Chapter 30 Harvest (Part 4) Let's prepare to welcome our guests...

As evening fell, a bonfire was lit in the square, and men, women, and children sang and danced around it, their faces beaming with joy.

Yun Youning grabbed the two children by the collar; if she let go, the two children would run into the crowd and disappear.

The two children could only watch enviously as the other children ran around happily.

"This place is indeed different from the outside," the butler standing behind Yun Youning remarked.

Yun Youning smiled slightly, “It is very different.”

It's different from her hometown.

It was different from the towns and villages she had seen along the way.

Here, it seems there is no drought, no war, no famine; the people live peaceful lives.

However, it was only an impression.

Yun Youning thought to herself, whether it's the goddess or Old Cheng and the others, no one can ignore the external environment.

The men in the firearms workshop set up their equipment. One of them, holding a tinderbox, said to his colleagues, "Stand back a bit, I'm going to start lighting the fire."

No one answered him.

He turned his head in surprise and saw several colleagues running quickly into the distance.

He remained silent, then bent down and lit the fire.

Everyone present looked up at the sky and saw fireworks bursting forth, resembling a giant flower.

Then, one after another, large flowers bloomed in the air, dazzling and beautiful.

"Fireworks!" the children cheered.

The dazzling fireworks brought the first Harvest Festival to a perfect close.

Ning Huai'an and Fang Qin stood atop the city wall, gazing at the rather monochromatic fireworks in the sky, and couldn't help but sigh, "Luckily, a bunch of idiots made their move first." Otherwise, our harvest festival...

Fang Qin laughed and said, "Misfortune may be a blessing in disguise; a blessing may be a misfortune in disguise." He put his hands behind his back and said, "The development of things is always beyond human control."

Ning Huai'an: "..."

The young man looked at his second uncle with a complicated expression, "You also learned those mystical things from Zhu Youchuan."

Fang Qin retorted with a serious expression, "What do you mean by 'mystical'? This is the great Dao."

"Alright, alright," Ning Huai'an rolled his eyes and changed the subject, "Have Brother Hu and the others already set off?"

Fang Qin nodded. "Xiang Yuesheng gave me the message."

Ning Huai'an nodded, a bright smile appearing on his handsome face. "Then let's begin preparing to welcome our guests."

Night falls.

The last glimmer of light on the western horizon sank into the foot of the mountain.

Mo Jingchun and members of their Harvest Festival preparation team are cleaning up the site.

"The stage will be dismantled tomorrow. It's too late now, you can't see it, and it's dangerous."

"We've swept up all the trash here, and we can come back to empty it tomorrow."

"Move the tools, tables, etc., away and put them away first."

Mo Jingchun shouted in a hoarse voice.

"Sister Mo, your voice is hoarse," a member of the garbage-cleaning team asked with concern. "Are you alright?"

Mo Jingchun waved his hand, "I'll go to the clinic to get the medicine in a bit."

Her heart pounded with excitement. "What does it matter if I lose my voice if I can get the Harvest Festival going smoothly?"

God knows how nervous she was all day, afraid that something might go wrong and make everyone unhappy.

Fortunately, although there were some minor oversights and omissions, they were all solvable, and each process was completed according to their original plan.

Mo Jingchun was bursting with a sense of accomplishment: This is the first time I've led and successfully completed such a major task! I'm amazing!

He Qinglan sent the herbs she had just picked from the deep mountains and forests to "When the Sea Turns Blue, Whales Appear" in the post-apocalyptic world. After thinking for a moment, she sent a message to the other party: [How about you consider organizing a celebration?]

[When the sea is blue, you see whales: Huh?]

He Qinglan: [I just finished celebrating the harvest festival here.]

While celebrations can be troublesome, if done well, they can indeed have a positive effect…and not just in terms of the economy.

[When the Sea Turns Blue, Whales Appear: Harvest Festival, huh? But we're in the apocalypse. There's plenty of meat, but very little seasoning, and no fruits or vegetables. Are we going to have a meat-eating celebration?]

[When the sea turns blue, you'll see whales: If you want to do this, you'll have to deliver it to me.]

He Qinglan: [It's not "you guys," it's Cen Ying and Xia Wei in the modern world.]

[When the sea turns blue, you see a whale: No need to trouble them, I have lawyer Xiao Jiang.]

He Qinglan: [...] Then what the hell are you calling "you guys"?

[When the Sea Turns Blue, a Whale Appears: By the way, your world is an ancient one; there must be a lot of plagues there.]

He Qinglan frowned slightly.

[When the sea is blue, you see whales: We must teach people how to fish, otherwise, what will happen to the people of the other world if the epidemic strikes again after you're gone?]

He Qinglan: [I know.]

[When the sea is blue, you'll see whales: First, improve basic hygiene; this can reduce disease by half. I just finished a sanitation campaign here, and the results were excellent.]

He Qinglan seemed to be deep in thought. "Sanitation activities?"

Dr. Xu, who had just lain down on the bed, couldn't help but sneeze.

His wife asked with concern, "Have you caught a cold?"

Dr. Xu shook his head. "No, maybe someone is talking about me." He laughed and said, "Our clinic did a good job with the free clinic today. Our reputation will spread far and wide, and many people from other places may come here specifically to see us."

His wife reminded him, "We don't have enough medicinal herbs right now."

Dr. Xu said, "Take it slow. Planting is a long-term process."

We cannot always rely on the goddess to provide ready-made medicine.

He thought that Cheng Hui and Gu Lanying, who initially proposed that they could not rely on the goddess forever, were really clever. They even managed to instill this idea in the hearts of the people of Yunhe.

Therefore, everyone can now focus wholeheartedly on development.

