Chapter 23 Chapter 22 Engineering and Disaster Relief

Surrounded by Xiuzhu and facing Qingxi, he completed his task. Sometimes, though, he preferred to go to work in the mountains, ten or fifteen miles from town.He asked his entourage to bring flags and umbrellas to Qiantang Gate, and he and one or two bodyguards took a boat from Yongjinmen across the lake and went west to Pu'an Temple for dinner.Then take a few documents to the Cold Spring Pavilion.While talking and laughing, they finished the work of the day, and approved the official documents "like the wind and rain".Have a drink with your staff after finishing your work, and then ride home in the evening. People in the city line up the streets, vying to see the demeanor of celebrities.Yan Fu often went to Xiangfu Temple and took a nap in the room of his friend Abbot Wei Xian.He took off his official hat and the dignity of an official, and often undressed and lay on a bench, asking his attendants to massage his legs.The servants saw him wearing the cheapest lace around his head.

As a judge, Su Dongpo has done many wonderful things. There was a businessman who was on trial for his debts.The defendant was a young man, and Su Dongpo asked him to explain the whole story. "My family sells fans for a living," said the defendant. "Last year, my father died and left some debts. This spring it rained again and again, so no one needs to buy fans. It's not that I didn't pay the debts on purpose." Su Dongpo pondered for a while.Suddenly an idea came to mind, and my eyes lit up.He looked at the pen and ink on the table, intending to show his skills.

"Bring a bunch of fans and I'll sell them for you," he said to the man. The man went home and took twenty white silk fans.Su Dongpo used the pen on the table to write cursive script and draw dead wood, bamboo and stone.In about an hour or so, all twenty of them were painted.He showed it to the man and said, "Go out and pay the debt." That person didn't expect him to be so lucky, he quickly thanked the lord, and walked out with the fan in his arms.The news of Su Dongpo's fan painting has spread.As soon as he stepped out of the mansion, there were already crowds around him. Everyone rushed to buy a fan for 1,000 yuan, and it was sold out in a few minutes.Sorry for those who can't buy it.

A scholar who came to Beijing from the countryside to take an exam was arrested on suspicion of fraud and brought before him.This literati was carrying two large bags of luggage, and the addressee was marked as Su Shilang (Ziyou) from Zhugan Lane in the capital, with the signature Su Dongpo underneath.Obviously a fraud. "What's in the scroll?" Su Dongpo asked him. "I'm really sorry," said the scholar, "people from my hometown gave me two hundred bolts of yarn for my travel expenses. I know that these things have to be taxed all the way, and there may only be half of them left in the capital. I think the most famous in the world, the most The generous scholars are you Su brothers, and I decided to use your names forfeit. If you are caught, you will forgive me and forgive me. Please forgive me—I will never do it again.”

Su Dongpo smiled, and asked the clerk to tear off the old seal and write a new one with the same address and sender.He also wrote a short note to Ziyou, and handed it to the trembling scribe, saying: "Senior, it doesn't matter if you are caught in front of the emperor this time. Don't forget me if you pass the exam next year." The poor old bachelor was very moved and thanked him sincerely.He finally passed the exam and wrote a letter to thank the great poet when he came back.Su Dongpo was very happy and specially kept him at home to entertain him for several days. Su Dongpo also tried his best to support the state school students.These actions won him the popularity of the people.There are many things wrong with Hangzhou.The official building is too old.The barracks leaked.Armaments were in dire straits.The sky can be seen from the roof of the gate tower.These buildings are more than one hundred years old and were built in the era of King Qian. The country was in chaos in the first tenth century AD. Only the area under the jurisdiction of King Qian was peaceful and fair, and the politics was fair.They are good kings who have won the eternal gratitude of the people in the southeast. Because Song Taizu conquered the whole country and had not captured the southeast region, King Qian voluntarily handed over power to the emperor in order to seek peace and unity, so that the people would not have to shed blood in vain.The former prefects built new houses such as Zhonghe Hall and Youmei Hall, leaving behind the old houses.During Su Dongpo's time, a house collapsed, killing two people, and another building collapse killed a family of four.Su Dongpo specially wrote to the Queen Mother, requesting that 40,000 yuan be allocated to rebuild official buildings, city gates, towers, and barns, a total of 27 places.

