The Hedong earthquake, which is a unique name, has a special meaning in the history of earthquakes in China, because it is the first officially recorded magnitude 8 earthquake in Chinese historical materials, but this Hedong earthquake occurred in the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century, and few people know that a larger earthquake occurred in Hedong during the Northern Song Dynasty hundreds of years ago.

Li Zhang rode a horse-drawn carriage across the pontoon bridge of the Yellow River, and behind his carriage was a long convoy full of relief supplies, such as food, medicine, clothing, and so on.

Just a few days ago, the news of the earthquake in Hedong reached the capital, the ancients had a limited understanding of astronomy and geography, and the earthquake could not be understood in their cognition, so they thought that there was a dragon underground, and the earthquake was the dragon in the ground turned over, so the earthquake was also called the earth dragon turned over.

It's just that the scale of the earthquake is too large, although it is impossible to judge the level of the earthquake, but Li Zhang feels that this Hedong earthquake is definitely not smaller than the first eight-magnitude earthquake that went down in history hundreds of years later, because the damage caused by this earthquake is too great, and the main earthquake areas are in Xinzhou and Daizhou in Hedong, that is, Xinxian and Daixian in Shanxi in later generations.

Among them, Xinzhou is the center of the earthquake, and it is precisely because of this that the deaths and injuries in Xinzhou are extremely heavy, according to the news obtained by the imperial court, the entire Xinzhou city was almost destroyed by the earthquake, and the people in the city were killed and injured innumerable, and the preliminary estimate is definitely more than 10,000 people, you must know that the entire Xinzhou city is only 30,000 or 40,000 people.

In contrast, Daizhou was only involved, but even so, hundreds of dead and injured people, countless wounded, and even more dead and injured livestock could not be counted.

In the face of such a catastrophe, Zhao Zhen was also very anxious, and immediately convened Lu Yijian and others to discuss disaster relief matters, in fact, in a country as big as the Great Song Dynasty, some natural and man-made disasters occur almost every day, but the losses caused by this earthquake are too great, more than 10,000 people died alone, and almost all of a state capital was destroyed, such a big loss can almost be compared with the loss of attacking Yanyun before.

In addition, there is another point, that is, Xinzhou and Daizhou and Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures are almost next to each other, there was an earthquake in these two places, Zhao Zhen is also worried about the impact on Yanyun, after all, it has just been fought there, and the people's hearts have not been completely attached, especially earthquakes also have some special meanings in this era, generally only when the emperor is mediocre or makes a big mistake, there will be this kind of natural disaster to warn the emperor.

Of course, Li Zhang didn't believe in the doctrine of celestial induction, and Zhao Zhen also didn't believe in it under his influence, but their disbelief does not mean that others don't believe it, especially the doctrine of celestial induction comes from Confucianism, and it is also made by Confucianism to restrict the emperor, so if there are any bad rumors, it will also be a big blow to Zhao Zhen, whose prestige has greatly increased.

So in this case, the disaster relief was immediately put on the agenda, and the materials were mobilized as quickly as possible, and this time even the materials stored in the capital were used, and Li Zhang, after careful consideration, decided to go to Xinzhou in person to relieve the disaster, mainly because the earthquake came too suddenly, and the preparation of the imperial court was not sufficient, and now it is almost summer, and the corpse is easy to rot, and the disaster is followed by the epidemic, and Li Zhang still has some experience in this regard.

Li Zhang in later generations, China also had several major earthquakes, each time touched the hearts of all the people, Li Zhang once wanted to go to the earthquake area to volunteer, but unfortunately missed for various reasons, and later he went abroad, can only donate some money to make a little effort, but in the later generations of information developed society, he still knows a lot of disaster relief knowledge, especially in the prevention and control of epidemics, no one can compare with him.

So in this case, Li Zhang took the initiative to ask to go to Hedong for disaster relief, Zhao Zhen was also worried that he could not find a competent candidate for disaster relief, and now seeing that Li Zhang was willing to run, he immediately agreed, and he also gave Li Zhang great power, he could deal with it with all his powers when he arrived in Hedong, and he could even mobilize the armies of several nearby state capitals for disaster relief.

After the materials and personnel were in place, Li Zhang also set off immediately, after all, the earthquake has been a few days ago, and the earthquake area is mountainous, the earthquake has destroyed all the roads, it is very difficult to enter the earthquake area, and the victims have suffered heavy casualties, it has been a few days now, and the situation in the earthquake area does not know what has become like?

Thinking of the situation in the disaster area, Li Zhang was also anxious, there was almost no stop along the way, and even later he felt that the team escorting the supplies was too slow, so he simply crossed the Yellow River, first with a team of cavalry galloping, ready to enter the earthquake area first to see the situation, if the local government is still there, maybe with the help of the local government to organize the victims first.

A few days later, Li Zhang and his entourage finally came to the border of Xinzhou through Taiyuan, where the mountains are vertical and horizontal, the east, west, north and south are all mountains, in fact, Xinzhou is located in the middle of the mountains and rivers, which is also one of the five major basins of Shanxi in the later generations, and Fenshui, one of the important tributaries of the Yellow River, also passes through Xinzhou, resulting in a more complex topography here.

And when Li Zhang and they came to the north of Xinzhou, in front of them was the Yinshan mountain system, among which there were many mountains, and there were roads to go at the beginning, but not long after walking forward, there was a mountain that collapsed, blocking the entire official road, and even a part of the soil and stone was directly dumped into the Fenshui River next to it, and even part of the river was blocked, which also caused the upstream river level of Fenshui to rise, I don't know how much land was flooded inside?

"Are there any other roads besides the official roads?" Li Zhang called the guide and asked, after they came to Xinzhou, they immediately contacted several surrounding state capitals, and these government officials also received news to fully cooperate with Li Zhang, for example, this guide is a local in Xinzhou, but he used to be a small official in Yangqu County, and his family also moved there, but this time he escaped.

"Qiqi Dingbeihou, there are a few small roads nearby, but the villain doesn't know if these paths have been destroyed?" The guide replied immediately.

"Wild dog, you go with the guide to explore the way!" Li Zhang immediately instructed the wild dog next to him that he might encounter danger this time when he came to the disaster, not only because of natural disasters, but also because he was more worried that after the disaster, human nature would also be distorted, so Li Zhang brought the wild dog to avoid any accidents.

The wild dog also immediately agreed, and then took the guide to explore the road, and Li Zhang was not idle, but ordered people to go to the nearby state capital and county, and ordered them to organize the people to come over to clear the road, in fact, the nearby state capital is already doing these things, for example, Li Zhang saw that there were people in the road dredging the road, but they were doing their own thing, and there was no unified organization, so the effect was also limited.