At the end of August in Fu Rui's 30th year, perhaps because of the disaster, even the sun was much more scorching than in previous years.
The sun shone through the yellow leaves and shone on the dry and dark faces of the victims. Although they could hardly open their eyes due to the strong light, they would rather stick out their withered tongues and lick their chapped lips.
Choose to waste your energy moving your body.
Nowadays, many wells in various places are drying up one after another. Not to mention the water for people to drink, even for cooking porridge, there is less and less water. Therefore, not only do the victims now have insufficient food to eat, they also have to drink water every day.
I could only get half a bowl.
Because the weather was so hot, most of the victims gathered under the trees and beside the city gate. They were leaning on each other's arms and lying on your lap, huddled together while the headless flies above their heads buzzed.
Flying non-stop.
They have stopped all activities except breathing, because the food and water they consume every day can only keep them alive!
What makes Chu Zheng and the civil and military officials feel lucky is that there are no epidemics now, otherwise the people in this world would have died in countless numbers.
"Dong dong dong!"
There was a rapid and loud sound of gongs, and the victims who had been numb for a long time regained some consciousness. They stood up from the ground with empty eyes, and walked towards the city gate step by step, like a walking corpse.
This sound of gongs is a signal for merchants, gentry or people from the government to come out to give porridge in the city. This is also the only sound so far in the disaster that can draw the attention of the victims.
At the beginning, when the victims heard the sound of the gong, they would rush up to grab it, fearing that they would run out of porridge if they arrived late. But later they found that no matter how many people came, everyone was guaranteed to receive a bowl of porridge.
They are no longer keen on who comes first and who comes last.
Anyway, there is not enough to eat, and maybe those who go to give porridge later will give themselves more when they find that the victims have almost eaten.
There is no such precedent. There once was a guy who was extremely lucky. He was the last one to drink porridge, so the person who gave him porridge gave him the remaining half of the bowl of porridge. He was enough to impress everyone who saw him at the time.
I was envious for several days.
After eating the only bowl of porridge and half a bowl of water of the day, the victims, still empty and feeling nothing, moved back to their original positions step by step and lay down, waiting for the next day to come.
As the sun sets, the scorching sun at noon gradually becomes softer, but the wind in the air is still extremely dry. You can't feel the slightest moisture when blowing on your face, as if the wind has been filtered by a stove.
On the top of the city, the local governor stood looking at the victims below. His arrival did not cause the slightest ripple in the crowd. At this moment, they probably would not pay attention to Chu Zheng even if he stood in front of them.
"Alas, the drought is so widespread that it covers the entire Chu. It has lasted for almost a year. There has never been such a huge disaster since ancient times. Even if our country has more food reserves, it cannot withstand this kind of disaster.
Eat!”
Half a step behind the county guard, a middle-aged scholar who looked like he was dressed as a master stepped forward and said.
"Lord Sheriff, with the relief food allocated by the imperial court in the past two times and subsequent donations from various places, we can still sustain it for two months. There is no reason why it won't rain by then!"
The county guard raised his head and glanced at the sky, feeling helpless.
"It's already the end of August, but the sun is still as bright as June or July, so everything is still hard to tell!"
…
In the capital, Jingyue sat alone on the roof of the Divine Calculation Pavilion specially given to them by the emperor.
As early as two months ago, Chu Zheng asked him to watch the stars at night every day and calculate when it would rain. However, every calculation showed a severe drought. In order to prevent Chu Zheng from worrying too much, he deliberately
A lie, saying that now that the weather is shrouded in mystery, I really can’t tell when it will rain.
"well!"
With a sigh, he took out a few copper coins from his robe, weighed them casually in his hand a few times, and then threw them among the tiles on the roof of the Divine Calculation Building.
"What!"
Jingyue suddenly widened his pupils, and the images of those copper coins appeared in his eyes. Then the coins in his eyes turned into raindrops that danced happily, and then continued to expand, and in the end they directly
It turned into a curtain of rain.
"Whoa!"
