The spring of the third year of Longqing is a bad year for the people of Shanxi. Why?

Because God doesn't give everyone good weather. Since last winter, the weather in Shanxi Province has not been very good.

It rained for nearly 20 days in the early winter, which is a rare spectacle in the west of the mountain in the past 100 years. Although Shanxi is not as water-scarce as Shaanxi, Gansu and Suzhou, it rarely rains heavily in winter.

There are heavy rains during the two major floods of the year, and there is very little rain in other seasons. However, the rain in the early winter of Longqing's second year was not only strange, but also powerful.

The continuous rain made the local people seem to have returned to the time of Huangmeitian. After more than 20 days, the rain finally stopped, and everyone didn't have time to breathe a sigh of relief, and it began to snow again.

In just two days, the temperature dropped by nearly 15 degrees, which means that the temperature of early autumn has changed from the weather of severe winter.

This year, everyone was not fully prepared, some people did not have time to clean up their crops, some did not pay enough attention to the reserve of grain, and even more did not have time to prepare winter supplies.

Rheumatism, skin diseases, geriatric diseases, and so on erupted en masse as if they had been promised. Some ordinary people didn't even have time to see the doctor, and they fell down one by one.

The Shanxi government responded quickly enough and immediately organized doctors and officials to go to the countryside. At the same time as medicines, emergency supplies are also distributed in order to stabilize everyone's situation.

Of course, there is also corruption and embezzlement, and for this reason, the government has also found several lawbreakers who have reacted violently, or confiscated their property, or dismissed from office, or sent to prison, and one official was beheaded.

Although everyone worked together, because of this winter, many people still died in Shanxi. Almost every village has new graves, and in some villages almost a third of the population has died.

In that year, Shanxi's report to the central court was supplemented by heavy rains and snowfall, which caused millions of people in Shanxi's province to be affected, more than 100,000 people had varying degrees of living difficulties, nearly 30,000 people fell ill, and thousands died.

In fact, the Shanxi government concealed the facts, and not only did they not exaggerate, but also falsely reported the facts. According to their internal statistics, nearly 100,000 people fell ill, nearly 20,000 died because of improper treatment, and some people died without treatment.

In order to avoid the court's criticism, and even more so to avoid responsibility, the government deceived the court and the emperor.

As the patrol and imperial history of the local officials in the western part of the mountain, it is not that it is not clear, nor is it that they were all bought by the local officials, but they got hints from their superiors, so they did not tell the truth.

Why? Because of one person, he is the second assistant of the imperial cabinet Gao Gong. Gao Gongyuan was a native of Shanxi and the teacher of Emperor Longqing, who had just ascended the throne.

Although Emperor Longqing's nominal Taifu is the first assistant of the cabinet, Xu Jie, everyone knows that the person that Emperor Longqing believes in the most is Gao Gong, the emperor's real teacher.

Gao Gong's temper is notoriously bad, not only a violent temper, but also a person who hits the south wall and does not look back.

When Jiajing Emperor Zhu Houxi was alive, he gave Gao Gong a nickname

"Tough donkey". Since the fall of Yan Song, the first assistant of the cabinet, Xu Jie, has become the first assistant, and the contradiction between Gao Gong and Xu Jie.

Although they are all from Qingliu and are righteous people who oppose the corrupt officials led by Yan Song, there is a big difference between the positions of Gao Gong and Xu Jie.

Xu Jie thought that he could only fight the enemy head-on after he strengthened himself, so he endured under Yan Song for nearly ten years.

Gao Gong is a bit of a young man's impulse, he always feels that a spark can also start a prairie fire. As long as you have an upright heart and the courage not to be afraid of death, there will always be a time for success.

But when Xu Jie became the first assistant, Gao Gong really felt the importance of strength. In order to succeed smoothly and become the next first assistant, in order to become a generation of first assistants who can retire with his whole body, Gao Gong also learned from Xu Jie and began to control his own forces.

Shan*xi is Gao Gong's hometown, and the governor of Shan*xi and the political envoy are Gao Gong's disciples, and of course they have also become Gao Gong's base.

