it will take at least mid-June to transfer grain from Guangdong to Liuzhou, can we survive that time? ”

When everyone heard this, they knew that this was not a way to live, but they asked for help: "Patriarch, what should I do now?" ”

"I knew that I fled to Leizhou with Li Daring and them last month, it is said that there is no shortage of food there, and the people in the government are also very good, so I am afraid that I will not die of hunger wherever I go!" Someone muttered regretfully.

The little old man was also extremely helpless in his heart, but he made a decision and said: "Then let's go to Leizhou!" Walking past, we may still have some people who can live, and here we can really only starve to death! ”

The mood of the crowd was very heavy, but this was already their best way to live, which was to nod their heads.

"Is Liuzhou City in this direction?"

At this moment, a team of horses came to their side at some point, and a young girl on the horse asked crisply.