Dominate the Country

[Thanks to the book friend 'pretend to be bored' for the 500' coin reward. ]

Miaodao Islands, Changshan Island, at the southern end of the Bohai Strait.

As the main island of the Miaodao Islands, it is located between Jiaodong and Liaodong Peninsula, at the intersection of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, facing Penglai, Dengzhou Prefecture in the south, Lushunkou, Liaodong in the north, Beijing and Tianjin in the west, North Korea in the east, and Japan across the Yellow Sea.

The geographical location of Changshan Island is extremely important. If there is another port like Jiaozhou, Yantai, and Lushun here, it will be a natural barrier to the Bohai Sea. It's a pity that there is no natural good port here in Changshan Island.

The navy and land forces of the Fu Han Army that harassed Shandong and Bohai Bay are now based in the Miaodao Islands. The person sitting here is none other than Ye Xiangde.

At this moment, all the Fu Han Army naval forces of the entire Miaodao Islands gathered on Changshan Island.

In the hall, from Ye Xiangde who was in a high position, Dai Tingdong was on the left, and Zhang Wei, Zhang Qiu's cousin, was on the right. Below Zhang Wei were Tian Qing and Shi Shenglin. Among the nine leaders under Zhang Qiu, the new ones were Tian Qing, Shi Shenglin, and Baiyu. As a result, Baiyu now ran to the logistics department, and Tian Qing and Shi Shenglin became closer.

Dai Tingdong's subordinates were two former adjutants of the Fujian Navy. The two groups are now one family, but the differences and rifts are still very serious.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered our troops to hit Shandong hard in the near future."

Ye Xiangde shook the paper order in his hand. This was just delivered to Changshan Island by a speedboat. At the same time, a batch of fire dragon bombs will also arrive at Changshan Island in the next two days. The spirits of the people in the hall were immediately lifted. The order issued by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself must be performed very well.

On weekdays, meritorious service and awards are average, but now is the critical moment. Chen Ming issued the order, so he would naturally keep an eye on this battle. For those present, if they fight well in this battle, it will be in the eyes of the prince; if they fight badly, it will also be in the eyes of the prince. Think about the difference, who among those present dares to be careless?

"In this battle, Ye and Dai will lead the team to Changshan Island to suppress the Shandong Navy in Dengzhou Water City."

"And you, divide your troops into two groups, and take Laizhou and Ninghai as the breakthrough points respectively. Within half a month, I will make the whole Jiaodong a mess."

Ye Xiangde does not need to personally go down to compete for credit with the commanders below. He only needs to keep a close eye on the Shandong Navy in Dengzhou Water City. Will the merits of the subordinates be missing from him, the commander-in-chief?

Tian Qing and Shi Shenglin looked at each other, and when their eyes met Zhang Wei's, they all flashed with surprise.

As the time entered the second half of July, flood relief work in the south was still in progress. The rain in the south this year was a little, but it was very strong. King Sulu was on his way north, traveling along the coast from Guangzhou to Wusong, and then via the Yangtze River to Wuhan - Wuhan Prefecture had been officially established, and Liu Dezhao also became the first governor of Hubei.

Because of the flood, Abu Beka changed to a land route when he arrived in Nanjing. Coincidentally, Abu Beka also wanted to see the livelihood of the Chinese people.

Lushan received the second wave of Shichen from North Korea. When Chen Ming faced the second wave of North Korean envoys crying for help, he had to pretend and ordered the navy of Changshan Island in the north to increase harassment of Shandong and Bohai Bay, and asked for the word "ruthless" in the order, which was very rare. The same order was also sent to the Qingshui Sect and the Hunyuan Sect. As for whether the latter would obey the order, it depended on what they thought.

"Master Jin, you've seen it too. This year, the southern country has been flooded by rain, and many places have reported emergencies. Our dynasty is eager to respond, but we are willing but unable to send troops." Chen Quan looked at Jin Jizhong who was holding his robe, laughing and crying. Floods are frequent in the south. Whether it is disaster relief or strengthening river embankments, the logistics troops are always on the front line. So Chen Quan is very busy now.

