Gou becomes a boss in the fairy world.

Chapter 1477: Tempering the Heart in the Mortal World (Twenty-one)

Although Qing'an County did not fall, the damage caused to the county by the bandit army was heavy and lasting.

The county town with a population of tens of thousands lost a large number of young and strong men, so Ye Xiangming had to recruit able-bodied men from the countryside and train them to make up for the losses of the garrison troops.

In order to prevent the bandits from attacking again, the garrison of Qing'an County was expanded to 700 people.

Fortunately, I had made a lot of money from copying the big investors before, otherwise I really wouldn’t be able to afford it.

After the situation inside and outside the county town was completely stabilized, Ye Xiangming sent a message to the provincial capital, informing them of the murder of the county magistrate Yu Heqian and a group of gentry.

Half a month later, someone from the provincial capital delivered the appointment letter and commendation order.

Ye Xiangming was appointed as the magistrate of Qing'an County, and concurrently served as the county magistrate, in charge of the military and political affairs of the entire county.

This means that Ye Xiangming is not only the number one figure in Qing'an County, but also has unparalleled power.

The city actually had no choice as the bandit army was harassing everywhere in the city, repeatedly threatening the safety of the city.

Under such circumstances, no one would be willing to go to the most dangerous county to be an official.

He simply promoted Ye Xiangming half a level and left him and Qing'an County to fend for themselves.

For the masters in the capital city, nothing is more important than the safety of their own family.

As for the murder of County Magistrate Yu Heqian, the prefectural government had no interest in investigating it.

Anyway, Ye Xiangming can say whatever he wants, as long as he doesn't ask for help from the provincial capital.

In times of crisis, everyone can only take care of themselves.

The newly appointed county magistrate Ye Xiangming, who held great power, was not very happy about his promotion, because after the bandit army retreated, the drought showed no signs of easing, and water and land transportation were basically cut off.

What is most infuriating is that the bandit army destroyed more than a dozen gravity-flowing water wheels set up on both sides of the Qingshui River, causing large tracts of rice fields to lose irrigation and suffer a complete crop failure.

Ye Xiangming could only curse while organizing people to rebuild the waterwheel, and then try his best to save the rice fields that had not yet failed.

It’s more tiring than dealing with an army of bandits!

"This is a thief!"

That day, Wang Chen and Ye Dai went to the county government office to visit Ye Xiangming. While drinking the nourishing soup cooked by his daughter, Ye Xiangming cursed: "Why haven't you left yet? You are going to kill us all!"

Although the gravity water wheel was rebuilt as quickly as possible, the water level of the Qingshui River dropped sharply, which greatly reduced the water collection effect of the water wheel.

A poor grain harvest in Qing'an County this year is a foregone conclusion. It is currently estimated that the harvest may not even reach 30% of that in a normal year.

This is very scary.

If the drought continues, we will be thankful if we can store only 10% or 20% of the grain in the autumn harvest as in previous years!

Moreover, the water routes have been completely cut off by bandits, the trade routes are deserted, and Qing'an County is unable to purchase grain from outside even if it has money. It is equivalent to being trapped here.

"A good son-in-law."

Ye Xiangming put down the bowl of soup in his hand, looking a little embarrassed to speak: "I need to trouble you with something."

He wanted to reopen the trade route and buy a batch of grain from the south and bring it back to Qing'an County.

However, it was obviously unrealistic to expect local merchants to accomplish this task, so the county government planned to organize a caravan to go to the south to purchase grain.

Ye Xiangming hopes that Wang Chen can serve as the leader of this caravan!

"I really have no choice."

Ye Xiangming said helplessly: "The grain stored in the county treasury is not enough for tens of thousands of people in the city to survive the famine. If we can't buy grain, many people will probably die in the next two years."

He knew very well that, given the current situation, leading a caravan out to buy food was a very dangerous task.

It’s a long journey, and it takes one or two months to go back and forth, during which time anything can happen.

But Ye Xiangming had no other choice.

He used to be the county magistrate and only had to worry about military affairs, but now he is in charge of both military and political affairs. After taking over the county government, he discovered that Qing'an County had huge problems.

Take the most important county warehouse for example, the grain stored there is less than one-third of the prescribed level!

So where did the other two-thirds of the stored grain go?
Ye Xiangming wanted to investigate, but the treasurer set himself and his entire family on fire.

Including the account books!

Ye Xiangming knew that there were too many tricks involved, but he couldn't clean up the county government again, right?

It can't function normally.

Fortunately, a large amount of gold and silver was seized during the previous house search, so he could only hope to purchase grain from outside to solve the problem.

"Daddy!"

Ye Dai was horrified. She didn't expect that her father couldn't wait to push Wang Chen into the kang just after drinking the nourishing soup.

Even though she was gentle and filial by nature, she couldn't help but get angry at this moment: "How could you do this?"

Ye Xiangming smiled bitterly and said, "Dai'er, it's not that Daddy is heartless, it's really... Alas!"

He has been worried and exhausted during this period of time, and his hair has turned a lot greyer. He looks particularly haggard with a sad face.

Ye Dai was speechless for a moment.

"fine."

Wang Chen patted his wife's hand, then said to Ye Xiangming: "Leave this matter to me."

Since he married Ye Dai, he had to take on the karma of his wife's family, not to mention that it also involved the common people of Qing'an County.

Ye Xiangming was delighted: "That's great."

Apart from Wang Chen, there is really no other suitable person to choose for this matter.

After getting Wang Chen's promise, Ye Xiangming organized a large caravan as quickly as possible.

To ensure safety, he also selected 300 well-trained garrison soldiers, as well as the escort masters and porters from the county, as well as a larger number of servants.

This brought the total number of people in the caravan to over eight hundred.

Because only with so many people can basic safety be guaranteed and food needed to supply tens of thousands of people can be transported back.

All the mules, horses and trucks in the county town were also withdrawn.

Three days later, the caravan left Qing'an County and headed for Yunze Prefecture under the leadership of Wang Chen.

Before leaving, Ye Dai and others moved to the county government office.

Yunze Prefecture is adjacent to Changyi Prefecture, and its area is much larger than Changyi Prefecture. There are many swamps in the territory, so even if there is a severe drought all year round, there is enough water to irrigate the farmland.

It can be called a land of fish and rice.

In previous years, Changyi Prefecture also often purchased grain from Yunze Prefecture, and the caravans usually traveled by water.
However, the drought in Changyi Prefecture is extremely serious now. Many rivers have dried up. Not only are the waterways blocked by bandits, but they are also unable to carry large merchant ships.

Therefore, the caravans from Qing'an County could only travel by land.

In order to avoid encountering a large army of bandits, the caravan deliberately made a long detour to the west after leaving the county town. After more than half a month of arduous journey, they finally entered the territory of Yunze Prefecture.

The journey was relatively smooth. We did not encounter any bandits, and the few rural thieves could not pose any danger to the caravan.

However, after arriving at Yunze Mansion, the situation changed.
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