Chapter 169

The Capital, the Forbidden City.

The Chongzhen Emperor, who always wore a gloomy, worried expression, rarely showed a smile.

Standing before the standing mirror, he swayed left and right, surveying the dragon robe on his body.

Seeing his imperial majesty reflected in the standing mirror, he then went to the Imperial Study in satisfaction.

During Zhu Yuanzhang's period, Old Zhu stipulated that court must be held every day.

Meeting before five o'clock, that was truly tormenting.

This ancestral system was gradually abandoned in the subsequent years.

The court session was changed to three times every ten-day period on the three, six, and nine days.

By the Wanli period, it had completely become a mere formality.

The Chongzhen Emperor was diligent, and the frequency of court sessions increased significantly, but he still could not manage one court per day.

The nation's numerous affairs were mainly handled by the Grand Secretariat, passed to the Directorate of Ceremonial for red ink approval, and then presented to the Emperor's desk.

Arriving at the Imperial Study and sitting down, the Chongzhen Emperor reached out and picked up the first memorial — it was good news.

"The Jiangnan Lin Bandits and the Liaodong Jian Slaves battled; both sides suffered heavy casualties."

Seeing this, the Chongzhen Emperor unconsciously revealed a smile.

Without the court expending a single soldier, the two great bandits slaughtered each other — this was truly good news.

"Da Ban."

The Chongzhen Emperor looked at the Bing Bi Tai Eunuch: "How many dead and wounded among these two great bandits?"

"Replying to Your Majesty."

Wang Chengen took the initiative to place this memorial at the very top; naturally, he had already done his homework.

"According to reports, the battle between the two bandits was extremely cruel."

"Corpses strewn across the fields, bones piled like mountains."

"Blood flowing enough to float pestles, the earth soaked through and dyed red."

"Too many corpses, all thrown into the He Dao, causing the He Dao to cease flowing!"

"Downstream fishermen catching fish, cutting open fish bellies to find claws, none dared eat them."

"Losses on both sides should number in the hundred thousands, all veteran old bandits!"

Wang Chengen described it vividly, as if he had personally witnessed the entire great battle from the side.

But in reality, these were all ghostwritten by his staff.

He memorized them and presented them before the Emperor.

After all, coaxing the Emperor into happiness is the survival way for them, these high-ranking eunuchs.

The Chongzhen Emperor was indeed overjoyed, the corners of his mouth nearly tearing to his ears.

"It would be best if they all died out!"

These two great bandits, one occupied Liaodong for many years, killed who knows how many Ming Army troops, forcing the Great Ming to invest in Liaodong military pay every year, raising the overgrown Guan Ning Generals.

The other was even more hateful, seizing the Great Ming's most prosperous Jiangnan Region, and even cutting off the Cao Transport.

Now the grain price in the Capital has reached several taels per dou of rice!

This is only because the Tartars went south but did not besiege the city; otherwise it would be even more expensive.

The Chongzhen Emperor, in a great mood, opened a can of Orange Honey Canned Drink to reward himself.

Casually he asked: "Where did the bandit remnants go?"

Wang Chengen's heart tightened, but his expression remained immobile as a mountain.

"They presumably scattered separately."

After finally finishing serving the Emperor, Wang Chengen, having left the Imperial Study, tilted his head to look at the blazing sun in the sky.

He murmured softly: "Once the fighting's done, hurry back~~~"

Last time Lin Dao came over, he went straight back to Jiangnan after the fighting.

But this time, he didn't leave.

The various troops pursuing the Tartars gradually returned, handed in heads and captives, received rewards, and then many troops carrying large amounts of supplies rushed to the various prefectures and counties of Shandong.

Clearing out local gentry and landlords, city foxes and temple rats, beating gang beggars, rebuilding yamen, recruiting able-bodied men to form Regular Soldier battalions, distributing land and providing disaster relief supplies.

Natural disasters can be responded to, provided there are no man-made disasters.

