Fifty-fourth: Techniques for Relieving Famine

  "That demon is still alive!"

  Out of the dungeon, Fang Yizhi's face was as ugly as a pot bottom.

  At this time, the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty were already precarious, the slaves in Liaodong and the bandits in Shaanxi-Shanxi were all major threats to the imperial court. People like Fang Yizhi with insight had long known that the Ming Empire was facing an unprecedented crisis.

  But before that, the crisis seemed to be some distance away from them. The area of Anhui Province was generally calm, although there were bandits and pirates - but when didn't they exist?

  The nickname "Thin" Pang Yougui made them see an impending crisis!

  The leader of the Xiangxiang Sect, Wang Haoxian, who is also known as Song Bao Yi, is in Yangzhou City!

  Yangzhou City is located in the south of Jiangsu, just across the river from Nanjing. Going upstream along the river, you can reach Luzhou and Tongcheng without much effort. If Wang Haoxian were to start a rebellion in Yangzhou, given the current defensive situation in Yangzhou and Nanjing, it's likely that the flames of war would sweep through southern Anhui.

  In that case, the comfort and tranquility of Lu State and Tongcheng will vanish into thin air!

  "Now you know why I didn't dare to report it, right?" Yu Guozhen said with a bitter smile: "If I report it, there are only two possibilities. One is that the government will launch a massive manhunt, forcing Wang Haoxian to take action ahead of time. He has been setting up his plan in Yangzhou for ten years, and this move must be a raging fire. The other possibility is that the government will turn a blind eye, pretending to be deaf and dumb. You know, those who captured the fake Wang Haoxian ten years ago were promoted because of their merit. Many people are now in high positions. If this matter is exposed, wouldn't it be slapping them in the face?"

  Fang Yizhi and Sun Lin were no strangers to the workings of officialdom, both being from bureaucratic families. Upon hearing this, they exchanged a rather awkward glance.

  "Cough, it's not that serious, it's not that serious..." Fang Yizhi said: "Even if we don't investigate for the time being, it's also to avoid startling the snake in the grass..."

  "I think their biggest possibility is to deliberately startle the snake, letting Wang Houxian escape from Yangzhou. This way, they can report that nothing was found and then pursue me for falsely reporting a crime." Yu Guozhen sneered: "Then I'll become a self-employed five, the most pitiful thing in this world... Clearly, it's for maintaining the officialdom, but being slapped in the face by both the officials and the rebels..."

  "Huh? What does this 'self-drying' mean?" Fang Yizhi asked strangely.

  "The Xiangya cult has a saying that those who do errands for the government, the dog legs, can get five cents of shoe money every day, so they are secretly called Wuwen. Those who don't take the government's money but help the government are naturally self-sufficient Wuwen, abbreviated as Zi Gan Wu." Yu Guozhen laughed loudly when he said this, but his eyes were devoid of any smile.

  The other party was quite surprised, and after repeating "self-employed" a few times, he looked at Sun Lin with a wry smile and said: "Well, that's true, Ke Xiang brother, we're all self-employed."

  "It's true, now that Qian Shilang has been demoted and Zhou Gonglao has left the court, eunuchs like Wen Ti and Ren have become prime ministers, this is a slap in the face for the imperial court. Bandits are rampant, even the heretical sects that had already disappeared are reviving, this is a slap in the face for the people." Sun Lin also sighed: "When will we loyal and honest officials surround the imperial court, with gentlemen advancing and petty men retreating, then the world will be at peace?"

  "It's impossible for the world to be at peace." Yu Guozhen sneered: "Have you noticed the weather in recent years?"

  "What?" Fang Yizhi asked strangely: "Weather... Are you saying, disaster and famine?"

  "I asked Wu Shu to collect the situation of disasters and abnormal weather conditions in various places over the past nearly thirty years. Starting from Wanli 26, Shanxi has been experiencing continuous drought for many years, and it's not an exaggeration to say that nine out of ten years were droughts. The northern part of Zhili was slightly better, but from Wanli 27 to 29, and again after 43, there were two consecutive years of severe drought."

