Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

From the moment the victims began to migrate, countless merits surged into her dantian.

This was the first time she saw the concrete appearance of merit.

Those were some golden spots of light that were different from spiritual energy. They required a lot of energy to be gathered to be "seen", but could not be perceived. They directly flowed into the Dantian from the surrounding void and then attached to the Dantian.

As the migration progressed, the golden spots became more and more numerous, forming a thick layer in the Dantian.

It looks like one third of the Dantian is filled with golden merit spots.

In fact, it does not affect the spiritual energy capacity of Dantian at all.

All in all, this is a very peculiar substance.

What is even more gratifying is that after gaining so much merit, the speed at which she absorbed spiritual energy directly became three times faster than before.

This was far beyond her original expectations.

She originally thought that even if she regained merit, the speed of absorbing spiritual energy would only be twice as fast as before. Unexpectedly, it was even faster than she thought.

She broke through to the third level of Qi Refining in mid-April.

According to the initial speed, plus the consumption of spiritual energy, it will take more than nine months, which is around the end of the first lunar month of next year, to break through the fourth level of Qi Refining.

Now, in just about a month and a half, she would be able to be promoted directly to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

By then, she will be able to release her true energy, and she will truly possess the attack power of a cultivator and be more like an "immortal".

This was the first time she felt the true power of merit, and she suddenly understood why those meritorious monks seemed to be kind, but people in the cultivation world generally did not dare to provoke them.

Merit is more powerful than she imagined.

As a person in a higher position, you can gain so much merit just by making some arrangements and deployments without having to do anything yourself.

This is just the result of controlling a small number of powerful people in the southern capital.

The book says that when the emperor was angry, millions of people died.

If she were in a higher position, her casual words would undoubtedly influence more people.

If it is planned more carefully, what great merits can it bring to her!

Suppressing his expanding ambition, Chen Qingzhu immersed himself in cultivation once again.

A tall tree attracts the wind. If you want to stand at a higher position, you must have stronger power.

The dignitaries in the capital and the emperor in the Golden Palace are not as docile and easy to control as her current followers.

Before thinking about these distant things, it would be more practical for her to quickly cultivate to the fourth level of Qi Refining and bring Rong Niang back to her side.

*

Thanks to the efforts of Duke Dingguo, Yan Tongzhi and others, all the relief supplies and money allocated from various places arrived in full.

These disaster victims in Southern Zhili were almost the ones who received the best resettlement treatment in the history of the country.

When the Embroidered Uniform Guards and factory supervisors came to inspect, every day they could hear the people praising and thanking the disaster relief officials, the wealthy businessmen who were helping, as well as the court and the emperor.

More than 20 days later, in mid-September, the flood that had spread across half of South Zhili gradually receded.

In the Southern Capital City, people were sent to the worst-hit areas every three days to investigate the flood situation. They learned that the water had gradually receded and the weather in the middle and upper reaches was gradually clearing up. The court began to organize the affected people to return home.

They would not be able to return to their hometown until late September at the latest. Although they had missed the wheat planting season, they could still sow some barley, broad beans and other crops so as to avoid a total harvest next year.

Some young laborers who were extremely poor in their hometowns and found jobs outside the city of Nando this time, after calculating their income for the whole year, applied to the government to stay in Nando to work temporarily.

Considering that they missed the planting time due to the flood after they returned, there might be famine next year.

After discussing with local officials, Tongzhi Yan approved these people to stay temporarily.

Therefore, among the families of the disaster victims who had several able-bodied laborers, half of them left one able-bodied laborer to work in Nandu. Among these people, more than half were absorbed by Chen Qingzhu's followers, totaling several thousand people.

The rest of the people returned to their hometowns under the organization of the government to prepare for post-disaster reconstruction.

The wealthy businessmen in Yangzhou and Nandu City not only transported a lot of food to the disaster area, but also sold it to the victims at a fair price to help them overcome the post-disaster food shortage crisis.

Before leaving, the Nandu Chamber of Commerce joined forces with the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce to raise tens of thousands of taels of silver again, and gave each victim, regardless of gender, age or status, a donation of 100 wen.

As a result, every family, regardless of whether they originally had money or not, will now have an additional income of several hundred coins.

