Chapter 442 Stranded and Impeached
As time enters May, the drought in Liaodong has gradually become apparent.

It was the season when grass and trees were growing rapidly, but the crops in the fields looked listless and dejected.

Faced with this situation, the people had no choice but to work tirelessly to draw water from rivers and wells for irrigation.

But as the weather gets hotter, the water levels in the rivers and wells are dropping.

As time went by, Emperor Yanping was still consolidating power in the court, and the drought in Liaodong became more and more serious.

Yang Zhengshan's irritability became more and more intense.

The drought in Liaodong has gradually become more serious, and the drought in Chongshan Town has also shown signs. Although the drought in Chongshan Town is relatively mild, the impact it has brought is also great.

The eighth day of June.

Yang Zhengshan rode on Hongyun and brought ten followers with him, led by Yan Hua, deputy director of the Engineering Department, to the bank of Yinghe River in the northeast of Chongshan Pass.

"My Lord! This is the part!"

Yan Hua pointed at the river and said with a serious expression.

Yang Zhengshan looked and saw three medium-sized Fuzhou ships parked in the river, and his expression became solemn.

Yan Hua was originally a clerk in the Jizhou prefectural government. He was proficient in river dredging and had participated in the task of river management in Jizhou many times.

Last year, Chongshan Town needed to dredge the Yinghe River, so they recruited him from Jizhou, and he was in charge of the work of dredging the Yinghe River.

But now there are three ships stranded in the river. It would be fine if they were just stranded, but the key point is that they have blocked the river, making it impossible for the following ships to reach the dock north of Chongshan Pass.

You have to know that these ships are carrying grain. What Yang Zhengshan values ​​most now is grain. Now that the grain cannot be transported to the dock, he naturally has to come and see it in person.

"Why did this happen?" Yang Zhengshan said with an unhappy look on his face.

Yan Hua said bitterly: "The water level in the river has dropped too fast. This year's water level has dropped by nearly three feet compared to last year!"

He also participated in the entire river survey last year.

He knew exactly which river channel was shallower and which was deeper.

They deepened the shallower parts of the river.

According to the water level of Yinghe River in previous years, there is absolutely no chance that any ship will run aground here.

However, the water level of Ying River dropped sharply this year, which they had never expected.

Yang Zhengshan frowned and asked, "If we urgently clear the river now, will the Ying River still be open for ships to sail?"

This river was just dredged last year and has only been used for less than three months this year.

Mudd!

Yang Zhengshan really wanted to curse!
Last year, he spent over one million taels of silver, mobilized more than eight thousand people, and spent more than half a year to dredge the river. But at the critical moment, the river broke down.

When Yang Zhengshan thought about it, he felt the anger rising in his heart.

Fortunately, he knew that this was not a problem of Yan Hua and others, so he did not take his anger out on Yan Hua.

"It's possible to dredge it, and it will only take two months, but we can't guarantee whether the water level will drop. If the water level continues to drop, it will not be a problem for this section of the river, but a problem for the entire Yinghe River!" Yan Hua took a deep breath.

Yang Zhengshan knew that the water level of Ying River would continue to drop because there would be no heavy rain in the central and eastern parts of Chongshan Town in the next two months. Without the replenishment of rainwater, the only sources of water for Ying River would be the mountain springs on the mountains of Chongshan Town and the melted water from the snow-capped mountains.

This means that even if this section of the river is dredged, ships will still not be able to navigate in Yinghe.

What is more troublesome than sailing is whether the Ying River will dry up!
You should know that Chongshan Town still has thousands of miles of farmland that needs to be irrigated with water from Yinghe River.

If the Ying River dries up, thousands of miles of farmland will probably have no harvest.

"Will the Ying River dry up?" Yang Zhengshan asked the question that worried him the most.