Jingyue waved her sleeves, and those few copper coins were heavy
The new thing returned to his hand, and then he threw it out again.
The result of the second hexagram was the same as the previous hexagram. The copper coins turned into raindrops and kept falling. Seeing this result, Jingyue was so excited that she was speechless. She waved her sleeves again, and the copper coins were wrapped up and followed him.
They disappeared together on the roof of the Shensuan Building...
In Chu Zheng's Regent Palace, his desk was still full of memorials, but he did not review them. The main reason was that he could know what was written in the memorials without looking at them.
It's just that there are so many people starving to death there, it's just that there's a shortage of food there.
The door of the Regency Hall was open. At this time, the still hot wind outside the door made Chu Zheng even more upset. The wind blew the oil lamp on his table.
The flickering lights reflected Chu Zheng's increasingly haggard face. At this moment, the great Chu emperor, who had always said he was one of the best, actually had some helpless and pitiful feelings in his heart.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, it's raining! It's raining!"
Just when Chu Zheng was still upset, Jing Yue's sharp and harsh voice suddenly sounded outside the hall, but in Chu Zheng's ears, such a voice was like the sound of nature!
"Say quickly, where is the rain?"
Wu Chan's figure slowly emerged from the darkness, but it was not for Chu Zheng's safety, but because he was equally excited after hearing the news!
"The ninth day of September! Heavy rain in the south of the Yangtze River, continuous for three days!"
After hearing Jingyue's reply, Chu Zheng suddenly collapsed in the dragon chair. About a month ago, when the disaster situation in various places had not eased, Chu Zheng was a little restless. After this month, he could not sleep every day.
He stayed there for less than two hours, and it was not until today that he finally felt relieved.
The sudden relaxation of his mind made him lose consciousness, but before he fell asleep, a satisfied smile appeared on his lips, because not only did he hear the exclamation "Emperor" shouted by Jingyue and Wuchan at the same time
, he heard the previous sentence Jingyue said more clearly:
"The ninth day of September! Heavy rain in the south of the Yangtze River, continuous for three days!"
…
In Yuzhou, at the gate of Liucheng City, the porridge shed that was originally built for convenience has become crumbling after two months of exposure to wind and sun.
But the Taoist priests who gave out porridge turned a blind eye to this. The Taoist priests in the Chaotian Sect always followed their own desires. If the porridge shed was gone, it would be gone. Could it be that if the porridge shed fell down, it would affect their ability to give out porridge?
Under the city gate, an old man Luantian, who was the sloppiest and least like a Taoist among all the Taoists present, was sitting there with his feet tied.
Even though it was extremely cool around him, no disaster victim dared to come near him. They all knew that this old man was the boss among those who gave out porridge. If he was annoyed, there would be no more porridge to drink in the future.
As for another reason, his feet were really smelly and he hadn't washed them for several years. The smell was even more unbearable for the victims than starvation.
The old Taoist who had just finished licking his feet and was about to pick his nose hung his fingers in the air. To others, it looked like he was being smoked by his own feet, but in fact this was not the case.
He felt something in his heart, and he didn't know what kind of feeling made him freeze in place, but as his thumb kept pinching between the other four fingers, the look on Luan Tian's face became more and more excited, and he pinched
The fortune-telling movements with his fingers became faster and faster. When his thumb finally rested on the knuckle of his index finger, he looked in the direction of Jiangnan and slowly said three words.
"The rain is coming!"
…
Jiangnan is known as a water town, so even when the whole country of Dachu is in a drought crisis, the water source here is still sufficient.
When the disaster first broke out, the state pastoralists in Suzhou and Hangzhou jointly discussed that it would be better for the government to take action to control all water sources and irrigate rice in a certain area.
Of course, this result was opposed by the people at the beginning, but the state pastors of the two states would rather send troops to garrison than let a drop of water be wasted.
In the later stages of the disaster, the cleverness of these two state shepherds came to light. In these years of natural disasters, they plucked 470,000 loads of grain from God's fingers. Although the grain was not much, it was
If you save a little, it will be enough to feed the people in half the state for two months, and Suzhou and Hangzhou have become the only two states with harvests in Fu Rui's thirty years.
