Happy time is always so short, Zhang Bin has a deep understanding of this sentence.

After he accepted Zheng Chenggong, he not only experienced the feeling of being a teacher, but also experienced the warmth and happiness of home.

Every morning, when it was time to go, he would get up on time and accompany Qi Fanghua to supervise Zheng Chenggong's martial arts practice.

At this time, Qi Yuangong, Qi Yuanfu, and Qi Yuanbi will take turns to help, help her demonstrate, help her correct Zheng Chenggong's movements, and practice with Zheng Chenggong on her behalf.

Next, he personally taught Zheng Chenggong to read and learn calligraphy, and all the "masters" would take turns to bring tea and water, shout the cold and ask for warmth, and serve their masters and apprentices properly, which felt extremely warm.

At noon, the Tagawa clan will bring the little seven Saemon to visit the door, the Huang family will also appear on time, Chen Xiuxiu will also pretend to be a little adult, and take the two cute younger brothers to play crazy all over the yard.

In the afternoon, when the art of war was taught, the "masters and wives" still took turns to visit, caring for them carefully, and working tirelessly.

The evening show is even more exciting, several wives and concubines always want to conceive a child like Qi Fanghua or something, and the taste is not enough to be humane with outsiders.

The happy day has not passed half a month, and this thing has come.

This morning, Zhang Bin was teaching Zheng Chenggong to practice the Analects.

Zi said: Learn and learn from time to time, don't you also say? Have friends come from afar, are you happy?

The master and apprentice taught one by one, and took turns to read it more than ten times, Zhang Bin felt that Zheng Chenggong was almost done, and was about to start teaching him to write, when a friend really came from afar.

Hong Rong'er suddenly walked in lightly and whispered to him: "Husband, Lord Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Fujian, and Lord Bi Mao Kangbi, the political envoy of Zuobu, have urgent matters to see. ”

These two people came together, it was definitely a big deal, he quickly stood up, handed the "Analects" in his hand to Hong Rong'er, and advised: "Rong'er, learn this sentence from time to time, you can teach successful writing." ”

Hong Ronger is a typical lady, she has learned piano, chess, calligraphy and painting well, and it is naturally no problem to simply teach Zheng Chenggong to write a few words.

She nodded, walked to Zheng Chenggong's small table with the book, picked up the brush and dipped it in ink, and then said gently: "Come, success, the master will write it first, you look carefully." ”

Zheng Chenggong hurriedly moved the prepared white paper to Hong Rong'er, and then stared at the paper seriously.

Zhang Bin reluctantly glanced at this warm picture, then turned around and walked towards the study in the front yard.

What will happen at this time?

Zhang Binji walked into the study in the front yard and saw that Lu Xiangsheng and Bi Maokang were anxiously circling in the room!

He couldn't help but be shocked: "Jiandou, Meng Hou, what's wrong, why do you look like this." ”

Lu Xiangsheng and Bi Maokang glanced at each other, but Bi Maokang arched his hand and said: "Shuangquan, something is wrong, Yanping Mansion, Jianning Mansion, Tingzhou Mansion, and Shaowu Mansion have come to report one after another, since the beginning of summer, there has been no rain, and the farmland in some places is afraid that it will be lost!" ”

"Ahh When Zhang Bin heard this, he exclaimed, and his face became extremely ugly.

This natural disaster still broke out, the Xiaoice River natural disaster at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which lasted for decades, has been conscripted since the apocalypse, and the Chongzhen year is getting more and more serious, more and more serious, and at the most serious time, the entire northwest and north China are thousands of miles away, and there is no harvest!

In addition, corrupt officials and corrupt officials have destroyed human nature and embezzled disaster relief money and food;

The royal family, the local tyrant and the squire, have no mercy, and the grain warehouse is full but does not help the victims;

Unscrupulous profiteers, hoarding and driving up food prices.

The common people were directly forced to have no way to live, and they rose up one after another.

Since the end of the Apocalypse, there have been several peasant rebels in Shaanxi, where the drought is most severe, and the imperial court, what is the imperial court doing at this time?

Chongzhen tried his best to be a good emperor, but he didn't finish the first step before he came to the end.

Because his first choice was to clean up the eunuchs, an emperor wanted to clean up a group of notorious courtiers, which seemed to be a very simple matter.

