Xiahou Ren couldn’t understand this. “Observing their words and actions, they quite trust the Great General and Guo Pu. Why won’t they listen to the Great General’s orders?”
The village chief said, “The Great General and Immortal Guo don’t farm. They believe there will be heavy rain, but they also believe their wheat and rice will still yield a harvest.”
Tao Wu suddenly asked the village chief, “Did your family plant wheat and rice?”
Village chief: “We planted some, but reduced it by half compared to previous years, planning to leave land for sorghum and millet.”
Tao Wu frowned. “I know why the Great General had us two come to the countryside. I also understand why she had Zu Ti and others depart early for the Yellow River banks. If even the people of Luoyang won’t listen to warnings, the places far from Luoyang won’t either.”
“With the court warning of natural disasters, it’s still like this. If there had been no warning…” Tao Wu looked at Xiahou Ren.
Xiahou Ren frowned, “But this also shows that warnings are useless to these foolish people, and grain prices have risen in vain…”
The village chief beside them became unhappy and shouted, “How can you call us foolish people? What makes us foolish? No one can predict the future. The world is so large—Immortal Guo didn’t say the rain would specifically fall on Luoyang. What if our wheat and rice can be harvested?”
“Besides, though there are those who don’t listen to advice, there are also those who do. Under me are one hundred households, and seventy-two of them listened. Even if, what’s the word, can’t we save those seventy-two households? Why curse all one hundred households just because of those twenty-some?”
The village chief continued his output, spraying saliva on both Xiahou Ren and Tao Wu’s faces. The two were caught off guard, unable to defend themselves or refute, and could only apologize repeatedly.
Zu Ti assigned Zhao Shen to the banks in Sizhou, while he himself returned to Jizhou. Zhao Hanzhang also ordered Zhao Ming, Zhao Ju, and Zhao Kuan to prepare disaster prevention work for the downstream banks in Yuzhou, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou.
Before the great disaster arrived, under this atmosphere, grain prices first rose again and again.
Originally, families with surplus grain wanted to sell at high prices during this lean season to make a profit. Once the winter wheat was harvested at the end of April and May began, they wouldn’t lack grain.
But hearing the constant voices about natural disasters, families with surplus grain dared not sell anymore and even began reducing their grain consumption.
Families that could eat dry food changed to eating thick porridge; families that could eat thick porridge changed to eating thin porridge. Families that could only eat thin porridge began picking large quantities of wild vegetables as spring warmed and flowers bloomed, eating them mixed in, eating less grain and more vegetables, saving whatever they could.
In the third lunar month at Qingming, Luoyang saw no rain. Instead, the sunshine was brilliant and the weather began warming. Wild flowers bloomed everywhere in the wilderness.
At Grain Rain, Luoyang had a light rain. It fell at noon and stopped before evening.
The court began discussing this extensively. The common people also looked up at the sky in confusion. “This is going to be a drought! Grain Rain brought only half a day of rain. By Grain in Ear, will we have water to plant crops?”
Though puzzled, those who trusted Zhao Hanzhang still chose to sow sorghum and millet. Both crops were directly sown after plowing.
Those who didn’t believe began irrigating and cultivating rice seedlings, waiting until after Start of Summer to transplant rice.
They occasionally went to look at the winter wheat in the fields. After Grain Rain, the wheat began working hard to form heads, but this spring was somewhat dry. In some areas where water was insufficient, the wheat heads struggled to emerge.
The farmers had no choice but to irrigate.
Those near ditches could release water into the fields. Those very far from ditches had to carry water for irrigation.
After working busily for several days, having irrigated all the wheat fields once, everyone looked happily at the wheat seedlings swaying in the wind.
After Grain Rain, not a drop of rain fell, only blazing sun. Some ground even began to crack. A farmer looked up at the sun overhead and said, “If it doesn’t rain again, whether there will be flooding this year is unknown, but there will certainly be drought.”
The neighboring villagers all agreed.
Only the village chief looked worriedly at the sky. If Immortal Guo hadn’t miscalculated, heaven was holding back a big move.
At this moment, the village chief sincerely hoped Guo Pu had calculated wrong.
But the torrential rain came unexpectedly.
