The majestic vertical arch hall exudes a glorious aura under the scorching sun, and looks like a fierce beast that dominates the world. Zhao Ji sat on the main hall of the vertical arch hall, but as the Ninth Five-Year Honor, he was now frowning, with a sad face, and the eunuchs and palace maids in the hall also knew that Zhao Ji was in a bad mood, so they were all extremely cautious, and even walked on tiptoe, for fear that Zhao Ji would cause a big disaster.

Zhao Yan is now more headache than Zhao Yan who is far away in Guangzhou, mainly because of two things, the first thing is this year's drought, no one thought that this drought would come so fiercely, at the beginning it was only a few places in the northwest where there was a drought, but then the drought became bigger and bigger, from the northwest to Hebei and then the entire Yellow River basin had a drought, and now even all parts of the south have also had drought, the capital has not rained for four months, and the whole land is full of red, It was as if all living beings in the world had been roasted by the scorching sun in the sky.

The consequences of this great drought for the Great Song Dynasty were extremely severe, the vast majority of the disaster areas had no grain harvest, and even many places even the wells dried up, and the people even had difficulty in drafting, so they had to leave their hometowns to flee, although the number of these fleeing people was not much, and they were still under the control of the imperial court, but when the people's homes were exhausted, I am afraid that there would be a greater wave of refugees, and if we were not careful, we could repeat the Huangchao Rebellion at the end of the Tang Dynasty.

In addition to this drought that may have supported the foundation of the Great Song Dynasty, the second thing also gave Zhao Ji a headache, in fact, strictly speaking, this matter is a continuation of the first thing, because this unprecedented drought caused the Fa-changing faction led by Wang Anshi to suffer a fierce attack, and those old-fashioned factions used the "sky change" as an excuse to besiege the Fa-changing faction. In addition, the money for exemption from military service also aroused the turmoil of the masses and the instability of the people's minds, and even made the reformers deal with a very unfavorable situation.

Originally, the reason why Zhao Ji launched the reform of the law, although he had some selfish intentions to seize power for himself, but he still hoped to use the reform to eliminate the shortcomings of the Great Song Dynasty and achieve the goal of self-improvement by changing the law, and he also had high hopes and great trust in Wang Anshi. Even though almost all the ministers in the court opposed the new law, he still supported Wang Anshi to change the law without hesitation.

But now Zhao Ji is a little shaken, he doesn't believe much in the theory of the heavenly change, but he sees all the evil consequences caused by the change, originally he thought that this was just the pain caused by the change, and it would soon pass, and he also believed that Wang Anshi would deal with these evil consequences, but the truth made him extremely disappointed. The evil consequences caused by the change of the law are becoming more and more severe, and the people in some places almost hate the new law, coupled with the current natural disaster, if he insists on changing the law again, I am afraid that without waiting for the natural disaster to really break out, the people of the Great Song Dynasty will be the first to break out, and it is not impossible to reproduce the scene of the Huangchao rebellion.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Ji couldn't help but show a hesitant look on his face. At this time, he suddenly realized for the first time that he might really be wrong to appoint Wang Anshi to change the law. Especially at this time, he thought of the opposition of Han Qi, Ouyang Xiu and other old ministers at the beginning, and even his own brother Zhao Yan did not agree to change the law, but unfortunately he couldn't listen to them at that time, and now that Zhao Ji thinks about it, he can't help but feel a feeling of regret in his heart.

At this moment, suddenly an attendant crept in. Then put a stack of folds on Zhao Yan's desk, this is one of the government affairs he needs to deal with every day, but if it is Zhao Yan, seeing these mountain-like folds will definitely be a headache, but for Zhao Yan. It's one of the things he does every day, and he loves the feeling of critique.

Zhao Ji is at an energetic age, and the review is also very fast, an hour later, most of the notes have been reviewed, but the more Zhao Ji's face is reviewed, the more ugly it is, because these twists and turns drink a lot, but what they say is nothing more than two things, one is the drought that swept the Great Song Dynasty, the other is the opposition to the reform of the law in various places, or the impeachment of the old-fashioned duì reform faction, which also makes Zhao Ji's mood worse and worse.

"Huh?" Just when Zhao Ji was about to finish reading the fold, he suddenly found a strange fold, in fact, there is nothing strange about this fold itself, but there is a picture scroll pressed under this fold, which is unprecedented, after all, the fold is the fold, few people will send the painting and the fold together, in addition, these folds need to be checked in advance by the pavilion door, like this with the painting fold, it seems that it is impossible to pass through the guò pavilion door.