"Master Jin, it's useless for you to talk to me now. Why don't you stay in Lushan for a while and accompany that Master Quan to relax." The second wave of Korean deputy envoys died before they arrived in Lushan and were buried outside the city of Nanjing. As for the main envoy, he fell ill after crawling down to the hall and crying.

This second wave of envoys was the fleet that the South China Sea No. 1 collided with in the Bohai Bay. There were not only Korean envoys in it, but also many families of Korean dignitaries. Now the latter are all staying in Shanghai and Nanjing.

Chen Quan was angry and amused when he said this. Of course, he also felt some pity in his heart.

But Chen Han really has no time and energy to deal with North Korea now.

Since the end of May. Lingnan, or more precisely, Fujian and Guangdong, has been raining heavily, and it can't be stopped. It has been two months now!

And when it comes to June, there will be a lot of rainfall in the Yangtze River area. From mid-to-late June to now, the rain is heavier and more urgent. However, the Yellow River is very quiet this summer, and the rain is not much or less.

In the former Qing Governor's Mansion in Wuchang, Chen Ming looked at the bare flowers in the courtyard hit by the rain, and felt discouraged. He could easily beat the Qing Dynasty to pieces, and he could use the navy to cause wars everywhere in the thousands of miles of sea borders in the north of the Qing Dynasty, but he couldn't do anything about the sky!

If this rain falls in North China, how good would it be if it fell in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hebei? ——Don't say that Chen Ming has a dark mentality.

The unrest in Guangdong and Fujian in the past two years was caused by war, but the climate was still very good. This year, there is no war, but floods have come again.

Chen Ming paced around the room with his hands behind his back, standing by the window from time to time, looking coldly at the rain outside. The current Governor's Mansion is like an ink painting by a Chinese painting master. The entire mansion is hidden in the crystal rain lines, like smoke and fog.

The lotus in the backyard pond has been completely damaged by the rain. This should be the last good day for the lotus with its red lotus and green leaves. But now there is no trace of red in the rain curtain.

Chen Ming's eyes were a little dark. He had slept less than two hours for many days in a row. This was the first time he had experienced a 'flood fighting and rescue' struggle since he started his career. To be honest, this worried him more than the war, and made him more worried.

A strong wind blew, dark clouds rushed across the southern horizon, and the sky darkened almost as fast as the naked eye could see.

"Boom Rondon-" accompanied by Chen Ming's sentence of the country's country -him, his thunder, and the thunderous sounds have sounded.

"It's raining again!" The black clouds pressing down on the city were like a group of galloping and roaring wild horses, covering the top of the head layer by layer, getting thicker and thicker, and getting lower and lower. It feels like if you climb to the top of the building and stretch out your hands, you can tear off a piece.

Time passed by, as if it was dark in an instant, and the world was dark.

The wind was strong, and raindrops as big as soybeans fell from the sky, making a continuous popping sound. A bolt of lightning pierced the sky, like a lightsaber cutting through the darkness. The ear-splitting thunder sounded, and the raindrops formed a curtain of rain, pouring down overwhelmingly like the Milky Way pouring down from the sky.

The strong wind whipped up the heavy rain, waving like countless whips, beating the glass windows hard. The raindrops caught by the wind seemed to be looking for something, hitting everywhere in the east and west.

The rain is getting heavier. The rain poured down in torrents.

The violent storm came a bit quickly, but such weather has happened frequently in the past month. And it is obviously inconsistent with the rainy season in previous years.

It's just that all the maids in the Governor's Mansion have the talent of 'service'. If they get it in the future, they will all be able to become outstanding waiters at the state guesthouse level. He was not caught off guard at all by this sudden change. In just five or six minutes, the entire Governor's Mansion was lit up again. Hundreds of revolving lanterns and wind lanterns illuminated the entire Governor's Mansion and it was 'lit' again.

