"From the fifteenth day of April, locusts spread all over Yongzhou, and the disaster was finally stopped on the twenty-third day of June."
"This locust plague has covered an area of ​​more than 3,000 miles, leaving the land barren and crops barren. The affected people have lost their homes and are displaced, with widespread grief."
"As of today, more than 600,000 people have been killed. The tragedy is appalling."
"I respectfully request that Your Majesty issue a proclamation to the whole province, ordering local governments to provide disaster relief as soon as possible, and activate the national treasury and local granaries to provide food, clothing, medicine and other supplies to the victims in order to save those in urgent need."
"In addition, I, Jiang Zhihong, would like to request to be the locust disaster relief envoy of Yongzhou, and be in charge of the relief work."
"I beg Your Majesty to consider carefully and serve the people wholeheartedly. Just now! Just now!"
"On June 29, the 19th year of the Yongtai reign, this minister, Jiang Zhihong, submitted this memorial."
This is how a memorial is written.
Jiang Zhihong waved his hand and said, "Come here, tell the postman to hurry and send it to Kyoto!"
"yes."
A yamen runner with a serious expression ran in, picked up the memorial and left.
"Why……"
Jiang Zhihong sighed softly and sat down.
"Why is Mr. Jiang sighing?"
Xu Chong came in.
"...Xu Chong? It's you! Hahaha."
Jiang Zhihong stood up suddenly, walked over with a big laugh, pulled Xu Chong and went inside.
Xu Chong did not move, staring at Jiang Zhihong's face, "You look..."
He clearly remembered that when they last parted in the capital, Jiang Zhihong had just started practicing Taoism and was in high spirits with a rosy face.
But only a year later, Jiang Zhihong turned into this!
His hair was sparse and white, and his face was covered with deep wrinkles. He looked like he would die of old age at any moment.
"Hey, you're talking about this."
Jiang Zhihong pulled at his drooping face and said with a nonchalant smile, "The older you get, the faster you age. It's normal."
“…”
Xu Chong was silent.
If it were in the past, he might have actually believed it.
But now that he is of the same kind as the Taoist, how could he be deceived by such a clumsy lie?
After planting the Tao, all that is used are the Tao seeds, and generally no one will use physical strength.
Even if the body's strength is exhausted and remains exhausted for a long time, it will not cause the body to age like this.
There is only one possibility for Jiang Zhihong to suddenly look twenty years older.
"The Dao Seed collapsed?"
Xu Chong asked.
The Tao seed collapsed and backfired on itself.
Only in this situation would Jiang Zhihong be deprived of a full twenty years of life.
"Well, you figured it out..."
Jiang Zhihong paused for a moment, then was stunned: "How do you know about Dao Seed?"
Ever since he came to Fenggu County as the county magistrate, he has been busy dealing with local affairs and has ignored the external turmoil. Therefore, he did not know what happened to Xu Chong.
"I am a noble now."
Xu Chong answered casually, "You took the initiative to collapse for the sake of the people outside the city, right?"
There are too many victims, and I have to use all my strength to cleanse each one of them. Even if I have achieved the Tao, the strength of my physical body will definitely not be enough.
Naturally, only Tao seeds can be used.
The power of Tao seeds is not the same concept as strength.
For example, Xu Chong's Yin God can only be used to predict good and bad luck and control fortune and misfortune.
The elixir formed by Huangting cultivation can only be used to control celestial phenomena.
Neither of them has the function of strength to repair and protect the body.
If you want to have more strength, you can only destroy the Tao seed and turn the Tao seed into strength again.
"You kid, how come you are still the same as before...knowing everything."
Jiang Zhihong felt a little depressed and walked back to the main seat and sat down.
"IMHO."
Xu Chong followed him in and said, "Many of the people outside the city should not be infected with the disease. If you do this, you will only allow those who are not good enough to be good enough to be good enough to be good enough to be good enough, and make them even more rampant."
"no way."
Jiang Zhihong shrugged. "This is different from mixing sand into bran. Strength cannot be mixed with sand. There are too few doctors in the county, so there is no way to effectively identify whether someone is infected."
