The child raised by Zhu Xiang will not be like him after all.

Zhu Xiang had already accepted this fact a long time ago, so when Ying Xiaozheng showed his ruthlessness and calculation, Zhu Xiang took the initiative to avoid it.

He buried his head in the field and let the land grow more food. It's the only thing he can do all the time and not get into conflict with anyone.

At the end of June and the beginning of July, the torrential rain in the Yangtze River basin still came.

Although Zhu Xiang strengthened the river embankment in advance, he could not stop the flood peaks that were higher than one wave.

At this time, the Yangtze River basin had not yet been developed and perfected, and the flood channel prepared by Zhu Xiang in advance preserved the important cities and grain-producing areas in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain.

By mid-July, the floodwaters in the Yangtze River basin had passed, and grain was replanted in various places.

The vicinity of the mouth of the Yangtze River was hit by another typhoon, and even Wucheng was affected by the typhoon, and many people died.

Fortunately, the typhoon hit in a few days, and there was still time to replant.

Nanqin County barely survived the disaster this summer and entered the normal process of summer planting.

The Jianghuai Plain also suffered heavy rainfall, and the Huaishui River swelled, and even Shouchun City was seriously waterlogged.

Ying Xiaozheng secretly sent people to the opposite bank, and when the occasional rain stopped, he used explosives to blow up the north bank of Huaishui, and the south bank of Huaishui survived the flood, and the north bank of Huaishui suffered heavy losses.

The state of Chu also wanted to do the same, trying to destroy the embankment on the south bank of the Huaishui.

But Ying Xiaozheng had already prepared, and the Chu army's shoulder and hand carrying was too inefficient, so he would always be discovered by the patrolling Qin army, and he never succeeded.

When the flood season of Huaishui passed, the corpses of Chu were all over the field, and epidemics were rampant, like hell on earth.

Many Chu people wanted to go south to survive. In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, Ying Xiaozheng deliberately bribed the Chu generals and cooperated with the Chu generals to prevent the Chu people from going down to the Huaishui and blocked the north bank of the Huaishui.

Ying Xiaozheng let the epidemic be blocked on the other side of Huaishui, but he didn't get his hands dirty, and all the bad reputation was borne by Chu State.

But the king of Chu and the doctor next to him had no choice but to follow the path predetermined by the prince of Qin, even if they knew about the tricks of the Qin state.

Because if Huaishui is not blocked, a large number of Chu people will go south, and the number of common people in their country will be greatly reduced.

The land of Chu is now left north of Huaishui. Even though it was about the same size as the other four countries, the emaciated camels were bigger than the horses, but they were much less than before.

Moreover, without the buffer zone of the Southern Chu State, the Chu State and the Qin State were only separated by a Huaishui, and the long border made the Chu people feel desperate.

Even when Prince Qin sent someone to destroy the embankment on the north bank of Huaishui, the high-level officials of Chu State acquiesced.

Only by making the Huaishui "wider" and turning the north bank of the Huaishui into a wilderness could it be easier to stop the Qin army's attack.

This kind of afterlife has also been done by dynasties.

Ying Xiaozheng relied on the north bank of the Huaishui River as a flood discharge area and successfully preserved the Jianghuai Plain.

The Jianghuai Plain has also entered the normal replanting process and has begun to be busy for the autumn harvest.

The hinterland of the Qin State, the Guanzhong and Kanto regions were not so easy.

Compared with the double cropping in the south of Huaishui, there is more room for error. Both the Guanzhong and Kanto Plains are ripe once a year or two years, and only a very small number of fields can be harvested twice a year, and it is difficult to make up for any problems in the middle.

Both the Huaishui and Yangtze rivers are flooding, and the Weishui basin still receives little rainfall.

By the time of the autumn harvest, Qin's taxes would be reduced by at least fifty percent.

After barely supplying Jiuyuan County, Yunzhong County, and Yanmen County, the granaries of the Qin State were almost empty.

The grain in Shuzhong, Southern Qin, and Southern Chu has alleviated the urgent need, but the grain in the granary this year can only barely cope with the summer of the next year.

If there is another disaster next year, there will be a famine in the Qin State.

Zhu Xiang was a little desperate when he learned about this.

The Qin State has been recuperating for so long, and the grain has accumulated so much, a big war, coupled with two years of famine, the Qin people will still immediately fall from food and clothing to famine.

The resilience to disasters in this era is so poor that once people encounter natural disasters in a row, there is almost no hope.

Everyone is looking forward to a prosperous year.

As long as the wind and rain are good in the coming year, you can get through it.

But heaven is constant, not for Yao, not for the sake of death, nor for the prayers of all beings.

This year's winter was about to start with spring, and there was no rain or snow for a month.

……

In Xianyang Palace, the ministers are arguing fiercely.

Obviously, this year the Qin State will definitely suffer a famine.

At this time, there were two ways for Prince Chu of Qin.

The first way is to directly start a war with the five countries, while consuming the young and strong population of the Qin State, while grabbing the grain of the five countries to alleviate the famine, and transferring the contradiction to the five countries;

The second way is to shrink the offensive, reduce the standing army that is preparing to attack the five countries, let them return to the countryside, reduce the pressure on military rations, and allow more people to join agricultural production.

There are pros and cons to both.

The latter will be slow to take effect, and will drag down the offensive that has already been launched, and it may be a few more years before the Qin State can raise the battle flag again. The advantage is that it can maintain the reputation of the "benevolent and righteous power" that the Qin State has been operating for more than ten years, and it will be easier to govern after conquering the world.

Prince Chu of Qin sat on the throne without saying a word.

If it was more than ten years ago, the Qin State would not hesitate to send troops.

