Aspirations for Nation and Beauty Chapter 2: The 17th festival of Iron Horse Glacier is not…

The atmosphere in Hui'an Palace seemed a bit stagnant, except for Wufeng who was sitting upright, his face was quite normal, and the rest of the people all had gloomy and gloomy faces. The group of people were obviously facing trouble, and there was no reason for Yin De He was excited and joyful by the news of the great victories in the An area and the Southwest War.

"Let's talk about it, things are coming, we have to face it, right? Natural disasters and man-made disasters, every dynasty and generation, hehe, let Lianlai catch up, Xiao Tang, tell me, right? Isn’t our Great Tang Empire a little unlucky at the beginning?” Half-jokingly wanting to open up the atmosphere, Wufeng stretched his waist and glanced at the crowd.

"Your Majesty was joking. Now that the empire is in full swing, how can it be said that it is not good in the past? It's just that the natural disasters come too frequently, and the empire is heavily deployed abroad, so it is inevitable that the finances will be difficult, so I think that the next step is to provide disaster relief. At the same time, I am afraid that we have to repair the water conservancy facilities in various places. The floods in several areas have sounded a wake-up call for us. If we don’t pay attention to it, it will really cause serious trouble.”

Xiao Tang smiled bitterly. His mood has always been mixed. The smooth pacification of the Meli and Indian regions hardly took much trouble. He always hoped that the empire could take a rest, although he also knew that His Majesty intends to continue to use troops in the southwest. , but faced with the huge drought in the north and the abnormal climate in Wuhu, Sanjiang, Tiannan, and Mian County areas, the continuous torrential rain and fierce floods in the past ten days, Xiao Tang once hoped to suspend the deployment of troops to the southwest, but was rejected by His Majesty the Emperor , although the Southwest War has won a great victory, the Wuhu, Sanjiang, and Tiannan areas are already covered with vast oceans, and nearly tens of millions of victims have been displaced, while the north is still in drought, and many places have not seen a drop of rain for two months. Most areas of Yanyun and Beiyuan have no harvest, and it may even affect the spring plowing next year. Such a severe situation cannot be covered up by a few foreign wars. Maybe public opinion can cover up the people who have not been hit by the disaster, but the counties in the north and south What about local?

The plague began to spread before the floods in Sanjiang, Tiannan, and Main County. Taidu, Yushan, Jiangchuan, Zhujiang, Nanfeng, Qinzhou, Guining, and Perth all had large-scale plagues spreading. According to the figures reported by the local government, at least two thousand people have died from the plague, and the situation is still spreading. Fortunately, no sign of the spread of the plague has been found in the Five Lakes area. Otherwise, given the dense population of the Five Lakes, once it spreads, the situation would be unimaginable.

"Well, Xiao Tang, you don't have to beat me on the sidelines anymore. I have already decided to suspend the use of foreign troops. Cui Wenxiu's report requires the control of Kustan and Dexin provinces controlled by the Hansen Alliance and the second stage of the Meili The plan to use troops in the south has been put on hold by the Union. Now that the empire is facing such great difficulties, disaster relief and later reconstruction will require a huge amount of funds. All parties have to raise funds for Lenovo to solve the problem, and all other constructions will be suspended. Military aspects All operations are temporarily cancelled. Everything will be discussed after we get through this level." Wufeng nodded, "Zhengbin, please talk about the situation in various places first."

"Okay. My lords are probably aware of the situation in the two northern counties. The seven prefectures of Beiping, Yanshan, Yunzhong, Yulin, Qinghe, Anyuan, and Pinglu are almost completely wiped out, and the remaining three prefectures only have 30% of the harvest. , In the early stage, the Ministry of Finance of the Empire has allocated a large amount of funds for relief, and the relief in various places is also proceeding in an orderly manner. The Immigration Department of the Ministry of Economic Development has also carried out some immigration operations, but these are all a drop in the bucket. It is difficult to solve the fundamental problem, and now we are facing next year's crisis Prepare for farming, the climate is still dry, next year's spring harvest is worrying, I'm afraid our land is prepared for the worst."

"The situation in the four counties in the south continued to deteriorate. Although there was no plague in the Five Lakes area, due to the large number of lakes and rivers in this area, the disaster situation was the most severe. There were six million people affected. A large amount of supplies were sent to the Five Lakes area, and the Ministry of Finance allocated the first phase of relief funds of 60 million imperial gold coins. Especially considering the reconstruction of the homes of the victims after the disaster, it is conceivable that this amount of funds is an astronomical figure. Sanjiang, The situation in Tiannan County is also quite bad. The affected population is about 3 million. The first batch of relief funds of 30 million imperial gold coins has been allocated, and the relief supplies are also being dispatched urgently. The most difficult problem now is that there is a If the spread of a large-scale plague cannot be controlled in time, I am afraid that the entire southern part of the empire will be involved, and the empire will face a huge crisis. This minister should pay special attention to your Majesty. The situation in Main County is slightly better, and the main government of Perth Affected by the disaster, the relief fund of four million imperial gold coins has been allocated, but the transportation of materials may be difficult, and now I have asked Zhongnan County and Nanhai County to transfer materials from the south to support."

