Red Mansion Beijingwang

Chapter 315 Trouble with the Yellow River
Henan, Guide Prefecture, Shangqiu County.

Shui Rong, dressed in a blue brocade robe, stood in front of the window, looking out at the continuous rain falling all over the sky, his brows furrowed and his face as solemn as the cloudy sky.

After originally wiping out the bandits in Jiming Mountain, when Shui Rong and his party entered the border of Henan, a heavy rain hit them. The God in Henan was like going crazy, and it kept raining.

The road was muddy, making it inconvenient for people and horses to travel, let alone fight. In desperation, Shui Rong stopped the bandit suppression and the group came to Shangqiu County to settle down.

Tanchun walked in holding lacquerware, looked at the young man standing with his handsome eyes, and with a hint of worry in his eyebrows, he said softly: "Brother-in-law, you don't have a good appetite, I have prepared some cakes, brother-in-law, please try it .”

Shui Rong turned around after hearing the words, his eyes fell on several kinds of exquisite pastries placed on the lacquerware, he smiled, walked closer, stared at the girl's fair jade cheeks, and said warmly: "Three girls are interested."

How to put it this way, I didn't want to take Tanchun out before, but now I still need to be served by a caring person who knows how to live well. When I'm free, I "wash my hands and make soup", and when I'm busy, I "send my sister-in-law to taste it first".

Mmm, it smells so good.

Tan Chun smiled, like a blooming rose, bright and moving. He stared at the young man, his beautiful eyes flashed, and he said softly: "Brother-in-law, are you worried about the flood?"

Hearing this, Shui Rong paused with the hand holding the pastry, and stared at Tanchun, who had beautiful eyes and beautiful eyebrows. She was a talented person. How could the shrewd Tanchun not notice the abnormality in the weather recently.

After taking a bite of the pastry, he felt it was soft, greasy, and sweet. He nodded and said, "It has been pouring rain for half a month in Henan. Look at this situation, it seems that there will be no end. How can we not worry about the floods."

Not to mention compassion for the heaven and earth, but just to say that Shuirong, as the prince of the Qian Dynasty, shares the same concerns with the country, he naturally hopes that the people will be peaceful. At this time of year, coupled with the continuous heavy rain, there will be ghosts if you don't worry.

Tanchun nodded lightly when he heard this. Not only was Shui Rong worried, but Tanchun was also worried. This flood had to be prevented.

Shui Rong looked at Tanchun thinking, with a focused expression and a capable aura all over his body. He reached out and touched the girl's head, and said softly: "I have notified the officials of the Henan vassal to inspect the river embankment and strengthen the river defense. Let's Don’t worry too much.”

Note that this is a notice and not an order. Shui Rong is the prince, and local officials dare not show mercy. Moreover, he has written a memorial to the court to remind Emperor Yongkang to pay attention to the flood news in Henan.

Of course, Shui Rong can rely on his status as a county king to give orders, but he is in charge of the military and cannot rashly interfere in local government affairs. Excessive intervention, not to mention being beyond his power, will put himself in an area of ​​criticism.

How come you, who came out to lead troops to suppress bandits, are still worrying about local government affairs?
No matter whether the starting point is to share the worries of the court, crossing the line is crossing the line. The so-called loyalty is like a traitor, and your fist-fighting heart may be evil in the eyes of the superiors.

So, as a person, you must have a sense of boundaries and never be self-righteous.

Tan Chun nodded slightly when she heard the words. These things were not her thoughts at first. She watched with bright eyes the young man happily eating the pastries. Her heart felt sweet. She held the teacup and handed it over with a smile on her face. He said: "Brother-in-law, take some tea to moisten your skin."

Shui Rong took the tea and took a sip, suppressing the sweetness in his mouth.

At this moment, there was a commotion outside, and the maid reported that General Feng Ziying was here.
After a while, Shui Rong saw Feng Ziying in a hurry, and suddenly felt bad in his heart, and immediately asked: "Ziying, what happened?"

Feng Ziying reported in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, there is a letter from a river official. The water in the Yellow River has surged. There are many river embankments and countless houses have been submerged."

Shui Rong frowned when he heard the words, but didn't say anything. It was raining heavily in Henan, so the coming flood was not an accident, but he didn't expect that the scale of the flood in Henan was bigger than he thought.

After groaning, Shui Rong ordered: "Notify the officials of the Henan vassal to do their best to rescue the victims, reduce casualties, repair the river embankments, and avoid a second flood. If there is anyone who is lazy, don't blame me for interfering with him in front of the Holy Master." Book."

Once the floods are over, there are countless victims, and corpses are literally everywhere. The problem is over, and the most urgent thing is to rescue the victims and repair the river embankments.