Because at that time, Qin's thinking was still "fighting for hegemony", and there was no consciousness that "after the unification of the world, people from other countries are also people from Qin". In order to pass on the domestic contradictions, the Qin people will not care about the life and death of other people.

Now there are two sides in the Qin State that are ideologically equal. The idea of "great unification" for more than ten years has been imperceptibly realized, and Dr. Qin has already had the concept of "the people of the world are the people of Qin", and he understands how much resentment Qin has accumulated in the war of reunification, and he will repay it ten times or even a hundred times after the unification of the world.

However, the side of the main battle believed that it would be considered later, and it was most important to transfer the internal contradictions of Qin as soon as possible.

Most of them are veterans.

Now continue to attack the five countries, and they can still see the day when the Qin State will be unified. If the Qin State shrinks its front again and recuperates this year, it will not be their turn to take credit.

Everyone has their own interests that they want to pursue, and they choose their own position because of their interests.

Which side did Prince Qin Chu choose?

Prince Chu of Qin gave up a few days of court discussions, returned to Zhu Xiang's Zhuangzi, refused all requests to see, and only drank bitterly in the Zhuangzi with two friends, Lin Zhen and Cai Ze.

Lin Zhen and Cai Ze only accompanied Prince Chu of Qin to drink, and did not mention any court matters.

Prince Chu of Qin woke up drunk and drunk.

After waking up again, he said to his two friends: "Qin has generals such as Li Mu, Wang Qian, Lian Po, and Meng Fu, and it is easy to sweep the world. ”

He counted with his fingers crossed: "Li Mu and Wang Jian can easily destroy the Chu State; The state of Wei was already under siege by the state of Qin, and the king of Wei was seriously ill; Neither Yan nor Qi had the strength to fight against Qin; Zhao Guo is a little more difficult to bite, but it is easy to capture Handan, so they will hide for a while. ”

"But when Handan is destroyed, I will be able to declare that I have ruled the world and become the Qin Shi Huang that Zheng'er has in mind." Prince Chu of Qin raised his fingers and counted, as if he was confused.

He put down his hand, was silent for a long time, and said, "Zheng'er is so powerful, even if I leave him a mess, he will definitely be able to deal with it." What's more, there is also Zhu Xiang. ”

Cai Ze and Lin Zhen quietly accompanied their friend Zi Chu, quietly listened to Zi Chu's confession, and did not say a word.

……

The next day, the Qin prince Chu recalled Meng Fu and Lian Po, leaving only the soldiers to defend the city, and the rest of the Qin army disbanded and returned to their hometowns to deal with the famine year.

Chapter 233: The ship is late and the wind blows

In 244 BC, the seventh year of the prince of Qin, Chu, came in fear of everyone.

This year, there was no drought or waterlogging, but the wind was not good and the rain was not smooth.

God seems to be deliberately joking with the poor farmer, it doesn't rain when the fields need water, and it doesn't have the sun when the grain needs the sun.

If it doesn't rain, the fields with good irrigation conditions can barely survive; If there is no sun at harvest time, and the grain grows in the ground, no one can do anything.

The population was small during the Warring States period.

By the time Qin Shi Huang unified the world, the population of the whole world was more than 20 million, which was about the same as the permanent population of a city in coastal metropolises such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Now the territory of the Qin State has expanded, absorbing a large number of displaced people from other countries, and the total population does not exceed 10 million.

With such a small population, the ability to resist disasters is even worse.

As a result, this year, the grain harvested by Qin has decreased by at least 30% compared with the previous year.

The weather seemed to be going crazy, and it didn't just affect the Qin State.

The Qin State prepared in advance, and Zhu Xiang thickened the blood of the Qin State, compared with other countries, the Qin people were still better.

In October of the seventh year of Prince Chu of Qin, this was supposed to be the time of the autumn harvest, when the world was hungry and people were cannibalistic.

However, because the common people of the five countries were already living poorly, and the fertile fields with good irrigation conditions were concentrated in the hands of the nobles, the kings and nobles of the five countries did not feel much about the great hunger in the world.

They have plenty of food.

What's more, even if the grain harvest is out this year, can't you still eat meat? Livestock breeding, and not afraid of this continuous autumn rain.

They were rejoicing because the Qin State had stopped attacking the Central Plains.

Most of the scholars in the court of the five countries are celebrating with their crowns.

They said that God opened his eyes and brought disaster to the Qin State and prevented the Qin State from conquering the world.

This is the god who does not let the Qin State harm other countries, indicating that the Mandate of Heaven is not in Qin!

As a result, the societies of the five countries became fragmented and magical.

On the one hand, the scholars celebrate the prosperity of the world, and on the other hand, there is the tragic scene of cannibalism in the world.

The monarch and the nobles held a banquet together, and stayed up all night to celebrate that God had stopped the pace of Qin's annihilation.

They piled high altars with grain, cloth, and precious offerings, and slaughtered oxen and sheep to thank God.

Outside the city, the peasants had run out of grain last year, and they had survived this autumn's harvest by eating grass roots and bark and the famine-relief crops flowing from the Qin State, but there was almost no harvest.

There are also people crying and exchanging babies that can no longer be fed, exchanging the remains of relatives who have starved to death.

Qin was in no mood to pay attention to the magical daily life of other countries.

The Qin State now has a vast territory, with a large latitude and longitude spanning north, south, east and west, and it is always possible to find some places that have not been affected by disasters or have been less affected.

Prince Chu of Qin did not have time to worship God.

From the time the Qin army was recalled, he sat in the car of the king of Qin, not only inspected Guanzhong, Guandong and the three counties of Korea and Zhao that were newly defeated, but also entered Shu and personally met with the powerful families in Shu.