Chapter 2118:
World in Crisis!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“Attend me! Prepare my carriage! I’m going to see the Emperor!” w.a.n.g Chong grimly said.
Whoos.h.!.+
A few moments later, w.a.n.g Chong strode out of the main gates, a gust of wind striking him in the face. It had gotten dark, and as w.a.n.g Chong raised his head, he could sense an unusual chill in the wind blowing from north to south.
“Hyah!”
Time was short, so w.a.n.g Chong quickly composed himself and boarded his carriage. The driver set the horses into motion, driving the carriage toward the Imperial Palace.
w.a.n.g Chong alone did not have the strength to resist the cold wave. He needed the full support of Li Heng and the Imperial Court.
It was a calm day in the empire, but it was a day that would forever be remembered in the history of the empire.
When w.a.n.g Chong entered the palace and divulged the truth of the great cold wave, Emperor Li Heng felt an unprecedented shock.
One hour later, countless eunuchs were dispatched to summon all the officials of the capital into the palace: King Song, Zhangchou Jianqiong, the Grand Preceptor, the Grand Tutor, the Six Ministers and their a.s.sistant ministers, the director of the Imperial Academy, the director of the Board of Astronomy, all the palace historians, and also the Yan Clan.
This was an unprecedented court session. For the period of a day and a night, all the officials were so busy that their feet hardly touched the ground and they barely had time to even eat or drink.
Only on the evening of the second day did they solemnly leave the Imperial Palace.
After this special court session, the entire empire was put into motion. Countless decrees and commands were sent to officials across the empire.
The tens of millions of tons of coal w.a.n.g Chong had extracted from Hengan, Yangquan, and the Shuo Province were placed under the escort of countless soldiers and distributed to the eleven circuits, three hundred and sixty provinces, and fifteen thousand, five hundred and fourteen counties of the Great Tang.
Besides the officials of the court, the power of the people, the great clans, and the merchants was also put into action.
Under the direction of the court, Arabian Kerosene and the clothes made from the wool and cotton w.a.n.g Chong had purchased were distributed by nearly ten million caravans to areas they were needed.
For this unprecedented cold wave, heat preservation was far and away the first priority.
Meanwhile, beyond the bustling cities, in the more remote circuits of Jiangnan East, Jiangnan West, Jiannan, Lingnan East, and Lingnan West, w.a.n.g Chong ordered all the large granaries he had constructed in these places to open their doors, mobilizing the various local garrisons to deliver grain to the various counties.
This was an operation of unprecedented scale, all of the resources of the Great Tang being mobilized. It was like the entire empire had been put on springs.
“w.a.n.g Chong, do you think that we can really weather this cold wave and continue the previous Emperor’s wish of ensuring the empire’s peace for many generations?”
On the high walls of the palace, Li Heng and w.a.n.g Chong stood side by side, looking down worriedly at the capital.
After reading all the information regarding the cold wave, Li Heng found himself incapable of sleeping.
Everyone wanted to be Emperor for the supreme authority the position granted, with First Prince Li Ying even rebelling for it. Only someone upon the throne would understand that this power came with the heavy burden of responsibility.
“We will! We definitely will!” w.a.n.g Chong said, his eyes gleaming with determination.
The chill winds were getting colder.
Whoos.h.!.+
As the Great Tang busied away, doing all it could to deal with the imminent Great Ice Age, the terrifying cold wave began to make itself felt across the world, in Goguryeo and the Turkic Khaganates in the north, in Ü-Tsang, the Cong Mountains, from the western world to the northern regions.
The Goguryeo Empire.
The Hochon, Changjin, and Chasong Rivers were the three great rivers of Goguryeo, and they were known by Goguryeons as the mother rivers.
Cold winds howled out of the north, carrying flecks of ice and hailstones that carpeted the world in white.
The hailstones pinged and cracked loudly against the walls of Hwando.
Within Hwando, the majority of the soldiers that should have been vigilantly standing guard had retreated into the city, and the world was still.
Kaclack!
A soft crack came from the river. At some point, the surging flow of the river had begun to slow. A thin layer of ice had formed, and as the cold air continued to surge past, the layer of ice rapidly thickened and spread.
The Eastern Turkic Khaganate.