"Chenji Hetian has conducted a preliminary discussion on the disaster situation in the north and the south. According to the situation we have so far, if the situation can be controlled and does not continue to deteriorate, it is estimated that the funds and materials for the first and second phases of disaster relief will be needed. At around 250 million imperial gold coins, if you take into account the post-disaster reconstruction of victims’ houses and various infrastructures: it is conservatively estimated that the empire will need to invest another 400 million imperial gold coins.”

Yang Zhengbin's last sentence immediately aroused the whispers of a group of ministers. Sixty-five million imperial gold coins are not a small amount. A large part is the various treasures collected by the royal families of the Indian Kingdom, and the value may exceed two billion imperial gold coins. However, no one can afford this kind of treasures, and it is impossible to buy them It sold off, everyone knows that.

There are less than 600 million gold that can really be used as currency, and the empire has agreed to guarantee the private property of the nobles of Hyderabad, and it is impossible to collect too much gold in the Indian region. At that time, the military expenditure of the 100,000 troops stationed in the Central Continent was already allocated, and 130 million imperial gold coins were required to be spent in just one year. In the first and second phases of the Indian War and Donglu The expenditure required in the Song War and Meli War reached 150 million. The little gold in the treasury of the Indian Kingdom is only enough to support the military expenditure of the garrison for more than four years, and this does not include the need for war.

Now the construction of the Imperial Navy is also in full swing. In addition to the construction of the Eastern Navy and the Southern Ocean Navy, His Majesty the Emperor is already ambitious to build a Western Navy based on the Meli and West Indian coastal areas. The navy can bask in the sun in the Baltic Sea and the Aegean Sea at will. It is said that this is the grand wish of the emperor when he was studying. Although many ministers in the city have objections to this issue, they are not against the emperor's interest. But now The empire's finances are already in a predicament, and many people have considered whether nuclear power should be used in the empire's military expenditures.

"Zhengbin, this is not a matter of discussing whether the empire's finances can support it. The Federation is asking you, does your Ministry of Economic Development have a detailed plan for making disasters? What about the north? How are the arrangements for the south? What are your plans for the plague? How to control it?" Wufeng was a little annoyed, this guy actually came to talk about financial issues to himself at this time, is it time to talk about finances? Yang Zhengbin was usually quite shrewd, why did he become so ignorant at this time?

Yang Zhengbin is also suffering and can’t tell. Both Xiao Tang and Tian Yi asked him to emphasize the financial issue of the empire when talking about disaster relief, so as to lay the foundation for cutting military expenditures in the next step. Yang Zhengbin knew that he mentioned it at this time Financial problems will definitely annoy His Majesty, but he must obey the requirements of his superiors and colleagues, not to mention that he also believes that the empire should first reorganize and develop the economy as much as possible instead of blindly expanding military expansion before the current threat is too great, just like a greedy head. The bear is looking for food, but it also needs a strong stomach to harmonize it, so he also expounded his point of view inappropriately at this time.

"Your Majesty, the disaster relief plans in various places have already been arranged and arranged. Mainly go to Kuiyang and Pamir in northern Luzon. As for the plague, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Culture, Education and Health have agreed on a plan and arranged it. The Ministry of Finance has allocated 20 million special funds for Purchased a variety of preventive and therapeutic drugs~IndoMTL.com~ also purchased a large number of disinfection drugs and equipment, which are being transported to the epidemic area. It is estimated that some areas have received the first batch of drugs and equipment in the past two days. In addition, in order to prevent The Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of War Preparedness have also contacted the spring famine that may be faced next year, and have already begun to purchase grain in the Indian region and the Northern Luzon region to increase the empire’s grain reserves in case of accidents." Yang Zhengbin replied.

"What countermeasures does the Ministry of the Interior have?" Wufeng was quite satisfied with Yang Zhengbin's answer, and asked Zhong Wenjing instead.

"The Ministry of the Interior has ordered local interior affairs departments to strengthen their vigilance to prevent refugees from taking the opportunity to cause trouble. In addition, the interior affairs departments have also implemented martial law measures prohibiting the random movement of people in the disaster-stricken and epidemic areas. In areas where the epidemic is more serious, we are ready to deal with possible riots at any time." Zhong Wenjing said concisely.

"Well, everyone, this time when our empire was victorious in foreign wars, unprecedented droughts and floods occurred in our country. I have joys and sorrows. Fortunately, the war is basically over now, and Western Samoa and The representatives of the people of Sikkim are all on their way to the imperial capital, so let’s come to an end for the time being in terms of military affairs. Now our thoughts are all on how to minimize the losses caused by the disaster and maintain the vitality of the empire as much as possible. All departments must go all out, and when we overcome this difficulty, the future of our empire will be bright and bright!" Jiangshan Beauty Chronicles, Part Three, Sweeping Liuhe, Chapter Two, Iron Horse Ice River, Section Seventeen, Floating Years are Unfavorable