As for interfering in government affairs, at one time or another, before the floods come, it is to overstep one's agency, plot evil, and give people an excuse to criticize. But now the floods are flooding the embankments, and as the prince of the Qian Dynasty, it is his duty to intervene in the water.

It should be noted that it would take several days for the disaster to reach the court. In addition, it would take a long time for the court to mobilize all kinds of materials for disaster relief. It would take at least half a month to go back and forth. During this window period, at a time of extreme crisis and disaster, The golden period of rescuing people from disasters has been missed.

The so-called disaster relief is like putting out fires. They are different in nature and have different meanings. They are explained at both the top and the bottom.

Moreover, Shui Rong was not involved in local government affairs. He was just a reminder to the officials of the Henan vassal that the Prince of Beijing County of the Daqian Dynasty was watching them in the disaster area and asked them to carry a sword hanging above their heads and work diligently to provide disaster relief.

If a powerful prince joins him, he will have to shed his skin even if he doesn't die.

After giving the instructions, Shui Rong continued to add: "In addition, the Henan Guard Station is ordered to station troops to help maintain order among the victims and prevent riots."

Catastrophic disasters are ruthless, and people will do anything to survive. At this time, the number of bandits increases sharply. If you are not careful, bandits will wreak havoc, which will be a military disaster and must be guarded against.

As the left governor of the Chinese Army Governor's Mansion, it is not normal to dispatch troops stationed at the Henan Guard Station.

Feng Ziying promised and immediately stepped down to make arrangements.

Shui Rong's eyes turned slightly, and after calling out "Xiao Fuzi", he sat in front of the desk and wrote with a wolf hair in his hand. When Tan Chun saw this, his beautiful eyes flashed, and he obediently polished Shui Rong's book.

After scolding Fang Qiu for a while, Shui Rong held up the rice paper and blew the wet ink on it, and said in a clear voice: "Xiao Fuzi, please immediately send someone to send the king's memorial to the Holy Emperor. It is extremely urgent."

After all, he had crossed the line and interfered in government affairs. Therefore, Shui Rong had to express his feelings to Emperor Yongkang this time. The memorial was impassioned and impassioned to make Emperor Yongkang pay attention to the disaster. Secondly, it was to express his attitude to prevent the emperor from being suspicious.

As the prince of the Daqian Dynasty and a member of the royal family, I saw the floods sweeping through, could I turn a blind eye?

Xiao Fuzi took the memorial and respectfully went down to make arrangements.

After making arrangements, Shui Rong leaned on the huanghuali wood chair and frowned. In the face of natural disasters, human life is extremely fragile. This flood may displace tens of thousands of families.

He originally went out of Beijing to protect the country and the people, so why did he encounter such a thing.

He looked out with twinkling Ying eyes and walked behind Shui Rong. His slender hands fell on the young man's forehead and gently rubbed it. His voice was soft and seemed to have a soothing effect, and he said: "Brother-in-law, the matter is over, the most important thing now is to help the victims. "

Shui Rong closed his eyes and enjoyed the girl's massage, and said softly, "Hmm." That's all he can do now. Well, by the way, in order to prevent Henan officials from concealing the disaster situation and causing people to be killed for no reason, it is necessary to find out the disaster situation in various places and report it. .

Facts have proved that Shui Rong's worries are true. He is just a prince. Local officials do not need to report the disaster situation to Shui Rong. If Shui Rong was not in Henan and paid attention to the flood news, those Henan officials who wanted to please would not have reported to Shui Rong. The facts The disaster in Shanghongxun was far more serious than Shui Rong knew, and it was widespread, spreading to Henan and Shandong provinces.
Beijing.

In Hongxun, Henan and Shandong, official documents reported by various prefectures and counties have been urgently delivered to the capital at a cost of 600 miles, and delivered to the cabinet via the General Affairs Department, causing an uproar in the capital.

In the Qianqing Palace, Emperor Yongkang was sitting on the golden chair in the main hall. His sharp eyes were coldly scanning the civil and military officials below, as if a biting cold wind was blowing, and he said in a cold voice: "I allocate two to three hundred yuan for river defense every year. Ten thousand taels of silver will be allocated to all requests for river defense. I don’t want to receive this pile of river reports today. The Yellow River is overflowing and many river banks have breached in Henan and Shandong. Is this what you are telling me?"

The Yellow River has been flooding for a long time. Throughout the dynasties, people have never been affected by the Yellow River. Therefore, the flooding was not surprising, but Emperor Yongkang did not expect it to spread so widely that it spread to two provinces.

Nine times out of ten, it is a matter of river control, or to be precise, it is an issue of officialdom.

The emperor was angry and laid down millions of corpses. At this moment, the emperor's majesty was fully displayed. All civil and military officials bowed their heads and knelt down. They were all frightened. The whole hall was as quiet as cicadas.