In September, this should have been the time to plant the third rice in the fields in the Jiangnan area, but at this time the fields were all being arrogant.
The sun creates cracks as wide as a palm!
On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, the state herdsmen of Suzhou and Hangzhou gathered together again. Now that the drought was about to last for a full year, they needed to discuss how much official land they needed to unify in the next step to allow the two states to grow.
The people were saved from starvation.
But after discussing for a whole night, everyone wanted to grow more food on their own territory. Both of them blew their beards and glared, but neither of them could convince the other. They didn't sleep all night, but they still sat in their seats full of energy and worked hard.
Stifling.
"My lord, my lord!"
"Who are you calling!"
The official who rushed in to report was startled, but he quickly changed his mind.
"Two adults, the younger one was wrong, it was the two adults who were right!"
"explain!"
After the officer finished speaking, the governors of Suzhou and Hangzhou asked him to speak again, but it was the officer's next words that made the two of them truly understand what the sound of nature was.
"Two adults, it's raining!"
…
"Swish, swish, swish!"
In Jiangnan, just as Jing Yue had calculated, it began to rain heavily without any warning on the ninth day of September. At the beginning, there were still some drizzling light raindrops, but it soon became more and more intense.
The heat in the air was quickly blown away, and some long-lost autumn mood finally appeared in the refreshing cool breeze.
Only at this moment did the victims completely regain their energy before the disaster. They strode into the rain one by one, letting the long-awaited nectar wet their clothes, soak into their skin, and wash away their bodies.
and soul!
The state pastors from Suzhou and Hangzhou came to the door and felt a little incredible when they saw the scene in front of them. They never thought that the first autumn rain would come so timely, and it finally gave them hope just when the world was about to despair!
"idiot!"
As he watched, Suzhou Zhou Mu kicked the butt of the official who seemed to be of high rank at first glance.
"What are you looking at! You've never seen rain before! Why don't you go and prepare rice seeds for me? As soon as the rain stops, distribute the seeds to the people immediately and let them go back to farming for me!"
"Yes, sir!"
At this time, the official also realized that as soon as the heavy rain passed, the people should go to the fields to plant rice. It would be a big joke if there were no seeds by then!
After glancing at his men who were running away at high speed, Suzhou Zhoumu turned his attention back to the heavy rain. The smile on his face became brighter, as if he had never seen rain before.
…
In Taopu County, Hualiu County, Bianzhou, Shi Xiancheng took a sip from a broken bowl filled with half a bowl of water. As early as two months ago, he had no water to make tea, and a month ago, their Yamen
The people there are just like ordinary people, they can only receive half a bowl of water every day.
After receiving today's water, Shi Linwu didn't finish it in one gulp. He knew that only by wetting every corner of his mouth and throat bit by bit would he not feel so thirsty.
"Strange, the water is cooler today than usual."
Then, he stretched out his hand and felt some in the air.
“Even the wind is much cooler!
"Huh...huh!"
It's okay that Shi Linwu didn't say anything. As soon as he finished speaking, the wind became stronger and stronger. Over a period of time, people could not help but squint their eyes.
"Tick!"
Suddenly, a small raindrop fell into Shi Linwu's bowl, causing ripples in circles. Before the ripples stopped, another raindrop fell into the bowl, causing ripples.
Drop after drop, round after round.
…
Until the end of September and the beginning of October, the autumn rain that made Dachu people look forward to it finally fell in every corner of Dachu land. Every crack on the ground that was like a wound was quickly repaired under the moisture of the autumn rain.
Fields and fields, puddles and wells, small rivers and rivers... Countless places that had dried up have regained water sources. Countless victims who gathered from villages to cities also returned to their hometowns with grains distributed by the government and the last batch of relief grains.
It is said that those who survive a catastrophe will be blessed later. Perhaps in the hearts of the people all over the world, they will feel that after this drought, there will be an unprecedented harvest year!
The autumn wind is gradually rising and the autumn rain is beginning to fall...