Chapter 1470.
On the banks of the Qing Shui River, the automated water truck had become a scene in Qing An County. Every day, a large number of people in the city came over to watch and marvel at the “big wheel” that could draw water automatically under the scorching sun, bringing along their young and old.
Whether it was the farmers outside the city or the people in the city, no one wanted to see the rice fields go out of harvest.
Especially when the price of rice is skyrocketing, everyone is looking forward to the end of the drought and a good rice harvest.
Otherwise, not to mention rice, they couldn’t even afford to eat miscellaneous grains!
Because the effect of the first autonomous waterwheel was very good, the county government officially gave a task to the government workshop to build ten waterwheels of the same type.
To ensure the irrigation of farmland along the banks of the Qingshui River!
And after this news spread, the price of rice inside the county had a small drop.
However, this fall was only short-lived, and within a few days it went back up again.
Because the drought showed no signs of easing!
Every day is a clear sky and bright sunshine, hot sunshine baking the earth, resulting in the mountains and the wilderness of many plants are dead, as far as the eye can see a scorched piece of yellow.
As time passed, the atmosphere in the county became tense.
The stragglers appeared!
Qing’an County was nourished by the Qing Shui River, plus the ten water wagons that had been put into use one after another to fetch water day and night, so the drought was still barely under control.
However, the situation in some places was very bad, field crops withered in large patches, the price of rice in the county went crazy, and ordinary people fell into the dilemma of not being able to fill their bellies even if they dumped all their money into their homes.
Many people had no choice but to leave their hometowns and flee the countryside, trying to find a way to live elsewhere.
Qing’an County, which was in a better situation, was therefore affected by the displaced people.
At first, there were only three or five people scattered, then the number kept increasing and the queue of fleeing people became longer and longer.
Seeing the bad situation, Qing’an County immediately closed the city gates and strictly forbade the exiles to enter the city.
However, in order to avoid the situation of rebellion under the despair of the stragglers, the county government mobilized the gentry in the county to build a large shed outside the city to provide congee relief.
These were considered to be conventional means of coping with the situation.
However, as the drought season continues to worsen, the number of displaced persons running to Qing’an County has increased dramatically, reaching nearly 10,000 people.
Now the county magistrate Yu Heqian was terrified.
On the one hand, he constantly sent people to the capital above to ask for help, and on the other hand, he tried his best to “collect donations” from the big families, and struggled to maintain the current situation.
As the saying goes, the lips are dying and the teeth are cold, Yu Heqian encountered great trouble, Ye Xiangming also do not expect to be able to get out of the matter.
On this day, he personally came to Wang Duan’s home.
The county minister was there to see his daughter, but he also wanted Wang Chen’s advice.
Previously, the artesian water truck provided by Wang Dust had successfully solved the big problem.
As for the situation outside the county, Wang Dust naturally understood.
Faced with his old husband’s inquiry, he said without thinking, “In response to the stragglers, we should take a two-pronged approach!”
Wang Duan’s suggestion was, on the one hand, to screen out the strongest of the stragglers and let them dig wells and open canals or build roads and quarry stones using the food-for-work method, so as not to cause trouble by doing nothing.
On the other hand, they should organize people to fish in the river or hunt in the mountains to collect as much food as possible.
Of course, the most important thing, but also to go to the top to ask for food relief – relief of the displaced persons is not something that can be done independently in Qing’an County.
Wang Chuan’s vision and experience are not comparable to Ye Xiangming’s, and after some conversation, the county minister is already convinced of Wang Chuan, and even secretly pleased that he has a good son-in-law.
After Ye Xiangming left, Ye Dai said to Wang Chen: “Husband, do we want to go outside the city to relieve the displaced people and do some good deeds?”
The current Wang family was not short of food, earlier Wang Dust had purchased a batch of grain from outside the city at a high price through the local merchant houses.
The cellar and granary had been stuffed to the brim, supporting two or three years was no problem.
Wang Dust smiled, “Good.”
If his wife had this kind heart, how could he possibly refuse?
So at Wang Dust’s suggestion, Ye Dai and Ye Yu, along with the cooks and servants at home, made a large number of pancakes at home.
These pancakes are made of flour mixed with grains, with only a little salt added, but they are definitely good for filling up the hunger, and they won’t go bad even if the weather is hot, so they can be preserved for a long time.
After the pancakes were ready, Wang Chen took them out of the city to help the displaced people.
Due to the large number of stragglers, a huge camp had formed outside the county town, messy and smelly, a completely chaotic and miserable scene.
Many of the displaced persons were lying motionless under the straw huts, their bodies so withered that they looked like skeletons, and cries and sorrows were heard one after another.
The soldiers who were responsible for maintaining order, from time to time, had people drag out corpses from the camp and send them to a distant place for burial.
So that the corpses would not rot and bring the plague.
Such a scene made Ye Dai, who had been raised in a deep bosom, lose her color.
“Dai’er, why don’t you and Xiao Yu go back first.”
Wang Chen said to his wife out of pity, “Leave this place to me.”
“No.”
Ye Dai stubbornly shook her head, “Concubine is fine.”
So under her arrangement, a sheet of pancakes was delivered by the servants to the victims by the roadside.
“Thank you master, thank you ma’am!”
The victims who got their share of the food were all grateful, kneeling and saluting Wang Chen and Ye Dai one after another.
But more victims gathered around, stretching out a pair of dry hands to ask for food, some of them had greedy colors on their faces, staring at Ye Dai and Xiao Yu.
The atmosphere of the scene suddenly became tense and weird.
Although the number of flapjacks that Ye Dai had brought was quite large, they were quickly consumed after some distribution.
It was simply impossible to benefit everyone present.
“Master, ma’am, have mercy!”
Seeing Wang Chen, Ye Dai and the others leaving, a group of victims who hadn’t gotten a bargain instantly refused to agree.
They surrounded Wang Dust and the others, and some of them even showed fierce glints in their eyes.
These people had fled from the famine until now, their humanity was almost worn out by hunger, and at this moment, they already had nothing to worry about, and they were even more cynical towards Wang Chuan and Ye Dai and the others to the extreme.
A tall man said viciously, “Brothers, they are all dead anyway, today ……”
Pfft!
Before he could finish his words, a flash of sword light instantly swept across his throat, and crimson blood splashed out.
This guy who was about to turn from a calamity into a mob didn’t even have time to finish his compelling words, and was already headless!
The one who struck was none other than Wang Dust.
He had his sword with him and sliced off the other guy’s head with a single stroke.
The drenching blood caused the surrounding victims to be shocked and retreat hastily in horror.
Wang Dust held his sword and sneered, “If you want to die, I’ll fulfill you.”
Before the words fell, he suddenly turned around and swung his sword, decapitating another sneak attacker!