Just as the undercurrent was surging in the south, the sky in the north was already cloudy.

In this agricultural era, the rise and fall of a feudal dynasty not only depends on the merits of human rule, but also is actually related to God.

The ancient kingdom of Loulan was also very prosperous in history, but due to the climate, it encountered countless predicted plagues, and finally the entire ancient kingdom was reduced to ruins under the desert.

This is true not only for China, but also for civilizations around the world.

Easter Island, for example, is the world's most remote island more than 3,000 kilometers west of South America, with a population of nearly 20,000 at one time.

With less food and fresh water on the island, they eventually became a "miserable and strange land" due to the infighting of their people and the lack of food from the English explorers.

Although the Chinese civilization relied on the Yellow River Valley, it also suffered from various disasters, which also caused the feudal rulers to respect the heavens from ancient times to the present.

The first disaster in the fifth year of Hongzhi came as scheduled.

"The locusts are really coming again!"

"This thing really can't be killed!"

"Woo...... I haven't had my harvest this year! ”

"The old decay couldn't kill the locusts earlier, but some people didn't listen to persuasion!"

……

In the face of the dense influx of locusts, the crops that had just formed ears became their rations, and the green crops seemed to have become bare in the blink of an eye.

For people who rely on the harvest to feed their families, even if there is no harvest in just one season, it will be a fatal blow to their family.

Now seeing the locust plague, some people have already knelt on the stalks, and some of the gentry who boast of being superior in learning have taken the opportunity to criticize the imperial court's measures to control locusts last year.

"There is a locust plague in Shandong!"

As was the case last year, the locust plague was first found in Shandong, and Shandong officials immediately reported the situation to the imperial court.

The situation is never transferred by human will, and although the imperial court has done a lot of work to prevent locusts, the time has finally come.

The locust plague in Shandong has made a comeback, and dense locust swarms have swept across Shandong, and the persistence of the locust plague seems to have been strongly confirmed.

"There is a reward for killing locusts!"

"Kill this county, this county must keep the black yarn hat!"

"We must not let a single locust fly out of our Yanzhou Mansion!"

……

Although it was impossible to curb the resurgence of locusts, the imperial court's locust prevention and control system had already been handed down to the localities, and locust eradication operations were in full swing in various places.

Because of the accountability mechanism, local officials have chosen to take action.

Although the plague locusts are not edible, burying these locusts in the ground is a good natural fertilizer, not to mention that the imperial court will reward them.

It is precisely because of this that although the locusts swept the entire Shandong region with lightning speed, all prefectures and counties in Shandong organized locust extermination brigades one after another.

"Did you find out?"

"Don't sell it, what did you find?"

"The extermination of locusts in the imperial court is not useless, at least the scale of this locust has become significantly smaller!"

……

In the face of this sudden locust plague, some elderly people looked at the crops that had been gnawed to some of their homes, and they slowly saw a little way.

Although the imperial court failed to prevent the resurgence of the locust plague, a large number of advance layouts still received good results. As a result of last year's large-scale killing, and this year's imperial court's accountability mechanism for local officials, the scale of the locusts has become significantly smaller.

The most intuitive reflection is in their own crops, in the past, locust plagues appeared that there was no grass, cattle and sheep were bald, but now the crops are still left.

"Let's be a saint tomorrow!"

Although only 23 out of 10 crops remained, it undoubtedly gave them some hope and made them realize how wise they are today.

It is worth mentioning that when the current emperor was carrying out the locust extermination plan, the scholars led by the Confucian family clearly opposed it, and even obstructed it.

In particular, the hundreds of thousands of acres of fertile land owned by the Confucian Mansion did not follow the imperial court's order to exterminate locusts, and still implemented the theory of "you can't fight, the more you fight, the more you fight".

It's just that now they have actively achieved good results in exterminating locusts, and the theory of "you can't fight, you will fight more" cannot be established, and it also proves that the current approach of the imperial court is correct.

Although it is impossible to exterminate all the locusts in a single prefecture, if everyone joins forces, it is possible to slowly consume all the locusts.

In particular, the imperial court advocated large-scale duck breeding this year, and the ducks ate both the adults and the larvae of the locusts, and the stomach was swollen and swollen, but it made great achievements in the extermination of locusts.

As for crops, since the imperial court advocated the cultivation of cotton in places such as Beizhili and Shandong, these locusts did not cause harm to cotton, and naturally did not affect the cotton harvest.

Of course, the grain harvest will inevitably be negatively affected, and the reduction in grain production in the north is an established fact.

The Ming court had already been mentally prepared for this, not to mention the supply of grain and Korean rice from the south, and its own grain reserves were sufficient.

