The swansong of the swansong

Chapter 121 The Fourth Brother Fell into the Water

On the boat back to Beijing, the fourth brother glanced at Lin Qianqian who was serving behind Yinyou, and his heart, which had been hanging in the air, finally settled down.

If the most powerful prince of this dynasty is impeccable, the fourth prince himself doesn't know how long he can trust Yinyou?
Now, even Kangxi knew about Yinyou’s notoriety of forcibly seizing Lin’s daughter-in-law, so the fourth prince felt relieved.

In the Qing Dynasty, the more perfect a person's personality was, the more likely he would be implicated in Wang Mang.

Once the reckless man's doubts took root in the fourth brother's heart, their ironclad relationship, as close as that of brothers, would sooner or later face a break.

However, just as the fourth brother and Yinyu arrived in Xuzhou Prefecture, they received an order from Kangxi that the Yellow River had flooded and washed away the dikes in more than a dozen counties, so the fourth brother and Yinyu were ordered to go to Henan to take charge of disaster relief matters.

During the Kangxi period, if we talk about experience in disaster relief, the fourth brother ranks second. Who dares to rank first?

The two brothers immediately turned west and rushed to Guide Prefecture, where the Yellow River was most likely to breach.

Guide Prefecture is now Shangqiu City. After the Yellow River flows through this place, the riverbed is generally more than ten feet higher than the levee.

Whenever there is a flood, the Yellow River breaks its banks ten times, and nine times out of ten, it breaks in Guide Prefecture.

The earthen embankments of this era would inevitably be prone to pipe bursts after being soaked in floods for a long time.

If pipe bursts are not blocked in a timely and scientific manner, they will inevitably lead to levee breaches.

After the government ship sailed into the Yellow River flood area, the turbulent water was littered with drowned corpses, which was a horrific sight.

Yinyu noticed that something was wrong with the water, so he suggested to the fourth brother: "Fourth brother, the waves are too big, and our boat is flat-bottomed. Why don't we retreat to Yucheng for the time being and wait until the water level subsides before entering the disaster area? How about that?"

The fourth brother waved his hand and said, "If disaster relief is not timely, the victims will surely revolt. Once the revolt gets serious, the Qing Dynasty will be shaken!"

Alas, Lao Si is a stubborn person. The more difficult the task is, the less afraid he is!

When camping at night, Yinyou was more cautious and ordered the four accompanying guard boats and the imperial envoy's official boat to dock together.

Moreover, at Yinyou's suggestion, the fourth brother and he gave up the imperial envoy's official ship and slept together on the guards' ship.

However, Yinyou was overthinking, and nothing happened that night.

At breakfast, the fourth brother and Yinyou each had two steamed buns, plus tea to fill their stomachs.

The fourth brother took a bite of the sour steamed bun and sighed, "If the people in the disaster area can eat this, they won't starve to death."

To be honest, Yinyu really couldn't get used to the steamed buns that had changed their taste. However, after entering the disaster area, the supply of materials was completely cut off.

Along the way, all edible things were eaten up.

Even if the steamed buns are sour, they can still fill your stomach, right?
Yinyou closed his eyes and ate without thinking, quickly swallowing the two sour buns.

The fourth brother nodded secretly. The fifteenth brother, who was born into a wealthy family, could also endure a lot of hardships!

However, Lin Qianqian, who had always lived a life of luxury, was not able to cope with it. She ate a bite of sour steamed bun and spat it out, which was simply like wasting food.

In the disaster area, food is everything and much more precious than gold.

Yinyu could no longer bear it and shouted, "If you really can't eat, just starve to death!"

In the past few days, Lin Qianqian has thrown away at least five steamed buns, and the fourth brother has long been fed up with it.

It was only because of Yinyou's face that the fourth brother resisted the urge to lose his temper.

Seeing Lin Qianqian eating her steamed bun obediently with tears in her eyes, Lao Si felt a little relieved and decided to go out of the cabin to see the water situation.

