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The icy rain poured violently into the earth during the day, and it was only at dusk that the rain stopped, and some of the rain foam drifted down.

In the autumn of the entire 8th year of Chongguan, Baisha County, Weiyang Prefecture, Jiangdong Province, could not get rid of such heavy rain.

Countless houses collapsed in the torrential rain, and the stagnant water on the streets of the county town could be navigated, and even the southern city wall of the county town was washed down by the torrential rain in early September, revealing a big and ugly gap. In the past two days, the open-mouthed sky has slightly restrained the rain, allowing Baisha County to breathe a little. It's just that there are waterlogs in various places, and the water can't be drained out for a while and a half, and the Baishui River outside the county has also become a hanging river, and the water is almost overflowing the embankment; If it weren't for Qinghe Town in the north that opened its mouth more than ten days ago, maybe this county town would have poured water into the Baishui River once.

The disaster relief camp is set up on the grave head mountain in the river embankment outside the city, the mountain is an earth mountain, more than ten zhang high, the shape is like a huge tomb without a tomb cap, there is an elegant name Womei Mountain, there are no trees and grass, bare, the county people are accustomed to call the tomb head mountain.

A tall young official, wearing a black gauze crown and a cyan regimental leader's robe, walked towards the grave hill where the disaster relief camp was located, despite the muddy road under his feet.

The chief's visit to the Baisha relief camp immediately caused a commotion, and many ragged victims surrounded him: "Dong Fujun is here, there is hope." "Adults won't watch people starve to death." "Who is Dong Fujun? It turned out to be him. ”

The young official was none other than Dong Yuan, the prefect of Weiyang Mansion, who was known for his prestige and was respected by the people as the ruler of the government. When the rebellion of the luxury family in Jin'an Mansion swept through Eastern Fujian, Dong Yuan was the chief secretary of Xianxia County in northern Eastern Fujian. When the rebels attacked, the original Xianxia Zhi County planted one, only thinking about dedicating the city to the enemy and saving his own life, Dong Yuan invited the people of Ya Yi County to lock up the county and close the city, blocking the road for the rebels to invade the north into western Zhejiang; The rebels of the luxury family besieged the city for more than a month, and when they saw that they could not be attacked, they broke the siege and left. Dong Yuan later served under the secretary of the Jiangning Military Department and the governor of Eastern Fujian, Li Zhuo, and made many military exploits. The rebellion of the luxury family in Eastern Fujian has been difficult to completely pacify for many years, and the imperial court and Li Zhuo, who is responsible for the southeast counterinsurgency, have the intention of appeasing the luxury family, Dong Yuan and everyone disagreed, so he left the military camp and returned to civilian work, and was transferred to Weiyang Mansion as the prefect in the spring of this year.

It has been sunny for a few days, and there are still some rain foams floating in the sky at dusk, Dong Yuan is in a hurry, and he doesn't mind that the light rain falls on his face, Ding Zhiru, the magistrate of Baisha County, and Dong Yuan's colleague Gao Zongting in Dongmin followed half a step.

"Zhiru, when will the second batch of grain allocated by Jiangning arrive?" Dong Yuan asked: Weiyang Mansion is not only Baisha County that has been affected by the disaster, and the grain and money needed for disaster relief and relief must be transferred from Jiangning, Liujing.

The Taizu of this dynasty laid the foundation in Jiangning, and took Jiangning as the capital afterwards; In order to resist the Donghu and other foreign races in the north, Taizong moved the capital to Yanjing Mansion and stayed in Beijing with Jiangning. Jiangning still retains the establishment of central bureaucratic institutions such as the Six Ministries, Guozijian, and Hanlin Academy, which are nominally at the same level as the Yanjing Six Ministries and the Three Yuan, but the real power is far inferior. Because the tomb of Taizu is in Jiangning, the world calls the idle officials appointed by Jiangning as the mausoleum keepers. Even so, for more than 200 years, Gangning Province was the political, military, and economic center of the southern part of the empire.

