When others heard Lin Xunyang's words, they didn't know what to say. These armies were treating flood control as a war!
But then again, the military actually treated the flood fight as a battle!
Because what they received was a combat order!
Serious combat orders!
Although it is said that we are not fighting an enemy but fighting floods, orders are orders. Since the Holy Emperor asked the troops to fight floods, then the troops will fight floods.
Lin Xunyang expressed his opinion on behalf of the Army. A colonel also spoke on the Navy side, but there is no large-scale naval fleet in Henan, only a Yellow River Squadron.
Although it has such a big name as the Yellow River Squadron, its actual size is not even comparable to that of the canal fleet. It only has more than 20 small inland river ships, among which there are only seven inland river warships, and the largest ship is
It's just an 80-ton second-class river battleship, and its strength is pitiful.
In recent years, the navy has been undergoing a major expansion, but the expansion is mainly for the ocean fleet. It is not very enthusiastic about the expansion of the inland fleet. It is even reducing the size of the inland fleet to free up manpower to expand the ocean fleet.
During the Unification War, the Navy's inland river fleet was huge, with dozens of Class A river warships of more than 100 tons, and more than 300 Class A and Class C river warships of several dozen tons combined.
However, after the Unification War, there were successive reductions. Today, there are only more than 20 Class A warships left, and they are basically deployed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Pearl River. There are only a hundred Class B and Class C river warships left.
, this was scattered into rivers and lakes across the country, and there was not much left.
However, although the strength is small and there are not many personnel, the navy still belongs to the army, and they will naturally participate in the flood fight. They have mobilized all the ships to patrol the Yellow River day and night to monitor the situation.
At the same time, they also began to organize some civilian ships to rescue, transfer people, and transport materials, especially food.
At the same time, the Navy also stated that they have prepared several large-tonnage ships and are on standby at any time. If a danger occurs somewhere, they will directly take measures to sink the ship to plug the gap.
Both the army and navy have stated that they will use all means to participate in the fight against floods!
This reassured Xiao Baoguan!
Flood fighting is something that requires a lot of organizational strength. Although the local government can recruit a large number of people, it is still very difficult to prevent so many people from participating in flood fighting.
The military does not have any problems in this regard. With an order, tens of thousands of people will rush to the designated area and then participate in building dams and other matters.
Moreover, the soldiers in the military are all strong and strong, and their physical fitness is much stronger than that of ordinary young men. One person can bear the workload of several civilians.
After all, living standards are still relatively low these days. It is not easy for ordinary people to eat enough. Even if they are young and strong, many of them have little muscle. Like the soldiers there, all of them are full of body.
Strong and muscular.
Xiao Baoguan immediately said: "With the strong help of the military, we will definitely be able to survive this embarrassment safely!"
However, after Xiao Baoguan said this, he didn't say much more. After all, military and political affairs are separated. When it comes to matters involving military affairs, talking too much will lead to mistakes, even if it is to fight against floods.
The relationship between their local yamen and the military has never been good. There is no way. In the environment of separation of military and political affairs, conflicts must be created even if there are no conflicts. Otherwise, the Holy Emperor would think that these officials and generals have colluded to rebel.
The same is true for this time's flood control. The military is the military and the local government is the local government. The two do not interfere with each other. However, this is just a tacit superficial gesture. In fact, the two sides still need to cooperate, and the military does not
It is very possible to fight alone, and you still need to follow local arrangements for many things.
After all, if they were asked to fight, it would be simple and straightforward.
But their army is really unprofessional when it comes to fighting floods. Although they have sufficient troops, they still have to listen to local opinions on how to do it.
Lieutenant General Xue Changhuan, the commander of the Thirteenth Army, had already given him instructions. This time, in fighting the flood, we should try our best to cooperate with the local areas and give full play to the army's own strengths.
What are the advantages?
War? Definitely not!
Fighting with the flood!
In the face of floods, the military's strength is to be engineers!
The Army digs fortifications every day. Although building fortifications is different from building embankments, they are both civil engineering works. The Army says there are no problems at all.
Although it is said that Army Major General Lin Xunyang, the garrison commander of Henan Province, is not under the control of the 13th Army, he is still a senior official. Xue Changhuan is an army lieutenant general, and he is also the commander of the field army.
, in the future, there is hope that he will continue to advance one step higher and become a general.
That is what he can compare to a man who couldn't even compete for the position of division commander of the main infantry division, and was forced to serve as a local garrison commander after losing the competition.
Even if it was not a formal order, he had to listen to what Xue Changhuan of the Thirteenth Army said.
