Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 305: The Astronomical Figures Needed for Disaster Relief

On August 20th, the Tang army set out from Yangzhou for the Northern Expedition.

On that day, Gaoyou Prefecture sent a letter of surrender!

On August 25, the Tang army's Northern Expedition Army arrived outside Huai'an City. Just as they were setting up their battle array to prepare for the siege, the Huai'an defender Wang Cheng killed the bannerman military supervisor Entai and opened the city to surrender.

Subsequently, Taoyuan, Suqian, Pizhou and other prefectures and counties along the canal surrendered one after another.

Sun Enyun, the prefect of Xuzhou, sent a letter of surrender, and the important city of Xuzhou surrendered.

By early September, the Tang army had already entered Shandong along the canal.

In just over ten days, less than half a month, the Tang army had penetrated Jiangsu, and almost the entire province surrendered.

The reason for this was not only that the people in Jiangsu were intimidated by the Tang army's offensive.

The more important reason was that the Qing court first lost the Battle of Julu, which made people all over the world see that its empire was about to collapse and it was powerless to save the situation.

Then, he blew up the Yellow River dike in a cruel manner, causing the river to burst, devastating countless lives, and simply losing the support of the people.

The two major events happened one after the other, causing panic among local officials.

To be honest, no one wants to work for a court that dares to blow up the Yellow River dike.

Not to mention, this court was a foreign court.

Once the Yellow River dike was blown up, the Qing government lost its already limited support and legitimacy.

Then, when the Tang Dynasty's Northern Expedition Army arrived, didn't the local people surrender?

Except for those Eight Banners who had no other choice but to follow the Qing Dynasty until the end, basically no one was willing to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, with the Qing army's current troops left in the local area, they are powerless even if they want to resist.

Hundreds of thousands of Tang troops were marching north, not to mention that the main force of the Qing court had already been wiped out in the Battle of Jiangning and the Battle of Julu.

Even if the Qing court gathered its main forces, it still could not stop the Tang army's Northern Expedition!
You must know that these hundreds of thousands of Tang troops are all elite troops equipped with breech-loading rifles, breech-loading cannons, and rotary machine guns.

Not to mention China in this era, even if it was placed on the main battlefield in Europe during World War I, it was a force that could play a decisive role.

This force was simply not something the Qing army could resist!

The Tang army then continued its advance and headed into Shandong.

Afterwards, the battle went smoothly as well!

Jining, Yanzhou, Caozhou, Tai'an and other prefectures along the canal vied with each other to send letters of surrender.

Yizhou, Laizhou, Dengzhou, Qingzhou, Dongchang Prefecture, Jinan Prefecture, Wuding Prefecture and other places also rushed to hang up the Tang flag.

The entire Shandong Province was almost entirely conquered by orders!

As soon as Li Yi arrived in Jining, he received these reports and couldn't help but be stunned.

He originally thought that he would have to fight a few tough battles when leading troops to the Northern Expedition, but he did not expect that the Qing court would surrender one after another.

In Jiangsu, at least there were a few prefectures that surrendered only when the enemy was at the gates, but in Shandong, well, the Tang army's Northern Expedition Army had just entered Shandong.

The reduction requests were delivered one after another!
Looking at the thick stack of music sheets in front of him, Li Yi was a little speechless.

Shandong is indeed a province with a large number of civil service examination candidates. It turns out that they have always been eager to make progress since ancient times!

Of course, this is not just because Shandong people want to make progress.

More importantly, before the Battle of Julu broke out, the Qing government dispatched troops from Shandong to reinforce the battlefield.

But the result was that the Shandong Green Camp was completely wiped out by the Taiping Army before they even reached the Julu battlefield.

So much so that Shandong is now very empty.

In addition, Shandong is a disaster-stricken area after the Yellow River burst, and even a severely affected area.

Before this Yellow River breach, the Yellow River flowed into the sea through Henan, Jiangsu, and the Huai River waterway.

But after this breach, the Yellow River changed its course directly from the Tongwaxiang section to the north, passing through Caozhou, Yanzhou, Tai'an, Jinan, Wuding and other prefectures in Shandong, and entered the Bohai Sea via the old course of the Yellow River.

In other words, after the change of course, the Yellow River basically carved out a channel in Shandong and then flowed into the sea.

Isn’t Shandong the main disaster area?

In this natural disaster, Henan and Zhili suffered only minor injuries. Even if they were affected, only one or two prefectures were affected, and the number of victims was at most tens of millions, which is still controllable.

But in Shandong, the situation was really bad.

How could the common people and gentry of Shandong not hate the Qing government for blowing up the river?
The combination of multiple factors led to Shandong's surrender.