According to past experience, if the water level along the way begins to drop, it means that the peak of the flood has passed.

However, after the bamboo pole was inserted into the bottom of the boat, after careful measurement, the water level was still more than three meters.

The fourth brother leaned on the side of the boat with one hand and sighed, "It will take another half a month for the water to recede."

The fourth brother was an expert in flood relief, so Yinyou didn't say anything irresponsible to avoid interfering with the fourth brother's judgment.

Everything was fine at first, but the official ship unexpectedly hit the bottom and the entire ship shook violently.

My goodness! The fourth brother was caught off guard and fell headfirst into the water.

By the time Yinyou and the others reacted, the fourth brother was already struggling desperately in the water, floating up and down.

According to modern knowledge, after falling into the water, as long as you lie on your back and don't struggle, you will not drown for the time being.

The fourth brother was a typical landlubber, and the guards who went to the south of the Yangtze River with him were also landlubbers.

The boatman was an excellent swimmer, but he hesitated and did not dare to jump into the water to save the man.

It happened so fast that Yinyu suddenly had an idea in his mind and shouted, "I'll go save my fourth brother, the boatman will also come down to save people, and the rest of you can stretch out your poles and throw ropes..."

The more critical the situation, the more it tests your first reaction.

After Yinwei jumped into the water, he paddled his arms and swam hard towards the fourth brother who fell into the water.

Seeing Yinyu jump into the water, Su Peisheng's eyes turned sharply, and he also shouted: "Master, I am here to save you!"

However, Su Peisheng couldn't swim at all, and when he jumped into the water, he just caused trouble for everyone.

The water was very deep. After Yinwei swam to the side of the fourth brother, he did not save him immediately. Instead, he paddled and kicked his legs, waiting for the fourth brother to exhaust his strength.

Anyone who has rescued someone from the water knows that once a drowning person is in desperate situation, they will not let go of anything they grab.

At this time, the boatman, who was familiar with water, was forced to jump into the water by the guards with knives.

The boatman was surprised to see that Yinyu did not rush to rescue him. How could the Fifteenth Master be so familiar with the water when he was riding a northern horse and a southern boat? When the Fourth Master was exhausted from struggling, Yinyu took the initiative to attack, stretched out his arm, and strangled the Fourth Master's neck from behind.

The benefits of doing this are extremely obvious. Even if the fourth brother wanted to hug Yinyou, it would be impossible.

At this time, the guards on the boat also reacted and stretched out long poles and threw out ropes.

Yinyou dragged the fourth child, who had drunk enough water, to the side of the boat, and the guards hurriedly dragged the fourth child onto the boat.

When he was about to get on the boat, Yinyou discovered that Su Peisheng, who was not good at swimming, had also drunk enough water and was sinking to the bottom of the water.

Yinyu immediately ordered the boatman: "Go and rescue him."

After Yinyou climbed onto the boat, everyone, with the help of the boatman, dragged Su Peisheng onto the boat as well.

After Yinyou got on the boat, he ordered people to bring a long bench and asked the fourth child, whose belly was bloated, to lie on the bench and vomit water.

After a long struggle, the fourth brother finally recovered. He panted and said, "If it weren't for my fifteenth brother who risked his life to save me, I would have died!"

Even though the fourth brother fell into the water, Yinwei was the first to jump in to save him. He knew it clearly!

Especially at times like this, we should not take credit for ourselves!
Yinyu said very modestly: "Fourth brother, without the help of the boatman, I am afraid I can't take you on the boat alone!"

"I understand everything!" The fourth brother rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, and raised his finger to point to his heart.

Now, no matter what the fourth brother says, it is redundant.

The silence speaks!
it is more than words!
After this fatal episode, Yinyu refused to let the fourth son get close to the side of the ship anymore.

The fourth brother sighed heavily and complained, "If Prince Yu doesn't allow it, what can I do?"

No matter how much he complained, the fourth brother was still controlled by Yinyou and dared not go near the water again.

