Perhaps even Shangcang felt that Zhao Xing's idea of sweeping the world was too rebellious, starting from the second year of the Han calendar, the reborn Han Empire began to suffer one blow after another, if it were not for the emperor's courage and prestige far beyond ordinary people, if it were not for the strong ability of the newly appointed officials at all levels of the Han Dynasty, the first western expedition launched by the empire was likely to have to be interrupted or failed because of the inability to succeed.

In the spring and summer of the second year of the Han calendar, there was a severe drought in the northwest region, and there was no harvest in the Hetao and even Guanzhong areas. The empire mobilized two war grain depots in Shuofang and the Western Regions to ensure that no one starved to death in the northwest. Because of the severe drought and the loss of many rivers, Zhao Xing ordered four million laborers in the northwest to eat relief grain, and everyone participated in the action of digging rivers, building water conservancy, and opening mountains for mining. The rest of the old and weak women and children either spin yarn at home, or go to the Central Plains to learn various techniques, in short, the people in the affected areas can not be idle, everyone must have something to do.

In order to support the northwest region, Jingzhou, Wuzhou, Yangzhou, and other major grain-producing prefectures south of the Yangtze River urgently raised 5 million stone of rice, which was first transported to Qingzhou through the Yangtze River, and then sent to Luoyang by the Yellow River, and then sent convoys from Luoyang to various places in the northwest.

In the second year, that is, in the third year of the Han calendar, the drought in the northwest continued, but the grasslands in the north suffered a major snowstorm, and countless cattle and sheep froze to death. The emperor seemed to have anticipated this more complicated and severe situation, and when the winter of the previous year came, he issued instructions to the Yaoxing, Huang Xuan, and Yansheng tribes, asking the people of the three tribes to move south from the far north with cattle and sheep after autumn, so that the people of the three tribes who froze to death were not very serious when they encountered a severe snowstorm that was rare in a century.

The more people of the three ethnic groups come south, the more relief they can quickly receive, especially some emergency rescue points built along the road, which usually do not work well, but when the heavy snow buries the house, it will play an unimaginable effect. These relief sites are stocked with sufficient amounts of coal, salt, medicine, and some grain and grass to help herders cope with sudden disasters.

When the snowstorm arrived, the herders who had migrated south from the far north were blocked by the wind and snow on their way back to the south, and when they were almost in despair, they suddenly remembered the legendary relief point for the victims, so they tried their best to get to the nearest stronghold and survive.

According to the emperor's teachings, human life is the most important thing at any time, and it doesn't matter if cattle and sheep are frozen to death, they can be raised again in the coming year. Even if the breeding cattle and sheep are frozen to death, it doesn't matter, the Dahan Academy of Agricultural Sciences is located in the pastures of western Xinjiang, Bingzhou, Youzhou and Northeast China, and a batch of high-quality livestock will be retained every year.

Although the heavy snowstorm will shrink the fruits of the herdsmen's hard work for a year, it can also freeze most of the germs on the grassland, and as long as they survive, they can get a good harvest for several years in a row. When the heavy snow stopped, the herders who had taken refuge in the relief shelter hurriedly returned to their cattle and sheep pens with salt, and according to their previous experience, they quickly skinned and salted the frozen cattle and sheep and dried them. Although this kind of cured meat is not as easy to sell as live cattle and sheep, the government never refuses to buy it, but it can alleviate a lot of losses for herders.

After the beef and mutton pickled by the herdsmen was put into the official treasury, most of it would be sent to the logistics supply depots of the Western Expeditionary Army, and the rest would appear in the markets of Chang'an, Luoyang, Chenliu, Xuchang and other metropolises, and be bought up by ordinary people everywhere. Nowadays, with the increase in the income of ordinary people, the living standards of the Han people have been improved day by day, and beef and mutton, which was difficult to eat in the past, have now entered the table of ordinary people.

For two years in a row, the emperor personally served as the chairman of the disaster relief committee, guiding the huge machine of the Han Dynasty to survive the drought and snow disasters. However, greater crises and trials followed.

In the third year of the Han calendar, Jizhou, Bingzhou, and Youzhou north of the Yellow River also followed the drought in Guanzhong, and locust plagues also occurred in the entire north. And that's not all, as major floods and a massive malaria outbreak occurred in the Gangnam region, which used to be the main rice producer.

