The icy rain poured down violently on the ground during the day, but stopped at dusk, with some raindrops still floating down.
Throughout the autumn of the 8th year of Chongguan, Baisha County, Weiyang Prefecture, Jiangdong could not escape such heavy rain.
Countless houses collapsed in heavy rains, and the stagnant water on the streets of the county town was enough for boats to sail. In early September, even a section of the south wall of the county town was washed away by heavy rains, revealing a huge and ugly gap. In the past two days, the sky seemed to be torn open.
Stop the rain and let Baisha County take a breather. However, there are waterlogging in various places, and the water will not be released for a while. The Baishui River outside the county has also become a hanging river, and the water is almost overflowing the river embankment;
If Qinghe Town in the north hadn't opened up a hole more than ten days ago, this county might have been flooded with water from the Baishui River.
The relief camp is located on Fengtou Mountain in the river embankment outside the city. The mountain is a dirt mountain, more than ten feet high, shaped like a giant tomb without a tomb cap. It has a nickname called Womei Mountain. There are no trees or grass, it is bare, and the people in the county are used to it.
It is called Fengtou Mountain.
A tall young official, wearing a black gauze crown and a blue regiment leader's official robe, ignored the muddy road under his feet and walked towards Fengtou Mountain where the relief camp was located.
The chief's personal visit to the Baisha relief camp immediately caused a commotion, and many victims in ragged clothes gathered around them: "Now that Mr. Dong is here, there is hope." "Your Excellency will not watch everyone starve to death." "Who is Mr. Dong?"
It turned out to be him."
The young official was Dong Yuan, the magistrate of Weiyang Prefecture. He had a long-standing reputation and the people respected him as the prefect. When the She family rebellion in Jin'an Prefecture swept across Eastern Fujian, Dong Yuan was the chief administrator of Xianxia County in northern Eastern Fujian. The rebels attacked
, the former magistrate of Xianxia County was a coward who only wanted to surrender the city to the enemy and save his family's life. Dong Yuan invited the county officials to imprison the magistrate and close the city to block the rebels' northward invasion into western Zhejiang. The She family
The rebels laid siege to the city for more than a month when they saw that they could no longer attack by force, so they broke off the siege. Dong Yuan later served under Li Zhuo, the Minister of War in Jiangning and the Governor of Eastern Fujian, and made many military exploits. The rebellion of the She family in Eastern Fujian had been going on for many years, but it was difficult to completely put it down. The imperial court
He and Li Zhuo, who was in charge of countering the rebellion in the southeast, had the idea of recruiting the She family. Dong Yuan disagreed with everyone, so he left the military camp and returned to civilian service. This spring, he was transferred to Weiyang Prefecture as the prefect.
It had been sunny for several days, but there were still some raindrops floating in the sky at dusk. Dong Yuan walked in a hurry, not minding the light raindrops falling on his face. Ding Zhiru, the magistrate of Baisha County, and Gao Zongting, Dong Yuan's colleague in East Fujian, followed half a step away.
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"Zhiru, when will the second batch of grain allocated by Jiangning arrive?" Dong Yuan asked, Weiyang Prefecture was not the only one in Baisha County to be affected by the disaster, and the grain money needed for disaster relief must be allocated from Jiangning, the capital of Liuzhou.
Taizu of this dynasty laid the foundation in Jiangning and made Jiangning the capital after the uprising. During Taizong's reign, in order to resist the Donghu and other foreign tribes in the north, he moved the capital to Yanjing Prefecture and made Jiangning the capital. Jiangning still retains the six ministries, Imperial College, Hanlin Academy and other central bureaucrats
The establishment of the organization is nominally at the same level as the Six Ministries and Three Houses of Yanjing, but its actual power is far inferior. Since Zhaoling, the tomb of Taizu, is in Jiangning, the world also calls the idle officials appointed by Jiangning as mausoleum guards. Even though
In this way, Jiangning Mansion has been the political, military and economic center of the southern empire for more than two hundred years.
Ding Zhiru said: "I just received a message from Kuai Ma. The relief grains have been loaded into ships in Jiangning last night. They will be shipped at noon today and should be able to arrive here tomorrow morning."
