The roaring floods destroyed everything, and countless fertile fields were submerged, and countless people were displaced.
Looking down from the sky, on the plains of Guanzhong, groups of people are swarming past.
People passed through the counties in groups, and from time to time someone fell to the ground. This scene was so hard to believe that this was Guanzhong.
Among these fleeing people, there are also many small landowners who were once the cornerstone of the Han Dynasty. Water and fire are merciless. When the land is swept away by the flood, everything that our ancestors have worked for for generations is instantly gone!
"Go to the county. There is food in the treasury."
"Go to the county, there are military supplies there."
The voices of countless people echoed across the land of Guanzhong. They had lost everything and had no one to rely on but the imperial court. Only the cities in counties and counties had food, so they couldn't just starve to death here.
This is where floods are more terrifying than droughts. Droughts are a gradual process, and the court can still roughly control people and spread them out as much as possible. But floods are a sudden disaster, and people will avoid places where floods pass.
This eventually led to the current gathering situation.
…
"The Prime Minister has been here?"
It wasn't until the next day that Liu Yang recovered from his fatigue and left the palace. The eunuch hurried forward to report what had happened.
Liu Yang was shocked. He didn't expect the prime minister to come in spite of the heavy rain. When he heard the news about the flood in Guanzhong, he felt that his eyes were going dark. This was what he had been worried about.
Liu Yang was originally very angry about the behavior of several eunuchs who did not report it, but as the eunuchs expected, with a few words from Long Qing, the emperor dismissed the matter.
As for the Prime Minister's behavior, he also lightly brushed it off and pretended it didn't happen.
The flood in Guanzhong caused a huge disaster and was a major blow to the production and living order of the Guanzhong Plain.
Such a huge disaster, for the imperial court living in Guanzhong, may even be a crisis that may overturn the country.
And this is not the first time Guanzhong has been affected by a disaster. People's hearts are already very impetuous.
If disaster relief is not timely, disaster relief will soon turn into chaos!
At that time, it was not the people who ate the food, but the soldiers who ate the food and then killed people.
An edict was quickly sent from the palace. The emperor clearly expressed his attitude and for the first time responded directly to the imperial court's standard approach to facing natural disasters.
"I heard that in ancient times, if the monarch was wise and virtuous, and the ministers were loyal and capable, the world would be stable, the yin and yang were in harmony, the weather would always be smooth, and the sun and moon would appear in the right places.
When there are monsters in the country, disasters will occur.
I heard that God is not willing to destroy the dynasty where destiny has come, so it will send monsters to warn the king and ministers.
This is what King Su said: "The country is going to perish, and monsters will definitely appear." '
This is for the king and his ministers to reflect respectfully.
Now there is a flood in Guanzhong. Isn't this a warning from God?
All your ministers must not slack off and find out the cause of the disaster.
In the first year of Lingyou, there was a heavy snowfall in Liaodong, an earthquake occurred in Guanzhong, and even the tombs of our ancestors leaked. This made me tremble with fear. In the second year of Lingyou, the river in Guandong burst, and the harvest in Guanzhong was not good. In the third year of Lingyou, At that time, there was a locust plague in Yuzhou, and now there is a flood in Guanzhong.
This is the fate of the Han Dynasty reminding me, and I am very worried.
Years of famine have depleted the savings during the Xuancheng period. I heard that the people outside Chang'an have disheveled faces. This is so sad.
I hoped that Guanzhong would have a good harvest so that the people in Guanzhong could alleviate their hunger. However, the floods destroyed the farmland and cut off the people's harvest.
Dear ministers, is there anything you can do about this?
If so, don't hide it, just tell me face to face. Only by being honest with each other between kings and ministers can the country of the Han Dynasty be revitalized.
I am here to tell you that my servant Long Qing suggested to me that envoys should be sent to various counties in Guanzhong.
Go to express condolences to the people affected by floods, and visit the elderly and widowed and lonely people.
Open the treasury, mountains, forests and lakes belonging to the royal family, let the people freely go fishing, hunting, picking fruits, etc., and give the fertile but vacant land to the poor for farming. '
I think Long Shizhong's opinion is right. I am the king and father of the people. It is my fault as the emperor that they cannot survive.
I need such a proposal, and all your ministers can also make it.
I also thought that the counties in Guanzhong that were affected by the disaster should be exempted from taxes for the past two years to let them know that the court has not forgotten them.
I heard that the scholars have some misunderstandings about my close servants, which is not conducive to harmonious relations.
King Su said in "The Way of the King" that "if there is harmony among the ministers, there will be no worries in the world." Now my close servants and ministers are not in harmony. Isn't this something that makes your father sad?
It can’t be like this anymore!
I will announce it accordingly and let everyone in the world know what I mean. "
Liu Yang's meaning is obvious. The reason why there are so many disasters now must be the birth of evildoers. There may be something wrong with me as the emperor. You, the ministers, can't escape either. You are all grasshoppers in the same boat.
