Chapter 67: Time is Pressing and the Situation is Dire

Chen Ping had been waiting for Old Ye in the inner courtyard.

It was midnight before Old Ye returned to the county office in a rush, his lower body caked in mud.

He was still trailing moisture, his temples etched with fine, dense wrinkles, his entire person enveloped in a desolate and frigid aura.

It turned out that Magistrate Wang, deeply concerned about the river dykes, had led a party there in the dead of night to inspect them.

Without asking any questions right away, Chen Ping poured hot water from a small stove into a wooden basin and brought it over.

Old Ye submerged his ice-cold hands into the hot water, causing his numb joints to twitch slightly.

Yet not a trace of comfort appeared on his face; instead, he looked deeply distressed.

The sound of footsteps echoing through the county office was incessant, sounding exceptionally grating in the stillness of the night.

Old Ye heaved a heavy sigh.

The severity of the situation far exceeded everyone's expectations, proving even worse than the worst-case scenarios they had previously imagined.

Old Ye had originally thought that a defensive fortification as important as the river dyke, no matter how dilapidated, could not possibly be completely unusable.

However, after walking along the embankment himself just now and seeing the gravel, rotting wood, and seeping water stains along the riverbed, his heart had instantly turned cold.

The dyke, which should have been solidly rammed with earth and stone, had now turned into a heap of muddy soil, with very few pebbles or bamboo reinforcements to be found.

Without these two materials, how could the dyke withstand the fierce impact of a flood peak?

It was truly like a praying mantis trying to stop a chariot!

Even with his heaven-reaching wisdom, Old Ye found himself momentarily helpless in the face of this mess, not knowing where to begin.

When repairing roads, one could make use of local materials; if worst came to worst, simply ramming earth down would allow people to barely pass through.

Yet river dykes could never be treated so casually. They had to be constructed by weaving bamboo into large frames, which were then filled with cobblestones or massive boulders to serve as the foundation of the embankment.

The financial cost required to build such a foundation over tens of miles was astronomical, an amount a small county could never possibly produce.

Even if Magistrate Wang poured all the remaining funds and grain from the recent road repairs into the dyke construction, it would at best only reinforce the most critical sections.

To completely overhaul tens of miles of river dykes, a massive appropriation from the imperial court was imperative.

At this thought, the wrinkles on Old Ye's face deepened.

No matter how profound his scholarship, he could find no better solution to this problem and could only sigh at the cruel hand of fate.

When Old Ye informed Chen Ping of the current situation, Chen Ping offered words of comfort.

"Teacher need not worry. Things have their priorities and urgencies. Our most pressing task right now is not to reinforce the dyke, but to survey and excavate the flood-relief channel."

"Once we clear this hurdle, we can figure out a way to apply to the imperial court for construction funds later."

Old Ye shook his head and said, "You do not understand. The expenditures of the imperial court's treasury and grain stores are strictly bound by established precedents. The emperor and the court cannot simply spend as they please."

"Moreover, since the founding of our Dayu Dynasty two hundred and forty years ago, the population has multiplied daily, and more and more wasteland has been reclaimed, both increasing manifold since the founding days."

"Yet the imperial tax revenues decrease year by year; last year, they were merely about half of those in the early days of the dynasty. Do you know what this means?"

This was the first time Old Ye had mentioned matters of the imperial court to Chen Ping, and his words left the young man stunned.

What shocked him was that the financial situation of the Dayu Dynasty was so appalling.

A nation's tax-gathering capacity was virtually equivalent to the rulers' control over all forms of power.

Yet today, while it falsely bore the title of a peaceful and prosperous era, its internal weakness was profound.

Chen Ping remained silent for a moment before speaking in a low voice, "It seems applying to the imperial court for funds is unlikely to work either."

Without funds from the court, no matter how prestigious Magistrate Wang might be, he could never pull off the trick of soliciting donations for road repairs a second time.

Contributions from ordinary commoners were merely a drop in the bucket.