With a population of 500,000, Hangzhou doesn't even have a single public hospital.The site is located at the mouth of the Qiantang River, and there are many tourists from land and sea, so it is easy to be infected with the plague.There are several remedies that are quite effective.During his tenure in Mizhou, Su Dongpo asked people to copy commonly used prescriptions in large characters, and posted them in the square of the city as notices to let ordinary people know.There is a prescription of medicine that he trusts quite a bit, and according to him, it only costs one penny per prescription.It includes many kinds of medicinal materials, some reduce fever, some stop perspiration, some increase appetite, and also have the effect of purifying intestines and nourishing.Chinese medicine believes that when a certain organ of the body is sick, the whole body is also sick.Therefore, medicines are given to strengthen the whole body, not to treat only one organ. "Holy Sanzi" contains 20 kinds of herbs, including galangal, magnolia officinalis, pinellia, licorice, cardamom, wood Polyporus, Bupleurum, Huoxiang and Shichangpu, etc.There is also ephedra, which has now been shown to be a powerful stimulant of gastric juice secretion.

Su Dongpo was dissatisfied with this piecemeal and unorganized rescue work. He allocated 2,000 yuan from the government fund and donated 50 taels of gold himself to build a public hospital in Zhong'anqiao, the center of the city.As far as I know, this "Anlefang" is the earliest public hospital in China.He treated a thousand patients in three years, and the Taoist priest in charge of the hospital was donated purple robes and money by the government.Later, the hospital moved to the lakeside and changed its name to "Anjifang". Su Dongpo continued to see doctors after he left.

But Su Dongpo's biggest headache was the water problem for Hangzhou residents and the silt of the canals that ran through the city.During the reign of King Qian, a sea wall was built on the shore to prevent the lake water from entering the canal, so as to prevent the water from being polluted by salt.The sea wall fell into disrepair.There are two north-south canals passing through the urban area and directly entering Qiantang Bay at the gate.The bay water is mixed with the river water and is full of silt. The river bed needs to be dredged every three to five years.There was no modern machinery at that time, and the sand dug out of the river bed was piled at the doorsteps of the people on the bank.The canal is four or five miles long.Digging rivers is not only annoying to the residents, but also expensive.To make matters worse, traffic conditions are poor and it takes days for ships to get out of the city.The boats are pulled by people and cattle, and the Yanqiao River is often in a mess.

Su Dongpo consulted experts, inspected the water level of the canal, and worked out a plan to stop the silt and clean up the entire canal area.This is his first project in Hangzhou, which started in October—three months after he took office, and was completed in April of the following year. The problem is that the canal needs seawater to navigate, and the seawater inevitably brings silt.After careful study, Su Dongpo determined that the Yanqiao River passes through the busy streets and there should be no muddy water. They could design a canal to allow seawater to flow into another Maoshan Canal, which passes through sparsely populated areas in the eastern suburbs.He built a sluice on the Qiantang River in the south, closing the seawater during high tide and opening it during low tide.The two canals meet in the north of the city, and the bay water has traveled three or four miles through the canal in the suburbs, and the sediment has long since disappeared.The Salt Bridge River had to be kept clean, and the water level was four feet lower than the other river, and the water from the canals in the suburbs partly flowed into the canals in the city, and the water was almost completely free of silt.In order to maintain the water level of the canal in the city, he dug another river outside the Yuhang Gate in the north of the city, connecting it with the West Lake.As a result, the water flowed continuously, and the cost and hassle of dredging the Yanqiao River in the city were also eliminated.

