Chapter 35: Controlling the Locust Plague, Defying Heaven by Half a Move

For the current Han dynasty;

—— this great victory's uplifting effect on the people's morale actually far exceeds its concrete benefits.

Under current conditions of continuous natural disasters, nothing can boost morale more than a great victory.

This was precisely what Gu Xi wanted.

Immediately after this battle ended, he ordered messengers to spread the news across the land.

When this news had fully spread,

the court and the realm were shaken!

The current Han court is vastly different from the time of Gu Cheng and Gu Sheng.

Years of regency have created a clear gap between Gu Xi and other ministers; no one cares how great a merit Gu Xi can still achieve.

After all, no matter how much merit he gains, Gu Xi can go no further—and it won't affect their own interests.

Now, hearing of this great victory, all were overjoyed.

As for Liu Hu and Deng Sui,

as long as Gu Xi remains safe, it is a good thing for the Han—and even more so with this great victory.

As for the people's reaction, it was far more intense.

Many commoners attributed the credit for this great victory to Gu Xi's earlier sacrifice at the Luo River.

Under these circumstances,

Various courtly superstitions and prophetic rumors naturally collapsed under their own weight.

Added to this, the court's disaster relief had never ceased!

Amid all these rumors, the Han people's hearts returned!

This was a clear change.

Even though natural disasters still continued,

as long as the shadows over the people's hearts gradually lifted, these disasters could not shake the Han's foundation.

Most crucially, Gu Xi's tactics were not yet finished.

After sensing the shift in public sentiment, Gu Xi immediately set in motion a series of artificial omens.

Ancient steles revealing inscriptions, divine birds delivering messages, white pheasants suddenly appearing in the world, qilin manifesting—various rumors like these.

He didn't even bother to pretend.

He simply had people spread them.

The power of rumors, from ancient times to now, has always been like hidden tides.

Invisible on the surface, yet capable of surging into devastating waves at critical moments, steering the course of events.

Riding the momentum of this great victory,

these rumors spread at astonishing speed across the Han realm.

"What? A white pheasant appeared in the mountains? And then walked into Jingcheng itself? Oh my, this is a sign of great prosperity!"

"Did you hear? A massive stone fell from the peak of Mount Taishan, inscribed with words saying our Han's disasters are merely Heaven's test—if we endure them, we shall flourish for ten thousand generations?"

"A star of good omen appeared in the night sky? Is this true??"

"."

In the end, Gu Xi no longer needed to arrange anything—once these rumors spread fully, the people themselves began inventing and spreading even more miracles.

It's back.

Everything is back!

The mighty Han of old seems truly to have returned!

Even if some sorcerers still tried to spread rumors, they could not stop this tide—even commoners rose up and beat the sorcerers themselves.

And the Gu clan's prestige surged wildly amid this wind of fortune.

All of this left Gu Yi utterly stunned.

How is it that Gu Xi seems even more dismissive of spirits and gods than Gu Cheng and Gu Sheng were?

If this could truly be passed down,

how far ahead would the Gu clan's descendants be in thought?

Moreover, for those skilled in politics, this tactic has a high chance of producing unexpected effects.

This truly exceeded Gu Yi's expectations entirely.

The entire Han court waited for Gu Xi's return.

Especially Liu Hu.

Wang Sheng's sudden drowning death deeply saddened him.

He had held deep affection for this wet nurse since childhood.

Now that Wang Sheng was dead, his dependence on Gu Xi grew even stronger—he waited endlessly for Gu Xi's return.

But Gu Xi had no intention of returning to court immediately.

The Han people's hearts were now settled.

He intended to use this opportunity to pull the Han completely out of fire and water.

Disaster relief!

He no longer planned to remain in the court overseeing everything from afar.

Disaster relief strategies across the realm had been largely determined.

What remained was to focus on the details.

The graft involved in disaster relief was enormous.

Gu Xi had been watching this matter closely, but before interests, human nature always proved too weak.

Now the court was stable, and hearts were gradually warming.

If we do not seize this opportunity to launch a full-scale campaign.

Then the Great Han, if it wishes to truly and completely weather this calamity, is destined to require an extremely long time.

He first went to the prefectures in Bingzhou and Liangzhou that had suffered the most.

He personally supervised the progress of official relief efforts.

Leveraging his current prestige, he calmed the local populace, and through direct investigation, refined the relief plan with greater precision.

The effect was astonishing.

Gu Xi's prestige was too high.

He had even surpassed Gu Kang in stature.

With his regent status, he held the power of life and death over officials across the land.

Officials everywhere feared him like tigers.

Upon hearing that Gu Xi had arrived in person, no one dared tamper with relief efforts.

Countless commoners were deeply grateful to Gu Xi.

