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The arrival of the fourth Geng day after the summer solstice also ushered in the hottest dog days of the year. Dog days are the hottest weather of the year, the highest temperature, the most yang stage, especially this year, has lasted for more than a month without rain, the previous few rains, are also drizzle, thunder and rain drops, the ground is not wet rain stops.

"The ongoing drought is getting worse and worse, the crops have long since died, and now even the people's draft is in question. Another well in the south of the city has dried up! Guo Chengan held a fan and kept fanning it, and said to Li Jing.

Li Jing also held a folding fan, and his hand didn't stop for a moment, even so, he still couldn't stop the scorching heat, sweat kept dripping, and it didn't take long for his clothes to dry and wet. The drought continues, and the disaster continues. I just pulled out the grain and got the work for relief, and finally solved the problem of feeding the victims, but in a blink of an eye, the problem of drinking water came again.

"The situation in Dengzhou is even better, and now the counties below are flying like snowflakes. Up to now, more than 100 villages in the four counties of Dengzhou have dried up and run out of water. There are many other villages that are also in a bad situation. Many wells are no longer producing water. Maybe it's because of what Li Jing said to Li Huier that day. After the worst, Li Hui'er told Li Wei, the king of Zhao. Now Li Xiao's whole person is active again, not only energetic, but also took the initiative to start handling some chores in the state.

"What about everyone's water?" Li Jing asked. People may be able to last seven or eight days without eating, but if they don't drink water, they may not be able to last for three days.

"Some villages that have been cut off have gone to the mountains to fetch spring water, while others have been temporarily relocated to other villages. However, if it doesn't rain again, there will be more villages without water. Long Shi Han Anmin also said.

"Organize craftsmen and people to dig wells!" Li Jing said helplessly. The drought was terrible. Many of the smaller rivers have long since ceased to flow, and now many wells have dried up. In such a situation, it is not a foolproof solution to relocate people. "Please dig the best well drill and dig a deep well!"

A few people nodded, and went back to arrange the well.

However, in the following days, the results of the drilling were not satisfactory. In many places, wells have to be drilled seven or eight feet deep to see water. In some places, even ten zhang deep, you can't see the water. Water is now more valuable than food. Li Jing had to ask the troops stationed in the counties to use horse-drawn carts to bring water to some villages that were in short supply.

"Envoy. It won't go on like this. Zhang Hong directly found Li Jing, and used a lot of manpower and material resources to dig the well these days, but the result was very poor. Only 20 per cent of the wells produced produce water, and half of them produce limited water per day. However, the manpower and material resources spent on drilling wells are not discounted. Looking at the money spent like flowing water every day, Zhang Hong was extremely distressed.

"Set up an altar and pray for rain!" Zhang Hong said directly.

"Praying for rain?" Li Jing followed along, praying for rain can be described as a very traditional activity. In order to survive and live, people burn incense and pray, praying for the angel to give birth to clouds and rain to save the people.

The rest of Dengzhou had already begun to pray for rain, and under the great drought, the people spontaneously prayed for rain. Especially in the Dragon King Temple in Dengzhou, there are countless people who go to burn incense and pray for rain every day.

But all along, these are private activities of the people. For Li Jing, whether it rains or not, this is a natural weather condition, and it has nothing to do with burning incense and worshiping Buddha. Li Zhen and Li Liang, who were handling the official documents, as well as Guo Chengan, and several staff members all raised their heads and looked at Li Jing. has been with Li Jing for so long, and they have also figured out some of Li Jing's concepts, such as this lord doesn't seem to believe in ghosts and gods, and he is a bit silent.

Li Zhen changed his mind and said loudly: "Zhang Lushi's proposal is good, but now there has been a long drought and no rain, and the people are worried. There are even a lot of rumors below that this is a punishment from heaven. Lord, at this time, it is urgent to set up an altar to pray for rain. ”

"You also believe that you can ask for rain by praying to the heavens?" Li Jing asked.

Guo Chengan shook his head and said: "It's one thing to ask for rain, but it's another thing to ask for it." ”

Li Jing was thoughtful, and Guo Chengan and the others naturally wouldn't believe that the rain could be begged, but their words revealed an important message. That is, with the current situation, Li Jing's appearance to ask for rain on behalf of the government is actually important to stabilize people's hearts. In a year of severe drought, such a practice may even be more acceptable to the people and more stable than digging wells and delivering water.

