Chapter 288: Inspection

Gao Da did not let the newspapers heavily publicize the news of his order to open the sluice gates; after all, sometimes too much publicity is not a good thing.

It only required the various government offices to mention it once when issuing notifications, and a steady stream of people would naturally remember Gao Da's kindness.

If there were too much publicity, it would inevitably make some people weary of or even resent such propaganda about kindness.

True gratitude needs to be sparked from within, not through the influence of one or two news reports. Gao Da hoped to ensure that the Spanish people cherished his rule from the bottom of their hearts; therefore, in this regard, it required decades of subtle, pervasive influence.

Currently, Gao Da's plan is quite successful. Although some of Gao Da's actions are purposeful, for the Spanish public, they have indeed received various benefits from them.

After all, to put it bluntly, hypocrisy that can be maintained for a lifetime can, to a certain extent, be considered righteousness.

It is nothing more than righteousness with impure motives, but for the Spanish public, can a monarch who allows them to increase their income and live a better life not be considered a wise ruler?

What Gao Da did not expect was that the effect of not publicizing was actually the best. The drought left a large number of farmers facing a desperate situation, and just as they had almost lost all hope of survival, news arrived of Gao Da's order to ensure water for farmers at all costs.

As the saying goes, adding flowers to embroidery is not as good as sending charcoal in snowy weather; Gao Da's action was no different from sending charcoal in the snow.

What surprised Gao Da even more was that although he had not intended to publicize his efforts in disaster relief, those rescued farmers stood up one by one, constantly expressing Gao Da's merits.

Through the word-of-mouth of these people, Gao Da's attitude of completing disaster relief at all costs won the admiration of the Spanish people, who hailed him as a benevolent monarch rarely seen in a century and the savior of a chaotic Spain.

This situation was something Gao Da had not anticipated, but he would certainly not waste such a good opportunity.

By the next day, some of the more severely affected regions had already strictly implemented the Cabinet government's order to open the sluice gates.

In the end, the water conservancy facilities built previously played a role; although they could not completely offset the negative impact of the drought, they could still save a portion of the farmers' income.

Areas where the drought was not too severe could rely on surrounding water sources to persist for a while, but if the more severely affected areas did not open their sluice gates, they would be left with nothing but vast stretches of wasteland in a short time.

Of course, it is certain that the income of farmers in those severely affected areas will be impacted.

For this reason, Gao Da specifically convened a Cabinet meeting to discuss various strategies for dealing with the drought.

First is to reduce taxes for all regions affected by the drought, with tax exemptions of varying degrees based on the severity of the drought, with a maximum of up to two years of tax exemption.

Second, increase efforts to rescue crops in drought-stricken areas to minimize the losses of farmers in those regions.

Take He Sai as an example. He is a pure grape grower, and the grape harvest is basically during this period.

As long as the water supply for the grapevines can be guaranteed for one month, He Sai can be assured of receiving his full income for this year.

Afterward, the water supply to He Sai's grapevines can be reduced, and the water resources can be diverted to other crops that need water more urgently.

Of course, this is only the allocation of water resources in areas where the drought is particularly severe. In areas where the drought is not too severe, local water sources and some water conservancy facilities can still meet the demand.

For areas where the drought is particularly severe, after discussion by the Cabinet meeting, it was decided to allocate 50 million pesetas as drought relief funds to carry out disaster relief work for the more severely affected people.

In addition, Gao Da also intends to build more water conservancy facilities in the drier inland areas of Spain to prevent similar drought situations from occurring.

As one of the countries with the lowest rainfall in Europe, drought is very common in Spain. Drought affects farmers' grain harvests and actual income; preparing for drought is not only about avoiding the occurrence of drought but also about adding a line of defense for Spain's grain and agricultural production.

Of course, this also triggered more discussions within the Cabinet government regarding the Spanish domestic environment and the urgency of vigorously developing the West African colonies.

Compared to the Spanish interior, the colonies controlled by Spain in the West African region have a much better geographical environment.

Especially the Gambia colony, which is not only close to the sea for easy transportation but also located in the tropics, where grain can be harvested twice or even three times a year.