As for the gentry and wealthy merchants, most were driven solely by profit. Solidly repairing the embankment would require enormous expense and could not be accomplished overnight; since it offered no tangible benefits to themselves, how could they possibly extend a helping hand once again?

If their goal was merely to earn a clean reputation for benevolence and charity, they had already achieved that through the road repairs.

Chen Ping finally understood the pale, ashen look on Old Ye's face.

Without sufficient funds and grain, the dykes of Yongshun County could only undergo endless, minor patches rather than a proper reconstruction, meaning hidden dangers would always remain.

Even if this hazard did not erupt today, it would eventually bring disaster upon the people at some point in the future.

"Let us simply do our utmost to consider how to manage the flood discharge for now; court affairs are not something commoners like us should worry about."

Old Ye adjusted his thoughts and spoke.

Excavating the flood-relief channel was the suggestion he had given Magistrate Wang, but exactly where the channel opening should be located still required further on-site inspection and detailed calculations.

According to tonight's on-site survey and estimation, as long as the opening was placed at the most rational location, they would only need to sacrifice less than ten percent of Yongshun County's farmland to survive this flood.

However, if the opening was placed incorrectly, causing the floodwaters to veer off course, it could potentially submerge twenty to thirty percent of the farmland.

Farming was not easy, and that twenty to thirty percent of farmland represented the yearly sustenance of countless households.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Chen Ping summoned every ounce of his focus.

While listening to the figures reported by Old Ye, Chen Ping sketched a cross-sectional diagram of the river on paper.

Though not entirely precise, in this world, such a cross-sectional diagram was definitely a major advancement in the field of water conservancy.

Old Ye glanced at the drawing, knowing it was of little immediate use at the moment.

Because the most crucial part was still missing: the detailed specifications of the terrain near the flood-relief channel.

The height of the embankment and the depth of the riverbed in this section, as well as the height difference between the embankment and the surrounding low-lying land, all required renewed on-site measurement to arrive at precise conclusions.

No one dared to be careless about this matter, for it meant enduring and unbearable tragic consequences.

Old Ye looked at his disciple, whose eyes burned with intensity, and said, "Enough, go rest and regain your strength. Early tomorrow morning, you and I will accompany the magistrate to survey the flood-relief section in person!"

"Strive to calculate the exact location of the flood-relief opening as quickly as possible. The sooner we break ground and start work, the fewer losses the people will suffer!"

Had the crisis not been imminent, Old Ye would actually not have preferred Chen Ping to be overly involved in government affairs.

In officialdom, the more things one did, the more mistakes one made.

Yet now that the entire county was plunged into the peril of floods, he had no choice but to temporarily enlist his mathematics-proficient disciple to help!

...

Early the next morning, the torrential rain still showed no sign of stopping.

The river grew increasingly fierce, its water level rising crazily.

Any elderly person who had experienced a flood could tell that without immediate intervention, a catastrophic disaster was right before their eyes!

Magistrate Wang tucked his official robe into his belt and stood on the dilapidated embankment with an ashen face.

Staring fixedly at the roaring river, he shouted, "Two days! We have at most two more days!"

"If we still cannot excavate the flood-relief channel by then, the county's autumn grain harvest will suffer a drop of at least thirty percent!"

What he left unsaid was that if the excavation of the flood-relief channel failed and the floodwaters breached the dyke, the disaster would likely engulf the entire city of Yongshun.

Thirty percent was already a conservative estimate.

This was the conclusion Magistrate Wang had reached after repeatedly consulting numerous elderly townsfolk who had personally survived past floods.

Reserves were the supreme lifeline of the realm!

Without cultivated fields, harvested millet, and well-fed citizens, how could the people speak of living and working in peace and contentment?

Building earthworks and fertilizing fields also took time; if floods were allowed to sweep through unchecked, where would the farmland remain?

This was the foundation of the state!

Once grain production suffered on a massive scale and the people had no reserves to fill their bellies, it would inevitably lead to a multitude of refugees.

When hungry people began to roam about, regional stability would inevitably be shattered.

Pull one hair and the whole body moves; it would form an inescapable, vicious cycle!