"Can……"
Xu Chong wanted to say something but stopped.
Jiang Zhihong interrupted by waving his hand, "It's already collapsed, why are you still talking about this?"
"All right."
Xu Chong sighed, "When I came in, Mr. Jiang seemed very worried?"
Speaking of this, Jiang Zhihong's expression became solemn: "Because, a greater disaster is yet to come."
Xu Chong thought of the red light that Yin Shen saw, and he also became serious: "What do you mean?"
"A month ago, I controlled the celestial phenomena and traveled around Yongzhou. This time, all the thirteen prefectures in Yongzhou were affected by the locust plague."
Jiang Zhihong's tone was extremely low, "Almost all of it, the food in the fields, the wild vegetables in the mountains, everything that could normally be used to fill the stomach, most of it was destroyed."
"In the past two months, the people's surplus food has been used up, but now they can still fill their stomachs with things that the locusts cannot eat or look down upon."
"In another two months, I'm afraid there won't even be any tree bark left to eat."
Two months later...
Xu Chong narrowed his eyes: "The court is unwilling to provide food?"
It took two full months, and even if the news was transmitted slowly, the court should have sent people down to provide relief.
"As early as a month ago, I made a petition every day, begging the court to provide relief in a timely manner..."
Jiang Zhihong shook his head, looking depressed, "And until now, there has been no response."
“…”
Xu Chong looked unhappy.
"But there's no need to worry too much."
Jiang Zhihong smiled easily, "I suspect that Lou Jian is deliberately embarrassing me."
"Oh, you just want me to experience the experience of having to exchange corn for bran and mix soil into the bran?"
"I have already requested to be appointed as the relief envoy in the memorial. I think it won't be long before the appointment documents and limited food will be delivered."
As he spoke, Jiang Zhihong's face turned grim, "But this traitor really deserves to die. He dared to treat so many lives as a joke just to embarrass me... One day, I will expose his ugly face!"
“…”
Xu Chong remained silent, his mood sinking further and further.
If his guess about the natural disaster, "ensuring a sufficient number of deaths", was true...
He could conclude that this was definitely not done by Lou Youzhi.
Even the so-called 'limited food' may not be delivered in time!
Even if it is delivered in time, it may not be as 'limited' as imagined.
Why?
Because we had already experienced relief with bran mixed with sand.
If you want to ensure enough deaths, how can you ignore this kind of bug-generating behavior?
Thinking of this, Xu Chong asked, "Who appointed you to Fenggu County?"
"You want to ask, who can predict where a natural disaster will occur, right?"
Jiang Zhihong waved his hand and said, "I came to Fenggu County on my own request."
Xu Chong was stunned.
Jiang Zhihong, can he predict natural disasters himself? !
He had thought of many possibilities, but this was the only one he hadn't thought of.
"Now that you are a noble, it's okay to tell you some things."
Jiang Zhihong stroked his beard and said sadly, "You also know that I used to work in the Censorate."
"To put it bluntly, the job of the Censorate is to keep an eye on people and find faults. Naturally, they have more information than the average person."
"After the drought in Bingzhou, I wanted to look up the records of natural disasters in the past."
"But... you may not believe it."
At this point, Jiang Zhihong paused, and his tone became serious: "As the Left Censor-in-Chief, he is at least of the rank of the second rank, but he is not qualified to review these things at all."
"What?!"
Xu Chong's face trembled violently.
"real."
Jiang Zhihong nodded seriously, "Records of natural disasters, celestial phenomena, and astronomy have always been kept in the Imperial Observatory."
"You know, Yuan Shouyi had already been transferred to the secondary capital at that time, and the new supervisor in the capital did not have as strong a background as Yuan Shouyi."
"However, this fifth-rank supervisor not only rejected me, a second-rank Left Censor-in-Chief, to my face, but also used harsh words to tell me that if I was dissatisfied, I could write a letter to impeach him."
Jiang Zhihong looked at Xu Chong deeply and said, "You should know what this means."
"So confident..."
Xu Chong slowly exhaled, "It can only be that person's explanation."
"That's what I thought."
