Wei Zhi was going back to Beijing from here, and of course the local officials wanted to hold a farewell banquet for him. I thought Wei Zhi would refuse, but who knew he actually agreed.
Not to mention the governor of Mianzhou, even Magistrate Fu was very happy and tried his best to book a few tables of food and drinks at the best restaurant in the county. Mr. Bai arrived in the county seat in the afternoon and had just met Mr. Wei. He was surprised to see
He glanced at Mr. Wei, but said nothing.
At this banquet, many people drank too much, and Mr. Bai's face was a little flushed. He did not live in a separate courtyard in the county, but chose to live in the same inn as Wei Zhi.
In the dead of night, Mr. Bai appeared in Wei Zhi's room.
Wei Zhi helped Mr. Bai who was kneeling on the ground and said, "Since I promised you, I will naturally do it. After you see me off tomorrow, go ahead and wait on the transfer road."
Master Bai breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, bowed and returned to his room.
But he was not at peace in his heart.
When he rushed to the county seat from home this afternoon, Wei Zhi had just returned from the last severely affected village. He came forward to ask for a meeting, but the other party did not seem surprised at all.
There were so many squire and rich people accompanying him, and he not only remembered their names, but also called out the place where he currently lived. Even when he invited him to visit Qili Village alone, he smiled meaningfully, and then didn't ask any more questions.
So he agreed.
At that time, Mr. Bai felt that Mr. Wei knew something.
Now, he is even more sure.
Although it is in his interest to say that he wants to return to Beijing, but he secretly goes to Qili Village with him, does this mean that Mr. Wei knows everything from the beginning, even what happened in Qili Village in the past two days?
Do you see it all?
Is he trustworthy?
The thought just passed by for a moment, and he calmed down slightly.
It should be credible. He is not even afraid of saints. How can he be afraid of these officials in Yizhou?
In Yizhou, the biggest one is just the King of Yizhou.
Unless Wei Zhi wants to rebel, why would he collude with local officials and the vassal king?
Master Bai comforted himself in this way.
Early the next morning, Wei Zhi's team was ready to go. Wei Zhi got on the carriage and said to everyone: "The summer harvest is coming, and there is a lot of work to be done after the disaster. I won't waste your time. Let's go back."
This is impossible. Officials headed by the Mianzhou governor must send the person to Shili Changting.
My parents and officials were all sent away, so of course the gentry and rich people who came with me would not be left behind, so they followed me one after another.
The mighty team just set out on the road, went up the official road, and then arrived at the Ten Mile Changting Pavilion. Wei Zhi became sullen and said, "If we send them off any further, I won't be able to leave."
The governor of Mianzhou was a little embarrassed when he heard this. He didn't like the god of plague staying, so he stopped and said goodbye to Wei Zhi at Shili Changting.
Mr. Bai followed the squire and local tycoons to watch Wei Zhi go away, and then said goodbye to the governor of Mianzhou and the county magistrates from various places.
Magistrate Fu turned around to discuss something with him but couldn't find anyone.
Master Bai hurried back to the village and waited at the intersection where the county town turned into the mountain road. Within a quarter of an hour, Wei Zhi came on horseback from another road with two guards.
Master Bai breathed a sigh of relief and was about to step forward to salute. Wei Zhi waved his hand and said, "Master Bai, there is no need to be polite. Let's get on our way first."
"yes."
The two of them hurried towards Qili Village. Of course, they rode quickly and arrived at the entrance of the village in less than two quarters of an hour.
At this time, Daji had just handed over the pledged confession to Mrs. Liu, "Except for the man in the room on the right, the other two people are willing to pledge their confession."
Liu nodded, wrapped the confession in oil paper, and put it in a box.
Just as she was about to say something, the housekeeper reported at the door: "Old madam, Mr. Tang has arrived with a distinguished guest."
Mrs. Liu immediately stood up and said: "Send everyone to the backyard, restrain the servants, and stop them from walking around. Please invite the master and others to the front hall. I will go there right away."
This time Mrs. Liu didn't even bring her grandma or the eldest girl beside her, but only Daji.
When Ms. Liu arrived, Wei Zhizheng was standing at the door looking at the flowers in front of the yard with his hands behind his back. He heard footsteps and turned to look.
Master Bai immediately introduced, "Sir, this is my aunt, her maiden name is Liu, my cousin was a Jinshi in the first year of Dazhen, and later became the magistrate of Shu County."
There were only Master Bai, Wei Zhi and the two guards he brought with him in the front hall, as well as Mr. Liu and Daji.
Mrs. Liu did not speak immediately after saluting. Daji glanced at the guards brought by Wei Zhi and stepped back first.
Wei Zhi then nodded slightly to his two guards, and suddenly there were only three people left in the hall.
"Old Madam, you can say whatever you want now."
Ms. Liu knelt down on the spot.
Wei Zhi quickly reached out to help her, but Liu refused and raised his head and asked him, "Sir, the Jianwei Weir should not have burst this time, and the tens of thousands of innocent souls who died in the flood should not have died."
Wei Zhi sighed, grabbed her arm tightly and helped her up, then took a step back and said, "I know."
Upon hearing this, Mr. Liu and Mr. Bai knew that they had made the right bet.
For six years, Mrs. Liu had no way to complain, and she didn't even dare to expose her grievances. Now she finally has a way to talk.
Mrs. Liu couldn't help crying.
Wei knew: "The floods in Yizhou this time are very serious, and His Majesty is furious, especially because the Jianwei Weir has only been repaired for two years. No, to be precise, the Jianwei Weir project has only been completed for one year and eight months.
"
"This flood is caused by heavy rains in summer, but if the flat water channel was not blocked, the Feishayan water-fixing flood was stronger, and the golden embankment did not collapse, then this thing would not have happened. Maybe it could not have been stopped.
Floods are mostly overflows, not flash floods."
The burst occurred so quickly and violently that the people downstream were swept away without even reacting.
Therefore, in Wei Zhi's view, this was a natural disaster as well as a man-made disaster.
"When I was inspecting the construction of Jianwei Weir, I found that in the second year of Dazhen, Bai Qi, the magistrate of Shu County, had submitted a letter, hoping to hire laborers from other places to repair the golden embankment. However, it had not been delivered to the capital yet.
The state governor was beaten back."
Wei Zhi shouldn't know about this, but it has to be said that Bai Qi was meticulous enough and Wei Zhi was attentive enough. When he was checking various account books and cases in Shu County, he found the work diary recorded by Bai Qi. There was no specific content in it, but it was written
The date, and the folded title.
It's a normal, yet abnormal, letter.
Normally, when water conservancy projects are in urgent need of migrant workers, some workers will be hired or dispatched from other places to support them;
What's unusual is that the Jianwei Weir is huge and in disrepair, so the initial design life of the project was only three years.
The appropriation began in the first year of Dazhen, and when Bai Qishang folded, it still took a year and seven months to get it all. However, it later turned out that the repair work was even longer, and it lasted until the autumn of two years ago before it was completed.
For such long-term water conservancy projects, people from various counties in the state usually come to work here in turn, and workers from other places are rarely dispatched so early.