Chapter 1363: Side Story: Mu Bowen (1)
Mu Bowen quickly walked into the hall and took off his bamboo hat and raincoat. Looking at the sleet outside, a frown formed on his face. He slowly exhaled and asked the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Works, Li An, who had come with him, "What’s the situation in the north?"
Li An rubbed his hands and exhaled a mouthful of hot air. "Since Jiangnan is already so cold, it’s naturally even colder in the north. These few days, the six ministries have been drowned in memorials reporting disasters in the provinces."
With a bitter expression, Li An said, "I don’t know what’s gone wrong these past few years. Natural disasters kept happening. Fortunately, Great Qi has recuperated for nearly 20 years and has good seeds. Otherwise..."
Otherwise, the natural disasters in the past few years would make the people of Great Qi suffer unspeakably.
Although each disaster was not serious, there were a few regions that suffered from drought or floods every year. There were also snowstorms in winter. Furthermore, according to the Ministry of Revenue’s statistics, the number of disasters has been increasing every year. At first, the officials of the six ministries and the Supervisory Ministry suspected that these were man-made disasters, but after investigation, they realized that they were truly natural disasters.
The Imperial Astronomer’s predictions had also become increasingly pessimistic. The State Preceptor even said that the next 20 years would be the most difficult time for Great Qi because during this period, there would be endless natural disasters.
As expected, five years after the State Preceptor’s prediction, which was this year, the temperature had generally dropped throughout the country. In the past, it was only autumn in October in Jiangnan, and one only needed to wear a jacket. However, this October, they had already put on a thick coat. It was even sleeting now. According to the Imperial Astronomer, the temperature would drop further in the next few days. At that time, it would probably snow heavily in Jiangnan.
As the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Works, Li An was also under a lot of pressure. Due to the abnormal weather, most of the people’s harvest depended on the water conservancy facilities, and the Ministry of Works was in charge of water conservancy construction.
This year, the Ministry of Works had also been given the task of building a shelter. Knowing that Mu Bowen had done a lot of research on this, he came to visit at night.
Mu Bowen had been liaising with the Ministry of Works all these years, so he was very familiar with Li An. At this moment, he didn’t stand on ceremony and directly led him into the study. He asked, "Will the winter shelters only be built in the capital or everywhere?"