Chapter 63: Torrential Rain

  Lin Chunhong had just left Baili Zhou when Baili Zhou was faced with a life-and-death test.

  In the fifth year of Chongzhen, in June, the sky was like a broken pot, pouring down large amounts of rain to Sichuan and Huguang. In Baili Zhou, it rained continuously for ten days, with several violent storms in between, as if determined to turn Baili Zhou into a vast lake before stopping. Little Dai's heart was burning with anxiety, the first year after the repair of the Baili River dike, faced a severe test, the flood peaks coming from Sichuan were getting more and more ferocious, making people wonder if the dike was safe. Alas, human power is ultimately insignificant compared to nature.

  Lin Chun-hung and Li Chong-de were not present, so all matters were decided by Zhou Wang and Li Cheng-zong. Zhou Wang and Li Cheng-zong ordered Baili Zhou to enter a state of emergency, putting all manpower and resources into flood control efforts. Ensuring the safety of the embankment was the top priority, as if it failed, the lives of tens of thousands of people would be severely threatened.

  "The water level is four zhang and one foot and a quarter!"

  "The water level is 4 zhang and 4 chi!"

  "The water level is four zhangs and four chi, plus one fifth!"

  ……

  The situation is getting more and more severe, Zhou Wang, Li Chengzong, Teng Yuhe and Xiao Daizi have not slept for three days. The guard team has been dispatched, each squad responsible for a section. All the able-bodied men are organized to patrol on the river embankment day and night, while the old people, women and children are responsible for delivering food and water. The main purpose of patrolling is to discover the pipe holes in time and nip the breach of the dam in the bud.

  All the horses were also allocated, and once a danger occurred somewhere, they would report in time, making it convenient for the people to organize rescue efforts quickly. The people looked at the shocking floodwaters, regardless of whether they were workers or merchants, and all consciously completed their tasks. Behind the dam were wives and children, and once the dam burst, everyone understood the consequences. The usually slack soldiers, especially at this moment, were united, opening their eyes wide every day to check for leaks, reducing the hidden dangers of the dam bursting to a minimum.

  Piles of stones were transported to the foot of the dam, and a large number of sacks were prepared to block the gap after the dam burst. On the dock, more than a dozen giant grain ships were also prepared, filled with rice. If there was a big breach somewhere, these ships would be sunk at the breach, and the swelling rice would block the breach.

  Although Baili Zhou's preparations were not inadequate, Zhou Wang and the others still couldn't help but feel uneasy, feeling that doing something would alleviate their inner pressure.

  Night falls, torrential rain pours down.

  Near the White Horse Temple, the river embankment was still lit up with horse lanterns. On the embankment, tents were pitched, but in the heavy rain, water leaked everywhere, causing the resting soldiers to be miserable. When it was their turn to patrol, the soldiers held horse lanterns and carefully examined the embankment, swaying them back and forth in front of themselves. The raincoats they wore were useless, their clothes were completely soaked, and the cool raindrops kept seeping into their bodies, making them shiver uncontrollably. However, this did not dampen their enthusiasm, as they lined up one by one, slowly searching forward like a carpet.

  "Ah, it's flooded!" A cry of alarm brought the patrolmen rushing over.

  The river embankment near Baima Temple has burst!

  The loud gong sounded like a burst of thunder, causing the strong men in the tent to jump up and grab their iron shovels and sacks, rushing towards the dimly visible horse lanterns.

  "Hurry, hurry and report to Director Zhou for support!" Wei Yuxiang's voice was a little shaky. The proverb of the dike being destroyed by an ant hole was all too clear to him - the White Horse Temple's pipe might destroy the entire embankment, and even turn Baili Island into a swamp.

  A horse galloped swiftly to the east, and with its report, the entire Baili Prefecture sprang into action: four or five hundred sturdy men converged on Baima Temple, while two large grain ships also slowly made their way towards Baima Temple. Apart from Zhou Wang, several other big shots also rode horses rushing towards Baima Temple.

