November 5th, Shanhai City.

In the imperial study room, Zeng Guofan, the second assistant to the cabinet, was reporting the disaster situation in various places to Ouyang Shuo.

Among the six cabinet masters in the cabinet, Zhang Liang and Wei Zheng were part-time jobs and did not participate in the division of labor in the cabinet. Jiang Shang was the chief minister of the cabinet, equivalent to half of the prime minister. When Ouyang Shuo was not in the capital, Jiang Shang was supervised by the state as usual.

The remaining three cabinet masters, Kou Zhun, Yan Song and Zeng Guofan, each have their own emphasis.

Kou Zhun is in charge of personnel and is also the first assistant to the chief assistant Jiang Shang. Whenever Daxia sets up a new territory, except for those special things like the Central Plains Province that need to be treated at a high standard, Kou Zhun usually comes forward to take charge of the overall situation.

Of course, if several provinces were built at once, it might be that several cabinet masters would be in charge of each.

In addition, Yan Song was in charge of the dynasty, mainly focusing on the big affairs of the capital and court. Zeng Guofan was in charge of local government affairs and involved local affairs, and Zeng Guofan had the most say.

The two cooperated with each other to maintain the authority of the cabinet.

Yan Song has the ability, but he likes to cultivate his party members. If Yan Song is in charge of local government affairs, Ouyang Shuo is really worried. He is in charge of the court. It is not difficult for Yan Song, who is a mature man.

This time involved local disasters, so Zeng Guofan reported them.

"The natural disaster in October affected 17 of the 22 provinces of the dynasty, with more than 13 million people suffering from disasters, with one million hectares of ranches and nearly 20 million mu of farmland. Preliminary estimates resulted in direct economic losses of more than 19 million gold coins, and indirect economic losses are even more incalculable and are still under further calculations."

Ouyang Shuo took a deep breath after hearing this.

Gaia was so cruel this time that she directly cut a piece of meat from the Great Xia Dynasty.

“What are the provinces that are the worst hit?”

"The Liao and Jin provinces, the Central Plains provinces, the southern Anhui provinces, the Jiangnan provinces and the North African garrisons were the most severely affected." Zeng Guofan remembers it well.

After hearing this, Ouyang Shuo didn't know whether it was sad or joy.

Most of this is new territory, which is really bad luck.

What made Ouyang Shuo feel a little relieved was that with the disasters in the Central Plains, southern Anhui and Jiangnan provinces, if the court generously donated money, the people in the three places would be grateful, and then eliminate the barriers and be united with the court.

"Have all the disaster relief food been distributed?" Ouyang Shuo asked.

Zeng Guofan returned: "According to the instructions of the king, disaster relief is like putting out a fire. The court directly took out a portion of the reserved grain purchased before the New Year to use it for disaster relief. After the grain harvest in the unaffected areas is harvested, then fill in the warehouse."

Ouyang Shuo nodded with satisfaction.

Daxia has great achievements, and this natural disaster is probably the dynasty that has suffered the most in the world.

But it is precisely because of the large family business that Daxia has not been affected by the disaster, or there are still many areas where the disaster is not severe. If the east wall is demolished and the west wall is repaired, the left and right will be moved, and the court will provide assistance, and basically you can turn around.

Unlike some dynasties, where the territory is small, the entire area will be affected by disasters and there is no room for maneuver.

Not to mention other areas, just taking the Huaxia area, the Mongol Empire on the grassland, the Great Zhou Dynasty in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and the Tang Dynasty in the upper reaches of the Yellow River were seriously affected.

However, the Xixia Kingdom and Daqin, which were close to the grasslands, had already fed locusts, which saved the two countries from the locust disaster and escaped by chance.

What made Ouyang Shuo more wary was that the Mongolian Empire was a severely affected area this time, and as a nomadic people, it had a single source of food and its ability to resist disasters was weaker than that of agricultural civilization.

This winter, the Mongolian Empire will inevitably be very difficult.

With Genghis Khan's nature, he would never bow to anyone and admit defeat. The only possibility is to send troops to take advantage of the beginning of winter to rob and feed his own people with the blood of the enemy.