Lin Dao drove away the external man-made disasters, cleared out the local man-made disasters, and even proactively sought opportunities to give the local common people a way to survive.

"Taking advantage of the Yellow River breach, the downstream water level drops and dries up."

Lin Dao, arriving at Linqingzhou, arranged work teams to go everywhere to recruit civilian laborers: "Mobilize civilian laborers to clear Yellow River channel silt, reinforce river embankments along the river."

Yellow River water control is a massive project that every dynasty has had to face for hundreds of years.

This winding, roaring giant dragon stirs up trouble from time to time, and the people along the river have suffered deeply from it for generations.

Now this enormous difficult problem falls to Lin Dao to manage.

"Three meals a day."

Lin Dao's response method was large-scale recruitment of river workers, first giving the river channel a major overhaul: "Provide tools, and also give some wages."

"Also send people to Henan Kaifeng to take a look."

"See if the breached gap that was dug open has been plugged."

"If not, must arrange to fill it as soon as possible."

"Otherwise Yellow River water keeps pouring into the plain, who knows how many people will die~"

Whether bandits or the court, neither attaches importance to the Yellow River breach.

Or rather, even if they wanted to attach importance, they simply lack that capability and energy.

After all, for them, there were far too many things far more important than maintaining the Yellow River.

Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat~~~

After the heavy rain, the scorching sun baked the land for days on end, and from the dried-up riverbed came a deafening mechanical roar.

Lin Dao, driving the super excavator, constantly pushed and pulled the various control levers, maneuvering the excavator bucket to dig out bucket after bucket of silt, piling it on the great embankment.

The spectators on both banks were a sea of people.

Many burned incense, muttering prayers as they kowtowed to the excavator.

Such a colossus that could move on its own was already a divine object.

Not to mention that with a single scoop of its bucket, it could dig out dozens of cubic meters of silt.

If this were done by manpower, it would take dozens of people half a day!

After the shock and worship, the bodyguard soldiers stepped forward one after another, urging the civilian laborers to get to work quickly.

These civilian laborers, gripping the various iron tools that had been issued, formed teams and went down into the riverbed, digging silt non-stop.

Everyone worked in a division of labor and cooperation.

Some held iron shovels to dig the mud; the dug-out silt was shoveled into woven bags on the side.

The people carrying the woven bags, seeing they were full, would pair up, hoist the bags onto the great embankment, and pile the silt on the embankment.

Immediately someone would come over here, shovel away this silt, and use it to reinforce the great embankment.

Tens of thousands of people, like a massive swarm of dense ants mobilizing, cooperated to clear the riverbed.

They also knew this was a good thing, used to avoid the terrible disasters brought by future Yellow River floods.

Moreover, the Grand Marshal not only gave them food, but actually gave them wages too.

This was truly

For how many years had the common people performed countless corvée labors, yet never encountered such a good thing.

Many even began discussing making a statue of the Grand Marshal to bring back to the village for worship.

Naturally, that miraculous giant object also needed a statue, to be properly worshipped.

The common people, who had suffered natural disasters and man-made calamities taking turns ravaging them, cherished the hard-won days of today all the more.

They held even deeper reverence for Lin the Grand Marshal, who had brought them this good life.

"Treating the symptom, not the root cause."

Inside the excavator cab, Lin Dao wiped his face with a towel, cracked open a Red Bull, and downed it in one go.

"But if you don't even treat the symptom, how can you treat the root?"

"The root-cause matters will wait until after Li Zicheng is defeated and we enter Shaanxi."

"Encourage tree planting, ban logging, switch fuel to coal."

"As for building materials for housing, set up brick factories and kiln factories to supply them."

People in the Modern World all know that the Yellow River's water disasters mainly stem from reckless deforestation upstream, causing soil erosion.

Countless mud and sand rush downstream with the river water, gradually silting up and raising the riverbed, even turning it into an elevated river.

