On the 10th day of September in the second year of the Apocalypse, just as the Tiance Army was preparing for a decisive battle with Liu Changlu in Guangzhou, an unprecedented typhoon quietly landed in Qiongzhou and swept across the entire Pearl River basin with lightning speed, disrupting the deployment of both sides and bringing huge disasters. The turbulent waters of the Pearl River rolled over Guangzhou, and the Guangzhou wharves that came and went in the past were in a mess, and all the ships were hit hard, and countless people sank and capsized. The troops of the Jing Navy Naval Division, which had just arrived, were almost completely annihilated, and there were countless casualties. Although the Cantonese army in the city has lived here for a long time, it is still not fully prepared, and the houses and barracks in the city have collapsed more after being blown by the wind, and the mourning of the soldiers and civilians who have been stoned to death and injured is all over the city. It can be said that a typhoon almost brought the entire city of Guangzhou to a complete standstill.

The Tiance army was not much better, because the weather and climate in the Lingnan area were not sufficiently estimated in advance, and it was a field camp, a typhoon almost made all the camp tents fly into the sky, and the torrential rain washed away almost all the logistics materials, including explosives packs, almost all the gunpowder weapons were either wet by the rain and could not be used, or were blown away by the strong wind without a trace. And what is even worse is that because of the lack of preparation in advance, the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, many soldiers were swept up to the sky by the wind and buried alive by other earth and rock debris after falling to the ground, and many more soldiers were drenched in the rain and could not afford to be sick.

And what's even worse is that the typhoon went all the way to the northwest, almost sweeping almost all the combat area of the Tiance Army, although the wind is gradually weakening after landing, but it still brings a lot of unnecessary obstacles and injuries to Chen Yu and Qian Ning and other regiments. Although these are much better than Xue Wanli and Chai Jia, the Tiance Army who faced the typhoon for the first time obviously did not have much to deal with, and the second disaster after the typhoon hurt Qian Ning on the western front, and the mudslide and flood almost completely interrupted Xue Yang and Qian Ning's logistics roads.

After the typhoon, Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun almost wanted to cry without tears, their original good planning was interrupted, and they also had to face endless follow-up disaster relief matters. Therefore, almost as soon as the typhoon passed, the headquarters tried to contact Xue Yang and Qian Ning to immediately retreat to their own area, avoiding this affected area, and the army must find a way to help the local people tide over the difficulties while retreating, and if necessary, they can carry the people to retreat. At the same time, he urgently sent a message to the rear cabinet and Li Xuanqing, reported the typhoon and the disaster, and requested the cabinet for emergency rescue.

As for the Eastern Front Corps, which was the most severely affected by the disaster, on the one hand, the two men commanded the personnel of the logistics department to make every effort to open up roads and urgently transport supplies to the front line, and at the same time collected refugees along the way and temporarily incorporated them into the construction corps; on the one hand, they provided relief to the refugees through work, and on the other hand, they accelerated the process of clearing the roads, and a huge contingent of more than 100,000 people was gathered in just a few days. In this way, in the face of a large number of manpower, the speed of road dredging from Fuzhou to the front line was greatly accelerated. In addition, after the typhoon left, the wind and waves at sea gradually weakened, and on September 19, a huge logistics fleet began to set off from Fuzhou to the mouth of the Pearl River to meet the troops in front.

Li Xuanqing, who was in Hangzhou, also received a report from Yang Tiancheng, which was an unsolvable problem for the typhoon even in the future, and because he had not taken this factor into account before, he had not been able to notify the front line in advance to pay attention to this problem, so in addition to issuing an urgent order to notify the reserve warehouses of the Central Plains provinces to immediately transport a large number of materials to the south, he quickly issued a supreme order to Yang Yi, ordering the National Guard to lead the construction company to quickly mobilize a large number of people to go south, and urgently notify the General Staff to immediately choose an opportunity to transfer troops and horses from the north to the southand, if necessary, to take over the troops of the Southern Front.

"Big brother, don't worry, although the ability to resist disasters in this era is not as great as that of later generations, but after all, it is just a typhoon, and there should be no problem for us to rescue with the strength of the whole country." Qiaoxi couldn't help but comfort Li Xuanqing when he saw Li Xuanqing's face gloomy.

