There are two major events in the court now. One is that the north experienced a snowstorm, which crushed countless people's houses. And because the heavy snow this year came early, some crops that could not be harvested in time were all covered.

For ordinary people, although there are not many crops that can germinate and grow in winter, they will still grow some vegetables that they can eat on a daily basis.

For example, cabbage.

Now the snowstorm is so severe that ordinary people don’t even have a place to keep warm after their houses collapsed, let alone vegetables.

In addition, heavy snow blocked the roads, and the relief silver and grain sent by the court were all blocked outside the disaster area.

If this continues, I am afraid that all the people in the disaster area will die there.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Households, this snowstorm was massive and affected tens of thousands of people.

This is very serious.

Moreover, this is the first natural disaster the emperor has encountered since he ascended the throne.

If it is not handled in time, it can easily develop into a man-made disaster.

Once the emperor loses the support of the people, his newly ascended position will become unstable.

Zhao Ji was very clear about this, so as soon as he received the news, in addition to sending people to provide disaster relief, he also transferred some troops from the surrounding areas to go to the disaster area to clear the way and clean up the area.

Although Zhao Ji responded very quickly, news is always delayed, so it still caused certain losses.

It is said that the Celestial Empire has been quite unstable in recent years. When the previous emperor was in power, there were floods and earth dragons rising up.

After a short period of peace, there was a war in southern Xinjiang.

We had finally resolved the external threat, but then this snowstorm happened.

Even though Zhao Ji has always done very well, he reacted quickly.

But there is always a voice among the people saying that this is God’s dissatisfaction with the court, or more precisely, God’s dissatisfaction with the person on the throne.

Gradually, a rumor began to spread among the people.

It is said that the current emperor is not worthy of the position and that he obtained the throne in an unclear way, so God blames him and brings down so much punishment.

At first, the news was only circulated in a small circle. Until one day, when Zhao Ji had a rare day off, he returned home from the palace and planned to take Mingyue and Hu Rou for a walk on the street.

As a result, after walking a few steps on the street, I heard this song from the mouths of like-minded people who were playing and fighting.

"That person is not worthy of his position. There was a torrential flood yesterday and a heavy snowfall today. If we want to ask the heavens what to do, we need someone else to express his feelings..."

Such songs come out of the mouths of these young children, and it can be said that the direction of these nursery rhymes is very clear.

Even though the emperor was not mentioned in the entire conversation, every word blamed the emperor for all the natural and man-made disasters.

Zhao Ji knew very well that this kind of nursery rhyme was definitely not something these children could make up.

It is even more unlikely that it was written by their adults.

Anyone who can write such a ballad must have ulterior motives.

Zhao Ji walked around the street twice more.

I specially went to the place where storytellers gathered, and as expected, I heard some stories with deep metaphors.

After giving the reward, Zhao Ji asked his men to call the storyteller to a remote place.

"Did you write the story you just told yourself?"

Zhao Ji's guards were tall and strong, and they deliberately pretended to be fierce, so this little storyteller could not resist them at all.

"Please spare me, this is definitely not something I wrote. I am just taking other people's money to tell other people's stories!"

"Then who told you this story?" The guard widened his eyes and touched the knife on his body with his other hand.

This scared the storyteller.

"Please spare my life, my dear. I have parents and children to support, and my family depends on me for support. I will never protect that man. That man found me in a teahouse, the Simei Teahouse on East Street. He should be familiar with the proprietress. I have seen them chatting and laughing, and the proprietress even treated him to a meal."

"My lord, I really only know these things. I really don't know anything else! My lord, please forgive me. I will never dare to take such a risky thing again..."

The storyteller was so scared that he could not help but look at Zhao Ji secretly. Zhao Ji was sitting on the eaves and nodded to the guard.

The guard threatened the storyteller a few more times and then let him go. At the same time, he arranged for someone to follow the storyteller secretly, mainly to see if he was trying to do anything cunning.

Then Zhao Ji took his people to the Simei Teahouse mentioned by the storyteller just now.

The reason why this teahouse is called Four Beauties is because the proprietress's mother, the proprietress, and her two daughters are all famous beauties on this East Street.

Unfortunately, they all met the wrong people. The boss lady's father and husband were both useless people who loved to drink every day.

So the livelihood of the whole family fell on these four women, or to be more precise, on the proprietress alone.

Because the boss lady's mother died of a cold last year, and her two daughters are only about ten years old this year.

The above are all the information that the guards found for Zhao Ji. Just looking at this information, he felt that the proprietress was a pitiful person. Not only did she have to bear the expenses of the whole family alone, but she also had to support two useless people.

With only two daughters and no son to support him, it can be said that it is difficult for him to make any progress in this era.

Zhao Ji looked at the information without saying anything. Not far away was the Simei Teahouse.

This teahouse looks quite rustic, and they sell these two kinds of tea. One is a coarse tea, which is extremely bitter, but comes in large bowls. You can buy one bowl for three cents, and you can get a second bowl for an additional cent.

Such coarse tea is for the coolies. In the summer, a bowl of coarse tea can bring some comfort to these poor people. In the winter, the proprietress will heat the coarse tea very hot, and drinking a bowl of hot tea can make you sweat.

The other kind of tea is sold to passers-by who have a little money. It is ordinary green tea. Zhao Ji ordered a bowl of tea and took a sip. In fact, this green tea is nothing more than some tea dregs brewed, but the proprietress seems to have some new ideas. She must have rubbed osmanthus into the tea dregs.

So this ordinary bowl of green tea has a hint of osmanthus fragrance when you taste it carefully.

It's quite clever.

Zhao Ji was drinking tea. The two daughters of the proprietress served him tea. The proprietress had not shown up yet.

Her two daughters are responsible for collecting money and serving tea.