Chapter 244: Guangzhou Disaster Relief

Every year in the fifth lunar month, around the Dragon Boat Festival, the Lingnan region experiences continuous rainfall, known colloquially as "dragon boat water."

This year's dragon boat water was slightly heavier than usual, but otherwise no different from previous years.

Guangzhou is not a coastal city, and it is difficult to observe storm surges on the Pearl River.

Moreover, the typhoon passed through in the dead of night, when the common folk were already fast asleep.

All these factors combined meant the typhoon struck with no warning whatsoever—it was only discovered once the wind began to blow.

After settling his wife, Ye Yifan personally led the yamen runners into the streets, knocking on the door of each squad captain's home, ordering them to dispatch men to deal with the typhoon. The fast-squad captain, roused from sleep, shouted from his doorway: "Prefect, the streets are dangerous—please return to the yamen for shelter!"

By now the wind had grown so strong that the two men had to shout at the top of their lungs even face-to-face to be heard. The gale repeatedly tore roof tiles from houses, sending them crashing to the ground with heart-stopping crashes.

Ye Yifan shouted: "The safety of the people comes first! Gather your men at once and tell the people not to leave their homes. Then, following the contingency plan drawn up earlier, guide those with nowhere to shelter to the storm refuges."

"Remember!" The captain was about to leave when Ye Yifan grabbed him. "Send men on fast horses immediately to inform Regional Commander Lei and the helmsman!"

Before the typhoon made landfall, Guangzhou's flooding was merely an inconvenience of daily life, hardly a disaster—something the prefectural yamen could handle on its own.

But once the typhoon arrived, everything changed.

For over half a month, Guangzhou had seen continuous overcast rain, causing the Pearl River's waters to rise dramatically. Add the typhoon's rainfall on top of that, and the flooding could easily turn into a full-scale deluge! Meanwhile, messengers galloped along muddy official roads.

Deep in the night, east of Guangzhou city, a piercing whistle sounded from the army academy.

"Emergency assembly!"

Zhang Moye reacted on pure reflex—before he was even awake, his body sprang from the bed. He quickly pulled on shoes and socks, grabbed his bamboo water tube, ration bag, and bayonet.

Then he began packing his backpack.

Since entering the academy, Zhang Moye had experienced many emergency assemblies. The three-horizontal-two-vertical method of rolling a pack was carved into his very bones. In the darkness, a squad leader reminded them: "It's raining outside—everyone get your oilcloth ready!"

Rainy-day emergency assemblies had been drilled many times at the academy.

In the darkness, Zhang Moye fumbled out his oilcloth, draped it over the outside of his pack, then cinched it tight with the binding straps. He quickly pulled on his felt jacket, slung the pack onto his back, wrapped his powder flask and spare matchcord in double layers of oilcloth, tucked them into his chest, and charged out of the barracks.

The moment he stepped out the door, a great gust of wind nearly knocked him off his feet.

Through the torrential rain, he ran to his position and stood fast. His comrades soon emerged from the barracks and took their places.

Amid the howling wind and rain, the formation rapidly called out roll numbers and fell into order.

Throughout it all, Company Commander Sun Yu stood at the very front of the formation, not uttering a word, his face dark and grim.

"Company Commander, two hundred and three present, two hundred and three accounted for. Awaiting your orders."

"Fall in!"

In the pouring rain, Sun Yu raised a tin megaphone, swept his gaze across the assembled men, and announced in a clear voice: "Fellow students, brothers! You enrolled in the eighth month of the seventh year of Tianqi. In less than three months, you will graduate…"

Contrary to Zhang Moye's expectations, the company commander and chief instructor—breaking with his usual habit—did not berate them for being too slow, did not inspect whose pack was substandard, whose oilcloth was improperly padded.

Instead, he launched straight into his speech, and for the first time, he called them "brothers"!

"………In these nine months, you have learned why you fight. You have studied mathematics, language, drafting, firearms and artillery. You know how to calculate trajectories, you understand how to arrange various formations, you have learned how to lead troops…

Today, brothers! I will teach you the most important lesson of all. This is the secret of our New Army, the reason we can win a hundred battles out of a hundred! That is discipline—iron discipline!"