"Crack..." Chen Ming dropped his fist on the window steps, and the wooden sash frame was broken by Chen Ming.

Floods occurred in the middle and upper reaches of the Ganjiang River, Fuhe River, and the upper reaches of the Minjiang River, and major floods occurred in the upper reaches of the Xiangjiang River and Dongshui River at the same time. More than 20 prefectures and counties in Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, and Guangdong provinces were severely affected. The southeastern coast of Zhejiang and Taiwan were swept by the typhoon, which also caused certain losses. Some states and counties along the river in Hubei were also affected.

"What the hell." Chen Ming cursed bitterly. He was really ill-prepared for the floods in the south. He had always regarded the Yellow River as a major disaster. He was also mentally prepared for floods in the Yangtze River, but subconsciously he ignored the Xiangjiang, Ganjiang and Minjiang rivers. As for Guangdong, in Chen Ming's previous life, except for typhoons, Guangdong had never heard of floods there! [Don’t criticize, don’t take it seriously, it’s a general understanding]

The year before last and the year before last, the Yangtze River and even the entire south were quiet during the summer. Who would have thought that this year God would change his attitude and everything would be like a sword hanging over his head!

Fire and water are merciless. When a flood occurs in the southern country, people will be displaced thousands of miles away and starve to death for thousands of lives. This is no joke. Even if the Fuhan Army had enough food to provide relief to the victims, it would still take time. People's livelihoods have been destroyed, their homes have been lost, and no one knows how long it will take to rebuild. Besides, the people in this era are most lacking in order. The evil deeds committed by those who take advantage of the situation will have more serious consequences than floods! What's more, there's this poisonous snake at the sticky pole in the middle!

…

Lukou Town is located between Xiangtan and Liling. In later generations, it will be the core area of ​​Zhuzhou City, an important "cross-shaped" railway hub in China.

The current Lukou Town is just a larger town along the Xiangjiang River in Hunan. It is the intersection of Xiangjiang River and Lujiang River.

Whenever a flood strikes, the intersection of rivers is always the one that gets the most attention. A month ago, a flood control document from the Provincial Department of Water Resources was sent to the mayor of Lukou Town and officials sent by the Changsha Water Conservancy Bureau, asking them to be careful. Otherwise, if the embankment breaks, local officials and county officials will be cut into pieces.

And the local people in Lukou are extremely sensitive to this matter. God is going crazy and it keeps raining. This is killing people.

With little need for mobilization by the local government, villagers in Lukou and surrounding villages took the initiative to organize and protect the embankment. In addition to the young people from various villages, military and police figures also appeared on the river embankment from time to time. Because the river embankment breach in Shilong Town, Dongguan in early June was a standard form of man-made sabotage.

The traces left at the scene cannot deceive the big guy's eyes. Although the thief was not caught and no conclusive evidence was found, a well-known organization was right in front of hundreds of millions of people - Sticky Stick Department!

Up to now, there has been no fatal movement in Lukou Town. Although the turbid water of the Lujiang River, a tributary, roars frighteningly, it roars, rushes away, rolls up the sand, and surges. From time to time, there are people on the water surface. A terrifying whirlpool. But overall it's okay.

The mayor of Lukou Town is a local scholar in Xiangtan. He could not make up his mind at first, and then he could only watch Chen Hao and others who were also scholars rise to the top. He worked hard but could only be a scholar in Lukou. He worked tirelessly to become a seventh-grade official.

Of course, being able to become an official as a scholar was something that was unbelievable in the Qing Dynasty in previous years. Therefore, the mayor is still very concerned about his official title.

But this year the wind and rain were not right. It rained continuously. The road outside was so deep that one could sink to the ankle. The road was ruined. Even though he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, he could do nothing. The mayor ran to the river bank three times a day and stayed on the river bank every now and then.

But his efforts and cautions were useless. It rained as it should. As long as the rain did not stop for one day, the knife on the neck could not be removed!

Just when Chen Ming broke the wooden frame of the window sash with a fierce punch in the Governor's Mansion, a muddy man in the Lukou Town Office brought the mayor of Lukou Town a bad news that made him lose his soul.