We can't control natural disasters, but we can deal with the consequences of natural disasters. If we can't do this, then it's time to get out.
The emperor's edict was promulgated through the imperial government on the one hand, and directly through the embroidered clothes on the other hand, and was promulgated directly to the places where refugees gathered. The effect achieved was quite good.
At least it immediately calmed the emotions of many refugees and diverted the people's attention away from the royal family.
Recruiting poor people to work on the royal land is actually somewhat similar to the Yulin Orphans. In later generations, there was the so-called imperial village, which was actually a relationship of personal dependence.
The status of these common people changed from ordinary Han people to the emperor's private tenants, and they could directly enter the emperor's inner treasury without paying taxes from the court.
Even if we don’t talk about the political benefits that the close relationship with the royal family can bring, the difference in taxation alone is very exciting. Because there are no middlemen like officials to exploit it, even if the tax is several times heavier, the final result will be The imperial village still has light taxes, and there is no free corvee showdown.
This is the reason why many common people would rather become tenants of wealthy families and become "non-existent people" than become common people in the imperial court.
The problem of royal prestige was solved, but there were problems with the court's handling of the flood, because after successive natural disasters, the court was actually about to lose its ability to handle the flood.
As the emperor's edict said, the continuous natural disasters made the people's faces look ugly. In fact, this was precisely because the court had insufficient food.
The imperial court's treasury always had to leave part of the food reserve, especially the military supplies warehouse.
If there is a rebellion in Guandong and the barbarians from all sides invade, and the court has no food to prepare for the army, it will really be damned.
Natural disasters have occurred frequently in recent years, and the lives of the barbarians are also difficult. Especially after the heavy snowfall in Liaodong, the Donghu tribes who once submitted to the Han Dynasty have fierce battles with the Han Dynasty from time to time.
They had the mentality of grabbing what they could and consuming the population if they couldn't grab anything. It could be said that they were not afraid of death, which made the Han court quite miserable.
On one side is the life of the people, on the other side is the life of the court. There is no right or wrong, so the only thing that can be done is a fierce fight!
The imperial court selected the good family members in those counties, especially those who were originally from the army and had participated in the recruitment, and then severely cracked down on the remaining non-objects of the imperial united front, such as local ruffians, who were regarded as hidden dangers by the imperial court.
The land of Guanzhong, which had just experienced a flood, soon ushered in a wave of blood. The troops sent by the imperial court did not hesitate to suppress it. The people's resistance was fierce, but after all, it was too weak, and they were quickly defeated by the armored imperial soldiers. rout.
After the established refugee organizations were disbanded, they soon gathered and roared in the mountains and forests of Guanzhong, becoming a long-standing profession - big thief!
Commonly known as bandits!
There are not too many bandit organizations in Guanzhong. In the land of Guandong, due to previous natural disasters and the serious land annexation by powerful powers, there are really too many bandits in the mountains.
There are as few as a few hundred people, as many as tens of thousands. Some of these people are not engaged in production and only make a living by looting, while others are farming on small pieces of land in the mountains, just like an independent kingdom.
The Han court kept a secret about these people, because it would remind people that in the past, Emperor Gao, the great ancestor of the Han Dynasty, also led a group of people who could not survive to live in exile in the mountains.
Finally, he led the ordinary people to raise troops and overthrew the Qin Dynasty!
Will there be a second Qin Dynasty now?
People of insight have seen the ills of the world, but they also believe that the world today is not as chaotic as the late Qin Dynasty. "During the reign of Emperor Liu Dan, there were millions of refugees in Guandong. The Han Dynasty was not yet dead at that time. Although there are many refugees now, , but upon closer inspection, there aren’t many.”
This is the fluctuation of the human heart.
There were enthusiastic scholars who tried to solve this problem, and then quickly returned to land annexation and the contradiction between population and land.
The ancients were only limited by history, and there was no difference in wisdom. The disadvantages of land annexation were very clear. Scholars from various schools began to clamor to solve the problem of land annexation.
Some radical scholars even said directly: "The poor will not live, it is a sign of Qin's demise, the tyranny of the ruthless emperor is the work of one person, and the annexation of land is what the world has done!"
The misfortune of a ruthless emperor can be revived by filial piety! Who can save the world from disaster? "
————
Guanzhong is sluggish, and the people are using their sharp swords. They sigh and say: "The "Poetry" says: When the people are in mourning, they prostrate themselves to save them.
Why are Heaven and Han facing each other with swords and weapons? "
He sent an envoy to ask about it, and the officials from the county came in and said: "Jie and Zhou were tyrannical and the people could not bear their fate, so they resorted to using weapons to reform.
Even though Your Majesty is merciful and has done his best, he still cannot live. This is the death of God and not the crime of the country. "
In silence, bandits and thieves are rising among the counties in Guanzhong, just like in Guandong. ——"Book of Han: Chronicles of the Emperor's Mourning"
(End of chapter)