After Li Yi led his army into Shandong, he stationed in Jining Prefecture and began to arrange disaster relief matters.

The reason why we didn't continue moving north was because Jining Prefecture was already on the edge of the disaster area.

Although Li Yi is concerned about the victims, his own safety is related to the overall situation of the world, so it is impossible for him to go to the front line of the disaster area in person.

Not to mention that he is afraid of death and has no such idea.

Even if he really had this idea, the civil and military officials of the Tang Dynasty would not dare to let him take the risk and would definitely try their best to persuade him.

Li Yi cares about the victims. His presence in the disaster area is the greatest support for them.

With him personally supervising in the disaster area, those officials would not dare to take disaster relief lightly or overstep the line, and the efficiency of disaster relief would inevitably increase greatly.

However, if Li Yi goes to the front line, it would not be support, but a hindrance to disaster relief.

The human and material resources in the disaster-stricken areas are limited. Once Li Yi goes to the front line, a considerable amount of human and material resources will inevitably be used to receive the accompanying military officials and attendants and to protect his safety.

This will inevitably lead to a waste of limited human and material resources.

This is not advisable!

It is enough for Li Yi to stay in Jining, on the edge of the disaster area, and honestly meet with officials, allocate supplies, and execute rewards and punishments.

If he personally went to the disaster area, it would be more of a show than a practical significance, and would be a case of overdoing it.

As for the showmanship...

Now is not the time.

Well, it won’t be too late for him to go after the situation on the disaster-stricken front line has stabilized.

After entering Jining, the first thing Li Yi did was to issue an imperial edict to the chief officials of the prefectures and cities in the disaster-stricken areas that had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, ordering them to prepare for disaster relief.

If someone did a good job in disaster relief, Li Yi could not only forgive their previous sins and keep them in their original positions, but would even reward them handsomely.

But if anyone dares to slack off and drag their feet during disaster relief, Li Yi is prepared to send them to support the construction of Nanyang.

Well, exile for short!
For those who can become an official, even if they are just assistant officials or even minor clerks, at the very least, reading and writing are not a problem.

In this era, they are all high-end talents.

It would be great if we could send it to support the construction of Nanyang!

After issuing the imperial edict, Li Yi ordered the generals of the Tang army to come to discuss the matter, preparing to let the army participate in the disaster relief process.

"The first thing to do in disaster relief is to understand the specific situation in the disaster area."

"Each ministry should send scouts to the disaster area to conduct investigations and find out the specific damage to the states and counties in the disaster area as soon as possible."

"The second thing is that each department should send personnel to both sides of the Yellow River and the prefectures in the disaster area to prepare to build refugee camps and set up porridge stalls to provide relief to the victims, stabilize local order as soon as possible, and resume production."

"Although the autumnal equinox has passed, the cold dew has not yet arrived and the land has not frozen. Perhaps we can still plant another season of winter wheat..." "Also, we must do a good job in epidemic prevention!"

"Now that there are signs of an epidemic in the disaster area, our army must suppress the epidemic as soon as possible when it begins disaster relief. We must not allow the plague to spread widely."

The Qing government blew up the Yellow River dike in early July.

Although Li Yi immediately led his men to fight northward as soon as he got the news.

But by the time he arrived at the disaster area, it was already early September.

It has been almost two months since the disaster broke out!

Precisely because more than two months have passed, the most complicated search and rescue work in the disaster relief process is no longer necessary, and the floods have largely subsided.

At least the flood water has receded!
Moreover, two months have passed, and the people who could be saved have been saved by themselves, and those who could not be saved have probably rotted away by now.

To put it bluntly, the disaster relief provided by the Tang Dynasty this time was actually just providing porridge to the victims, giving them a meal so that they could survive.

It was precisely because of this that Li Yi reminded the Tang army to pay attention to the epidemic.

A major disaster is often followed by a major epidemic.

The source of the epidemic is very simple: rotting corpses.

Major disasters often result in a lot of deaths. When there are so many deaths, the bodies will rot before they can be collected.

Rotting corpses are the biggest source of disease.

The same thing happened this time. The Yellow River changed its course, and how many people were killed or injured along the river?

At least tens of millions, or even more.

There were so many corpses that there was no time to properly bury them. In addition, the disaster occurred in the middle of summer and it was a flood. The natural environment in the disaster area was warm and humid, which was a perfect breeding ground for the disease.

If we do not pay attention to epidemic prevention, the plague is likely to spread, which is definitely not a good thing.

After giving these instructions, Li Yi began to give instructions on military matters.

The main purpose of the Tang army's northern expedition was disaster relief.