Whether it is Shandong or the North Zhili region, in fact, there will be no panic because of food, and now the imperial court has enough grain for disaster relief and to suppress the price of rice.

"The locust plague has come to our north Zhili!"

"Haha...... All I grow is cotton! ”

"My ducks have been eating happily these days!"

……

Although the locust plague still spread from Shandong to the Beizhili region, the scale of the locust plague is obviously not comparable with last year, and the work of exterminating locusts is in full swing.

Because they already had experience in organizing locust extermination in advance, most of the people planted cotton and raised ducks, so the locusts did not cause much damage when they came to the northern area of Beizhili.

On the contrary, a large number of locusts have become the food for the ducks, and some active duck farmers even ask around where the locusts are, and then drive the flocks of ducks over to feast.

After all these years of clean government proposals, the government of Beizhili appeared to be very clean, so the reward mechanism was very in place, and it greatly stimulated the enthusiasm of the people to exterminate locusts.

In the past, locust plagues not only swept most of the northern regions, but also poisoned Shanxi and other regions from Beizhili, but this time even the northern part of Beizhili could not come out.

By the time the time the time had crept into mid-April, the plague had calmed down.

"The way of the imperial court is really feasible!"

"If we didn't believe in our ancestors, we wouldn't have suffered so much over the years!"

"My neighbor borrowed a loan shark because of the locust plague, and finally ruined his family!"

……

After seeing the effectiveness of the imperial court's extermination of locusts, the local people also completely dispelled their suspicions about the imperial court's methods of exterminating locusts, and their hearts were more emotional.

Everyone in the world knows that usury harms people, and it also warns everyone not to borrow usury.

As everyone knows, living in such an era of great natural disasters, just a very ordinary natural disaster can only be exchanged for a respite through usury.

Fortunately, they have now met the Holy Son of Heaven, Hongji, if the people who have suffered from the locust plague can be rescued by the imperial court, and the people who have not suffered from the locust plague can continue to live.

"Fortunately, we all planted cotton this year!"

Zhao Laosi was complacent about his foresight, although he didn't understand why the locusts didn't eat cotton, but his family's harvest was saved.

As for his youngest son's marriage, it seems that it has already been settled.

In April, the capital is full of flowers, and the special business atmosphere is becoming stronger and stronger.

West Garden, the Palace of Nourishing the Heart.

Zhu Youzhu sat on the dragon chair and was seriously dealing with the recitals from the two capitals and thirteen provinces.

His body is warm, and now he has returned to the good life of the hooked fishman. Every day, he handles government affairs in the Yangxin Palace, goes to Tingchao Pavilion at dusk to fish alone in the 800 acres of water, and finally returns to the Forbidden City to enjoy the nightlife.

Originally, the life of the emperor was very good, but the problems he faced made people feel angry.

There are two main sources of anger: one is Jiangnan, the most prosperous part of the Ming Dynasty, and the other is Toei, Japan, which is located on the coast of the East China Sea.

The problem of Jiangnan is naturally the problem of the gentry group, and this extremely self-interested group is becoming more and more like a clown.

Obviously, he blocked the imperial decree for his own interests, but he had to find all kinds of excuses to put gold on his face, but in turn he spread rumors that there were villains in the court, so he almost raised the flag "Qingjun side".

Zhu Youzhi knew that this vested group only hoped that the court would be an emperor who ruled by the arch, and the emperor he was loyal to was also the "virtuous monarch" they hoped for, not an emperor like himself who was bent on leading China to a strong country.

They keep saying that they are eager for a prosperous era, I am afraid that it is just Ye Gong Haolong, or their prosperous era is the prosperous age of scholars and doctors. They have endless glory and wealth, and the people at the bottom want to make them cattle and horses.

It's just that his own approach has indeed changed history, and it has also ushered in unprecedented challenges.

As a result of his own abolition of the silver standard and the introduction of a new currency, this move touched the fundamental interests of the entire Jiangnan gentry group, causing them to condense into a rope and oppose the imperial court.

Like the two Qinchage elders who were sent to govern Jiangnan, one was injured by a hidden arrow, and the other was poisoned and almost died.

Originally, he regretted why Chongzhen didn't move south, but after seeing the true face of the Jiangnan gentry group, he knew that Chongzhen's move to the south was useless.

They can enjoy the peace that the court gives them, but if they need to support the court with their own money, it is simply a dream.

The abolition of the silver standard by the imperial court this time is destined to be a long way to go, and the biggest obstacle is the Jiangnan gentry group who control most of the wealth of society.

The problem on the Japanese side is much simpler, and the Ouchi family chose to break with the Ming Dynasty.

