Zhu Hao's men are missing a group of people, but it does not affect the overall situation.
At the moment, the most pressing matters of Prince Xing's Mansion are, besides competing with Prince Xiang's Mansion for the land granted by the imperial court, receiving the guards given by the emperor and carrying out flood prevention work before the summer floods.
"...Last year, because of Yuan Changshi's absence, the palace did not do a good job in flood control. Even if the river embankment did not breach, some sections of the river overflowed the embankment, destroying the harvest of hundreds of acres of the palace's fields. Logically speaking, it will not happen this year.
If there is another flood, flood prevention must be implemented. This is the most urgent matter for Chang Shisi at the moment.
"In addition, Zhang Changshi wrote a letter saying that he will set off from his hometown Shanyin in the middle of this month. It is estimated that he will arrive in Anlu in the first ten days of next month and resume his duties."
An emergency meeting was being held in front of King Xing.
There were many people participating in this meeting, and most of them were high-ranking officials from the palace. On the contrary, Zhang Zuo and Tang Yin, who had been in the limelight in the past, seemed unusually low-key on this occasion.
All the officials in the palace regard Yuan Zonggao as their backbone, and basically all the suggestions put forward by Yuan Zonggao will be unanimously supported.
As an eunuch, Zhang Zuo was not good at participating in making decisions on government affairs. He looked at Tang Yin from time to time, fearing that the matter of building the river embankment would be monopolized by the Chief Secretary, and the Chief Secretary would fall into the wrong hands in this matter.
"So how much money and food should be spent on building river embankments this year?" Zhu Youqi asked a real question after listening to an official's story.
The official couldn't help but turn his attention to Yuan Zonggao.
Yuan Zonggao said respectfully: "King Huixing, I estimate that there will be more manpower deployed, most of which will be responsible for transporting sandbags. If there is a flood season, people will be sent to garrison on the river embankment to monitor the flood situation at all times. In addition, people have been sent to the state government to request
, asked them to send more civilians to the embankment, but there has been no response yet."
Zhu Youqian frowned: "Didn't it mean that this new local magistrate was very concerned about river embankment flood control and asked the gentry for the cost of building embankments early? Could it be that they want to go it alone and not cooperate with my palace?"
Zhang Zuowei said: "Your Majesty, I am a member of my family and have nothing to hide. In fact, this Zhang Zhizhou is not doing local flood control at all, he is just looking for a way to make money... After the money and grain were collected, he did not dispatch any civilians to build the river at all.
Dam, the temples and Taoist temples in the city have begun construction."
The royal officials present were filled with indignation.
In the name of building river embankments, local officials and gentry were asked to provide money. After the state government received the money, they did not build river embankments. Instead, they wanted to build temples and Taoist temples first. This was clearly to cater to the emperor's preference. When he came back, the local supervisory censor reported it.
The temples in Anlu Prefecture were very prosperous. The emperor was very happy when he heard about it, so why didn't he give him an official title?
Zhu Youqian said: "The matter of building the river embankment cannot be undertaken by Prince Xing's Palace alone, right? How many people can the Prince's Palace send?"
Prince Xing's Mansion has its own tenants. After these people usually finish their farm work, they are also responsible for repairs and other errands in the Prince's Mansion. How can there be extra manpower to repair river embankments?
Zhang Zuo looked at Tang Yin: "I wonder if Mr. Tang has any suggestions?"
At this time, Zhang Zuo hoped that Tang Yin could take the initiative to stand up and take the lead, so that the whole palace would not have to watch Yuan Zonggao's performance alone.
Tang Yin did not want to be used as a spearman by Zhang Zuo. Even if he united with Zhang Zuo to fight Yuan Zonggao before, it was only a temporary measure, and he preferred to be an outsider.
"I don't have any good ideas."
Tang Yin answered very directly.
Many officials present were snickering.
At present, the Prince's Chief Shi Si is being suppressed by the Cheng Feng Division. How can civil servants like Chief Shi Si consider the issue from the standpoint of the enemy? They just want to see Zhang Zuo and Tang Yin suffer.
Zhang Zuodao: "If we want to use the power of the Wangfu to build the river embankment, we can only stop some of the current work of the Wangfu. Now that the flood season is approaching, I'm afraid it will be too late. Why not... first heighten and strengthen the river embankment for more than ten miles near the Wangfu field. After a while, I can’t take care of the rest.”
It seems very suitable to build the river embankment close to my own Wangzhuang first.
Yuan Zonggao was confused: "If the river embankment is raised, what's the use of reinforcing one side? Once the embankment overflows or breaks on the other side or elsewhere, the flood will still spread. It's better to reinforce it..."
Zhang Zuo interrupted Yuan Zonggao's words: "Yuan Changshi, our palace's farmland is located upwind and above water, and the terrain is inherently higher. Even if the embankments break in other places and some floods return, the losses will be much smaller.
"Our family understands that you are dedicated to the people, but now the local government is not cooperating. It's not that the palace is uninterested in doing things. You can't care about others first and ignore yourself, right? There are so many people in the palace waiting to be fed. If our fields are used Flooded... What will the royal family eat next year? It's understandable that you want to do things for the people, but if you don't have anything to eat, how can you take care of others?"
Zhu Youqian agreed very much with Zhang Zuo's statement and nodded: "Zhang Fengzheng's worry is not unreasonable. If the palace's fields are flooded, we can't expect the local people to give us the surplus grain they have on hand. But if it is only the common people who are affected by the disaster, the palace will try its best to provide assistance." The porridge shop provides porridge to help the people survive the disaster years."
Yuan Zonggao originally wanted to argue his case, but seeing King Xing's attitude, he immediately chose to remain silent.
Tang Yin watched for a while, frowning and not in the mood to speak.
