After arriving in Chang'an, Zeng Hua immediately threw himself into the tense "drought relief work", and in February, when the spring rain was continuous, there was only one light rain in the whole month, and there was no rain in the whole March. This unusual weather, coupled with the lack of snow in winter, has shown everyone that a major drought will invade the land of Guanlong.

After Zeng Hua received the report, he admired Wang Meng and others for their "clever calculations" like a surging river. It seems that a few talents under his command are still very good, and this abnormal weather comes out with a "finger pinch". However, Zeng Hua knew that this was calculated by people who read a lot and used the accumulated climate knowledge to deduce, and it had nothing to do with the half-immortals.

The drought was a remarkable event and a great disaster at the time. Years after years of natural disasters can even bring down a dynasty or regime. Therefore, Beifu, which has already seen that there will be a year of great drought, has begun to prepare early. Taking advantage of the early spring when the snow melts, the river water that is relatively good everywhere is discharged into the fields through the ditches in various places, and the northern government even ordered to concentrate the government soldiers and the Zhenbei army, recruit a large number of people, dig ponds everywhere, and introduce river water to store.

At this time, the water conservancy projects that took several years and huge manpower and material resources to repair in Beifu showed great effects. At the beginning of spring, Jingshui, Weishui, and river water, which are replenished with a large amount of melted snow water, are introduced into the densely packed puddles and ponds by dense canals and ravines, and when the drought begins to be obvious in March, the water level of each river drops significantly, and many tributaries even dry up, these stored water begin to play a huge role.

Under the unified allocation of local governments, they first have good fields and then barren fields. Drain water for irrigation. Moreover, under the organization of the government and the local government, the local people unified spring ploughing in the order of water release. They were told that every household would have the opportunity to receive water for irrigation, and that when the land was divided, everyone was a "fat and thin match" between fertile and barren fields, so everyone had both opportunities and losses. The most important thing is that the government has told the people of Beifu that this year's drought will definitely activate the tax system in disaster years. Fields that fail to harvest due to lack of water are not subject to taxes. There will also be a relief. It's just that the number won't be huge.

In addition to the Xianyang factory, even the Nanzheng, Yang and other factories are also desperately rushing to make waterwheels and other drought-fighting equipment, first through the Yongliang plank road to the Sanfu land, and then through the Guanlong transportation network extending in all directions, to improve the local drought resistance, as far as possible to grab more fields.

The newspapers are also vigorously publicizing the "fight against drought," and many "advanced deeds" and "advanced figures" who have emerged in the current drought fight have appeared on the front pages of the newspapers. And the "propaganda personnel" of the Guanfeng Interview Department even went to the county and township day and night, and their saliva flew straight away. As Zeng Hua, who grew up under the red flag, this propaganda method is still understood. Of course, he also knew that many things would have a negative effect if they were overused, so Zeng Hua rarely launched such an overwhelming propaganda offensive, and only used it in such a major event.

Under this novel model in Beifu, the people of Beifu generally do not have the feeling that the sky is falling in a natural disaster before, because the Beifu officials have given the people the greatest confidence in both public opinion and practical actions. In fact, in many cases, natural disasters are not as destructive as man-made disasters. In addition, in the past few years, Beifu presented to the people all promises. The most important face is the face of practical effect, so when Beifu issues a call and mobilization, the people will believe and respond. Even the "distant check" that was paid in the disaster year later, the people were convinced. This made many officials in Beifu deeply realize that Zeng Hua had always been shouting - the government and businessmen, the biggest capital is a letter.

Since February, Beifu has been engaged in a fiery struggle against disasters, and not only have all the people in Guanlong and Guanlong Prefectures been mobilized, but also those who can be dispatched by the northern army and government soldiers in various prefectures and towns have also been transferred to support the peasants in fighting the disaster. Therefore, when Huan Wen was waiting for Zeng Hua to realize the promise of Huan Chong's joint dispatch of troops and destroy Zhou Guodi in one fell swoop, he waited for Zeng Hua's notice to suspend the use of troops on the grounds of the catastrophe in Beifu, which made Huan Wen very depressed for a long time.

But there is no way, disaster resistance was a major event at that time, no one dared to be sloppy, no matter whether Huan Wen could understand it or not, he had to admit this fact, at least in the ten years of Yonghe, Beifu would not send a single soldier from Hangu Pass.

Huan Wen gathered 50,000 soldiers and horses in Jingxiang, and made contact with Fu Xiong of Zhou in Rongyang City, and found that Zhou Guo had an attitude of "rabbits are in a hurry and bites", and without the containment of the East Road Wang Division, they can do their best to fight with Huan Wen.

Huan Wen hesitated for more than a month under Rongyang City, and finally retreated to Luoyang stupidly. After leaving Guangwei general Wang Ji to lead more than 10,000 soldiers and horses to stay in Heluo, he led the army to slowly retreat to Jingxiang.

