Miao Chu

Chapter 332 Grain
Lü Zhongchang and the prefect of Chanzhou led the way. When they stopped, Li Zhai and Prefect Feng followed and stood up to look over.

The messengers in the corner were already quite hesitant. Seeing that everyone in the room was looking at them, including figures like the Councilor of State and the angel, they had no choice but to shuffle over step by step, stammering and not daring to speak.

Lü Zhongchang wasn't stupid; he sensed something was wrong and was about to make up an excuse when two more fast horses came galloping in from outside.

When the man arrived at the yamen, he was on horseback and nearly tumbled off his horse.

Before he even entered the room, he saw the official standing at the very edge of the gate, tears already streaming down his face, shouting loudly, "Prefect! Your Excellency! The Liuta River has breached, the dikes have collapsed, and countless villages along the way are suffering from the flood. Village officials from various places have reported that over a hundred people have already been swept away by the water, and the number of others who were unable to report is unknown! All localities urge the prefectural government to expedite the dispatch of manpower to control the flood and provide disaster relief. If we arrive too late, I fear we may not be able to save them all!!"

Upon hearing this, a hush fell over both the area outside and inside the door.

The prefect of Chanzhou, who had initially hoped to see Lü Zhongchang make a fool of himself, was instead met with this unexpected news. His face turned deathly pale, and he instinctively grabbed the doorframe to steady himself, forcing himself to calm down before asking, "Where is the water heading? How many villages and towns are along its course?"

The Liuta River is located in a low-lying area, which is why it is easy to divert water. When the water overflows and the dike breaks, the prefect already had a plan in mind without needing the messenger to say much. He just felt bitterness in his throat and teeth.

The people on the other end replied one by one.

It was just an estimate, but the prefect was still disheartened. He turned to Lü Zhongchang and asked sternly, "Lord Lü, do you have anything to say about the accident at Liuta River?"

Lu Zhongchang's face was extremely pale. He forced a smile and said, "I also came from Liutahe. After the river was dredged, everything was as usual. There was no flooding at all. Besides, the order has already been given, and the sluice gates on the river will be closed this morning to stop the water flow..."

Having witnessed it with my own eyes last night, he remained confident, and the more he talked, the more impossible it seemed. He said unhappily, "Could it be that some river has overflowed and you can't find the source, so you're blaming my Liuta River for this nonsense!"

Upon hearing Lü Zhongchang's reply, the messengers from Liutahe who had come to deliver the message dared not remain silent any longer.

The first man, steeling himself, called out in a low voice, "Manager... Jiahe River... Jiahe River overflowed last night, and the main road behind it is also flooded. The officials wanted to close the sluice gates, but seeing the high water level, they dared not act on their own and have come to ask for your instructions..."

Lu Zhongchang's mind went blank for a moment, thinking he had misheard, and he exclaimed, "What do you mean, 'on his own initiative'? Didn't you give the order to shut the gate?"

They were still talking when another sound of horses' hooves came from outside.

Hope arose in everyone's hearts, and they all looked towards the door—there, two men on horseback galloped towards them, and upon reaching the spot, they tumbled and rolled off their horses.

The prefect of Chanzhou stood at the entrance and, seeing the cloth signs with the words "Liuta River" sewn onto the bridles of several horses, asked urgently, "Are you from Liuta River? What is the current situation on the river?"

The two messengers quickly acknowledged the message but dared not answer; they simply searched the area for the person.

Before Lü Zhongchang could speak, the prefect pointed to the back and said, "The councilor and the imperial envoy are both here. Why don't you speak quickly!"

He was dressed in a scarlet robe, and Li Zhai, dressed in a purple robe, followed behind him. When the two men who delivered the message saw each other, they knew that they were both important officials, so they dared not delay and immediately began to speak one after the other.

"The sluice gates on the Liuta River could not be closed, and several gates and shovels were washed away!"

"We have come up the river and request instructions from our superior! We also urge the prefecture to devise a plan to rescue the people!"

Lü Zhongchang strode out and said urgently, "Who was on duty last night? How could they not have informed us when the water level changed?!"

"Damn it! Damn it!" the speaker cried out twice, sweating profusely with anxiety. "Last night, eight men were on duty, thirty were on guard duty, and several shacks along the riverbank were all washed away by the flood—now all of them are missing, numbering at least a hundred..."

"In addition, a group of young students who were temporarily transferred from the Imperial Academy went out of their houses in the middle of the night to have fun on the stage. Now that the wooden stage has collapsed, seven people are missing and several others are seriously injured!"

As he spoke, he vigorously wiped his sweat and exclaimed, "Although the others were rescued, they were still shaken and are urging the authorities to send more people to rescue them quickly!"