King Le's eyes flashed slightly, he stood up and said: "Father, I have something to say." Emperor Yongkang's face was as cold as iron, and he said calmly: "Speak."

King Yue prepared some speeches and said respectfully: "Since my father came to the country, he has devoted all his efforts and efforts to control the river. The people have not suffered from the Yellow River for a long time. This time the Yellow River broke out, I thought it was not in the human affairs, but purely It is a natural disaster, and the report of the disaster may be that the local governors want to take money from the national treasury to exaggerate the disaster."

As King Le's words fell, officials immediately echoed. After all, there has indeed been no danger of Huang since Emperor Yongkang came to the country. It can be seen that strengthening river defense is useful. However, the exaggeration of disasters has happened once in the reign of the Supreme Emperor. There is a precedent. follow.

Emperor Yongkang's face was as dark as water, and monstrous anger burst out from his sharp eyes. He threw a memorial in his hand at King Le and said angrily: "This is the memorial from the Prince of Beijing. According to the memorial, Henan Continuous heavy rains across the province have caused rivers to overflow and create waves, inundating countless fields and houses. Nearly one million people have suffered from floods. You think this is exaggerating the extent of the disaster."

What he wanted was a solution, but he didn't expect that what the Music King played was actually excuses. Is this his good eldest son?
King Le's face turned pale, and he ignored the pain of being hit by the memorial. He forgot that the Prince of Beijing County was in Henan, and he did not expect that the Prince of Beijing County would meet with the memorial. His memorial did not need to go through the General Administration Department, and went directly to Tianting. .

When King Yong on one side saw this scene, he couldn't help but feel happy. He thought that Uncle Sixteen was really his lucky star. Helping him to create heirs for Prince Yong's palace made King Le feel frustrated. Sure enough, Uncle Sixteen was the best choice. The right thing to do.

After a moment of silence, King Le reported again: "Father, the disaster has occurred. We can transport grain from neighboring provinces to the disaster area to provide relief to the victims. We can also allocate money from the national treasury to repair the river."

Since he has angered his father, King Le can only rescue him through disaster relief.

Emperor Yongkang stared at the trembling King Le, snorted coldly, scanned the kneeling civil and military officials with his sharp eyes, fell on King Zhongshun, and said lightly: "Hubu."

In the final analysis, what the King of Music played was nothing more than money and food, which were all managed by the Household Department.

Seeing that Emperor Yongkang asked about the household department, King Le felt relieved. It was obvious that his suggestion was adopted and this stage was over.

King Zhongshun, who was the chief official of the Ministry of Household Affairs, heard the words and stood up to report: "Back to the Holy Father, according to the report, the disaster was widespread. Although there were surplus grains in neighboring provinces, they were far from enough. The taxes and money from various places had not yet been sent to Beijing. At this time, the national treasury We have less than 800,000 taels of silver in the treasury, and we need to provide disaster relief and build embankments. According to my estimation, this time of disaster relief, we will be short of at least 1,500,000 taels of silver."

Emperor Yongkang remained silent. He also knew about the situation of the treasury and had no intention of blaming him.

King Zhongshun groaned and reported again: "In my humble opinion, the emperor can send an edict to the provinces adjacent to the disaster area, ordering them to immediately transfer their stored grain to the disaster area for disaster relief, and also allocate 500,000 taels from the national treasury to provide food to wealthy households in the Zhili area." Buy grain and rush it to the disaster-stricken areas to meet the urgent needs. If there is any shortage, you can send imperial envoys to the south of the Yangtze River to raise funds to buy grain, help the victims to survive the winter, and rush to repair the damaged river embankments."

Emperor Yongkang's expression remained unchanged after hearing this, and he looked at King Zhongshun with a bit of relief. After all, he was his right-hand man who could share his worries and solve his problems.

However, Emperor Yongkang did not respond. His eyes fell on the rickety figure on the left, and he said coldly: "What did Yan Aiqing think of King Zhongshun's performance?"

When Yan Zicheng heard the words, his bowed body trembled slightly, his turbid eyes flashed with a spark of light, he stood up and said: "Your Majesty, I think what King Zhongshun played is reasonable and reasonable. However, there are some doubts about this great news. We should send it to you." People need to investigate thoroughly to prevent corruption."

Emperor Yongkang stared at Yan Zicheng calmly and said calmly: "Yun Zuo, I will leave it to Yan Aiqing to investigate the matter thoroughly."

Yan Zicheng understood clearly after hearing this. As he thought, His Majesty's angry words seemed to be dissatisfaction with Hefang and his intention to thoroughly investigate Hefang's corruption.

In fact, Yan Zicheng himself also suspected Hefang of corruption.

Seeing that Emperor Yongkang wanted to thoroughly investigate the river defense issue, King Le, who was lying down, saw a flash of strange color in his eyes, clenched his fists slightly, and lowered his eyes without saying a word.