A fierce gust of wind swept through, rolling the curtain of rain into one solid sheet. Dense raindrops lashed down, soaking Zhang Moye's straw rain cape through in an instant. His shoulders and the soles of his feet were bitterly cold.

But he did not move. Not a single one of his banner company brothers moved.

They stood like two hundred stone statues, silent in the wind and rain.

Sun Yu's voice had gone hoarse from shouting, but he still roared: "A quarter of an hour ago, I received notice from the Guangzhou prefectural yamen that a typhoon, with no warning whatsoever, has swept across Guangzhou.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the city—completely unprepared!

Brothers, do you remember what the creed of our Nan'ao Army is?"

Zhang Moye shouted with all the strength in his body: "Strive for the public good, fight for the people!"

"Right! We fight for the people! Now the people of Guangzhou are suffering disaster—the time has come when the people need us!

You are on the academy grounds, you are cadet soldiers, but in the eyes of the people, you are soldiers!

When the people suffer disaster, can we stand by with folded arms?"

Zhang Moye's blood boiled through his veins as he bellowed: "No!"

All two hundred men shouted as one, their voices piercing the clouds, momentarily drowning out the sound of wind and rain.

"Our army academy is the New Army unit closest to Guangzhou city!

The rice, eggs, and pork we eat were grown and raised for us by the people of Guangzhou.

Now the people are in peril—the responsibility is ours and ours alone!

Brothers! A typhoon passing through is dangerous, but this is what we do!

I say, to hell with the heavens above! You want to take lives? You'll have to get through us first!

I command: march on Guangzhou, do everything in your power to protect the people! And uphold discipline! Draw your equipment, prepare to move out!" The equipment was not the standard matchlock muskets, shields and sabers, or spears—but iron shovels and hoes.

After each squad drew its equipment, they set off at a run toward Guangzhou city.

The torrential rain had left the rammed-earth roads full of standing water, muddy and hard to traverse.

But Zhang Moye felt that today's running formation was moving much faster than usual.

As the typhoon drew closer.

Within Guangzhou city, the gale howled. The sound of wind and rain was tremendous, nearly waking every resident of the city.

Thousands of households lit their oil lamps.

"Snap! Snap! Snap!"

Outside the Gate of Civilization, one household struck flint and steel to spark a flame, lighting their oil lamp.

The dim yellow light illuminated the room, revealing the worried faces of a wife and her two children.

"Husband, what is going on out there?"

The man made a shushing gesture, then listened carefully.

His wife and children had woken from their beds and all stared at him nervously.

"That seems like a typhoon!" the man said.

At these words, his wife's face changed instantly.

In this era, most civilian homes were not sturdy—if not specially reinforced, they could not withstand a typhoon. The tiles being blown off was the least of their worries.

In severe cases, roofs were torn off entirely, and whole houses collapsed—such things were not unheard of.

The man pondered for a moment, then took down the straw rain cape from the wall.

"Where are you going?" his wife exclaimed in alarm.

"I'm going out to take a look and add some weight stones to hold down the tiles." The man dressed as he walked toward the door.

His wife was greatly alarmed. She immediately jumped off the bed and blocked the door, shouting, "Do you want to die?"

Going out in typhoon weather meant a high chance of being struck by flying tiles—if one hit a vital spot, a person would be dead on the spot.

The man said firmly, "I have to go. This typhoon came strangely. If I don't go and the house collapses, we'll all be crushed." Typhoon-proofing was also a skilled task—it wasn't just a matter of placing stones on the tiles.

One had to adapt to local conditions: cover and reinforce on the leeward side, remove tiles on the windward side to reduce wind pressure. Without going out to see for oneself, it couldn't be done. In the past, when typhoons came to Guangzhou, the people would see the signs and take precautions and take shelter while the wind was still weak—it wasn't too dangerous.

But this typhoon came in the night of the Dragon Boat rains, arriving strangely, with no warning whatsoever.

His wife's heart was racing with fear, and she was even less willing to let her husband go out recklessly.

