"So, there are still wise people in the court." Zhao Hao smiled and poured tea for Hai Rui.

"You are the one behind this?" Hai Rui understood very well. Xu Jie had been treated too badly by him. Although he deserved the punishment, the Ming Dynasty judged people by their hearts rather than their deeds.

Even if the evidence was irrefutable, the government and the public could not speak up for Xu directly, but they could accuse Hai Rui of being ungrateful and unruly for attacking a 67-year-old man. In addition, he had offended too many people by clearing up lawsuits and measuring land, and there were indeed countless people who wanted him to get out.

"How can I have that ability?" Zhao Hao quickly said, "In this small piece of land in Jiangnan, I still have to rely on the protection of the Zhongcheng. Can I protect the Zhongcheng in return? Wouldn't that be a Möbius strip?"

"What the hell is that?" Hai Rui was used to it. After a moment's pause, he said indifferently, "It's really not you?"

"Really not." Zhao Hao nodded. He certainly couldn't let Hai Rui know about the dirty deal he had made with Gao Gong.

"Okay, let's just pretend it's not you." Hai Rui looked at him deeply and stopped dwelling on the issue. "But no matter what, I can only serve for one full term, which is less than two years. If they can behave themselves during these two years, I'm afraid they will show their true colors once I'm gone."

"Alas, treating the symptoms but not the root cause is ultimately futile." Hai Rui said with endless regret, "If you want to avoid the end of the government, it's all about the people, not the things. Unfortunately, as a governor, I can't replace all the people - especially those clerks who have been passed down from generation to generation. They are like mosquitoes and flies. They hide in the winter, and come out to suck blood and eat shit when the temperature rises the next year."

"Ahem..." Zhao Hao almost choked, and helplessly wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and said, "This is indeed a problem. Our group is also worried that the biggest risk in the future lies in the attitude of the government."

"You really should have thought about it earlier." Hai Rui nodded. This was exactly what he wanted to say to Zhao Hao. "To be honest, the things you did in Jiangnan were good, but they were still too exaggerated. You were lucky to have met Lin Zhongcheng and me, who turned a blind eye and let you do whatever you want. What if you get a governor who doesn't agree with your ways in the future? You will be in trouble."

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded, thinking that he could only fast forward to the next person. Of course, he would never say this out loud.

"Besides, your method of using benefits to bind officials and gentry has its own problems." Hai Rui said to Zhao Hao with a serious expression: "First of all, it can only work in Jiangnan, because this is a land of fish and rice. As long as you sort out the relationships, there will always be enough benefits to distribute. But what about other places? In places where an acre of land only produces five or six bushels, or seven or eight bushels, can your development company make money? What will you distribute? How can you satisfy everyone?"

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded in conviction and said, "Zhongcheng is right. This kind of 'project-for-land' development model can only be implemented in the Jiangnan area. If it is implemented elsewhere, it will be a blind attempt."

Before the rise of modern agriculture, farmland production depended entirely on land and climate conditions. Areas with good conditions could produce five or six times more per mu than areas with poor conditions. Otherwise, Suzhou alone would not have accounted for one-eighth of the country's tax revenue.

This is also the reason why Zhao Hao resolutely refused to open a development company outside the ten prefectures of Jiangnan. How can you do a business that loses money?

"If you can't promote it, there will be a big problem - the gap between the rich and the poor in Jiangnan and other places will be further widened." Hai Rui said sternly: "Jiangnan will become a magnet, strongly attracting refugees from various provinces to flock here! What will we do then?"

"This is a good thing. Population is productivity." Zhao Hao laughed heartlessly. Before Hai Rui could get mad, he quickly changed his words and said, "This is not what I said. Your idol said it in the Supplement to the Great Learning."

"You..." Hai Rui was furious. He glared at him and said, "Even if it's a good thing in the short term, with so many refugees pouring in over the long term, there will definitely be chaos!"

"I will take as many refugees as possible. Jiangnan cannot support them, so I will find a place to settle them overseas." Zhao Hao also became serious and said firmly: "Zhongcheng is right. I want to turn Jiangnan into a magnet and attract as many people as possible!"

"What do you mean?" Hai Rui frowned.

Zhao Hao sighed and said, "Zhongcheng, remember I told you that the Little Ice Age is coming!"

"Are you talking about the extreme cold that lasts for a hundred years?" Hai Rui asked with a stern expression.

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded heavily.

~~

The two have been friends for many years... They have exchanged countless verbal attacks, from Beijing to Nanjing.

It was back in Beijing when the two were discussing the reasons for the change of dynasties. Zhao Hao told Hai Rui that many times the great turmoil that led to the collapse of rule was not entirely caused by the failure of official administration, but was closely related to the Little Ice Age cycle.

Since the Xia and Shang dynasties, there have been three small ice ages. The first was from the end of the Shang dynasty to the beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty; the second was from the end of the Eastern Han dynasty to the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin dynasty; the third was from the end of the Tang dynasty to the Five Dynasties and the beginning of the Northern Song dynasty.

When the Little Ice Age began, the temperature dropped dramatically, causing drought in the north and a massive reduction in grain production, leading to a long-term famine that lasted for decades.

Under such circumstances, the government was in financial difficulties and the income of the landlords was greatly affected. Naturally, they had to intensify their exploitation of the people, which led to decades of violent social unrest and war. Facts have proved that even the Han and Tang dynasties, which had several long blood grooves, could not withstand such turmoil...

