Restart the Disaster of Another World

After seeing Wen Yu and Jing Yao off, Village Chief Qian heaved a long sigh of relief, as if a heavy weight had finally fallen off his shoulders. He turned his head and stared at his son beside him, his eyes full of anxiety and expectation, and asked softly, "How is it going? Is there any news from the county?"

His eldest son Qian Dong had a solemn expression, frowned tightly, and shook his head with a sad face: "No, I heard that our disaster report was suppressed."

Hearing this news, Village Chief Qian's face turned pale instantly, his body shook involuntarily, and he almost fell to the ground. He closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths, and tried to calm himself down.

"Father!" Seeing this, Qian Dong quickly reached out to support Village Chief Qian, shouting with concern on his face.

Village Chief Qian slowly opened his eyes and gently waved his hands to indicate that he was fine. He took a deep breath and said in a trembling voice, "I'm fine." However, his haggard face could not hide the worry and pain in his heart.

Things like people freezing to death on the road and eating their own children are not just talk, but real things that happen.

Not to mention the ancient times when productivity was low, even in modern times, many people had to gnaw on tree roots due to hunger, and even starved to death.

When Wen Yu and others went there the next day, Village Chief Qian had already agreed.

"Every winter, food is scarce at home and it's cold, so there are always deaths in the village," said Village Chief Qian with a serious expression.

Wen Yu was silent for a long time, feeling heavy-hearted, and asked in a dull voice, "Is this the case in other villages as well?"

"Our Sanqiao Village, Sanshi Village, Xiawan Village, Dashi Village..." Village Chief Qian counted on his fingers and listed several village names one by one. He then said, "The situation in our villages is almost the same. I don't know about those farther away. It was better in the past. The food we grew was barely enough to fill our stomachs. Later..."

He stopped talking here, but everyone understood what he meant. Later, due to continuous drought, abnormal climate change, inaction of the government, and increased taxes, the villagers' lives became increasingly difficult.

Half of what they worked so hard to grow had to be handed over to the state, and the other half was used to feed themselves. If they saved some food, they could sell it in town and exchange it for some silver to buy oil, salt and other necessities of life. In winter, when the weather was cold, they could also buy a few feet of cloth and some cotton to make new clothes for their families.

"In the past, the county magistrate wanted to achieve political achievements, so too many people from our village went there, and they were fined as a result." The year before last, a total of twelve people died in Sanqiao Village, including three children under one month old, a man, a husband, and two women. The rest were elderly.

Not all of these people died of starvation. Several died from catching a cold and being unable to pay for medical treatment.

When the county magistrate learned about this, he was very angry. He ordered the yamen runners to call over several village heads and give them a severe scolding.

"If you are hungry, buy food! If you are cold, buy medicine! Don't you understand this principle?" Everyone knows this principle. But where does the money come from? The food grown in the fields is not enough to eat. If you go to the town to help with the work, you can only get a few copper coins a day. After taking it home, you are reluctant to spend it. You have to save it because you have to pay the head tax later.

The head tax is too heavy! So what if I just don't have children? No! I don't want to have children, but what can I do if I get pregnant? I can't have no descendants!

If you don’t have descendants, how will you face your ancestors in the underworld after you die?

At lunch time, the group came to Village Chief Qian's house and prepared to have lunch.

Village Chief Qian warmly invited them to sit down and asked his eldest son to catch a chicken to entertain the guests. However, Wen Yu quickly waved his hand to stop them, saying that it was not necessary to go through so much trouble. In the end, a pot of "porridge" and two dishes of stir-fried vegetables were placed on the table.

Village Chief Qian's hands, as rough as old tree bark, kept rubbing on his legs, looking reserved and uneasy. He said sincerely, "I don't have any good things at home, please don't despise me, my dear friends."

Jing Yao silently recalled the brown rice he had eaten when he first arrived. Although it tasted rough and hard to swallow, it at least looked appetizing. However, the bowl of sticky, weird-colored, indescribable "porridge" in front of him exuded a strange smell that really made him lose his appetite.

But this is considered to be relatively affordable food for the villagers. A few days ago, there were people here who couldn’t even afford these things and ended up starving to death.

After leaving Ronghe Village, Wen Yu and his party continued to ride forward, and successively went to Rongxing Village, Xiawan Village and other villages for inspection. The situation in these villages was exactly the same as that in Ronghe Village, which was worrying.