Jiang Zhihong nodded and said, "So, I didn't really write a letter of impeachment, but I changed my method."
"What is it?"
Xu Chong was curious.
"That supervisor had an affair with one of the granddaughters of Duke Anguo. If Duke Anguo knew about this..."
Jiang Zhihong smiled slyly, "So, without anyone knowing, I got the detailed records of the natural disaster."
Xu Chong looked at Jiang Zhihong in confusion: "I always thought you were a good official..."
"Ahem, I don't dare to say whether he is a good official or not."
Jiang Zhihong was a little embarrassed. "But I have already investigated the matter between the Supervisor and the granddaughter of Anguo Gong. Although there is a big age difference between them, they are undoubtedly in love with each other. Otherwise, I would not have kept it secret... I was planning to expose this matter in the first place."
"But you still blackmailed him."
Xu Chong looked disdainful.
"This is called flexibility. Don't you understand flexibility?"
Jiang Zhihong was depressed and said unhappily, "Let's talk business."
"Anyway, I didn't see any clues from the records of those natural disasters."
"It's nothing more than the intervals between natural disasters are shortening little by little."
"It wasn't until later that I presided over a major inspection in Beijing, and that year, a disaster happened to break out."
"Because of the Imperial Examination, I have seen more things."
Jiang Zhihong's expression became serious. "That natural disaster was the boiling sea. The place where it erupted was Binzhou Province."
"Binzhou..."
Xu Chong raised his eyebrows.
"From the drought in Bingzhou to the boiling sea in Binzhou, there was a gap of eighteen years."
Jiang Zhihong continued, "In the past 18 years, Binzhou has had the most vacancies, disappearances, and deaths of officials."
"What does this have to do with natural disasters?"
Xu Chong frowned.
"I doubt……"
Jiang Zhihong spoke , "This is the most fundamental reason why Binzhou was chosen by the natural disaster."
"Chosen by the Scourge?!"
Xu Chong was shocked.
"That's right, natural disasters will choose where to descend on their own."
Jiang Zhihong's tone sank again, "After I had this suspicion, I went to check the files of the Ministry of Personnel... Without exception, after every natural disaster, the place where the next natural disaster strikes is always the place with the most official vacancies and the longest vacancies during this period!"
"How is it possible..."
Xu Chong's heart sank again and again.
"I can't tell whether Your Majesty knows this, or rather, I don't even dare to guess."
Jiang Zhihong smiled faintly, his smile full of bitterness, "So, this time I relied on my intuition and went to the Ministry of Personnel to check the files after the Binzhou Haifei incident, and then came to Fenggu County, and then..."
"Then, the locust plague came..."
Xu Chong's body was a little stiff.
If Jiang Zhihong's judgment is correct.
Then the locust plague in Yongzhou...does it also involve me?
"Uh... why do I sense a sense of self-blame from you?"
Jiang Zhihong looked at Xu Chong suspiciously, "This matter has nothing to do with you."
"I……"
Xu Chong opened his mouth.
"I know. You are a Blood Robe Guard. There will always be a few officials who died because of you."
Jiang Zhihong waved his hand, "But this matter really has nothing to do ."
"In the past ten years or so, there have been many conflicts between the Taiping Dao and the imperial court in Yongzhou, resulting in the death and injury of a large number of officials."
"Especially in the first few years, the Taiping Dao killed many prefects and even a provincial governor."
"Just calculate, how many officials are there in a province?"
"Thirteen prefects, two provincial governors on the left and right, plus the Criminal Investigation Department and the Military Command Department."
"At most you can kill one or two county magistrates, that's the best you can do. It really has nothing to do with this matter."
Is that so...
Xu Chong sighed quietly.
"In fact, I can go and question His Majesty in person and ask him if he really knows about this."
Jiang Zhihong closed his eyes, his voice trembling, "But I don't dare... I'm afraid he will deny it, and I'm even more afraid he will admit it."
If they deny it, why are the natural disaster files sealed and no one is allowed to read them?
If you admit it...
Why didn’t the court take precautions?
After so many years, who should be held responsible for the loss of souls in natural disasters?