Chapter 1597, calling the wind and calling the rain
Because there was so much monster meat, and the number of people who gathered to eat the meat covered the whole city, plus the people who were rescued from outside, the monster meat feast lasted for three days, and all the monster meat was just eaten.
.
It should be said that at the beginning, many people were still somewhat resistant to eating this monster meat.
After all, the monster looks very scary.
Just that mosquito head is enough to make many people vomit.
But when they took the first bite of the broth, they realized that the broth was extremely delicious. The meat pieces inside melted in the mouth, and turned into a stream of heat after being eaten, which made the whole person feel energetic inexplicably.
Becoming stronger.
It was precisely because of the two major events of driving away the plague and eating meat that some families in the county began to set up longevity tablets for Fang Xiaoyue and burn incense and candles day and night to worship him.
Fang Xiaoyue can see this.
Because there are three branch tasks hanging on the property panel.
Among them, the longevity tablet task requires 100 households to worship the longevity tablet, and now 31 households have worshiped it.
When it comes to saying that the kindness of saving a life should be repaid with a spring of water, I think it's wrong.
Although he got rid of the plague and saved their lives, he also asked them to eat demon meat for three days to replenish their vitality.
But according to his understanding, due to the arrival of the plague, the whole county has not been busy with farm work for nearly ten days.
In other words, most of the fields around the county are dry and cracked, and this year's harvest is bound to plummet.
The wheat that was just filling was affected by drought, and there was no doubt that famine was just around the corner.
The vast majority of the people will not even be able to afford food anymore, so how can they still have the energy to offer longevity tablets to the new county magistrate?
So next, what he needs to solve is the problem of famine.
It should be said that famines often occurred in Qiongshui County in the past, and the response strategy was for everyone to flee from famine.
Generally speaking, the people in Qiongshui County fled towards the county town more than 300 miles away.
Because Luyuan Province is located in the northwest, most of the counties and cities are under semi-military control.
The same is true for Chitu County, which Qiongshui County belongs to.
The Xiaofeng Battalion of the Northwest Army is stationed in Chitu County.
The Northwest Army is the main military force of Daze Kingdom stationed in the northwest territory, and it is divided into thirteen battalions.
Except for the third battalion of soldiers led by the commander of the Northwest Army who is stationed in the provincial capital of Luyuan Province, the remaining five battalions are stationed in the five counties and cities of Luyuan Province. The remaining five battalions are respectively guarding the five villages bordering foreign countries.
border town.
The people in Qiongshui County fled to the county town. In addition to the county and town officials being able to provide porridge, they could also go to Xiaofeng Camp to do some chores and make ends meet.
But this year, Fang Xiaoyue definitely doesn't plan to let those people go out to escape.
It was a helpless move for the common people to flee.
Once there is an incident of fleeing from famine, the local county magistrate and even the county magistrate, chief registrar and other officials will only receive a mediocre evaluation in the Ministry of Personnel, in addition to giving instructions.
If it were a place like Kuanglu County, etc., and people were fleeing for famine, the officials would definitely give a poor or inferior evaluation.
The reason why the Ministry of Personnel will not give inferior or inferior evaluations is entirely because if they are evaluated as inferior, they will be arrested and imprisoned, while if they are evaluated as inferior, they will be dismissed from office.
And none of the candidates ranked in the Ministry of Personnel are willing to go to the northwest to become an official.
In order not to affect Daze Kingdom's rule in the northwest, the Ministry of Civil Affairs could only hold its nose and give a mid-level evaluation and let the local officials stay in place for three years.
Of course, even the secondary evaluation will affect local officials in many aspects.
Especially Fang Xiaoyue, he also has a branch task of being promoted to an official rank!
If the evaluation is average that year, then there is absolutely no possibility of promotion within three years.
As a result, Fang Xiaoyue had to ask the chief clerk to take the yamen servants to inspect the conditions of the fields in the county.
The news the chief clerk brought back was not optimistic.
According to his experience, even if we implement emergency irrigation now, production will be reduced by at least half.
What's more, Qianshui County's irrigation system is in dire straits due to its sparse population and extremely poor financial situation.
"Master Fang, if we want to save Guanji, we need to rebuild at least thirty-two deep-water wells, but the county simply can't afford the money."
The chief bookkeeper knew the county's financial situation very well and could only look at Fang Xiaoyue helplessly.
"Can I ask for help?"
Fang Xiaoyue asked after thinking for a moment.