Lukou, the river broke!

The words shook the world. The whole office was silent in an instant. The mayor's face was pale, and the officials under him were also facing the end of the world. "How could it be? I, I just came down from the river bank half an hour ago. It was fine at that time?" The mayor yelled.

"Someone was sabotaging it. I don't know what happened, the river bank suddenly exploded, and then it collapsed..." The person who came to report the news also burst into tears.

"Is the gap blocked?" The knife finally fell on his head, and the mayor suddenly felt that he didn't feel heavy at all, but felt much more relaxed in his heart, as if he had been relieved of a heavy burden.

These days, he has been worried all day and all night, and such torture is really more uncomfortable than the pain of "hanging the knife and falling to the ground" now.

The worst thing has happened, and the mayor can put down the burden in his heart and face it with all his strength.

"Sir, the breach is almost blocked! The rattan frames and sandbags prepared before are all used. But the flood flooded five villages, and seven strong men on the embankment are missing." Are these seven missing people dead or alive? Is there anyone among them who is doing something wrong? This must be found out.

…

The incident of riverbank breach due to human damage occurred again in Lukou Town, Xiangtan. The news was reported to Changsha, and the whole Changsha seemed to be even more gloomy. Chen Chengzhi, the current head of the Hunan Police Department, was very worried!

No matter how capable he was, he couldn't watch all the people when guarding the dike. Who knows which one of them was from the Qing Dynasty's sticking rod office.

Chen Chengzhi even dared to be sure in his heart that this would not be the last one, but just the beginning.

The facts that followed were not at all out of his expectations. Hengshan, Hengyang, and Changde were like dominoes. First, the Xiangjiang River, then the Yuanjiang River. Except for the heavily guarded Changsha and Yueyang, the important places along the river in Hunan had breaches and dikes one after another. At the same time, there were also Jiangxi and Fujian, most of which were "man-made". So the "Zhongyuan Daily" pushed all the breaches to the sticking rod office.

It was also because Qianlong/Manchuria did not dare to be too crazy. Manchuria also had to take into account the hearts of the Han people in the north, as well as the feelings of those southern "loyalties" who abandoned their homes and fled to the north, so they did not take action in the Yangtze River.

But Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong..., reports came from the breaches one after another, hundreds of villages were submerged by the flood, and the number of victims rose sharply like a rocket. At the end of July, the rain finally stopped. The whole of Hunan, the number of refugees affected by the disaster in Hunan alone, exceeded 300,000.

In this "flood relief" battle, Chen Ming was defeated miserably by the sticking pole! The enemy and our investment and the war loss ratio of both sides were disproportionate. Chen Ming's great reputation on the battlefield was of no use when facing the combination of natural and man-made disasters. Just like a piece of thin paper, it was pierced through with a slight poke.

"Many provinces have suffered disasters this year. I don't want to see the people being displaced while all places are flooded."

"Virtue lies in good governance, and governance is to nourish the people. Man-made disasters must not occur after natural disasters. It is better for the country to spend more gold and silver than to let the people go hungry and displaced. This is my thought, and I hope that my dear ministers will also think about it."

"Today, I will give you this sentence, and you must keep it in mind."

"I accept your advice."

"There is money and food in the treasury. All local government warehouses and granaries will be opened to provide relief to the victims. The prefectures and counties in the five provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei that have suffered disasters will have the king's grace." Anyway, the money and food will be exempted.

"Your Majesty, I obey your order."

"Tax reduction, tax exemption, pension, relief, loan, and refugee relief are all things that the Qing Dynasty can do. We, the Han Dynasty, can also do them, and we must do them better than them. You have explained everything clearly to the people below, and the Supervisory Council has also opened their eyes wide at me. Anyone who dares to lay his hands on the money and food for the relief of the victims in the disaster area will be killed immediately."

"Your Majesty, I obey your order."

After everyone left, Chen Ming sat on the big chair for a long time without moving.