Yan Hua shook his head slightly. "It shouldn't be. According to my investigation, the water source in the upper reaches of Ying River has not decreased. At least the water flow west of Guining City has not decreased. It's just that the weather downstream is too hot, causing the water level downstream to drop!"

“So even if the water level continues to drop, it shouldn’t completely dry up the Ying River!”

“However, if more water is taken from the river, the water level downstream may bottom out!”

The increase in water withdrawal is naturally for irrigation of farmland.

When the weather is hot, the river water evaporates quickly and the river water level will drop, but in fact the main reason for the drop in water level is the increase in water intake on both sides of the river.

After hearing his explanation, Yang Zhengshan felt a little relieved.

He could barely accept the inability to sail, but if the river was cut off, that would be a real problem.

"Forget it. Let's find a way to get the boats out of the river first, and close the river so that no more large ships can enter the river!"

Yang Zhengshan ordered.

"Okay, I'll arrange it right away!" Yan Hua replied.

Yang Zhengshan then told his attendants behind him, "Notify the Finance and Grain Department, Commerce Department, and Tenglong Guards that grain can no longer be transported by river. Let them go by land!"

Food procurement cannot be stopped. Not only that, the procurement quantity must be increased.

Since we can't go by river, let's go by land.

Transporting from Tenglongwei to Chongshan Pass by land is only a little troublesome and the transportation cost will increase a little, but Yang Zhengshan no longer cares about such a small profit.

The drought in Liaodong has become apparent. Many grain merchants in Liaodong and Chongshan Town have speculated that this year's drought will be very serious. They are vigorously purchasing grain and raising grain prices.

Natural disasters are only disasters for ordinary people, but for officials, dignitaries and wealthy businessmen, natural disasters are a good opportunity for them to make a fortune. When ordinary people can no longer make ends meet, they will take away their last wealth, such as land, children, and even the people themselves, making them their slaves.

After returning to the general's residence, Ding Qiu came over before Yang Zhengshan sat down.

"Master! Urgent letter from Kyoto!" Ding Qiu handed a letter to Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Zhengshan's expression changed slightly, and he opened the letter and began to read.

The letter was sent back by Wu Zheng. Now that the Yang family has a marquisate in Kyoto, it is more convenient for Wu Zheng to find out the news in the court. He can almost find out what happened in the morning court every day, and he can even find out a little about some things in the imperial city.

Although the letter was delivered today, its content happened three days ago.

Three days ago, a memorial was delivered to the emperor. It was submitted by Ning Dongsheng, the deputy envoy of Pingyuan, and its content was to impeach Yang Zhengshan, the deputy governor of the Central Army Governor's Office, the general of Chongshan Town, and the Marquis of Jing'an.

The impeachment content was thousands of words long, listing the crimes committed by Yang Zhengshan, from Yang Zhengshan building a salt field and developing maritime trade in Tenglongwei to Yang Zhengshan opening a glass workshop in Chongshan Town. The charges included abusing power for personal gain, greed for money, and competing with the people for profits.

The memorial also mentioned that Yang Zhengshan had ordered the Chongshan Town General's Office to buy up grain in Liaodong, causing grain prices in Liaodong to soar and causing public resentment.

It was also said that Yang Zhengshan was recruiting soldiers and horses with the intention of rebellion.

In the long and eloquent letter, almost all the things Yang Zhengshan had done over the years were listed, and all the charges were put against him. Moreover, all the people who were close to him, such as Xie Yuan, Han Cheng, Wu Chongzhe, Yu Tonghai, etc., were implicated. It can be said that everything was covered and every word was bloody.

This is going to kill Yang Zhengshan!
The content of Wu Zheng's letter naturally did not include all the contents of the memorial, but it summarized the contents of the memorial in great detail.

When Yang Zhengshan finished reading it, his expression suddenly became extremely gloomy.

He knew this Ning Dongsheng. When he was promoted to the commander of Tenglong Guard, Ning Dongsheng was the inspector of Liaoyuan and had a close relationship with the Lan family of Tenglong Guard.