Upon hearing that the Liutahe sluice gate and the shovel workers had been swept away, Lü Zhongchang's face turned ashen. When he heard that over a hundred people, including those on duty and guards, had gone missing, it felt as if his ears had been punched hard, and he could barely hear anything.

He finally managed to press his ears hard and regain some hearing, only to hear that the wooden platform had collapsed and a group of wealthy and powerful young men were seriously injured or missing.

Having been in Liutahe for almost a year, he has worked tirelessly day and night. Before the project even started, the effort he put in to advance it was immeasurable, and the time spent was far more than a few years. Now, not only has the river been damaged, but so many people have gone missing. And if we say missing, then nine out of ten are probably not alive...

How will the imperial court investigate this...?

How much resentment must those powerful and wealthy people harbor for their extravagant lifestyles...

Lu Zhongchang's ears started ringing again, his legs went weak, and it felt like countless golden stars were appearing above his head before his vision went black...

His last thought was hearing someone shout, "Master Lü! Quickly call a doctor! Master Lü has fainted!"

Lu Zhongchang was indeed dizzy and felt great. He tried rinsing his face with ice water and acupuncture, but to no avail. However, the mess he left behind still needed to be cleaned up.

Fortunately, Li Zhai had already arrived. Although he had not been appointed by the court, he did not sit idly by. He immediately took charge of the affairs of the Six Towers River as a Vice Chancellor, coordinating all manpower and resources. In a very short time, he made the most of the limited resources.

He went to Liutahe immediately.

Those who could enter the halls and pavilions and obtain the cool umbrellas were certainly not idle. Upon seeing the state of the river, they knew there was no way to turn back. They immediately sent people along the way to either evacuate or rescue the people. As for houses, property, and farmland, they could not care about those things at this time.

With him and Feng Duzhi taking the lead, the nearest garrison troops didn't dare to delay at all and responded immediately, while officials throughout Chanzhou were also busy.

Just a few walls away, Xu Da and his group of students looked dejected, some carrying, some flipping through, and some tidying up the many files on the table.

No one was in the mood to complain; they were all very quiet. After a long while, one of them finally said, "When will these large storerooms be sorted out?"

The person next to him said, "Over the years, I heard that since the construction of Liutahe started, all the files have been left here and no one has paid attention to them. When those people with connections were in charge, they worked for several months but didn't get much done. Now that we've come here, we only arrived yesterday and are already urging for progress today—truly, different people have different fates!"

"Everyone talks about kings, nobles, generals, and ministers! Alas! Today, their superiors have arrived; I wonder how they'll make a scene!"

"Which of them doesn't know powerful and high-ranking officials? Even if they don't show their faces this time, are they afraid they won't have a chance in the future?" The speaker became increasingly angry. "They do nothing all day long, yet they want to steal our credit and our opportunities! How can they be so shameless!"

Once it started, others joined in the complaints.

Finally, one of them sighed and said, "All the people we've replaced are people who have never done this before. Who went to measure the data for the Jiahe River, the Jianhe River, and the main road yesterday and today?"

"The river is already dredged, what's the point of measuring it? You're really making a fuss over the Romance of the Three Kingdoms! Mind your own business! Think about yourself instead!"

"Even if they don't know how to do it, Cai Lufen does. Surely he can teach them. Why worry about that!"

"I'm not worried about that... It's really troublesome to test. Even though we're all experienced, we can still almost fall into the water if we're not careful. Which of us hasn't fallen in before?"

"What's wrong with them falling in once? We can fall in, but they can't?" "I want them to fall in the water a lot! I'd love for them to choke and suffer, that would satisfy my anger—it's a pity there aren't any fierce shrimp or crabs in the water, otherwise I could pinch them a few times with my pincers!"

Everyone knew this was just wishful thinking, and they all laughed. But as they laughed, they couldn't help but feel sad when they thought about how pitiful they were, with a bunch of powerful and wealthy young men taking over their place.

Just as everyone was sighing, footsteps sounded outside, and a moment later, a person pushed open the door and entered, looking shocked.

"I just went to the prefectural government office to deliver some documents, and I saw that the front gate was wide open, and that Councilor Li and the imperial envoy had arrived!"

"That's not surprising, is it? Didn't we already say it would happen today?"

"They'll probably be heading to Liutahe soon, I wonder how they'll behave..."

The newcomer swallowed hard and said, "If you're talking about those... I'm afraid I won't be able to perform them!"

A few people raised their heads here and there.

The man said, "I...I just heard that people came from the Liuta River, and some people from the Chanzhou government also came to report that the Liuta River overflowed its banks and broke—a lot of Shezhe people have been swept away by the flood!"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room looked up, their eyes wide with shock. At first glance, the room was indeed filled with wide-eyed stares.

"No!! No, how could it have flooded! It was perfectly fine yesterday?"

