The first thousand two hundred and fifty-seven chapters flood crisis
It has been some years since Li Xuan came to this era. The year name has changed from the original 2nd year of Anjian to the 15th year of Xuanping. Counting on your fingers, it is already a full sixteen years.
Over the years, generally speaking, China has experienced mostly man-made disasters and not many natural disasters.
In the past two years, the Huaihe River Basin and the middle reaches of the Yellow River also experienced widespread rainfall. However, the massive investment in water conservancy construction funds by the Tang Empire was not in vain and played a considerable role. Therefore, although there will inevitably be some small-scale floods, they will not be in vain.
It didn't cause any serious disaster.
But now, Li Xuan frowned as he looked at the gloomy sky and the raindrops falling continuously outside the house.
This rain has been falling for two days in a row, which is not a good sign. Although it does not pour heavily all the time, it does not stop!
This year’s rainy season came a little early and was a little fierce!
Looking away from the window, Li Xuan returned to his desk and picked up the meteorological report sent by the Royal Institute of Technology. There was also a meteorological report from the Royal Academy of Sciences next to it.
However, Li Xuan directly put down the report from the Academy of Sciences, because he knew without reading it that it was not valuable, or he simply copied the report from the Astronomy Department of the Royal Institute of Technology.
Originally, Li Xuan wanted to establish the Royal Academy of Sciences as an official top research institution, but later he shifted his focus to the Royal Institute of Technology. Although the Royal Academy of Sciences has such a big sign, it has gradually declined into mediocrity.
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By now, it has basically become a decoration. Although reports are occasionally submitted, in fact many of them are directly copied from the relevant statements of the Royal Institute of Technology and have no actual value.
Today's Royal Institute of Technology is currently the top level of the Tang Empire, and can even be said to be the only comprehensive scientific research institution.
There are more than ten departments within it, covering basically all disciplines, and the teachers and students inside are all real geniuses selected from thousands of people across the country.
The meteorological report sent by the Royal Institute of Technology predicts that there will still be rainfall in various places in Zhili in the next month, and the rainfall will not be small.
What's even more terrible is that it will not only rain in areas such as Jiangnan and Southern Anhui, but also the rainfall belt will gradually move northward, and then enter Wanbei Road, Jiangbei Road and even Henan and Shandong.
For this reason, researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology have judged that in the next month, heavy rains will fall in Henan, Shandong, Wanbei Road and Jiangbei Road, and the rainfall will far exceed the rainfall two years ago. Such extreme rainfall will
It may cause the Yellow River to burst its banks and trigger large-scale floods.
As soon as they came to the conclusion of their research, they rushed him to the palace.
When Li Xuan saw this report, he naturally took it very seriously. If this report is correct, then although it is just the beginning, the situation may be more serious than two years ago, much more serious!
A little carelessness may cause large-scale floods.
And this situation is not allowed by Li Xuan!
Now the empire is in a stage of rapid development and cannot be interrupted by a flood!
It's going to rain, but Li Xuan can't stop it.
But Li Xuan can prevent floods and reduce losses as much as possible.
Looking through the weather report in his hand again, Li Xuan immediately took the weather report and pushed open the door of the office, and then said to the secretaries outside: "Send the order, let the ministers of the ministries, the Privy Council, and the ministers of the command department come in."
There is a meeting in the palace!”
The secretaries outside suddenly saw Li Xuan coming out, and then heard Li Xuan say that a meeting was going to be held. They were all thinking in their hearts what happened?
But no matter what they were thinking about, at this moment, they all started to move. After a simple arrangement, more than a dozen secretaries trotted out directly to find the ministers.
Some people went to the minister on duty in the royal study room, some went to the cabinet and other yamen to find ministers of various ministries, and some went to the generals of the army and navy.
Although Li Xuan didn't say the words "urgent" or "immediately", everyone was not stupid. Emperor Sheng didn't specify the time, which meant that Emperor Sheng would hold a meeting immediately.
At the same time, there are cabinet ministers and ministers from various military ministries participating in the meeting, which means that this will be a military and political meeting, and it is also an emergency military and political meeting.
This kind of thing rarely happened in the Tang Empire.
Even last year when we were fighting against the Tatars, we never had this happen.
What happened?
These secretaries were not sure, and the many ministers who suddenly received the summons were even more confused. They thought carefully that nothing major had happened recently.
Since the war in the north at the end of last year, the Tatars are now very honest and have no signs of mobilizing troops on a large scale to launch an attack. The Tang Empire also spent a lot of military expenditures due to a war last year.
