Daming iron-blooded Chief Assistant

Chapter 202 The Great Drought Is Coming
In February of the second year of Yongli, the disciples of the school who had completed the training gathered outside the Meridian Gate for a pre-departure swearing-in meeting.

After the swearing-in meeting, they will go to Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi to organize disaster relief for the people.

Zhang Zongxian gave a speech to them before departure:
"Everyone, we are a nation full of disasters. From the Three Emperors and Five Emperors to today's Ming Dynasty, we have experienced countless disasters, and we are still living in this land very well.

The reason why we can survive till now is the industrious hands of our nation and the unyielding will that support us. In the face of natural disasters, our legislators want to fight the sky and occupy the land.

Now there are students from our Legislative School reshaping the Yellow River, you will lead the people to reshape the Yellow River, let the Yellow River benefit the people on both sides of the river, and let the people avoid the threat of floods in the future.

In the future, we will not only govern the country according to the law, but also govern the river according to the law. This law is not only law, but also order and science.

You must remember that the goal that my School of Legislation is striving for is to make sure that everyone in Ming Dynasty has food to eat, everyone has clothes to wear, and everyone has books to read.

This is my way. "

"The way of my generation." "The way of my generation." "The way of my generation."

There were also officials under house arrest, as well as the empress dowager and the little emperor, Zhang Zongxian just let them have a look.The strength of the legislative schools breaks their wishful thinking.

This time, [-] school disciples will go to Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Shandong, and Jiangsu provinces to complete the reconstruction of the Yellow River, and they will organize the people to work for relief.

In the future, at least [-] disciples will go to participate in this project every year, and the overall project will become bigger and bigger every year. It is planned to mobilize [-] million people, and all projects will be completed within three years.

After the project is completed, these disciples will be sent to all parts of the country to completely take over the yamen in various places.

These teenagers who are under the age of 13, no matter whether they want to save the people or get promoted and make a fortune, will bring the freshest vitality to this dead dynasty.

The transformation of the Yellow River will first start in Shanxi. Canals will be built to bring the water from the Yellow River into Datong until the capital, and then a canal will be built in Pianguan County to bring the water from the Yellow River into the Fen River to irrigate the Taiyuan and Jinzhong Basins.
These two canals are required to be completed within one year, which will prevent Shanxi from running out of water in future severe droughts.

The channel of the Yellow River in the Henan area will be diverted, and the outlet of the Yellow River will be changed to two places, and a new channel will be dug in the Xiaolangdi area. This channel will go all the way from Xiaolangdi to Jiaozuo, Handan, Jinan and finally to the sea from Dongying.

The other route is from Kaifeng to Heze, Jining, Linyi, and finally to the sea from Rizhao.

Otherwise, we will take advantage of the severe drought to cut off the lower reaches of the Yellow River, dig deep the old course of the Yellow River, and relocate the people in the upper reaches.

We must make good use of the three-year drought to completely transform the Yellow River.

The Huaihe River Basin will be completely diverted, Hongze Lake, a suspended lake on the ground, will be drained, and ten irrigation canals will be built to divert the water of the Huaihe River into ten streams to go to the sea.

Proud of the development of the land outside the side wall, coupled with the confiscated grain and the grain saved by water transportation, the cabinet can now mobilize enough grain to carry out such a project,

The Grand Canal will also be fully dredged and deepened. In the future, the Grand Canal will try to carry out South-to-North water diversion, as well as irrigate the land on both sides of the river as a logistics channel.

In addition to sending out disciples, he also mobilized field troops to prevent the cult from inciting the people to rebel.

While fighting the disaster, preparations for the establishment of the Da Ming law were also carried out simultaneously. Zhang Zongxian personally led the team to formulate a brand new Da Ming law by referring to the constitution and other laws of the previous life.

After the disciples of the school complete the complete replacement of the Ming bureaucrats, these laws will be fully implemented.

At that time, no force can stop the implementation of these laws.

After entering April, there is no rain in Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, which already indicates that this year will be a year of severe drought.

In addition, the cabinet said that there would be a severe drought for three years, and the whole north was in panic. Some people began to emigrate under the propaganda of the disciples of the school.

The other part of the people who are still waiting and watching started to participate in the transformation of the Yellow River and the Huaihe River under the leadership of the disciples of the school.

At the same time, a large number of superstitious activities also appeared in various places. The gentry colluded with witches and gods, and forcibly apportioned in the name of praying for rain.

The cabinet quickly responded and resolutely suppressed it. Official rain-seeking activities were held in the capital, and no religious activities were allowed in the local area.

The cabinet also took the opportunity to start the liquidation of the major temples.

The land of major temples was confiscated, they were not allowed to hold land, and the number of them was strictly limited. For the level of temples, a temple should not exceed 18 people, and the excess must be returned to the vulgar.

On the pretext that the temples in Wutai supported Meng Yuan, the Wutai area was assigned to the Taoist sect, and all those who did not want to return to the vulgar were assigned Ye Erjiang.

The temples on Mount Song tried to resist the cabinet's decree, but the army directly broke through the temple gates and burned the temples.

Branches in other places were also breached and burned, and then completely disappeared in Daming.

In addition to land income, temples also lend money, in order to combat the power of temples and to reduce the burden on the people.

The cabinet officially ordered that the interest exceeding 30.00% is illegal usury and can not be repaid.

Temples are prohibited from lending money, and all loans that have already been released are transferred to Taiping Hao for receiving.

The Taiping also offers various preferential loans to the common people, even if the common people cannot repay them, they will only be sent to Dongsheng Shenzhou to open up wasteland to pay off their debts.

In addition to cracking down on superstitious activities, the cabinet also promoted festival burials to the people and opposed wanton arrangements for funerals.

Establish crematoriums in various places, promote free cremation, charge heavy taxes on burials, and launch tax squads to crack down on tax evasion.

In June, there is still no rain, and it is a foregone conclusion that there are no crops in some places.

The cabinet officially ordered that the land tax in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Hebei be exempted, and the land tax in parts of Shandong and Jiangsu was reduced by half.

Sun Chuanting, who had bet with Zhang Zongxian, and Lu Xiangsheng completely conceded. Zhang Zongxian recruited the two into the cabinet to assist him in handling government affairs.

Because the people in the northern provinces actively participated in the work-for-relief, the peasant uprising that swept across the country in the previous life disappeared virtually.

If the common people had enough to eat, they would not rebel. The common people who participated in the reconstruction of the river course could eat enough, and occasionally they could eat meat.

Thanks to the countless bison running on the land of Dongsheng Shenzhou, the people who immigrated to Dongsheng Shenzhou can eat meat every day, and wanting to eat a bite of grain has become a luxury.

After the ocean-going fleet sent the people to Dongsheng Shenzhou, they returned with dried beef. The rise of the fishing industry also allowed various salted fish products to flow into the homes of ordinary people.

In addition to the cattle and sheep seized by the Southwest Protectorate's mopping up of the Tartar tribes, the supply of meat was very sufficient. In years of severe drought, the price of beef and mutton dropped instead.

This made the people support the legislative cabinet even more, and those careerists who tried to incite the people to rebel were escorted to the Yamen by the people before they had time to start a riot.

(End of this chapter)