Fu Shanhe

Chapter 469 Grain Transfer
"It was discovered too late; there was no time left."

If we had foreseen the Yongding River's impending breach, we could have excavated a flood discharge channel in advance to ensure the safety of the capital.

"I reckon the floodwaters are almost here. All we can do now is maintain stability in the capital; everything else is up to fate."

Jiang Shuhan shook his head and said.

It's easy to raise a question, but difficult to solve it.

Floods in northern China are a low-probability event.

It might not happen even once every hundred or two hundred years. If it does happen, you just have to accept your bad luck. There's absolutely no history to learn from.

Human power is insignificant in the face of nature.

Learning from experience and lessons learned simply means rebuilding the river embankment and digging more flood discharge channels afterward.

However, these projects are basically ineffective.

The main problem is that the time intervals are too long, making it difficult for policies to maintain continuity.

"Prime Minister, this is far too cruel!"

Minister of Revenue Lü Lingfeng couldn't help but say.

"If you have any objections, then come up with a better solution."

Jiang Shuhan said coldly.

He knew better than anyone what the Ministry of Revenue was planning.

Natural disasters and man-made calamities have always been the best tools for government agencies to settle accounts.

As the government office in charge of the nation's finances, the Ministry of Revenue had accumulated a huge deficit over the years.

If no one investigates, it's fine, but once the truth comes out, he, as the Minister of Revenue, will have to take the blame.

Now that the opportunity has presented itself, it's only natural to seize the chance to eliminate the hidden dangers.

For the Ministry of Revenue, the problem isn't unreliable solutions, but rather inaction.

Unfortunately, Lü Lingfeng was unlucky. This Minister of Revenue, who came from the Qingliu Party, encountered the Grand Secretary who came from the Zhejiang Party.

The two major political factions have been fighting each other in the court for nearly a century, so naturally they will not give each other any face.

"Humph!"

After letting out a cold shout to express his dissatisfaction, Lü Lingfeng ultimately chose to shut up.

Unconventional tactics are acceptable, but you can't come up with them yourself.

Otherwise, when it comes to accountability afterward, they will become the person primarily responsible.

The rain outside continued to pour down, creating a stark contrast with the silence inside the main hall.

Before the officials could make a final decision, the floodwaters had already entered the capital.

The drainage system completely failed, and the water level in the streets and alleys continued to rise.

In the face of natural disasters, there is no distinction between noble and lowly.

The sacred palace also began to flood, and the water level was rising at a visible rate.

In the blink of an eye, the water overflowed the threshold and swept into the main hall.

Watching the water level rise beneath their feet, the high-ranking officials felt the threat of death for the first time.

"Your Excellency, the Qian Yuan Palace is on higher ground. Let's go there and take shelter for now!"

There are better places to go; nobody wants to stay in the water.

After the Marquis of Zhendong spoke, the ministers all chose to echo his words.

Although the Great Yu Dynasty had a rule that foreign officials were not allowed to enter the inner palace, the emperor had already been brought down by them, so breaking another rule was nothing.

Everyone has already come up with a reason; it's a matter of expediency.

Since the emperor is still young and it is not yet time for him to select concubines, there is no need for anyone to worry about offending the empresses and concubines.

As for Emperor Yongning, he was completely ignored by everyone.

Even if a retired emperor under house arrest had grievances, he could only keep them to himself.

The fact that he wasn't killed was all because everyone considered the duty between ruler and subject.

Throughout the entire history of China, there have been very few monarchs who could be overthrown by the combined efforts of all their officials.

The main characters in these stories are all infamous tyrants.

"it is good!"

Jiang Shuhan answered with a slight hesitation.

What seemed like a simple decision actually marked the decline of imperial power.

Once a rule is broken, it will be broken countless times.

As one experiences this repeatedly, the awe of imperial power will gradually fade away.

……

The first year of Fu'an was destined to be filled with disasters and calamities.

The floods brought by the torrential rains affected not only Shuntian Prefecture, but also the entire northern region.

First Shaanxi suffered, then Henan was unlucky, and then Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi and other places were affected.

In many places, a single day's rainfall is almost equivalent to the rainfall of the past year.

Faced with this sudden natural disaster, the Great Yu court appeared utterly powerless.

Some local officials, who are greedy for money and disregard their own lives, are taking advantage of the situation to amass wealth, completely ignoring the lives of ordinary people.

Public resentment was building up in the rain, waiting for a trigger to erupt.

The Marquis of Hanshui's Residence.

The tragic events that unfolded in the northern lands left Li Mu with lingering fear.

No wonder people believe in destiny.

Throughout history, dynasties have faced a series of natural disasters at the end of their reigns.

In an era lacking scientific explanations, it was difficult not to associate it with the concept of destiny.

In years marked by frequent natural disasters, even the most brilliant monarch can become exhausted and lose his temper.

"My lord, has the situation at court changed?"

Seeing Li Mu lost in thought, Jing Yaqing asked him with concern.

The Protectorate General's conquests in the Southeast Asian region were virtually invincible.

European colonial empires were willing to intervene, but lacked the strength to do so and had to wait for decisions made within their own countries.

Right now, the only thing that worries Li Mu is the internal situation of the Great Yu.