Yes, there is not much spare power left to launch another large-scale offensive campaign.
Therefore, in the north, although small and medium-sized battles have occurred from time to time this year, large-scale wars are probably unlikely to occur.
Except for the north, the other directions also remain stable, and there are basically no signs of large-scale invasion by foreign enemies. Even if the Portuguese and the empire fall out, it will not be to the extent that an emergency military and political meeting needs to be convened immediately.
If there are no external enemies, then there is internal strife. Many ministers are speculating, is there some major case? And it is very likely to involve rebellion. Otherwise, with the current size of the Tang Empire, ordinary trivial matters will not be able to do anything.
It wouldn't be such a fuss.
Many ministers had their own guesses, but few could guess that Li Xuan summoned them just because it had rained for two days!
Because they didn't know that researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology had already judged that this heavy rain was likely to last for more than a month and affect the entire middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Many ministers entered the palace quickly in carriages one after another, because the distance between the various government offices and the palace was not too far. Except for some ministers who were on business trips, most of them arrived at the palace courtyard very quickly.
After entering the palace, everyone was taken to the conference room by people from the secretariat. The ministers who had just entered the conference room were immediately sent a report. This was the climate report urgently submitted by the Royal Institute of Technology.
When everyone saw the report saying that the entire middle Yellow River and Huaihe River basins were likely to experience heavy rain for a month, many people's expressions changed instantly.
No one who can enter this conference room, no matter whether they are military generals or cabinet ministers, is a fool. They all fought through the competition of thousands of troops and finally became important officials in the empire.
Just by looking at this report, they can immediately think of the seriousness of the matter!
"If this continues for another month, the water level of the Yellow River will inevitably rise on a large scale. By then, I am afraid that the dams in many river sections will not be able to hold up!"
"Isn't it? Once a large-scale flood occurs, the damage to the empire will be far more serious than the Tatar invasion from the north!"
"Tatars are nothing. As long as we have the army of the Tang Dynasty, the Tatars can't hope to cross the Great Wall!"
"We must immediately and strictly order all areas to strengthen river defenses. Tens of millions of people will be affected along the Yellow River and Huaihe River, and there is no room for any mistakes."
The ministers who looked at the report talked a lot, and their voices were full of worry.
Because everyone knows the seriousness of the matter.
If this rain really lasts for a month, I am afraid that the entire middle reaches of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River Basin will be affected, and there are a large number of people in this area.
There are also many industries and commerce in the area. Although the total amount is not large, the potential is huge. For example, Huai'an, Yangzhou, Xuzhou, Kaifeng and other cities in the Yellow River and Huaihe River Basin have become
The empire's key areas for industrial development in the Central Plains.
If this was destroyed by floods, it would mean that all the empire's industrial construction in the Central Plains and northern regions in the past few years would be wiped out.
Of course, even if all the industries in the above-mentioned areas were destroyed, it would not be a serious injury, because the empire's industry and commerce are currently mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River and Pearl River basins.
The economic powerhouse of the Tang Empire was Zhili Yifu and Sidao. Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan provinces can also be added to these three provinces. However, the latter three are mainly agricultural, especially Huguang.
, has been developed as a new granary by the empire.
The above-mentioned areas not only temporarily house a large amount of the empire's food production, but also account for more than 80% of the empire's industrial output. Several large cities along the Yangtze River are among the most important industrial areas in the empire.
Wuchang Industrial Zone is a new large-scale industrial zone built by the empire in the past five or six years, and Dangtu Industrial Zone is the most important heavy industrial base of the empire. Needless to say, Shanghai is the largest industrial city in the empire, as well as Jiujiang and Anqing.
, Zhenjiang, Jinling and other places, and even Yangzhou were also important industrial and commercial cities in the empire.
If the Yangtze River surges and floods both banks, it will cause immeasurable losses to the empire.
It is precisely because the Yangtze River Basin is so important that in recent years, more than half of the funds invested by the empire in water conservancy construction have been used to manage the Yangtze River Basin.
Of course, the Yellow River and Huaihe River basins have bigger problems, so about 40% of the funds are temporarily used, and the remaining level of funds is spent on the Pearl River Basin and other rivers.
A large amount of money has been invested in water conservancy, which is why the empire has not suffered any large-scale floods in the past many years.
But this time, the rain is a bit heavy, and the Yellow River side may not be able to hold it!
While everyone was discussing, with the sound of "Your Majesty has arrived," the Holy Emperor Li Xuan also walked into the conference room, and the first thing he said was: "You have all read the report, and tell me how to deal with it!"