Aunt Chen is back from the world of cultivation

The two boats met briefly.

The ship that Chen Qingzhu was on continued to move north along the canal.

Zuo Yujiang and his crew's boat remained where it was, waiting for the local government to send someone over.

The people who went out to deliver the letter were Zuo Yujiang's servants and the guards on the boat.

They were looking for the magistrate of Jiyuan County, which was closest to the river.

Seeing Zuo Yujiang's seal, the magistrate of Jiyuan County did not dare to delay and quickly organized a large number of people and vehicles in the county to come and receive the passengers on the ship.

After all, there were many injured people on the ship and they had to be properly treated by doctors.

The hull was also damaged and needed to be repaired before it could sail further.

Therefore, all passengers had to temporarily disembark and rest in Jiyuan County before continuing their journey.

The bodies of the bandits filled more than a dozen carts, and there was also a long line of living bandits.

Such a large event entering the county town naturally caused quite a stir.

The miraculous deeds of a deity named Du'e Zunzhe, who killed the bandits and saved the passengers on the boat, were also widely circulated throughout Jiyuan County.

Among them, all the dignitaries who were rescued donated money to build a temple near the river for the gods who saved them.

Although not everyone is as wealthy as the wealthy businessman named Jiang, who was able to donate one thousand taels at a time, but there are many people, and the people who survived the entire ship raised a total of more than two thousand taels of charity.

They did not have much time to stay here and wait for the temple to be built, so they sent the money to the county government with drums and gongs, and entrusted the county magistrate to send people to build the Temple of Du'e Venerable.

The reason for doing this is naturally to prevent the county magistrate from embezzling charity funds.

Of course, they were not completely ignorant. In addition to the donations, they also gave an extra 500 taels to the county magistrate as a reward for his hard work.

Such a scene once again became a legend in Jiyuan County.

When the temple was completed, it became very popular.

When the passengers on the ship arrived at their destinations or returned to their hometowns, the miracles of Venerable Du'e spread again in a small area.

*

Chen Qingzhu and others continued to move north.

During this period, no other pirates were encountered.

Because only three days after passing Jeju, the canal was no longer passable.

The captain sent a small boat forward to investigate the situation, and when he came back he said apologetically:

"Boss, I'm really sorry. I heard that it hasn't rained in Liaozhou Prefecture for a month. The water in the canal is not deep enough for our ship to pass. How about I refund you half of the fare?"

Chen Qingzhu looked at the river in the distance. There was only two meters of water in the widest place, and the rest was full of exposed silt, which could only barely allow small boats to pass. The two-story boat they were riding on was completely useless.

She did not embarrass the captain and said directly:

"Then let's go back to the last dock and take the land route instead."

Now that we are close to Liaozhou, we are only halfway to the capital. Since the canal is impassable, we can only take the land route first.

The ship docked at a county pier called Hexing. Chen Qingzhu gave Qin Yongming 1,200 taels of silver and asked him to take people to the county to buy a carriage.

The group purchased a total of ten carriages to accommodate people and luggage.

Although traveling by land is bumpy, it is more interesting than traveling by water.

Qin Yongming planned the itinerary very well. They could rest in different counties almost every day, stay in inns and have a good night's sleep, and taste delicacies from different places.

Even a nice bath is available.

However, there has been a long period of drought in Liaozhou, and the water from the wells in the city is very slow. Water has to be drawn from outside the city every day to meet the water demand, so hot water in the inn is very expensive.

What's worse is that after leaving Liaozhou and entering Linzhou, the weather became drier and hotter.

The sky was clear, high and vast, as blue as a mirror, with not even a few clouds to be seen.

Chen Qingzhu knew that there had been many natural disasters in her previous life, but what she knew was limited to those that destroyed the homes of local people or caused serious reductions in grain production.

There would be no reduction in grain production in Liaozhou and Linzhou during this drought month, and it was probably not reported at all, so she didn't know about it.

On this day, Chen Qingzhu was practicing when he suddenly heard a loud bang coming from the carriage behind him.

