46 Flood

Warm light penetrated through the paper pane windows and lit up the dark room. With her back towards the windows, the figure leaned her head on one arm while flipping through the book in front of her with the other. The season is turning autumn and yet the afternoons are still pretty hot. A young maid stood beside the woman with a tub of ice in front of he, she picked up the fan and gently fanned the cold air towards her lady.

Mingxia gently flipped through the pages of her book. A tall stack of books sat to her left and a few more were scattered across the table.

A few weeks have passed since she returned from India. In these few weeks, Mingxia had read through almost all the books in her father's study. Although she had the knowledge about the future she needed knowledge of the past events to broaden her decisions. The most interesting fact was the amount of droughts over the course of just a decade. Mingxia's hand stopped as her eyes scanned the page in front of her. The regions closest to the Gobi desert are more prone to droughts so the former emperor ordered for multiple wells to be built throughout the region. However in the last couple of years there have been a spontaneous occurrence of drought and floods throughout all parts of the region. As a result the harvest have been greatly impacted. It just so happens that this years' drought is not as serious so the harvest is much better but the Emperor worries about the next year and the years after. This is why he would give this task to the first prince as a test, a test to see if he is fit for the title of crown prince. In the next couple of days the emperor would ask his advisors for any ideas then he would announce that the first prince would be given this task.

In her past life, the first prince would propose a plan of building long aqueducts that connected the river civilizations to the areas with no easy access to water. The beginning of this plan was very successful and the public hailed him as a hero, however he made a grave mistake. Building these large scale aqueducts requires a lot of money and resources. To cut back on the cost, the prince switched out some of the materials for cheaper ones. He believed that switching the materials for the smaller parts would not affect the overall performance of the aqueduct but things didn't go well for him. His change to the original design caused for its collapse and killed hundreds of peasants.

Mingxia let out a small sigh and gently hit her head with her hand. She understands that this is the opportunity that Zong Ching has been waiting for, it's the turning point for his story and she needs to stop it. There's a problem though, she forgot the most important plan that Zong Ching came up with, of everything to forget she forgot this.

With a tired sigh she closed the book in front of her and slumped down in her chair.

'What to do now?'

_____________________________________

At the same time, an urgent message reached the Emperor's ears.

"Your Majesty, th-there has been a major flood and it has wrecked the houses and all infrastructure on the bay. With nowhere to go, the survivors are all living under shabby misfit shelters."

"Your Majesty, please pass orders to send food, water and supplies."

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Two messengers, kneeled before the Emperor, brought the news to the court. Mingxia's father and the other officials were all shocked to hear this news. A higher up official stepped forwards and bowed to the Emperor.

"Your Majesty, please pass orders to send the supplies to these people." He said and the other officials followed suit.

The Emperor nodded his head and stood up.

"Quick send all necessary supplies over to them. Dispatch parts of the army to make sure that these supplies reach those in need!"

With that, the entire Imperial City became busy. Batches after batches of soldiers ran through the streets with crates after crates of clothing, food, water and such. Houses for nobles and officials all made sufficient donations to those in need.

In Viscount Wei's home, word arrived fast so the entire house was bustling. Mingxia watched the commotion from the study room window and immediately turned around. She sat back down on the table and picked up her brush.