"Difficult! The county city is originally responsible for preparing food for the army. Every year, there is not much food left in the county treasury. If we ask for help from the provincial city, it will still be the same. The only option is to ask for help from the imperial court."
After the chief bookkeeper Qian Yushui made an introduction, he looked at Fang Xiaoyue eagerly.
Because only the county magistrate has the authority to report the famine to the superiors.
Fang Xiaoyue thought for a long time before slowly shaking her head: "No, it's less than twenty days before the autumn harvest. If we ask the court to allocate grain, I'm afraid there will be famine everywhere in Qiongshui County, and all the grain allocated by the court will be gone."
It’s too late.”
As the number one scholar, Fang Xiaoyue had also stayed in the capital for a while, and was well aware of the slow operation of the imperial bureaucracy.
If Qiongshui County submitted the memorial now, it would take half a month just for the memorial to arrive in the capital, and the court's discussion on the matter would probably take no less than a week.
Even if the imperial court approves this matter and the Ministry of Revenue allocates food quickly, the food will go slower on the road than the memorial!
In other words, even if everything goes well, it will take at least two months for the food to arrive in Qiongshui County.
No way, Qiongshui County is too far from the capital.
If things don't go well, there's no telling when the food will arrive.
As for how much grain is allocated and whether it is enough for the people of Qianshui County to survive the famine, that is another matter.
"We need to save ourselves!"
After thinking for a long time, Fang Xiaoyue finally came up with an idea.
"Self-rescue? How to save yourself?"
Due to Fang Xiaoyue's performance after taking office in Qiongshui County, the chief bookkeeper Qian Yushui respected him, so at this time he believed that Fang Xiaoyue could come up with a self-rescue plan.
"Pray for rain!"
Fang Xiaoyue went through some knowledge about Chunyang Temple in her mind and finally found some solutions.
Praying for rain is undoubtedly the best way to solve this famine.
It is said that in a world where the dragon energy system exists, praying for rain is actually a difficult thing.
Any Taoist priest who wants to pray for rain must make a lot of preparations in advance, and he also needs to get approval from the government in order to avoid the restrictions and interference of the dragon energy system and successfully pray for rain.
There is no way, the source of the Dragon Qi system comes from mountains, rivers, lakes and seas, which makes Taoist priests have to deal with the Dragon Qi system if they want to mobilize the water vapor in the air.
It is too difficult to do this without government approval.
And the most terrible thing is that the Daze Kingdom court has already decreed that anyone who dares to pray for rain without permission will be killed!
This is not surprising. Praying for rain is originally as important as observing the stars. In addition, praying for rain itself has a very strong mysterious color, which can easily arouse the gratitude and admiration of the people.
Under such circumstances, it would be easy for someone to use this opportunity to gather people to rebel and so on.
Therefore, strict restrictions on praying for rain will undoubtedly be beneficial to the rule of the Daze Kingdom.
As for droughts and the like, you need to pray for rain, and the Taoist officials will deal with it.
It's just another matter if time slows down and causes famine.
Hearing that the county magistrate was going to personally preside over the rain prayers, the people in Qiongshui County became excited.
But the county magistrate did not start praying for rain the same day the news came out, but prepared for two days.
This made the people become a little anxious.
After all, everyone can see that this year's harvest will be reduced, and some fields may even fail.
Although the county magistrate is powerful and has dealt with all previous plagues and monsters, praying for rain is not that simple.
Whether the county magistrate can do a good job is also a question mark.
In the study room in the backyard of the county government office, Fang Xiaoyue completed the last talisman.
The wind talisman, the cloud gathering talisman, the rain praying talisman and even the last all things vitality talisman, a total of four talismans, took Fang Xiaoyue two days to complete.
In fact, these four talismans do not exist in the talisman system of Chunyang Temple. Fang Xiaoyue integrated the talisman system of Chunyang Temple and finally created these four talismans.
Therefore, just creating these four talismans took more than a day and a half, but actually drawing these four talismans actually took less than twenty minutes.
"Okay, let's pray for rain."
Fang Xiaoyue whispered, then opened the study door and stepped out.
At this time, Cheng Xiaoyue, who was waiting outside the study, hurriedly brought a bowl of ginseng soup: "Master, you haven't eaten or eaten for two days, so you should drink this bowl of ginseng soup first."
Fang Xiaoyue did not refuse, she reached out to take the warm ginseng soup and drank it all in one gulp.
This body is still just a human body after all. After two days, it is a little hungry.