This set of systems worked, and the canal was eight feet deep. The old people in the city said that this was an unprecedented phenomenon. The issue of water supply was as important as canal traffic.He tried many measures to introduce the mountain spring of West Lake into the city.There were originally six reservoirs (big wells) distributed in various districts of the city, but the main water purification pipes were often damaged.Eighteen years ago, Su Dongpo came to the district as a general judge and assisted in repairing the main pipes, but now the West Lake is covered with aquatic plants, the grass roots are covered with silt, and the lake bed is constantly rising.The main pipe is damaged, and the citizens drink salt water, otherwise they have to spend money to buy lake water, which costs a penny per bucket.Su Dongpo asked a seventy-year-old monk who had previously supervised cadre management for advice.The main pipe is made of large bamboo tubes, which cannot be durable.Su Dongpo asked people to replace all of them with pottery tough pipes, and the upper and lower sides were protected by stone slabs.It was an expensive project, involving the construction of three hundred yards of earthen pipes from one reservoir to the other.He went a step further by channeling water from the lake into two new reservoirs in the northern suburbs to supply water for the military camps.As a military commander, he sent a thousand soldiers to work, and everything was done properly.It is said that after he completed these two reservoirs, almost every area in Hangzhou can use the clean water of West Lake. From six small reservoirs supplying water to the whole city, Su Dongpo naturally had to deal with the problem of a large reservoir—the West Lake—in the next step.In the popular imagination, Su Dongpo still has a lot to do with what the West Lake looks like today.The West Lake has given Hangzhou the reputation of "paradise on earth", and the West Lake itself is the most perfect display of human design talent.Human beings develop and construct, but they can be just right, without infringing on nature.This is nature that has been repaired, but not distorted and destroyed. There is no elaborate structure to show the hypocrisy of human beings.There is a magical small island, Liusi is reflected in Pinghu Lake, as if it was there originally, born from the water.The arch bridge of the long dike is integrated with the misty mountains above and the fishing boats below.The green and yellow willow branches sweep the half-hidden low stone embankment, and the ancient pavilions stand tall in the sky, reminiscent of poets and monks in the past.Su Dongpo said that the West Lake is to Hangzhou what bright eyes are to a beautiful woman. I doubt what the West Lake would look like if it were just a pool of water—like an eye without graceful eyebrows, like a magical bird without iridescent light to accentuate its beauty. beauty.Chinese tourists have flocked to Hangzhou in the spring for hundreds of years, where newlyweds row boats on the lake, fish or take walks along the willow-shaded lakeside avenues.The Ten Scenic Spots of Hangzhou include "Willow Waves Hearing the Orioles" on the east bank.There is also "Three Pools Reflecting the Moon" developed by Su Dongpo on a small island in the middle of the lake.Rain or shine, there is no corner of West Lake that does not make tourists breathless.Two long dikes span the lake, one is Bai Dike and the other is Su Dike, which were built by two great poets, Bai Juyi in Tang Dynasty and Su Dongpo in Song Dynasty respectively.The Bai Causeway is east-west, close to the north bank, and the Su Causeway is one and two-thirds of a mile long, on the west bank, and the vicinity is north-south.The two embankments form an inner lake on the shore respectively, and there are many arch bridges on the embankment, and boats can be rowed from the inner lake to the big lake.These two long embankments were five feet wide in Su Dongpo's time. They were planted with willow trees and surrounded by lotuses, making them the largest promenades for tourists in Hangzhou. Hangzhou's prosperity has always been closely related to water supply.The establishment of Hangzhou began in the Tang Dynasty, when a minister developed the West Lake so that the residents in the city could have clean water.It used to be just a small town. Before Su Dongpo built the West Lake, the West Lake kept shrinking and was covered with fennel.Eighteen years ago, fennel grass occupied two to three tenths of the lake.When he came back this time, he found that half of the West Lake had been covered with Fenchus. He was not only surprised, but also sad.In the