The Governor of the East China Sea, Yamen, was not in a hurry to attack the Ouchi family, but relied on the strong maritime power of the Governor's Office of the East China Sea to directly block the Guanmen Strait.

Although it was not possible to completely block the exchange of information between the Ouchi family, it prevented the exchange of resources between Kyushu and Honshu.

Originally, it only stopped the Ouchi family, but now it has completely blocked the passage of all daimyo ships, and Kyushu Island has completely turned into an isolated island.

With the plan of the Governor's Office of the East China Sea, this time they will directly cut off the territorial connection between the two islands of the Ouchi family, and they will definitely obediently resubmit to the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that there is a problem with this plan somewhere, even if it has been blocked for more than two months, and the current Da Nei family still has no sign of surrendering to the Ming Dynasty.

On the contrary, the Ming Dynasty's blockade of the Guanshan Strait aroused the anger of some Japanese daimyos, which led to the Ming Dynasty's maritime trade being affected to a certain extent.

"Your Majesty, this is the note just sent, please approve it!" Liu Jin brought a batch of the latest suspensions, and said softly in a regular manner.

Zhu Youzhu opened the top recital and found that it was a recital from Nan Zhili, and he couldn't help but smile bitterly when he saw that it was another recital to impeach Song Cheng.

Since Song Cheng arrived, especially during the period of sitting in Suzhou Mansion, it can be said that there has been a lot of trouble in the city.

Song Cheng chose to give up following Wang Yue's latent approach, but gave full play to his professional strengths, dealing with unfair cases and solving bloody cases.

In the past month alone, the evil gentry who died under Song Cheng's knife have reached double digits, which has made the entire official gentry group in Jiangnan panic.

The Jiangnan gentry group naturally wanted to fight back at the first time, but did not choose to use the means of indiscriminate, but was ready to pull out Ningbo Cheng's pigtails and kill them.

After nearly a month of hard work, he even raised the bribery chips again and again, but he found that Song Cheng was indeed a real clean official, and he was not moved at all.

Although they have been staring at Song Cheng with a microscope, Song Cheng has been as honest as water since he took office, not to mention how much silver taels he was greedy, and he also used his own money to paste it out.

Even if Song Cheng has no flaws, they don't intend to give up.

Didn't you go straight to the Qinglou in the first place? Then give you a hat of a "prostitute". Didn't you help the people to redress their grievances? Then you will be given a hat of "sheltering traitors". Aren't you striking at the gentry? Then give you a hat of "fish and meat gentry".

"The monarch and the minister are one, and the world will be governed. Song and scholars ruled the world together, and only then did Renzong rule. Now the south of the Yangtze River is peaceful, the people are happy to work, but Song Cheng vainly cares about the early omen of the prosperous era of Hongzhi, and the traitors are heavy and the gentry are light, so that the local people are not at peace, and the villagers are not peaceful...... More than 300 people, including Li An, a virtuous gentleman in Suzhou, asked His Majesty to remove Song Cheng from his post and return Songjiang to peace, and the squires and people of Songjiang will remember His Majesty and the sage! ”

To some extent, this note was a compromise with Zhu Youji, who only hoped that Zhu Youzhu would transfer Song Cheng away, so that the more than 300 squires of their Songjiang Mansion would support Hongzhi as the emperor.

The corners of Zhu Youji's mouth rose slightly, and he instructed lightly: "Submit it to the cabinet vote!" Reward not appreciate, praise instead of praise, bring this sentence to the past! ”

For the gentry in Jiangnan, the best thing to do is not to send troops down to suppress them strongly, but to give them a little hope, and then slowly clean up one by one.

As for Song Cheng, it is definitely impossible for him to be dismissed because of their impeachment, but he will still hand it over to Song Cheng to wash the blood of this smoky Jiangnan.

"Yes!" Liu Jin didn't understand Zhu Youji's idea, but he still behaved properly.

"Traitors?"

Zhu Youzhu looked at Liu Jin's back as he left, and couldn't help but show a mocking look on his face.

The more people who do things, the easier it is to give people a handle. But they did not expect that they were short of words, and they did not even have a face, and condemned the people whom they kept saying they wanted to suffer as traitors.

Perhaps, all those who disobey are traitors.

It's just that the good mood doesn't last long, and it just happened to open the note sent by Xu Hong, the prefect of Songjiang.

With the strong support of Song Cheng, he finally completed the rectification work of the Shanghai Bosi, and unexpectedly unexpectedly unraveled the root cause of why the Ouchi family was slow to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

After reading the contents of the recital, Zhu Youzhu gritted his teeth and said: "Order the Governor's Mansion of the East China Sea to immediately seal all merchant ships from Korea to Japan!" (End of chapter)