Ding Zhiru said: "I just received a message from Kuaima that the relief grain had already been loaded in Jiangning last night, and it should be shipped at noon today, and it should be able to arrive here tomorrow morning." ”

"Good. What about the disaster? ”

"The river in the territory has been in disrepair for many years, the torrential rain is pouring, and the embankment can be broken for several days, although the rain has stopped, the flood has not been discharged, and the casualties are afraid that it will not be less than 10,000 people. I'm afraid that the water level of the Baishui River and the Yangtze River outside won't be able to drop for a while, and the embankment is not impregnable - I'm afraid of this ...... now."

Dong Yuan was silent for a moment, and said hatefully: "Thief, Chengping has been in peace for many years, but he doesn't know how to be prepared for danger in times of peace, Baisha counties are floods, Hailing, Chongzhou and other places are floods, Hailing, Chongzhou and other places are recharged by the tide, and some pirates take advantage of the chaos to come ashore to join in the fun, and now even the county school in Chongzhou County has been robbed......" After saying these troubles, Dong Yuan couldn't help but sigh in front of his subordinates and old friends, shook his sleeves hatefully, and instructed Ding Zhiru to repair the embankment, "At this time, it is too late to repair the embankment, so you can only wait until after the winter - send more people to watch at the dangerous embankment, If those under the embankment can withdraw, they should all withdraw. The victims who can't be resettled here have been evacuated to Weiyang City, and the county's post-disaster relief matters, you have to make a good total, and give me the charter to ......"

"Yes."

Dong Yuan, Ding Zhiru, and Gao Zongting walked to the top of the mountain while discussing disaster relief matters, and there was a pavilion over there, overlooking the Baishui River.

Although there are still rain stars floating down in the sky, the sky is a sunny day, standing in the pavilion on the top of the mountain, looking from afar, the sunset of the clear autumn is red as if oozing blood, hanging on the blue sky, the water surface of the Baishui River outside the embankment is sparse, and the clear wave is red like dyeing.

At this moment, a wisp of smoke came from the direction of the ferry, and the noise seemed to be suddenly quieted down by the sudden sound of the piano.

Dong Yuan followed the sound of the piano and looked at the foot of the mountain, a few light boats were tied to the embankment, and a colorful painting boat in the middle was particularly conspicuous, and the sound of the piano seemed to come out of the painting boat, which was as small as the sound of heaven. Many of the ragged victims sat on the embankment of the Shirenzi River and listened to the sound of the piano, looking down at the past, as small as ants; There are also a few fishing boats around the rudimentary makeshift ferry, which seem to have come specifically for the sound of the piano.

Dong Yuan listened for a moment, frowned slightly and asked, "Who is playing the piano?" ”

"Jiangning's famous prostitute Su Mei has been here for many days." Ding Zhiru said.

"She's not in Jiangning, what is she doing here?" Dong Yuan had also heard of Su Mei's fame, and knew that she was a famous singer in Jiangning City, beautiful and talented, and was quite sought after by literati and scholars and dignitaries in Jiangning, and wondered how she could leave Jiangning at this time and appear in Weiyang Mansion.

"Du Rong returned to his hometown to celebrate his father's 60th birthday, and invited Su and Mei to return to Weiyang to help the fun......," Ding Zhiru said.

Hearing Du Rong's name, Dong Yuan frowned slightly, his nose dilated slightly, panting, and his expression was quite disdainful of this person.

Gao Zongting said: "The luxury family intends to belong, in addition to Yanjing, there are also many people in Beijing who are doing activities and building momentum for the luxury family, and Du Rong is one of them. Someone reported that Du Rong had fornicated with pirates, and Li Shuai also sat idly by......"

Ding Zhiru's eyes looked away, he didn't dare to discuss the government and politics in his small county, Dong Yuan was famous for his stinky temper, and he dared to scold Li Zhuo, the secretary of the Jiangning Military Department and the governor of Eastern Fujian, probably because Li Zhuo appreciated his talent, even if he didn't like him in his heart, he just walked away from under his nose.