era of Bai Juyi, each mu of lake water could irrigate 250 mu (15 hectares), and the lake water could irrigate 800 mu (50 hectares) every 24 hours.The fortifications made by Bai Juyi in the eighth century are now completely destroyed. Su Dongpo completed Hangzhou's canal system and six reservoirs in the city, and immediately began to renovate the West Lake.From an engineering point of view, this is a trivial matter, as long as the weeds are removed.This is an easy job, but the former prefect didn't even think of it.Before the completion of the small reservoir, Su Dongpo wrote to the Queen Mother in April of the fifth year of Yuanyou (1090), outlining various reasons for dredging the West Lake.In May, he wrote another letter to the provinces of Menxia, ​​Shangshu and Zhongshu.He said that if there is no way, the entire West Lake will be blocked in 20 years, and Hangzhou people will have no clean water to use.Su Dongpo listed five reasons not to sit idly by.Strange to say, the first point is actually a Buddhist saying, fearing that the fish will suffer.The other points are clean water supply, rice field irrigation, canal water, and finally a good water source for wine making, which is related to the government's annual income.He suggested clearing the weed-covered area of ​​25,000 square feet, which is ten square miles (approximately one mile).This project requires 200,000 days of manpower, and it is calculated by manually clearing about one foot in one day.Each person's daily salary is 55 qian (100 qian is equal to one dime of the US dollar) plus three liters of rice.The whole plan requires 34,000 guan, and he has already raised half of it, hoping that the mother will give him another 17,000 guan. After the request was approved, Su Dongpo began to recruit thousands of workers and boatmen to start the construction of the lake.It was done in four months.Locating the dug up weeds and soil again became a big problem.Su Dongpo had an idea and decided to use it to build a long embankment.The houses on the shore of the lake are dense, and there are many villas of rich families standing on the shore.Those who walk from the south bank to the north bank must walk around two miles of shore.The long embankment is a straight line, shortening the distance virtually, and turning it into a beautiful place for strolling.There are six arch bridges and nine pavilions on it.During Su Dongpo's lifetime, the people set up one of the pavilions as his living shrine, hung his portrait, and often worshiped him to commemorate his achievements.The treacherous minister Huiqing once again gained power and ordered the destruction of the memorial hall. How to make the West Lake never grow fen grass is also a big problem.Su Dongpo came up with a clever plan to reclaim the surface of the lake and plant water chestnuts for farmers, who would be responsible for weeding regularly.He asked Zhongshu Sheng to use the annual income as the maintenance cost of the long embankment and the West Lake. Perhaps intentionally or unintentionally, Su Dongpo not only increased the actual benefits of the West Lake, but also beautified the West Lake.However, this project was attacked by political opponents in the future, saying that he "tortured the soldiers defending the river, built a long embankment in the lake, and watched with events." Su Dongpo also tried out several larger plans - the development of the Jiangsu canal system; the implementation of the tugboat barge design outside Suzhou City - and the future development of the West Lake in Fuyang, which is similar to the West Lake in Hangzhou.Some of the plans didn't materialize, but detailed plans and maps proved he had an engineering brain. We have to talk about a great engineering design, which he was called back to Beijing and never had a chance to finish.Detailed plans still exist today.There is a small island at the entrance of the Qiantang River to Hangzhou Bay, which causes many shipwrecks and drowns many tourists every year.The wide and swift Qiantang River encounters seawater flowing in at the mouth of the bay, blocking the way for the small island, so it turns into a dangerous whirlpool and travels backwards. The "Fushan" island got its name because the sandbars on all sides appear and disappear, and the sailors don't know which channel to take. Some dunes are a mile or two long; sometimes they are said to disappear overnight.This is the most feared area for passengers sailing to Hangzhou.Those who come along the east coast of Zhejiang prefer to cross the bay at Longshan, but those who come along the Qiantang River from the southwest have to take risks.We often see drowning adults and children