novelraw Chapter 203
Chapter 203
Chapter 203: The Flood Disaster in Huzhou
After the change in memorial formats, officials had mixed feelings.
Those who were saddened were the local officials who, having not seen His Majesty for years and priding themselves on their emotional expressiveness, relied solely on writing to express their reverence to His Majesty. Since they couldn't meet the Emperor face-to-face to build rapport, they had to butter him up through lengthy writings; now that word counts were limited, it truly became a great source of anguish.
On the other hand, those who were pleased were naturally the practical officials who preferred straightforward work and disliked lengthy documents but had to follow the crowd. With the new format, when writing memorials, some scratched their heads in frustration, trimming words and shortening sentences, while others wrote fluently and efficiently in one go. The uniform format made the readings genuinely refreshing!
Especially for Wei Yu.
Since he started helping his father review memorials, his old man’s laziness had been increasing! The number of memorials handed to him grew day by day! If it weren’t for Wei Yu strictly refusing to approve memorials that broke the rules, he probably would have ended up doing all his father’s work alone.
But now, his father’s comeuppance had arrived.
Because the format requirements were strict, especially for memorials concerning ongoing matters… they were far from being an easy task!!! The word count was still numerous.
From taking over an hour before to now less than half an hour, Wei Yu was so happy his gums almost showed.
After approving the last memorial, Wei Yu pressed his lips tightly, struggling to hold back a schadenfreude smile, and sneakily glanced at his father next door, then put down his pen preparing to stand. “Cough, Father, son’s leaving now?”
Perhaps because his workload had lightened over these past few days, his father’s mood was always a bit off whenever Wei Yu was about to leave. To avoid attracting his father’s attention and causing unnecessary trouble, Wei Yu always acted very properly when leaving.
Not hearing his father's voice, Wei Yu assumed tacit approval and was just about to leave when Li Cheng suddenly strode in from outside, holding a memorial in his hands.
“Your Majesty, urgent news of a disaster in Huzhou!”
Disaster?!
Wei Yu stopped in his tracks.
Emperor Wei also lifted his head from the desk, frowning tightly. “Present it.”
Li Cheng hurriedly handed over the memorial.
Emperor Wei took it and immediately opened it.
Wei Yu couldn't see the contents of the memorial and didn’t know what disaster had occurred in Huzhou. He could only tell from his father’s increasingly furrowed brows that the situation might be serious.
Two minutes later, Emperor Wei issued an order: “Go, summon the Three Dukes and the Six Ministries’ Ministers to the palace immediately. I want to discuss the Huzhou flood disaster!”
“Huzhou flood disaster?” Wei Yu exclaimed.
Huzhou is a flat region with many rivers. Wei Yu had read the local gazetteer, knowing that during summer and autumn, Huzhou often suffered floods. However, it was already late autumn now!
Floods still coming?
Emperor Wei glanced at him, frowning as he handed over the memorial, “You take a look as well.”
Hmm?
Before, Wei Yu definitely wouldn’t have looked at it, fearing his father would ask him to do work. But now that the situation was urgent and Wei Yu wanted to know the exact circumstances in Huzhou, he couldn’t care so much anymore.
Serious matters can’t be careless.
He picked up the memorial.
“Since mid-September, continuous heavy rains have caused violent mountain and river torrents; the Fen, Run, and Wen rivers have simultaneously surged, breaching dikes and flooding farmlands and houses. Additionally, reports from Xinshan Prefecture, Daichuan Prefecture, Qian City Commandery, and more than twenty counties under their jurisdiction indicated that due to river overflows or mountain water erosion, some counties had from several to over a hundred villages flooded, with collapsed houses ranging from dozens to hundreds, and deaths ranging from several to dozens, with varying degrees of severity…”
Even without reading the full text, just looking at it caused Wei Yu to frown deeply, like his father.
“This disaster situation is too severe!”
Thinking about the cooling weather and the wide area impacted by the flooding, and concerning the people, Wei Yu looked at Emperor Wei with some worry. “Father Emperor, the flood disaster in Huzhou is severe. Although the Prefect of Huzhou has reported and sent people to comfort the people, the affected population is vast. There may be officials only paying lip service. I think it’s best for you to quickly dispatch someone to Huzhou to oversee matters.”
The memorial said the floods began in mid-September, and now it was already late November, more than two months later!
Who knows what kind of human tragedy the disaster area is suffering now?
In ancient times, disaster response was not as rapid as nowadays; information was not advanced. It could take an official who cared for the people about a month to complete the report from local to central government, but most officials typically took one to two months to handle matters.
Often, officials concealed disasters for fear of blame or losing their positions.
Of course, under Great Wei's current regulations, once concealment was discovered, a Prefect would be docked a year’s salary; if the report was delayed over three months, the official would be dismissed.
Currently, the Prefect of Huzhou’s situation doesn't yet qualify as delayed.
As for how to handle disasters, the central government generally took two steps: inspection and relief.
Inspection involved dispatching a provincial governor to oversee and verify the disaster firsthand, aiming to understand the situation to provide a basis for issuing relief supplies and tax reductions.
Relief measures varied, commonly reducing or exempting corvée labor and taxes in affected areas — tax exemption; plus the Imperial Court granting money, directly giving silver and grain subsidies to the victims.
Therefore, sending a governor to Huzhou to inspect the disaster was certain. Emperor Wei was now frowning and pondering who to send.
However, after hearing Wei Yu’s suggestion, Emperor Wei silently looked up at him with an unreadable gaze.
Wei Yu was originally quite worried about Huzhou, but seeing his father’s change in expression, he stepped back and sincerely reminded him.
“Father, I’m busy with many affairs in the Capital, attending court daily and helping you record matters. Besides, you work so hard every day, with your son sharing your burdens, it should make you feel much relieved. Moreover, the estate over there also depends on me, you know that.”
He was kind, sincere, friendly, filial, and loyal… many virtues, and it was true he didn’t want to see people suffer, but that didn’t mean he wanted to personally go to the disaster area and suffer?!
Emperor Wei pretended not to hear Wei Yu’s roaring thoughts, only gazing deeply at him in silent reproach.
Wei Yu: ……
He was willing to donate money and supplies, really.
But donating himself was unnecessary.
He was useless—going there would only waste food and be a burden.
While Wei Yu was confronting his father, the Prime Minister and others rapidly entered the palace.
They were all core members of the Imperial Court, far more adept at handling disasters than Wei Yu.
They took the lead in reading the memorial to understand the situation. After reading it, they quickly began discussing the disaster response.
Wei Yu could only stand quietly to the side and listen.