However, he underestimated the number of eunuchs and even the means of eunuchs.

Qing is clear, Jiannu is coming, this has nothing to do with the government, the enemy wants to fight you, you just concentrate on defeating the enemy.

As a result, before the enemy could run away, the highest-ranking commander of the Ming army, Jiliao Governor, was captured.

Immediately afterwards, the enemy left, the Jiliao Governor was chopped alive, and the first assistant of the cabinet, the second assistant of the cabinet, and the scholars of the cabinet were all killed one by one.

After a fierce struggle, the eunuchs regained control of the court.

Chongzhen may not be able to figure it out until he dies, he is a rare diligent emperor in history, a rare thrifty emperor, a good woman, and he is not greedy for pleasure, why did he die in the country?

If he takes a closer look at the cabinet chiefs and assistants he "selected", he will find that Wen Tiren, Zhang Zhifa, Xue Guoguan, etc., from the fourth year of Chongzhen to the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, and even to Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng of the Southern Ming Dynasty later, are all eunuchs in power.

You also cleaned up the eunuchs, and in the end you were all cleaned up by the eunuchs!

What is the specialty of the eunuch party, that is, fighting, not fighting with the enemy, but fighting with his own people, Wen Tiren, in power for eight years, the court and the court, who disobeyed him, were almost killed by him, but he did not mention a single suggestion for Houjin and the peasant rebel army, and even, he did not talk to Chongzhen about Houjin and about the peasant rebel army.

Such a cabinet chief assistant, all the energy is spent on dealing with his own people, ignoring the enemy, you still dare to use it, and it will be used for eight years, if you don't lose the country, who will lose the country!

Of course, at this time, Yuan Chonghuan had been rescued by Zhang Bin, and he was not cut by a thousand knives, and Liaodong was worry-free for the time being.

However, the court is almost the same, the first assistant of the cabinet Han Yi was angry and left, the second assistant of the cabinet Qian Longxi was scared away, the cabinet scholar Sun Chengzong was disheartened and left, and the cleanup of the eunuch party also came to an abrupt end.

Zhang Bin shook his head, threw these messy things out of his mind, and then asked in a deep voice: "Menghou, have the state capitals reported the specific number of people affected?" ”

Bi Maokang shook his head awkwardly and said: "No, the grain harvest has not started at this time, and there is no way to estimate the specific damage situation." ”

Zhang Bin thought about it, and then said decisively: "You go to the dock later, I'll come over after you explain." ”

Lu Xiangsheng and Bi Maokang hurriedly retreated, while Zhang Bin hurriedly walked to the backyard.

Fortunately, there is nothing big at this time, but Zheng Chenggong's teaching has just begun, and he can't relax.

When he returned to the backyard, he first explained to Qi Fanghua, asked her to ask Qi Yuangong to teach Zheng Chenggong the art of war, and then came to the study where Zheng Chenggong was taught, and carefully told Hong Rong'er to teach Zheng Chenggong to learn the "Analects" during this time, and finally, he encouraged Zheng Chenggong to study diligently, and this matter was finished.

Then he ordered a group of personal guards, and hurried to the dock, Lu Xiangsheng and Bi Maokang had been waiting there for a long time, this time, he did not sit on the far cruiser, because he did not want to swagger everywhere, causing gossip, although Chongzhen asked him, he could use the capture of the Dutch to prevaricate, but more is better than less, and it is better not to cause trouble.

He ordered five wheels and set off with Lu Xiangsheng and Bi Maokang, but this time he went not to Yuegang, but Fuzhou.

The group came to Fuzhou, it was not yet noon, Zhang Bin hurriedly went to the Chengxuan Political Envoy Department to take a turn, carefully looked at the official documents submitted by the state capitals, and then recruited more than 100 war horses, and took Lu Xiangsheng to Yanping Mansion, as for Bi Maokang, he didn't bring it, Fuzhou also needs people to sit in town, and it doesn't make much sense to rush to check the disaster situation.

Yanping Fucheng is about 400 miles away from Fuzhou, fast horses, one day and one night can arrive, of course, the survey of the drought is not a military emergency, urgent, Zhang Bin did not take people to run day and night, you know, in that case, more than 100 war horses will have to run away, at this time a war horse is hundreds of taels of silver, to run away more than 100 war horses, more than 10,000 taels of silver will be gone, how many victims can be saved!