And because of the catastrophe, Zeng Hua's concubine plan was also postponed. In April, Hu Lu and Dou Lin's sister Dou Wei and Ulolanto's sister Uluo Lanyun were sent to Chang'an along with a rich dowry, but it was the most critical time to fight the drought, how could Zeng Hua do such a "human and godly anger" thing? So it was postponed, anyway, the Murong Yun of the Murong family has not been delivered yet, and it can save a lot of things by waiting to do it together.

After the great drought, there was a locust plague, which was almost a law of "every shot and every hit" in ancient times. When there were only two light rains in Guanlong until April, which could only be regarded as "sneezing", countless locusts began to "assemble" in Anding County, Beidi County and other places, preparing to sweep towards the neighboring counties of Fufeng County and Tianshui County. After receiving the emergency from the relevant counties and counties, Zeng Hua immediately ordered that on the one hand, he began to continue to mobilize the people to exterminate the locusts, and on the other hand, he ordered the assembly of "duck soldiers and chicken soldiers" to form a "locust eating army" to go to the front line to fight the locusts.

By mid-May, Beifu had successively mobilized hundreds of thousands of chickens and ducks to carry out a "great depth" sweep of the locusts area, and finally suppressed the locust plague that might cause a catastrophe.

During the three-month struggle to combat the drought and control the locusts, what made Zeng Hua most anxious was that the "old school celebrities" took the opportunity to spread rumors and make trouble. These people talked about man-made disasters with natural disasters, and pointed the finger at the "chaotic government" and "poor soldiers" of Beifu and Zeng Hua, claiming that it was in this way that God would descend on Guan Long. The excuse of these celebrities is very "powerful", that is, even a country like Zhou has not been subjected to natural disasters, and only the drought and locust plague in Guanlongdi, Beifu are menacing. This already speaks volumes about the providence to punish "certain people"! Of course, the drought in Hedong is only mild, and the disastrous consequences are far worse than those in Beifu, but these are automatically filtered by the old school celebrities. They only consider the scale of natural disasters, that is the representative of heaven's will, as for the government's inability to fight disasters, how many people to save from disasters is not within the scope of their consideration for the time being.

This rumor was even more menacing than a natural disaster, which made Zeng Hua and the people of Beifu very angry and aggrieved. These old-school celebrities shouted Providence all day long, declaring that as long as they sincerely "mended" in the face of drought and locust plagues, they could be forgiven by Providence. The catastrophe will disappear automatically. And the influence of their words on the people is not small. Many people have been deceived in this way. For a while, many local officials and people were panicked!

But fortunately, all the local public opinion institutions are in the hands of Beifu and Zeng Hua, otherwise the consequences are really unimaginable. Under Zeng Hua's instructions, in addition to publishing how the Beifu was effectively organized and how it led the people to achieve a great victory in fighting drought and controlling locusts, the rest of the pages basically became special issues of Hao Long, Luo You, and other new school pens

These new-school celebrities are no worse in learning than the old-school celebrities, and their arguments are no worse than theirs. In the writings of these people, great disasters have occurred in all dynasties. It is only the wise who lead the people to prevent disasters, and the incompetent shirk their responsibilities. Even the article directly and unceremoniously pointed out that these old-school celebrities disregard the lives of the people and vainly talk about the will of heaven is a kind of shirking responsibility and a real man-made disaster. Those who are officials put the people first, those who are obedient enrich their people, and those who are against them help their people. It's better to send a few more "half-immortals" to pray to the sky.

Hearing "new school" is so strong. The old school celebrities were so demoralized that they found that they did not refute it, that is, academic newspapers such as the "Ti Xuedi Bao", which had been more tolerant of them in the past, also refused to publish their articles on the pretext of issuing disaster relief directives.

This is when they recognize the power of public opinion. Under the citation of the major newspapers and the activities of the personnel of the Guanfeng Interview Bureau, the old school of celebrity and scholar thinking did not knock down the prestige of Beifudi, at least the people in Guanlong were carrying out all the work of fighting disasters and controlling locusts under the command and organization of officials at all levels.

But the old school of celebrities did not back down, they continued to adhere to their beliefs, and through various channels to promote their own "heavenly punishment theory". Due to the inertia of the previous thinking, these old school celebrities who had taken advantage of the "Heavenly Principles" were inferior in their propaganda, but the effect was still not superior, and they were still able to play a tug-of-war with the "new school" that had the advantage, which made Zeng Hua feel afraid for a while, if he had not been a good comrade who had been deeply educated and realized the power of public opinion, his career might have been ruined or regressed several years in this natural disaster.

In May, although a series of losses were experienced, the drought and locust plague were finally suppressed in Beifu, especially after Di Bao truthfully reported the heavy losses caused by the drought in Kanto, which was much smaller than Guanlong, after Di Bao "had ulterior motives", many people in Beifu began to realize that they were lucky to escape the catastrophe in this great drought, and they escaped it under the leadership of the government. Regardless of whether it was directly managed by the Jiangzuo court or the Zhou and Wei states, there would be no such means to fight drought and control locusts, and there would be no such results. Only comparison will make the people realize what is right and what is wrong.

