Three hundred and fifty-ninth chapters man and heaven
Chapter 359: Man’s calculation and God’s calculation
The right deputy imperial envoy, prime minister of water transportation, and admiral of military affairs and governor of Fengyang and other places, and also in charge of rivers. Yang Zhongcheng, who has been in charge of Huai'an Prefecture recently, has been very anxious. He often has three surprises in one night because of the flood situation. Here, the Yellow, Huai, and water transports converge, and it has the best water conditions in the world.
Complexity is also the most vulnerable area.
The Yellow River loves to burst and flow freely, and the water from Huaihu Lake is released into the sea. The canal is the lifeline of the country that must be protected. No one is easy to deal with. They are intertwined in Huai'an Prefecture, and the situation is even more complicated. In addition, the salt production in the Huaihe and Huaihe regions occupies the largest share in the world.
Once the downstream salt fields are washed away by flooding, the entire salt industry will suffer heavy losses.
Therefore, when a major flood occurs, the nervousness of Huai'an Prefecture can be imagined. Especially this year's Yellow River flood is the largest in the past 20 to 30 years. The lack of breaches so far has been called a miracle by old river workers, but there are still breaches
possibility. And judging from historical experience, the possibility of the Yellow River bursting is quite random regardless of time, location or probability. This kind of torture is really frightening.
In this regard, Governor Yang could only lament that he was so unlucky that he encountered a major flood during his tenure. He was destined to have trouble sleeping throughout the flood season.
Under this circumstance, on the ninth day of September, Governor Yang received a report from Sizhou from Li You - Wang, the magistrate of Sizhou, ordered the unruly people to demolish the levee of Zuling. Now the flood is approaching the inner embankment, and the ancestral tomb has been destroyed.
It was surrounded by water and was in danger. At the same time, the eunuch guarding the mausoleum testified about the matter.
At first, Governor Yang thought that he was blinded by lack of sleep. He had lived for more than fifty years and had been in the officialdom for more than twenty years. He had never heard of anyone who dared to deliberately dig up the flood control embankment of the royal mausoleum...
After understanding it, Governor Yang almost fainted. Why did all kinds of monsters and monsters come out during his tenure? Even local officials took the initiative to dig up the embankment of the Zuling Tomb. What a bad time!
He originally thought that there would be no big problems in the south this year, and he would just focus on the Yellow River. Who knew that such a strange thing would happen again. Once the ancestral mausoleum is lost, he, as a governor, will be done!
On the night of September 10th, Governor Yang, who was extremely anxious and already suffering from insomnia, received another urgent message from Liubaili. In order to save the ancestral mausoleum, after seeking the opinions of the eunuchs guarding the mausoleum, Li You, who was in charge of the southern part of Hongze Lake, had ordered a decisive action.
The city of Sizhou has been completely submerged in floods due to the flood discharge from the state levee. However, the water level around the Zuling Mausoleum has decreased and the situation has improved.
Seeing this, Governor Yang breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the ancestor's mausoleum was intact, there would be no problem. At the same time, he felt that Li You was young but very courageous, and he dared to break the embankment and flood Sizhou.
As for the matter regarding the ancestral mausoleum, Mr. Yang, even though he was the governor, could not make the decision, so he could only rush the report six hundred miles to the capital and ask the court to deal with it.
But it was said that Mr. Li stayed on the front line of fighting against the flood, declined Eunuch Hai's invitation to live in the house of the Zuling Mausoleum, and led his soldiers to find a house for temporary accommodation outside the Zuling Mausoleum. It was very close to the inner embankment, and the water conditions could be checked at any time.
.Besides, he doesn’t worry about living in Eunuch Hai’s territory. Safety comes first.
On September 11, the day after the Sizhou embankment burst, Li You and Eunuch Hai continued to watch the water.
Hai Gonggong pointed to the breach of the outer embankment of the Zuling Mausoleum and said: "Now Sizhou on the east coast is releasing floods, and because the terrain is low, the current water trend tends to the east. On the west coast, the flow of water from the breach of the outer embankment has slowed down. We can consider seizing the opportunity to re-block it."
Go up. To prevent the inner embankment from directly facing the flood, there will be no way to retreat in case of danger."
In fact, Eunuch Hai, as the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, is responsible for the area within the walls of the ancestral mausoleum. Things such as flood control outside belong to the local government. Eunuch Hai does not have much responsibility. He can appear or not. Now is not the time for eunuchs to be arrogant and oppress the local area.