She said firmly, "Our family will definitely be fine. I won't allow you to go out!"

The man argued several times, but his wife's attitude was extremely resolute, so he had no choice but to go along with her wishes.

The family huddled together under the quilt in the corner of the bed, watching the roof with anxious hearts.

They could hear the roof beams creaking from time to time, making their hearts rise and fall with unease.

After who knows how long, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the house.

Someone was shouting through the wind and rain, but the words were too hard to make out.

A moment later, footsteps sounded on the rooftop, and the whole family broke out in goosebumps from fright.

"Husband, they seem to be soldiers... wh-what should we do?" his wife asked.

After Guangzhou was taken, the new army had occupied it for over a month before continuing on to the next destination.

Afterward, the city defense of Guangzhou was handed over to camp soldiers transferred from Fujian.

Although these camp soldiers had been selected for good military discipline, "good" had its limits—at best, they wouldn't actively harass the common people.

Moreover, since the Song dynasty, officers and troops with strict discipline like the Qi Family Army had been as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Those who descended upon the people like combs were too numerous to count.

The stereotype formed over seven or eight hundred years could hardly be reversed in a short time.

Add to that the fact that during times of natural disaster, it was precisely when government control fell short and bandits ran rampant.

Knowing that soldiers were nearby made the family even more tense.

The man quietly turned over and got out of bed, extinguished the oil lamp, and then told his family to stay silent.

In that suffocating darkness, a thumping sound suddenly came—like someone was hammering nails into the house.

His wife said in astonishment, "The soldiers are reinforcing our house?"

The man crawled back under the quilt and said, "Who knows what ill intentions they're hiding."

Their son argued, "The Nan'ao soldiers are all good people..."

His wife pinched him, and the son dared not speak anymore.

After a moment, someone outside the house said, "No good—the wind's too strong, we need to remove the tiles!"

Someone else said, "No time for that! Cover it with straw mats—that'll work too."

"Zhang Moye, you pull the southeast corner!"

"Good, next house!"

With that call, the voices outside gradually faded—clearly the soldiers had moved on to somewhere else.

"What does this mean?" his wife said.

The man shook his head.

After enduring a bitter night, dawn broke and the sound of the wind had lessened.

The man rushed out of the house impatiently and saw that his own rooftop had been covered with straw mats—not a single tile was missing.

The rafters and beams had also been reinforced with iron nails.

It was precisely because of these measures that his house had survived unscathed.

The man couldn't believe it. He looked at his neighbors' houses and saw they had the same arrangement on their roofs.

Some neighbors who had risen early came out and, like the man, stood staring blankly at their own rooftops.

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

Across the vast expanse of civilian homes in the west of Guangzhou city, in a single night, all the tiles had been covered with straw mats.

But the cadet soldiers numbered only two hundred after all—even adding the Prefect's constable corps, it was hard to protect every home in Guangzhou. In the west and north of the city, large stretches of civilian houses still collapsed.

The cadet soldiers had not slept a wink all night and were now in the west of the city rescuing people buried beneath the rubble.

Squad Leader Sun Yu was soaked through. He simply took off his straw rain cape and raised a tin megaphone, shouting orders at the top of his voice.

Because after houses collapsed, the bricks and stones were too large, and fearing that using shovels and picks might injure the people, many cadet soldiers dug through the rubble with their bare hands.

Their hands were soon torn and bleeding profusely, yet they did not stop.

The surrounding civilians, who at first had kept their distance, gradually drew closer, and then began cheering the cadet soldiers on.

Some civilians cooked rice porridge at home, brought eggs, and came to the rubble to let the cadet soldiers have a bite to eat.

The cadet soldiers had been busy all night—cold, hungry, and their hands aching terribly. Seeing the steaming white rice porridge topped with pickled radish, paired with fragrant eggs, their eyes went wide and they swallowed hard with craving.

But everyone remembered the Squad Leader's words—remembered the iron discipline of the new army.

They forced themselves to push the rice porridge back and continued digging downward.

The civilians carrying the food said, "Eat a little! Eat your fill and then dig—this is my gift to you! It doesn't cost anything!"

