At the turn of summer and autumn, rain and rain, Hebei, Northeast and other places at the same time occurred a flood that has been rare for decades. Heavy rains and flash floods in Hebei have caused 103 counties to be affected and more than 6 million people have been affected.

This catastrophic flood is related to the disrepair of the river. According to the later "Declaration") on February 22, 1918, "the rivers of Gyeonggi have not been repaired for more than 20 years, and the embankments are completely damaged. In this flood, the five major rivers and dozens of small rivers rose at the same time, flooding and overflowing, flooding more than 100 counties, covering a wide area, and all the embankments were destroyed. After the people were hit by the disaster, they could not save their lives, and they had no spare strength to prepare for the repair of the dredging."

In old China, where financial resources were insufficient and wars were frequent, natural disasters followed man-made disasters. Zhang Zuolin has stabilized Fengtian, and Zhang Hanqing's People's Party has gradually penetrated into all corners of Fengtian, and relatively close party organizations have been established in some grassroots units. Therefore, the Mukden Civil Affairs Office and the People's Party were able to play a huge role in minimizing the damage caused by the disaster in Tohoku, and quickly and decisively rebuilding after the disaster so that the victims could stand on their own feet. To this end, Zhang Hanqing strongly advocated the establishment of the Agricultural and Industrial Committee, which was responsible for guiding the work of the Fengtian and Heilongjiang Agricultural Departments and the Water Conservancy Department, with Mo Dehui concurrently serving as the director. It is generally believed that this is the starting point of the young marshal in the political circles in the full sense---- before that, Mo Dehui was the director of the China Merchants Bureau appointed by the young marshal, under the control of Liu Shangqing, director of the Financial and Economic Commission.

On the other hand, because the government did not pay attention to it---- these bureaucrats were unable to effectively organize active rescue forces, and the victims were displaced and left without food and clothing.

The Beijing Times reported: "About 350,000 people have been evacuated along the Baihe River and beyond, and those who have seen it are sad to see it without food and clothing. ”

"There are three breaches of the South Canal, and Tianjin is in a precarious situation, and there is a lack of food, fire, charcoal, and drinking water. Outside the Southwest Pass and even in Nankai South City, the Japanese Concession and other places, all of them were flooded, and hundreds of thousands of refugees were flooded, helping the old and the young, which was unspeakably miserable. ”

"The water of Tianjin's rivers has risen sharply, and the villages along the rivers have become Zeguo."

The apartment of Xiong Xiling, the former prime minister who had been "secluded" in Tianjin, was also swallowed up by the river. Xiong Xiling, who was in the disaster area, witnessed the tragic situation of the victims and the incompetence of the officials, so he immediately went to Beijing to ask the China Association of Banks for help, and received a donation of more than 10,000 yuan, which was handed over to the Beijing Police Department to buy food and transport it to Tianjin for disaster relief. At the same time, he also put forward a proposal to the government for disaster relief, and strongly advocated that the government come forward to raise funds to help all the hungry people in the disaster area.

His proposal was submitted to the Council of State for discussion, and the cabinet members unanimously agreed that it could only be defined unless Xiong Xiling came out to take charge of the relief. The government tried to take the opportunity to force him to return to his post in the department, and Xiong Xiling was also worried that if he did not come out to take the initiative and the government did not make a decision, "then these millions of hungry people have no hope of living a full life, so they have to avoid difficulties." In fact, since retiring from politics, he has regarded politics as a crime, but he has had to end his life of "seclusion" for the sake of the victims.

He was then sent to supervise the aftermath of the flood in the Gyeonggi area, and did his best to alleviate the exiles, relieve the hungry, and re-establish the Salesian Bureau to adopt refugee children.

Disaster relief must first have a huge amount of money, but the Beijing government has exhausted its financial resources, and President Feng Guozhang only ordered the Ministry of Finance to allocate 300,000 yuan to Xiong Xiling to rush to provide emergency relief. And the cold is coming, and millions of dollars will be spent on the clothing for heating alone. Xiong Xiling decided to mobilize civil society resources to make up for the shortfall in government funds.

On October 8, 1917, Xiong Xiling used his influence in society to send a telegram to all provinces across the country, hoping that all gentlemen across the country would "cherish their own hearts and be hungry and drowning, and save themselves from the crown". When the relief telegram was sent, Xiong Xiling set an example, first donating 500 yuan in cash, and then ordering the female dependents to sew 100 sets of cotton clothes and donate them to the refugees. Driven by his appeal, groups and individuals have continued to donate clothes and foreign donors, and foreign charities have also helped.

At the same time, Xiong Xiling also joined Liang Qichao and others to jointly launch the flood amusement and art relief meeting, "collecting goods, selling lottery tickets, and using all the tickets to make up the relief", and with his personal prestige, he borrowed millions of yuan from foreign foreign banks as a special relief fund. In addition, he sent a telegram to request Tangshan, Kailuan and other local bureaus to donate 5,000 tons of coal, and asked the Beiyang government to provide a lot of convenience for disaster relief.

This is a respectable elder! An official with a conscience! However, with so many victims, it is difficult for the private sector to help them alone. Even if the solution is solved for a while, it will be a dereliction of duty on the part of the government to turn the victims into poor people in the future.

