The flood season in the south of the Yangtze River is long and can last for four or five months.

The plum rain season begins in April and May and usually lasts for a month, sometimes even two months. It is characterized by continuous rain for months, but fortunately the water level rises slowly and can be prevented by earthen dikes as long as you are careful.

After the plum rain season is over, the hurricane season begins in June and July.

The style of the hurricane season is completely different. When there is no typhoon, the sea is calm. When a typhoon comes, the rain pours down, the water level rises suddenly, the wind is high and the waves are fierce. The damage to the levee is several times more than the plum rain flood, and the earth levee can't bear it at all.

In the past, at this time in Kunshan County, even the flood prevention personnel would withdraw from the dike and let no one resist.

Anyway, no matter how hard we try, we can't hold on. Not only will it be a waste of money and time, but it may even cost dozens or even hundreds of lives. It's better to just lie down and let the flood take its toll.

But this year, Kunshan County will challenge the hurricane flood for the first time! Let's see if the newly built rubble concrete embankment is really as indestructible as Jiangnan Company claims!

After all, no matter how good the advertising is, its effectiveness still matters.

~~

The first hurricane in the second year of the Longqing reign came earlier than in previous years.

On the fifth day of July, the sky was as dark as ink at noon. A strong wind blew up out of nowhere, blowing sand and rocks everywhere. People could hardly stand on the construction site.

The district heads knew something bad was going to happen, so they quickly ordered the village heads and the laborers to put all the unopened cement and construction tools into the warehouse.

As for the concrete that has already been mixed, it will be wasted.

I had just finished cleaning up halfway when raindrops as big as beans began to fall.

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!" The village chiefs and foreman shouted at the top of their lungs on the construction site. "Put aside everything else and save the cement first!"

After dealing with cement for more than half a month, everyone knows that cement will clump when it comes into contact with water. A heavy rain will ruin the whole bag. That's one tael of silver per bag!

The laborers used all their strength to carry the cement into the warehouse one load at a time.

There was no time to unload the cement on the boat, so the boatwomen, boatmen and boat masters hurriedly covered themselves with oilcloth, straw mats and even their own quilts, and rowed back to the city to take shelter from the wind.

The wind was howling and the rain was getting heavier and heavier, and soon it was pouring down.

Suddenly, the sky and the earth turned pale, a dazzling lightning seemed to tear the dark sky apart, followed by earth-shaking thunder!

Zhao Shouzheng stood under the eaves of the Nanshan Temple gate, looking at the long river bank covered by rain.

The strong wind blew up the cold icy rain, which hit Mr. Zhao's face randomly, making him so anxious that he was about to shed warm tears.

"Why is it so early? Aren't there usually no serious hurricanes until late July?"

"We have to face such an unfortunate hurricane. What can we do?" Zhao Hao comforted his father, "Fortunately, the important sections of the river have been completed, so there shouldn't be any major problems."

"Really?" Mr. Zhao looked at his son eagerly.

"Even if you don't believe me, you should believe Pan Zhongcheng, right?" Zhao Hao forced a confident smile and said, "Even if you don't believe us, you should believe in science. Cement concrete is invincible!"

"Oh, that's great." After hearing his son's words, Mr. Zhao's worries disappeared. He stretched and said, "It's raining so hard, I can finally take a break."

Then he called out to Fan Datong in the main hall, "Brother, cook two side dishes and let's have a couple of drinks."

Since taking charge of the kitchen, Fan Datong has gained nearly 20 kilograms, and his face is greasy, quite like Fatty Tang.

Hearing this, he chuckled and said, "Do I need your orders, brother?"

As he spoke, he lifted up a tray like a magician, with four dishes and a pot of wine on it.

"Aha, my dear brother is really thoughtful." Master Zhao happily ran towards the main hall. Fang Wen hurriedly opened an umbrella for him, but the wind was too strong and in the blink of an eye only the umbrella handle was left.

Fang Wen looked at the stick in his hand, then looked at Master Zhao who had already rushed to the Grand Palace, and disappeared helplessly.

~~

The strong winds brought the terrifying water vapor from the ocean ashore, and heavy rain continued to fall all day, with no sign of stopping.

For Kunshan County, the real test has arrived - rainwater from more than a dozen counties around Taihu Lake gathers into the lake along the river channel and then pours downstream.

Seventy percent of the water flows into the Wusong River, and now all the pressure is on the Kunshan side!

Yaojiayan.

Pan Jixun stood on the section of embankment that he was directing the repair of during the plum rain season, staring fixedly at the dark river surface.

Zheng Ruozeng, wearing a straw raincoat and leaning on a bamboo stick, stood beside him with great effort. The strong wind and heavy rain made it impossible for the elderly Zheng to open his eyes.

Seeing Pan Jixun's feet rooted to his chest and his eyes fixed on him, Zheng Ruozeng felt very impressed.

"Zhongcheng is in great shape. It's hard for me to even speak now."

Pan Jixun glanced at him strangely. "How old are you? How old am I?"

"I am sixty-six years old this year, Zhongcheng..." Zheng Ruozeng said this and then he remembered that Pan Jixun was eighteen years younger than him and not even fifty.

Two serious generations.

Old Zheng couldn't help but feel ashamed. Prime Minister Pan was too anxious. He always thought that everyone was of the same age.

Zheng Ruozeng tried to smooth things over, but Pan Jixun raised his hand to signal him to be quiet.

"What's wrong?" Zheng Ruozeng asked in a low voice.

"The sound of waves." Pan Jixun replied.

Zheng Ruozeng listened carefully, but his ears were filled with the sound of wind mixed with various noises, so how could he hear anything different?

Pan Jixun pointed to the west, and Zheng Ruozeng quickly picked up the telescope and looked, and this time he saw it.

I saw a white water line, seemingly slowly but actually rapidly sweeping over!

The hurricane flood of the second year of Longqing officially began!

In just a dozen breaths of time, the surging river water crashed heavily into the river bank, and with a deafening roar, it rolled up waves several feet high.

The two were unable to dodge and were splashed all over.

The flood in the river continued to hit the river embankment madly under the influence of the strong wind!

The first thing to be affected was the wave-breaking dike that had been built with great effort last time, which was a triangular prism made of twenty wooden beams and hundreds of baskets of bricks and stones.

In just the time it took to eat a meal, there was a loud bang and several wooden beams broke.

Baskets of heavy bricks and stones were untied and washed away by the river. The remaining wooden beams were also uprooted and washed away by the flood.

Seeing that the wave-breaking embankment was so vulnerable, Zheng Ruozeng's face turned pale. "It's terrible. The power of heaven and earth is beyond human power. This earth embankment will definitely not be saved."

Pan Jixun nodded and watched the flood roaring into the bend of the dam that had lost its barrier. Amid the deafening roar, the waves surged up and were as high as two or three feet!

The earthen embankment under the two men's feet was crumbling, and large chunks of the outer embankment surface were collapsing.

"Let's go quickly, Zhongcheng..." Zheng Ruozeng urged anxiously.

However, Pan Jixun laughed out loud at the terrifying river tide.

"Don't be so arrogant, you evil creature. I'm waiting for you at the back. Let's fight again!"

After saying that, he nimbly jumped onto the embankment behind him.

Even with the support of her son, Zheng Ruozeng was still left far behind.

ps. Second update, please vote for me!!