"Okay. How is the disaster situation?"
"The rivers within the territory have been in disrepair for many years, and there have been heavy rains. We have been receiving documents for breaching the embankments in recent days. Although the rain has stopped in the past few days, the floods have not been discharged. The casualties may not be less than 10,000. I am afraid that the Baishui River and the outside
The water level of the Yangtze River will not drop for a while, and the levee is not impregnable - I am afraid of this now..."
Dong Yuan was silent for a moment and said bitterly: "Thieves, you have been in peace for many years but you don't know how to be prepared for danger in peacetime. Baisha counties are flooded, Hailing, Chongzhou and other places are flooded by tides, and pirates take advantage of the chaos to come ashore to join in the fun. Now even Chongzhou County
All the county schools here have been robbed..." After talking about these troubles, Dong Yuan couldn't help but sigh in front of his subordinates and old friends. He waved his sleeves angrily and told Ding Zhiru about repairing the embankment, "At this time, the embankment is being built.
It's too late, so we can only wait until after winter - send more people to watch the dangerous embankment, and evacuate all the people under the embankment if they can. The victims who cannot be accommodated here are evacuated to Weiyang City. The county's post-disaster recovery matters
, you have to make a careful calculation and give me the charter..."
"As commanded."
Dong Yuan, Ding Zhiru, and Gao Zongting walked to the top of the mountain while discussing disaster relief matters. There was a pavilion over there overlooking the Baishui River.
Although there are still rain stars and foam floating down from the sky, the sky is clear and bright. Standing in the pavilion on the top of the mountain, looking from a distance, the autumn sunset is as red as oozing blood, hanging in the clear blue sky, outside the embankment
The water surface of the Baishui River is narrow and clear, and the waves are as red as dye.
At this moment, a wisp of smoke-like piano music came from the direction of the ferry, and the noise all around seemed to suddenly quiet down for this sudden piano sound.
Dong Yuan followed the music of the piano and looked towards the foot of the mountain. Several light boats were tied outside the embankment. A colorfully decorated boat in the middle was particularly conspicuous. The music of the piano seemed to come from the boat, as faint as the sound of nature. Many victims in ragged clothes were sitting on the stone embankment.
I was mesmerized by the sound of the piano, and when I looked down, I saw that it was as small as an ant; there were also several fishing boats surrounding the simple makeshift ferry, as if they came just for the sound of the piano.
Dong Yuan stood and listened for a moment, frowned slightly and asked: "Who is playing the piano?"
"Su Mei, a famous prostitute from Jiangning, has parked her boat here for many days," Ding Zhiru reported.
"What is she doing here if she's not in Jiangning?" Dong Yuan had also heard of Su Mei's beautiful name and knew that she was a famous singer in Jiangning city. She was beautiful and talented. She was very popular among literati and dignitaries in Jiangning.
She was so sought after that she wondered why she would leave Jiangning and appear in the Weiyang Mansion at this time.
"Du Rong returned to his hometown to celebrate his old father's sixtieth birthday, and invited Su Mei and his colleagues to come back to Weiyang to celebrate..." Ding Zhiru said.
Hearing the name Du Rong, Dong Yuan frowned slightly, his nose expanded slightly, he breathed heavily, and he looked quite disdainful of this person.
Gao Zongting said: "The She family intends to join the family. In addition to Yanjing, there are also many people in Liujing who work for the She family and build momentum. Du Rong is one of them. Someone checked the book and reported that Du Rong was involved in pirates, and Li Shuai also sat idly by...
…”
Ding Zhiru looked away. He, a small county magistrate, did not dare to discuss government affairs. Dong Yuan was famous for his bad temper. He dared to quarrel with Li Zhuo, the Minister of War in Jiangning and the Governor of Eastern Fujian. Li Zhuo probably appreciated his talent, even though in his heart
If he didn't like the person, he would just transfer the matter away from him right under his nose.
Dong Yuan snorted coldly: "The pirates in the East have been causing trouble in the past few years, and it has something to do with the She family - if there were no pirates to help them in these years, Li Shuai would have wiped out East Fujian long ago, why bother doing such a sloppy thing?"
