Valley rainy season.

Emperor Yongle officially issued an order, the national teacher Jiang Xinghuo was responsible for the disaster relief of the five prefectures of Chang, Su, Song, Jia, and Hu, the right attendant of the Ministry of Rites, Song Li and Chen Xuan, the Bo of Pingjiang, were responsible for water control, and the second prince Zhu Gaoxu led the tax guards to fight instead of training to quell the civil unrest.

In this, for civil and military officials, the latter two appointments are very easy to understand, Song Li and Chen Xuan are good at water conservancy, and Zhu Gaoxu is good at cutting people. But only the first one has caused many people to be puzzled.

Not only others were puzzled, but even Song Li was also puzzled.

It was March, the morning light was breaking, and the group was walking on the muddy official road.

The mountains and rivers in the distance are faintly colored, and the woods on both sides after the rainstorm are full of birdsong, and a gust of wind blows, and the air smells of wetness.

Song Li and Jiang Xinghuo walked side by side, and Song Li finally couldn't help asking.

"National Teacher, why?"

"You're riding well."

Jiang Xinghuo raised his eyes and looked, he was riding a simple little gray horse, and Song Li was riding a handsome white horse.

The white horse was given to him by Zhu Gaoxu, but Jiang Xinghuo didn't want to ride it.

Although "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" has been written by Luo Guanzhong at this time, it is a pity that the story of Lu and Feng Yan has not yet been widely known.

"That's not what I asked."

Song Li was stunned and said, "Why did the national teacher go to the disaster relief in person? ”

In the distance, due to the heavy rain, the tributaries of Baihe Creek (an important river in Zhenjiang Prefecture) were diverted, and the small water sedan was cut off from the waist, and the sentinels who were exploring the road had already folded in, and the group could not advance, so they had to stop in place and wait for the accompanying sergeants to build a pontoon bridge.

Not far away, is the small river village on the boundary of Changzhou Prefecture, which is equivalent to entering their mission target area, since this is the case, no one is in a hurry.

The noisy wind was mixed with the chirping of insects in the water, blowing the wheat leaves in the distance.

In this beautiful and barren corner, Jiang Xinghuo pondered for a moment and answered Song Li's doubts.

"You all think I shouldn't go."

Song Li nodded, you must know that Jiang Xinghuo is a celebrity next to the emperor, and he has two new merits in Taiping Street and the Great Altar, it stands to reason that there is no need to wade into this troubled water, and it is a mediocre talent who does not arouse people's jealousy, that is, if someone says some gossip, it is good to be a fart, and there is no need to take the cause and effect on yourself.

What kind of sour fart like "the national teacher prayed for rain caused the flood in the south of the Yangtze River" is also foolish and brainless, but if you think about it with a little normal logic, you will know that the flood in the south of the Yangtze River is something that only happens this year?

Of course, the princes of Gon knew it, so if they were Jiang Xinghuo, they would definitely not be so brave to do anything.

As soon as things were pushed, the ears were closed, and there was no sound after a while.

It's a big deal to send out the army and let Emperor Yongle bear his name, anyway, Zhu Di has long been a traitor who usurped the throne and killed the king, and "Yan Rebellion" has been scolded for four years, and he is not afraid of this bad reputation.

Now he is being sent to this kind of place where the civil uprising has just occurred to provide disaster relief, especially this is still the power of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River, to what extent is the most deep-rooted place deep-rooted? Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that those who were born in Songjiang Mansion could not be the head of the household department.

If a larger-scale civil uprising breaks out, or if the dog jumps over the wall in a hurry, and comes up with some indiscriminate means, it will be like tying your head to the waistband of your pants to work!

This kind of thing with high risk and big responsibility, more pay and less gain, no matter how you calculate it, it is a loss.

What's more, he is also the vice principal of the Daming Royal Military Academy, the military academy has just started to run, and it is too capricious to leave Beijing quietly like this.

However, no matter how much the outside world talks about it, Jiang Xinghuo always looks calm and light.

On the contrary, it made Song Li more and more curious, whether there was any secret hiding from him.

- That's not going to work!

Especially now that he is about to enter Changzhou Mansion, Song Li is even more anxious to figure this out.

"Do you think the Jiangnan gentry can help the disaster by themselves?"

Facing Jiang Xinghuo's soul question, Song Li thought about it and replied.

"Effortless."

This is a very pertinent evaluation, Jiang Xinghuo nodded.

As early as the time when he "won the name of Qinglou Bo Xing" on the Qinhuai River, as the largest gathering place of gossip in the entire Ming Dynasty in a sense, Jiang Xinghuo already knew what kind of virtue the Jiangnan gentry of the Ming Dynasty were.

The low degree of organization of the manpower and material resources of Jiangnan during the period of the Jingjing War and the astonishing squandering of the government's power and responsibilities are simply disappointing.

In the end of the Battle of Jingjing, Zhu Yuanzhang left Zhu Yunwen a complete war machine that can be called the world's first, and it was sparsely operated by the Jiangnan gentry who were addicted to vegetables, and a large number of resources were wasted on the way, and there were deserters and exiled people everywhere.

Originally, Jiang Xinghuo thought that Zhu Di's smooth ascension to the throne was due to luck, and the battles were helped by the gods, but now it seems that it is completely the Jiangnan gentry represented by Qitai and Huang Zicheng.