Once the river embankment breaches, that is a sky-reaching flood swallowing everything.

This root cause lies in the destruction of vegetation on the Loess Plateau.

But the people of Shaanxi also need to live; they need timber to build houses, daily fuel, and so on.

Alternatives must be found for them before logging can be banned, rather than a one-size-fits-all forced ban on logging.

After a busy morning, when the sun was high in the sky, a continuous horn signal rang out along both banks of the riverbed.

It was time for lunch.

Lin Dao climbed down from the excavator and saw bodyguards not far away driving away commoners who were holding offerings and worshipping the excavator.

He waved his hand and called out, "If they want to worship, let them worship, just don't let them get close."

Even in the Modern World, there are plenty of people who believe in this or that, and plenty who go to hotels with monks.

Lin Dao had no need to forcibly stop it in a different time-space.

Who knows, someone might become obsessed with giant machinery because of this, and from then on embark on the exploration of science.

He climbed onto the great embankment, raised his head to look at the blazing sun still beating down, shook his head and instructed the bodyguards, "You eat, no need to wait for me."

He entered the tent and set off, returning to the Modern World.

The cool air blowing from the air conditioner in the room made Lin Dao feel comfortable all over.

He sent Su Tongtong a message, telling her to bring takeout over for a meal.

Lin Dao set off for the bathroom, washed up, and lay on the sofa to take a nap.

The sounds from the kitchen and the aroma of food woke him.

He got up and walked over, and saw a graceful figure busy at the stove.

He went up and embraced her, lightly sniffing her hair.

"Stop it~"

Su Tongtong lightly patted his hand, "I bought some food ingredients to cook for you, eat less takeout."

There's a saying on the internet that makes a lot of sense.

Once a man shows the ambition a woman's mouth won't stop talking about, you'll see just how proactive a woman can be!

As for what ambition is, it can be intuitively understood as money.

Lin Dao didn't speak, just kept moving his hands and feet.

A moment later, Su Tongtong turned off the fire.

From the kitchen came a soft hum like a mosquito's buzz.

"Mmm~~~"

Returning to the Chongzhen Spacetime once more, it was already afternoon.

The moment Lin Dao stepped out of the tent, he saw Chang Wei and saw a group of people fighting in the distance.

He immediately frowned.

Fighting at the workplace — do you lot look down on me?

The bodyguards quickly brought the people over.

The leader of the group beating shouted repeatedly, "Marshal, this man has eaten white meat~~~"

Lin Dao didn't process it for a moment — what does white meat mean?

Immediately he realized.

Looking over, he saw the man with a bruised and swollen face, eyes full of bloodshot red, body emaciated like an evil ghost.

In the cruel chaotic era and famine, the tragedy of cannibalism was all too common.

Across the Northern Regions, these years there were plenty sold by the catty.

Rib racks laid out before the shop, thighs hung on iron hooks, offal filling basins — the scene makes one's hair stand on end just thinking about it.

It's just that these people usually don't have any good ending.

The man before him is exactly that.

He sneaked into the major embankment construction site wanting to scrounge a meal, never expecting to be recognized.

Everyone instinctively rejects this kind of thing.

Lin Dao frowned and waved his hand, "Lock him up, imprison to death."

Perhaps many would say, he has his hardships~

But who the fuck doesn't have hardships?!

"From now on, anyone caught having eaten white meat in any locality — lock them all up to death."

"If any who once sold white meat are found, no need to interrogate — mince them and feed to dogs."

This was just a minor episode, quickly passed over without further mention.

In the afternoon, countless commoners surged into the river channel, continuing to busy themselves clearing silt.

"Marshal."

A bodyguard came to the excavator to report, "The people sent to Kaifeng have returned, saying the breach not only hasn't been plugged, it's even been washed larger."

"Right now that side is already a vast expanse of water~~~"

Lin Dao calmed his breath.

"This dog-fucked world!"

(End of Chapter)