The Imperial Age with the Resurgence of Han Style

Chapter 269 Huang Zheng
At three o'clock in the afternoon on November 11, as the steam locomotive made a violent "gasping sound", a train starting from Jianye slowly drove into Guangling (now Townsville, Australia) station and stopped at the far right Platform 20 on the side.

As an important transportation hub connecting the coastal railway and the Northeast Railway (Gan-Guang Line), Guangling is a major railway station. The train will stop here for thirty minutes so that passengers who need to go to the Northeast can go through transfer procedures. At the same time, Multiple freight cars also need to be regrouped.

Guangling is the sugar manufacturing center of Qi State. There are more than 25 large and small sugar factories in the city. The output of finished sugar exceeds 30 tons, accounting for % of the country's total output. If the sugar production of several counties under the jurisdiction of Guangling Prefecture is added, the share may reach more than %.

You must know that during this period, the total sucrose production in all regions, including Qin, India, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Europe, was only more than 200,000 tons. It can be seen that Guangling Mansion is definitely worthy of its name as the "Sugar City". A strong sweet smell of cane sugar seems to be floating in the sky above the entire city.

In addition to the huge sugar industry, the city also has large meat processing plants, canneries, large The copper smelting plant, as well as many industrial enterprises such as shipbuilding, steel, coal chemicals, and hardware products, are among the top industrial towns in the Northeast.

According to last year's national census data, Guangling City has a population of more than 356,000, making it the second largest city in the Northeast after Weihai (now Cairns, Australia).

At this time, the sky was gloomy, like night. It was raining heavily outside, and the rain was getting heavier and heavier. The outside of the train station was shrouded in a layer of gray rain and fog.

The gas lamp was on inside the platform, and with the faint light of the street lamp, the figures flickered vaguely in the rain. The station was crowded with people, and the passengers who got off the bus hurried out of the station, dragging their luggage and carrying their burdens.

The ground was soaked with rain, there was a sound of footsteps, and from time to time there was the sound of pattering rain.

Soon, a huge flow of people poured into the platform. Passengers walked a few steps quickly, boarded the train, gasped for breath, and then eagerly looked for their seats.

"...It's Her Royal Highness the Queen!"

Just as Pan Guangfeng was standing on the edge of the carriage, secretly guessing the identity of this lady, he heard a low voice coming from behind him.

Several locomotive workers wearing raincoats and hats braved the pouring rain and walked along the long carriage of the train to carefully check the condition of the vehicles and make final preparations for the train that was about to leave.

After a while, a group of people holding umbrellas walked slowly over, and several personal guards officers glanced around sharply.

"On behalf of His Majesty and the Royal Family, I came to Guangling and Weihai to visit the people who had suffered from the floods and to comfort the people. I deserve Pan Qing's praise." Queen Bi's face was solemn and she sighed softly, "The Northeast region , first hit by a typhoon, and then by more than ten days of heavy rain, all rivers and tributaries overflowed, destroying dams, submerging fertile fields, and destroying houses. Compared with those in deep disasters, hundreds of thousands of people were affected. There are countless people in the country, what does it matter if I get caught in the rain or blow in the wind?"

But he didn't expect that he would meet the Queen in person at Guangling Station, and she would ride the same train with him.

"Your Highness the Queen?" Pan Guangfeng was a little surprised when he heard this, and couldn't help but look at the noble lady attentively.

A large number of armed railway police also rushed over, waving their batons and driving away many idlers who were ready to peek in to watch the excitement and passengers who were boarding the train.

After a Imperial Guard Colonel Zhaoxin confirmed his identity, he walked up to the Queen, bowed slightly, and lowered his head to meet her.

Since we bumped into each other, as an imperial minister, I should go over to see him, otherwise it would be a loss of etiquette.

"To be loyal to Your Majesty and to work for the interests of the empire, I dare not talk about hard work lightly." Pan Guangfeng replied respectfully: "On the contrary, Her Highness the Queen has a noble status, but she braves the wind and rain to visit places regardless of hard work, which makes me and others admire me."

Looking at this appearance, he should be visiting places on behalf of the royal family to comfort people's livelihood, and is now preparing to return to Chang'an.

Suddenly, a sharp police whistle sounded, and a group of fully armed guards ran into the platform and quickly formed a tight cordon until they reached a luxurious box that had just been added to the middle of the train. The heavy rain was like pillars, and there were occasional bursts of muffled thunder, the constant sound of passwords, the sound of leather boots on the ground, and the sharp bayonets. A chilling atmosphere suddenly enveloped the entire station.

As we all know, Hanzhou is short of water. There are no big rivers like mainland China. Except for the Han River (now the Murray River in Australia), which has a slightly larger runoff, most of the other rivers are relatively short, and many rivers are seasonal rivers. During the rainy season At times, the river has abundant water and rippling water, nourishing and nurturing the land and all living things along the coast. However, during the dry season, the entire river disappears, leaving only a dry and cracked river bed.

A beautiful woman in luxurious clothes and a demure face was surrounded in the middle. The accompanying maid carefully held a big umbrella and followed closely beside her, lest the nobleman get caught in the heavy rain.

