The king behind the empress

Chapter 53 The Little Ice Age
Great Zhou capital.

After the court meeting dispersed, Mo Zizai did not rush back to his residence, but instead went to Qin Tianjian.

Qin Tianjian is the department that observes the sky and formulates the calendar in Dazhou. To put it bluntly, it is a combination of the Meteorological Bureau and the Observatory, but they occasionally do fortune-telling and so on.

For example, if there is a natural or man-made disaster, meteor vision or something, Qin Tianjian will occasionally jump out and say that this is a warning from the heavens, and it is blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

And once this kind of thing happens, it depends on the emperor's mood. If the emperor is in a good mood, he will issue an edict of sin and comfort the heavens.

If you're in a bad mood, you're bewitching the crowd, and if you pull it out, you'll be chopped off.

But fortunately, the Qintian Supervisor of this dynasty seems to be a materialist. He studies the celestial phenomena with all his heart, and has never come out to fortune-telling. Said the queen is not.

It was precisely because of this that Mo Zizai wanted to come to him, because he always felt that there was something wrong with the occurrence of natural disasters, so he wanted to come to Qintian to check the weather conditions in the past.

After the massacre in the court hall in the morning, Mo Zizai is now notorious, so his arrival immediately made Qin Tianjian a little bit crazy.

Even the supervisor, who often stays at home studying astronomical phenomena and does not show up, was called out.

The supervisor of Qin Tianjian is about seventy years old, with white beard and hair. He was probably measuring something when he was called out, and he was holding a small hourglass in his hand.

Although the official positions of Qin Tianjian are small, they are all hereditary. The supervisor Ni Zushou has been an old scholar all his life, and he has not dealt with people much, so he knows that standing in front of him is Mo Zi who kills officials without blinking an eye. He was not too polite, and asked directly:
"My lord, what are you doing here at Qin Tianjian?"

Mo Zizai didn't care about Ni Zushou's tone, and said, "Check the astronomical data, where are the astronomical records over the years?"

Ni Zushou, who was not very interested in receiving Mo Zizai, suddenly became interested, "My lord, still understands astronomical phenomena?"

"I don't understand, but I can always sum up some rules from the astronomical data."

Mo Zizai still has some respect for the old man in front of him. Astronomy is not a good job in this era. Regardless of whether it is because of work or not, it is not easy for Ni Zushou to persevere for decades.

"My lord is right. The changing laws of the celestial phenomena are summed up bit by bit."

Listening to Mo Zizai's summary of the laws of astronomy, Ni Zushou immediately agreed, and he spoke quite frankly, "The astronomical data over the years are all in the Tianxiang Pavilion, and the prince will come with me."

The Tianxiang Pavilion is as big as three rooms, and there are various records in different categories, such as astrology, rain and snow, thunder, and wind direction, etc., everything.

Mo Zizai looked at these classifications, pondered for a moment, then walked to Yuxue's side, starting from the records ten years ago, and checked bit by bit.

Qin Tianjian's records are quite detailed, and after Mo Zizai patiently read through these materials, an hour has passed.

After reading the information, Mo Zizai frowned. The weather information made him firm in his guess, but the matter was of great importance. Just guessing was not enough, he also needed more intuitive data.

It's just that he has already read the records of rain and snow over the years, and he didn't know where to look for other things.

Seeing Mo Zizai who was a little dazed, Ni Zushou, who also stayed in the Tianxiang Pavilion for an hour, asked: "What kind of information does the prince want to see, you might as well tell the old man."

"After all, the old man has been in Qin Tianjian for decades, and in all aspects, he is still more familiar than the prince."

Hearing what Ni Zushou said, Mo Zizai pondered for a moment, and then asked Zhou Qi to invite the idlers out.

Ni Zushou is the hereditary supervisor of the Qintian Supervisor, and his ancestors have been in the Qintian Supervisor for generations. From this point of view, he is trustworthy, so when Zhou Qi and Zu Dashou were left, Mo Zizai said directly: "According to the original Wang speculates that a catastrophe is about to strike, so this king wants to make sure his speculation is true."

"Catastrophe?"

Ni Zushou was stunned for a moment, and then retorted subconsciously: "This is impossible! Did the prince think too much?"

"The old man has been in the Qin Tianjian for decades. I have read all the celestial records of this dynasty, and I have read nine out of ten. I haven't seen any scenes that match the weather of a catastrophe?"

Mo Zizai didn't refute, but just asked lightly, "What if this disaster happened in millennia?"

"millennium?"

Ni Zushou froze for a moment, then felt that Mo Zizai was talking nonsense, he had never heard of any kind of disaster that was measured in millennia.

Seeing that Ni Zushou obviously didn't believe it, Mo Zizai didn't explain much, but asked, "Jianzheng, I want to check the weather changes over the years, mainly the temperature in winter. I don't know where to start?"

Probably because he suspected that Mo Zizai was only here to have fun, Ni Zushou's expression became a little colder, "If you want to check the weather, just check the thickness of the ice in Cuihua Pond."

Hearing what Ni Zushou said, Mo Zizai's eyes suddenly brightened.

Cuihua Pool is a large lake outside Tianjing City. The water is dead, so the ice surface is thicker in cold weather and thinner in warm weather. This is indeed a good way to observe the temperature without a thermometer.

Seeing that Mo Zizai went to check the records on the ice surface of Cuihua Pool, Ni Zushou shook his head and said, "You don't need to look, I made all the records in Cuihua Pool."

"The ice surface has been getting thicker and thicker over the years, indicating that the weather is getting thinner..."

Before Ni Zushou finished speaking, he seemed to remember something, and he froze in place. After a while, his complexion suddenly changed, and he went straight to the calendar.

Some climate conditions of the previous dynasty are recorded there. Although they are not very detailed, there are still records of extremely serious disasters.

【…】

[In the 11th year of Yong'an, the weather was cold, and the North Canal was frozen for more than April. 】

[In the 12th year of Yong'an, the weather was cold, snow was seen in the south, and the ice on the Wujiang Canal was more than three feet thick. 】

[In the 13th year of Yong'an, it was very cold, and the Huaijiang River was frozen for the first time in more than a thousand years. 】

[In the 14th year of Yong'an, it was extremely cold, and countless people and animals froze to death. 】

The record ends here, because the Qian Dynasty was overthrown in the 14th year of Yong'an, followed by a period of wars for several years, which lasted until the establishment of the Great Zhou Dynasty and the establishment of the four kingdoms, and the war was over.

While Ni Zushou was reading the records of the previous dynasty, Mo Zi also read the thickness of the ice over the past ten years.

"It seems that my guess is correct, it really is the Little Ice Age."

Mo Zizai's face was a little ugly. He was well-known in the Little Ice Age in his previous life. Every time he appeared, he would end a dynasty.

The Little Ice Age will lead to a drop in temperature and a significant reduction in food production. At the same time, various natural disasters will occur frequently, resulting in a sharp drop in population.

The most important thing is that the Little Ice Age is not short-lived. This kind of severe cold weather can last for hundreds of years at the longest, which is really fatal.

(End of this chapter)