Heavy rain continued on the Santai River, the water flow was turbulent, a stone bridge across the two banks to communicate the north and south, Bazhou Don't drive Xu Shao stood on the stone bridge in the rain to check the water situation, he looked at the water level under his feet that was a little higher than the morning, worried.

"Is there a problem with the stone bridge?" Xu Shao asked, this stone bridge was newly built at the beginning of the year, and it is more durable than the original dilapidated wooden bridge, not only the bridge deck is wide enough, but also strong enough, even if the heavy carriage walks up, it will not make people worry about collapsing.

"Don't drive, don't worry, I have carefully inspected the bridge deck and piers in the past few days, and no abnormalities such as openings have been found." A man dressed in military uniforms replied that they were soldiers guarding the bridge and were stationed in the camp on the south side of the stone bridge, and that the daily task was to inspect and maintain the stone bridge.

"Pay more attention, the stone bridge costs a lot, and it is the only channel for the people of Xiyang to travel between the north and the south!"

"Yes!" The soldiers guarding the bridge solemnly saluted, this stone bridge was built by the state government to mobilize large households from all over the country to donate, and organized manpower and material resources to build it, because the stone is sufficient and there is no shortage of manpower, plus what 'cement' is put into use, the construction speed will be completed in half a year.

Xu Shao nodded and then led his entourage down the stone bridge and turned onto the embankment, today he came to the Santai River in the rain not just to see the bridge, the newly built south bank embankment is the most important, since entering the rainy season Xu Shao has not slept well.

In order to build the river embankment and levy the people to serve in the force, even with prisoners of war and soldiers totaling tens of thousands of people and spending countless money, Xu Shao, as the person in charge, led the officials to work hard day and night.

The torrential rain caused the water level of the Santai River to rise sharply, and the embankment had been safe and sound several times before, but this time it was different from the previous ones, and the officials on duty along the embankment warned several times that they had found danger, and the state government urgently mobilized prisoners of war who were used as laborers to rescue the emergency.

"I don't know if I can survive this time" Xu Shao stood on the embankment and looked at the north bank and muttered to himself, now the boundary on the north bank of the Santai River has turned into an ocean, the river water has swelled and overflowed the riverbank, and the overflowing lake on the north bank has submerged the ground, according to the words of Thorn Shi Yu Wenwen, the 'sea viewing mode' has been activated.

"Don't drive, there is a north bank as a flood discharge place, and I want to come to the south bank of the river embankment to be able to keep it, I will be stationed on the embankment day and night to patrol, once we find danger, we will immediately organize people to rescue the emergency, so that we will definitely be able to survive." A clerk said.

"I hope so, otherwise the South Shore will not be good." Xu Shao looked back at the direction of Xiyang City and said, there are two big lakes in the northeast suburbs of Xiyang City, and as long as the rainfall is heavy in the rainy season over the years, it will inevitably skyrocket, not only the surrounding farmland will suffer, but also endanger the state city.

At the beginning of this year's rainy season, the water level of these two lakes has not been low, but fortunately, new channels have been dug to communicate the two lakes, and the original drainage ditches have been dredged and widened, and the lake water has been diverted to the lower reaches of the Santai River to drain from Ba Shui, so that the perennial lake water is much more honest this year.

However, the key is still in the south bank of the Santai River embankment, as long as there is a breach of the embankment, then the surging water will rush into the south bank into the lake, when the lake water level rises sharply, it will not be dredged at all, and the crops in the large farmland outside Xiyang City will be really out of harvest this year if they are washed away.

It took half a year to build dozens of miles of embankments, which would be impossible under normal circumstances, but now it is 'for a reason', because only half of the embankment was repaired, so the amount of work is reduced by half, which is the policy of 'leading the water to the north'.

The Santai River originates from the Yangtze River in the north of Xiyang County, flows to Xiyang City in the south-east direction, and finally flows into Bashui into the Yangtze River in the east of Xiyang City.

Since the top boss is willing to take responsibility and infamy, the embankment plan is also quickly decided: build an embankment on the south bank, the embankment does not need to be too high, as long as it is significantly higher than the north bank, and once the rainy season has the existence of the south bank embankment, the north bank can become a 'flood discharge area'.

With this plan, the amount of work is naturally less, and the increasing number of Chen Jun prisoners who serve as laborers have finally successfully completed the river embankment, as long as the rainy season this year is safe, and the north bank of the river embankment is built after winter, then the three river defenses will be considered complete.

As compensation for the 'diversion of troubles to the north', the state government has already made a decision to exempt farmers on the north bank from this year's rent adjustment, and decide whether next year's rent adjustment will also be waived according to the situation.

The premise is that the embankment on the south bank can withstand the flood this year, because of the trend of the Santai River, the embankment on the south bank has to bear the river erosion, especially the embankment at the bend where the river turns east, and Xu Shao is walking on this embankment.

Not far ahead, by the embankment is a camp where berm guards are stationed, and the state officials on duty also stay here, such a camp is located every other distance on the embankment of the Santai River, and the state government has gone all out to guard the embankment.