"The queen has a holy heart, and I respect her." Pan Guangfeng felt a chill in his heart, and he couldn't help but glance at the pouring rain outside the platform from the corner of his eye.

I have been serving as a diplomatic minister in Europe for more than ten years and have been away from home for many years. At that time, His Majesty had not yet been crowned as the emperor's grandson. Naturally, I had never seen the princess he married. I only heard vaguely that she seemed to be the daughter of the Bi family, a wealthy family in the country. However, Didn't pay much attention to it.

"My lord, Pan Guangfeng pays homage to Her Royal Highness the Queen!"

Yes, the rain is so heavy that if it rains continuously for several days, it will inevitably cause the river to overflow and cause huge floods.

"Did Pan Qing just return to the mainland from Europe? He must have experienced all kinds of dangers and hardships along the way. It was very hard!" Queen Bi was reminded by the female attendant beside her and learned that the person she was meeting was the foreign minister who was about to be appointed. The Minister of the Ministry and the important ministers of the Cabinet did not dare to neglect. After saying that they were not polite, they asked with concern.

Even though the Han River flows for more than 3,000 kilometers, the flow of the river is not large, and the seasonal fluctuations are large. When the water rises during the rainy season, thousands of tons of ships can pass through the river section of more than 300 kilometers upstream from the river mouth. However, in the dry season, the river water becomes extremely shallow, and the sandbanks and shoals at the mouth of the river will hinder the navigation of ships of all sizes.

However, not all areas in Hanzhou are always dry. For example, the northern area where Hanzhou Jianye Mansion is located has a typical tropical rainforest climate, controlled by the equatorial low-pressure belt. Updrafts prevail, with more precipitation and no risk of drought.

In addition, the northeastern region and the east side of the Dadong Mountains (now the Great Dividing Range of Australia) are on the windward slope of the southeast trade wind, which causes rain in various terrains. There is also a warm current (Australian warm current) passing along the coast, which increases temperature and humidity, causing precipitation in this narrow area. After decades of development and construction, it has always been the nurturing land of Hanzhou and the main gathering place of Qi State's cities and population. Even if the inland areas are hot and dry, there are not many rivers and the runoff is not large. It is also affected by the seasons and often disappears. However, under the influence of the extremely irregular weather in Hanzhou, some heavy rainstorms and floods will occur suddenly.

What's worse is that because many rivers are seasonal rivers with low river beds, once a flood occurs, it is easy to break down the dams, followed by large-scale floods, which will then wash away roads and fields, inundate nearby villages, towns and farms, causing huge losses. Damage to persons and property.

Over the years, the government has built a large number of water conservancy facilities in various parts of Hanzhou, mainly to make full use of water resources, and mainly to deal with the climate environment of drought and drought. Huge sums of money are spent every year to build and expand large and small reservoirs and weirs to absorb and store large amounts of water during the rainy season. During the dry season, steam pumps or waterwheels are used to guide the stored water into dry farmland and pastures. , to ensure the healthy development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

But as for flood control and waterlogging prevention, to be honest, Hanzhou has done relatively little work for this purpose. Wouldn't we waste manpower and material resources building huge flood control dams like the Yellow River and Yangtze River for the sake of major floods that will only occur in decades?

Over the years, the Qi government has built a few flood control facilities such as flood walls, flood control weirs, tide gates, and drainage pumping stations on several major rivers in Hanzhou and near important cities. As for those small and medium-sized rivers, they are basically not managed much, because in normal years, the rainy season has not yet ended, and the water level in the river has been reduced to the lowest point because a large amount of water is introduced into the surrounding reservoirs and weirs.

Therefore, when heavy rains occurred for many days in the Northeast, the Guangling River (today's Ross River in Australia), Xiaocang River (today's Black River in Australia), Sanwan River (today's Herbert River in Australia), Qujiang River (today's Australia) Many rivers such as the Barron River overflowed, forming raging floods.

The flood disaster affected 15 counties in four prefectures: Weihai, Guangling, Shanggu (now Bowen City, Australia), and Yunyang (now Mackay City, Australia), inundating 360,000 acres of farmland and destroying more than 3,000 houses. More than 200,000 people were affected by the disaster.

The cabinet government allocated 3.5 million yuan in special disaster relief funds. The deputy prime minister went to the disaster area to preside over the relief work. The local garrison and military police were also ordered to participate in the rescue and relief work, striving to avoid large-scale losses of people and property caused by the floods.

Welfare organizations such as Kiwanis Club and Relief Society funded by the Royal Fund also purchased a large amount of disaster relief materials and daily necessities and sent them to the prefectures and counties where the floods were most severe as soon as possible.

In order to demonstrate the royal grace and show love for the people, the Queen even took a train to visit the disaster-stricken areas in Northeast China to express her condolences and comfort to the affected people.

Although this heavy rain and flood hit quickly and suddenly, and affected a relatively large area, with the number of affected people exceeding 200,000, Qi State's control over local grassroots organizations and rapid response speed, coupled with abundant financial resources, Disaster relief funds prevented large-scale humanitarian disasters from occurring in the disaster areas.