The word "development" is quite good.

Midnight (11 PM - 1 AM).

The people in the entire county were already asleep, and the earth was completely silent.

As the night watchman walked down the long street, the sound of his wooden stick striking a small gong pierced the thick night and carried far and wide.

Unbeknownst to them, the battle in Tianshui County to the east had already begun!

The sudden arrival of the army rushed straight to the city gate, intending to take Tianshui County by surprise and then use it as a base to launch a surprise attack on Yunhe County.

However, they did not expect that rows of torches would light up the city gate of Tianshui County.

Hu Dazhu, leading his troops, looked down at the approaching army from his high vantage point.

The two sides clashed, their rousing battle cries shaking the heavens.

The fireballs created jointly by the Firearms Workshop, the Ironworks Workshop, and the Armory Workshop made their debut in this city defense battle, being thrown, landing, and exploding, sending corpses flying everywhere.

This not only caught the enemy off guard.

This also amazed us.

Xiang Yuesheng said, "The combination of firearms and weapons can indeed exert great power. I wonder how powerful the muskets described in military books are."

The people around him said, "Is the weapons workshop trying to combine fireballs and catapults?"

"Tsk, if only we could use a catapult to launch the fireball, that would be..."

"Don't think too much about it yet. It would be good enough if we could mass-produce catapults."

"The people of Anling County are truly despicable. Knowing that we are celebrating the harvest festival today, they took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack."

“We covet their territory, and they must covet our goddess.”

"Luckily, one of their idiots tried to steal our food before, which allowed us to prepare. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have been able to discover their plan in advance this time..."

“We were planning to attack Anling County next spring, but now…”

"Plans can never keep up with changes."

Xiang Yuesheng raised his voice, "Prepare to leave the city and meet the enemy!"

Everyone shouted in unison, "Yes!"

Yes, plans never keep up with changes.

The spies sent by Anling County, who had infiltrated Yunhe County during the harvest festival, originally planned to make full preparations and cooperate with the Anling County army to take Yunhe in one fell swoop when they attacked the city at night.

Unexpectedly, the five counties of Yunhe had recently developed intelligence work, utilizing the local people to discover clues in advance. Following the clues, they learned that Anling County was going to attack two cities in succession, so they devised a plan to lure the enemy into a trap.

Ning Huai'an and Hu Dazhu led their troops to prepare for the enemy.

Huang Dade also led the city guards and, together with the intelligence personnel in the city, uncovered the mole.

The next day.

The people who had just woken up heard that the city guards had captured a group of spies and that Tianshui County was fighting against the army from Anling County.

Everyone was utterly shocked.

After washing her face, Gu Lanying quickly convened a meeting with her propaganda team.

“We were still figuring out what reason to use to attack Anling County, and now the county government has delivered the reason right to our doorstep,” a middle-aged woman said. “Should we strike while the iron is hot?”

A young man said, "Of course, of course, why not take advantage of a weakness that's been handed to us?"

"But can we fight back soon?" someone asked, raising their hand.

Gu Lanying shook her head, "I'm afraid that won't work. We're not ready yet."

"Alright, then we'll have to adjust the propaganda plan." The deputy team leader slammed his hands on the table. "We need to be prepared for a long-term battle. We need to provoke everyone's anger, but we can't let their anger burn out all at once."

"Yes, we need to strike a good balance in our publicity efforts."

"We cannot let everyone's anger get too intense, making them eager to attack Anling County; nor can we let their anger be too mild, leaving them without a strong desire for revenge."

"It's alright, our fellow villagers are all very kind and honest."

Gu Lanying nodded, then looked around at her colleagues. "Do you have any plans? Tell us about them."

Yun Youning sent her younger sister and several children to Qinglan Academy, and handed over all the people she brought with her to Cheng Hui, arranging for them to take up suitable positions.

After doing all that, she went with Cheng Hui to see Zhao Yong.

Yun Youning herself was a little uneasy, but Zhao Yong's attitude surprised her.

The other person was overjoyed to learn that she had come to take over the accounting work. "You're the person the goddess was talking about who could be the head of our finance department? That's wonderful! We've been waiting for you!"

Yun Youning: "..."

The other accountants were also very happy. "None of us have studied this much, and we've been so busy lately that we've made a lot of mistakes. It's great to finally have a professional here!"

"Yes, yes, we made a mistake and didn't even know where we went wrong. Luckily, the other departments didn't mind, so we let it go."

"However, the goddess entrusted this task to us, hoping that we could do it even better."

Someone looked at Yun Youning eagerly, "Miss Yun, please help me take a look at this. Where did I go wrong with this calculation?"

The others were speechless. "Fine, you bastard!"

"Then please take a look at this for me, Miss Yun."

"Me first, I've had this debt on my mind for several days."

"What about that payment I made last month..."

Yun Youning: "..."

She spent the whole day in the finance department, first helping everyone resolve outstanding issues.

In answering everyone's questions, we also grew closer and stronger.

Yun Youning's eyes widened in surprise: So fast?!

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Author's Note: 1. The word count for the ranking list has reached 15,000/20,000. I will try my best to update another chapter before midnight tonight!!!

2.

Mo Jingchun: emmmmmmmmmm

Dr. Xu: Uh? Sanitary activities?

Author's note: Sorry, this was just a sudden thought. I casually searched "how to organize rural sanitation activities" on Douban, and it seems pretty simple: 1. Collective cleaning; 2. Explaining sanitation knowledge + free medical consultation; 3. Publicity; 4. Sanitation knowledge quiz with prizes.

Mo Jingchun: Can answering questions and doing practical exercises be the same thing?! Can you please consider that I just ruined my voice?!