Chapter 3578
It is summer, and although the weather is not too hot, the area around Yingtianfu, including Nanjing City, has fallen into a strange drought. There has been no rainfall in the past two months, and the water levels of the Qinhuai River and the Yangtze River have dropped a lot. , Xuanwu Lake in the north of the city also began to dry up.
The dry weather not only brings a lot of inconvenience to people's lives, but also causes a large amount of farmland to suffer from water shortage.
Tao Hongfang has recently been out inspecting water-scarce areas almost every day, deploying measures to combat drought and ensure harvests. He specifically applied to the Executive Committee and transferred dozens of steam pumps from coastal salt fields in Ningbo and other places specifically for pumping and irrigating seawater to produce salt, to replenish water and irrigate farmland in water-scarce areas.
Tao Hongfang is very aware of the crisis that the current dry weather may cause. Once a large area of farmland around Nanjing fails to harvest, the food supply on the market will immediately return to the state when Nanjing was first occupied last year.
Recalling that the war and floods in Nanjing last year resulted in as many as 100,000 refugees. In order to provide relief to the people, the newly established management committee was busy day and night raising and transporting food. While organizing the distribution, it also had to fight against the moths who embezzled the relief. It was not easy. Only then did the situation stabilize without major chaos.
To this day, Tao Hongfang is still a little scared when he thinks of that period. Therefore, although a lot of resources are now being invested in drought relief, he must also try his best to save the farmland in the areas under his control to avoid making the same mistake again.
At this busiest time, my partner Shi Chengwu even ran back to Hangzhou. Although Tao Hongfang also knew that Shi Chengwu had urgent business to rush back to deal with, he still couldn't help but feel that the other party's move was holding him back.
At this time, there are many agricultural water conservancy facilities outside Nanjing that are in urgent need of repair and expansion. Now that Shi Chengwu is not in Nanjing, Tao Hongfang wants to mobilize local garrison troops to assist, which will inevitably cause a lot of inconvenience in the procedures.
Tao Hongfang arrived at the Yamen early in the morning, briefly handled a few official affairs that had been backlogged yesterday, and then prepared to go to the Dabaoen Temple in the south of the city.
During the disaster relief last year, Dabaoen Temple played a large role in hosting refugees. Afterwards, Master Hongjin, who presided over the temple, received special commendation from the Nanjing Administrative Committee. This year there has been a long drought in the local area, so Master Hongjin decided to host a prayer ceremony for rain in the temple. He invited Tao Hongfang to represent the government and attend the event together with other invited local gentry, elders and the general public.
Although Tao Hongfang is not very interested in religion and does not believe that he can make it rain by doing things, but after last year's cooperation, he also knows that Master Hongjin is a kind-hearted monk and has many friends in the Yingtianfu area. It has quite a good reputation among the people, and it can indeed play a certain role in appeasing people's hearts by hosting such an event.
Moreover, Master Hongjin has clearly informed him that this event will include a fundraising event from believers, and all proceeds will be given to the government for use in recent drought relief projects. As the parent official of Yingtian Mansion, it would be unjustifiable for Tao Hongfang not to attend in person.
Just as Tao Hongfang was about to ask someone to prepare the carriage and horses, his secretary sent a telegram saying it was sent from Hangzhou.
Tao Hongfang took it and opened it. It was Shi Chengwu who asked him to arrange for the Yanziji Pier to free up berths and arrange a camp area in the north of the city to prepare for the arrival of the East China Sea Fleet.
Shi Chengwu also specified in the telegram that the naval force that was about to be transferred to Nanjing would have approximately 2,000 personnel, and hoped that Tao Hongfang could make corresponding arrangements in advance.
However, Shi Chengwu did not elaborate in the telegram about the specific purpose of this unit being transferred to Nanjing, whether it was to be stationed or to change defenses, or to perform some special tasks. Tao Hongfang was also confused after reading the telegram.
In Tao Hongfang's view, Yingtian Mansion is not facing obvious military pressure today. Almost all the Ming army on the other side of the Yangtze River and in the upper reaches were disabled in last year's battles. The Ming army probably will not be able to recover so quickly. Yuanqi counterattacked Nanjing. Moreover, if there were large-scale military mobilization in nearby areas under the control of the Ming Dynasty, it would be unlikely to be hidden from Haihan's eyes and ears. If there was such news, the Military Intelligence Bureau and the Ministry of Security would have reported it as soon as possible.
Besides, the size of the garrison in the Yingtianfu area is not too small. The total strength is about 3,000 people, which is enough to handle a medium-sized war.
There is an armed fleet stationed at Yanziji Pier in the north of Nanjing, a full independent army regiment in the city, an artillery battalion at the foot of Zhongshan Mountain in the east of the city, and a cavalry battalion at the foot of Jiangjun Mountain in the south of the city. Several other infantry companies are stationed in Gaochun, Jurong, Moling, Liyang, Lishui, Jiangning and other surrounding counties.
Coupled with the police, militia and other paramilitary organizations, Nanjing can easily organize an armed force of four to five thousand people in wartime. It can also obtain nearby reinforcements from neighboring Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Changzhou and other places. Even if Ming Dynasty really comes to attack in a big way, it will probably not be a good thing.
Under such circumstances, why arrangements were made to transfer troops from the East China Sea Fleet to Nanjing really confused Tao Hongfang.
Could it be that the higher-ups felt that the one-year truce period was enough and planned to launch a new round of offensive against the Ming Dynasty?
But when he thought about it, he felt something was wrong. The local garrison had not entered a state of war preparation before. In particular, the collection of war preparation materials had to be arranged at least three to five months in advance. However, now it has not received this information from the Executive Committee. instructions.
However, Tao Hongfang still has one thing that is certain - this transfer should not be arranged by the executive committee, otherwise his father Tao Donglai would definitely inform him.
Thinking it was nothing serious, Tao Hongfang thought for a moment and ordered someone to bring his Qin slips.
Not long after, Qin Jian hurried over to report, and Tao Hongfang said: "Qin Jian, you are from Yanziji Wharf, and you are familiar with the situation there. I just have an errand for you."
Qin Jian can be regarded as one of the direct beneficiaries of the power change between Hai and Han in the Ming Dynasty. During the reign of the Ming Dynasty, he was just a small foreman on the Yanziji Pier. It would be difficult to climb to a higher level unless there was an accident.
After Haihan took over Yingtian Mansion, his luck suddenly changed. In just a few months, he rose through the ranks and was promoted to the Nanjing Management Committee as an errand.
Nowadays, Qin Jian is in charge of shipping affairs within the jurisdiction of Yingtian Mansion, and he can be regarded as a professional counterpart. When he walks out of the administrative committee office, everyone calls him "Master Qin" when he sees him.
After Qin Jian listened to Tao Hongfang's instructions, his first reaction was exactly the same as Tao Hongfang's when he saw the contents of the telegram: "Sir, this...is there going to be another war?"
Tao Hongfang said without comment: "Don't make random guesses. Even if there is really going to be a war, it is not something you should inquire about!"
Qin Jian realized that he had made a mistake and quickly confessed.
Tao Hongfang said: "You finish this errand as soon as possible. When Master Shi comes back from Hangzhou, you can go and deliver the errand to him."