"Do you have mutton buns? Bring me eight."
Fang Xiaoyue was in a hurry to pray for rain, so naturally she had no intention of sitting at the table and eating and drinking slowly. She asked Cheng Xiaoyue to go to the kitchen to get eight steaming meat buns and take them with her, while eating, she walked towards the county government office.
The mutton buns served by the Qiongshui County Government Office Kitchen are outstanding. They taste fragrant and have large chunks of mutton inside, without any greasy taste.
After Fang Xiaoyue came to Qiongshui County, she fell in love with mutton buns.
It's a pity that this kind of food is only available in the county government kitchen. If you go to the streets of Qiongshui County, there is only one restaurant where you can't eat such delicious food at all.
The reason is simple: it is too poor here.
The level of diet is often linked to the level of economic prosperity at that time.
The more prosperous the economy, the easier it is for food to evolve.
Like the eight major cuisines in Fang Xiaoyue's original world, which one has not gradually taken shape after several prosperous dynasties?
In a place like Qiongshui County, it would be great to have mutton buns.
After receiving the news, Qian Yushui, the bookkeeper, happened to come over and bump into him. Fang Xiaoyue stuffed him with two big meat buns and followed him out blankly while eating them.
It wasn't until he left the county government gate that Qian Yushui remembered to ask: "Master Fang, are you sure about praying for rain?"
"That's right, you should take the people to gather the people first. I will hold a rain praying ceremony outside the North City Gate in half an hour."
Fang Xiaoyue said this. Although Qian Yushui was still a little uneasy, he still obeyed the order and directed the government officials to go to various parts of the city to summon the people.
Fang Xiaoyue herself took Fang Shangou and the agents from the fast class and traveled all the way to the north gate.
"Do you know how to build an earthen platform? You guys need to build an earthen platform first."
Fang Xiaoyue gave an order, and Fang Shangou and the head catcher Zhang Wangshui started busy with about a dozen catchers.
Qiongshui County had prayed for rain before, so they knew some of the procedures.
When the people in the city gradually gathered outside the North City Gate, many people came to help with tools.
In a short time, an earthen platform about two meters high and five meters wide was built outside the north city gate.
Zhang Wangshui originally wanted to find a wooden ladder to make it easier for Fang Xiaoyue to go up and down.
Who knows, Fang Xiaoyue jumped up and went straight onto the platform, which aroused the crowd's surprise.
After all, the common people thought that the county magistrate took the lead and assumed the commanding position when exterminating demons.
Now that they saw the county magistrate leaping more than two meters onto the platform like a mighty general, they naturally felt different.
Time passed slowly, and Fang Xiaoyue saw that the number of people gathered around the platform had reached four thousand.
This is almost 70% to 80% of the people in the county.
Even if there are still some people coming, Fang Xiaoyue is not ready to wait any longer.
After all, there were thousands of people here, noisy, and many children inside, running around. Fang Xiaoyue was really worried that if she was not careful, there would be a trampling incident, and she would be disgraced.
Although almost 80% of the yamen servants came here, it would be a complete joke to try to control thousands of people if something really happened with only 70 or 80 yamen servants.
It is impossible for Fang Xiaoyue to treat these people like monsters.
"Wind blows!"
As Fang Xiaoyue came on stage, the government officials in the audience shouted, and the people became quiet.
Fang Xiaoyue took out a talisman and shook it gently. As the talisman burned, the wind began to blow. The wind mixed with dust made the people in the audience a little confused.
When Fang Xiaoyue took out the second talisman and flicked it to light, clouds gathered in the originally sunny sky. In less than ten breaths, dark clouds filled the sky, thunder rumbled, and traces of thunder and lightning entwined in the dark clouds.
The rolling made the originally hot temperature suddenly cool down.
Although they were happy to see the dark clouds gathering, the people were not entirely happy.
Because the climate in the northwest is quite different from other places, many times even if there are dark clouds in the sky, it may not rain, and most of the time it does not rain.
Of course, in the hearts of the people, the fact that the county magistrate attracted wind and clouds in a short time just standing there is already considered very powerful.
"The rain is falling! All things are growing in vitality!"
As Fang Xiaoyue took out the last two talismans and burned them together, the dark clouds in the sky suddenly thundered, and raindrops as big as peas fell down, causing a burst of joy from the people gathered in the audience. Later, as the rain continued to get heavier, they
He had no choice but to flee back to the city to take shelter from the rain.