The villagers we met along the way had gray faces, tired expressions, and no vitality, perhaps due to long-term hunger and cold.

This scene was far more serious than what was described in the memorial, and seeing it with one's own eyes was shocking and heartbreaking.

People often say "to get rich, build roads first". But now it seems that the first thing to solve is the water problem. In such a poor situation, even basic food and clothing are difficult to guarantee, and even building roads will not help.

After a whole day of patrolling, night fell and Wen Yu and others returned to the government office in Anhe Town to spend the night.

This area is dry, with little rainfall in the summer. There are many modern drought-resistant crops, but here in the summer, when the weather gets dry, it seems that the only thing we can grow is sweet potatoes.

This problem must be resolved.

Wen Yu took out the map he brought again. Jing Yao saw him look at it for a while, then he drew two dots on the map and then froze, as if he had entered his own world. It was unknown what he was thinking about.

When they got up in the morning, Wen Yu gave an order and the group headed towards Qingyang County, galloping all the way until they reached the Jiaqing River.

Zhou Lin and several others were not clear about Wen Yu's intention, they just followed him silently, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

As the road upstream of the Jiaqing River was blocked, they had to give up riding and move on foot. Leaving two guards to watch over the horses, the rest of them began to climb the mountain with great effort, and even in the cold weather, they were sweating.

Finally reaching the upstream, Wen Yu looked around, took out the map again, and carefully compared the surrounding environment.

Zhou Lin asked Jing Yao curiously: "Brother Jing, what is the master doing?"

Jing Yao shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either, but he believed that his elder brother must have his own ideas.

After Wen Yu put away the map, he turned to look at the people behind him and asked, "Who among you can swim?"

The river water seemed a bit turbid, and it was impossible to see the bottom clearly. Hearing this question, several guards raised their hands.

Wen Yu nodded with satisfaction and said, "Very good." Then he told Zhou Lin to go up the mountain to cut down some small branches, peel off their leaves, and then tie them together with ropes to form a long stick.

Then, Wen Yu pointed at the two guards and said, "You two go to the middle of the river and measure the water depth." The weather was cold at the time, but the two guards took off their clothes and jumped into the river without hesitation.

A guard approached Zhou Lin curiously and asked, "Boss, why do you think the Lord did this?"

Wen Yu's series of actions are indeed puzzling. Sanqiao Village is short of water, but Fang Zichen went to the Jiaqing River to investigate. These two things seem to be subtly related.

But... it's obviously unrealistic to ask the common people to come here to fetch water! Not to mention that there is a rocky and difficult-to-cross mountain in between. Even if they turn from Qingyang County, they will have to gallop all the way without stopping for a moment, and it will take most of the day!

Zhou Lin was unsure and was about to shake his head to indicate that he didn't know, when the two guards who had gone down to the river to measure the water depth came out.

The two men were shivering with cold, their faces turned purple and their lips turned black. They shivered as they warmed themselves to the fire. Only after they had warmed themselves up and put on their clothes did they speak in reply.

It turns out that the water system in Qingyang County is not well developed, with only one widest and longest river, named Jiaqing River.

Eight out of ten times when Qingyang County suffered floods, it was because of this river bursting its banks. What's even more strange is that the location of the breach was exactly the same each time.

When the Jiaqing River flows from its source through Qingyang County, it must pass through Siguniang Mountain.

Siguniang Mountain is composed of four peaks standing side by side. The two peaks in the middle and on the left are towering into the clouds, majestic and spectacular, and a deep and huge valley is formed between the two mountains. The peak on the right is relatively short, and there is a wide plain between it and the peak in the middle.

The Jiaqing River winds through the large plain between the middle peak and the right peak. It is a vast and flat land, but it is also a huge challenge. It is extremely difficult to build a river bank here. The ground is all loose sand and soil. Once a flood hits, the bank will burst in an instant.

Once, a capable person in the Ministry of Works put forward a bold idea. He hoped that the Jiaqing River could be changed to flow between the middle mountain and the left mountain.

In this way, the large col can become a natural reservoir that can store a large amount of river water.

Not only that, even if the exit is blocked and cannot be drained, this large valley can buy people more time, giving them the opportunity to pack up more belongings and evacuate safely.

Moreover, when encountering floods, the losses of the people can be minimized.