The reason why the imperial history did not break this truth was because their superior was Gao Gong. In order to cultivate his own people, but also to protect his own people, Gao Gong strangled all the news that was unfavorable to him in the initial stage.

But no one expected that something would happen again after the harsh winter. From the first month to the end of March and the beginning of April, it didn't rain at all.

Although wheat is grown in the west of the mountain, which does not need as much water as rice in the south, it is also a big problem not to rain.

I want it to not rain when it rains, and I don't want it to rain but also snow when it rains.

Such a large-scale drought is extremely rare in Shanxi in recent years. Some ordinary people who rely on farming for a living are destined to have a hard time this year.

However, Shanxi is not another province, and although the drought has affected some people, there is no large-scale chaos for the whole territory.

Because of the prudence of Shanxi people, but also because of the life attitude of Shanxi people, but also because of the lifestyle of Shanxi people.

Ever since there are Shan*Xiren, a large number of comments follow Shan*Xiren, what

"Stingy",

"Knock on the door",

"Will live",

"Budget-conscious" and so on. But after the Song Dynasty, the Shanxi people had another identity, which was talked about by everyone in later generations

"Jin Shang". Shanxi*xi belonged to the Jin Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, so the people of Shanxi*xi will always say that they are Jin people.

"Jin merchants" are the originators of ancient Chinese merchants, and they are also the turning point of businessmen to real merchants.

"Jin Shang",

"Hui Merchants",

"Dian merchants" and

"Cantonese businessmen" are the four major merchant gangs,

"Jin Shang" has the longest history, the largest history, and the greatest influence. The power spread all over the country, and even all over the country at that time, there was a saying at that time

"No promotion is not a business".

"Hui businessmen" is business, wherever they go, there is

The territory of the "Hui merchants".

The "Yunnan merchants" are the weakest of the four major merchant gangs, but they have become the most potential among the four major merchant gangs because of the ancient tea horse road, copper mines, pharmaceutical raw materials, etc.

But later, because of the invasion of the French and British during the Qing government, the Shang gang was directly destroyed.

The "Cantonese merchants" were merchants who sold seafood and precious sea pearls. Later, because of the opening of the sea ban, the Westerners brought their country's native products to Guangdong.

But they are not Chinese after all, and they do not understand and will not do business with Chinese. Therefore, the local Guangdong merchants bought their goods at wholesale prices and then sold them in all regions of the country.

Other words

"Cantonese merchants" are middlemen or distributors of foreign goods. But during the Longqing period, except

In addition to the "Jin merchants", the other three merchant gangs have not yet become a climate. In other words, the Shanxi people control nearly half of the country's trade routes and economy.

Compared to the business opportunities they control, some of the local harvests in Shanxi*xi are nothing. According to the habits of Shanxi people, in the year of good harvest, there are more people who farm at home, and in the year of bad harvest, there are more people who go out to do business.

A bad harvest in one place does not mean that a bad harvest elsewhere is not good. The big deal is that in the process of doing business, buying a little more food from other places to go home not only pays the taxes required by the imperial court, but also prepares more winter supplies for the family.

After last year's harsh winter, the people of Shanxi have strengthened their preparations for winter, and every household has decided to prepare for the change of seasons in advance.

Although the people of Shanxi are not short of money, and although the people of Shanxi do not rely on the sky for food, the drought still makes everyone unhappy.

In particular, some old farmers who live by farming the land are accustomed to living by the weather, and they will always complain when they encounter bad weather.

The old people love to nag, and the young people are easy to get angry, so there are more fights and brawls.

Some people can't control their hands and feet, not only love to fight, but also easily lose control of their strength, which will lead to vicious incidents.

No, there is another group of ordinary people from Pingyao County. Almost all of them had injuries of varying degrees, but none of them were too serious, at least they could all walk to the county government on their own.

But they were all very excited, and they were clearly divided into two factions, blaming each other for not being the other. Under everyone's emotion, there is a great possibility of another fight in the county office.

However, the people of the county government did not seem to be surprised, not only did not stop it, but also did not deal with it.