"I'm afraid that after the She family surrenders, it will make the bandits more self-respecting." Gao Zongting lamented, "Before I came to Weiyang, I stayed in Jiangning for a few days. The scholars of Xixi Academy also publicly agreed with the She family's surrender.
It seems that the court and Li Shuai have made up their minds about the matter."
"These nerds call themselves celebrities, but they only know how to talk!" Dong Yuan was very rude, but his tone was also helpless. He was just the prefect of Weiyang and could not influence the political situation in the DPRK. Besides, he was only concerned about the surrender of the She family.
Wei Yang was kicked because he had a disagreement with others.
Bookworm? Ding Zhiru looked sideways at the painted embankment outside the embankment. How could the Xixi Academy be just a group of nerds talking about their skills? He also thought that the She family would join them, they would be granted lordships and territories, and they would retain nearly ten thousand elite soldiers before joining.
The eastern pirate forces on the periphery were regarded as princes, and were always a hidden danger to the southeast of the imperial court; however, the imperial court was heavily involved in the war with the Donghu people in the north, and the imperial court was eager to mobilize elite troops and generals from the southeast to strengthen the northern defense line, and accepted the invitation of the She family.
Surrender is also the meaning of the question; of course, it is not without Li Zhuo's self-respect in raising troops. The most important reason is that in the past ten years, in order to suppress the rebellion of the She family in Eastern Fujian, tens of millions of dollars have been spent on military supplies and soldiers.
, making the money supply between the DPRK and China even more stretched.
Ding Zhiru saw that Dong Yuan was looking at him and did not want to pick up the topic between him and Gao Zongting, so he smiled and said other things: "Su Mei passed through Baisha County and saw that the floods were serious and the victims were pitiful. After returning from Weiyang, he parked the boat outside the river embankment.
During the performance, wealthy people in the county could board a boat to listen to music and opera, and the money and goods earned would be donated to the relief of the victims. Du Rong also joined in the fun and promised Su Mei to perform in Baisha for ten days, and he would donate a thousand taels of silver——
This is already the eighth day..." Seeing Dong Yuan looking in the direction of the harp boat, he said flatteringly, "If you are interested in listening to the harp, I can send someone to invite Miss Su Mei ashore to help you enjoy the wine."
Dong Yuan shook his head and said: "The victims of the disaster are everywhere. How can I behave like I am waiting in a high hall to drink wine and listen to the piano?"
Seeing that Dong Yuan's expression was not resolute, Ding Zhiru said, "I really have other thoughts, and I hope you don't take it off. I actually want to ask you to commend Su Mei for his disaster relief act..." Seeing that Dong Yuan didn't say anything, he turned around and followed Gaozong.
Ting went down the mountain first. He thought he accepted his euphemism and smiled in his heart: Who doesn't like beautiful beauties? He saw a soap-clothed officer standing not far away, beckoning him to come over, and followed Dong Yuan.
While walking in the city, he ordered the government officials to invite Su Mei to drink with her at a dinner party.
The Zaoyi administrator was a short, fat man with broad eyebrows and narrow eyes. He received the order and walked down the mountain towards the river embankment.
The original ferry had long been submerged by the river, and a simple dock was built outside the river embankment using pillars driven into the river beach and flat pine wood. At this time, half of it was submerged in the water. The hull of the boat was tall, and after the water level of the Baishui River rose, the sides of the boat were
It's much higher than the pine pier; Zaoyi Yamen couldn't even raise his head when he walked over and stood on the pier. The ladder on the bow was retracted, Zaoyi Yamen couldn't see the situation on the bow of the ship, and he didn't want to climb up in embarrassment.
Pointing to a black-peng boat nearby, he asked the boatman to push the boat over. The black-peng boat was a little higher than the pier and shorter than the painted boat. Borrowing your feet from the black-peng boat was better than using all four legs to climb up the painted boat.
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As soon as the Zaoyi Yamen jumped onto the bow of the black-peng boat, a young man in Tsing Yi got out of the cabin, and the two almost bumped into each other. The Zaoyi Yamen was startled and cursed: "What a ghost, you suddenly jumped out... you
That good-for-nothing young master in our house came back to life and scared the miao who was invited to paralyze him on the bed. ***, do you still want to scare him to death?"