  The pipe burst with great ferocity, and in an instant, it changed from a gentle trickle to a mad gush.

  The breach is expanding rapidly!

  "Team one, block the entrance with rocks! Team two, use sacks to seal the outside! Team three, follow me into the water to find the inner entrance!" Wei Yuxiang yelled, then immediately stripped himself naked, grabbed a rope and tightly wrapped it around his waist. "Hold onto the rope, I'm going in to check where the inner entrance is!"

  After finishing speaking, he plunged into the murky Yangtze River, and except for a long rope, nothing could be seen on the river surface.

  As Wei Yuxiang's order was given, the strong men quickly took action and threw bag after bag of goose eggs into the outer mouth, trying to stop the further expansion of the outlet. However, the bound Yangtze River found a vent and rushed horizontally, where could it be blocked, and the torrent swept away bag after bag of goose eggs to one side.

  All this made the strong men tremble with fear, their faces pale, and involuntarily quickened their pace, carrying over 200 kilograms of sacks as if flying.

  But even more sandbags were useless, all washed away by the torrent to one side.

  Just as the strong young men were at a loss for what to do, Wei Yuxiang finally surfaced and shouted: "Throw all the sacks here!"

  The three teams' strong men were busy, pulling Wei Yue Xiang to the shore. Wei Yue Xiang's teeth were clenched tightly, his whole body shaking non-stop. The icy river water almost froze him to death.

  The strong men were throwing the sacks into the position specified by Wei Yue Xiang, but the mouth of the pipe was huge, how could a few sacks stop the floodwaters? The water gushing out didn't decrease at all, and instead showed signs of increasing.

  Wei Yuxiang finally caught his breath, grabbed a bag of goose eggs, and joined the ranks of those carrying loads. Now on the big embankment, apart from those loading stones, there were only people carrying loads, with a constant flow of people coming and going, mud splashing everywhere under their feet, but no one paid attention to it.

  The storm is still raging, but who cares about the brave warriors now? The raincoats have all been thrown aside!

  However, the two hundred or so jin of hemp sacks were carried over one by one, and even the iron-clad men couldn't bear it. Their footsteps became heavier and their pace slower...

  Suddenly someone shouted: "One step back is home!"

  Wei Yue Xiao was so excited that he almost shed tears, and he shouted along: "One step back is home!"

  The strong men also shouted: "One step back is our home!..."

  The thunderous roar drowned out the sound of rain, wind and gurgling water, and the strong men's strength increased, quickening their pace, exhausting themselves!

  The supporting Zhang Ding finally arrived, and Li Chongde also joined the ranks of carrying stones. Teng Yu Hao and Xiao Dai Zi carried the sacks without hesitation and rushed towards the inner mouth.

  Taking a step back is the call of home getting louder and louder, declaring the heroic spirit of fighting against nature!

  The inner mouth was found to be accurate, and more and more sacks were thrown in. The turbulent river water finally lost its temper, changing from a torrential downpour to a gentle flow, and then from a gentle flow to seepage... The pipe outlet was finally blocked!

  The strong men sat down in the mud with a thud, panting heavily, and looked out at the river, where a large grain boat happened to arrive just in time.

  ……

  The Yangtze River's wave after wave of flood peaks have finally passed, and the 100-li-long dike has been preserved!

  The entire Bailu continent was plunged into a sea of revelry, with firecrackers and cheers everywhere. Wei Yuxiang and several other men were carried on sedan chairs every day, wearing big red flowers on their chests, parading through the streets to show off their achievements. Incidentally, Wei Yuxiang also had a stroke of good luck in romance, with matchmakers almost breaking down his door.

  However, Zhou Wang and others were so grief-stricken that they could not cry. The prolonged rainstorm had caused immense losses to Baili Zhou: this year's cotton harvest was beyond hope, the eastern low-lying areas of Baili Zhou were still flooded, and it was a problem even to find fodder for the large number of domesticated livestock.