crying for help, but before they stop crying, they are swallowed by the waves.However Hangzhou is very important.The people in the barren areas of the Southwest depend on rice grains from the lake area north of Hangzhou, and the citizens of Hangzhou also need fuel from the Southwest.Salt is produced in Hangzhou Bay and transported to the southwest region.Although dangerous, the traffic flow was still high, and since the shipping line had to pay a lot of risk rewards, the freight rate was greatly increased.The intangible loss of the country is "tens of millions every year". Su Tungpo, assisted by a person familiar with the Qiantang basin, set out to solve this problem.The new plan is a way for Hangzhou shipping to pass through the Dangerous Downstream (Shimen).Su Dongpo asked someone to study the blueprint, which cost 150,000 guan and required 3,000 employees, and took two years to complete.The plan was to divert the Qiantang River into a new eight-mile-long road, with water deep enough to navigate, to build a stone embankment two and three-quarter miles (more than twenty-two miles) long, and to dig a sixty-five-foot cave.Unfortunately, as soon as the plan was made, he was leaving Hangzhou. At the same time he was preoccupied with another, more pressing problem, the threat of famine.The harvest was not good the year he took office.The price of rice rose from 60 qian per bucket in July to 95 qian in November.Fortunately, there was still food in Changping warehouse, so he raised 200,000 shi.He sold 180,000 shi of rice and finally lowered the price of rice.In the fifth year of Yuanyou (1090), the price of rice fell to seventy-five yuan per bucket in January.It was rainy that spring, but it looked promising.The farmer borrowed money to prepare the land, hoping for a bumper harvest in autumn.In May and June, heavy rain fell on Hangzhou and most of the lake area.The flood rushed into Huzhou, and the water depth of residents' homes was one foot.The hopes of the farmers were dashed, and anyone with any common sense could see that they were threatened with famine when their stocks were exhausted.Su Dongpo sent people to investigate the situation in Suzhou and Changzhou, and learned that the entire area was covered with ocean.The dam was damaged and many rice fields were flooded.Farmers take boats to salvage belongings.The wet rice they salvage can also be fried and dried, and the rice stalks are used to feed cattle.The government has to find a way and act quickly. Su Dongpo planned ahead, and anyone could predict the future disaster.He has always believed in the Changping method, and he does not want to wait for the famine to come to the rescue. He keeps fighting for more Changping official rice in order to fight against future famines. The heavy rain continues, and he fights even harder.Beginning in July, within half a year he sent seven petitions to the Queen Mother and the imperial court, citing the actual situation and demanding that the higher authorities take action.The first two memorials are called "The First and Second Symposium of Disaster and Injury in West Zhejiang", the last five are called "Xiangdu Prepared Relief Letter", and the seven letters constitute an excited and impatient cry for help.He kept yelling, and everyone in the court was annoyed.His quick temper is not in line with Chinese style.Many envoys were there, but they didn't say a word.What is Su Dongpo shouting about?What's so strange about a little more rainfall?He is digging his own political grave. But he believes prevention is better than cure.Preparing to stockpile grain—whether it is purchased locally or shipped from other places—sell it when rice grains are about to run out, driving down grain prices can prevent starvation.Giving food to the sick and vulnerable has always been wasteful, ineffective, and only scratches the surface of difficulties; prevention is useful.Clear-headed, prescient people are always impatient.In the eighth year of Xining (1075), everyone tried to do nothing and just sat and watched the famine come.At that time, Shenzong had no choice but to allocate 1.25 million shi of rice and grain to Beijing and set up soup kitchens to serve the rice, but 500,000 people still died.In addition to the misfortune of the people, the government lost a total of 3.2 million crowns in disaster relief funds, tax relief and various annual revenues.Su Dongpo pointed out that by comparison, he used only one-sixth of the rice grain last year to stabilize prices and delay the disaster.Now the second famine seems to be worse than the first, like a sick person relapsed.The people's food reserves are dwindling day by day, and the government