But it can’t really just be disaster relief.

In order to prevent the Qing army from launching a surprise attack to the south while the Tang army was carrying out disaster relief, Li Yi had to make some arrangements in advance.

In response to this, Li Yi made arrangements that the Tang army sent troops to the north bank of the Yellow River and stationed a brigade of troops in Daming Prefecture in Zhili, Linqing Prefecture, Dezhou, Wuding Prefecture in Shandong and other prefectures on the border between Shandong and Zhili to guard against the Qing army in the north.

Then, Li Yi stationed an infantry division of mobile forces in Jinan Prefecture, which was a little further away, to reinforce the front line at any time.

In addition, Li Yi also sent the Tang army's naval fleet into the Bohai Bay, harassed Tianjin Prefecture, and captured Dagukou, in order to prevent the Qing army in the capital from moving south.

Buy time for Tang’s army to carry out disaster relief in Shandong!

……

Sitting in the military tent, Li Yi scowled as he read the disaster relief reports sent in by various parties.

This time, the Yellow River broke its banks, flooding Kaifeng Prefecture in Henan and Daming Prefecture in Zhili. The diverted Yellow River flowed into the sea through Caozhou, Yanzhou, Tai'an, Jinan, Wuding and other prefectures in Shandong. Wherever it passed, more than a dozen prefectures turned into swamps.

Comprehensive statistics based on detailed reports submitted by various state governments.

This flood directly or indirectly affected more than 12 million people.

Nearly one million people were drowned directly in the flood alone.

Subsequently, before the Tang Dynasty began disaster relief, the number of people who died directly or indirectly due to plague, hunger, injuries and illnesses reached nearly two million.

The two together make three million people.

The data is shocking!
But the more serious problem is the food problem!
Even if we exclude the three million people who have died, there are still at least nine million victims today.

The amount of food, clothing, medicine and other relief supplies needed for these nine million people is truly an astronomical figure.

Even if we only count food, a person needs at least 30 kilograms of food a month to barely sustain life, which is 360 kilograms a year, or rounded off, four stone of food.

Moreover, this is just enough to barely sustain life and ensure that you don't starve to death.

If Li Yi wanted to use work as a relief, the grain consumption would have to at least double, rounding off to ten shi per person per year.

If one silver dollar is paid for one stone of grain, that would be ten silver dollars.

Nine million people would require a total of less than 100 million.

Of course, food is not so expensive under normal circumstances. The normal price of food is about 0.5 silver dollars per stone.

However, the situation this year is special. In a year of great disaster, food prices are bound to rise.

Even if the Tang Dynasty government came forward to purchase grain in a unified manner, the price could not be prevented from rising.

Otherwise, if they don’t sell it to you, there is nothing the Tang Dynasty can do?
After all, you can't just rob it, right?

Therefore, all Li Yi can do is to give a guiding price and suppress the price increase, but it is impossible to completely prevent the price from increasing.

Of course, Li Yi allowed them to raise prices, but only within the range he allowed.

Anyone who dares to cross the line, don't blame Li Yi for letting them experience how painful it is to be hit by the feudal iron fist.

Since I give you money, you don’t care?

Well, let’s just raid their house.

After the house is ransacked, the food is mine, the money is mine, and even your lives are mine!
Also, even if the winter wheat planted this year survives, it can make up for part of the food gap.

But disaster relief is not just about food. It also requires fuel such as wood and coal for burning, medicinal materials, clothing and other daily necessities, as well as hoes and shovels and other supplies needed to resume production.

Add to that the cost of rebuilding the Yellow River embankment...

One hundred million is definitely not enough, it will take at least two or three hundred million.

Such a huge amount of money made Li Yi dizzy.

It was fortunate that the Tang Dynasty had just finished the battle of Jiangnan, captured the purse of Jiangnan, and confiscated the assets of the Eight Banners of Hangzhou and the Eight Banners of Fuzhou, greatly enriching the national treasury.

Otherwise, the Tang Dynasty might not be able to afford the money.

But even so, Li Yi felt the pain of paying out such a large sum of money.

Also, the productivity of this era was not well developed and supplies were extremely scarce. Many times, you couldn't get supplies even if you had money.

Nine million people...

This gap is really too big!

The most important problem here is food shortage.

After thinking for a while, Li Yi turned to Li Hongzhang and said.

"Send my order again and send a telegram to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Commerce."

"Order them to contact merchants in China from countries such as Britain and France, as well as countries such as Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia, and the colonies of the great powers such as Manila, Batavia, and India."

"Buy unlimited amounts of food from all over the place!"

"How many are there? The Tang Dynasty wants them all!"

(End of this chapter)