However, it is not easy to realize the river diversion. The imperial court has allocated funds to the county for more than ten years, but so far, not even a prototype has been built.

Jing Yao suddenly realized: "So you want to change the river's course!"

"Yes." Wen Yu nodded solemnly. "I want to try and see if it works. If it succeeds, the people of Qingyang County will no longer have to worry about starving to death."

After listening to this, Wen Yu had an idea in his mind. He turned around and continued to observe the mountain in front of him.

Zhou Lin heard Jing Yao sighing, and said with his hands on his waist in distress: "It's not easy to blow up this mountain!"

What? Zhou Lin suspected that he had heard it wrong. Before he could recover from the shock, he heard Wen Qun say "Oh" in surprise: "Ayao, do you want to blow up this mountain?"

Jing Yao nodded and said, "Yes! However, the explosives need to be improved, otherwise this power may not be enough to shake this mountain."

At this time, not only Zhou Lin, but also several guards on the side heard Jing Yao's words clearly.

Bombing? What to use to blow it up? Although they were not ignorant, they usually worked in the palace and would go to teahouses to listen to stories in their spare time. They had heard of all kinds of strange stories, but blasting a mountain was something they had never heard of or seen before.

Zhou Lin looked at Jing Yao with a slightly gloomy gaze. Wen Yu's tone just now was very calm without any surprise or astonishment. Is this method really feasible?

There has always been only one way to flatten a mountain, and that is to use a large number of manpower to dig and dig. Moreover, the premise of all this is that the mountain can be dug. The rocks on this rocky mountain are extremely hard, and a hoe can break them in half. If these rocks can be flattened and moved, the common people would have done it themselves long ago without the officials saying anything.

Although common people are uneducated, they are not stupid.

Is this young man just boasting? On the way down the mountain, Zhou Lin began to wonder again: "Sir, what are you doing here at the Jiaqing River? And you're doing some kind of survey?"

"Look at the amount of water!" Seeing that he was still confused, Wen Yu said more bluntly: "If you pour a bowl of water on the ground, it can only flow more than one meter; but if you pour a basin of water on the ground, it can flow more than ten meters."

"If the Jiaqing River does not have much water, even if we blew up the mountain and dug the river channel with great difficulty, and the water flows through but there is not enough water, then all our work will be in vain," Jing Yao said with a sigh.

Sanqiao Village, Sanshi Village and other nine villages are far apart. On the left end of the mountain range is the Jiaqing River, and on the right end is Xiawan Village. It extends further down to Dashi Village at the very end, which is about tens of kilometers away.

If the water volume of Jiaqing River is insufficient, then even if the newly dug river channel can absorb the water, it may not be able to divert the water to Dashi Village.

In addition, if diversion is carried out, the water level of the Jiaqing River will inevitably drop. Whether this will have an impact on Qingyang County is also one of the factors that need to be considered.

After passing through Qingyang County, the Jiaqing River eventually merges into the Chang River. Therefore, if a new river channel is to be excavated, in order to avoid causing damage to other areas, the principle of "different paths leading to the same destination" must be followed, that is, the newly excavated river channel must also be connected to the Chang River.

Zhou Lin wanted to ask several times about the method and feasibility of blasting the mountain, but in the end he did not ask.

When he first came, Xuanyuan Ting had already told him to follow Wen Yu and Jing Yao's arrangements, so he didn't ask much. And now that he heard Wen Yu and Jing Yao's clear and thoughtful explanations, he felt that they seemed quite reliable, so he stopped asking questions.

After returning to the government office, they rested for a night, and the next day, several people set out again.

This time they went directly to Xiawan Village. Fang Zichen carefully observed and determined the terrain and the places that needed to be blasted and opened, and marked them. Then, they began to check one village after another and one piece of land after another.

It is also a problem to determine the direction in which the river should be dug. It should be convenient for people to wash clothes and irrigate farmland, but it should not occupy too much good farmland.

If this river channel, which is tens of kilometers long, is to be dug out, it will take a lot of manpower. Moreover, we cannot let people work for nothing. Therefore, we must carefully calculate how to dig in the most cost-effective way.

Wen Yu kept recording various data and information from Xiawan Village to Dashi Village at the end. It took him twelve days to travel around on horseback.

Jing Yao and Wen Qun stopped following Wen Yu around a few days ago. Jing Yao took the four of them out shopping.