…
…
The matter was settled.
The river embankments will still be repaired, but priority will be given to heightening and strengthening the river embankments involving the prince's own fields.
The river embankment involves both sides. Only one side is strengthened and raised. Once the flood comes, the river embankment will surge to the other side. The water volume originally only has less than half a meter, but it will be raised to one meter... which is equivalent to doubling the disaster, not to mention what if If a section of the river embankment breaks, it will definitely flood the ocean.
Tang Yin was speechless.
He didn't understand why Zhu Youqi would agree to such a damaging move, just raise the height on both sides, or not raise the height at all but reinforce it to prevent the embankment from breaking.
Isn’t doing this now a trick to the local people?
When he came back from the meeting, he talked to Zhu Hao under the influence of wine, and his words were a bit shameful that the palace did not care about the lives of the people.
Zhu Hao said seriously: "Prince Xing's Mansion is just the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty. It is nominally responsible for protecting the stability of the place, but it is more like a parasite attached to the people... Is this the first time you know this?"
Tang Yin frowned: "So, do you think this is the right thing to do?"
"Mr. Tang, let me put it this way, if there is a flood, the local area is affected by the disaster, and the people have no harvest, but the palace is lightly affected or even not affected... As the head of the family, shouldn't you give priority to this option? ?”
Zhu Hao analyzes Zhu Youqi’s psychology.
"hehe."
Tang Yin sneered at this statement.
Zhu Haodao: "If you want Prince Xing's Mansion to assume the responsibility of protecting the local people, you must give him certain authority instead of restricting everything. Previously, Prince Xing's Mansion had to fight alone to resist the invasion of bandits. At that time, the state government had some support. But building the river embankment now involves huge manpower and material resources, and the government is standing by and doing nothing, and the Xingwang Palace may not be able to support it alone."
Tang Yin's face turned cold when he mentioned the problems existing in the local government.
It's strange that Prince Xing's palace is cold-blooded, it's better to say that Xin Zhizhou didn't do anything.
"These days, it's all for the sake of one's own family, and rarely for the country or the people. It's good for Mr. Tang to have such a big heart, but it must also be based on the ability to change all the current injustices... As a staff member of the royal family, the most important thing is that you
Or to ensure the interests of the palace, didn’t even Yuan Changshi raise any objection?”
After saying that, Zhu Hao continued to write his stuff.
Tang Yin nodded.
Yuan Zonggao always flaunted his benevolence and righteousness, but once the interests of the palace conflicted with the interests of the local people, he decisively chose to side with the palace, which shows that everyone has selfish motives.
"Zhu Hao, what are you doing?"
Tang Yin saw Zhu Hao writing and drawing without finishing, so he immediately asked.
Zhu Hao said: "I had people inspect the condition of dozens of miles of river embankments in Anlu before, and drew drawings to indicate where there are problems and find someone to reinforce them."
"ah?"
Tang Yin was very surprised.
While Zhu Hao was telling him about "recognizing the reality" and "sweeping the snow from the front door", he thought that Zhu Hao's words about serving the country and the people were all deceiving people, but when he turned his face, he realized that Zhu Hao was actually painting a river.
embankment.
"You...what does this have to do with you?"
Tang Yin shook his head and smiled bitterly.
Even Prince Xing's Mansion can't care about something, how can you, a young man, be so concerned about it? Even if you are serious about it, who will provide you with manpower and material support?
Zhu Haodao: "Mr. Tang, how do you say it has nothing to do with me? I live here... The local area suffered a disaster, the people suffered losses, and they had no money to buy my goods, wouldn't I lose money? Besides,
, I also own two acres of land in the village, if it is flooded, how can I have the nerve to come to collect rent?"
Tang Yin: "..."
He thought to himself, this theory is quite new, is it to solve the problems of the people just to prevent himself from suffering losses?
Then is your kid really evil?
Loyal or traitorous?
Zhu Hao sighed: "I also know that I can't change the status quo with my words. What I have to do is to make decisive suggestions when the flood is approaching and everyone in the local government, Prince Xing's Mansion and even the people are in danger to let them know where to reinforce.
Where should more manpower be sent for defense? After a major disaster, Anlu will probably work together to build river embankments to prevent further flooding in the coming year."
"oh."
Tang Yin suddenly realized, shook his head and said, "Zhu Hao, you know that you can't change anything with your own strength, so you prepare for the worst. If a flood comes, you have a plan in advance. When the Shixing Palace and the government organize manpower to repair it, you will also know
What’s the focus of prevention, right?”
"That's probably what it means." Zhu Hao did not deny it.
He could deduce that there would be floods in the local area.
Belongs to the prophet.
But in any era, prophets never end well.
Even if Prince Xing’s Mansion trusts him again, and he goes to tell people, “I have calculated that there will be a flood this year, how should we strengthen the river embankments, etc., will the Prince’s Mansion listen to him?”
I'm afraid everyone in Prince Xing's palace will think that you are the most ridiculous kid in the world. Why don't you say you are a god?
Even if the palace really takes it seriously, if the local government and the people don't support it, who will cooperate in building the river embankment?
The most important resource for building river embankments is not money and food, but "servants." These days, in addition to paying land rent and taxes, people also have to serve the country.
If they hired people to build the river embankments on their own... let alone Zhu Hao, Prince Xing's Mansion would go bankrupt, and no one would be willing to do that hard work on the river embankments.
At present, all the laborers Anlu can mobilize have gone to build temples and Taoist temples, or do odd jobs for state and county government offices for personal gain. Who can care about the river embankment?
We can only wait until a disaster approaches and Zhu Hao comes forward to formulate a strategy. It is estimated that then people will truly unite as one to prevent and provide disaster relief.