  Two men leaned in to listen, Yu Guozhen picked up a small stone and wrote "Shanxi" and "Beizhili" on the sandy ground. He then said: "In the 43rd year of Wanli's reign, Shandong also suffered from severe drought. In the 44th year of Wanli's reign, this severe drought expanded to Shaanxi and Henan, and they were all consecutive severe droughts. Gentlemen, such a long time and large area of drought, even if everyone in the court is a gentleman, it will not be settled in a short period of time!"

  "If it were a benevolent government with light labor and low taxes, loving the people, things would be better...and after all, it's not a severe drought every year."

  Fang Yizhi said somewhat reluctantly that he was not completely ignorant of worldly affairs, and in recent years, his travels had given him a perspective that ordinary scholars did not have, so he clearly understood the severity of what Yu Guozhen had said.

  "This is just a drought, after the great drought, there must be a great locust plague, Brother Mi should know." Yu Guozhen smiled bitterly: "After the locust plague, bandits will surely rise up everywhere. Now in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces, why are the bandit-suppressing troops never-ending? The reason lies in this!"

  "Nowadays, the imperial court relies heavily on the southeast for supplies. But now that I've been to Suzhou Prefecture and the surrounding areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, every household is planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms, with silk production flourishing, renowned throughout the world. With mulberry trees thriving, they encroach upon grain fields; originally, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were the country's granary, but now they have to purchase grain from Jiangxi and Hubei. If disaster strikes again and spreads further, second brother, what should we do?"

  "When there is a gentleman in the court, naturally there will be no disasters or famines." Sun Lin said: "Guo Zhen, these consecutive years of great disasters are clearly because the eunuch party has committed crimes against heaven, so heaven is showing warning..."

  "Shun and Yu were great virtues, why did the flood spread?" Yu Guozhen sneered: "What's more, after the current emperor ascended to the throne, he didn't dismiss the eunuch party, nor did Wei Zhongxian die, why haven't natural disasters decreased, but instead become more severe?"

  "That was when the eunuchs had not yet completely retreated, and Wen Tiren, who is now in power, had once bribed Cui Xingzhi, and also wrote a poem to congratulate at the temple of Wei Zhongxian in Hangzhou."

  "Wen Ti Ren also just got the first assistant position this year, he can't be responsible for past disasters!" Yu Guo Zhen didn't like this kind of thing where people took responsibility for heaven's mistakes. He coldly laughed again: "Ke Xiang brother, you still haven't answered, why with Shun and Yu's virtues, did the flood spread?"

  This time Sun Lin was speechless, although Yu Guozhen's words made him very uncomfortable, but that question was indeed not something he could answer.

  "There is no sign of this disastrous weather stopping, on the contrary, it seems to be spreading. Taking Huzhou as an example, in the past decade, almost every other year there has been a flood." Yu Guozhen saw that he didn't continue, so he went on: "Drought, locusts, floods, and then bandits will follow. Brother Mi, nowadays our Jiangnan region should be a land of prosperity, but instead, thieves and bandits are rampant. Just this year, three groups of bandits have come to raid Xiang'an one after another."

  "Brother Guo Zhenxian, the heavenly punishment cannot be prayed for, is there... really no other way?" At this time, Fang Yizhi seemed to have understood and asked Yu Guozhen.

  "What the world has is vast, and there are still places that have not been affected by disasters." Yu Guozhen smiled and said: "If the officials of the imperial court had such courage, they could open up new territories in the south and obtain ten more Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Why worry about having no grain to use?"

  This is one of the means by which later generations resolve crises. When a crisis occurs at home, it can be alleviated through an external war that consumes excess manpower and uses a common enemy to unite the country. However, Yu Guozhen knew that this was something the current Ming court could never do!