.However, it is reasonable to make suggestions, but the specific implementation depends on local officials like Li You.
It is a reasonable suggestion to seal the breach at this time, and the slow flow of water here is indeed a good opportunity. But Li You stared at the breach and was undecided. Eunuch Hai asked again: "Master Li, what's the problem? We have spare stones.
Don’t worry.”
Li You glanced at Eunuch Hai and pointedly said: "Now that the ancestral mausoleum is in danger, it is all because of the disaster caused by the king surnamed Wang digging the outer embankment of the ancestral mausoleum. It has nothing to do with us. If we encounter danger again, it will still be the same. It will still be the same."
The responsibility of that surnamed Wang is. If I blocked the breached embankment and made up for the sins of that surnamed Wang, it would be fine if nothing happened. But if the Zuling Mausoleum is in danger due to the outer embankment, wouldn't the responsibility be transferred to me instead?
Eunuch Hai's words may very well put me on the fire."
When Eunuch Hai heard this strange talk, he initially thought it was a fallacy, but upon closer inspection it turned out to be very reasonable. The twists and turns in Mr. Li's heart were really...
Before he could react, he heard Li You say again: "But if someone reports that I have neglected my duty and let the embankment collapse without blocking it, it will be very bad. If we weigh the two aspects, we should block it!"
For some reason, Eunuch Hai blurted out: "I will not be the villain behind this."
Li You laughed and said, "Hai Shouling is worrying too much. I didn't say anything wrong about you."
After several rounds, Eunuch Hai was defeated in the invisible battle and was completely convinced. He could only say sincerely: "The Yellow River is flooded this year, and it will almost inevitably flood the lake. If the water level is raised, blocking the outer embankment can be considered as a precaution."
Before Eunuch Hai finished speaking, soldiers from the express delivery shop in the east rushed over and shouted: "Governor Yamen urgent report! The Yellow River is so powerful that it has diverted its flow at the mouth of Qingjiang River and poured into Hongze Lake. Gaojiayan on the east bank and Si on the south bank
Everyone in the state must be careful about the ancestral mausoleums! The governor's Yamen also ordered Mr. Li to guard the ancestral mausoleums exclusively, and sent other officials to guard the southern section of Gaojiayan."
It really means that when Cao Cao arrived, Li You was shocked even though he was mentally prepared. This is no joke. Hongze Lake cannot be drained into the river, but is poured back into the river. In this way, Sizhou is attacked by both the upstream Huaihe River and the downstream Hongze Lake.
This area is very sad.
Eunuch Hai calmly analyzed: "It doesn't matter, even if the Yellow River flows back, it will only be a diversion, and the flood surface is large enough, which will not immediately cause the water level in Sizhou to rise sharply, unless the Yellow River water doubles..."
Before Eunuch Hai could finish his words, another soldier rushed from the northwest, "There is an urgent report from Suzhou! The Yellow River bursts at Kaifeng Prefecture, and its tributaries seize the Suishui River and go south, and then seize the Bianshui River in Suzhou. All along the coast of Hongze Lake are
be careful!"
The Bian River, like the Huai River, is meant to flow into Hongze Lake. What Pu Bing urgently reported means that after the Yellow River bursts in Henan, a tributary will first follow the Sui River and then go south along the Bian River. The final destination will be floods.
Zehu... Just as Eunuch Hai said, "The water of the Yellow River has doubled."
It was said again that Cao Cao and Cao Cao had arrived! Li You couldn't help but glare at Eunuch Hai a few times.
The father-in-law Hai was also stunned and speechless for a long time, and then he continued to force himself to calm down and said: "It doesn't matter, we are at the junction of Huaihu Lake, and the water level of Hongze Lake is only rising on one side. As long as there is no flood in the upper reaches of the Huaihe River on the other side...
"
Before he finished speaking, Youpu soldiers came flying from the south and shouted: "Urgent report from Zhongdu! It has been raining heavily in Fengyang for days, and the water level in the upper reaches of the Huaihe River has skyrocketed!"
Zuling Sizhou is located at the lowermost reaches of the Huaihe River. If there is a flood in the upper reaches, will the lower reaches be farther?
The Yellow River floods, the Bianhe River floods, and the Huaihe River floods are the three most worrisome situations according to the analysis of old river workers. The occurrence of one of them is a very bad situation. But under the powerful crow's mouth of Grandpa Hai, they actually appeared at the same time.