Twenty-some li east from the s.h.i.+lka River was Chita.
This area on the northern border of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate was an extremely important pasture area. From a distance, one could see the numerous cows and sheep the shepherds had let out to pasture across the plains.
The livestock here were packed together. There were nearly one million cows and sheep, along with numerous herds of horses.
Once the mounted shepherds had finished pasturing their livestock, they would return to the nearby s.h.i.+lka River to drink its waters. They would drive their livestock in the morning and return at dusk, a practice that had endured for centuries.
The plains were quiet and peaceful.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the ground shuddered, and a great turmoil arose from the distant north.
An old shepherd with a wrinkled forehead and wearing a cotton jacket, holding a long pole that he used to drive livestock, turned to a youth behind him and shouted.
“Wuluhache! Guhama!” (“What happened? Go and take a look!”)
The youth of twenty-some years of age hesitated a moment before urging his horse into a gallop. Suddenly—
Whoos.h.!.+
With a howl like the wailing of ten thousand ghosts, a storm erupted from the northern horizon and began to rush toward Chita.
The storm came with all the sound and fury of a stampede, the earth shuddering more and more as it approached.
The livestock seemed to sense something, and raised their heads to the north.
“Suolalu! Sayema!” (“A demon storm! Run!”)
The old shepherd turned ghastly pale, his lips trembling.
The other shepherds also turned pale, and they began to ride forward and try to herd the livestock and horses to the south. But how could moving such a large herd away from the storm be an easy task?
A few moments later, with a great rumble and deafening howl, the storm arrived. All the herds of Chita were engulfed in snow and hail.
The only thing that could be heard was the howling of the wind, and the vast whiteness robbed even the most experienced shepherds of their sense of direction, causing them to panic.
Baaa!
Mooo!
The sheep and cows cried out in the raging snowstorm as the temperature on the plains rapidly plunged to minus thirty degrees.
Hailstones as tough as rocks pelted down from the clouds.
The smallest of the hailstones was the size of a thumb, and the larger ones were the size of fists. One of the hailstones struck a horse, instantly caving in its skull.
Meanwhile, the fierce winds swept up several dozen sheep and hurled them into the sky!
After some time, the cold winds finally pa.s.sed, moving farther south. Calm was finally restored to Chita, leaving only the bodies of livestock and an unending field of white.
At the same time…
On the Tibetan Plateau, tens of thousands of tents were flattened and buried by a blizzard.
In Arabia, crystalline sculptures of people in movement lined the streets, the bodies of those frozen to death.
And in the Western Turkic Khaganate…
From east to west, north to south, the entire continent was engulfed in ice and snow.
Meanwhile, in Youzhou…
Atop a high mountain post, thin flakes drifted down from the sky like goose feathers. Atop the mountain, a chubby figure extended a hand and watched as a thin snowflake drifted onto their palm. Crack! The fingers closed together, and a sinister smile slowly appeared on that seemingly kind and plump face.
“Congratulations, Your Excellency! Congratulations! The men in black have finally begun to move, and the cold wave has come early.”
Baizhen Tuoluo, his long eyebrows trembling, suddenly stepped forward and bowed to An Yaluoshan.
Zhao Kan bowed and excitedly said, “The cold wave has already moved south, and now, ice can be seen from Whitehead Mountain all the way to Ü-Tsang, and the temperature has plunged. In the Eastern Turkic Khaganate, several million livestock have already frozen to death! To deal with this cold wave, Ozmish Khagan has been in council with his advisors for five days straight!
“The opportunity Your Excellency has been waiting for has finally arrived.”
There was no faction that was not alarmed by this frozen calamity. At this moment, the only ones excited about all this were the people of Youzhou.
An Yaluoshan faintly smiled and asked, “What has Yeon Gaesomun said?”
“The three rivers of Goguryeo have all frozen. Earlier, Your Excellency told him that the end of days was coming and that a cold wave was imminent, and though he nodded along, in truth, he did not believe you. But now, he has no other choice but to believe. Never in the history of Goguryeo has the Hochon River frozen!
“Yeon Gaesomun has already sent a letter asking about an alliance and when our soldiers will deploy.”
Zhao Kan sn.i.g.g.e.red as he spoke.