  Twenty-nine years ago, the Wanli Emperor had sent someone to Luzon to check if there was a silver mountain, which made the Spanish colonizers suspect that the Ming Dynasty intended to take over Luzon, and they slaughtered 25,000 Chinese merchants in Luzon! The reaction of the Ming court to this was only to behead Zhang Ying, who claimed that Luzon had a silver mountain, and display his head at sea. As for the perpetrators of the massacre, the Spanish colonizers, they were merely "reported to the governor for punishment". When the Spanish came to China to explain, local officials even said that these slaughtered Chinese people were "mostly not good people", and "would not take military action to ask for justice"!

  As expected, upon hearing this, Fang Yizhi shook his head: "This is unacceptable, this is unacceptable."

  Yu Guozhen burst out laughing: "Let the little brother have no way, only if this desolate land spreads again, Brother Mi must also be careful, and build walls at home to protect himself."

  Fang Yizhi was one of the few friends he had in this era, although their political ambitions were different, Yu Guozhen still did not want him to come to any harm in the chaos. Moreover, Yu Guozhen still had a shadow in his heart, Fang Yizhi's cousin who took shelter from the rain in another courtyard, Yu Guozhen still had quite good feelings for her.

  This feeling is temporarily unrelated to personal feelings, it's just that such beautiful flowers should bloom brilliantly and shouldn't wither away inexplicably.

  Whether the power that caused her to wither prematurely came from the invasion of foreign tribes or internal turmoil.

  "Although I didn't quite agree with what Guo Zhen said earlier, building a wall for self-protection is indeed true." Fang Yizhi said: "I mentioned this to the elders in our clan before, but it couldn't be carried out. This time when I go back, I will bring it up again!"

  "That King is a good man, just leave him alone." Sun Lin couldn't help but say: "If we let him continue to develop, he will eventually launch an attack!"

  "It's impossible to ignore him, I'm the bait, he'll come again." Yu Guozhen sneered: "Mi Zhidage, Ke Xiangxiong, still need to borrow Erge's power."

  "Oh?" Fang Yizhi's spirit was greatly lifted, and Sun Lin's eyes were wide with excitement. At this time, the two of them were only 22 or 23 years old, full of vigor and vitality. Seeing Yu Guozhen repeatedly kill bandits, they couldn't help but think that if they were in his position, what would they do? Therefore, when they heard that they would be borrowing their strength to deal with Wang Houxian, both of them became even more interested.

  "This matter is a bit complicated and may cause trouble for Brother Mi. Brother Mi should think it over carefully."

  "A man should be self-respecting and confident, you're making our country look bad. You think I'm afraid of trouble just because I use my brain?"

  "It's settled then. With the help of Mizi and Kexin, no matter how cunning Wang Houxian is, he will fall into my trap!"

  It was a fine day, Yu Guozhen invited Fang Yizhi and Sun Lin to the best wine house in Xiang'an Town for a banquet. After getting drunk, Fang Yizhi said: "Brother Guozhen, next year is my father's birthday, although it's not a big milestone, I've invited some relatives and friends, my father has mentioned you many times, Brother Guozhen, please come visit us then."

  Yu Guozhen's face showed a look of difficulty: "Mizhi brother, recently I have some things here..."

  "It's just that there are some things that should be wrapped up after the new year, right?" Fang Mi-zhi somewhat impatiently waved his hand: "Guo Zhen-xian, you mustn't not give your older brother face!"

  Yu Guozhen could only smile bitterly, he hesitated for a long time before nodding reluctantly: "If that's the case, then I will definitely attend Shibo's birthday celebration. Mi Zhi, what is Shibo's birthday?"

  "On the twenty-sixth of the first month, you can come after the fifteenth. Fang Yizhi smiled and said: 'This time I will thoroughly test your learning!'"

  Thank you

  (Thanks to Feng Longyun, Yu Meng Zhisi, Li Guangyan for rewards, thanks to Ai Mei Ai Mei for support, continue to ask for clicks and recommendations!)