In this year of great drought, the entire Linji Prefecture was hot and arid. If one went outside for even an hour or two without drinking, they would become unbearably thirsty, their lips cracking.
Linji City was somewhat better off thanks to Jishui Lake. However, there were reports that in villages in the riverless regions outside the city, the dry conditions had caused even the rammed-earth courtyard walls to fracture. Some wooden house pillars had even burst with cracks.
Trees on the mountainsides were dying off in vast swathes. As for the farmlands, they had long since dried up and cracked open. You could dig many feet down without finding a hint of moisture, making it impossible to grow any crops.
However, such droughts were not uncommon in the Great Yu empire, especially in the Land of the North, where one was bound to occur every ten or twenty years.