Therefore, in order to express the Army's attitude, Lin Xunyang did not say much in the subsequent meetings. Instead, he listened to the local officials talking. What they said was that the river embankments should be reinforced and spare embankments should be built there.
Discuss what area to serve as a flood discharge area and sacrifice a piece of land to ensure the safety of the Yellow River.
He did not interfere in these matters. He would only speak when they mentioned that there was still a shortage of manpower in strengthening a certain section of river embankment and building a certain section of backup embankment, and said: "No problem, leave it to our army!"
There were no big differences between the military and the government when discussing how to fight floods.
Soon, the meeting ended, and everyone put on their raincoats and walked out of the governor's office. Others had their own tasks to deal with, while Xiao Baoguan was going to the river embankment to take another look.
Braving the light rain, he led a group of people up the river embankment again and saw Fang Xinxi, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture.
Fang Xinxi looked even more embarrassed than Xiao Baoguan. Xiao Baoguan had not slept well, his eyes were bloodshot, and his feet were stained with a lot of mud and water on the road.
But this Fang Xinxi looked exhausted. After asking, he found out that this person had been on the river embankment for two days!
Regardless of whether this person was forced to do so due to pressure or just wanted to show off, Xiao Baoguan was still very pleased to be able to do this.
No matter what he thinks, as long as he sees the performance!
With such a magistrate living on the river embankment, few people would dare to neglect him!
The county magistrates, town mayors, etc. below are also on the front line of the flood fight with their subordinates and recruited civilians.
No matter how things develop in the end, local officials are fighting on the front line when it comes to fighting floods. Even if some of them are afraid of death and are unwilling to come, even the governor Xiao Baoguan himself came to the river embankment twice in a row.
The prefect of Kaifeng lives on the river embankment. If you dare to come, you will be stripped of your hat in minutes. Believe it or not!
After entering the temporary hut on the river embankment, Xiao Baoguan took off his raincoat, greeted these officials and some village sages one by one, and emphasized that he must not take it lightly before returning.
This was not just going back to the governor's office to rest. Now that he was off the river embankment, he still had a lot of things to do.
First, he went to a place several kilometers away from a relatively dangerous river embankment. This was the place where they temporarily selected a backup river embankment, and planned to build a temporary embankment based on the local terrain.
In this way, floods will not directly ravage large areas of plains after the dangerous river embankment breaks, but can be blocked here.
On the construction site of the backup river embankment, you can see tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of soldiers working hard on the construction site.
These days, there is no mechanical equipment for construction. We can only use shovels, hoes and other tools to dig bit by bit, and use human power to carry the earth and rocks on our shoulders.
This is doomed, as long as you want to complete any project, there will be a lot of people. As for this kind of spare river embankment that is several kilometers long and needs to be built in a short time, there are thousands of people.
Counting on it.
Fortunately, Xiao Baoguan received an urgent warning from Jinling City a few days ago before the heavy rain came, and arranged relevant work two days in advance. At the beginning of the heavy rain, a large number of young people were organized to participate in flood prevention.
Otherwise, it would take several days to get started.
At this critical moment, the difference between one day and two is enough to determine life or death!
After Xiao Baoguan inspected various construction sites, he returned to the city. What was he doing back in the city? Naturally, he didn't go back to sleep. He wanted to personally summon the gentry and big merchants in Kaifeng City and surrounding areas.
Why, let them pay!
Although flood fighting is just mobilizing people to build embankments or something like that, it actually costs quite a lot. There are tens of thousands of people participating in the flood fighting. It is necessary to prepare food and medicine for them, which all costs money.
.
But unfortunately, the government finances don’t have much money!
Henan's local finances have always been poor. There is no way around it. This place is originally an agricultural province, and it has been affected by the flooding of the Yellow River. The civil administration revenue is not high, and the local fiscal revenue is naturally not much.
In recent years, Kaifeng has finally developed industry and built more than a dozen factories. However, these factories are all small and medium-sized factories and basically cannot provide much help to local finance.
The local finance has no money, but it needs to fight floods and provide disaster relief later. This requires a lot of money. Do we have to wait for the Ministry of Finance to allocate funds?
Then the day lily will be cold, maybe even the city of Kaifeng will be flooded, and the money from the Finance Department hasn’t been allocated yet!
When encountering major events, the government organizes, large households contribute money, and small households contribute efforts. This has always been the way the Chinese dynasty dealt with it, and it was not exempted even in the Tang Empire.
Of course, the Tang Empire never made any forced apportionment. This was not in line with the benevolence and righteousness of the Tang Empire!
The Tang Empire often carried out donations in the form of donations. When something happened, it would call on big families to raise funds.
Theoretically speaking, donating more, donating less, or even not donating at all is entirely voluntary!