November 19, 25th year of Wanli, Beijing City.

This day is a rare sunny day since the beginning of winter this year, the sun returns to the earth, bringing a little warmth to this cold and frozen place, maybe nothing has actually changed, but as long as you are bathed in the sun, people can always feel warm.

People who have been in the house for many days finally choose to leave the moldy home on this day, open the door to breathe, change into the thickest cotton clothes and cotton pants, and reluctantly go out of the house to walk outside.

Small vendors with a keen sense of smell have also reopened their shops, selling some hot noodle soup and hot noodles, and the business is quite good, and people like to sit down and have a bowl of hot noodle soup while basking in the sun while browsing the mountains.

Farewell to people who haven't been able to chat for many days, this day can be regarded as opening the conversation.

Xu Guangqi is no exception, he decided to take this great opportunity to go out for a stroll and wake up his mind, so he invited three or five fellow villagers to go to the tavern to drink, chatting about the world, talking about the past and the present, and the atmosphere was relaxed and happy.

After three rounds of drinking, everyone chatted more eagerly, and I don't know who started to talk about family and national affairs first, so everyone chatted and focused on some recent current political topics.

A certain villager who had some connections in the capital took advantage of the drunkenness and said to everyone with great interest: "I don't know if you have heard that a few days ago, a violent quarrel broke out between the first assistant and the second assistant in the cabinet, and it is said that the quarrel even reached the emperor's place. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone's attention was attracted, although the scholars pay attention to ignoring the things outside the window, but for them these people, the level is already different, they already have the qualifications to be officials, and there are more things that need to be paid attention to and understood, especially in the general direction of politics, which is one of their compulsory courses.

"Please also ask Brother Tai to make it clear, what is going on?"

The person who spoke was quite proud, and said: "I have a good friend who is on duty in the cabinet, and he told me that on that day, a letter came from Datong, talking about the Tumut tribe north of Datong, that is, the tribe of the famous strange woman Sanniangzi, who begged for food to survive the winter.

Zhao Ge Lao attaches great importance to this matter, and plans to give priority to the allocation of grain and grass to Datong Town to help the Tumut Department survive the winter famine, but Zhang Ge Lao disagrees, Zhang Ge Lao means that those grains are very important life-saving food, to be eaten by the army and the people of the Nine Sides, how can it be easily allocated to the Mongols?

Zhao Ge Lao and Zhang Ge Lao insisted on their own words, no one was convinced by anyone, and the other auxiliary ministers of the cabinet were less qualified, and they did not speak, so the two of them made this matter in front of His Majesty, it is said that the public is reasonable, and the mother-in-law says that the mother-in-law is reasonable, and His Majesty is difficult to decide for a while, and this matter is deadlocked. ”

Some people wondered: "Since the Jiajing of this dynasty, the power of the first assistant far exceeds that of the rest of the auxiliary ministers, how can the second assistant stop the things that the first auxiliary supports?" ”

Then the man looked at the person who asked the question with "innocent" eyes.

"Friend, this is not a law, it is just a convention, and even a law has the possibility of being overturned and restarted, let alone a convention? Zhao Ge is old, and it's almost time to retire, so who will be the next person to take over as the first assistant?

According to the usual practice, this is the second assistant, Zhang Ge Lao is younger than Zhao Ge Lao, it is the time to show his ambitions, of course, he wants to get more political achievements before Zhao Ge Lao retires, so as to smoothly take over the position of first assistant. ”

"Then you can't go against the old Shousuke, right? After all, it's the old Shoufu, which is too inappropriate. ”

"You are wrong, the official reputation among Zhao Gelao's hundred officials is very bad, Zhang Gelao's move is not only to compete for political achievements, but also to show himself in front of the hundred officials."

"I see! Brother Tai is highly talented! ”

"Hahaha, don't dare to be, don't dare to be!"

Several people began to praise each other, but Xu Guangqi inexplicably cared about the lack of food in the Tumut Department that the two auxiliary ministers argued.

The relationship between the Tumut Department and the Ming Dynasty is good, which is not an incredible thing in other dynasties, but in the stubborn Ming Dynasty, this is a very strange thing, the Ming Dynasty has never reconciled with the nomadic barbarians, but only here is an exception in the Tumut Ministry, because of the appearance of a strange woman.

Under the leadership of this strange woman, the Tumut Department fought for the Ming Dynasty and helped the Ming Dynasty block a lot of disasters, which is really due to the Daming Jiangshan Sheji, this tribe is now begging for food because of the disaster, why is Zhang Ge Lao not allowed?

Plagued......

Xu Guangqi felt the feeling of freezing this day, and immediately understood that the Tumut tribe suffered a disaster because of the abnormal cold weather, and there was no food to survive, so he asked for relief food from the Ming Dynasty.

Cold, the more north the colder, this is how many years of experience handed down, the Mongolians live in the north of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty has been harvested by the cold grain, the alien races on the grassland are not frozen to death by the cold cattle and sheep, the grass withered and there is no hope?

What would a hungry person choose? Is it to starve to death on the spot, or to fight for a chance to survive and go south to plunder the Ming Dynasty?

There is no need to talk about the experience of thousands of years.

The Tumut tribe has been sent south by the cold to ask for help, and the Mongols in the colder places than Tumut are not all cold and can't survive? They...... Will there be groups of people going south to Koubian?

At this thought, Xu Guangqi was shocked.

"Zhang Gelao's move is misleading the country!"

Xu Guangqi couldn't help but say it, and suddenly, a table of fellow villagers who praised each other looked at him in surprise.

"Zixian, although Zhang Ge Lao's official reputation among the hundred officials is not good, but at least he is also a strong candidate for the next first assistant, you say it doesn't matter in front of us, but if it is rumored and Zhang Ge Lao knows, what can I do? We are just raising people, we can talk about state affairs, and we should not talk about government affairs. ”

A fellow villager kindly reminded Xu Guangqi.

The rest of the people also nodded their heads again and again.

"Zixian, you are Shuntianfu Xie Yuan, you are already concerned, so you must be cautious."

The well-informed person looked around and cautiously admonished Xu Guangqi.

Xu Guangqi hurriedly shook his head.

"No, everyone, listen to me, in the past, the northern barbarians went south to Koubian, all at a time when the Ming Dynasty caused turmoil due to the large-scale grain harvest due to severe cold, this is not a coincidence, this is inevitable."

The rest of the scholars looked at each other.

"What do you mean by that?"

"The weather is cold, the grain harvest is less, the colder the weather, the less the harvest, under the severe cold, the grain will be lost, and you should know that the farther north, the colder the weather, our Ming Dynasty has no grain harvest, and the Mongolians who live further north have not allowed cattle and sheep to freeze to death and the pasture to wither?

They are also people, but also to eat, when the weather is warm, the water and grass are abundant, the cattle and sheep are strong, it is not necessary for them to go south, but once the weather turns cold, a large number of cattle and sheep freeze to death, their food is not enough to eat, in order to survive, they must go south, so since ancient times, it is inevitable that the north will go south when it is cold! ”