"A sudden downpour hit the north, causing floods in many places, including the capital."

"The disaster is extremely serious, and the imperial court is in trouble now," Li Mu said calmly.

Natural disasters are not the most terrible thing, nor are man-made disasters; the combination of natural disasters and man-made disasters is deadly.

According to the theory of the interaction between Heaven and Man, the natural disasters of previous years can be attributed to Emperor Yongning's moral failings.

Now that the emperor has changed, the situation has indeed changed; what was previously a drought has now turned into floods.

From one extreme to the other, in the eyes of those with a keen eye, that is a sign that the destiny of the Great Yu Dynasty has come to an end.

After all, the little emperor is only six years old; we can't blame him for his misconduct.

If the emperor won't take the blame, then it's the ministers' turn.

With the situation in the court just stabilizing, any Grand Secretary resigning would trigger a new round of power struggles.

"What? The capital is flooded?"

Jing Yaqing was shocked.

Having lived in the capital for so many years, she had seen many grand occasions, but she had never witnessed the capital being flooded.

She has relatives and friends in Beijing, as well as fond childhood memories.

When suddenly hit by floods, it's impossible not to panic.

"Don't worry, Madam, the floodwaters receded quickly."

The main problem was the significant property damage; there were relatively few casualties in Beijing.

The deaths and injuries were mostly concentrated among civilians; the mansions of nobles and high-ranking officials were largely unaffected.

Li Mu explained, feigning composure.

The official figures say there were few casualties.

The reality is definitely much more serious.

Given the style of the officials in Dayu, it's impossible to conduct door-to-door visits and investigations when calculating casualties and losses.

If we were to conduct a comprehensive survey, it would be impossible to complete the task in less than ten days to half a month.

The estimated data, including the deaths and injuries of ordinary people, might be completely ignored.

In particular, migrant workers, whose household registration was not in the capital, were not included in the statistics by local government offices.

"As long as there are no major casualties, money is just an external thing, so the loss is just that."

Jing Yaqing said with lingering fear.

However, Li Mu did not agree with these words.

For wealthy and powerful families, money is just a set of cold, hard numbers.

No matter how much loss we suffer, it won't affect anyone's daily life.

But for ordinary people, money is often more important than life.

If you lose your life, you'll be the only one who dies; if all the money you've worked so hard to save is gone, your whole family will starve to death.

"Ok!"

"Steward, convey my order to requisition an additional one hundred large ships from the common people to go north and pick up people."

A special grant of one million shi of grain was granted to the fleet, allowing them to transport it to the north for sale.

The profits from the transaction will serve as payment for transporting immigrants for the Protectorate over the following year.

After thinking for a moment, Li Mu gave the order.

Years of great disasters are the best time to attract immigrants.

Bringing one more person along means saving one more life.

Although the mortality rate among immigrants is high these days, it's still better than starving to death in one's place.

Having undergone tremendous changes, prices in the north must have skyrocketed.

Not only can ordinary people not afford it, but even some small vendors are likely to go bankrupt.

The biggest problem isn't high prices, but that even with money, you can't buy anything.

When the floodwaters passed through, even the granaries of the landlords would be affected.

Transporting grain to the north at this time would undoubtedly be a timely help.

The only ones who are unhappy are probably the vested interest groups in the canal transport industry chain.

However, given Li Mu's current status and position, he doesn't need to care about what these people think.

In fact, there's no way to compromise.

Over the years, the shipbuilding technology of the Protectorate has made great strides.

Those ships that Li Mu calls "large ships" all have a displacement of at least a thousand tons.

When fully loaded, each ship can carry hundreds of tons of cargo.

It may seem insignificant at sea, but if it enters inland waterways, navigation becomes a major problem.

The Grand Canal has a good overall navigation capacity, but some areas cannot accommodate such a behemoth.

These special local areas are precisely where the upper limit of navigation is determined.

"My lord, sending a million bushels of grain into the north would be a drop in the ocean."

To ensure the livelihood of immigrants, the existing grain reserves of the Protectorate should not be significantly depleted.

However, food supplies from Southeast Asian countries are not in our plans.

"Do you think of a way to procure a batch of grain from over there and transport it over to alleviate some of the food crisis in the north?"

Jing Yaqing said with slight hesitation.

Although the Annam Protectorate's grain production capacity was increasing year by year, it could not keep up with the increasing consumption.

Based on the principle that having grain in hand means having peace of mind, Li Mu formulated a grain storage plan early on.

The government purchases five million shi (a unit of dry measure) of grain annually as strategic reserves, and only the surplus grain is allowed to be sold.

Furthermore, this kind of external sales was a monopoly of the government, and private capital was prohibited from participating.

Relying on the exorbitant profits from monopolistic transactions, they could earn millions of taels of silver annually just from selling grain.

This year's autumn grain has not yet been stored, and the Protectorate currently has not much grain available for sale.

"My wife is right to remind me. I almost forgot about the countries in Southeast Asia as well."

This is a simple matter. I will write a letter to the generals at the front, instructing them to requisition provisions locally.

Li Mu said with a smile.

In cases of food shortages, someone will always go hungry.

The Southeast Asian region was a newly occupied territory, and no foundation for rule had been established yet, so people didn't care if it was damaged.

(End of this chapter)