Chapter 917: Heavy Rain

In mid-June, Wu Changqing and his group visited Xuchang, Xinyang, Wuhan, Yueyang and other places, and came to Changsha.

However, he was unable to go out to inspect in Changsha, because it had been raining for days.

It's not just Changsha that's raining, Yichang, Jingmen, and Jingzhou are even more rainy. The entire eastern part of Chongqing, southwestern Hubei, and northwestern Hunan are experiencing continuous heavy rain.

After going down for nearly a week, Wu Changqing was a little worried.

Since the founding of Dahua, there have actually been several flood disasters, but the scale is relatively small. In addition, Dahua is actively cleaning up the river, and its resistance to floods is many times better than that of the Ming Dynasty.

However, because no major floods have occurred, the court has not made up its mind to spend huge sums of money on flood control.

All the officials, including Wu Changqing, were a little lucky, thinking that it was impossible to be so unlucky that major floods would occur in the past few years.

Therefore, they are more inclined to invest financial and material resources in production, and prepare to increase productivity first.

After those large machines are manufactured in the future, we will deal with the flood control at once.

However, this time the rain was very heavy.

Wu Changqing didn't know how much flooding disaster this amount of rainfall would cause, but he had a premonition that the situation might be bad.

"What about the telegram, I want to know the situation around here."

Probably because of the continuous rainstorm, Wu Changqing was in a bad mood and questioned the people below.

A few days ago, he received telegrams from Yichang and Jingzhou, saying that there was continuous torrential rain there, but in the past two days, the news was cut off. The communication between Xiangyang, Changde and Yueyang is still there, and the water level in those places is rising, and the situation is very bad.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, perhaps the wires were damaged."

Xu Wen from the Ministry of Communications replied that Ma Shiying had already retired due to age and health reasons, and he was the newcomer to succeed Ma Shiying.

Qian Qianyi, Ma Shiying, Qian Taoli, Zhao Chongming and other ministers all began to retire due to age and other reasons. Now there are many new faces in the officialdom.

"If the line is broken, won't you rush to repair it? If the line is broken, won't you send a horse to report? Without the telegram, these people won't be able to do things, right?"

Wu Changqing asked.

As the saying goes, when the emperor is angry, the corpse floats for thousands of miles, and the emperor loses his temper, the consequences are very serious.

Xu Wen hurriedly went down to deal with it, and arranged for people to rush to the Jingzhou area to deliver news and check the route.

As for the danger of driving in rainy days, I can't take care of it at this time.

No matter how dangerous God is, it is not as dangerous as the emperor.

After Xu Wen went down, Wu Changqing discussed with others whether to let Nanjing start preparing disaster relief supplies.

It is not sure whether there will be a major flood now. If there is no flood in the end if the mobilization is rash, it will be a joke.

At the same time, financial and material resources will be wasted.

But wait until the flood has already occurred before starting preparations, and then fear that it will be too late.

It also takes a lot of time to transport materials from Nanjing to Yueyang.

This is also the news that Wu Changqing is eager to know the water level in other places, and he needs to make a clearer judgment.

"I don't think it's necessary. Wait for the flood to happen before preparing. Disaster relief has always been like this. It's not said that disaster relief is prepared just because a disaster is predicted.

And, compared to before, we have a huge advantage now. Once a flood occurs, the rear can be notified by telegram to prepare immediately, which is ten days and a half months faster than before. "

Hong Chengchou said.

It is foreseeable that in the event of a disaster, Dahua will definitely be able to do better than the previous dynasties. This is progress, and there is no need to pursue too high.

As for Wu Changqing, he still wants to do better.

"The minister thought that preparations should be made early, so as to be prepared. Moreover, some experienced local farmers judged that this rain will definitely cause floods."

said another official.

"Pass my order, let the people who may be flooded prepare to flee, let the officials in those places prepare to rescue the people, let the 13th Division stationed in Wuhan make preparations for disaster relief, and let Nanjing make some preparations first. Disaster relief supplies and ships are ready at the same time. If there is no flood, it will be regarded as a drill and some experience can be accumulated..."

Wu Changqing did not carry out disaster relief work immediately with great fanfare, because he was not sure whether there would be a major flood.

However, it is always right to make some preparations first. At worst, it will be a waste of time, and it will be regarded as an exercise.

The emperor had spoken, and the others could only follow suit.

Besides, Dahua is rich now anyway, so he is not afraid of messing around.

Even if it's a waste of money, it's not a big deal.

Unlike the previous Ming Dynasty, even if a disaster occurred, there was no money to provide disaster relief.

Having money gives you a lot of choices.

Two days later, Wu Changqing received accurate information that Jingzhou was hit by a disaster.

The heavy rain caused a large amount of tributary river water to pour into the Yangtze River, and the river water from the middle and upper reaches directly exceeded the maximum flow of the Yangtze River in this section of the region.

A large amount of river water has begun to pour into the low-lying areas on both sides of the Yangtze River, and because the rain has not stopped, this situation will become more and more serious.

The floods of the Yangtze River are lighter than those of the Yellow River.

Most of the Yellow River is an aboveground river. The riverbed is much higher than the surrounding cultivated land, and the residential area is much higher, so the water level is naturally higher.

, Once a flood breaks the embankment, the flood can directly submerge the surrounding area, and it is fast and violent, leaving no time for people to react.

Once the embankment breaks, there is little chance of survival for those nearby.

In the Yangtze River Basin, only a small number of areas will be lower than the water level, and the floods in most places are caused by the water level slowly rising, and there is a process. The evacuation can be predicted in advance, which is much less dangerous than the sudden flood of the Yellow River.

Of course, there are still great dangers in some areas with special terrain.

For example, the area around Baili Shazhou in Jingzhou is much lower than the upper reaches of the river, and there is a natural difference in terrain.

Usually, there is nothing wrong with the small upstream water flow, but suddenly a large amount of river water rushes down, and the river surface of Baili Shazhou cannot discharge the flood, and this area will be swallowed up by the flood in an instant.

Fortunately, there are not many places like this, otherwise there would be countless casualties.

The people on the riverside, after discovering the rapid rise of the flood, as long as they were willing to give up their belongings and flee to higher ground, their lives would not be in great danger.

Of course, this is for Dahua today.

If it was the former Ming Dynasty, escaping from the flooded place was only the first step of escaping, and what to do when you were hungry was the biggest problem.

Those who are directly drowned by the flood are always a small number, and those who die of starvation after the disaster account for the majority.