The first place to receive rain was Xincai.
Xincai was far from the Yellow River. Though a torrential rain poured down overhead, no one connected it with the heavy rain being guarded against along the Yellow River.
However, it rained for three consecutive days. Because the rain was too heavy, half a corner of the county seat was flooded. The Xincai county magistrate sensed something was wrong and immediately reported to Zhao Ming.
Zhao Ming felt uneasy. He sent people to support Xincai while reporting to the court.
The telegram was faster than the wind. The court received the telegram first, and then Luoyang began to rain. In the morning it was drizzling rain. By noon, the rain showed no signs of stopping but instead began to intensify.
The people watching the rain only felt regret. “We wasted our effort watering two days ago. If we’d known it would rain so soon, we should have waited two more days. Carrying water made my shoulders swell.”
However, by evening, the rain still hadn’t stopped. The raindrops grew as large as soybeans, pattering heavily on roofs and the ground. When people passed through the rain, it hurt when it struck them.
Now no one spoke jokingly anymore. Inside and outside Luoyang, whether court officials or common people, all looked worriedly at the pitch-black night sky, unable to speak, their hearts beginning to feel cold.
Zhao Hanzhang also stood under the corridor watching the rain, her face as dark as ink. She would rather be scolded for decision-making errors than see this wish fulfilled.
Fu Tinghan draped a cloak over her and also looked toward the rain beyond the corridor, saying, “This rain should stop tomorrow. Guo Pu and I measured the wind speed. The rain should reach Mengjin now.”
Zhao Hanzhang sighed. Against this kind of natural disaster, they couldn’t stop it. What they could do was reduce the losses it brought.
The next day the rain began to lighten. Zhao Hanzhang and Fu Tinghan wore rain capes to attend court. The officials all silently followed, not one daring to request leave.
In this atmosphere, even the little emperor didn’t dare secretly doze off and could only sit listening to them discuss politics.
At this time, though the court officials were busy and uncomfortable, they were still relaxed. Flooding—they had just experienced a locust plague rarely seen in a century two years ago. While resisting the disaster, they were also fighting a war, yet they still got through it. This time would just be a small matter.
But as the rainy areas grew larger and the duration longer, the court officials finally realized that the flooding that Zhao Hanzhang had prepared for in advance seemed somewhat different.
Entering the fourth lunar month, Luoyang still occasionally had heavy rains. Without sunshine, the winter wheat that had just formed heads almost stopped growing. Water in the fields submerged the wheat roots, and much wheat became diseased.
The farmers didn’t give up. They carried hoes and braved the rain to drain the water. The water drained into the ditches, and the rain gradually stopped. After two overcast days, when everyone thought sunny weather was coming, Luoyang began raining again…
However, Luoyang’s situation was relatively good among many places. In some areas, overcast rain continued without end.
The court also began its continuous overcast rain. Zhao Hanzhang threw down a letter, angrily saying, “Jixian, a county seat of a commandery, in just ten days, grain prices have soared to three hundred thirty-three coins. Even two years ago during the locust plague and war, it only reached three hundred fifty-two coins. What is this? Staying right at the fifteen percent line to rise—today three hundred thirty-three, tomorrow will it be reported as three hundred eighty-three?”
The assembled officials lowered their heads in silence.
“Yuan Li!”
Yuan Li stepped forward. “Your subordinate is here.”
“Go to Jixian personally. I grant you the authority to act as you see fit.”
Yuan Li raised his head, the scar on his face jumping as he suppressed his inner excitement and said, “Your subordinate receives this order!”
Even Ji Yuan couldn’t help but feel his heart tighten, knowing people would certainly die.
He sighed, about to step forward to ask Zhao Hanzhang to give Yuan Li more constraints, when a clerk rushed into the hall and knelt, saying, “Great General, urgent telegram from Jiankang. Shouchun and Jiankang have had five consecutive days of torrential rain. Jiangnan—Jiangnan has severe water disasters and epidemics. Fertile fields have been destroyed.”
Zhao Hanzhang and the court officials all froze for a moment. She hadn’t expected Jiangnan to have torrential rain too. This was the rhythm of half of China experiencing rain.
—