Because of the various disasters that followed, it reminded Zhao Xing of the continuous natural disasters that he encountered shortly after the founding of New China. Zhao Xing comforted himself in his heart, the population of the Han Dynasty is only 60 million, far less than the more than 400 million people in later generations, and the territory of the Han Dynasty has expanded extremely large, and there are always places that have not been affected by disasters that can effectively support the affected places.

After the emperor ordered the garrisons in various places to forcefully suppress the remnants of the gate lords who began to spread rumors and make trouble with the intention of being unfavorable to the empire, he once again used his powerful skills to fight the heavens and the earth, and stubbornly carried through one disaster after another.

The emperor ordered fishing boats from all over the coast to go out to sea on a large scale, whenever the weather and sea conditions permitted. The large fish and small shrimp caught by the fishermen are all pickled and dried, and then transported to the mainland for use as relief supplements. Of course, these fishermen also make a huge profit from this. At that time, the oceans were far more diverse and abundant than in later generations, and although the means of fishing were limited, there was always a harvest as long as you set up nets. At the same time, the emperor also ordered the opening of the war meat depot in the North Sea (Lake Baikal), and thawed all the North Sea fish that the empire had secretly accumulated for more than ten years and transported it to the interior, which was also used as reserve supplementary food.

The Tohoku region, which has been developed to a certain extent, finally played a major role at this time. A steady stream of grain was sent from Liaozhou, Changzhou, Yuzhou and Yanzhou to the banks of the Yellow River and the south of the Yangtze River by land and water. Yizhou, which is in the land of abundance, is not far behind, transporting the newly produced grain to the Jingzhou area through the Yangtze River waterway.

The armies of all walks of life who were fighting in the Western Regions also brought back exciting good news at this time, and the armies of the three routes can now be self-sufficient and feed the war with war. Aside from the fact that expendable combat equipment still needs to be supported by the Empire, there is no need to worry about food and grass. It is said that the fast-moving Northwest Route Army occupied a large granary, and even began to send grain to the Western Regions to feed the empire.

In the case of five consecutive years of disasters within the empire, except for hundreds of thousands of casualties caused by irresistible factors such as floods, snowstorms, and earthquakes, there was no slight starvation death, let alone a terrifying picture of "cannibalism".

When the emperor ascended the throne, he once said to the people of the world that there would be no tragedy of "people eating people" during his tenure, but now it seems that he can really do it. During these five years, Zhao Zhenbang, as the crown prince, often appeared in the most severely affected areas, and on several occasions he was almost unable to return to Luoyang due to mudslides and earthquakes.

As a symbol of the glory of the empire, the royal family not only contributed money and efforts in the process of fighting disasters for five consecutive years, but also sent many princes and princesses to various places to fight disasters with the local people.

In the seventh year of the Han calendar, the empire finally ushered in a good year.

First of all, the Hetao and Guanzhong regions have enjoyed bumper harvests for eight consecutive years, and the harvested grain not only fills the empire's war reserve depots that have been completely emptied, but also sends a large amount of grain to various parts of the Western Regions that began to suffer. Then came the success of the trial planting of high-yielding rice in the south of the Yangtze River, which tripled the grain output in the south of the Yangtze River in one fell swoop.

In addition to these places, the four islands of the Japanese slaves, which had been occupied throughout the territory, were now officially included in the imperial territory and named Yingzhou by Zhao Xing, and the first state pastor was personally served by Zhao Zhenbang, the crown prince of the empire. In order to strengthen the management of Yingzhou, the emperor waved his hand and asked Taihang Academy, Phoenix Academy, and the five major courtyards to send a large number of young and strong graduates to Dongying, vowing to operate the land of Dongying into the empire's back garden and tourist resort.

Zhao Xing did not believe that the future emperor of the empire would be so brainbroken that his own son would want to set up another mountain in a corner of Dongying.

In the future, Zhao Xing planned to write the stipulation that the descendants of the imperial family should serve as the supreme governor of Yingzhou into the "Han Charter", and he did not believe that his children and grandchildren were not capable of guarding the eastern gate for the Han Empire!