He naturally didn't know how to do it, he just took people to gallop more than 200 miles that day, rushed to the Gutianyi at the junction of Fuzhou Mansion and Yanping Mansion, stopped to maintain the horses, rested for a night, and went on the road early the next morning.

At this time, the official roads leading from Fujian to the surrounding provinces have been widened and repaired, the road surface is smooth, there is no problem with horse-drawn carriages and human-powered carts, and the horse-beating is naturally unimpeded.

However, there are more vendors along the way, and most of them are in groups, and they can meet a long convoy almost every once in a while.

More than 100 horses, running in a single column, stretching for more than a mile, the power is also quite amazing, those traders along the way are frightened, for fear that they have encountered horse bandits or something, but when they saw that it was the Ming army serving, they were relieved, and even took the initiative to stop on the side of the road to give way, but it did not cause any confusion.

After Gutian is Yanping, all the way is mountainous and hilly, terraced fields are the majority, and it is rare to see patches of fertile fields.

In fact, in addition to the coastal areas of Fujian, the inland is basically mountainous, so the inland population is not very large, most of the population of Fujian is concentrated in the coastal Fuzhou Prefecture, Quanzhou Prefecture, Zhangzhou Prefecture, Xinghua Prefecture and Funing Prefecture, Yanping Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, Tingzhou Mansion and Shaowu Mansion together are less than one million people.

Zhang Bin rode his horse and galloped, while constantly recalling the data of the four state capitals here in his mind, time passed quickly, and at about mid-afternoon, the group rushed to Yanping Mansion City.

The prefect of Yanping was shocked when he heard that the governor and the governor were all in unison, and hurriedly took a group of officials to see it.

Outside, more than 100 riders stopped neatly on the road, and the two people in front were not the Governor and the Governor.

The prefect of Yanping hurriedly stepped forward and said: "I don't know that the Governor and the Governor are coming, and they are not welcome, forgive the sins, forgive the sins." ”

Zhang Bin didn't greet him, and directly asked, "Is the drought in Yanping Mansion serious?" ”

The prefect of Yanping hurriedly replied: "Back to the governor, it's not very serious. ”

Zhang Bin immediately asked: "It's not very serious, how serious is it, how many people are in Yanping, and how many people are affected." ”

The prefect of Yanping replied without thinking: "There are more than 40,000 households in Yanping, more than 260,000 people, and the subordinates have roughly estimated that the disaster should be less than 10,000 households, about 50,000 people." ”

Zhang Bin's face softened slightly, and he continued to ask: "Oh, there are so few people affected by the disaster, what is the basis for your estimate?" ”

The prefect of Yanping did not hesitate to say: "Although Yanping is mostly mountainous, there are many rivers, there are Minjiang River, Jianxi, Shaxi, Futun River, etc., most of the people live near the water, although the day is drought, the rivers everywhere have not been cut off, plus the water conservancy facilities built over the years, the people along the coast can still divert water to irrigate the farmland, only a few people are too far away from the river, can not divert water for irrigation, there is a risk of no harvest." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said with satisfaction: "Well, yes, I am quite familiar with the people's situation under the rule, you go find a horse and take us to the nearby disaster-stricken villages to have a look, everyone else is scattered." ”

The prefect of Yanping hurriedly arched his hand, waved away the other officials, and quickly brought the horses, and took Zhang Bin and his party to run outside the city.

Zhang Bin looked at his capable appearance, and his mood finally improved, the officials under his rule were at least not corpse vegetarians, the reason why he asked again and again just now was to see if the Yanping prefect did not understand the basic situation under his rule, if he didn't know, he was afraid that he would immediately order the people to be taken down!

Before Zhang Bin came, he went to several nearby villages that were more seriously affected by the disaster to see it on the spot, and then he submitted the official documents of the disaster, so he still knew more about the disaster there.

He took Zhang Bin to a small mountain village called Shikeng, about 20 miles away from Yanping Fucheng, and it took about half an hour for a group of people to gallop on a mountain trail.

Along the way, Zhang Bin carefully observed, there are indeed more rivers here, although it is not the kind of big river, the amount of water is relatively abundant, there are many places where aqueducts have been built, and waterwheels are not uncommon.