"Okay, you can make arrangements, build an altar to pray for rain, and prepare to pray for rain."

On the same day, the Dengzhou government began to post notices, saying that Li Jing was going to build an altar to pray for rain and prepare to pray for rain to the sky. As soon as this notice was issued, many people rushed to help build the altar. In three days, a nine-zhang high earthen altar had been successfully built.

Li Zhen also deliberately calculated a zodiac day, and also specially found Yuan Hong, an authoritative person in observing celestial phenomena. Yuan Hong is now the leading onmyoji in the Zhendong Army, and Li Jing specially selected a group of people for him and asked him to get a weather forecast team to be responsible for weather observation. After Yuan Hong heard Li Zhen's inquiry, he groaned for a while, pinching his fingers and calculating there for a while, like a magic stick.

"It's been hard to rain for the last month, but the day after tomorrow is a little different. I speculate that there may be a thunderstorm in the afternoon the day after tomorrow, but it may not be. ”

"How sure are you?" Li Liang asked excitedly. If it can really be measured that there will be rain the day after tomorrow, then Li Jing prayed for rain at that time, then it would be good. As soon as Li Jing prayed for rain, it rained, which was an incredible thing for many people. And this. It is exactly what Li Liang and they are happy to see.

"It's a vision. It's hard to grasp. I guess it's only a 1 in 100 chance! ”

One percent is also possible, Li Liang excitedly squeezed in front of Li Jing and whispered his plan. Li Jing frowned at first, and then nodded.

On the same day, Li Liang sent people to the streets, posted notices, and sounded gongs to announce that Li Jing would personally go to the altar to pray for rain in three days. And a little later. Many streets and alleys in Dengzhou City, restaurants and tea shops, are circulating a rumor.

"Do you know the way, I heard that Li Yuanjun went to the Dragon Palace of the East China Sea in a dream last night, and asked the Dragon King of the East China Sea to borrow rain, and the Dragon King said that the drought was originally a punishment from heaven, but for the sake of Li Yuanjun's sincerity and dedication to the people, he borrowed a rain in Dengzhou. At noon the day after tomorrow, it will rain for Dengzhou. ”

"Will it really rain the day after tomorrow?"

"The dragon king said that it was borrowing rain, but I heard that there is another condition. is that although he sees that Li Yuanjun is willing to borrow a rain, it depends on whether the people of Dengzhou are sincere. If the heart is sincere, it will rain, and if it is not sincere, it will not fall. The man said that he had a nose and a face, as if he was sleepwalking in the Dragon Palace with Li Jing.

This kind of dialogue was carried out all over Dengzhou, and even spread to the villages of the four counties of Dengzhou like the wind on the same day.

The altar has been erected, and now there is the matter of Li Jing borrowing rain from the Dragon King, and most people are believing this extremely ridiculous words that Li Jing seems. Sometimes that's the case, no matter how ridiculous the words are, the people only want to believe what they want to believe. They want it to rain all the time, but there's one thing they can believe it all like.

On June 23, Li Jing officially ascended the altar to pray for rain. Today, Li Jing changed his clothes, wore a gossip robe, and held a seven-star sword in his hand, with a cloak and bare feet, this divine stick image was completely packaged by Li Zhen and Li Liang brothers.

Li Jing ascended the nine-zhang high altar, and there were thirty-six boys and seventy-two virgins around the altar, holding a clean bottle with willow branches in the bottle.

Under the altar, tens of thousands of people in Dengzhou knelt down and prayed together, and for today's ceremony, all the construction sites and workshops had a day off.

Li Jing wore a cloak, held a sword in his hand, danced with his hands, danced the rain prayer dance that he had learned seriously in the past three days, and recited the words of prayer for rain in his mouth.

"Is politics not modest? Make the people sick with?

Why doesn't it rain to the extreme!

Eunuch Rong and? What is the woman's life?

Why doesn't it rain to the extreme!

What is the bud going to be? What is the slander of?

Why doesn't it rain to the extreme! ”

After doing this, Li Jing sat cross-legged on the altar, closed his eyes, and began to communicate with the Dragon King. Of course, this is an outsider's idea, in fact, Li Jing just danced for a long time, and the god was a little tired, so he sat there to rest.