Dong Yuan snorted coldly: "In the past few years, the East China Sea has become a disaster, and it is inseparable from the luxury family - if there were no pirates to help him abuse him over the years, Li Shuai would have swept away Eastern Fujian a long time ago, why do this awkward thing?" ”

"I'm afraid that after the luxury family is attached, it will be even more self-respecting." Gao Zongting sighed again, "Before I came to Weiyang, I stayed in Jiangning for a few days, and the scholars of the Xixi Institute also publicly agreed with the matter of the luxury family's request to surrender, and it seems that the court and Li Shuai have already made up their minds. ”

"These nerds, who claim to be famous and famous, only know how to play tricks!" Dong Yuan's mouth was very polite, but his tone was also a little helpless, he was just the prefect of Weiyang, and he couldn't control the political situation in the DPRK and China, and besides, he disagreed with others on the matter of the surrender of the luxury family, so he kicked Weiyang.

Nerd? Ding Zhiru's eyes slanted at the painting embankment outside the embankment, where is the Xixi Institute just a group of nerds who play tricks? I also thought that the extravagant family would be attached, the marquis would be ceded the land, and nearly 10,000 elite soldiers would be retained in his hands, and then he would join the peripheral East Pirate forces, which could be regarded as a prince, and it would always be a hidden danger in the southeast direction of the imperial court; It's just that the imperial court is in the north and the Donghu people are in a heavy war, and the court is eager to send elite troops from the southeast to strengthen the defense line in the north, and accepting the invitation of the luxury family to surrender is also the meaning of the topic; Of course, it is not without the idea of preventing Li Zhuo from raising soldiers and self-respect. The most important reason is that in the past 10 years, in order to sweep away the rebellion of the luxury families in Eastern Fujian, tens of millions of dollars of silver have been spent on military resources, which has made the money and expenditure of the DPRK and China even more stretched.

Ding Zhiru saw Dong Yuan's eyes looking at him, and he didn't want to pick up the topic between him and Gao Zongting, so he smiled and said something else: "Su Mei passed through Baisha County, and saw that the flood was serious and the victims were pitiful, so when he came back from Weiyang, he parked the boat outside the river embankment to perform, and the rich people in the county could get on the boat to listen to the piano and listen to the opera, and the money and materials obtained were donated to the relief of the victims; Du Rong also joined in the interest and promised Su Mei to perform in Baisha for ten days, and he would donate a thousand taels of silver - this is already the eighth day......" Seeing Dong Yuan looking at the direction of the Chuanqin painting boat, he said flatteringly, "If the prince of the mansion has Yaxing who listens to the qin, I can send someone to invite Miss Su Mei ashore to help the wine." ”

Dong Yuan shook his head and said: "The victims are all over the field, what kind of system will I be waiting to drink and listen to the piano in the high hall elegant room?" ”

Ding Zhiru saw that Dong Yuan's expression was not resolute, and said: "I really have other thoughts, don't be surprised by Wangfujun; In fact, I want to implore the government to reward Su Mei for his disaster relief deeds...... "Seeing that Dong Yuan didn't say a word, he turned around and went down the mountain with Gao Zongting first, thinking that he accepted his own remarks, and smiled in his heart: Who doesn't like beautiful beauties? Seeing a soap-clothed yacha standing not far away, he beckoned him to come over, and while following Dong Yuan to the city, he instructed the yacha to invite Su Mei to accompany him to the dinner.

The soapy man was a short, stocky man with wide eyebrows and squinting eyes, and he took the dispatch and walked down the hill towards the embankment.

The original ferry port had long since been flooded by the river, and a simple pier was built outside the embankment with columns and tiled pine trees that drove into the riverbank, and a small half was submerged in the water at this time. The hull of the boat is tall, and after the water level of the Baishui River rises, the side of the boat is a lot higher than the pine dock; The soap-clothed yacha came over and stood on the dock and couldn't figure out. The ladder at the bow of the boat was put back, and the soapy clothes almost couldn't see the situation at the bow, and they didn't want to climb up in embarrassment, so they pointed to a black boat on the side and asked the boatman to hold the boat over; The Upong boat is a cut higher than the pier and shorter than the painting boat, and it is better to borrow feet from the Upong boat than to climb on the painting boat with four legs.

As soon as the soapy Yacha jumped on the bow of the boat, a young man in Tsing Yi came in from the cabin, and the two almost collided. The soapy clothes were startled and scolded: "What a ghost, you suddenly came out...... The waste young master of your family came back to life, and scared the invited undertaker to the bed and collapsed it, dog, do you still want to scare the master to death? ”