Chapter 562 Who is in charge of destiny?
The young emperor sat on the dragon throne in a daze, while the officials in the court chattered and broke out one bad news after another.
"Your Majesty, the dam in Cangzhou has burst, especially in Cangzhou City. The city wall has been flooded halfway up. The people in the city have been forced to evacuate. Those who didn't have time to run were eaten by fish, and those who ran fast could not even get enough food."
"Your Majesty, the dam in Henan County has also burst, and a large number of victims are fleeing towards Jingdong Road."
"Your Majesty, an earthquake occurred in Nanjun, causing the valley to break and the river to shift."
"Your Majesty..."
Looking around, this land is plagued by natural disasters.
The young emperor looked outside the door. The heavy rain that had been falling for several days had turned into a continuous drizzle.
The air seemed to be filled with moisture, and my clothes were damp.
Cangzhou, Nanjun and Hanzhong are all in a state of emergency.
It was strange that the young emperor had no fear at all. He only had one thought: What happened to Yunzhou and Shuozhou? Were they also experiencing heavy rain?
Is destiny in your hands or in Gu Nanxi's?
Seeing the distracted young emperor, Master Tong suppressed his anger and reminded him loudly: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Please issue an order to send people to help with the disaster!"
The young emperor came to his senses and decisively ordered: "Huang Qian goes to Nanjun to inspect the earthquake disaster. Wang Fu goes to Cangzhou..."
Orders were issued one after another, and the Zhou court operated at high speed to protect the area south of the Yangtze River.
As for the north, one reason is that it is close to Gu Nanxi's actual controlled area, and the other is that in the fiscal revenue of the Great Zhou, the south of the Yangtze River accounts for more than two-thirds, while the contribution from the north is less than one-third.
Therefore, the entire court concentrated its efforts and materials to stabilize the southern region.
This rainstorm not only caught the Great Zhou court off guard, but also completely exceeded Gu Nanxi's expectations.
The rainfall in Yunzhou and Shuozhou is much less than that in the south, which just alleviates the drought that lasted for more than half a year.
Gu Nanxi went all the way south from Hezhong Prefecture and inspected Wudu County.
The water level of the river passing through Wudu County has risen sharply, but fortunately, it has not yet flooded both banks.
"Fortunately, we have rebuilt the irrigation canal before, so this rainstorm did not cause any damage." Niu Jinyi followed closely beside Gu Nanxi.
All the farmland in Wudu County has been harvested and the autumn crops have been stored in the warehouse.
This made Mr. Xu, who was following him, breathe a sigh of relief: "If we harvested later and encountered this rain when the crops were ripe, the harvest would probably be reduced by more than half."
The magistrate of Wudu County was also very scared: "Thanks to Mr. Xu. If you hadn't insisted on letting us harvest in advance, our Wudu County would have been like Pingyang County, with nothing to harvest."
There was no smug look on Mr. Xu's face. His brows were furrowed, and the wrinkles on his face were like dry fields.
"We expected a drought this year, but we didn't expect such heavy rain."
This sudden rainstorm completely disrupted the plans of Gu Nanxi and Yunzhou Group.
According to their plan, they would use the method of military farming to absorb a wave of refugees and weaken Hezhong County. After the autumn harvest, they would join forces with Li Mingde and others to take over Hezhong County.
But this natural disaster forced the plan to be suspended.
Water and fire are merciless, and the destructive power of floods far exceeds that of droughts.
If you encounter a drought and want to provide disaster relief, the simplest way is to take out some grain from the imperial court or aristocratic families, which can solve most of the problem.
It is essentially a question of rational allocation of resources.
But floods are different. Floods don’t care whether you are an ordinary person or a nobleman. They sweep everything away without any scruples.
Moreover, the difficulty of disaster relief for floods is several times higher than that for droughts.
Gu Nanxi and his group were about to reach the border of Wudu County and Pingyang County when they heard the sound of rushing flood waves from a distance.
Gu Nanxi was in a heavy mood: "There was an earthquake in Nanjun and floods in Jiangnan. This year is a disaster year."
Niu Jinyi: "Is that person prepared for disaster relief?"
Cui Sanlun also read the secret letter from Kyoto and said solemnly, "Alas, he sent Huang Qian to Nanjun. Huang Qian was originally the governor of Quanzhou. He was exploiting people in Quanzhou, but later he followed the path of the queen's brother and was transferred back to the central government in the early spring of this year."
Cui Sanlun was worried: "I'm afraid that if this person finds out the severity of the earthquake, he will conceal it. There are many mountain dwellers in Nanjun. If the disaster relief is not effective, it may cause unrest."
Gu Nanxi felt that given the nature of most officials in the Great Zhou, it was very likely that they would conceal the truth.
"With Lord Zhu in Nanjun, there shouldn't be any problems, right?"
Cui Sanlun recalled the urgent military information sent from Yunzhou yesterday, and asked, "What are your plans for the Gu family army?"
Gu Nanxi: "Originally, we planned to have the Gu family army return to Yunzhou to free up Yunzhou's troops and march south with us. But Gu Shisan said that Xixia and the Tartars heard about the constant natural disasters in the Great Zhou and were ready to make a move."
Gu Nanxi's eyes were dark, and his tone was cold: "I order Gu Shisan to guard the border between Xixia and our Yunzhou. But anyone who dares to show up, no matter who it is, will be killed!"
Cui Sanlun nodded secretly in his heart.
The experience of war in the past few years finally taught Gu Nanxi to harden his heart.
According to Gu Nanxi's previous practice, he would rather take a few more detours and choose to commit less murder.
However, those in power do not need to have such high moral standards.
You are moral and kind to others.
The enemy will show no mercy to you!
Especially when the Great Zhou was in trouble, the Tatars, Western Xia, Tubo, and even its vassal states Goryeo and Japan would greedily covet this rich land.
Therefore, at this time, you must dare to draw your sword!
As the group of people were talking, they came to the arch bridge connecting the two counties.
There are two ways to get from Pingyang County to Wudu County. One is to take the official road, and the other is to cross the river.
The official road in Pingyang County has been flooded, and with frequent floods, no one dares to take that road anymore.
As for the arch bridge, it was also partially flooded, with only the highest part exposed.
In the turbulent yellow river, the exposed arch bridge looks very pitiful.
Suddenly, there was a heavy rumbling sound in the distance.
“This is a flash flood!”
Gu Nanxi and others hurriedly retreated several miles.
When they looked back again, they saw from afar a torrent rushing out from upstream with irresistible power.
The torrent, carrying yellow mud and sand, swept away the trees on both sides of the river. It roared and surged, overwhelming the north and south banks.
In the face of such power of heaven and earth, humans seem so insignificant.
Even Cui Sanlun, who has seen a lot, was afraid: "Fortunately, there were no floods in Shuozhou and Yunzhou."
After taking a general look at the situation, Gu Nanxi returned to the county seat of Wudu County. At the same time, he ordered to strengthen flood prevention measures, sent people to patrol the embankments day and night, and raised the flood alert level.
The refugees from Shuozhou were originally a little hesitant and kept thinking about whether to go back to Shuozhou. But when they saw how severe the flood in Shuozhou was, they gave up the idea and signed a ten-year land lease with the government.
At midnight that day, Gu Nanxi received a surprising letter.
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