Upon hearing Li Xuan's question, Liu Bagou immediately said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, there are at least a hundred soldiers working hard to seal the gap. I thought the gap could be closed within an hour!"
Although Liu Bagou spoke with confidence, there was a lot of worry in his words!
Li Xuan heard this worry and immediately said: "What's going on? Is there something wrong?"
At this time, before Liu Bagou could answer, Fang Dongquan on the side said anxiously: "This gap is not a big problem. We can completely block it in an hour at most. But according to the village elders, the water level of the river will still be there."
It continues to rise!”
At this time, Liu Bagou also said: "Yes, last night's heavy rain was not limited to our Huangzhu Mountain. It rained heavily in large areas upstream. The village elders said that based on the situation in previous years, the water level will probably continue.
The water has risen by at least three feet, and it will take at least more than a day for the flood to recede completely. I am worried that the dam will not last that long!"
Hearing this, Li Xuan turned his attention to the dikes in front of him again. These dikes were built by the subjects of the Tang Dynasty last winter in order to develop more fields on both sides of the Huangzhu River. Because time was in a hurry, although the height of the dikes was
It's there, but it's not strong enough.
After all, the quality of this hastily built earthen embankment is limited, and it is naturally problematic to cope with some small-scale floods. Even if it encounters a major flood, it can still be sustained as long as it does not last for too long.
However, a major flood of this scale and lasting for such a long time is unsustainable. These earthen embankments will naturally become loose after being soaked in water for a long time, and eventually break.
Just like the gap in the dam that has appeared now!
"Then what are your countermeasures?" Li Xuan asked immediately: "This dam cannot collapse no matter what, otherwise, half of the land we have reclaimed will be ravaged by floods!"
Liu Bagou said: "Your Majesty, don't worry. I have mobilized all the young people to go to the dam and arranged for people to patrol. Once a danger is discovered, we will immediately organize manpower to reinforce and block it!"
As Liu Bagou spoke, he pointed at the embankments on both sides of the bank. There were several people patrolling the embankments at each distance, and there were people holding bronze drums at intervals.
Then Liu Bagou added: "In addition to sealing the gap here, we are also arranging manpower to stockpile earth, stone and trees in some more dangerous areas for backup!"
Looking in the direction he indicated, Li Xuan also saw that behind several sections of the embankment, there were numerous bamboo baskets piled together, filled with stones and soil, and wooden piles piled next to them.
Seeing this, Li Xuan nodded. Liu Bagou had done a lot of preparation work for flood control. Otherwise, it would not have been possible to complete so much work in just one morning. The earth, rocks and wooden piles should have been installed in advance in the past two days.
prepared.
"That's very good. Since we have made perfect preparations, I believe we can survive this flood!" Li Xuan looked around and saw a large circle of people surrounding him, and immediately said: "Okay, I will
I won’t disturb you any more, all my dear friends, please go and do your own business, I’ll take a look and go back!”
Li Xuan had no intention of staying on the dam, because he knew that not only would he not be able to provide much help, but he would be in the way, which made Liu Bagou, Fang Dongquan and the others more scrupulous about organizing flood control work.
After all, it is more dangerous to be on the dike now. Maybe a certain section of the dike under your feet will break at some point. Then it will not only be dangerous, but it will also hinder Liu Bagou and the others' work.
So after sending Liu Bagou and the others to work on their own, he simply walked on the embankment for a while, pretended to be personally involved in fighting the flood, and then led his guards down the embankment.
However, he did not return to the Palace, but stayed in a wooden house on higher ground behind the embankment.
The flood was raging ahead, and the second section of the embankment might collapse at any time. How could he return to the palace with peace of mind? This place was far away from the embankment anyway. Unless the floodwater rose another three to four meters, the flood would not reach this place at all.
At the same time, staying away from the dam can also avoid interfering with the flood control work of Liu Bagou and Fang Dongquan!
Time passed little by little, and with the efforts of hundreds of soldiers and civilians, the gap several meters wide was finally blocked. However, this still did not make the flood-fighting soldiers and civilians on the dam relax much, because at this time, there were
A section of the embankment has begun to appear in danger. The embankment has been continuously impacted by floods and has become extremely weak. It may burst at any time.
At this time, Liu Bagou quickly arranged for at least hundreds of people to go to the reinforcements urgently!
Seeing the people on the embankment busy greening, Li Xuan behind him also looked anxious, but now he was powerless and could only pray to survive this flood.
If the dam completely collapses, there will not be much harm to the casualties. After all, the Huangzhu River is not a big river, and the flood is not big or urgent. Even if it floods over, it will only be one or two meters high.
But it will cause a devastating blow to the farmland near both sides of the Huangzhu River.
Since the Tang Dynasty made Huangzhu Mountain its base camp last year, the population has increased rapidly, and the demand for food has also increased. Naturally, more and more land has been reclaimed.
It was okay at the beginning. They could open up wasteland for farming at the foot of the mountains far away from the Huangzhu River. However, the relatively high ground at the foot of the mountains was not large in the first place. It was soon cleared and the remaining large plains were covered by the Huangzhu River.
