Chapter 8: One Hand Saves, One Hand Kills

  The Americans landed in the Philippines, and the Taiwanese won two American cruisers. Both sides were overjoyed, but the Spanish were left empty-handed. Not only was their fleet sunk by the Americans in the harbor, but Manila City was also on the verge of collapse. This old colonial power never got back on its feet again and became a third-rate country in Europe.

  After receiving the confidential report from the Ministry of Internal Affairs about "Operation Little Lobster", Liu Yi hid in his office and secretly rejoiced for half a day. The report mentioned that the US Army and Navy were besieging Manila, and Liu Yi couldn't help but wonder if he should go and stir up more trouble for the Americans again. After thinking about it for an afternoon, Liu Yi decided not to make another move, fearing that if the Americans saw through his plan, it would be difficult to wrap things up, and Taiwan would have to bear too much pressure if the old accounts of three consecutive ambushes on Japanese fleets were brought out together.

  Just suppressed the impulse in my heart, a bad news came. According to the report received by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, some areas in Changhua County, Taichung have been flooded, and many villages have been submerged, the specific scale has not been counted yet.

  After reading the report, Liu felt a severe headache. Just as external pressure had eased slightly, internal problems arose again. It was really troublesome. However, despite the headache, what needed to be handled still required attention and prompt action. Taichung is an important sugar cane and hemp production area in Taiwan, with many sugar factories built there. If disaster relief efforts were not timely, crop yields would plummet, severely impacting local development as well as Taiwan's overall progress.

  Liu Wei still understood a little, relying on the local government was not possible, relying on national support, it was too late, the fastest and most effective way was to mobilize the military. So Liu Wei issued his first presidential order since taking office: dispatching troops stationed near Changhua to rush to the disaster area for the first round of rescue and relief efforts, and controlling the spread of the disaster. Then, he ordered Changhua County to quickly investigate the affected areas and losses, cooperate with the military to do a good job in epidemic prevention and resettlement of affected residents, and report the specific numbers to the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and then decide on post-disaster reconstruction matters.

  As soon as the presidential order was issued, it immediately received support from all walks of life in Taiwanese society. In the past, during the Qing dynasty, after a disaster, homeless victims could only move to nearby towns on their own. Starving to death or dying from illness was normal. Those who were lucky enough to run to the outskirts of cities might not be able to enter the city and could only wait outside for wealthy households to offer porridge or government warehouses to distribute grain. Even after receiving relief food, they couldn't wait until the next harvest season and had to sell their children, wives, or themselves. What's even more frightening is the epidemic that occurs after a disaster. Due to Taiwan's warm and humid weather, if human and animal corpses are not handled in time, they will contaminate water sources, leading to various scales of epidemics.

  Although the new government has also implemented some measures that have been opposed by people, such as cooperatives and bank loans, those policies are only opposed by a small number of wealthy landlords, while the vast majority of poor people and lower classes are willing to accept them. This time, the president announced the deployment of troops for disaster relief, provided temporary housing for disaster victims, and uniformly distributed relief grain, which is really much stronger than the Qing Dynasty.

  After arranging the disaster relief work, Liu immediately found Xu Zengliang, the Minister of Internal Affairs. This 21-year-old Xu Zengliang was the oldest and had the best academic performance among the former "Assault Team" members. Due to his strong coordination and management skills shown in multiple purges and elimination actions, Liu appointed him as the Minister of Internal Affairs, responsible for domestic and foreign intelligence, security, and other work.

  Liu Mo gave Xu Zengliang another not-too-difficult task, which was to secretly dispatch a working group from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, infiltrate various disaster relief links, check if anyone had made a fortune in this disaster relief and reconstruction work, sort out materials, and report directly to the President.