Countless disaster relief materials and daily necessities were transported to the disaster area via railways in a very timely manner. The navy and army dispatched a total of more than 5,000 troops to cooperate with tens of thousands of volunteers from the local government. They not only evacuated a large number of affected people in a timely manner, but also blocked dozens of flooded areas. The floods destroyed the levees, preventing wider flooding.

If the governments and officials of the Qin State in mainland China or various European countries saw it, they would definitely give Qi State such an effective disaster relief operation a thumbs up and secretly praise it.

You must know that if various disasters occur within the territory of Qin, local governments need to report to the emperor step by step, and the court sends people to investigate the disaster. Furthermore, the disaster must be more than six points, and the emperor finally approves before subsequent disaster relief operations can be carried out.

Given the vast territory of the Chinese mainland, after going through these procedures, most of the victims have already fallen into desperate situations. They either starve to death on the streets without food and clothing, or leave their homes and flee to other places for food.

Even in some areas where the disaster was extremely serious, many officials could only watch countless victims starve to death because they had not received an edict, and they did not dare to provide relief privately.

Even if the imperial court ordered to provide relief to the victims, due to financial constraints, the relief effort was very weak. The money allocated could only allow the victims to breathe, and would not starve to death everywhere, which would then trigger riots by hungry people. After the disaster, the amount of tax exemption (exemption) for money and grain is also less. In the most serious disaster (all crops are lost), only about 50% of the tax is exempted.

The Qin Dynasty inherited the Ming system, and the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the disaster assessment score was ten points, and only if more than six points were lost, it was considered a disaster, and if the total harvest exceeded 60%, it was not a disaster, and if it was less than six points, it was not a disaster. This phenomenon is called "the disaster cannot be found". No relief will be provided, and local governments will raise money and food for disaster relief.

This has led to many disaster areas that are close to the disaster relief level but cannot enjoy relief. They must also strictly pay taxes, let alone receive any relief. This will aggravate and expand the degree of famine to a certain extent, highlighting the limitations of the traditional agricultural social disaster relief system. Stereotypes and inherent flaws.

For example, the "severe drought in the north in the forty-sixth year of the Qin Dynasty" was not just an abnormal climate, but drought and lack of rain led to large-scale reductions in grain production and no harvests.

If the Qin cabinet and local government could respond in a timely manner, mobilize the people to actively fight the drought and conserve moisture, and minimize the disaster, at the same time, timely allocate a large amount of relief grain from major grain-producing areas such as Huguang and Jiangxi to stabilize the panic and restlessness in the local area.

Then it announced that prefectures and counties with different levels of disaster would be exempted from certain taxes on money and grain to appease the residents. In this way, the famine in Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and other regions will not continue to expand, causing the situation in the entire northern region to deteriorate out of control, causing a large number of victims to flee, and then benefiting several overseas countries, making They took the opportunity to recruit refugees and transport them back to their respective territories to enrich their own population.

Looking back at the Qi government, whenever a local disaster occurs, whether it is a local governor or a prefectural official, in an "emergency situation", he can take relief measures on his own without having to report to the central government in advance, and then "report it to the cabinet" "That's it.

"As soon as floods and droughts occur, relief must be provided immediately, and then the people will receive benefits without waiting for retribution."

Regardless of whether it is a "six-point disaster" or a "three-point disaster", the central government and local governments of Qi provide relief. After petitioning their superiors, they will provide substantial financial and food tax exemptions, and even provide relief to places where the disaster is particularly severe. Provide additional financial and food subsidies to tide over post-disaster difficulties.

As for the assessment of disasters, that is also possible, but this is to distinguish the definition of central and local powers and responsibilities. In other words, if the disaster is serious and the local government cannot handle it, they can only shift part of the responsibility to the central government and request allocations. Corresponding funds and disaster relief supplies.

It can be said that Qi's "Huangzheng" is a collection of the achievements of all dynasties and other countries, and has been further improved and developed.

Compared with other countries, the Qi government attaches great importance to disasters - there is nothing that can be done about it. In addition to the miserable environment in Hanzhou, which makes disasters frequent, there is also the long-term shortage of population resources, which leads the government to attach great importance to population and Pay more attention to people's livelihood - regarding the ability to properly provide disaster relief and resettlement of victims as a matter of governance and security related to social stability.

"Whenever there is a disaster, edicts to avoid it are issued repeatedly, and relief measures are frequently given." In line with this, the Qi State has also produced a large number of disaster relief books with extensive volumes, comprehensive expositions, and focusing on guiding specific handling methods. This has created a social atmosphere in which local officials must take "disaster management" as their own responsibility, thus greatly Promoted the development of "Huangzheng".

Over the past decades, Qi's various disaster relief measures have been completely institutionalized and continuously improved. The warehousing system used to prepare for famine and disaster relief is also fully improved. The central government and local governments are also well-organized, methodical and efficient in handling relief tasks, which reflects that Qi's disaster relief capabilities have reached the highest level in this period.

How can we, the Great Qi Huanghuang Empire, not be considerate of the people's sentiments due to domestic disasters, causing the people to be displaced, and even riots to occur, making outsiders laugh?
(End of this chapter)