More importantly, this is a vast plain with plenty of rain, so there is no need to worry about drought.

If Spain were to grow grain here on a large scale, there would be no need to worry about natural or man-made disasters affecting the harvest.

Of course, earthquakes and tsunamis are unavoidable. But the West African colony is not located on any major seismic belt, so the only thing to worry about is the very small chance of a tsunami.

Compared to the scarce rainfall in Spain, the Gambia colony can be called a fertile land.

In addition to discussing plans to relieve drought-stricken areas, the Cabinet is also exploring the development of colonies such as Gambia.

If the arable land in the Gambia colony can be reclaimed and planted as soon as possible, Spain can reduce the proportion of arable land at home and not rely on the relatively fragile agricultural environment of the mainland.

Gao Da would naturally not veto the government's proposal to accelerate the development of the West African colonies. The Gambia colony controlled by Spain is larger than the Gambia of later generations, and there is naturally more land available for reclamation.

Once the Portuguese colonies of Guinea and Jin Shaoer are annexed in the future, the total area of the colony will reach over 70, 00 square kilometers, almost catching up to the total area of Portugal.

Portugal possesses a large number of plains, and the Gambia colony is no less inferior. The Gambia River in the colony flows through most of the land, which not only makes this land suitable for agricultural development but also suitable for river shipping.

Grain grown in various parts of the colony can be transported to the colonial capital, Banjul, by rail or shipping, and then transported to the Spanish mainland by large transport ships.

The straight-line distance between here and the Spanish mainland is only about 2, 00 kilometers, and with the addition of the Canary Islands and the South Morocco colony, the safety of grain transportation can be guaranteed.

Developing the West African colonies is certainly a good thing, but it also requires a large amount of capital investment.

50 million pesetas have already been allocated for drought relief, so for the Spanish government, how much capital to use to develop the West African colonies is a question worth considering.

The good news is that this drought has made many nobles see the shortage of land in Spain. While the Cabinet government was discussing the development of the West African colonies, the nobles were also planning to work together to develop agriculture in Spain's colonies and establish new grain companies in Spain's colonies.

Gao Da naturally welcomes the Spanish nobles' love for farming. If Spain wants to become a strong nation, it must ensure domestic grain self-sufficiency.

Grain cannot rely on exports from other countries; after all, import and export relations can be destroyed by war.

Only by having sufficient domestic grain production can one ensure that on the day war comes, the country will not suffer economic chaos due to a lack of grain, thereby triggering more intense conflicts.

A lack of grain is no joke. As the saying goes, food is the first necessity of the people; for ordinary people, they can lack anything, but they cannot lack grain.

Since the Gambia colony is so suitable as a large-scale agricultural production area for Spain, Gao Da will naturally not miss this good opportunity.

At the end of August, the Spanish government first announced a 50 million peseta drought relief plan, and then announced that it would increase the import of grain and agricultural products to cope with this drought crisis.

The drought will certainly lead to a decrease in Spain's grain and agricultural production, so in order to prevent grain prices from rising too much, it is necessary to import more grain in a timely manner.

Fortunately, currently only the Iberian Peninsula has a relatively serious drought, and it is mainly concentrated in the inland areas occupied by Spain.

Although some areas in Portugal have also experienced drought, it is generally not serious.

After all, Portugal's annual rainfall is quite abundant, and because the country is long and narrow with most of its territory along the coast, there is naturally no need to worry about drought.

Only Spain has encountered drought, which can be considered a blessing in misfortune.

Spain can purchase enough grain from other European countries to alleviate the domestic grain crisis caused by the drought.

Of course, the current drought has not evolved into a grain crisis. There are still many major grain-producing countries in Europe, and it is still very easy to buy grain.

After the government announced the detailed relief plan, the people in the disaster areas were completely relieved.

In order to appease the emotions of the people in the disaster areas, on the day the Cabinet government announced the corresponding relief plan, orders were issued to the governments of the major affected regions.

Prime Minister Canovas personally issued the order, requiring the governments of the major regions to timely convey the disaster relief decisions made by the Cabinet government, to appease the emotions of the people as much as possible, and to avoid emotional outbursts caused by heavy losses.