If you buy coarse grains, a little savings will give the whole family enough to eat until the New Year.

With this money, even the poorest families don't have to worry about starving to death.

All those orphans without parents were taken in by the Salesian Church newly built by the Nandu Chamber of Commerce in the east of Nandu City.

Many of the hundreds of thousands of disaster victims died in tears, all of them grateful to the many charitable businessmen from the Nandu Chamber of Commerce and the Yangzhou Chamber of Commerce.

*

The disaster victims who returned to their hometowns were heartbroken but also grateful when they saw their collapsed houses and completely submerged roofs.

Fortunately, the government allowed them to move early.

Otherwise, with the terrible extent of this flood, countless people would have been drowned.

Valuable food, livestock, winter clothes, quilts, silver and other items in the home will be swept away by the flood.

Although the losses are huge, the most crucial things have been preserved. With the help of those righteous businessmen, everyone has hope of survival.

Everyone once again expressed gratitude to the imperial court and the merchants and officials who participated in the disaster relief efforts.

The government roughly counted the number of deaths in the flood and finally concluded that among the hundreds of thousands of people in several counties, less than 600 people died of illness, and the rest were all safe and sound.

This is a major flood.

Among all the natural disasters in the history of the country, this one had the lowest death toll.

Several county magistrates in the disaster-stricken areas also felt very lucky.

When their superiors ordered them to migrate, they thought it was troublesome. But when they came back and saw the water level, they realized what a wise decision it was.

Otherwise, even if they did not die in the flood, they would probably be punished by the court if they survived.

Nowadays, as long as you manage the post-disaster reconstruction well, even if you don’t say you have made any contribution, at least you don’t have to worry about losing your official position.

*

In the Nandu government office, the prefect felt very complicated when he saw Yan Tongzhi, who had sent away the disaster victims and returned to the government office to work.

"Brother Qingzhi, you have made great contributions in this disaster relief effort. I'm afraid you will be promoted soon, right?"

Yan Tongzhi was also very happy.

He himself did not expect that with everyone working together, such good disaster relief results could be achieved.

This time, no one can be left out from the award from the higher-ups, but Yan Qingzhi will be left out!

He was very humble and politely bowed:

"Your support and cooperation are also indispensable! The court will definitely not forget your contribution!"

The prefect curled his lips.

Everyone knows that it was Yan Tongzhi who was in charge of this disaster relief effort from beginning to end.

Among the disaster victims, all of them knew the good name of Yan Qingtian.

Even those cunning wealthy businessmen were able to be so generous this time and donate money, materials and manpower because of a pre-disaster relief fundraising organized by Yan Tongzhi.

The prefect sighed and said sincerely:

"Brother Qingzhi, everyone knows that the merchants played a huge role in this disaster relief. Can you tell me how you made them so generous?"

Businessmen are so cunning that it is not easy to take money from them.

If he knew this trick, he wouldn't have to worry about not making money or getting promoted in the future.

Yan Tongzhi played dumb:

"Sir, I really didn't do anything special. I just appealed to their emotions and reason, asking them to do good deeds for their descendants. I don't know how they were persuaded by me."

The reason why it went so smoothly was, of course, all thanks to the master of the temple.

But the abbot of the temple did not want to become famous, and had clearly ordered that no one should know about the existence of Cihang Temple in this disaster relief effort. How could he disobey the abbot's orders!

Seeing that he refused to say anything, the prefect did not blame him.

After all, this is the key secret to promotion and wealth, and it cannot be easily passed on to anyone other than the closest of relatives and friends.

Moreover, seeing that Yan Tongzhi was bound to be promoted, and maybe even be at the same level as him in the future, he couldn't force him to question him and offend him.

*

The gathering of disaster victims outside the city had some impact on the lives of the people inside the city.

Now that the victims have been evacuated, everyone's life has returned to normal.

People's attention shifted back to the provincial examination which had just ended.

The results of the provincial examination are usually announced one month later.

Before, I was paying attention to the disaster victims outside the city, and the days passed quickly.

A few days after the victims were evacuated, the day arrived when the results would be posted.

The Qiao family sent servants to the public notice area outside the Imperial Examination Hall early in the morning to monitor the list.

Even the Qin family sent someone to check the list because of Master Qiao's failure again.