Stone pit is a special place, there is no river to pass through, not even a stream, but there are more farmland and terraces, probably because the soil quality here is better, unlike other places, stone mountains can be seen everywhere, here the mountains are full of soil, maybe it is more practical to call the soil pit.

When Zhang Bin came here, he didn't rush to the place where the villagers lived on the hillside, he stopped in the farmland, he looked around, and immediately asked puzzled: "There is no water source here, how can so many people gather?" ”

Zhang Bin took a look and knew that there were at least dozens of ordinary people gathered on the slopes of several hills over there, and I am afraid that there were hundreds of people.

The prefect of Yanping hurriedly explained: "My lord, the terrain here is relatively low, the soil layer is relatively thick, it is more convenient to dig wells to get water, and there are several mountain ponds here, usually when the rain is abundant, the mountain ponds are full, and it is not a problem to irrigate these farmlands, but it has not rained for a few months, and the mountain ponds are dry, so the drought is more serious." ”

Zhang Bin nodded, then turned over and dismounted, came to the edge of a farmland, and looked carefully, the drought was really serious, the soil in the field was dry and cracked, although the cracks were not very deep, but they were extremely dry, and there was not even a trace of water.

The rice in the field is also yellow, but it is not the golden yellow that is ripe, but the withered yellow after the leaves have dried up.

He pinched the ears of rice with his hand, and most of them were shriveled, and there was not much fullness, and this harvest was probably less than half of the usual one.

He sighed, stood up, and said to Xie Zhenggang beside him: "Little Sixth Uncle, take Zhang Pan's team and enter the village with me, and the others stay here to guard the horses." ”

With that, he handed the reins back, raised his feet and walked towards the mountain village in front, and Lu Xiangsheng, Yanping Prefect, Xie Zhenggang and Zhang Pan's team hurriedly followed.

At this time, the people in the mountain village were looking curiously inside and outside the house, this guy, there were more than 100 cavalry soldiers at once, what the hell is he doing!

As soon as they approached the entrance of the village, a sturdy old man immediately greeted him and said, "It turned out that everyone from the prefect was here, but the villain didn't see it clearly, forgive your sins." ”

The prefect of Yanping hurriedly introduced: "This is Lizheng here, Wang Laohan, Wang Laohan, this is the Governor, this is the Governor, don't hurry up to see it." ”

When Wang Laohan heard this, his knees weakened in fright, and he almost knelt down, Zhang Bin hurriedly stepped forward to support him and said: "No need to be polite, no need to be polite, this official is here to see the drought, not to try the case." ”

These words were spoken in local dialect, which was very kind, and Wang Laohan couldn't help but be surprised: "Your Excellency the Governor, you are from our Fujian." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said: "Yes, the official is from Funing Prefecture, the villagers, you don't have to be so polite, go, take the official to your house to sit down." ”

Wang Laohan nodded again and again and said, "Hey, hey, okay, the Governor, the Governor, the Governor, the Prefect, please." ”

Zhang Bin followed him slowly to the village, and the villagers were not too afraid of life, many of them ran to the side of the road, and they were very curious about their group.

These people did not have the appearance of being badly affected and thin, and many children even chewed there with something as thick as their fingers, and ate with relish.

Zhang Bin couldn't help but be curious: "Hey, what did that kid eat, sweet fries?" ”

Wang Laohan nodded again and again and said: "Yes, yes, Lord Governor, there is no harvest in this field, so I told the big guys not to sell the dried sweet potato fries, and keep them to eat, so that they can last until next year." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he nodded with satisfaction: "Well, this method is very good. ”

While the two were talking, the group soon came to Wang Laohan's yard, which is quite good, about an acre in size, clean and tidy, and the house in the middle is also a brick and stone structure.

It was still a little hot at this time, and Wang Laohan didn't invite everyone into the house, so he moved some small chairs in the yard and invited everyone to sit down, and then beckoned his family to make tea.

Zhang Bin looked around, and sighed secretly in his heart, the people of Fujian are relatively rich, and the disaster is not very serious, as long as there is no drought year after year, there is no big problem to survive, how can the victims in the northwest get it, this has been a drought for several years, they are afraid that they will not be able to survive!