Chapter 1216 – Disaster or Blessing? Who Knows?

11th month, 5th day, Shanhai City.

Within the Imperial Reading Room, Cabinet assistant secretary Zeng Guofan was reporting to Ouyang Shuo about the situation regarding the land.

Out of the six Cabinet elders, Zhang Liang and Wei Zheng were working part time and did not participate fully in Cabinet work. As the Grand Secretary, Jiang Shang was like half a Chancellor. When Ouyang Shuo was not in the Capital City, Jiang Shang would be in charge.

Of the remaining three elders, Kou Zhun, Yan Song, and Zeng Guofan all had their respective responsibilities.

Kou Zhun was in charge of human matters as was the top assistant of Jiang Shang. Every time Great Xia took down a new piece of territory, apart from special cases like Zhongyuan Province, Kou Zhun would appear to settle the situation.

Of course, if they took down many provinces at once, the few elders would all come out to manage one each.

Apart from that, Yan Song was in charge of the court situation, focusing on the Capital City Imperial Court. Zeng Guofan was in charge of the local administrative matters. He has the most speaking rights for matters about the land.

The two of them complemented one another to maintain the prestige of the Cabinet.

Yan Song was a person with ability, but he liked to form factions. Ouyang Shuo would not be at ease putting him in charge of local administrative matters. On the contrary, controlling the court situation was not difficult for the experienced Yan Song.

As this matter related to the calamity situation across the land, Zeng Guofan was the one reporting.

“In the 10th month, the calamity affected 17/22 of the provinces of the dynasty, affecting close to 13 million people. A million hectares of animal husbandry land was affected and close to 20 million mu of farm was affected. Preliminary estimates put the direct economic loss at 19 million gold. The indirect losses are uncountable.”

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he sucked in a deep breath.

Gaia was really vicious this time, directly cutting off a piece of flesh from Great Xia.

“Which provinces were the most affected?”

“Liaojin, Zhongyuan, Wannan, Jiangnan, and the North Africa Protector House. These five areas were affected the most.” Zeng Guofan remembered it like the back of his hand.

When Ouyang Shuo heard that, he did not know whether he should feel sad or happy.

A large part of them were new territories and were really unlucky.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo feel slightly happy was that along with Zhongyuan, Wannan, and Jiangnan provinces being hit, if the Imperial Court helped them out, the people there would feel really grateful. The barrier between the two would be removed, and they would share the same heart as the dynasty.

“Has the relief grain been sent over?” Ouyang Shuo asked.

Zeng Guofan, “As the king instructed, saving a calamity is like saving a fire. We have taken a portion out of the grain that was purchased before the year to help the people out. Once the unaffected regions hand over their grain, we will use them to fill up the granaries.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded his head in satisfaction.

Great Xia was huge, and they were probably the dynasty that lost the most from this calamity.

However, it was because they were huge that there were many regions that were not affected or were not affected as much. Using one place to make up for another, Great Xia could keep up and running.

Their situation was unlike some dynasties that had a small area. When such dynasties were affected, their entire territory was affected.

Without mentioning other regions, just in terms of China, the Mongol Empire in the grasslands, Great Zhou at the downstream of the Yellow River, and Great Tang that was at the upstream of the Yellow River were all affected really badly.

On the other hand, West Xia and Great Qin that were neighbors of the grassland were unaffected as the grasslands had fed the locusts.

The part that made Ouyang Shuo wary was that the Mongol Empire belonged to a heavily affected region. As a nomadic tribe, they only had one food source, so their ability to rise up from the calamine was weaker than farming civilizations.

This winter would definitely be a hard one for the Mongol Empire.

With Genghis Khan’s character, he definitely would not lower his head and admit defeat. The only way would be to send out troops to rob and pillage before winter to use the blood of the enemy to feed themselves.

The mid plains region would be hit first.

The Mongol Empire had many reasons to do that. During this locust disaster, the Mongol grassland helped to block the disaster from hitting the mid plains, so it is expected for them to collect some interests.

As such, Ouyang Shuo had ordered the Beijiang to strengthen the border control a month ago.

However, the Phoenix and Hedong planned for the north were still being built, which worried Ouyang Shuo. If the Mongol Empire chose the chance to attack now, they might not be able to defend.

If the situation was an emergency, they could only rush it.

Temporarily shelving those thoughts, Ouyang Shuo instructed Zeng Guofan, “The grain prices are increasing, so the Cabinet needs to prepare for it to control the price of rice. We cannot let the chambers of commerce take the chance to suck the blood of the people, and we must not let the people amass too much grain either.”

The people treated food like their god.

The moment grain prices increased, the people would panic, and it could easily lead to a purchasing frenzy. It would cause the normally enough grain supply to become insufficient, allowing merchants to profit.

Stabilizing the grain prices was the responsibility of the Imperial Court.

“Do not worry, my king. The Cabinet is working with the Business Department to send groups to the various lands to supervise this matter. If we notice illegal activity from merchants, we will punish them. The provincial offices and Governor General offices have been informed to take charge.”

Ouyang Shuo nodded, having such a highly efficient Cabinet saved him a lot of trouble.

Zeng Guofan continued, “My king, the grain prices are increasing. The grain we amassed at the start of the year, apart from the amount required to be self-sufficient, we also have large amounts of extra. Should we sell a batch to profit?”

As he said that, Zeng Guofan was filled with praise and respect for the king’s farsightedness.

Before the year began, Ouyang Shuo had instructed them to use a million gold to buy grain unrestrainedly, gambling that grain production would fall in the 6th year. At that time, all the officials, including Zeng Guofan, did not understand.

They were not feeling the shocking gamble either.

The current situation proved that the king’s judgement was correct. If they sold this batch of grain, the Imperial Court would be able to earn 20 million gold. There was no business as worth it as this.

Sometimes, Zeng Guofan would wonder whether rulers had the ability to see things normal people could not.

If not, it was not possible to explain how the king could have a clue that the 6th year of Gaia would have them face such a disaster that would cause a grain shortage.

The king’s guess was proven correct today.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and smiled, “How much money can we make from selling it? It’s just so little.”

Zeng Guofan was stunned. He roughly guessed the king’s intentions, but he did not dare to ask. Turning his attention to the topic, “My king, the dynasty is affected by disaster, will the ceremony next year be held as planned?”

“Naturally.”

Ouyang Shuo looked toward Zeng Guofan.

The upgrading ceremony to Emperor dynasty was the most prosperous thing in Great Xia recently and concerned the face of the country. Since they had set the date, no matter what challenges and problems they faced, the date could not be changed.

With his intellect, he naturally would not ask such a shallow question.

Since he asked this, he had to have another meaning.

Zeng Guofan was definitely still heart pained about the grain matter and did not dare to ask outright, which was why he took a full circle.

As expected, he took the chance to ask, “We still need to take down one province to upgrade to Emperor dynasty. The king has ordered us to stop the war this year, so how are we going to solve this missing province issue?”

Zeng Guofan was not the only one with this question.

Ouyang Shuo smiled. He understood the thoughts of the officials and felt really accomplished. He replied, “We will take down the last province without using any troops. We are just lacking the moment.”

When Zeng Guofan heard that, he fell deep in thought.
…
11th month, 10th day, the Indian Empire that was so far away sent an envoy over to Shanhai City.

Although there were now communication compasses that broke the previous barriers, regarding country matters, the dynasties treated them solemnly. They sent out envoys to send over letters to express their respect.

The Indian envoy came over with a really weird request for Ouyang Shuo.