A man who also wore a hat and a man's coat stood on the embankment, busy on the embankment with several people around him, and saw Xu Shao and his party coming over and hurriedly stepped forward to salute, he had lived on the embankment for half a month, and Xu Shao saw his urging Qingzhuang to check the embankment every time he came to patrol the embankment.

"How's it going?" Xu Shao asked, this section of the embankment is a high-risk area, and it has collapsed in the previous three floods of the Santai River, and in view of this, there are twice as many berms stationed as in other places, and there are many more materials used to strengthen the embankment.

"Don't drive, the situation is grim, it collapsed a little more last night, but it has been plugged with wooden stakes and put dirt bags to block, if you can survive these few days, it will be fine."

"It's hard work, everyone's hard work." Xu Shao patted the other party's shoulder, and the people in front of him smiled when they heard the words, they were hard, but the young driver in front of him was also hard, and he could see his leader inspecting the river embankment every day.

Xu Shao was about to say something to boost morale, when suddenly a terrible howl came from the river embankment, and when everyone heard that someone was shouting "the embankment has burst", their hearts sank, and they pulled their legs and ran there.

I saw that the river embankment began to collapse in a place near the water, the outer layer of the bamboo cage stone wall has disappeared, and the rammed earth dam body that has been rammed very strong is directly exposed, which is just the outer bend of the river bend, so the dam body bears the continuous erosion of the river water.

The continuous rain has already soaked the rammed earth, and now the stone wall that protects the outer layer has collapsed, and the rammed earth dam body has been subjected to the erosion of the water flow, and the muddy muddy water has dyed the surface of the Santai River yellow, and the river embankment is eroding and beginning to collapse at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's going to burst, plug it quickly!" The shouts were accompanied by the sound of gongs, and many people rushed out of the camp, some with shovels, mallets, stakes and other tools in their hands, others carrying bamboo cages and some carrying bulging cloth bags.

"String the bamboo cage and throw it down!"

"A few of you, tie the rope and prepare to go down to drive the stake, and the others are ready to throw bamboo cages and sandbags!" The officials shouted loudly, and each division of labor commanded the rescue.

The bamboo cage is filled with heavy stones, and the cloth bag is filled with soil that has been packed for a long time, these are the materials needed to fill the collapse of the embankment, and it is said that the stone embankment should be made of the miraculous cement when the embankment was originally repaired, but the output is too small and the stone is not enough to rush to the earth dam body, so that the embankment can only be used to respond to the emergency.

Originally, it was planned to use all river sand cloth bags, that is, sandbags, but to make cloth bags, it consumed a lot of cloth, so the quantity was insufficient, because when building the embankment, bamboo cage stones were also used to add wooden stakes and rammed earth, so the embankment guards prepared a large number of bamboo cage stones for backup.

Several strings of bamboo cages were thrown into the collapse of the embankment with heavy stones inside, and the top priority was to stop the rammed earth dam from continuing to collapse.

They began to drive wooden piles in groups of two in waist-deep muddy water, regardless of the rushing river, one person supported the pile, and the other struggled to drive the pile, and when a row of wooden piles began to take shape, the others were about to put sandbags and bamboo cages, when suddenly a roar sounded.

A whirlpool appeared where the embankment collapsed, and the turbid water swirled into the cave that suddenly appeared on the dam, and the huge force of the force sucked the piling young man towards the cave.

"The pipe is surging!!" "Throw sandbags quickly, throw bamboo cages quickly!" "Tighten the rope and don't let the water suck in!!"

The people on the dam saw that the face of the pipe gushing danger changed greatly, they hurriedly put the prepared sandbags and bamboo cages into the whirlpool, the sandbags that were thrown in first were swept by the water and disappeared in the whirlpool, and rushed out from the other side of the dam body after a while, fortunately, the bamboo cages containing stones were bundled together, and they were not swept away by the water after throwing them down.

The young men who drove the piles struggled to hold the stakes, and the people on the shore were desperately pulling the hemp rope, but fortunately they had hemp ropes tied around their waists as safety ropes, otherwise they would not have survived if they were swept into the whirlpool, and those young men were still swept away by the current.

"Pull them up, pull them up quickly!"

Shouts rang out one after another, some were saving people and some were plugging leaks, gongs sounded like firecrackers, and more people ran out of the camp with everything that could be plugged in their hands.

"Ahh A loud scream sounded, and a person pulling the hemp rope on the embankment suddenly slipped and fell, and this fall brought several people behind him to the ground, and the sudden protrusion made the young man who had just climbed up from the pipe gushing at the other end of the rope slide back.

The hemp rope tied to his waist was like a long snake 'swimming' away, seeing that the man was about to be swept into the whirlpool, suddenly a person rushed forward and pulled the hemp rope and pulled hard, but everyone looked at it as if they were not driving Xu Shao.

However, the whirlpool suction was too great, and even Xu Shao was dragged forward with the young man, and the bluffing officials and entourages pounced, some people even rolled and climbed to hug Xu Shao's waist, and some grabbed the rope and pulled it back.

"Hard, pull hard!!"

Everyone worked together to pull the young man back from the ghost gate, and someone instructed the people who caught up to put sandbags and bamboo cages into the pipe chong, so that they could be prepared in time to block the pipe chong that had just appeared.