By this time, Zeng Hua also knew that the people's hearts were available, and he also wanted to deal a blow to the old faction to the greatest extent, so that their influence on Beifu would be minimized. So Zeng Hua informed the Holy Church Archbishopric that it was time to start the operation.

In May, the Holy Church began to declare that this disaster was not a natural disaster, nor was it God's punishment for Beifu, but God's warning to the people who did not believe in Him as the Lord. But God did not kill them all, and left a way for the people to live, as exemplified by the effective disaster relief measures in Beifu.

In order to confirm the propaganda of the Holy Religion, Zeng Hua, the head of Beifu, claimed that he had received God's instructions last year, which foreshadowed the drought and locust plague next year, and also provided measures on how to avoid them. Zeng Hua also conveyed a cruel sentence left by God: "Those who do not believe in others will be warned!" ”

As a result, Beifu was shocked. After several years of hard work, one-third of the people in Beifu believe in holy religions. In this catastrophe, with their belief in God and the belief that God would not abandon his people, and with the assistance of the Church, these parishioners were the most determined group of people in the anti-drought and locust control campaign in Beifu, and they were the most thorough in carrying out the instructions, so the losses of these parishioners could be said to be minimal compared to those who were not willing or half-convinced. In this contrast, the propaganda of the Holy Religion has been greatly recognized.

What began to be a battle of public opinion over the "old and new ideas" turned out to be a religious campaign. In the face of the terrible energy of religion, the "old school" celebrities found that their "doctrine of heavenly punishment" began to lose its market in front of a people who had been "conquered" by God's miracles. After a life-and-death catastrophe, the people preferred to believe in a more tangible God than in a providence that sounded very profound.

Secular thought finally triumphed over the previously invincible mainstream thought, and Zeng Hua's purpose of using religion to change people's minds and customs finally began to be a fruitful first step.

By June, the belated summer rains had finally alleviated the drought in the Guanlong region, and the people of Beifu had learned from the newspapers and propagandists that they had finally won a great victory. At least this year, Beifu will not have no crops, and some wheat can be harvested in the autumn, plus the savings of previous years, there will be no famine this year. A battle without real swords and guns was finally over, but Zeng Hua and the officials of Beifu felt more tired than a battle of Weichang or a battle of Mobei.

In this battle, the greatest profit should be the Holy Sect. It cooperated with the Beifu government from the early days, and then began to jump out in the later period, it not only eliminated the threat of the old school of celebrities, but also made millions of people who were originally skeptical throw into his arms, making its power suddenly double in the tenth year of Yonghe. However, this directly caused Zeng Hua to start the first major reform of the church under the pretext of adapting to expansion.

The second most profitable was the Beifu Guanfu, whose prestige among the people of Beifu reached a new peak. Through the "explanation and analysis" of the Di Bao and the propagandists in various places on the campaign to fight drought and control locusts, not only the people of Beifu, but also the people of the world, especially the people of Jiangbei, realized that the "people-oriented" put forward when Beifu was established was not an empty word, but a real action.

Of course, the worst losers were the old school of celebrities, and a natural disaster that could have allowed them to get rid of their disadvantages and return to the mainstream inexplicably became their death knell. The "theory of heavenly punishment" they shouted was greatly exaggerated by the propaganda department of Beifu and turned into a manifestation of schadenfreude, which made many people who "recovered from the catastrophe" feel extremely angry after "coming back to their senses." The direct consequence of this is the defeat of the old school of celebrities and celebrities.

Except for a few celebrities who insisted on their own opinions, many celebrities of the old school retreated to Jiangzuo or lived in seclusion in Beifu with great melancholy. However, Beifu did not embarrass them under Zeng Hua's strict orders, and they were not deprived of their positions as teachers in various university halls. Zeng Hua published an article in the "Wuchang Mansion Daily" that shocked the people of the world: "I oppose your opinion, and I will fight against it, but I will not eliminate you physically." Because if I do that, I'm acknowledging that you're right and I'm wrong. ”

After this campaign, both the old and the new factions realized the power of public opinion. This "battle" is not that Beifu has always held the tool of public opinion, and it is estimated that even if it joins forces with the church, it will be difficult to easily defeat the old school celebrities. As a result, whether it is the officials or the people of Beifu, or the army of the Chamber of Commerce, they have become very interested in the Di Bao, and they have also begun to pay attention to the Di Bao in their hands or the Di Bao that they can see.

At the end of June, after the end of the war, Zeng Hua officially announced that the old school newspaper "Xuanxue Di Bao" had finally been approved three years after the declaration, and these old Jiangzuo schools (metaphysical schools) that preached "life and death, change" and "worship" and "independence" finally had their own palace newspapers in Beifu.