This strange book quickly aroused Zhao Ji's interest, and then he first picked up the book and looked at it, and found that the cover was written "On the New Law into the Exile People Tushu", and the signature was written by a person named Zheng Xia, for this person's name Zhao Ji just felt some impressions, and after thinking about it for a while, he remembered that this Zheng Xia seemed to be a Jinshi who had been in peace for four years, and was very valued by Wang Anshi, who had joined the army in a state, but later after the change began, this Zheng Xia seemed to oppose the change of law like others, It is said that Wang Anshi valued Zheng Xia's talent, so he wanted to use this method to force him to help him change the law, but unfortunately Zheng Xia is a hard bone and has always opposed the new law, and it is precisely because of this incident that Zheng Xia also has a lot of fame in the capital.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Yan immediately picked up this book with a picture scroll and asked the attendant next to him: "This book is sent with a picture scroll, do you know what's going on?" ”

The chamberlain is the old man next to Zhao Ji, and he is also very cautious in doing things, especially now that Zhao Ji is in a bad mood, he is also more careful, so he has already asked clearly when he sent these folds, and immediately replied: "Your Majesty, this fold was not sent in through the gate of the Guò Pavilion, but directly delivered by the Tonggu Yintai Division, and it is said to be an urgent report from the border city!" ”

"Oh? Urgent report from the border city? Zhao Xuan heard that this was even more strange, Zheng Xia was obviously in the capital to settle down, even if there was any emergency in the border city, it was impossible for him to write a report to him, it seems that there must be something strange in this.

With the doubts in his heart, Zhao Xuan finally opened Zheng Xia's recital, and the result was not what he expected, this recital discussed the mistakes of the new law, and counted the various drawbacks of Wang Anshi's reforms, and at the back of the recital, Zheng Xia also said to Zhao Xuan very arrogantly that if the new law is stopped, there will be heavy rain within ten days, otherwise he is willing to accept the crime of bullying the king, and ask Zhao Xuan to behead him outside the Xuande Gate.

Zhao Ji saw Zheng Xia's somewhat willful recital, and his face couldn't help showing a wry smile, he didn't believe much in the Mandate of Heaven, and naturally he didn't believe Zheng Xia's words that it would rain if he stopped the new law, and even in his opinion, Zheng Xia was simply forced to lose his mind by the new law, and he could even say such nonsense.

But before the smile on Zhao Ji's face fell, his eyes finally fell on the picture scroll presented by Zheng Xia, but when he saw the content on the picture scroll, he couldn't help but stiffen, only to see that the picture scroll was full of ragged homeless people, these homeless people or on crutches, or in their arms, or in their arms, or carrying the old and the young, although the shape is different, but all of them are numb and distressed, and on the left side of this picture scroll, there are three big characters of "Wandering People".

Zhao Ji had only heard of the tragic situation of the displaced people before, but he had never seen it, but today he saw the miserable shape of the displaced people in this picture of Zheng Xia, and he also knew that the displaced people in reality must be a hundred times more miserable than these displaced people on the picture scroll, as soon as he thought that these displaced people were the people he ruled, Zhao Xuan felt like a knife, he wanted to be a good emperor for the benefit of all the people, but he did not expect that the people under his rule would become exiles.

Looking at the picture of the displaced people in front of him, Zhao Yan was also motionless, sitting there for a long time without speaking, and there were thousands of thoughts in his mind, he very much hoped that Zhao Yan could be here at this time, so that he could confide the bitter water in his heart to him, but unfortunately Zhao Yan was unwilling to stay in the capital to watch the implementation of the new law, and now he was thousands of miles away in Guangzhou, which made Zhao Yan not even have anyone around him who could talk.

At night, Zhao Ji did not go to any of the concubines, but locked himself in the imperial study alone, picked up the homeless map from time to time to look at it a few times, and did not sleep all night, at this time he was even more shaken about the change, and hesitated whether to stop the implementation of the new law, but when he thought of the efforts he had made for the new law over the years, Zhao Ji felt unwilling.

Finally, when it was almost dawn, Zhao Xu, who was tossing and turning, simply sat down at the desk again, and then wrote a letter to Zhao Yan in his own handwriting, he wanted to hear Zhao Yan's opinion on this matter, in fact, this was just an excuse that Zhao Yan made for himself, because Zhao Yan has always been against changing the law, and now he went to ask Zhao Yan's opinion, and got the affirmation of his opposition to the new law, and then he had more reason to persuade himself to stop the implementation of the new law.

It's just that what Zhao Ji never expected was that just three days after he sent the letter to Zhao Yan, Zhao Yan suddenly sent a letter, which made Zhao Yan a little strange, because according to his calculations, even if it was to pass the book with a flying pigeon, the letter should not have been delivered to Zhao Yan so quickly, and it was impossible to reply so quickly.

With doubts in his heart, Zhao Yan opened Zhao Yan's letter and read it carefully, when he first saw the content of the letter, Zhao Yan's face immediately showed ecstasy, and even some excited tears, because he felt that at this critical moment, his own brother was still reliable, but when he saw the following content, he couldn't help but be angry, and immediately ordered loudly: "Come here, convene all the ministers to discuss!" (To be continued......)