Da Tang: Father, can I resign?

Chapter 430: Stupid and bad, stupid and bad!
Japanese?

This was a rare name, which made the ministers stunned for a moment.

If I remember correctly, the Japanese were the Dongyi people living on the other side of the East China Sea.

Unlike barbarians like the Turks and Xianbei, this nation has had almost no connection with the Chinese mainland since ancient times because of the sea separating them, but it can also be said that they have had no contact with it until death.

Apart from occasionally looting and showing off their presence in the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

The only impression the ministers had of Japan was probably the letter written by the female King of Japan to Emperor Yang of Sui, which read "From the Son of Heaven where the sun rises to the Son of Heaven where the sun sets."

It was precisely because the two countries were too far apart that the "male protagonist" Emperor Yang of Sui, who was embarrassed, actually let Japan go and did not go to conquer it.

In the end, we didn't provoke the Japanese, so why did they come all the way across the ocean and deliberately dig a few holes in our dike?
What do they want to do?
Everyone was puzzled for a moment.

Then came the surge of anger.

Damn, Japanese!

When we are fighting against a natural disaster that happens once in a thousand years, stabbing us in the back is simply shameless!
"Do they have any accomplices?" Ma Zhou asked anxiously, his eyes flashing with fire, as if he wanted to pull out the mastermind behind this tragedy and burn him to ashes.

Yes, he didn't believe that the Japanese were the real culprits of this incident. He felt that there must be another mastermind behind the Japanese.

Because the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and Japan is like that between an elephant and an ant. There is no direct conflict of interest between the two sides.

At least not from a normal people's perspective.

So why did the Japanese come to cause trouble?
Apart from the fact that there was a traitor within the Ming Dynasty and the Japanese were recruited as thugs, he really couldn't think of any other reasonable explanation.

After all, Li Tai did it too.

At first, the King of Wei colluded with the Xueyantuo, causing chaos in the political arena of Chang'an.

Future generations can just follow suit and do the same to confuse the audience.

"Your Majesty, who is the force behind the Japanese? We will tear them into pieces!"

Not just Ma Zhou.

Governor Zhang Qian and other officials in Huazhou were also filled with righteous indignation and were eager to know who the real murderer was.

According to common sense, bureaucrats these days prefer to mind their own business, and they dare not ask too many questions about such a political conspiracy that obviously involves high-level insider information.

However, this incident really crossed their bottom line.

Huazhou was rotten, China was rotten, and even I almost rotted.

This makes it impossible for them to protect themselves and just stand by and watch.

Facing his subordinates who were furious and eyes that were eager for revenge, Li Ming could not help but grit his teeth and squeezed out a few words:

“According to preliminary investigation, no other forces were involved.

"The Japanese dug up the levee entirely at the behest of the Japanese king."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was another uproar.

Did the elephant really get tripped by an ant and fall with a bloody head?!

"But, why..." Ma Zhou murmured, really unable to figure it out.

"Oh, what could it be for? Maybe you won't believe it if I tell you." The corners of Li Ming's mouth curled up in an arc without a smile.

"It's just for the lands of Baekje and Silla.

"The two Han countries submitted to our great Celestial Empire and stopped paying tribute to Japan.

“Waguo is dissatisfied and wants to invade the lands of the two Koreas, but is afraid of the might of our Heavenly Kingdom.

“So, they sneaked in, destroyed our dikes, ruined our people’s livelihood, and tried to make us run around and unable to deal with foreign enemies.

"In this way, they can take advantage of the situation and force the two Koreas to submit by force."

Ma Zhou and others listened extremely attentively, not missing a single word.

After hearing the last part, I blurted out subconsciously:

"Is that why?"

Li Ming smiled and nodded:

"Because of this."

At that time, when Di Renjie reported the results of the investigation to him.

He had the same reaction -

Shocking, absurd, and unbelievable.

Just for that little bit of untamed land at the southern tip of the peninsula.

Did the Yellow River get dug and diverted?

Millions of people from the ten states of Huanghuai were soaked in the yellow soup?

Almost half of China was destroyed?
"Hehe, hehe..."

Ma Zhou smiled.

It was inappropriate, but he couldn't help it.

Because this is just too absurd.

It is as absurd as a child setting fire to the classroom in order to skip classes and burning the teacher, parents and classmates to death.

Floods ravaged the country and devastated countless lives. Such a disaster was enough to destroy an ordinary dynasty.

Even the Ming Dynasty, which was in its ascendant period, suffered serious damage and loss of vitality because of this.