"I heard that not long after we left yesterday afternoon, Lü Goudang dredged the river. At the time, nothing seemed amiss, but by nightfall, the river suddenly overflowed its banks and destroyed the dike! Some of them..."

This person imitated the behavior of many extravagant young men and concluded: "They said they were going to have a grand celebration on stage... I don't know if they actually had any fun, but it seems like seven or eight of them went missing—with such a flood, it's really possible they couldn't be saved!"

No one in the room spoke; instead, they all looked at the man who had just said he hoped the powerful fish and shrimp would use their pincers to pinch people.

The man, already quite taken aback, became even more flustered when he saw others looking at him, and said, "I...I didn't really mean to ask them to feed the fish!"

But soon someone continued the conversation.

"how so!"

"The Liuta River draws water from the main river! What will happen to the people downstream if the dam collapses?"

"People can hide, but what about houses? And farmland! The autumn harvest is just around the corner, if they get flooded... Oh my god, I don't even want to think about it!"

"So, is disaster relief being carried out now?"

"Can we lend a hand?"

"What effort are you going to put in?"

“We know the way well! We measure the route all day long, we know better than the average person where there are villages and paths along the way—you know, I’m a little worried. Liulin Village is by the river and not on the main road. If I hadn’t lost my water bag once and gone there to borrow water because I saw smoke from a chimney, I’m afraid I would have had a hard time finding it even with a map—I hope nothing’s wrong with this village!”

"The water depth and speed have been rising for the past few days, and there has been no rain. I was worried that there was a flood upstream—but who would have thought!"

"I was just thinking the same thing. The water level is rising higher every day, and they're not afraid at all. But then I thought, with Lü Gou Dang here, he knows the most about water affairs, so it's not my place to speak!"

A group of students belatedly realized what was happening and hurriedly selected people to go. They first looked for Cai Xiu, but couldn't find her, so they simply looked for other officials and said they were willing to participate in leading the disaster relief efforts. Sure enough, they were included in the team.

Li Zhai, who was stationed in Chanzhou City, watched as orders were issued and news reports came back. Although he remained outwardly calm, he was extremely anxious inside.

He quickly arranged for someone to draft a report urging for manpower and materials, with the most important materials being coarse cloth and grain.

The rest can be done later, but if there aren't enough people, then there's no way to rescue anyone. Some villages were completely flooded, with only rooftops remaining. Even if people escaped to higher ground, the government had to quickly distribute food, otherwise how could they survive?

The memorial was sent out very quickly.

Watching the hurried man leave for the capital, Li Zhai still felt no relief whatsoever.

It's the same old story.

Make bricks without straw.

Everything else is fine, but disaster relief and aid supplies have to be transferred and transported from various places, mostly from the south. However, the canal's transport capacity is limited, and it also needs to supply the capital. It is unknown how the capital will cope.

After thinking for a moment, he arranged for someone to write several more letters, which were then quickly sent to the capital.

Meanwhile, in the capital city, in Suanzao Lane near Zhuque Gate, unlike the anxious and busy Chanzhou government office, Song Miao was leisurely making steamed buns.

Yesterday, Master Cao sent someone with a message, rambling on about one thing: his act of coming to eat at their house had been exposed by the other old men, and he had been scolded. Having no other choice, he came to ask if it would be convenient for him to cook a few side dishes and send them over tomorrow at noon.

The group had almost finished their business trip and would be able to return to the Imperial Academy the next day. However, they still couldn't go out to eat. They asked Song Miaoru if it was convenient for her to prepare something, and they would arrange for someone to go out and pick it up.

He also said that salt-baked baby crab would be best, but if not, anything would do, meat or vegetables, he wouldn't be picky.

In addition to the verbal message, a string of copper coins was also presented, which was paid for by Master Cao himself.

Having received the money and the information, Song Miao got to work seriously.

Young crabs are a rare treat, and there aren't any available today. But seeing how much Master Cao longs for them, he probably craves both salt-baked crab and crab, especially the crab roe inside.

Unable to find suitable crabs, Song Miao switched to shrimp—a type of large-headed, hard-shelled shrimp that doesn't absorb flavor well in everyday cooking, but is perfect for salt-baking.

Besides shrimp, there were several side dishes. The main course was steamed buns, which were ordered yesterday. In addition to several flavors that the old men usually love, she also added crispy steamed buns.

Just this morning, Han Li sent someone to deliver a large bucket of milk and ice, as well as many salted duck eggs that Master Chen had sent last time. Today, he also took the opportunity to pass on a message from Master Cao, telling Song Miao not to stay too long and to remember to eat them.

With ice and salted duck eggs, it's a perfect match for steamed buns of the same color. Although it can't compare to crab roe, it has a similar taste.

(End of this chapter)