On both sides of the bank, there are relatively low-lying areas. Although these areas are fertile, they are so close to the water of the Huangzhu River and the terrain is relatively low. Once the water level of the Huangzhu River rises, these areas will be flooded.
This is why dams were built along both sides of the Huangzhu River during land reclamation last winter, just in case.
But who would have thought that there would be so much rain at the turn of spring and summer this year, and the flood caused by a heavy rainstorm would raise the water level of the Huangzhu River so much.
If the dams on both sides of the Huangzhu River collapse, at least one-third of the farmland will be completely submerged.
What does this mean? It means that during the summer harvest, Huangzhushan's output will be directly reduced by one-third. By then, thousands of people in Huangzhushan will face a food crisis in the second half of the year.
This situation is something that the current Tang Dynasty cannot bear, and it is also something Li Xuan cannot bear.
The food crisis in the Tang Dynasty last year made Li Xuan very anxious. Later, he took a risk and robbed Fengjiazhuang to solve the food crisis. He didn't want to do it again.
Now there is no second Fengjiazhuang outside the mountains. A group of powerful bandits has appeared in the mountains. This is not a secret. Many villages outside the mountains know about it and many villages have tried to protect themselves.
What's more important is that in order to prevent the puppet Tang rebels from obtaining food from outside the mountains, the Ming army was heavily fortified. During the autumn harvest last year, in order to prevent the puppet Tang rebels from coming out to plunder food on a large scale, the Ming army was on the edge of the mountains early.
Deploy defense at various points.
Then, while the autumn harvest was still in progress, a large number of people were sent to nearby villages to collect grain, and all the grain was concentrated in Longhua Town.
On the one hand, this was to reserve more food for the Ming army's own consumption, and on the other hand, it was to prevent the puppet Tang rebels from obtaining this food.
It is a pity that apart from the grain that had been used by the Ming army and the grain that was stolen by Huangzhushan bandits, the remaining grain and grass piled in the granary were all burned by the puppet Tang bandits.
This forced Su Jiakang to transport food from Zhengtai County, otherwise the nearly two thousand Ming troops stationed in Longhua Town and surrounding areas and the ordinary townspeople in Longhua Town would go hungry.
Nowadays, if you want to obtain a large amount of food near the mountains, it is impossible to just rob ordinary villagers, because they themselves do not have much food, and it is impossible to reserve a large amount of food like the Fengjiazhuang. The only feasible way is to start from Ming Dynasty.
They grabbed food from the army and even directly attacked Longhua Town or Zhengtai County.
However, that would lead to a situation that the Huangzhushan bandits have been trying to avoid, which is to avoid deteriorating the situation and attracting more Ming troops.
If we don't want to encounter a food crisis in the second half of this year, which will lead to various passive situations, then today's dike must be defended.
The specific flood fighting work was led by military generals such as Liu Bagou and even Fang Dongquan. Li Xuan did not need to worry about it. All he could do was to ensure the logistics support of the flood fighting personnel in the rear.
Immediately he said to Wang Wenhua beside him: "Send the order, the official warehouses will be opened today, and all the soldiers and civilians participating in flood fighting and rescue operations can open them to eat. Do not use coarse grains, use polished rice. In addition, we will have a few pigs, chickens, ducks, etc. slaughtered."
, we must feed the soldiers and civilians fighting the flood!"
As he spoke, he paused and then continued: "Also, you and Mr. Qian are discussing making ginger soup and other decoctions to prevent colds. It's still raining now. We can't let the flood-fighting soldiers and civilians get sick on a large scale!"
Being exposed to the wind and rain, and having to soak in water to fight floods, it is easy for widespread colds and colds to occur. There is no such thing as cold medicine these days. If you catch a cold, you will not be able to cure it.
Good, but it can kill people.
When Wang Wenhua went down, Li Xuan continued to pay attention to the situation on the dam, and then he came up with whatever he was worried about. Near noon, a big flood peak came upstream. This flood directly increased the water level of the dam by more than one meter.
This made the already shaky dam no longer able to withstand it. In less than an hour, three gaps appeared in succession.
Although Fang Dongquan and Butcher Chen in the front were already taking the lead in fighting the flood. Butcher Chen even jumped into the water to drive wooden stakes to block the gap. However, they still could not quickly close the gap in a short time. By the afternoon, they had closed the gap.
When it was blocked, the farmland behind the dam had turned into a swamp.
Seeing the large farmland in front of him being completely submerged, Li Xuan didn't speak for a long time. Finally, he sighed and got up and left back to the palace. No one knew that on the way back to the palace, Li Xuan was already planning how to launch the next attack on the Ming army.
of war.
The destruction of farmland is caused by God and cannot be stopped by manpower. However, the food crisis can be solved by manpower.
Since God did not give face to destroy the farmland of the Tang Dynasty, he could only use the swords and guns of the Tang Dynasty to obtain food for the people of the Tang Dynasty!