The beggar emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty - Chapter 560

Qin Huan’s visit to Kaifeng not only boosted morale, but also played no other role. He just drank porridge with the people for two days. When the flood fell near the root of the city wall and other dam sections were exposed, he organized people in the city to fill the gap, and sent people to nearby counties to count the losses and issue a notice of peace for the people.

After two days of fighting between hundreds of thousands of people and thousands of troops, they finally managed to fill the gap more than two miles wide. Until then, the flood around Kaifeng mansion completely faded.

Looking around, the original farmland has become silt, river and sand. The villages in the four fields have long been beyond recognition. The people do not know where they have been washed away, and the painstaking subgrade has completely disappeared.

It was not until seven days later that the losses of the counties were counted. Qin Huan also got a rough data about the disaster in Kaifeng.

As he expected, several States and counties near Kaifeng Prefecture suffered the most heavy losses. Except for most of the people in the city, almost all the people in the four fields were killed.

The population of Kaifeng, together with the population of several nearby states and counties, was as high as more than two million, but now it is less than one million. As for the loss of houses, farmland and other property, it is impossible to count.

In addition to several States and counties near Kaifeng, other states and counties also suffered from floods, but relatively speaking, it is not as serious as near Kaifeng.

However, although the loss of personnel was not heavy, and most of the houses were only soaked, the cotton that was about to be harvested had no harvest, and countless people knelt on the farmland and cried.

Dozens of prefectures and counties were flooded this time. In addition to the whole Kaifeng Prefecture, other places also suffered more or less floods, damaging up to 20 million mu of farmland.

There’s no way. There are more than 20 million mu of farmland and 4 million people in Kaifeng alone.

Although Kaifeng Prefecture is vulnerable to floods, the lost population must be supplemented, and farmland will continue to be destroyed.

Because as long as there is a good harvest, I’m afraid the whole north can eat for a year, Qin Huan can only temporarily send troops to repair the farmland and strive to plant winter wheat in October.

At this time, Qin Huan finally knew that Kaifeng was not suitable for growing cotton, because cotton was planted in spring and harvested in autumn. If not, it would be flooded in summer, while winter wheat planted in autumn and harvested in summer could well avoid the flood season.

There are not enough people in several prefectures and counties near Kaifeng prefecture to farm. It is just possible to move the people on the Loess Plateau to farm.

Qin Huan’s plan was to let the army clean up the farmland first, and then plant winter wheat. At the same time, he began to count the population on the Loess Plateau. He prepared before the title, and began to move after the beginning of the new year. He tried to move all the people before the summer harvest. At that time, they were allowed to harvest by themselves, and the wheat in the field would be used as compensation.

As for the destroyed houses, people can be recruited from Nanyang, Hebei and Shandong to build them in winter.

In order to move smoothly, Qin Huan decided to let Hong Ying personally go to northern Shaanxi to take charge of the matter and set off immediately.

For the people in other counties affected by the disaster, Qin Huan could only provide each household with an interest free loan of ten Liang silver, which would be repaid in three years, in five installments, each for one year.

At the same time, Qin Huan appointed a governor of the Yellow River management, named Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of work, to take full charge of the diversion of the Yellow River, dredge the old river, dredge the people that should be relocated, and strive to start the diversion before next summer.

Qin Huan allocated 30 million taels of silver from the inner Treasury to deal with the reconstruction of the Yellow River. The governor of the Yellow River in charge of this project was the official of the Ministry of work in Kaifeng.

Qin Huan personally took charge of Kaifeng, which greatly improved the efficiency of all aspects.

For a time, millions of young people in Hebei and Shandong who were repairing the official roads stopped their work and went to the old road of the Yellow River to start digging and dredging.

A large number of materials, grain and the National Guard were also continuously transferred from Huguang to Kaifeng.

At this time, the wooden track from Xiangyang to the north of Xuzhou played a real role.

All materials and personnel go to the Hanjiang River, first to Xiangyang as a transit, and then directly take the track to the north of Xuzhou, which is fast and cost-effective.

On the contrary, the material personnel in Jiangnan were stranded in the south of the Huai River.

Because Jianghuai also suffered from the flood, the affected area is larger than Kaifeng, but the flood in Jianghuai is rising slowly, not as fierce as Kaifeng. Therefore, although only 200000 people were drowned, the loss of houses and farmland is no smaller than Kaifeng, and the flood has not completely retreated so far.

As a result, the canal was completely impassable, the official roads were either still soaked in water or muddy, and the transportation of vehicles and ships was completely paralyzed.

Qian bin was also anxious in the south of the Yangtze River. He had to order all localities to speed up the renovation of pipelines and dredge canals. At the same time, he enlisted merchant ships to take the Yangtze River directly and bypass Hubei.

I’m afraid no one would have thought that the great flood would trigger the first financial crisis in Daqin.

Qin Huan also did not expect that at this time, he focused on Kaifeng, Jianghuai and the Loess Plateau, ignoring Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong.

With the end of the autumn harvest in the south, young people in the North began to return to their hometown at the end of September to prepare winter wheat.

Although they only worked for more than a month and earned only two liang of silver per person, almost every family has saved more than ten liang of silver due to working for more than four months since the beginning of spring and bank loans. Although they have spent a lot on buying grain and salt, they still have some balance. Therefore, almost all young people intend to use the money they earn this time, Buy some cotton cloth to make a new dress for my mother-in-law.

After all, most ordinary people in the north have almost the same clothes as beggars. That’s why Qin Yucai gave them some loans to maintain their basic life.

Although the population of the North decreased sharply and everyone divided the land last year, it was already past the season of planting winter wheat. Therefore, from last winter to this year, they have been living on loans and work.

Fortunately, the prices of local businesses are not expensive. In addition, the population in the North has decreased sharply, and people everywhere can barely get enough food and clothing. Women, old and weak, clean up their farmland at home, and young people go abroad to work. Treasure money is also saved, saving every penny.

However, as millions of young people returned to their hometown, they waved treasure money and rushed to local businesses and agent shops, forming a long line to buy cloth. Although everyone bought only one, they couldn’t stand many people, which led to the rapid shortage of cloth in agent shops.

People had to go to other shops to buy, and although other cloth merchants did not dare to raise prices sharply, it was no problem to raise prices by one or two percent.

When the gentry and landlords everywhere saw the rise in the price of cotton, even the Royal firms were out of stock. They also joined the purchasing army and snapped up cotton.

In a short time, all cotton in the North was sold out. Unable to buy cotton, the people had to choose to buy some food and salt.

Because the grain, salt and cloth of Daqin commercial firm were transported to the north through the Jianghuai canal, a large number of grain, salt and cloth that should have been transported in early September were all washed away by the flood, which led to a shortage of coarse salt and grain everywhere.