The end of the world begins with the king

Chapter 808: The First Year of Guangwu
Winter is like a sharp blade. In this era, it can really kill people.

Throughout December, it was unbearably cold, and there were reports of people freezing to death everywhere.

Even after surviving December and entering the first month of the first year of Guangwu, the temperature showed no signs of rising.

At this moment, in the Nuan Pavilion of Qian'an Palace, Zhao Yanxun was reviewing the compiled memorials, while the cabinet ministers Lu Chaowen and Cheng Wenguang stood respectfully.

Now there are four cabinet ministers in the cabinet, the first assistant Wang Tinghe is in charge of clearing the land, and the second assistant Xie Xiaofang is in the south, taking advantage of the rebellion of King Ning to suppress the local wealthy families.

Now the cabinet is really in charge of Lu Chaowen and Cheng Wenguang.

"So far, 560 people died of freezing in Nanyang, 120 five people died of freezing in Hexi, 270 eight people died of freezing in Hedong, and Huaiyang..."

Looking at the list on the desk, Zhao Yanxun read out the death toll in each county, and every sentence was shocking.

"Gyeonggi... 200 people froze to death!"

When he read the last sentence, Zhao Yanxun's tone was already cold, which made the two cabinet ministers in the hall tremble with fear.

"At the feet of the Son of Heaven, more than 200 people froze to death. The chief ministers of the cabinet and hundreds of officials recuperated Yin and Yang...you two, do you have anything to say?"

Looking at the two people in the hall, Zhao Yanxun's tone was cold.

"The minister is guilty of dereliction of duty!"

Lu Chaowen knelt down to plead guilty, and Cheng Wenguang knelt down beside him.

Although he pleaded guilty, Lu Chaowen expressed that he couldn't understand Zhao Yanxun's rage.

Such things as freezing to death have been unavoidable over the years. In the past, as long as they were not too extreme, things would never appear on the table.

In fact, the number of people who froze to death this year is much less than in the past.

I only heard Zhao Yanxun continue to say: "My generation of herdsmen, this winter is not over yet, so many people have froze to death, is this just your dereliction of duty?"

That's right, the first month of the first year of Guangwu is almost over, but the weather is still very cold, and it snowed heavily yesterday.

"At the beginning of winter, I will clearly issue an edict ordering the governments of all places to protect the people for the winter!"

"You say... Is it because the cabinet failed to convey my will, or is most of the local government dereliction of duty?"

These words made the two cabinet ministers feel like they were on fire, and they didn't know how to answer at the moment.

It's neither that they didn't convey it, nor that the local government was dereliction of duty.

Although the edict clearly stated it, there were also such edicts in previous years, and some people froze to death or had to freeze to death.

To put it simply, although the dynasty has changed now, the officials in charge are still those people, and their thinking in doing things is still the same as before, so it is difficult to truly understand Zhao Yanxun's "sacred will".

After all, such things as being kind to the common people used to be used as slogans in passing.

"You two will be fined for two months!"

"Counties where more than 500 people freeze to death, the magistrate will be dismissed, and prefectures with more than [-] people will be dismissed!"

After hearing Zhao Yanxun finished speaking, the two cabinet ministers kowtowed and shouted: "The ministers wait for the order!"

"Now the counties south of the big river, the monsters have basically been eliminated. The cabinet must come up with a plan as soon as possible to resettle the people in exile in these vacated lands!"

Nowadays, the counties in the Central Plains and the five counties in the south have a very high density of people. Relatively speaking, there are more people than land, and the population is supersaturated.

Only the combination of population and land can be transformed into productive forces, so it is imperative to relocate people.

It's just that the refugees can only be resettled first, because these people are alone and don't have much attachment to the place where they live.

In order to allow the aborigines to migrate, it is necessary to consider the difficulty of leaving their homeland and the obstruction of local clans.

Of course, the relocation of aborigines from various places will definitely be done in the future, especially the people in the southern counties who will be relocated.