That man's eyes gradually reddened, tears welling up as he said, "This is my treat, it doesn't cost anything! Really, it doesn't cost anything!"

In the crowd, a little girl asked, "Mother, don't they need to eat?"

The girl's mother felt an indescribable emotion surge in her heart, not knowing how to answer. Her lips parted slightly, but tears fell first. The little girl asked innocently, "Mother, why are you crying? Isn't our family doing fine?"

"Wuwu... chick..." Hearing this, the girl's mother cried even harder, pressing her hand tightly over her mouth, desperately stifling her sobs.

Then she sniffled and said to the person beside her, "Uncle Zhang, please watch the child for me."

The elderly man beside her readily agreed.

Then the girl's mother rolled up her sleeves and charged onto the rubble, helping the trainee soldiers dig.

Seeing this, a commoner shouted, "We're all neighbors here—everyone, let's go!"

These words spread like an avalanche or a tidal wave.

The commoners surged onto the rubble together, forming human ladders, carrying away debris brick by brick, clearing the ruins bit by bit.

Zhang Moye watched this scene, his heart filled with shock, an inexplicable force stirring within him.

He was soaked through, his hands cut and scraped all over by bricks and stones, the wounds soaked by rain until they had turned white and wrinkled, barely bleeding anymore. His body ached, and his stomach was completely empty.

Yet his limbs seemed to hold inexhaustible strength.

The rubble before him stretched for several li, covering nearly the entire western city. Even if the two hundred trainee soldiers worked themselves to death, they could never clear it all.

But a fire burned in his heart, scorching him, refusing to let him stop.

Fight for the people!

Now was the time for him to die in battle!

He felt this was how the world ought to be!

This was exactly how it ought to be!

That evening, a fast horse from Guangzhou city arrived at Shaoguan, at the new army's main camp.

After hearing the messenger's report, Lei Sanxiang immediately said, "You, Xu Mobile Corps Commander."

"With your battalion, plus the Second Battalion—ten thousand troops—hold Shaoguan and Meiguan for me. Can you do it?"

"Yes!" Xu Mobile Corps Commander snapped to attention and shouted.

He was an old hand who had followed Lei Sanxiang since the Battle of Jeju Island and knew Lei Sanxiang's temper.

He lowered his voice and said, "Regional Commander, by the rules, our deployments require orders from the Helmsman or the General Staff."

Lei Sanxiang said, "The disaster is urgent—there's no time to wait for orders. You there, report to the General Staff on my behalf!! Apart from the First and Second Battalions, all other battalions and Mobile Corps Commander units: by order of this Regional Commander, assemble immediately and force-march to Guangzhou!" Three days later, the Nan'ao Army General Staff also received word from Guangzhou.

Three days later, the Nan'ao Army General Staff also received word from Guangzhou.

The post of Chief of General Staff was currently vacant, with Lin Qian serving concurrently. After understanding the disaster situation, he said in a deep voice, "Order: Form an advance fleet with Fujian junks 05, 08, 27, 57, and 59, plus the two whale ships Anshun and Hengtong, with Bailangzai as commander, carrying supplies to support Guangzhou. Also dispatch five eagle ships and thirty bird boats to accompany them."

"Yes!" A staff officer took out paper and pen, writing rapidly.

Lin Qian continued, "Order: For Lei Sanxiang's new army, leave an appropriate force to defend the Shaoguan–Meiguan line, and send the remaining troops to support Guangzhou!" "Yes!" The staff officer's pen paused. Feeling that this vague order didn't match the Helmsman's usual style, he confirmed, "Helmsman, don't you need to specify the unit designations?"

Lin Qian shook his head: "Lei Sanxiang is close to Guangzhou. It's more appropriate for him to make the specific arrangements for disaster-relief troop deployment. Don't make the orders too rigid, lest he be hampered."

"Also, send word to the Department of Civil Affairs—have the unaffected prefectures and counties of Guangdong transport supplies to the disaster area from the nearest locations!"