After arriving in Guide Prefecture, the fourth brother was in charge of disaster relief and he was completely familiar with the task.

Seeing that the fourth brother was doing his job extremely skillfully, Yinyou just shut his mouth and let the fourth brother make the arrangements.

This person cannot be like Yang Xiu, who knows everything and always has a say in everything!

"Fifteenth brother, you own a grain shop. You want to make some money from the national crisis, so you raised the price five times." After the fourth brother said this, Yinyou understood that this was an order to send troops to establish authority.

Yinyu gave the order without hesitation: "Hai Cha, take your men and raid the grain store that Fourth Brother mentioned, and bring the eldest master here. I want to see how much grain he has hidden."

"Hey!" Haicha walked away extremely excitedly.

As we all know, those who dare to raise food prices in disaster areas without authorization have close ties with the local bullies.

However, Yinyou expressed the fourth brother's thoughts: severe punishments must be used in troubled times!
If you are afraid of offending people, then what's the point of providing disaster relief?

After a large amount of grain was delivered from Xuzhou, the fourth brother issued an order: "The porridge must not fall over when a chopstick is inserted into it! If the chopstick falls over, your head will fall off!"

Yinyou sent Haicha and the others out to supervise the cooking of the porridge pot. As long as the chopsticks fell over, their heads would be seen!
It would be impossible to handle disaster relief on such a large scale by just relying on the fourth brother and Yinyou to go out and check on the streets.

Under the personal command of Kangxi, grain from Henan, Jiangsu and Anhui was continuously delivered to Guide Prefecture, and the problem of everyone having to drink dry porridge was finally solved.

The fourth brother breathed a sigh of relief and said, "As long as we have food in our hands, we won't be panicked, and the disaster victims won't become refugees!"

In the Qing Dynasty, from Kangxi to the fourth emperor, and then to local government officials, the word "refugee" was absolutely taboo.

Because the former Ming Dynasty was destroyed by refugees from the northwest!
The slogan "The King of Rebellion has come and we won't pay taxes" was too easy to mislead people and must be taken seriously by the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

After the disaster relief affairs were basically completed, Kangxi issued an edict, ordering the fourth son and Yinyou to go to Yangzhou to welcome him.

Yinyou knew that this was Kangxi's sixth and final southern tour.

When the fourth prince and Yinyou arrived in Yangzhou, Kangxi had not arrived yet.

In the evening, after playing a few games of chess with Yinyu, the fourth brother pushed the chessboard aside and stood up, saying, "I'll stay at the other end tonight, a little further away from you!"

Yinyou secretly found it funny. Hehe, Lin Qianqian's singing was melodious and undulating. The fourth brother didn't have any woman by his side, so naturally he couldn't stand it!

Since he couldn't afford to offend him, he just stayed away from him and went to the other end of the headquarters.

Hearing that Yinyou had also come to Yangzhou, Cao Yin ran over and handed in his letter to ask for a meeting.

Considering the special relationship between Cao Yin and Kangxi, Yinyou met him in the West Flower Hall.

The fourth brother had no good feelings towards Cao Yin at all and simply avoided him.

After meeting Yinyu, Cao Yin whispered: "To be honest with you, Master Fifteen, I am here to ask for help..."

Yinyou listened carefully and realized that even though Cao Yin was in charge of the Lianghuai salt administration, there was still a huge deficit.

To be honest, Cao Yin has no business talent at all. Even if he were asked to manage tobacco, he would definitely be at a disadvantage if he didn't even know his own father.

"Okay, I will speak for you with Fourth Brother. But you will have to make up for your shortfall sooner or later!"

After the fourth brother ascended the throne, the thirteenth brother helped to speak in good behalf of him, and the fourth brother originally had no intention of doing anything to the Cao family.

Later, they found evidence that Cao Yin and Li Xu had given money and beautiful women to the Eighth Brother, which angered the Fourth Brother.

PS: The second update is here, and the third update will be the official version. Please give me your monthly votes.

(End of this chapter)