In February, the Yellow River was still in the dry season, and even then, the current was much faster, much more bumpy than the canal.

The passenger ship starts from Luoyang, passes through Bianjing, Beijing, Qizhou, Zizhou, sails into Qingzhou on the morning of the third day, and then has an hour to arrive at Boxing Town, from where it is transferred to a horse-drawn carriage and departs by land to the southeast of Dengzhou.

In February, spring is still cold.

The drizzle caused melancholy.

Nangong Yue has been standing at the bow of the boat since early in the morning, scratching her head slightly, welcoming the cold wind and drizzle, looking at the gray sky, with a sadness that touches the scene.

"The wind is gone, and the flowers are gone, and I am tired of combing my hair day and night. Things are people, and they don't have to do anything, and tears flow first. ”

Song Che groaned lightly and held an umbrella on the bow of the boat, as a friend of women, how could he not come forward to comfort him.

Nangong Yue looked back in an instant, and said lightly: "Good poetry, good poetry......"

"You're so wet, you're so wet......"

Song Che propped up the oil-paper umbrella above her head and greeted softly: "What's wrong?" ”

Nangong Yue wiped the rain on her face, I don't know if it was rain or tears, and she blamed: "Originally, I didn't cry, I blamed the boss for your ......."

Song Che said softly: "The rain is too melancholy, you will get sick if you get drenched, people are too depressed, you will become sick after a long time, open your heart, and tell your friends about your boredom, it will make your heart feel much better." ”

Nangong Yue looked at the oil-paper umbrella above her head, was silent for a moment, and sighed lightly: "It's about my life experience......

I remember that she said that it was her father's smuggling of salt that caused the family to be ruined.

"My father was a lowly official, and he stole and sold illicit salt with Tian Shaoqiong, the head of Shao County, and was later found to be a family of more than 30 people, male slaves and female prostitutes...... Of course, he deserved to be beheaded, and we deserved to be miserable, but later I learned that it was his best friend Tian Shaoqiong who reported my father in the first place; ”

Looking back on the past, with infinite grief and hatred, Nangong Yue shook her head, "Tian Shaoqiong actually used my father as a scapegoat in order to protect himself, and now he has become the prefect of Qingzhou, and the Nangong family is only ...... I'm alone. ”

"So when you learned that I was going to Dengzhou, you volunteered to be my bodyguard, just to avenge your father?" Song Che pursed his lips and asked.

Nangong Yue hurriedly shook her head, "The past will let it pass, and I will accompany the guards, I am grateful to the boss for giving me freedom." ”

But if the past really drifts away with the wind, how can she touch the sadness?

Song Che said: "As the saying goes, 'Heaven is good for reincarnation, and the sky forgives whom', this Tian Shaoqiong betrayed his friends to survive and smuggled official salt, and now that I know it, then his career will come to an end." ”

Nangong Yuemei's eyes kept beating, and she persuaded her loudly: "Boss, you can't delay official business for my business, Jingdong bureaucrats are the darkest, and the strong dragon does not suppress the snake." ”

Song Che smiled and said no more.

Liu Chong, the biggest bureaucrat in Jingdong and the envoy of Jinan, whether he colluded with the king of Anyang or not, he must die, and his henchmen will also be eradicated.

With Song Che's current identity, if he wants to bring a person to justice, he doesn't need evidence, he just needs to put a hat of "rebellion" on him, regardless of whether he is guilty or not, the emperor would rather kill the wrong person than let it go.

"Let's go back to the cabin, pack up our things, and we're about to get off the ship."

But just as he turned around, suddenly a fisherman wearing a hat and a cloak hurriedly swung up the water, and shouted:

"Official! Officials can't go down! The Yellow River has burst! ”

Song Che's mind was stunned, and he didn't react for a while.

The bursting of the Yellow River's banks seems to be a monstrous disaster every time in my impression.

When the captain and several crew members heard the news, they ran onto the deck and asked anxiously: "Fellow, don't be joking, it's only February, and it's the flood season of the Yellow River, how can the embankment break?" ”

The fisherman said, "Oh, can I joke with you about this?" It's just five miles ahead! Ouch, the people of the South Shore are going to suffer again. ”

The sediment of the Yellow River accumulates in the lower reaches, gradually forming an "above-ground river".

"Fellow, how big is the gap this time?" The captain asked.

"Who can say exactly what this is, as long as it can't be blocked, it will have to be expanded, in short, you should quickly find a place to dock in the north, I still have to inform the others!" The fisherman swung the oars and went.

"It's really a bad year! The emperor had just died, and this happened! ”

The captain sighed and looked at Song Che: "Official, you also heard, we can't help natural and man-made disasters, for your safety, let's go to the shore first." ”

Song Che asked: "If we land in the north, how can we go to Dengzhou?" ”

"To Dengzhou?" Gong Gong thought for a while, "That's a bit troublesome, first of all, you have to detour from Zizhou to Haikou and do a sea trip out of Bohai Bay, but now the coast is not very peaceful, and it is estimated that no one dares to run the boat." ”

How's that going?

Song Che frowned, if the flood really fermented, it would be delayed for too many days.

"You dock on the south side, and we'll disembark on the south shore." Nangong Yue said.

"Ma'am, aren't you joking? You also heard it just now, the embankment is on the south bank, how can you go to the south bank? "The captain didn't understand.

Nangong Yue secretly glanced at Song Che, "I'm not a lady...... I grew up in Qingzhou, and I know which way to go, so you can just put us down. ”

Seeing that the guests were so persistent, the captain didn't say anything more, found a shoal on the south bank, and sent Song Che and the three of them to the embankment in a small boat.

"Let's go in the direction of Qiancheng and Qingzhou City, where the terrain is quite high, and the flood can't flood there." Nangong Yue led the way in front, and her tone was affirmative.

"In February, during the dry season of the Yellow River, how could the embankment burst?" Song Che followed behind and asked.

"It's a bit unusual."

Nangong Yue said: "I remember when I was a child, every May and June, whenever there was a heavy rainstorm, the water level would rise, and then our family would move from Shao County to a relative's house in Qingzhou to avoid danger;

Before the Yellow River burst its embankment in the land of Qilu, it is not strange to see it, before it was diverted, the embankment would collapse every three or five years, but the opening was not large, and the remedy was timely and there was no loss;

I don't remember any cases of levee bursts during dry seasons. In winter, there is little rain and flooding, and the water level of the river is much lower than that of the levees – but this does not rule out the possibility that the levees are in disrepair or that they may burst man-made. ”

When things go wrong, there must be demons.

As soon as the first emperor died, and the new emperor ascended the throne, the Yellow River burst its banks. Even the fishermen said that this was an unfavorable and ominous omen for the passing year.

When the new emperor ascended the throne, I am afraid that the last thing he wanted to hear was the word "unknown".

Nangong Yue mentioned the possibility of "man-made embankment breaking".

Throughout history, there have been many strategies that deliberately ripped open the Yellow River dikes to prevent the enemy from attacking the Central Plains with floods.

Is this levee burst a natural disaster or a man-made disaster?