In a word, the population density in the south is high and the land merger is serious, which is a huge thunderbolt to the imperial court.

Now that the imperial court has force and a large area of ​​land has been vacated in the north, it is time to solve the problem of land and population.

Otherwise, according to the normal law of dynastic development, the Jin Dynasty would still perish after two or three generations.

"The minister waits for the order!"

"Go!"

"Yes!"

After the two cabinet ministers left, a eunuch reported from outside that Qin Tianjian was arriving.

As a marginal department, the supervisors of Qin Tianjian rarely have the opportunity to face the saint in Qian'an Palace.

Under the guidance of the eunuch, Du Jiulong, the supervisor, entered the Nuan Pavilion of Qian'an Palace. This was the first time he came here.

Du Jiulong was already in his 50s, and he took over as the supervisor in Tai'an for 25 years. Because he devoted himself to the career of stargazing and calendar, the change of dynasty did not affect him.

"Chenqin Tianjian Supervisor Du Jiulong, kowtow to the emperor!"

"Be flat!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

After getting up, Du Jiulong lowered his head, not daring to look directly at the emperor.

Zhao Yanxun immediately asked: "This winter seems to be different from previous years. Is there such a situation in the past?"

The weather was abnormal, so abnormal that anyone could notice it, which forced Zhao Yanxun to ask Qin Tianjian.

Qin Tianjian has a special record of the weather every day of the year, and this task has been persisted since the founding of the country.

As the supervisor, Du Jiulong naturally felt the abnormal weather, so he checked the past information a few days ago.

But he never expected that the emperor would personally intervene today.

Fortunately, I was prepared... Du Jiulong secretly said.

"Reporting to the emperor, in the land of Gyeonggi, the last snow will be in the first ten days of the first lunar month, even if it is later, it will never be past the fifteenth day!"

"Now it's the end of the month, but it snowed yesterday, it's too abnormal!"

Seeing that Du Jiulong's answer was so well-founded, Zhao Yanxun said casually, "Go on!"

"I looked through the past records and found that since the 24th year of Tai'an, winter has gradually become longer!"

"In the 24th year of Tai'an, 53 days from the first snow to the last snow, 25 days in 59 years, at least 26 days in 67 years..."

The reason why Taian has at least 26 days in 67 years is because no one can guarantee that the snow that fell yesterday will be the last.

While Zhao Yanxun was thinking about it, Du Jiulong continued: "In 180, the longest interval between the first snow and the last snow is only [-] days!"

"It must have been an extremely cold year!" Zhao Yanxun said in a deep voice.

Regarding the lengthening of winter time, if there is no special person to record, it is generally difficult to have a clear answer.

This year it was because it was too outrageous, so Zhao Yanxun wanted to ask, but he didn't know that the situation was already in his eyes.

The change of winter means that the climate is changing, and the climate affects farming matters, which in the final analysis will affect food security.

Now the imperial court does not have emergency food reserves at all. If the food harvest is not harvested this year, it is unknown how many people will starve to death.

However, the northwest is restless now. According to the report of Northwest Luo Lun, many Hu tribes have moved eastward, and the northwest will not be peaceful again.

Once a fight breaks out at that time, it will consume a lot of materials, including a lot of food.

In fact, before the fight started, resources were already being consumed by the transfer of troops to the northwest, and the household military department was very busy with this.

Just as Zhao Yanxun was thinking about something bad, he only heard Du Jiulong reply: "That year, many people died of freezing in Gyeonggi!"

Zhao Yanxun had no choice but to sigh: "The end of the world has come, and the court has made it difficult for the people!"

After asking Du Jiulong some more questions, Zhao Yanxun ordered him to step down.

The beginning of Guangwu's first year simply made him burnt out.

Although there is a system in place, for a large empire with more than 3000 million people, there are too few things that the system can exchange.

Wu Xuan, the new chief executive of Qian'an Palace, carefully brought hot tea over and said, "Your Majesty, drink tea!"

(End of this chapter)