Chapter 219 — The Strike of the Heavenly Anomaly
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 5
The Minister of Agriculture said, "The north is cold in winter at the best of times, and this year colder still. Going a few rounds through several northern commanderies and counties, I found farmers already felling trees and burning fires for warmth. Many woods in the hills and wilds have been cut away, standing bare and bald. If the people of the north, who endure cold, have come to this, one can imagine what the south will be. And if the southern forests are cut to the last tree, mountain torrents, mudslides, great floods, will come without end. Natural disaster will brew human calamity, and human calamity will brew more natural disaster. Yet forbid the starving to cut wood for warmth, and I fear unknown numbers will freeze to death. By then, I fear nine houses in ten will stand empty..."
Emperor Yanfeng exhaled a breath of stale air. The ministers fell silent too, so silent that even the sound of breathing seemed heavy and grating. Cut no wood and burn no fire, and the farmers freeze; cut wood and burn fires, and the disasters multiply.
One snow disaster had caught the vast empire of Jingping in a double bind.
The Minister of Agriculture went on: "And the crux of it, we still do not know how long this cloud will last. If the overcast breaks in a few days, we may yet hold the losses to the least. If it does not break, the state is in peril, the altars of the realm are in peril!"
"I... understand."
Emperor Yanfeng sat down, somewhat spent. "Do my beloved ministers now understand how desperate the situation is? Some days ago, when those traitors rebelled, I remained at ease, thinking nothing of it. I knew they could not succeed; sooner or later the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping and my beloved ministers would destroy them. But this snow disaster and this cloud will cut off the fate of my Jingping! Beloved ministers, is there a way?"
The whole court, civil and military, fell into silence.
Mighty as their powers were, they could neither dispel this cloud nor melt this snow.
Emperor Yanfeng looked at the ministers below the hall, angry and anxious at once. One snow, one cloud, and this empire must fall apart? And the toil of several hundred years must vanish like smoke?
One civil official said, "This minister holds that this is the reform of the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping, which has angered Heaven..."
Emperor Yanfeng flew into a rage. "Drag him out and behead him!"
The official dropped to his knees with a thump, wailing to heaven and earth, his voice hoarse: "Your Majesty, Heaven has Heaven's Way; the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping's reform means to alter Heaven's Way, and so Heaven is angered. When Heaven is angered, the people resent; the people have no way to live, Your Majesty!"
"Attendants!"
Emperor Yanfeng's fury was past containing. "At the hour of the nation's peril he spreads monstrous lies. If I do not behead him, must I behead him with my own hands?"
The guards in the Golden Throne Hall hurried over and dragged the official away; his wailing faded into the distance.
Emperor Yanfeng paced two quick steps and pressed down his anger. "What I want is capable ministers who can get things done, not sycophants who can only open their mouths to slander. This reform is a reform I want, not a reform the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping wants! If Heaven is angered and the people resent, it is me they are angered at, me they resent! The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping is a capable minister such as appears not once in five hundred years — even in a thousand, two thousand years, one would be hard put to find his like! Think me up a way. Fail me, and do not go home, and do not celebrate the New Year either!"
"Your Majesty, why not take this cloud away?"
Suddenly a voice came from below the hall: "Since the cloud cannot be driven off, then gather the cloud's vapor up."