Tang Dynasty detective

Chapter 164 The Flood
Li Canghai decided to go to Damiao Village for field investigation. Damiao Village is Xiaohua's hometown. According to the old man, Damiao Village is the closest to the Yellow River breach and the most severely affected.

After asking someone for the direction of Damiao Village, Li Canghai called Shang Xiaowu, and the two left the city on a fast horse, heading east.

After leaving Zhengyang City, thirty miles to the east, we began to see signs of flood spreading, which shows how huge the impact of this flood was.

Although the water level receded a lot, the road became muddy.

The further they walked, the more serious the situation they saw became.

Many of the houses were made of earthen walls, and they were scattered as soon as the floods washed them away. Several villages marked on the map were directly razed to the ground, and there were no traces of people living there.

The flood has not receded, and large tracts of houses are still in the flood.

It took the two of them half a day to cross the muddy and flooded road and make a long detour before arriving at Damiao Village.

Because Damiao Village is the closest to the Yellow River, it bears the brunt of the flood. The houses have already collapsed. There is only one Dragon King Temple, which stands tall in the flood because of its high terrain.

At this time, Chang Feng was leading a group of people to transport rocks to the Dragon King Temple.

Nearly a hundred shirtless people moved huge stones and piled the open space in front of the Dragon King Temple into a city wall.

Chang Feng was discussing with a fat man with a big belly, pointing to the embankment in the distance, how to plug the leakage.

Li Canghai walked over and found that the fat man was none other than Zuo Hongji.

This made him a little stunned.

"Zuo Hongji? Why are you here?" Li Canghai asked in surprise.

Chang Feng didn't seem to expect that Li Canghai would come, and hastily bowed to him in salute.

Zuo Hongji hurriedly knelt down and said, "After being taught by my lord last night, the Caomin felt sorry for the people of this county, so they wanted to do more for the people affected by the disaster to make up for their past mistakes."

This made Li Canghai feel strange, no wonder he was not seen in the city, it turned out that he ran here, and it was not obvious that he still had this kind of awareness.

"You are able to realize this, and I have not failed my expectations of you." Li Canghai rubbed his chin and said in relief.

"Caomin only now realizes that helping people is far more enjoyable than bullying them. Although Caomin is penniless now, he feels peace of mind like never before." Zuo Hongji looked calm, as if he had never felt so relaxed.

Li Canghai patted him on the shoulder, then looked at the torrential flood in front of him, and asked, "How is the repair of the dam going?"

Chang Feng and Zuo Hongji looked at each other, and said in a deep voice: "My lord, the flood is raging, and we can't get close at all. We have to transport stones from the mountain first, and we haven't discussed a feasible method yet."

Zuo Hongji said from the side: "It is still two or three miles away from the Dragon King Temple to the breach. We tried to use boats to carry rocks, but the current at the breach was so strong that the boat could not approach at all, so it was pushed back by the current."

Li Canghai stared at the turbulent Yellow River a few miles away, then looked back at a not-so-high isolated mountain behind him, and pondered, "According to what you can see, how many stones are needed to block the gap?"

"The gap is very large. A rough estimate would require at least several thousand dan of stones. Moreover, the Yellow River is fast-moving. Counting the stones that will be washed away, it should require at least nearly [-] dan of stones." Zuo Hongji said after a rough calculation.

Li Canghai glanced at him in surprise, he didn't expect Zuo Hongji to have these abilities.

"Nearly [-] loads of stones!" Chang Feng was stunned, and he murmured, "My lord, there are so many stones, where are we going to get them?"

"There are no stones on the mountain behind you?" Li Canghai pointed to the lonely mountain.

Chang Feng's whole face was wrinkled, he sighed depressingly, and said: "Your Excellency, I don't know, that mountain is a dirt mountain, and there are pitifully few stones, we have been searching for a long time to get such a few stones. "

Li Canghai looked at the large and small stones piled up in front of the temple, at best they were no more than a few hundred tons, which was far from the amount calculated by Zuo Hongji.

Nearly [-] tons of stones, even if the people of Zhengyang County were mobilized, it would take a long time to consume them.

The mouth of the Yellow River is about ten feet wide, and the gap is not insignificant.

"My lord, the only solution now is to transport the stone from a distance." Chang Feng said helplessly with a sigh.

Zuo Hongji shook his head. He didn't agree with Chang Feng's method. He frowned and said: "This method is too risky. According to my observation, the flood seems to be spreading inland every day. Let's not talk about the mining of stones." The degree of difficulty, even the transportation back and forth, is also extremely time-consuming. I am afraid that by then, before the stones are mined, the flood will have already flooded Zhengyang City."

"This... shouldn't be possible, right?" Chang Feng said in astonishment.

"Although the terrain of Zhengyang City is high, the surrounding plains are somewhat low-lying, and the water flows to the low places. According to this flow rate, I guess the flood will reach the vicinity of Zhengyang City in a few days." Zuo Hongji said solemnly. .

Li Canghai pondered. Zuo Hongji lived in Zhengyang City for generations, and he was much more familiar with the situation in Zhengyang City than he was.

Moreover, judging from the current situation, the water of the Yellow River showed no signs of fading. The few days that Zuo Hongji mentioned were actually very long.As long as there is a heavy rain, the flood will immediately rush to Zhengyang City.

There are now a large number of refugees gathered in Zhengyang City. Including the original population, there are already tens of thousands. If it is washed into Zhengyang City by floods, the consequences will be unimaginable.

"My lord, this doesn't work, and that doesn't work, you can't just watch the floods raging?" Chang Feng said anxiously, pounding his fist hard.

"My lord, what should I do now? Just make up your mind." Zuo Hongji also said with some seriousness.

Li Canghai looked at the turbulent river, slapping on the embankment, and the huge waves rushed up. He said in a deep voice: "Prepare me a boat and put stones on it. I'm going to test the power of this flood." How big."

When Chang Feng heard it, he was startled and said, "My lord, no! The water at the breach is so fast that it's hard to get close to it. Let me go!"

Zuo Hongji was also taken aback. He looked at Li Canghai as if he was looking at a monster, with surprise in his eyes.

He has also met many officials. Those officials who do not cherish their lives like gold, usually live in luxury, but run faster than anyone else when they encounter danger.

But not only did Li Canghai not hide far away, but he even put himself at risk by personally testing the flood, which made him wonder if he was dreaming?
"Stop talking nonsense and prepare the boat quickly!" Li Canghai put down the cloth bag on his body, rolled up his sleeves, and ordered in a deep voice.

Chang Feng said hello, and after a while, a small boat rowed over.

(End of this chapter)