"Everything will be fine", Mu Hongsheng looked at the starry lanterns on the long street and made her wish.

She really hopes that everything will be okay as soon as possible.

It's just that a wish is a wish after all.

Just like the bright lanterns on the long street, no matter how lively and prosperous, it is only one night, and when the morning comes, it will eventually go out, leaving a place of gray smoke and confetti.

According to the experience of previous years, Mu Hongsheng's judgment was actually not wrong. Every spring, it is the day when the defense pressure on the northern border is the lightest. As soon as spring begins, new grass sprouts on the grassland, and most of the Rongdi people are busy migrating for water and grass, hoping to raise the calves and sheep born in winter before the rainy season arrives, so most of them will go to the depths of the grasslands with lush pastures.

The border between the Great Zhou and Rongdi, in addition to the sandbar of the Yuncang River, is two high mountains, which are not suitable for grazing cattle and sheep, so these months of spring every year are the easiest season for the defense of the three states around the Great Zhou, and the defenders of the Great Zhou will take advantage of this time to repair the army and step up the construction of city defense, which is also a rare respite in the year.

Mu Hongshang looked forward to the early arrival of spring on the grassland, so that her father, uncle and brothers could relax and rest, and she even thought that maybe the eldest brother or the second brother and the third brother would be able to go home in the spring!

The eldest brother has been married for almost two years, and he has only stayed at home for less than a month, and the second and third brothers should have returned to Beijing last year to marry a wife, but until now, they have not had a chance to come back.

The second and third brothers have been in the north for three years, and she really misses them......

However, no one expected that the disasters seemed endless. The people in the north and the Rongdi people on the grassland finally survived the snowy winter, but in the spring they ushered in a drought that they had not encountered for many years.

From the first month to April, for three whole months, there was not a drop of rain on the grassland, and north of the Shuozhou capital, the Yuncang River, which was originally rolling and rushing, has now dried up into a narrow river, and the original wide riverbed has dried up into hard mud slabs and gravel, cracked into pieces under the sun, and the horses' hooves will crumble into slag.

It didn't rain on this spring day, but it was very windy. The grassland is withered and yellow, and the few small leaves that the trees have grown with difficulty cannot stop the howling wind.

Within three months, the northernmost grassland of the Rongdi grassland had been completely destroyed and turned into a barren desert, and the sand and gravel on the desert were swept away by the strong wind and turned into a terrible sandstorm, which swept the entire grassland and the ten states in the northern part of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

The life of the Rongdi people is extremely difficult, and the life of the Great Zhou people south of the Yuncang River is not easy. After several months of severe drought, all the crops sown in the spring were destroyed, and the people in the north were facing the next round of famine.

In such a situation, Mu Chengxin can only make the same choice as in winter, first for disaster relief, and then talk about the rest.

Mu Chengxin is worried about not only housing, but also people's livelihood, while An Guogong is worried about the changes in the situation that this major drought will bring. In mid-March, he sent an urgent letter to Beijing, in which he described in detail the current situation in the north and carefully analyzed the possible military consequences of a natural disaster.

An Guogong believes that if it does not rain throughout the spring, the Narongdi people may lose most of the cattle and sheep born in the winter, and their survival pressure will be further increased in the future, and such a huge loss will not be able to recover within a few years.

Under the huge existential pressure, it is very likely that the Rong Kingdom, which hopes to unify Rongdi, will not be able to continue to bear the pressure of Nagongmai peace, and they are likely to give up their intention to continue the civil war, but are very likely to unilaterally tear up the truce agreement, unite with other Rongdi tribes, and attack the Great Zhou.

After all, for the country now, survival is more important, without cattle and sheep, they need pasture and water, as well as food and materials. And the easiest way to get all this is through aggression.

For the Rongdi people, robbery is always the fastest way to get supplies. For the Rong people, going to war now is a good choice to deal with the current situation. If they can loot abundant supplies from the Great Zhou and survive this natural disaster, they will be able to realize their dream of unifying the grassland in the future.

Under such circumstances, An Guogong proposed in his recital that the northern border needed to increase troops again, at least to make up for the losses lost in the last year as soon as possible, and if possible, he hoped that the emperor could mobilize an additional 50,000 troops to make up for the northern border. He also urgently needed to replenish 30,000 war horses, a number of ordnance, and a large amount of military rations and military supplies.

Everything that An Guogong asked for was listed as a long document, attached to the song, and was sent to the capital together, and arrived with his song, as well as the song of Mu Chengxin, the envoy of the northern border, urging the disaster relief money and food, as well as the official letter sent to the Ministry of Industry to report the progress of the project by the officials of the Ministry of Industry who supervised the construction of the city defense in the north, as well as the list of materials that needed to be supplemented.

After An Guogong's performance was urgently sent to the capital, it caused a shock in the government and the opposition. Some courtiers thought he was alarmist, and his purpose was to blindly expand the military power in the north despite the pressure of the national treasury.

The other part of the courtiers felt that An Guogong's analysis was quite reasonable, but even if they felt that An Guogong was reasonable, many courtiers did not openly support An Guogong's request for more troops.

The reason is very simple, the northern border has been plagued by natural disasters for two consecutive seasons, and disaster relief alone is already under great pressure, and raising more troops at this time is tantamount to putting more pressure on the country's finances.

For the sake of this letter, the courtiers had a fierce debate in the court and the central government for several days, but the important ministers in the court and the central government were still calm one by one, and they had not yet come up with a clear attitude.

What people didn't expect was that Zheng Ying, the king of letters, who has always been calm, seemed more radical this time, and he was the first to show a clear attitude. On the second day after An Guogong's performance was sent to the capital, Zheng Ying had already made a clear statement at the time of the court discussion, supporting An Guogong's proposal to increase troops.

Zheng Ying's clear position this time also caused an uproar in the government and the opposition, Zheng Jin felt very surprised, but he, like Zheng Ying, knew very well that the emperor actually wanted to support An Guogong to increase his troops, but he had no choice but to have too much resistance from the DPRK and China, as well as continuous disaster relief, and the treasury was under great pressure.

At first, Zheng Jin suspected that Zheng Ying's clear attitude this time was to cater to the emperor's thoughts, but he was still not sure what Zheng Ying thought. After all, Zheng Ying's position is so radical this time, although she flatters the emperor, she is also easy to provoke criticism from courtiers.

If you want to compete for the crown prince, it is not enough to please the emperor. This is a state affair, and the opinions of the courtiers are also very important, Zheng Jin thinks about it and feels that Zheng Ying's actions this time are a bit more than worth the losses, which makes it difficult for him to understand. However, based on his cautious habits all along, Zheng Jin decided to hold his troops first and take a closer look.