The Central Plains are the first to be affected.

The Mongolian Empire did this with full reasons. In this locust plague, the Mongolian grasslands blocked the disaster for the Central Plains and collected some interest. It was not natural.

Therefore, as early as a month ago, Ouyang Shuo ordered the Northern Frontier Army to strengthen border guards.

What worries Ouyang Shuo was that the Fengxiang Army and Hedong Army planned to be arranged in the north were still under formation. If the Mongol Empire chose to invade the territory at this time, it would be a bit unstoppable.

If the situation is urgent, you can only rush to put it on the shelves.

Let’s not express this matter for the time being. Ouyang Shuo instructed Zeng Guofan: “At the moment the grain prices are rising, the cabinet must respond well and control the rice prices. We must neither let merchants take the opportunity to absorb the blood of the people nor let the people hoard too much rice.”

Food is the most important thing for people.

As soon as grain prices rise, the public panic, which can easily trigger a wave of buying, making rice, which could have been guaranteed to be supplied normally, in short supply, giving merchants the opportunity to make profits from it.

Stabilizing grain prices is the unshirkable responsibility of the court.

"Please rest assured that the Cabinet has instructed the Commerce Department to send an investigation team to various places to supervise the matter. Once a merchant is found to have illegal acts, he will be severely punished. The provincial governor's yamen and the jails of the jamen, and the court have also greeted them one by one to supervise the matter."

Ouyang Shuo nodded. He had such an efficient cabinet, which made him worry-free.

Zeng Guofan followed and said, "King, the food price has been rising recently. In addition to being self-sufficient, there is also a large amount of surplus in the grain we stockpiled before the New Year. Will we sell a batch of grain to make a profit?"

Speaking of this, Zeng Guofan admired the king's far-sighted vision.

A few years ago, Ouyang Shuo insisted on using tens of millions of funds to purchase grain on a large scale, betting that Gaia would reduce its grain production in six years. At that time, a number of ministers, including Zeng Guofan, were very puzzled.

They are not interested in such a shocking bet.

Now it is proved that the king's judgment is correct. If this batch of grain is sold and sold, the court will be able to make a net profit of one or two thousand gold coins, and there is no more cost-effective transaction than this.

Sometimes Zeng Guofan also thought that any king could see what ordinary people could not see.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain why the king could conclude that Gaia would have natural disasters and man-made disasters in the sixth year, which would lead to food production reduction based on just a little sign.

The king's original speculation has now come true.

Ouyang Shuo shook his head and said with a smile: "How much money can you make by selling grain? It's just Little Lier."

Zeng Guofan was stunned and vaguely guessed the king's intentions and did not dare to say them clearly. He could only expose it and instead mentioned another thing, "King, the court is currently suffering from disaster, will the ceremony scheduled for the New Year be held as scheduled?"

“That’s natural.”

Ouyang Shuo glanced at Zeng Guofan.

The promotion ceremony of the dynasty is the biggest event in Daxia in recent times, and it concerns the dignity of a country. Since the date is set, no matter what difficulties it encounters, it is impossible to change it.

With Zeng Guofan's wisdom, he would not ask such superficial questions.

Since I asked, it has a deeper meaning.

Zeng Guofan must have felt sorry for the food and did not dare to ask openly, so he could only ask around the bush.

Sure enough, Zeng Guofan took advantage of the situation and said: "At least one province needs to be captured when he was promoted to the dynasty. The king ordered that the emperor stop the war before the new year. I wonder how to solve this problem with this few province."

There is more than Zeng Guofan who has this question.

Ouyang Shuo smiled and felt a sense of accomplishment when he could understand the thoughts of these ministers. He replied: "The remaining province can be taken down without spending one soldier and one soldier. All he lacks is an opportunity."

Zeng Guofan heard this and thoughtful.

…………

On November 10, the Indian Empire traveled thousands of miles and sent envoys to Shanhai City.

Although there is a communication compass and communication breaks through regional barriers, when encountering state affairs, the dynasties are still accustomed to sending envoys to hand over state affairs to show respect.
Chapter completed!