  Especially Xiao Dai's pressure is even greater, the water conservancy project of Baili Zhou is organized by him, and whether some built water conservancy facilities can play a role has become his most concern. He goes out to inspect every day in the rain and mud, fortunately, the Yangtze River levee withstood the test, the drainage facilities played a role, everything is normal, all the problems lie in the fact that the accumulated water cannot be drained into the Yangtze River!

  Xiao Dai Zi sat on the big dam, gazing out at the endless waters of Ba Mian Tan, feeling utterly disheartened. Ba Mian Tan was the lowest-lying area in all of Bai Li Zhou, where all the waterways converged, turning it into a vast wetland. Although Xiao Dai Zi had excavated a massive lake here to store water, this year's torrential rains were too much for it to handle, rendering it useless.

  "When can the waterwheel be built?" Little Dai sighed and muttered to himself. The most critical water conservancy facility in the entire Baili Continent is now the drainage waterwheel. The construction of the waterwheel has been planned since last year, but there is still no sign of it yet.

  No wonder it's not easy, setting up a waterwheel on the Yangtze River is no easy task! Just designing the plan was debated for a long time, whether to use a horizontal or vertical style, and finally settled on a vertical one. Then there's the problem of how to install the waterwheel, how to transmit power... thinking about it gives Dai Zi a headache, fortunately Li Chengzong is in charge of building the waterwheel, otherwise Dai Zi thinks he would go crazy.

  Dai Zi wasn't clear about the specific details, he had only vaguely heard that the waterwheel would be mounted on two huge flat-bottomed boats, and the power transmission would use cast iron pillars! Those cast iron pillars Dai Zi had seen before, with a diameter of almost one foot, he was tongue-tied just thinking about it, how big was this waterwheel after all?

  Li Chengzong and his team had also built a waterwheel, but it was only used on the Qingjiang River to irrigate crops, and it was very small. Previously, Xiao Dazi had been skeptical of Li Chongde's giant waterwheel project, thinking that they lacked experience and were unlikely to succeed, but now he was more eager than anyone else for the waterwheel to be put into use as soon as possible!

  Regarding the construction of a giant waterwheel, there was also controversy within the Bontai business community. Some people thought that instead of building such a large waterwheel, it would be better to build several smaller ones. However, this was strongly opposed by Li Chengzong, who believed that since the Yangtze River flows slowly in Bailizhou, small waterwheels would not work at all, and only giant waterwheels with great power could quickly drain the accumulated water. This idea was questioned by many people, as the speed of rotation of large waterwheels is still very slow, what's the use of having great power? This left Li Chengzong speechless and unable to refute. The plan for the waterwheel was once stalled.

  Later, the patent procedure*, an iron worker said he had a method to convert slow rotation into fast rotation and also change the direction of rotation. Li Chengzong heard about it afterwards, was overjoyed, and immediately spent 900 taels of silver to buy out the method, and commissioned this iron worker to make the transmission system, which is why Little Dai saw that cast-iron pillar.

  Currently, the massive dragon bone waterwheel has been placed on the dam, waiting for the waterwheel frame to be erected and put into use. However, it's not easy to create a giant waterwheel and transmission system, with many problems encountered.

  After this flood and inundation, people from Baili Zhou all cast their eyes on the waterwheel under construction!

  The scene of the Yangtze River's anti-flood in 1998 is still vivid, at that time I guarded the Yangtze River embankment for more than a month, deeply shocked by the power of nature and also deeply shocked by the unity and selflessness of the ordinary people. Brothers and sisters, do you still remember the Xunzhou Bay back then? Do you still remember the survivor Jiang Shan? Jiang Shan is probably almost twenty years old now.

  The scene of looting was far more tense and shocking than what I described above. My writing skills are insufficient, please forgive me.