But what Zhao Hao cares more about than the narrative of emperors and generals changing dynasties is that every time there is a 'Little Ice Age', China's population will drop by more than four-fifths!

Unfortunately, the fourth Little Ice Age has come again... In fact, we have now entered the Little Ice Age. The best proof of this is that the Grand Canal freezes in October every year and thaws in March.

But Zhao Hao told Hai Rui that the real extreme cold weather would not come for decades. By then, the Ming Dynasty would not be able to survive it either!

Hai Rui would certainly think that he was exaggerating and making far-fetched claims. But as Zhao Hao continued to create miracles, the persuasiveness of his arguments grew day by day. Hai Rui had no choice but to take his words seriously, and asked people to find various historical materials and look them up whenever they had time.

The Shang Dynasty was too long ago to be found. But the data for the last two times is very rich. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Han population was 60 million. After decades of famine and war, when the Western Jin Dynasty unified China, the population was only 7.7 million. Then came the Eight Kings Rebellion and the Five Barbarians Invasion. At the most dangerous time, there were less than 4 million Han people left in the country... It was really on the verge of national extinction and civilization being cut off.

The Han population at the end of the Tang Dynasty was also 60 million, but by the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, it was only 20 million. Natural disasters lead to man-made disasters, and man-made disasters amplify the harm of natural disasters. If you are unfortunate enough to be born during such a period, you will be in a living hell that is too horrible to look at!

He then specifically counted the frost, snow and freezing disasters during these two periods and found that not only were they far more frequent than before, but they also occurred much earlier. In addition, the number of floods, droughts and locust plagues also increased accordingly.

Then he counted the data of the current dynasty and was horrified to find that, just as Zhao Hao said, since the Zhengde period, frost, snow and freezing disasters in the current dynasty began to increase and occur earlier. Correspondingly, the frequency of floods, droughts and locust plagues also increased.

Moreover, his own experience was consistent with the data. In the past fifty or sixty years, the Ming Dynasty was indeed not in a good situation. Disasters occurred frequently across the country, the lives of the people became increasingly difficult, the conflict between the people and the landlords became increasingly acute, and the country was in a precarious situation.

If it had not reached the point of despair, how could he have been so resentful as to shout out to the late emperor in his "Memorial on Public Security" the loudest voice possible: "Jiajing Jiajing, every family shall be clean"?

But now, Hai Rui has seen clearly that the emperor can't save the Ming Dynasty. So of course whoever can save it will try. That's why he took drastic measures and used heavy hands in the ten prefectures of Yingtian. He also let Zhao Hao do whatever he wants - with Hai Rui's sharp eyes, of course he can see whether he is really worried about the country and the people.

Of course, although it was a last-ditch effort, Hai Rui still had to do his best to steer the right direction and not let this kid's actions end up bringing disaster to the country and the people...

~~

The charcoal basin was warm, but the atmosphere of their conversation was as cold as falling into an icy cave. Li Shizhen, who had come out to drink tea, couldn't help but shiver.

"Do you have any evidence you can show?" Hai Rui asked in a deep voice, "Can it convince all the officials in the court?"

"This is too difficult." Zhao Hao smiled bitterly, "First of all, climate change is a long process, and there will be repetitions in the process... According to the scientific predictions of me and my disciples, the temperature will continue to rise in the next ten years. In this case, where will my speech about the Little Ice Age find a market?"

After a pause, he said in a serious tone, "But this is just a flash in the pan. The situation will continue to deteriorate. Thirty years later, the Ming Dynasty will begin to enter an extremely cold period. By then, the Wusong River will freeze over. Those people will naturally believe it, but it will be too late to do anything by then!"

"So we have at most 30 years to try to resist the coming catastrophe." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice: "To prevent the tragedy of Han and Tang dynasties from happening again! To prevent our country from sinking again! To prevent the people of the Ming Dynasty from becoming two-legged sheep, fourth-class people and other livestock and grass again!"

Li Shizhen was shocked by these words. It was the first time he heard Zhao Hao say this. He always thought that this guy was messing around and was too ambitious. He was surprised that Hai Rui, an honest official who could not tolerate any injustice, could tolerate Zhao Hao and Jiangnan Group.

Now I understand that Zhao Hao is anxious. And Hai Rui believes him and is anxious too...

"I don't know anything about the Little Ice River." He interrupted, "But it's true that the weather is getting colder. When I followed my father to Beijing fifty years ago, the North Grand Canal was only frozen for three months a year. Now it's basically frozen for four months..."

Hai Rui nodded. People of his age naturally had the same experience. He asked Zhao Hao a pointed question: "Even the Han and Tang dynasties couldn't get through this difficult time. Do you think you can lead the Ming Dynasty through it?"

"Do your best and leave the rest to fate." Zhao Hao smiled faintly and said, "At least I can come up with a solution."

"Move the people from the north to overseas?" Hai Rui sneered. He had been talking nonsense with Zhao Hao for a long time, so he naturally knew that this kid had been advocating that there were fertile lands overseas that were ten times more abundant than that of the Ming Dynasty, and that it was truly a land given by God. If you don't take what God has given you, you will be punished!

"This is just one of them." Zhao Hao held up three fingers and said word by word: "Promoting drought-resistant and high-yield crops, large-scale immigration to the south, and reducing the power of the feudal lords. These are my three axes. Simple, right?"