"No, Qiaoxi, I'm not worried about this typhoon. It's about thinking about how we can deal with natural disasters in the future. Li Xuanqing smiled bitterly: "I finally know why Qian Biao built the seawall on the Qiantang River in history. I'm afraid we have to repair it too, otherwise when the Qiantang River backs up, I'm afraid that the two sides of the strait will become a country in an instant. ”

Qiaoxi also knew about Qian Biao's actions in the coastal areas near Hangzhou in history, and nodded and said: "Jiangnan has been a prosperous place since ancient times, and if it is affected, it will inevitably affect the economic direction of the entire empire. Then when the war in the south is over, let's mobilize manpower to repair it. Anyway, so many prisoners of war repair everything, not only to repair the seawall, but also to dredge the water system in the entire empire, and give full play to the advantages of internal water transportation to make up for our lack of railway transportation, so as to free up the necessary time for railway construction. ”

When Li Xuanqing and Qiaoxi were discussing post-disaster matters, Cen Tianshi also received a report from the southern front, and rushed to the southeast almost non-stop, and at the same time sent someone to send a message to Yang Qiu to mobilize materials from the southeast to enter Lingnan for disaster relief. At the same time, after discussing with Xu Xingxia, all the fleets originally used for long-distance voyages were mobilized from Bohai Bay, docked at the wharves in Hangzhou and other places, and relied on the canal to transfer a large amount of materials to the fleet, and then transported to the south, so as to make up for the material needs ahead after the land passage was blocked.

However, this time Xue Wanli and Chai Jia's actions were indeed impressive, and the command headquarters was impressed, and the troops were collected as soon as possible after the disaster, and after rescuing the wounded in advance, they immediately dispatched troops to collect the nearby people, and relied on a few material warehouses in the rear that were not affected to settle the people and troops. Then, without contact with the rear, he moved away from the mouth of the Pearl River and retreated to a wide area near the mountains in the rear. At the same time, after the two discussed, Xue Wanli led part of the men to carry out the task of defending the Cantonese army, and at the same time sent more than a dozen messengers to set off separately and contact the rear, while Chai Jia led a large group of men and horses and all the people to start self-reliance and open up the washed out road by themselves.

At this time, the typhoon had left the Pearl River basin and headed northwest, and the gradual subsidence of the sea made the two decide to look for ships to turn back along the coast. In fact, this is much faster than finding a road on land. On September 19, the second year of the Apocalypse, the boat piloted by Xuan Yingwei finally rushed to the outside of Fuzhou after three days and three nights of wandering. It was precisely because of this news that Wang Houchun decided to send a logistics fleet south to rescue the front line. The subsequent voyage fleet that set off from Hangzhou and other places quickly followed up under the leadership of the Xu family, and a large number of personnel went with the ship. According to Li Xuanqing's instructions, reopen a port if necessary. The port, which came to be known as Shantou, also officially rose in the course of the disaster relief.

Soon, almost the entire northeastern part of the Pearl River basin was searched for, and as many as 100,000 people affected by the disaster made Li Lisan, who was in charge of helping the people, come up with a way to select young and middle-aged people, and quickly formed a temporary construction corps, and under the guidance of the technical personnel of the construction company who came with the ship, they joined the army of dredging roads.

In the same few days, the news of Xuanyingwei in Guangzhou City was also sent to Xue Wanli, this time Liu Changlu's coalition army losses were not smaller than those of the Tiance army, Qu Chengmei's Jing Navy Naval Division was almost completely wiped out, and the land soldiers and horses were also similar to the Tiance army. It's just that the other party has the cover of the city after all, and it is much better than the Tiance Army in the face of disaster, and there are no tens of thousands of wounded to drag it down. However, what surprised Xue Wanli was that Liu Changlu also carried out post-disaster reconstruction work in the city of Guangzhou, and also took the initiative to remove the city defense after seeing the Tiance army retreating. In this way, the two sides almost tacitly let go of their guard and put their energies on the rear and civil affairs.

On September 24 of the second year of the Apocalypse, Yang Qiu rushed to the front line of Shantou Port, and began to take over the work of rescuing the people and cashing in with work, placing a huge number of people on the spot, and arranging some people to cooperate with the entourage to start settling down in Shantou. The newly established port wharf directly built a long trestle bridge with reinforced concrete to facilitate the docking and loading of cargo ships, and the warehouse area was soon established.

During the period of post-disaster reconstruction, Yang Qiu directly resettled more than 100,000 people in Shantou to establish a new port city. This place, which was originally a wasteland, has become a huge workshop in just one month, and all kinds of materials have been transported along the assembly line of the follow-up fleet, and some of the building materials collected on the spot have also piled up, turning into houses and roads in the hands of various people.