  This time, the disaster-stricken area is the southeastern part of Ershui in Changhua County. This place is a must-pass for the Changhua Plain to enter the Central Mountain Range. The entire area is very narrow and is sandwiched between Bagua Mountain and Zhuoshui Creek. Zhuoshui Creek originates from high mountain areas, with a large drop in its upper reaches, resulting in rapid and abundant water flow. During the summer rainy season, the creek's sand content is very high, causing severe siltation in the middle and lower reaches of the river, leading to frequent changes in the river course.

  This year, the mountainous area has been experiencing continuous heavy rainfall, causing the river to surge and change its course northward again, bursting through the original embankment and inundating dozens of nearby villages, with over 3,000 people affected.

  Thanks to the swift action of the troops and the timely follow-up measures, apart from over 300 people who drowned in the flood, the displaced victims did not continue to suffer but were accommodated in temporary shelters set up in Nantou, Yuanlin and other places.

  The victims were concentrated and managed by the army, with food, medicine, drinking water and other necessities being distributed on time. Until the floodwaters gradually receded, there was no large-scale epidemic or chaos. The victims who had been away from home for more than two months returned to their hometowns with the help of the military, where they received food and seeds from temporary relief centers set up locally, and were encouraged to borrow interest-free loans from banks to get through the most difficult period after the disaster.

  From June when the disaster occurred to August when the floodwaters receded and the victims returned home, in more than two months, the army, local governments, voluntary relief personnel and inspection teams from various government departments went from fighting alone to actively coordinating with each other, not only completing the task of disaster relief and epidemic prevention but also summarizing many experiences and lessons.

  Everything has two sides. When all of Taiwan's military and civilians were focusing on the achievements in disaster relief, a secret report was placed on Liu Ye's desk. The report was submitted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and its content revealed several abnormal situations that occurred during this disaster relief effort. Those involved included officials and soldiers from the military department, local government employees, and several local landlords. The highest-ranking individual implicated was a logistics officer from an army regimental headquarters, who colluded with local government officials and landlords to embezzle food supplies meant for disaster victims, replacing them with inferior goods before distributing them to the affected population. There were also instances of people taking advantage of the situation to spread rumors and slander the government, as well as gathering disaster victims to loot relief materials, but these were discovered in a timely manner, resulting in minimal losses.

  Liu Ye had long expected this result, so he was not surprised. As long as there are people, there will be such things. As for how to deal with it, Liu Ye thought about it for half a day and finally decided that instead of secretly executing them, it's better to publicly shoot them. Although most of these criminals were government personnel, making it public would have some impact on the government's reputation, but who can avoid mistakes? Being able to correct them in time would offset the negative impact with positive significance.

  On August 20, at the meeting to report on disaster relief efforts in Changhua County, 21 people who had committed various crimes against the state and its people during the disaster were publicly sentenced and executed on the spot. All their ill-gotten gains were confiscated, some of those involved in less serious cases were sent to work in mines for reform, others received education, and were removed from public office. With this, the 1898 flood was brought to a close.

  Although the flood has passed, post-disaster reconstruction is underway, but the issue of Taiwan's water conservancy facilities being insufficient due to this flood has been put on Liu's desk again. Due to Taiwan's terrain, most plains are located around the island, while the central part of the island is a mountain range from south to north, plus Taiwan's abundant rainfall, floods of varying scales occur every summer.

  However, Taiwan's water conservancy facilities are backward, and there is not a single perfect reservoir. The dams in the mountains have also been neglected for many years. In order to fundamentally prevent large-scale water disasters from happening again, Liu Xiang also transferred more than 100 people from the central and local governments to form the Taiwan Water Conservancy Department. And planned to build reservoirs on several major rivers in the Central Mountain Range in the next few years.

  Although the scale of this flood and disaster relief is not very large, the new government has made outstanding performances in both caring for people's livelihoods and fighting corruption, which has won a lot of applause for the newly sworn-in government and the new president himself. The questioning voices within Taiwan towards the government have gradually disappeared, and with the previous negotiations with countries such as the UK and France without any actions that humiliate or betray the country, the reputation of Taiwan's new government has been further enhanced.