A great immortal with a straight mouth is nothing more than this!
Li You was never afraid of the enemy, but he was also very incompetent in the face of natural disasters. At this moment, Mr. Li was horrified and frightened. He pointed at Eunuch Hai and yelled: "Shut the f*ck up! I'm just here.
I'm going to die because of your mouth!"
Eunuch Hai also completely collapsed and slapped himself several times. If the ancestral mausoleum was really going to be flooded, Li You might be able to use Wang Zhizhou as a shield, but as the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, he would have to die.
At this time, the two of them could not care less about their rivalry, and gathered all the mausoleum households and mausoleum guards to block the outer embankment of the ancestral mausoleum. It only took half a day to barely seal the breach with stones.
But starting from that night, the water level outside the Zuling Embankment rose at a rate visible to the naked eye, almost more than one foot a day. If Sizhou had not released floods and widened the east waterway, the water level would have risen even faster.
Everything was out of control, and Mr. Li, who always liked to play tricks and act as if he had everything under control, was really worried. He stayed away from the embankment day and night, which made him look more embarrassed than a handsome man. Unfortunately, God could not help him, and the water level continued to rise.
Rising. It can be seen from the telescope that the water level has almost completely submerged the Sizhou city wall opposite, and only the top of the city gate tower is exposed.
On September 15th, the Zuling Embankment finally could no longer hold back the water level. Although it had not breached again, the floodwaters overflowed the outer embankment and slowly overflowed to the inner embankment.
Although he has not been sentenced to death, it is almost equivalent to a reprieve from death. The main outer embankment is unable to hold back the water, how long can the inner embankment last? If the inner embankment cannot withstand it and the floods continue to overflow, then
It was poured directly into the ancestral mausoleum gate.
This is only when the embankment overflows. If the embankment breaks again and the floodwaters rush in rapidly, I am afraid that the ancestral mausoleum will be destroyed in a short time. However, the difference is only an immediate death penalty and a reprieve.
Li You, the director of river management on the south bank of Hongze Lake, stood on the embankment with despair, and Eunuch Hai also stood beside him. The flood water had already reached his calves, and it was biting cold. Behind him, on the Shinto Road in Zulingli, the water had reached his ankles.
Oh, so disappointing!
Since time traveling, Li You has never been so helpless as he is now. God's will is unpredictable, but manpower is sometimes poor. Looking back on the past half month or so, since arriving in Sizhou, he has been making plans around the ancestral mausoleum, and only thinks about saving the ancestral mausoleum.
The opportunity to make a meritorious deed has arrived. But God's calculations are not as good as those of man, and the government's calculations are too clever.
If the Zuling Mausoleum is flooded like Sizhou, even if the responsibility is passed on to Wang Zhizhou, even if his judgment is extremely correct, what credit can he get? No matter how it is said, the Zuling Mausoleum is in Li You's hands
It sank to the bottom of the lake.
Alas! Li You looked up to the sky and sighed. Since God's will is irreversible, he should try his best to add some points of impression and sympathy to himself.
Under the watchful eyes of hundreds of soldiers and civilians on the embankment, Mr. Li knelt in the water, kowtowed to the north three times, then stood up and shouted: "I have failed to live up to the great trust of the imperial court, and there is nothing I can do for you!"
He also composed a poem in a loud voice and said: "The floods are floating on the sun and the moon, and the sun and the sun are ruining the world. I am incompetent and dare not stay alone. I die in my duty to fulfill the ministerial festival and repay the country's favor with my death!"
After finishing, Li You jumped into the torrential flood at his feet, his blue official robe floating on the water very eye-catchingly.
"Sir, don't do this!" Li You's soldiers shouted, and immediately five or six of them jumped into the water to save others.
Eunuch Hai didn't feel anything about Li You's diving. He was now like a walking zombie, numb to everything. He only thought about the danger of ancestral mausoleum. Should he also jump down and commit suicide?
He took two steps forward and suddenly felt that walking was much easier than before. It seemed that it was not an illusion. He looked down and saw that the water level that had just submerged his calves had already dropped to his ankles...
Could it be that the floods are finally receding?
The ecstasy of escaping from death instantly filled Eunuch Hai's heart and lungs. When he looked at Mr. Li who was still struggling in the water, he seemed to have seen a miracle.