At this time, a small team of twelve people below began to wear hideous ghost masks, holding spears in one hand and shields in the other, shouting and shouting as they danced......, running to all corners, jumping and dancing.

After the dance begins, it is the Dragon King!

Eighteen strong men invited the dragon king's gold coins from the dragon king temple, carried them through the streets, and carried them to the altar to bow down to the audience. Then the next step is to fight the drought, people believe that the drought is the god of drought, and the drought is not rainy. Therefore, when it does not rain on the day, it is necessary to fight drought.

In fact, it is a very barbaric and cruel act, and many people believe that the drought is the child that a pregnant woman will give birth to in October during the great drought. Some of them are a little more savage, and they will directly use drugs to abort the fetus and whip it. Some of them are a little better, and they take the pregnant woman out and pour water on her, which is called watering the mother of the drought. While watering, you have to make the mother promise when it will rain.

The average pregnant woman who is constantly watered often dies violently. Since Li Jing accepted the history of Dengzhou Thorn, he has been disgusted with such vices, and has issued several strict orders strictly prohibiting watering drought mothers and prohibiting such vices as falling into droughts.

At present, it is no longer allowed to use real people, but to use straw to make it look like a pregnant woman, and then people will take water to water it. When 9,999 waters have been poured on it, the ritual is over.

This is followed by the rain ritual. In this ceremony, a group of widows, maidens, etc. must be found to sweep the soil along the street, throw water with wicker, and then everyone raises small flags and beats gongs and drums. From the morning until almost noon, the rituals are completed, and all that remains is to wait for the dragon king to rain.

But God doesn't seem to give face, the sky is clear, and there is not a single cloud. The sun hung in the sky like a fireball, and many people who knelt down to pray for rain were fainted by the sun. Especially when the sun was almost noon, it was so hot that some of the weaker people had already begun to faint.

Li Jing was also very unhappy on the stage, on the nine-zhang high platform, there was no obstruction, he was still wearing a wide robe, his hair was scattered, there was no wind under the sun, and Li Jing was about to suffer from heat stroke. He couldn't help but regret a little that he was really fooled by Brother Li Liang like this, especially when he also spread those rumors, what kind of dream to borrow rain from the Dragon King, but looking at the current situation, the probability of one percent of what Yuan Hong said is really unreliable, and it really won't rain for a while, how will this matter end?

As noon approached little by little, the shadow of the flagpole planted on the ground became shorter and shorter, and Li Jing couldn't sit still. In the group of people kneeling below, more and more women and children are succumbing to heatstroke.

Just when Li Jing was about to give up and let those people go home to escape the summer, he suddenly moved his head slightly. A gust of wind blew, and the whole person was much lighter. Li Jing looked up, only to see that in the sky that was still cloudless just now, I don't know when a cloud was suddenly blowing rapidly.

The sun, which was still radiating ten thousand golden rays just now, was suddenly covered by dark clouds, and the breeze blew, which was extremely cool.

The eighty-year-old man in the audience shouted excitedly: "God has appeared, the dragon king has come to rain!" ”

Bursts of cheers rang out, and everyone was already desperate, but they didn't expect that at this time, it was really going to rain in the sky. Just now it was still a clear sky, but now it is suddenly a dark cloudy day, and when I look at that time again, it will be noon.

At this time, Li Jing on the stage was also excited, he didn't expect that this one percent probability would really come true. stood up excitedly at the moment, couldn't help but clapped his fists, and shouted to vent the anxiety and excitement in his heart just now.

Under the high platform of Jiuzhang, the people didn't really see it, but when they saw Li Jing waving and shouting at the sky on the stage, they all thought that the Dragon King was coming, and Li Jing was greeting the Dragon King.

Li Liang secretly hurriedly asked people to shout in the crowd: "The Dragon King of the East China Sea is here with rain and is talking to Liu Yuanjun!" ”

This shout suddenly spread ten, ten, hundred, and thousand, and all the people decided together that Li Jing was talking to the Dragon King at the moment.

"Boom!" There was a thunder in the sky, Li Jing was startled, and hurriedly inserted the seven-star sword in his hand into the ground. On this nine-zhang platform, holding a sword to the sky, it is really stupid, it is completely a thunderbolt.

After a thunderstorm, countless bean-sized rain particles fell. (To be continued......)