"Minister Yang, you're too fast, aren't you? I haven't cleared the road yet, and you're almost done building this city. When Yang Tiancheng rushed over from Fuzhou with the ship, he happened to meet Chai Jia sending a group of wounded people back to Hangzhou to recuperate, and he couldn't help but praise when he saw Shantou Port.

Yang Qiu was not so optimistic, but sighed: "Tiancheng, you didn't know the losses caused by this storm to the people when you weren't at the disaster site, this season's harvest is almost non-harvested, and the crops in the field are almost completely destroyed." ”

"There's only one way now." Yang Tiancheng also said silently: "Only by taking down all the pieces of Guangzhou as quickly as possible, and then breaking the old order, exempting taxes, and allocating grain for disaster relief, otherwise even if Guangzhou harvests twice a year, it can't stand the lack of food in the hands of the people." ”

"How's your recovery?" After Yang Tiancheng went ashore, he and Chai Jia walked and said: "Houchun came over with additional troops, and when the time comes, we must find a way to take Guangzhou as soon as possible and recover the entire Lingnan Road." ”

"Don't worry, Dashuai, because of the sea, the transportation of materials on the eastern front is actually relatively convenient, and the problem of capturing Guangzhou is not big, and Liu Changlu's Guangzhou City is also seriously damaged. It's just that Qian Ning and Chen Yu have a bigger problem, and I heard that Qian Ning is already preparing to join forces with Xue Yang and open up the rear road in advance. Chai Jia hesitated a little and said, "Dashuai, do you want to let Chen Yu and them go south first and then go north after we take Guangzhou?" In this way, at least the transportation can be much more convenient. ”

Chai Jia's suggestion made Yang Tiancheng stunned for a moment, and then nodded and said, "Your method seems to be able to alleviate a lot of logistical pressure." It is not a way to garrison a large army, which costs money and countless amounts of food. I'll talk to Houchun about it. ”

However, after Yang Tiancheng saw the messy scene on the front line, he immediately no longer hesitated, and directly asked the staff officers behind him to quickly convey the order, let Xue Yang and Qian Ning withdraw to Yongzhou to stand by, and let Chen Yu lead the soldiers and horses to go south to Shaozhou, and transfer all the people in the rear to the area controlled by the Tiance Army, so that the Yamen of the military administration area could do their best to save them.

This kind of adjustment has also saved the cabinet and the logistics department a large amount of military money and food, which has been left to the disaster-stricken people in the rear, and has virtually reduced the burden on the cabinet. The funds prepared by the Cabinet for disaster relief were used directly for post-disaster roads and reconstruction.

In mid-October of the second year of the Apocalypse, after Chen Yu's army arrived in Shantou one after another, Yang Tiancheng and Wang Houchun decided to immediately send troops to the mouth of the Pearl River to besiege Guangzhou for the second time. This time, after absorbing the lessons of the previous time, the navy specially sent a warship out of the Pearl River Estuary to investigate the weather, and asked Hu Xiaosi, who had just arrived at the front line, to send Xuan Yingwei to investigate the local people who were familiar with the climate characteristics, and would definitely not let the disaster happen again.

"Your Majesty, are you going to build a seawall?" Cen Tianshi, who had just arrived in Hangzhou and had not yet rested, was stunned by Li Xuanqing's words, and was stunned and didn't react. But fortunately, Qiaoxi explained Li Xuanqing's meaning in detail next to him before he understood.

"If that's the case, then we should have arranged it in advance." Cen Tianshi nodded after understanding and said, "It's just that this seawall requires a lot of materials and personnel, right?" Where are we going to plan for a while? ”

"This matter allows the Ministry of Finance to raise special funds in the Southeast New Area, right? As for the personnel, all the prisoners of war in the Lingnan Campaign were escorted over and put back after repairing the seawall. Li Xuanqing waved his hand and said: "Sir, you may not understand that typhoons and such heavy storms may not necessarily occur in the Lingnan area, but also in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. And it is basically more common in summer and autumn. In the past few days, I have also checked Zhou Zhi in Hangzhou and Taizhou, and there are a lot of records here, and we need to take advantage of this rare free time to finish these things. The Jiangnan area around Hangzhou was the economic center of the empire, and even if we worked hard to build several other heavy industrial belts, the unique conditions here will certainly make Jiangnan continue to be the driving force of the empire's economic development in the future. We need to be prepared. ”

"Your Majesty, rest assured, the cabinet will make specific plans for this matter, and this seawall will definitely be built." Cen Tianshi nodded after listening to Li Xuanqing's words.