She opened the car door and saw that the servant of a car behind her had fallen to the ground.

The horse in the carriage he was driving fell to its knees and foamed at the mouth.

Chen Qingzhu immediately got out of the car and went to check on the servant. He found that he only had superficial injuries and was not seriously injured. Then he went to check on the horse.

The horse was drenched in sweat, foam was coming out of its mouth, and the breath coming out of its nose was extremely hot.

It's obviously heatstroke.

Chen Qingzhu frowned slightly. This was her negligence.

As a cultivator, she has water spiritual roots and is immune to cold and heat. Normal temperature changes in the outside world have no effect on her.

Rong Niang was in the same car with her. Because she had practiced martial arts and was in the car, although she was sweating, she was able to withstand such high temperatures.

The servants driving the carriages had shields over their heads to block the scorching sun, but the horses pulling the carriages not only had to exert their energy, but were also directly exposed to the scorching sun.

No wonder you get heat stroke.

"Stop first!"

she shouted.

Although the Qin family's servants did not know her identity, they knew that their eldest master respected her, and they hurriedly stopped the carriage upon hearing this.

"Boss, what's wrong?"

Qin Yongming hurried forward to ask.

Chen Qingzhu said:

"This horse has suffered from heat stroke, and I'm afraid the others may not be able to hold on for much longer. I'll take care of it first, and we'll rest as soon as we get to the next post station."

"Yes."

Qin Yongming immediately went to convey her order.

Chen Qingzhu injected some spiritual energy into the horses pulling the cart one by one, allowing them to temporarily withstand the scorching heat, allowing the entire convoy to continue moving forward.

Next, the entire convoy had to find a place to rest at noon, and the speed slowed down a lot.

It took another three days of walking before they reached Linzhou City.

When they arrived, it was almost 9 o'clock and the sun was getting hotter and hotter. According to the plan, they planned to rest in the city until the sun went down before continuing on their journey.

Just as I was queuing up at a gate to enter the city, I heard a soldier at the gate shouting:

"Hurry! There are not enough people in the west of the city. Leave one door for each entrance and exit. Everyone else go to the west of the city to fetch water!"

Then there was the heavy sound of the city gate closing.

"Ah! Why is the door closed!"

"If there's only one door left, then all of us will have to queue up again!"

The people who were originally queuing to enter and leave the city suddenly began to complain.

However, no matter how much they complained, they had to queue up again.

Chen Qingzhu and his friends had the token from the Duke Dingguo's Mansion, so they could enter the city directly, but in the current situation, even if they entered the city directly, they had to go through the only open gate.

At present, everyone is rushing to line up again. There is chaos in front of the city gate and their carriage queue is very long, so it is not easy to cut in line and enter the city.

Chen Qingzhu asked everyone to drive their cars to the side first and wait for order to be restored before finding a way to enter the city.

The clever Qin Yongming jumped out of the car, flexibly squeezed to the front of the team, stuffed money into the soldiers guarding the city and inquired about the situation.

Not long after, he came to Chen Qingzhu's carriage and reported:

"Boss, a big fire broke out in Linzhou East City last night. It has been burning for several hours. Not only has the fire not been put out, but it has spread to a wider area. Even the soldiers guarding the city have gone to help carry water to put out the fire. It's dry today, and I'm afraid the situation is a little bad. Should we bypass Linzhou City?"

The houses in the city are all made of wood. In a big city like the capital, the houses are often very densely packed together. Once the fire is too big, it will be very difficult to control.

It would have been fine if it were any other time, but the weather in Linzhou has been so dry recently that it is already difficult to get water in the city. The water for firefighting has to be fetched from Qinghe River, 20 miles outside the city, and then transported across the entire prefecture to the east of the city where the fire broke out. The difficulty of firefighting is self-evident.

No one dared to predict how far the fire would spread.

The most serious fire Qin Yongming had ever heard of directly burned down half of the city.

If the same thing happens in Linzhou, I'm afraid there will be unrest. If they enter the city, they will easily be affected.