Putting aside the grand narrative, this incident was even more devastating to the livelihoods of ordinary people.

The Yellow River is like a sickle for cutting wheat, and the people of the world are the fallen wheat.

Floods killed one group of people, and epidemics killed another. The salt and alkali from the floods destroyed farmland and bred locusts, causing famine that killed another group of people.

The number of lives lost as a result may probably be in the millions or even tens of millions!

There must be a conspiracy to cause losses of this magnitude, right?
For example, in order to rule the Central Plains, to change the dynasty, to seek power and usurp the throne, or even to prevent land redistribution.

And now you tell me that all this big fuss was made just for a tiny bit of profit from Silla and Baekje?
For a sesame seed, a whole melon field was destroyed? !

Millions of people paid the price of their lives, and for what?!

Absurd, it's really absurd!

Be it Ma Zhou or Zhang Qian, everyone present was numb.

All the sacrifice, pain and struggle, for what!

They couldn't believe it, and didn't want to believe that all this was so meaningless.

"But that's what it is."

Li Ming's tone was cold, but there was still a self-deprecating smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Di Renjie gathered all the civilians who were at the dike site at the time and reconstructed the entire scene based on their testimonies.

"More than one person said that they had witnessed several 'civilian laborers' of unknown origin, speaking with an accent from nowhere, and carrying things that were not suitable for building embankments, but more like digging holes.

"But it was too dark, it was raining, the flood waters were high, and the task was urgent, so they didn't think much about it."

Ma Zhou's head was buzzing as he heard this, and he muttered:
"Those suspicious elements are the Japanese who dug up the Huazhou levee?"

Li Ming nodded in approval:

"Yes. Based on the remains of the levee, we can roughly infer that the levee breach first occurred five miles away from here.

"Around the river channel where the river was diverted to the Bian River, fragments of the embankment that had been washed away could be collected. There were traces of artificial excavation on them.

"This directly proves that the levee was deliberately opened."

Ma Zhou and others felt their scalps tingling after hearing this.

The conclusion is simple, but from the brief description of what happened, we can also hear how tedious and energy-consuming this carpet-style investigation is. To be able to collect enough evidence in such a short time, the intelligence agency headed by Di Renjie and Lai Junchen must have terrifying business capabilities...

"Also, the criminal who tore up the riverbank has been captured."

Li Ming's next sentence surprised everyone even more.

Oh my god, this case handling efficiency is too high...

"One of the prisoners was a Japanese noble. According to his confession, he was directly ordered by the Japanese chieftain 'Qing' to sneak into the mainland and wait for an opportunity."

Li Ming told them the results of the interrogation in detail.

As important parties in this case, he felt that these subordinates had the right to know the details of the incident.

"According to their plan, he brought dozens of people, mixed into the laborers' team, and secretly dug up the river bank under the cover of night.

"Let us think that this is just a common dam breach so that we will not retaliate.

"In order to prevent the news from leaking out, the Japanese also mixed in samurai in the team, and planned to kill these coolies after the success of the plan."

Everyone's blood ran cold when they heard this.

The Japanese are really bad. Not only do they harm the Chinese, they even deceive their own people.

But we have to admit that if this trick can succeed, it can really conceal the truth.

After all, there were tens of thousands of laborers on the scene, and it was a dark, rainy night, which was perfect for taking advantage of the situation.

After the levee was dug up, the entire Huazhou was in chaos, and it was naturally impossible to investigate the case thoroughly.

In other words, if it weren't for Di Renjie's abnormal ability to investigate cases, this incident would have really been treated as a natural disaster, making the people of Huazhou unjustly blamed and the people of the world die in obscurity!

"Then...how did you find out?" asked Governor Zhang Qian, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

His good reputation was almost ruined by the vicious Japanese!
"Oh, it's funny that the Japanese themselves don't know how much damage their actions can cause."

Li Ming was so angry that he laughed.

“As soon as the riverbank was dug, the unexpectedly huge flood immediately washed out a big hole in the riverbank, and scattered all their people.

“Most people were killed without having to do anything, but five or six people escaped and were eventually caught.

"The evidence is irrefutable, and the case has been solved."

The Huazhou Dam supervised by Ma Zhou is indeed solid.

However, no matter how strong the levee is, it cannot withstand malicious destruction. A complete levee is indestructible, but if there is a hole in the levee, the huge water pressure is enough to wash everything down.