Gu Xi had truly become that beam of light, destined to pierce through the decades-long gloom hanging over the entire Great Han.

Yet, things were never meant to remain smooth.

Natural disasters would not change a single bit because of human effort.

——Year Yongchu Four.

Locust plagues still broke out across the land.

Indeed, locust plagues worked this way: once one region suffered, the locusts left behind countless eggs.

They would return the next year.

This was a problem beyond the capacity of this era to resolve.

Gu Xi went personally to the disaster zones to observe, and ordered all of Gu Kang's writings to be brought to him, beginning careful study.

Gu Kang's talent in agriculture needed no elaboration.

Under Gu Yi's education.

His agricultural knowledge utterly crushed the standards of this age.

Gu Kang had naturally left behind some methods to combat locust plagues.

After careful study,

Gu Xi decided to implement the tillage strategy!

This was Gu Kang's method, differing from nearly all others of the current era.

It involved large-scale tilling of the soil during the locusts' egg-laying period.

And this tilling had to be deeper.

Bury all eggs deep underground to increase the difficulty of hatching, and replace the local staple crops.

This was experience Gu Kang had discovered after years of focusing on agriculture.

Though Gu Xi did not know whether this could truly resolve such a massive locust plague, since matters had come to this, why worry?

Deng Sui, this woman's greatest trait was her immense resolve.

She never panicked or hesitated like ordinary women when facing major events.

Upon receiving Gu Xi's letter,

She did not hesitate at all, immediately agreed, and entrusted the entire matter fully to Gu Xi.

Of course, Gu Xi could not possibly implement this across the entire empire at once.

Not to mention whether the Great Han could endure such a drain.

If this plan failed, it would deal a severe blow to the recently restored public trust.

He chose only to conduct the experiment in the prefectures most severely affected by locusts.

——Jizhou!

Yes, Jizhou was the prefecture most severely affected by this locust plague.

Jizhou had always been a major grain-producing province, densely populated.

And because of the Gu clan's presence, Jizhou's population now far exceeded its historical numbers.

Its agricultural development far surpassed all other prefectures.

Precisely because of this, the nationwide locust plague struck Jizhou the hardest.

Moreover, as the Gu clan's long-established stronghold,

The people of Jizhou would certainly offer full support.

This was the most important reason.

This matter was destined to shake heaven and earth.

Just as Gu Kang had once tamed the Dahe, Gu Xi would use human effort to confront natural disaster.

The state strength left by generations of ancestors gave Gu Xi ample confidence.

In the autumn of Yongchu Four,

Gu Xi personally began in Jizhou this grand project destined to be recorded in history.

He ordered local governments to organize the people.

And he personally supervised construction, setting standards.

Locust eggs typically lay about one inch underground; in this feudal age, achieving fully standardized engineering was impossible.

Gu Xi could only urge the people to till the soil as deeply as possible.

The Gu clan's talent in agriculture is known throughout the world.

Not to mention that Gu Xi's reputation has long been renowned across the entire realm.

The people of every region had already suffered from disasters for too long.

Faced with this policy, there was simply no reason to refuse.

Moreover, Gu Xi himself had taken to the fields first?

The entire Jizhou began to stir.

Even the great clans of every region were actively cooperating in this matter.

Natural disasters make no distinction between people.

Compared to ordinary peasants, these great clans, who owned even more land, feared disasters more.

The only difference was that they could still survive.

But the people could not.

Gu Yi had been silently watching all of this.

In truth, he did not know whether these measures would have any effect.

According to the original history, the natural disasters during this period of the Eastern Han were relentless.

Never mind other things.

Just the locust plague alone lasted a full six years.

It nearly drained the accumulated strength left by all previous emperors of the Eastern Han.

Although the Han of today was far stronger than in the original history, population growth had also increased grain consumption.

He could not be certain whether Gu Xi could truly end this early.

Although Gu Xi oversaw everything in Jizhou from the outside,

the imperial court of the Han had not paused either.

October.

News arrived from the coastal commanderies.

It was said pirates had attacked cities and plundered the people.

Such matters naturally did not require Gu Xi's attention.

Deng Sui swiftly devised a strategy, dispatching generals Wang Zong, Fa Xiong, and others to lead troops and exterminate the pirates, winning victory after victory.

And while Deng Sui supervised disaster relief in other commanderies,

she did not abandon her efforts to recruit talent.

Zhang Heng and others successively entered court.

And Liu Hu had also changed—perhaps because those with ill intentions had been punished, or perhaps because of Gu Xi's earlier promise.

When he gradually grew at ease and began observing Deng Sui from another perspective,

he truly discovered that Deng Sui was not at all as he had once thought.

Whether viewed from governance,

or in other aspects,

Deng Sui was entirely different from the former Empress Dowager Dou.