But there really can't be anything the government can do. Not to mention that the central government is financially exhausted, even if the local princes have the heart, it is difficult to get this money, not to mention that the governors of the overseers are staring at their own acres and three-points of land, and no one wants to fill this wronged big head---- with this money, and can enrich the army in their hands, that is the right way to get promoted and make a fortune. As for the victims, under whose rule it happens, who will be responsible!

The north was originally poor, even today's Beijing and Tianjin, which were only slightly larger cities at that time, and the luxury was only near the concession, and most of them were still African. In addition, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi and other places can also achieve self-sufficiency in the economy in ordinary times, once there is a natural famine and man-made disaster, the upper and lower are only waiting to be fed, eager to fill their own pockets, and pay money from their pockets, only Lao Xiong and other real people.

While the Overseers don't want to pay for it, it doesn't prevent them from keeping an eye on someone else's wallet. Fengtian has made a lot of noise during this time, it seems that Zhang Zuolin has a drum in his purse, so should he dedicate something?

Of course, Zhang Zuolin wants to donate, but Lao Zhang is a real person, and he really doesn't want to do anything that is not beneficial just by donating money. At first, he also wanted to mean the same thing as the officials of other provinces, but after being persuaded by Zhang Hanqing, he changed his mind.

At the beginning of development, the Northeast was indeed poor, but it could not support the fertile land and vast resources here. Mukden has the best economic conditions among the three eastern provinces: the largest number of people settled here, and after the Japanese developed industry here (in fact, it was a mineral plunder), the industrial base far exceeded that of the two provinces, although it was exploited. After decades of development, it has become the richest province in the country.

When Feng Delin and him fought with each other before, they didn't care about raising hope. When the family became dominant, Lao Zhang's mind began to swell, not only to compete for the heart of the Northeast, but also to cherish the feathers. Of course, his pity for the feather is only for Mukden.

When the disaster in North China began, Zhang Hanqing immediately sensitively believed that this was a good opportunity to enrich Fengtian. In addition to capital, technology, and talent, there is also one of the most important factors that is most needed to develop the economy: people.

People are the basis of labor force and the premise of consumption power. The 30 million people in Mukden is not too much for the whole province, but too little. Why did the Guards Brigade survive? The first reason is that there are large areas of wasteland that can be reclaimed and used. On Mukden's terms, throwing in millions of people is not a problem, of course, it is necessary to get through the initial ordeal.

Considering Lao Zhang's ambition to conquer the whole Northeast, the number of people in Jihei and Hei provinces is so small that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, a large number of educated youths from all over the country will be sent to the Great Northern Wilderness to open up wasteland and farm? A population of 9 million really can't control such a vast territory!

It's a godsend!

"Father, the population in Northeast China is already small, and now that North China is flooded and refugees are everywhere, we need to take the initiative to provide disaster relief and accept the victims. It can not only promote the name of his father's benevolence, but also develop the economy of Fengtian---- which is a matter of killing two birds with one stone. ”

Zhang Zuolin agrees with Zhang Hanqing's thoughts. If in the past, he was even unwilling and powerless---- it was quite a huge project to resettle tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of victims at once: it would cost a lot of food to solve the famine, the plague would be followed by floods and droughts, and the problem of public security caused by famine and theft... At present, Fengtian has abundant food and good public order, and what is tested is only the organizational ability of government officials at all levels.

Moreover, Zhang Hanqing's extensive industrial model paved the way for the rise of Fengtian industry required a large number of workers, and the production mode and habits based on agriculture for thousands of years made landed peasants only work as temporary workers unless they had to, and they could not recruit abundant labor for a while, and the disaster victims were an excellent supplement.

"It's good, but it's a very nerve-wracking thing to receive disaster victims..."Unlike Zhang Hanqing, Lao Zhang actually has the memory of escaping the famine, he is sympathetic to the disaster in North China, and also hopes to help when he has spare power, which is the best of both worlds.

It's just that he doesn't have the energy.

"It's okay, I'll leave these co-ordination matters to me. Soon after the establishment of the People's Party, it also needs to let grassroots party members and cadres go through some things. ”

Seeing that Xiao Liuzi wanted to take care of things, and this was a good thing to accumulate yin virtue, Zhang Zuolin expressed his full support. Of course, worried that Zhang Hanqing was inexperienced in political affairs, he still called Wang Yongjiang and gave him a good advice.

Soon, the "North China Flood Fengtian Disaster Relief Committee" was formally established, and the young Zhang Dagongzi served as the director. As soon as he took office, he announced that he was willing to accept the victims, accompanied by the slogan "When one side is in trouble, all sides will support".

In order to show his sincerity, Zhang Hanqing actively responded to Lao Xiong's call, and his two food factories, "Yitong" and "Master Yang", urgently donated 5 million packs of instant noodles free of charge, which were delivered to the victims at the first moment.

This is China's first disaster relief industry, instant noodles are indeed very useful to the victims of the disaster, won great praise from the people, "a pack of instant noodles and a cup of boiling water is equal to a life" publicity, but also made instant noodles a fire, especially the pen of reporters in the disaster area, instant noodles to the rescue of the victims of the convenience and speed, bit by bit.

"Unification instant noodles, connecting the disaster area and our hearts", "Master Yang, the master who saves lives", these are the new advertisements that Zhang Hanqing later placed in major newspapers and periodicals such as "Fengtian Times" and "Beijing Times", and also made dynamic advertisements for "Yitong" and "Master Yang" instant noodles. If we trace back to the origins of China's advertising industry, Shu Ji can be this Zhengshuo.