Although the government will help the people in the disaster areas as much as possible, there will still be some unlucky ones who have suffered heavy losses before waiting for relief.

The government can do nothing about this; it cannot break the rules to provide them with more compensation, right?

Such exceptions would only make future relief work more difficult, and in the future, when people lose their homes and families due to natural or man-made disasters, they will also make more demands on the government.

In order to prevent these unlucky ones from hating society or even creating chaos out of revenge, it is necessary to strengthen the security forces in the affected areas during the drought.

The governments of the major regions attached great importance to the instructions of the Cabinet government, and as soon as they received the order, they issued specific documents to the various municipal governments.

Because of Spain's official performance evaluation system, government officials at all levels attach great importance to orders issued by higher-level governments.

The Cabinet government only needs to supervise the governments of the major regions, and then have the major regional governments supervise the subordinate municipal governments.

The municipal governments then supervise the town governments and villages within their territories, which can complete the political supervision from the Cabinet government down to the grassroots.

No matter which level of government has a problem, the higher-level government can be held directly accountable.

For example, if a certain municipal government has a serious problem, the Spanish Cabinet government will not directly hold this municipal government accountable, but will instead hold the regional government to which the municipal government belongs accountable.

If the major regional governments do not want to take responsibility for their subordinate municipal governments, they must supervise their subordinate municipal governments more strictly.

In this way, the Cabinet government does not need too much energy to penetrate its influence into the grassroots town and village departments.

In addition, the councils of the major regions and cities also play a role in supervision and regulation.

The councils also have a direct relationship. The Spanish Lower House leads the councils of the major regions, and the major regional councils lead the municipal councils.

This can ensure that there will be no problems at any level of government, and each level has corresponding supervisory agencies to ensure that the Cabinet government and the Lower House at the center of power can quickly exercise their power.

In order to express his concern for the people, after the government promulgated the corresponding relief measures, Gao Da also took some guards and officials to travel by train to the mountainous area north of Madrid to see the farmers' disaster situation in person.

As mentioned before, Madrid is located in the mountain valley between two large mountains to the north and south, and this is a relatively flat and open area.

Although it is located in the center of the Iberian Peninsula, as the capital of Spain, the Madrid municipal government has the most supporting water conservancy facilities of any region in Spain.

This has led to Madrid, as an inland area of Spain, not suffering from a very serious drought.

Instead, the mountainous area north of Madrid, after passing through the mountains, has a more serious drought situation because the water conservancy facilities are not sufficient.

The destination of Gao Da's inspection is the Castile-Leon region north of the Madrid region, and the regional capital city is Valladolid, a small city with a population of less than 100, 00.

Why did Gao Da choose this small city as the location for his inspection? The reason is very simple: it is located in the center of the drought, and Valladolid and the southern mountains are almost the driest places, having not seen rain for several months.

Gao Da's personal arrival attracted great attention from the Valladolid municipal government, and even the officials of the regional government had been looking forward to it for a long time.

However, Gao Da did not talk much with these officials, and after arriving in Valladolid, he headed further north toward Palencia.

This time, Gao Da also brought several specially modified cars, in addition to making travel more convenient, there was also the purpose of testing the stability of the cars driving in the mountains.

Palencia is a small town on the Meseta Plateau in Spain and is also one of the towns with the most serious drought in Spain.

According to the report of the Valladolid municipal government, it has not rained here for nearly six months, and the nearby rivers and water sources have almost dried up.

If it weren't for a large water conservancy facility north of Valladolid playing a role, I am afraid that the people in this town would have already considered moving.

Let alone whether the crops can survive without water, the people in this small town certainly cannot survive without water.

Although this large water conservancy facility played a key role, the water conservancy facility belongs to Valladolid, and it must certainly maintain the normal water use of the citizens of Valladolid.

Under such circumstances, the originally large water conservancy facility was suddenly not enough. The purpose of Gao Da's visit here, in addition to seeing the drought situation with his own eyes, was to solve the trouble of severe water shortage in Palencia.

(End of chapter)