And most crucially, as he began to study harder, Deng Sui gradually reduced her lectures to him.

This was undoubtedly a major change.

Even if the Emperor held no power, he was still the Emperor.

When this Emperor and the Regent Empress Dowager gradually came together, it would inevitably affect the entire court.

The entire Han seemed to have changed.

Although Jizhou's land was vast, its arable fields were limited.

When a man of Gu Xi's status was determined to accomplish something, it required little time.

Immediately after the tilling was completed,

Gu Xi carried out a series of inspections.

He ordered the people to plant crops entirely different from those of previous years.

If they had once planted millet, now they must plant beans!

If they had once planted beans, now they must plant millet!

Although this might reduce yields,

for the Han of the present moment, stopping the locust plague was the Top Priority.

——In the spring of the fifth year of Yongchu.

Gu Xi and his accompanying officials inspected the entire territory of Jizhou.

Watching the people laboring in the fields, the officials' hearts grew heavy.

Their appearances and expressions were utterly different.

Years of natural disasters had driven them to the brink; their bodies looked frail.

Even the tenant farmers of the great clans were the same.

But their faces bore a deep sense of hope.

Clearly, they all looked forward to this year's harvest.

The Gu clan's intervention in the locust plague had given them great hope.

This was the purest kind of hope.

It was also the power bestowed by their faith.

"Grand Tutor…" Yuan Chang, walking behind Gu Xi, could not help but let out a deep sigh. "If the locust plague strikes again this year, what shall we do?"

Yuan Chang was the third son of Yuan An, currently serving as Minister of Works, a man of unyielding integrity, deeply favored by Gu Xi.

In the original history, he had already died by this point.

The reason was his discord with Deng Sui.

But now, because of Gu Xi's presence,

he had perfectly become the buffer between these ministers and Deng Sui, and thus remained alive.

"What can we do?" Gu Xi's expression was calm, his voice detached. "We must find other means and continue to manage the disaster."

At these words, Yuan Chang fell silent, sighed deeply, then spoke again:

"How long will heaven continue to test the Great Han?"

Even the most talented cannot escape the limitations of their age.

Yuan Chang was clearly no exception.

Hearing this, Gu Xi gradually halted his steps.

He looked at the farmers laboring in the fields, at the hopeful expressions on their faces, then raised his gaze to the sky.

How could he not feel pressure?

Almost all the burdens rested on his shoulders.

But for Gu Xi, he simply held to his own conviction.

He would not let the Great Han fail under his hand!

After a moment of silence, Gu Xi suddenly spoke, as if muttering to himself: "If we are truly playing a game of chess with heaven,"

"then I shall win by half a move."

He paused, turned to face the stunned officials, and added with unwavering resolve:

"I absolutely will not let the Great Han fall under my hand."

"Absolutely not!"

With that, Gu Xi stepped forward once more.

Watching Gu Xi's back, the ministers were utterly astonished.

All eyes across the land were fixed upon this moment.

Regarding Gu Xi's handling of the locust plague, the people's reaction across the land was nearly identical.

——— They held great hope.

With the spring plowing concluded, crops sprouted across the land.

The news no one wished to hear still arrived.

Of the Thirteen Provinces of the Great Han, nine provinces erupted in locust plague.

And Jizhou was among them.

Yet compared to the locust plagues in other provinces and Jizhou's own plague last year, this year's locust infestation in Jizhou was far smaller.

Gu Xi merely ordered the people of each region to follow the old method and hunt down the locusts,

and he had already suppressed the plague!

Although some remnants remained and still damaged the crops, they fell far short of reaching disaster levels.

When this news spread, the entire realm was shaken!

—————————

"In the fourth year of Yongchu, the lands of Bing and Liang suffered great famine; corpses lined the roads.

Grand Tutor Gu Xi, having quelled the rebellion and returned, did not proceed to Luoyang to report victory; instead, he led a hundred mounted Tiger Guards directly to Bingzhou to oversee relief.

That summer, locusts swarmed across the commanderies of Jizhou, Yan, Yu, Qing, and Xu, darkening the sky, their wings thundering, plunging day and night into darkness for three days.

Xi recalled the old statutes left by the Marquis of Wencheng, and ordered the people of Jizhou to dig pits and seal the nymphs underground.

He personally wielded the plow at the outskirts of Julu, his back blistered and bleeding, the blood soaking into the plow handle.

When the people saw his purple robe stained with dust, they wept and worked with all their strength.

The next year, locusts raged across the Nine Provinces, yet in Jizhou's fields, flying shadows were rare—less than one in ten compared to other commanderies.

The Emperor once sighed: 'Lord Gu tore his back to save ten thousand lives—this is the auspicious sign of the state.'

——Records of the Later Han. Biography of Gu Xi

(End of Chapter)