must take immediate action. Strangely, everyone was indifferent except Su Dongpo, who was angrily reading the official newspaper of the court.Many tax collectors in Zhejiang and neighboring provinces mentioned only that the spring looked promising for a bumper crop—no one mentioned the recent torrential rains and floods.Su Dongpo asked the court to allow him to buy rice with the money for building official houses, because famine was the most important thing.Six months ago, he asked for 50,000 guan to buy rice, and the Hangzhou area was divided into one third.The government paid the money, but the neighbor, a tax collector named Ye Wensou, took away Su Dongpo's quota. Once the money came, everyone wanted to get it, but now no one is willing to report the disaster.Su Dongpo said in a note to the Empress Dowager: "Every time the ministers close to the residence report, the supervisors of the roads mostly report that the rain is evenly distributed and the seedlings and crops are luxuriant in March and April. When they starved and died in exile, they then reported the news. This is the normal state of the department, and it is also a common problem in ancient and modern times." He asked the court to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the affected areas.If he is too worried, if other officials disagree with him, ask them to sign a report to ensure that the winter famine will not come and the people will not go hungry.There is a censor named Ma Yan.Su Dongpo repeatedly wrote letters to discuss with him, because the plan required the cooperation of all districts.But Ma Yu wrote back saying that he had other things to do and would not be able to return to Hangzhou until winter.Su Dongpo also wrote to his good friend Qian Xie, an official in eastern Zhejiang, saying: "Although the son's meritorious service arrives overnight, it takes a lot of work to get together for discussion. This is to persuade him, don't just say it." In the report in July, Su Dongpo only asked for 200,000 shi of rice.The plan is simple.Hangzhou is a rice-producing area, and 1.25 million to 1.5 million shi of rice grain is sent to Beijing every year.Hangzhou is still very rich and can afford that figure.As long as it is allowed to leave part of the rice grain, Hangzhou can accept silk silver taels of the same value instead.He only hoped that the imperial court would allow them to keep a part of the imperial grain and transfer it to the granaries in various places. On July 21st, 22nd and 23rd there was another burst of heavy rain.On the 24th, the rain stopped for a while, and it fell again at night.Su Dongpo couldn't sleep, so he wrote "The Second Symptom of Disaster and Injury in Western Zhejiang" the next morning.Flooding in the Lake District is getting worse.Can the Queen Mother pay attention to his first appearance immediately?The official postal system is not bad.It only takes 20 days from Hangzhou to Beijing.On August 4, the Empress Dowager received Su Dongpo's first complaint and took immediate action.As usual, the memorial was sent from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Household Affairs, requiring a report within 14 days.Twenty days later—August 25—the letter reached Su Tungpo.According to the official communication, the first appeal for immediate action has been deleted.He immediately wrote back to the Ministry of Household Affairs to request a joint investigation, and asked those who believed there would be no famine to sign guarantee documents. It rained continuously in mid-August.The situation is more critical.On September 7, Su Dongpo raised the rice allocation requirement from 200,000 to 500,000 dan.He is deeply afraid that the famine will really come, and the government will spend ten or twenty times the amount. Maybe not all the hungry people will be saved.Her Majesty approved it.But the bureaucracy always has a way to hinder the edict.There is still some cash in Su Dongpo's treasury, but the problem is not to find cash, but to find rice.Merchants hoarded grain, waiting for a price increase.The price of rice in Suzhou has risen to ninety-five yuan per bucket.Su Dongpo wanted to buy rice but could not get much.He bought three thousand stones and four thousand stones here and there, that's all.Neighboring district officials are reluctant to buy rice for storage because it is too expensive.Su Dongpo believed that the government should intervene in the market, pay the amount demanded by the merchants, and prepare to sell at a loss. Time is running out because the rice harvest will be sold out within weeks.Miserable everywhere, even in neighboring districts.In mid-September, Su Dongpo wrote another