Chapter 1: The Miserable Transmigration

  There are two kinds of animals in this world that you can't mess with: first is women, second is women who have lost their temper.

  Jiang Xia covered the wound on his arm, holding the ancient zither he had bought for only forty taels of silver in his arms, and walked towards the Xiangyang Mountain Villa.

  What Jiang Xia didn't know was that in the Qianqing Palace, the seven Grand Secretaries and Zhu Houzhao were already at odds with each other.

  As soon as he returned to the imperial palace, Zhu Houzhao immediately summoned the seven ministers of the Grand Council. As soon as the seven ministers arrived, Zhu Houzhao spoke out that after the severe drought in Henan, there might be a locust plague of no small scale, and hoped that the seven ministers would think of countermeasures first.

  Just now, the seven old men who had just solved the Henan disaster relief silver were suddenly frightened. The Henan drought had made them uneasy for several days, and in the end, it was all up to the emperor himself to think of a way to get through the difficulties. Now that the disaster relief silver has just been sent out, the problem of drought has not been solved yet, and another more terrifying locust plague has broken out? Is this still allowing people to live a peaceful life?

  Jing Gui took a step forward and saluted Zhu Houzhao, asking: "May I ask Your Majesty, why are you so certain that Henan will have a locust disaster?"

  Jing Gui thought that Zhu Houzhao had anticipated this question and would definitely be asked, so he couldn't answer truthfully and could only talk about some mysterious things. Zhu Houzhao said: "Last night after I fell asleep, I saw my father in a dream. My father told me that the locust god has descended upon Henan, and Henan will surely have a locust disaster. He warned me to be careful. As it is said that 'of all virtues, filial piety is the first', I cannot disobey my father's intentions. Therefore, today I summoned you seven officials to discuss how to take preventive measures in advance."

  The seven old men all fell silent at once, none of them had expected that Zhu Houzhao would call them over to say such a decisive statement about the locust plague in Henan being caused by a dream.

  Dreams are elusive and unreliable, but the problem lies in the content of the dream. Zhu Houzhao said that the locust disaster was a warning from the previous emperor's dream, if the seven ministers expressed that this matter is not credible, it would be questioning the previous emperor, disrespecting him. And once they nodded and said to take preventive measures, it would definitely be another round of exhausting the people and wasting money. If they really did it, if the locust disaster actually occurred, then it would be fine, but if the locust disaster didn't occur, then it would be a meaningless fuss.

  For a dream, to mobilize such a large force, none of the seven ministers in the cabinet were willing. It is believed that there are not many people in the entire court who are willing to make a big fuss for a dream.

  The Minister of the Board of War, Liang Cun, carefully chose his words before speaking: "Your Majesty's ability to receive a dream from the previous emperor is indeed a blessing from our ancestors. However, this locust disaster is truly too serious and has far-reaching consequences. Since ancient times, whenever there was a locust disaster, flying locusts would fill the fields, devouring all crops, resulting in great famine, absolute crop failure, people eating each other, and corpses filling the roads. Whenever locust disasters are mentioned, the common people of the world change color with fear. Now, if we were to widely publicize the locust disaster just because of a single dream from the previous emperor, I'm afraid the refugees in Henan would completely lose hope. At that time, who knows what kind of chaos might erupt in Henan?"

  Liang Chu's ability to sit in the position of Shi Bu Shilang was not accidental, and this remark not only made the seven Grand Secretaries nod slightly, but also shook Zhu Houzhao.

  Henan is not sure whether the locust disaster will occur, and Zhu Houzhao can't be certain either. He just can't figure out why he believes Jiang Xia so much. Anyway, he thinks what Jiang Xia says must be true, but now that Liang Chu has spoken, Zhu Houzhao feels that the situation is serious and doesn't dare to act rashly.

  Just as Zhu Houzhao was about to nod, a faint voice rose in his heart: "What if... what if the elder brother's words come true and Henan really suffers from locust disaster?"

  Zhu Houzhao thought for a moment and said, "For my own dream to make you all worry and work hard, and to make the people anxious, this is naturally not right. But have you all considered what would happen if Henan really suffered from locust disaster?"

  Seven cabinet ministers looked at each other, and no one dared to speak up. If they did, what if a locust plague really broke out afterwards? By the time of reckoning in autumn, they would probably face a situation where there was no way to escape.

  In everyone's subconscious mind, they all cast their eyes on Li Dongyang.

  As the chief assistant of the cabinet, Li Dongyang was undoubtedly the first among the civil officials. At this moment, everyone had no idea what to do, so they could only hope that Li Dongyang would stand up and say a few words.

  At this point, Li Dongyang can't help but speak out. If he shirks responsibility whenever something happens, how can he be a leader?

  "Your Majesty, it is true that locust plagues have occurred in places like Henan and Hebei, with varying scales, but they are not widespread, occurring only about once every ten years. Throughout history, regardless of whether it was prevention or treatment, the effects were not significant. Most of the time, it was just a matter of waiting for the weather to turn cold, and the locust plague would resolve on its own. If we really want to find a way to prevent it, perhaps it's just a matter of organizing the people to catch and kill the locusts early on; aside from that, there may not be any other effective methods. Regarding the matter of the previous emperor's dream, I think it should not be ignored. Recently, the Tibetan monk Wu Si Zang is about to come to the capital to pay his respects, so let's just have him perform a ritual to pray for the heavens' blessing and ask for the locust god to leave."