At that time, Yang Zhengshan took down the Lan family in front of Ning Dongsheng, without giving Ning Dongsheng any face at all.

Now that Ning Dongsheng has been promoted to deputy censor of Pingyuan Province, he unexpectedly would submit a memorial to impeach Yang Zhengshan.

In fact, Yang Zhengshan has been impeached many times over the years. When he was in Tenglongwei, what he did was no secret, and it also violated the interests of many people. Many officials have impeached him.

But at that time, he had the support of Emperor Taiping, so he was naturally not afraid of anything.

This was the first time Emperor Yanping was impeached since he ascended the throne.

I don’t know what Emperor Yanping’s attitude towards him is!

Yang Zhengshan lowered his eyes slightly, thought for a while, and said: "You should take people to Pingyuan immediately to find out who is behind Deputy Censor Ning Dongsheng!"

"Yes!" Ding Qiu responded.

Yang Zhengshan reminded again: "Be careful, Pingyuan may not be peaceful during this period!"

Ding Qiu nodded, then clasped his hands and left.

After he left, Yang Zhengshan read the letter again and then set it on fire.

Being able to get information from the emperor, this kind of thing must not be spread out.

If Emperor Yanping knew about this, he would be in trouble.

As for how Wu Zheng got the information, it was actually not as difficult as imagined.

The eunuchs in the palace also liked silver, and Wu Zheng had been in Kyoto for seven or eight years, so it was easy to bribe some eunuchs in the palace.

As for the impeachment!
This matter could be a big deal or a small one, and it mainly depends on Emperor Yanping's attitude towards Yang Zhengshan.

If Emperor Yanping hated Yang Zhengshan, no matter what Yang Zhengshan did, Emperor Yanping would take him down sooner or later.

But if Emperor Yanping could trust Yang Zhengshan as much as Emperor Chengping did, then these impeachments would be nothing but a pile of waste paper.

Yang Zhengshan was somewhat confused about Emperor Yanping's attitude.

It is obviously impossible to say how much trust Emperor Yanping has in him, after all, he has only met Emperor Yanping once.

However, Emperor Yanping could not have been unaware of the marriage between the Yang and Yu families. Since he did not stop it, it seemed that he had no ill will towards Yang Zhengshan.

After all, the Yu family is an in-law, and if they cause any trouble, the queen will lose face.

Since the Queen was embarrassed, Emperor Yanping would probably not feel good either.

As for the charges Ning Dongsheng mentioned, they were actually not a problem. The only thing that was a bit troublesome was the large-scale purchase of grain.

The soaring grain prices in Liaodong are mainly due to the impact of the drought, and grain merchants are secretly raising grain prices.

Because very little of the grain purchased by the General's Office came from Liaodong, most of it came from Jiangnan, the Li Sheng Dynasty and the De Sheng Dynasty.

It was five or six years ago that Cui Hongtao of the Li Sheng Dynasty came to Teng Long Wei to request to exchange gold and silver ore for food. Now the Li Sheng Dynasty no longer lacks food, but Teng Long Wei uses all kinds of things to exchange food from the Li Sheng Dynasty.

As for the De Sheng Dynasty, it was isolated in the ocean and had a shortage of all kinds of supplies, but many of Dayong's products were very popular in the De Sheng Dynasty.

The De Sheng Dynasty was naturally very happy to exchange Dayong's porcelain, silk, tea, etc. for the De Sheng Dynasty's food.

Yang Zhengshan was unable to explain clearly to Emperor Yanping about the large-scale purchase of grain, so this became the most troublesome matter.

Yang Zhengshan thought about it and decided to wait for the reaction from the court first.

He cannot panic now. The attitude of Emperor Yanping is still unclear. If he panics, it will only bring him more trouble.

However, we need to keep a close eye on changes in the situation in the court.

(End of this chapter)