After thinking for a moment, Lin Qian continued, "Order: Form a follow-up fleet with thirty Fujian junks, three whale ships, plus three eagle ships and twenty bird boats, along with the Tianyuan, departing seven days from now to support Guangzhou, under my personal command!"

The staff officer, who had been rapidly transcribing the orders, was startled, then answered loudly, "Yes!"

Another three days passed, and the advance fleet had arrived at Lingdingyang.

By then the typhoon had passed, but the massive rainfall it had brought caused the water levels of the Pearl River's main channel and tributaries to surge violently.

Normally, the lower Pearl River flowed gently, and sailing upstream from Humen to Guangzhou required no towing.

But with the increased water volume, the downstream current had accelerated, and with the wind direction shifting constantly, the eagle ship tasked with surveying the waterways tried several times but still could not navigate properly.

Aboard the whale ship Anshun, in the helmsman's cabin, subordinates reported this matter, and everyone was frantic with worry.

Six days had passed since the typhoon had swept through. With poor communication at sea, no one knew the situation in Guangzhou city.

If the army had already entered the city, they would certainly be short on supplies.

If the Yongfeng Granary had been destroyed, then the entire city would be short of food.

For every moment they delayed, one more commoner would drown or starve to death.

Bailangzai said in a deep voice, "Use the bird boats to row the supplies in."

Bird boats were small single-masted vessels equipped with oars, with shallow drafts and great maneuverability, suited for coastal and inland river navigation.

After the eagle ships were invented, most bird boats had been retired and reduced to fishing vessels.

Who would have thought that in a time of crisis, they would truly prove useful.

This was precisely Lin Qian's intention in allocating them thirty bird boats.

However, boats alone weren't enough—rowing upstream against the current while carrying heavy cargo was extremely difficult.

The boatmen would have to put every ounce of strength into the oars while coordinating with the sails. The crew needed both iron will and superb seamanship. Bailangzai thought for a moment, then ordered, "All crew, onto the deck."

The dragon-boat rains had not yet receded, and a fine drizzle drifted from the sky as Bailangzai stood on the helmsman's deck and briefly explained the current situation.

Then he said, "Those who were formerly pearl divers or Tanka boat people, step forward!"

Since the capture of Lianzhou, the Nan'ao Department of Civil Affairs had completely abolished base-status registrations like the pearl households, and no one mentioned those two terms in public anymore. Still, when Bailangzai asked, more than half the crew stepped forward.

Bailangzai said to the man beside him, "Minister Shen, say something to boost morale!"

Shen Yuan, Minister of the Navy, was right beside Bailangzai at that moment.

Hearing this, he declared in a clear voice, "Brothers of the navy, I know that sailing against the current is perilous. But with the heavens pouring down rain and the land routes flooded, the Pearl River is our only—and fastest—road.

Right now, Guangzhou city is severely flooded. There isn't a single dry spot. The commoners' houses have collapsed, they're wrapped in wet clothes, with no place to stay, no firewood to burn, nothing to eat!

If the navy doesn't brave the treacherous shallows to get there, the people will starve, freeze, and die of disease.

Before this fleet, such a thing must never be allowed to happen!

Brothers, we are not cowards like the Ming imperial army! Don't talk to me about some broken river—even if the Dragon King himself tried to block us today, we'd cut him down!"

When he finished speaking, the crew shouted in unison, demanding to go into battle.

Bailangzai ordered everyone to set out aboard the various bird boats.

Shen Yuan jumped down from the quarterdeck and made straight for the rope ladder at the ship's side.

Bailangzai stopped him: "What are you going to do?"

Shen Yuan said, "I'm going with the brothers!"

Bailangzai said, "You're not a Tanka boatman—you don't know how to handle sails or steer. On a bird boat, you'd only be dead weight."

Shen Yuan wanted to argue, but found nothing to say. The bird boats had limited carrying capacity, and crew placement had to be calculated carefully—indeed, they shouldn't bring someone who couldn't help. Bailangzai said calmly, "I'll go. I'm a Tanka from Guangdong—no one knows the Pearl River better than I do."

Shen Yuan was dumbfounded. Bailangzai had his second-in-command take over command, then ordered the other ships to also pick Tanka boatmen for the bird boats.

