Yuzhou and Shegu are separated by more than 800 miles, if it is really as the emperor said, to direct the water of Yuzhou to Shegu, it will not be possible to complete it in a short period of time, and under the condition of ensuring the prosperity of the country and the strength of the people, it will take at least 200,000 people to work continuously for ten years.

Although it is a good thing to divert water to the north for the benefit of the country and the people, the water diversion plan, labor collection, grain and silver money, etc. are all problems, not to mention that the household department Shangshu Wenda has been against himself, picking and choosing the various projects he has built, and always finding various reasons to withhold the money.

After receiving Liu Zhao's order, Xie Tao of the Ministry of Water immediately summoned his subordinate officials to report on the topography, rivers and mountains from Yuzhou to Shegu, as well as various materials on the construction of water conservancy in previous years.

There's a whole table of data piled up, some accurate, some inaccurate, and some contradictory about the same thing.

Xie Tao could only check and proofread one by one, and send his subordinates to investigate and measure on the spot to discuss the most suitable method.

Regarding the project, Liu Zhao conveyed Xie Tao's statement to the emperor and other courtiers when he was in the last court: "The terrain of Yuzhou is higher than Shegu, and if the riverbed is forcibly raised, it will be extremely labor-intensive, and it will not be completed within three or five years, so the best way is to dig a ditch to discharge the flood and channel the waterway; The topography gap in Lizhou is large, the mountain water source is sufficient, and there are many rivers and lakes in the plain, and it is only separated by a city from Shegu, which is the best choice for diverting water to Shegu. ”

"Okay, good way, if we do this earlier, won't there be no floods and droughts at all?" The Emperor said.

Liu Zhao responded: "Your Majesty said yes! Just ······"

"Just what?" The Emperor asked, "Don't ramble, speak quickly." ”

"Now, Yuzhou and Shegu are in the midst of a famine, starvation is everywhere, and there is no money and food, how can these people be willing to work!"

"You want money, huh?" The emperor sighed, Liu Zhao's feud with Wenda was something he knew when he was the crown prince, "Wenda! ”

"The minister is here!"

"As long as the usage is reasonable, you must cooperate with the Ministry of Works."

"Yes."

Liu Zhao glanced at Wenda in surprise when he heard Wenda answer so simply, but Wenda didn't look at him.

After the dispersal of the dynasty, Liu Zhao walked out of the main hall first, stopped Wen Da at the door and said with a smile: "Wen Shangshu did not raise the bar with me today, what a strange talk!" ”

Wen Da didn't turn his head, but said, "I have nothing to stop for the benefit of the people, but if someone pretends to enrich his own pocket in the project and shake my Daxi Guosheji, I can't spare him even if I fight for this old life!" ”

Liu Zhao looked at Wen Da's distant back, and couldn't help but shake his head helplessly, this old man looks like a bad guy in everyone!

It took nearly two months to finalize the water diversion plan from Yuzhou and Lizhou to Shegu, and the construction began in the third month, when it was already early winter, and the people had to face not only hunger, but also cold.

Wenda did not interfere or hinder much, and food and clothing were always delivered in time, but even so, nearly half of the people in the two cities still failed to survive this winter.

The Spring Festival is approaching, but the relief food that can be distributed to the people is getting less and less. The emperor requisitioned the treasury of three million taels of silver to build the Nuanxiang Palace, and one million taels of silver was used in the Spring Festival festival ceremony.

The ministers repeatedly obstructed, and the Yin Meiren often blew the wind in their ears, but they still couldn't stop the emperor's enthusiasm for enjoying with the people.

When there was still half a month before the Spring Festival, envoys from various countries entered Beijing one after another and temporarily stayed in the post house. The unprecedented Spring Festival dinner is also in full swing, and there is a peaceful and joyful atmosphere everywhere.

It didn't take long for some of the people of the community drum to strike and block the entrance of the yamen because they were still unable to wait for food because the Spring Festival was approaching, and no one wanted to make trouble at this juncture, and officials at all levels had to ask their grandfathers to comfort the people as if they were telling their grandmothers.

And the people have only one demand, to ask for food! Everyone wants to have a good year, but the more the year passes, the less food is distributed, and the work that is forced to do every day becomes more and more arduous.

Many people wanted to escape from the shrine drum and flee to Yunjing, and many of them heard about it, saying that the emperor would invite all the people of Yunjing to dinner during the New Year! The news spread by word of mouth among the people, and the people's anger became more and more intense, and the desire to flee to Yunjing became stronger, but since the drought occurred, the government has concentrated the victims in the south of the city in order to facilitate disaster relief management.

At that time, most of the people trusted the government and obeyed the arrangement to stay, and now, the trust has been exhausted, it stands to reason that the silver taels and food distributed by the household department are enough for these victims to survive the New Year, but the middle layer of peeling, to the hands of the people is barely enough, but the emperor suddenly took away four million taels of silver, the household suddenly became nervous, and the silver sent down was naturally no longer enough.

Now the people want to flee, but the gates are closed, and they can't escape, and people die of hunger every day.

Eight hundred miles away, the situation in Yuzhou was even more miserable, and after the flood, people fled to the rich Jiangzhou, Yaozhou, and even farther Ji'an and Yongning.

In order to control the floods, Yuzhou encouraged the people to return to the city to build water conservancy, distributed food and silver, and provided accommodation, and many people who fled the famine returned to Yuzhou.

However, the epidemic spread quietly in the area where the flood occurred in Yuzhou, such as the lack of timely disposal of animal carcasses.

At that time, the people of Yuzhou fled to other places one after another, and did not come into contact with the epidemic, and now they have returned to the city on a large scale, and the epidemic broke out overnight, and countless deaths have occurred, resulting in mourning and grief in every household in Yuzhou City.

And all this, the rulers of Yunjing did not know about and did not bother to know.

Chinese New Year's Eve arrived as scheduled, and the grand banquet of officials and people in Yunjing had already begun, and the bearing capacity of the people of the state and the community seemed to have reached the top.

Some of the still powerful people in Shegu City gathered together and took advantage of the lax supervision of the official government on Chinese New Year's Eve to grab the granary. The officers and men were given orders to hunt down and kill those who stole and stole grain.

And the plague patients who were quarantined in the state city also wanted to fight their way out of the quarantine area. This is not a quarantine area, there are no doctors, no medicine, no food, no water, the purpose is to let them die as soon as possible.

The people of the two cities coincidentally chose to rebel against various resettlement policies on Chinese New Year's Eve, and more coincidentally, the chief executives of both cities made the decision to slaughter the people in the future.

On this night, Hezhou and Shegu fell into hell on earth, full of painful wails and flowing blood, eyes full of dead people and the fire of burning corpses, men, women and children died under the cold light of the sword.

The emperor of Yunjing was boasting about his exploits in dealing with drought and floods in the main hall, and the ministers were flattering the emperor in the midst of a glass of wine. These people who have lived in Kyoto for a long time do not yet know what happened to Yoshu and Shegu.