"Peel off the other end and put two rows of stakes in the middle!"

"You guys go to patrol elsewhere, take the gong and knock it immediately if there is danger!"

"What are you doing in a daze, take your clothes and put them on for don't drive, you'll catch a cold when it's late!"

"Hurry up and cook ginger soup!"

The officials have been on duty on the river embankment for a long time, and they are busy arranging various tasks, and Xu Shao, who was covered in mud, stood up with the support of his entourage, and one of the middle-aged people took off his hat and put it on him.

Xu Shao didn't care about anything in order to save people just now, and he didn't know where to go in the chaos, and when he saw that the middle-aged man was about to give up the hat, he raised his hand to stop it: "It's okay, it's just some rain." ”

"It's not good if the young man has a cold" The middle-aged man insisted on putting the hat on Xu Shao's head, he was a servant sent by Xu Shao's family, and he was almost frightened by the scene of Fang Cai's heart, and when he came from Yuezhou, Lord Lang ordered him to keep an eye on it, and he almost had an accident.

Several bald men walked up to Xu Shao, one of them was the person who was almost swept into the whirlpool, fortunately Xu Shao quickly pulled the rope to save him, he saw Xu Shao say thank you and was about to kneel down but was held by the other party.

"What is this doing, everyone's hard work in guarding the embankment should be thanked by the official." Xu Shao said sincerely, and a few young men who went down to drive piles on the opposite side were bareheaded, which showed that it was Chen Jun, who had been captured before, and he didn't think of this stubble when he was in a hurry to rush to the rescue.

"We, we" The bald young man choked a little, Xu Shao patted him on the shoulder, then looked around at everyone present and said: "Guarding the embankment is fighting, the embankment is the line of defense, and standing on the embankment is the soldier, whether it is an official, a citizen or someone else, they are all brothers and sisters of the comrades, and the comrades will not see death or save each other!" ”

Seeing that everyone nodded silently, he continued: "This embankment is built by everyone who has worked hard for a long time, and there is no room for failure, if the embankment collapses and the flood washes away the crops, then this year's harvest is over, and if the embankment collapses, everyone must block it, if it can't be blocked, the official will cut it down first, and then jump in to block it!"

"What happens for a busy year? You can only go and drink the northwest wind! Who wants the whole family to drink the northwest wind? Do you want to!! ”

"I don't want to!" Everyone shouted loudly, together with the bald head and the young man were all clenched into fists, how many people's efforts were spent on this embankment, not to mention that everyone present had made a lot of efforts, and the embankment on the south bank of the Santai River condensed the sweat and hard work of countless people.

This is not a thing to cut corners to repair and fool people, whether it is piling, masonry or rammed earth are real intentions, if according to the rainfall of previous years, there will be no danger at all, this rainstorm is rare for many years, but as long as it can survive it, it will be no problem.

"Everyone insists on it for a few more days, and the rain will pass, and when the state government raises more stones, the embankment will be solid!"

After tossing and turning, he finally turned the danger into a disaster and boosted his morale, Xu Shao looked at the embankment and calmed down a little, and the danger of the pipe just now made his blood rush to his heart, and he really wanted to jump in to block it, others may not know it, but he knows very well what this embankment means.

Bazhou has little land and sparsely populated, because there are many lakes that lead to flooding in the rainy season, if you want to attract people to settle down, you have to have land, if you want to have land, you have to open up wasteland, you have to build water conservancy, otherwise it will be all over in the rainy season.

If you want to repair water conservancy, you have to have someone, and if you want to quickly repair water conservancy in a short time, you need a lot of people.

Expand the armament war, advance the grain from the state treasury to raise the troops, and then go to the south of the Yangtze River to rob people and grab grain, and bring back all the prisoners and civilians to organize themselves to repair water conservancy, and the tens of thousands of people who have been extra for nothing want to eat, then use the grain stored in the state and the grain they have stolen to feed, that is, to advance grain.

The cost of repairing water conservancy and this river embankment together with the war against Chen is huge, and the money and grain consumed by all kinds of money and grain have made Bazhou reach the limit, and the grain stored in the state treasury can only last until the end of the year, if the river embankment breaks so that Xiyang County's crops this year fail or even fail, then Bazhou will not be able to survive next autumn, and famine will ensue.

Of course, you can find other states to transfer grain, but Bazhou is also bankrupt, the borrowed grain has to be repaid, the rent of the year has to be handed over, and then it is necessary to mobilize manpower to build water conservancy, there is no way to raise so much money and grain, Bazhou is still a small state with a household of less than 20,000, and it can no longer afford to raise so many soldiers.

In order to maintain the fragile balance of payments, Yu Wenwen worked hard to find projects everywhere to 'generate income', and Xu Shao and Hao Wubo, who stayed behind, were also worried, for fear that the flood would lead to a failure.

The key is whether the river embankment can hold up, and if it stands, it can ensure a good harvest in the autumn, and the autumn grain will be put into storage.

"No matter what, I will hold this line of defense." Xu Shao looked at the eastern sky and muttered, "Envoy, it's up to you on the front line." (To be continued.) )