Emperor Yongkang looked around and said in a clear voice: "Who can go to Jiangnan to raise money?"

All the officials bowed their heads after hearing this. There was a shortfall of at least 1.5 million taels of silver, not to mention whether it could be raised or not. Even if it was raised, it would be an offending thing. If it is not handled well, the disaster would be extremely serious in this situation. At this moment, the black gauze hat will not be protected at the least, and at the most serious.
Seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages, how could officials not know this?

When Emperor Yongkang saw this, his face was gloomy. Among the civil and military officials in the dynasty, there was no one who could share the emperor's worries.

On one side, King Yong started to care. He knew that his father valued this matter very much. If he succeeded, he would definitely show his face in front of Emperor Yongkang. However, his father knew that this was not an easy task. If he failed, his status would not be guaranteed. , had to think twice.

After thinking for a moment, King Yong gave up. Now that the situation was good, there was no need to make dangerous moves.

Just as the atmosphere was getting colder, King Zhongshun said: "Brother, I am willing to go."

Emperor Yongkang's heart softened upon hearing this, and his eyes gradually became calm as he looked at King Zhongshun, and he said in a clear voice: "You still need to take care of the Ministry of Household Affairs. Let's choose someone else."

The disaster was so widespread that King Zhongshun, as the chief official of the Ministry of Household Affairs, still needed to mobilize supplies.

After hearing this, King Zhongshun was silent for a moment and said: "The Prince of Beijing County is idle in Henan. He is deeply touched by the disaster in Henan. He can send the Prince of Beijing County to Jiangnan to raise funds."

Henan, Guide Prefecture, Shangqiu County.

Floods overflowed the embankments, and disasters fell from the sky. Refugees from all over the country and villages flocked into the city. Simple shacks were set up everywhere in the streets, alleys, temples, and under the eaves of the city walls. They were piled with wet luggage and crowded. It was full of yellow-faced and hungry refugees.

Shui Rong stood on the arrow tower at the city gate, looking at the refugees pouring into the county from outside the city. Their thin clothes were covered with mud and could not withstand the howling autumn wind in the rain. He frowned and said: "After the refugees enter the city, make arrangements." , we must ensure the safety of the people."

The Shangqiu County Magistrate behind him heard this and said respectfully: "I understand, Your Majesty, please rest assured."

After saying that, the Shangqiu County Magistrate looked hesitant, raised his eyes carefully at the young man, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty, please forgive me for speaking frankly. There are already hundreds of thousands of refugees in the city, and the refugees are flooding in. I'm afraid it will be difficult to do anything." Continue."

When Shui Rong heard this, it was clear that there were too many refugees in the city. If the management was not good, the refugees would gather and cause chaos. If it were not for the patrols by the county government soldiers and the nearly 600 elite men who accompanied Shui Rong on his trip, there would be no peace.

But after all, the number of soldiers was too small, and the refugees seemed endless, so I had to be on guard. He groaned and said, "Then build shacks outside the city and give out rice and porridge."

For the refugees, as long as they have a roof over their heads and enough food to eat, the difference between being inside and outside the city is not that big.

The Shangqiu County Magistrate was startled when he heard this, and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, there is not much food in the county."

Shui Rong frowned. Food was the key. If there was no food, the refugees would never be able to be comforted. He shouted, "Then buy food from the rich households in the city."

Wealthy households all have fields. They have a large amount of food, and their food reserves are far more than they imagined. As long as they survive this most difficult period, and when the court's disaster relief food is delivered, everything can be solved.

The Shangqiu County Magistrate was startled by Shui Rong's tone, and hurriedly bowed his body and said: "Your Majesty, I don't know. Now the shops in the city are closed, and the price of food has soared. The sesame cakes that usually only cost one big penny now cost one or two silvers." arrive."

Shui Rong's face darkened when he heard this, as if it were frosty in the twelfth lunar month. It's really hateful that these guys are still thinking about enriching the country during a great disaster.

After a deep groan, Shui Rong Zhanran said: "Go and contact the wealthy households with the largest amount of food in the area and tell them that I want to invite you."

The Shangqiu County Magistrate raised his brows upon hearing this, feeling vaguely bad in his heart. He responded and immediately went down to make arrangements.

Shui Rong looked at the refugees all over the city with a faint look, and ordered: "Ziying, send someone to investigate and find out what the rich locals are doing."

Feng Ziying turned her eyes slightly when she heard this and responded: "I understand."

After Feng Ziying left, Shui Rong twirled his fingers with a serious look in his eyes, hoping that these rich people would know each other better. If they don't, they would just use you to scare the monkeys. Facing these people who are struggling to make a fortune, he will not be merciful. If you and your family cry, they will always It's better than having a city full of people crying.
(End of this chapter)