  It's incredible! The six cabinet ministers couldn't help but exclaim in admiration after hearing Li Dongyang's words. No wonder he was able to survive two dynasties and rise to the position of Chief Minister of the Cabinet.

  Li Dongyang's words basically killed the locust disaster incident.

  He did not directly confront Zhu Houzhao and did not say that Zhu Houzhao was too absurd to make people nervous just because of a dream. Instead, he proposed many things based on the assumption that if there really were locust disasters, what could we do about it.

  Li Dongyang first stated that the probability of locust disasters is low, implying that Zhu Houzhao should not be too credulous about those vague and unreliable dreams. Then he said that there are too few measures for prevention and treatment, which is indeed a fact. Not to mention the Ming Dynasty, even in later generations when the new China was just established, people were still helpless in the face of locust disasters. Finally, Li Dongyang's most absolute statement was "The matter of the previous emperor's dream cannot be ignored."

  Thus, Li Dongyang not only opposed the rumor of a locust plague due to a dream, which would have caused people's hearts to be disturbed. At the same time, he also removed the unreasonable hat from the previous emperor. This move cannot be said to be unwise.

  But Zhu Houzhao was not a fool, and Li Dongyang's words completely blocked the locust disaster, which made Zhu Houzhao more unbearable than asking him to question the previous emperor's dream. Because there was no such thing as the previous emperor's dream, it was just an excuse for Zhu Houzhao.

  Zhu Houzhao glanced at Li Dongyang, his eyes calm. But Li Dongyang seemed oblivious to Zhu's gaze on him, his eyes darting back and forth. Lately, Zhu had been harboring resentment towards Li, who had sent someone to tail him and was always at odds with Jiang Xia. This latest development only added to Zhu's displeasure.

  However, Zhu Houzhao was not a newcomer to being an emperor. After listening, he fell silent for a moment and then nodded slightly: "The Taifu's words are extremely correct, let's follow the Taifu's words."

  After finishing speaking, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but feel unenthusiastic and waved his hand: "Alright, that's all for today, let's disperse."

  The seven ministers immediately knelt down and paid their respects to Zhu Di, saying: "Your subjects bid farewell."

  The seven ministers withdrew from the Qianqing Palace after finishing speaking.

  Seeing the seven ministers leave, Zhang Yong, who was guarding outside the Qianqing Palace, entered the palace. He arrived beside Zhu Houzhao and said: "Your Majesty, Yang Yiqing, the Governor of Gansu, has been waiting for a long time to be summoned. Do you think it's time to summon him for an audience?"

  "Yang Yiqing?" As soon as Zhu Houzhao read out this name, he immediately remembered who it was.

  During the Hongzhi era, Shaanxi Governor Cao Xiong was attacked by a large Mongolian army of tens of thousands in Guyuan shortly after his ascension. At that time, Cao refused to send troops for relief and relied on Yang Yiqing leading a light cavalry from Pingliang to rush overnight and finally repel the Mongolian army. Since then, Yang Yiqing has been responsible for military affairs in Yan'an, Ningxia, and Gansu. Every year during the Ministry of Rites' examination, Yang's evaluation was always excellent, showing that he did a good job there. It is unknown what brought him to Beijing this time.

  Zhu Houzhao nodded and said, "Summon him for an audience."

  "Yes." Zhang Yong responded and stepped down.

  How often did Yang Yiqing come to the Palace of Heavenly Purity?

  When he saw Zhu Houzhao, Yang Yiqing immediately knelt down and paid homage, shouting "Long live the Emperor".

  Zhu Houzhao asked Yang Yiqing to speak up, and after thanking him, Yang Yiqing stood up. Zhu Houzhao asked: "Yang Gong's overall governance of the three towns' military affairs has made the Mongolian army dare not to offend lightly, which is very good. I don't know what brought you to the capital to see me this time?"

  Yang Yiqing bowed to Zhu Di and said: "I report back to the Emperor, I have been in Shaanxi for several years, and I have carefully examined the local terrain and studied the key points of border defense. I think that along the borders of Shaanxi, we should build city walls, beacon towers, set up garrison troops, and recruit soldiers to guard them. If we build a unified city defense system connecting the strategic mountainous areas in Shaanxi, then Shaanxi will become an iron barrel and there will be no opportunity for the Mongols to take advantage of it. Just this one thing, I believe that at least Shaanxi can be safe for a hundred years without worry. Please grant your imperial permission."

  Yang Yiqing finished speaking and took out a memorial from his bosom. As he handed it over to Zhu Houzhao, he became somewhat agitated.

  As Yang Yiqing himself said, in the few years he spent in Shaanxi, apart from training the border army, he was also investigating the local terrain. Now if his proposal is adopted by the imperial court, then the people of Shaanxi will not suffer from Mongolian cavalry raids for a long time to come. This is an achievement that can be remembered for thousands of years, which is why Yang Yiqing is so excited and tense.

  Zhu Houzhao opened Yang Yiqing's memorial and took a look. First, he saw that this memorial was indeed carefully written by Yang Yiqing, with not only text but also illustrations. The illustrations included topographic maps, annotations of various forces, as well as diagrams of border defense construction. With these, Zhu Houzhao understood the importance of building this border defense at a glance.

  Zhu Houzhao himself was a martial person, and he was also quite familiar with military affairs. Having only read the first half of the text, Zhu Houzhao couldn't help but nod slightly, knowing that building defenses here was extremely necessary.

  But then Zhu Houzhao was stunned, the second half of the memorial said that the silver and materials needed for the construction of the border defense and the time. The required silver: 800,000 taels.