letter, asking the government to order officials to buy rice from Henan and Anhui, store it in Yangzhou, and prepare to distribute it to the lake area after the disaster.His plan is that the rice grain is on the way, and if it is not needed, it can be sent to the capital at any time.Hangzhou can replace the annual tribute rice with equivalent money and goods.His request was granted again, and the Queen Mother allocated one million pennies to realize the plan.In the postscript to the third letter, he said: "This year's disaster injury is actually twice that of last year. But the officials are not happy to prosecute and release it. Just like Jiaxing County, Xiuzhou, recently, due to the lawsuit of disaster injury complaint More than forty people died. Most of the officials in the office agree with this. But in this place, the number of people killed by trampling is so obvious.” If the Empress Dowager relied on the reports of the officials, she would never know the truth.He reminded the queen mother that half a million people starved to death in the previous dynasty because they had money but no rice. "If there is no shortage of food in the coming year, there is no need to divide it like this, then the minister will not be guilty of being an emperor, and dare not speak. Even if he is punished, he will eventually be unprepared for disaster, and sit back and watch people die without being able to save them." .” The result of the million-dollar appropriation is as follows: the money is there, but the rice is not bought.He was also deprived of half a million shibami.Su Dongpo settled accounts with the government.Su Dongpo insisted that the 200,000 dan obtained in the fourth year of Yuanyou (1089) could not be counted in the fifth year of Yuanyou (1090), not to mention that there were 160,000 dan in the granary when he wrote the letter.It is one thing to agree to the edict, and quite another to actually get it after a lot of bureaucratic obstacles.In his long battle against the bureaucracy, he once wrote to his friend Kong Pingzhong, saying: "Who will help me a little." Su Dongpo planned to start selling official grain that winter.Unsurprisingly, prices skyrocketed.When winter came, he began to sell the grain stored in the official warehouse.However, in the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), he was called to leave Hangzhou, and returned to the capital to serve as a Hanlin bachelor.He left Hangzhou before finishing his work, and wrote to his successor Lin Taishou, asking him to contact all the envoys to make a decision.He told Taishou Lin that last month he had asked to keep the 500,000 shi tribute rice from the court, and Taishou Lin should continue to keep it for now.He could use the excuse of waiting for the reply of Su Dongpo's last memorial and hand over the gongmi late, and there would be no problem.If the rice is not needed, it will not be too late to send it in June. On the way back to Beijing, he took the opportunity to visit Suzhou and the nearby disaster areas, and tried to negotiate with the provincial officials.He saw that the whole area was still buried in the ocean because the flood had not receded.It was spring, and the farmers hoped that the flood would recede early so that they could catch up with the spring plowing.The farmland in the lowlands seemed hopeless, but he saw the old and weak women and children on the highlands draining water day and night, desperately fighting against the weather.It rained incessantly, and as soon as the water drained, it filled up again.Famine has occurred.The people began to eat pig food such as rice bran and wheat bran, with celery and other vegetables added.Due to the lack of dry firewood, everyone ate cold meals, and many people died of stomach distension. "It's not a rumor, it's not a rumor. Between spring and summer, there will be epidemics and epidemics." Su Dongpo left.When the famine came, many people starved to death.Unexpectedly, when Su Dongpo returned to the capital, he was accused of being "untrue about the disasters and injuries in western Zhejiang".Saving people from starvation has become a good topic for politicians to overthrow those they fear.As far as the court is concerned, there is no famine in the capital.Half the people in the Lake District are still alive.That year Su Dongpo returned to Yingzhou, near the capital, and saw the results of the disaster north of the Yangtze River. The victims abandoned their homes due to hunger and traveled 500 miles to his jurisdiction.However, in the sixth year of Yuanyou (1091), the harvest was not good, and the consequences were even more serious.The next year it turned into a catastrophe.