As the saying goes, a thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant hole. This is both a metaphor and a reality.

This sentence was also given to Ma Zhou, Zhang Qian and other Huazhou officials.

In order to build the dam, they worked very hard; for the sake of the people, they had to walk on thin ice as officials.

However, because the civilians who were recruited to build the dike were not strictly managed and Japanese spies infiltrated the team, the plan failed.

A thousand-mile long dike can be destroyed by an ant hole!

To be honest, with the river water surging and the rain heavy at the time, it was really too much to ask to ensure that tens of thousands of laborers on the scene were safe.

It was precisely because of this that Li Ming gave a lenient sentence to the two assistant ministers and governors who were responsible for leadership, and only deducted some of their salaries.

The reason why the case was solved so quickly and the Japanese criminals were arrested so quickly was thanks to the household registration system that has been passed down in China for thousands of years.

Suddenly, a few strangers appeared in a village, with strange accents, which were more conspicuous than the stars in the night sky.

This ancient, advanced and efficient grassroots management system is something that the Japanese tribes have never had from ancient times to the present.

The bandits who escaped death never dreamed that the capable officials of the Ming Dynasty not only quickly saw through their conspiracy, but also arrested them and brought them to justice as soon as possible.

"Those Dongyi Japanese slaves, do they really think they have done it perfectly and can hide the truth from the world?..."

Ma Zhou spoke in a deep voice.

This is really textbook stupidity and evil. They put a lot of effort into small tricks, but they just hit their heads when it comes to big strategy.

How dare you touch the bottom line of a big country!
Japanese, you have a way to die!

If it weren't for the mess that needed to be cleaned up in Huazhou, he would have been the first to sign up to go ashore and fight the Japanese invaders!

"I will handle the war. You have a lot to do. You should focus on disaster relief and the people's well-being."

Li Ming had a sour face and gave orders to his men.

"I will obey your order!"

Ma Zhou and others received the order and withdrew, and devoted themselves to the endless cause of serving the people.

Li Ming's face was as stinky as ever.

He has never had a good attitude towards the Japanese.

He really intended to touch Japan, a country that even the willful Emperor Yang of Sui did not want to touch. He had already built up his capital at a very fast speed and was preparing to cross the sea to conquer it.

But he didn't expect that the Japanese were more willful than him and actually put their heads forward to be chopped off!
"Now is not the time, no... I have to endure it, I have to endure it!"

There is a knife above the word "忍".

When half of the Central Plains was submerged in water, they launched a war, a costly sea war.

This is also a way to death.

As the ruler of a country, Li Ming had the responsibility of shouldering the tens of millions of people in the two capitals and thirteen provinces. He could only hold his anger in until his face looked stinker than pickled fish.

"call!"

He let out a long breath.

There is no internal friction at all.

"Stuffy, stuffy, stuffy!

"Anyway, the situation in the disaster area is basically stable now, so let's go out for a walk and get some fresh air."

With his hands behind his back, he walked south along the new Yellow River embankment.

Although the Yellow River is in the Bian River channel, it is relatively peaceful at present.

But this is definitely not a long-term solution.

In the seventh century AD, the climate was warm and humid in the north, and the Yellow River was still abundant, unlike in later generations when it shrank to the point of almost drying up.

The diversion of such a huge river will definitely have a huge impact on the lives of people in the downstream Huanghuai area.

Have to change route again.

But it is easier said than done. Returning the Yellow River to its old course is not as simple as inviting mom to come home for dinner.

Not only is the project huge, but the risks are also high.

If the modification goes wrong and the Yellow River jumps out of the framework of the Bian River and the Huai River and floods again, then all the plans will be ruined (physics).

So, it definitely cannot be changed now.

The disaster relief alone was enough to overwhelm the Ming Dynasty, not to mention launching a project that was several times larger at the same time.

But dragging it out like this and letting the Yellow River flow into the sea via the Huai River for a long time is not a solution.

“The best time to change the route is this winter.

“The water level will be lower by then and the time will be close, so the engineering will be minimally difficult.

"It's just that...can this mess be cleaned up before this winter?"

Li Ming was so distressed and upset that he couldn't help but cover his head.

Controlling floods and resettling disaster victims are just the immediate tasks.

Next, what about the plague? What about the salinized land? There are also a lot of troubles such as locust plagues and civil unrest...

It is no exaggeration to say that the Ming Dynasty's rise and the Ming Dynasty's dragon vein were cut off by the Japanese with just one shovel!
(End of this chapter)