Then he leapt, diving straight into the sea. When he surfaced again, he was already on the bird boat, moving like a fish leaping through the water.

Meanwhile, in the city of Guangzhou.

The cadet soldiers were nearly exhausted.

Never mind that Guangzhou was all single-story houses—there were simply too many of them. Even if only one house in a hundred had been blown down...

Clearing the rubble and searching for survivors was an enormous workload.

Fortunately, some common folk lent a hand, the prefectural and county offices sent yamen runners to assist, and the city garrison soldiers provided logistics—only then did they manage to finish searching the ruins within three days.

After that, the cadet soldiers helped clear the main roads, bury the corpses of people and livestock, build makeshift shelters, and provide basic medical care.

The work was nearly endless.

From Sun Yu on down, the cadet soldiers slept only two hours (two hours) a day. From the very day they entered Guangzhou, their clothes had never once dried.

The flooding in the city was severe, making it hard to light fires. They could only eat half-cooked rice, and often went without meals entirely.

Many of the cadet soldiers came down with high fevers, enduring it purely through sheer willpower.

Since entering the military academy, the cadet soldiers had undergone wilderness survival training and often gone hungry.

But apart from special training exercises, the academy's logistics were always first-rate—plenty of meat, eggs, and milk, and every meal had grease in it. When had they ever suffered like this?

The common folk understood the cadet soldiers' hardships, and they also knew of the cadet soldiers' discipline.

They saved some grain from their own mouths, and at night, secretly delivered it to the cadets' encampment.

Most of the time, they were spotted by patrolling soldiers and turned away.

The cadet soldiers' encampments were in the barbican fortresses at several gates, including Wenming Gate and Dabei Gate. These places had originally been barracks for Guangzhou's garrison troops, but after the flooding they were completely waterlogged and unfit for habitation.

Garrison Commander Zhao therefore ordered most of the soldiers to move up to Yuexiu Mountain; only soldiers on wall duty would occasionally stay in the barbicans.

After the cadet soldiers moved in, they piled up earth and stone to raise high ground, barely managing to keep out the floodwater, and used it as their camp.

After several days, the garrison soldiers guarding the city walls and the cadet soldiers grew familiar with each other.

Zhang Moye got to know Old Cheng and Young Cheng, a father-and-son pair of camp soldiers responsible for guarding Wenming Gate.

Every night, the father and son would chat with Zhang Moye.

At the fourth watch, Zhang Moye's squad had just been pulled back from the front line. They returned to camp, sat down on the damp, clammy, cold stones, leaned their backs against the icy city wall, and closed their eyes—sleepiness hit them instantly.

Just then, he suddenly caught a whiff of a fragrant aroma.

Zhang Moye opened his eyes and saw Young Cheng, a camp soldier, holding out a bowl of rice to him.

Young Cheng said, "Eat up."

Zhang Moye stared at the rice, swallowed his saliva, but still refused: "We have discipline—we can't take things from the common people..."

Young Cheng: "Are we common people?"

Zhang Moye thought for a moment and said, "This rice wasn't given by the common folk, was it?"

Young Cheng said, "This is from tonight's dinner—each of the camp soldier brothers saved a mouthful for you. You lot serve as soldiers, but you're like monks, spouting precepts and rules all day long!"

Zhang Moye smiled and took the rice, then called his comrades over to share it.

There were too many people—each person only got one mouthful. The rice had gone cold and was a bit hard, but at least it wasn't half-cooked.

Zhang Moye put the rice in his mouth and chewed carefully, his face full of enjoyment.

Seeing the pitiful state of the cadet soldiers, Young Cheng asked curiously, "Judging by your accents, you boy soldiers are from Fujian too. Guangzhou's flooded—why are you working so hard at disaster relief?"

Then he lowered his voice and said, "Yesterday I asked another boy soldier. He said you're from the officers' academy—once you finish your studies, you'll all become officers. Whoa! The lowest rank is still a squad leader!

Catching an illness from all this disaster relief—or worse, losing your life—isn't that hardly worth it?"

Pink Round

Pen