Moreover, the performance of the Jiangnan gentry in recent years has completely proved that they have no intention of governing the country and the society, and they don't even care about the safety of the floods on their own ground.

"Why bother?"

Song Li was stunned when he asked this question.

This is to say that Song Li was not born as a gentry in Jiangnan.

He is a native of Yongning, Henan, as a Guozi supervisor into the official career, and then has been in the field, important resume is the Hongwu Dynasty when Shanxi according to the judge, Jianwen Dynasty when Shaanxi according to the judge, Song Li as a Beijing official for a short time, this is why he can be on the Yongle Emperor "Lonely Anger", Mao Sui recommended himself to the law change faction as an undercover agent.

"Because they don't want disaster relief."

Jiang Xinghuo turned over and dismounted, found a shady place shaded by trees, untied the water bladder and poured cool boiled water, and Song Li said simply.

Seeing that Song Li still didn't quite understand the thinking of the Jiangnan gentry, Jiang Xinghuo knew that the other party was good at doing things and had the heart of a career, but he was probably not a good hand at buying a family business, so he nodded.

"If there is no flood, how long will it take to go from 1,000 acres to 10,000 acres?"

They are all smart people, but with this point, Song Li came to his senses.

In fact, this is the same as Jiang Xinghuo's previous life, every financial crisis was a feast for giants, the reason is the same, and the gentry of this era have a lower debt ratio and more abundant cash flow.

The Jiangnan gentry, who had a strong family background, were not afraid of floods in a year or two, which would only bankrupt ordinary homesteaders, and then help the gentry quickly annex land.

"So the national teacher thinks that if he continues to leave it alone, he is afraid that it will harm the entire Jiangnan that has just been initially implemented. That's why he took the initiative to invite Ying to Wufu, hoping to use his own efforts to minimize this catastrophe for the people! ”

Song Li looked at Jiang Xinghuo with admiration.

Jiang Xinghuo just wanted to say something, but Wang Bin suddenly came to report.

"National teacher, because of the heavy rain for several days, Baihe Creek was directly diverted into the abandoned canal in the middle of Lucheng Town and Benniu Town, and then rushed out of the ancient canal and washed away the ferry in Xiaohe Town.

Jiang Xinghuo flipped out the map and looked at it, frowned and said, "That is to say, there is no way to pass this water?" ”

"Yes." Wang Bin was also a little helpless.

At present, land transportation in Jiangnan has been severely affected by flooding caused by heavy rains and river diversion.

Although the rain has stopped for the time being, the situation has not improved at all.

Originally, they could take the waterway in batches like the tax guards, but someone was so stubborn that he had to investigate the customs along the way, so even if he complained in his heart, he didn't dare to show it.

"Is there any other way to detour?"

"Yes, yes, it's a little far. It will take about forty or fifty miles more to go around. ”

That's an extra day and a half of walking.

"Let's go."

After discussion, the group decided to take a long route and continue east.

After all, judging from the current situation, only the hilly area in the south is relatively flat, and the east is the direction of Changzhou Mansion, as long as you can pass through the hills and walk more than 100 miles or so, you should arrive at Wujin City in Changzhou Mansion.

Perhaps for modern people, forty or fifty miles is nothing at all, and it will be there after stepping on the accelerator for a while.

But this is different, this is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, after leaving the official road, the road taken is not called a "road" at all, and the weather is bad and the ground is muddy and slippery.

If you usually walk alone, it will not be in the way, but in this case, it is a mixed team of infantry and cavalry, but the soldiers are not like Jiang Xinghuo played in the TV series in his previous life, and the march has to be dressed in armor throughout the whole process, which is generally rotated by one-third to one-quarter in case of unexpected accidents, and the armor of other people is placed on a baggage vehicle or mule horse.

It is this part of the soldiers in armor, in this weather, it is also very easy to remove the armor, not to mention that the path is not easy to walk, and the slightest carelessness will fall and fall, or even fall and be injured.

After walking for a long time, the team that originally had a clear flag on the official road actually walked out of the sense of despair of Prime Minister Cao Cheng's defeat and Huarong Road.

Go around the foot of a mountain.

"There's a pretty big village up ahead." Wang Bin pointed out from afar.

Jiang Xinghuo, who was planning to inspect the disaster relief situation in these areas on the spot, was overjoyed when he heard this, and it was easy to be deceived by these prefects without conducting on-the-spot investigations.

"Let's wait here first, Wang Bin picks a few people who are not wearing armor and wrapped in knives and follow me in, and Lord Song is also with me."

Song Li has served as a judge in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and he is not ignorant of the people's suffering, so he naturally readily agreed.

When they entered the village, they saw that the thatched roofs of many houses had collapsed due to the hot weather and the rain that had washed away.

There were no pedestrians on the dirt road, and the villagers who occasionally saw them had taken refuge back into their homes, and the village seemed rather depressed at the moment.

However, the strange thing is that under the big locust tree in the center of the village, there is a large porridge shack, and many people are eating porridge.

"Is this disaster relief? Or is it righteous porridge? ”

Jiang Xinghuo looked at the green-skinned scoundrel in the porridge shed and was a little surprised.

Before anyone could be inquired, a child ran out of the thatched hut next to him crying.

"I don't eat it!"

(End of chapter)