Chapter 032: Corporals under My Command

A caravan arrived at Mingyan County following the disaster relief and grain protection team, and the leading merchant immediately handed over the pass.

The county gate was guarded by the imperial guards at this time. After looking through the trade documents, he smiled, because this caravan brought medicinal materials that were urgently needed in the county.

After a quick inspection to confirm that the goods were actually medicinal herbs, he immediately used the pass stamp and politely handed the document back, "Thank you."

"It's all as it should be." After carefully putting away the paperwork, the merchant called for someone to bring out a wooden barrel. "It contains clean water. Please accept it."

"This..." The soldier couldn't help but lick the corner of his mouth, but he didn't refuse after all. "Thank you very much."

The caravan entered the city smoothly. Some of the medicinal materials were needed by the princess to issue an imperial edict, and they could be delivered directly to the quartermaster in the city. The rest had no worries about sales.

After settling down in a three-story house, someone immediately welcomed the leading merchant in.

As soon as they sat down in the back hall, several people knelt down.

The merchant's face was filled with sternness, no longer his smooth demeanor. "What's going on?"

"Sir, we have searched everywhere..."

Bang! The merchant slammed the table and said, "State your conclusion."

The servant trembled, "I haven't seen the young master anywhere. If he's not in trouble... he could be in the critical care unit.

But that place is guarded by imperial guards, and our people can't sneak in."

The merchant pointed at his followers behind him and said, "Tell him where he is. You'd better hope that he has a long and happy life, otherwise you will all be buried with him!"

“Yes, yes!”

The servant didn't dare to say a word and staggered towards the attendant.

——————

In the main hall of the government office, a simple sand table was spread out on the table.

There was no time to rest. The members of the disaster relief delegation gathered here to listen to the eldest princess talk about the disaster in Mingyan County.

The flood destroyed the tea mountains, and the mud dragon formed destroyed the caves with terrifying power, swallowed up seven villages, and blocked the Qingchuan River to form a landslide lake.

Fortunately, the heavy rain stopped, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. However, it is midsummer and no one knows when it will rain again.

There was a large amount of tea mountain compost and rotten mud and roots in the landslide lake, which caused widespread poisoning after the victims took the water for drinking.

Even the groundwater has been polluted and most of the wells are no longer usable.

As a last resort, the princess could only order water to be diverted from Lin County, but due to transportation conditions, all that could be obtained was just a drop in the bucket.

The top priorities are, first, obtaining sufficient clean water, second, detoxification and rescue of people, and third, dredging to prevent further heavy rains from aggravating the disaster.

Qin Zhaoyue listened quietly, which showed that this elder sister was quite smart.

In two days, I sorted out all my ideas and pursued three paths in parallel:

Send people to transfer water from Lin County;

The patients were treated by the accompanying imperial physicians and the recruited local doctors;

Tiangongsi led people to investigate the area around the landslide lake to find the most suitable flood discharge area.

The last one concerns the overall situation and is the most urgent, requiring the most manpower. A plan was already in place within two days.

The flood discharge area has been delineated and arrangements are being made for the relocation of villages downstream.

Apart from that, the other two things are not going well.

The transported water was not enough to distribute throughout the county, and the imperial physicians could only save patients with mild poisoning but were powerless to treat those with severe symptoms.

After hearing this, the members of the disaster relief team fell silent.

The eldest princess acted in an organized manner, with different levels of severity, and took appropriate measures for each one.

They couldn't stay in one county for too long, as the princess had already assigned the tasks.

She also mobilized the garrison, and the grain-protecting troops stationed outside the city rested for a night to join her, and would set off tomorrow to other counties in Qingyao Prefecture to provide disaster relief.

Besides, once the all-important dredging project is completed, it will be impossible to stay here any longer.

Everyone was silent, but Qin Zhaoqiong's eyes fell on his sixth sister.

More and more people have realized this, a few have some guesses, most people don’t understand why, but more and more people are focusing their attention on this.

Qin Zhaoyue seemed unaware, she was thinking of a countermeasure at the moment.

There is no room for error in disaster relief. Any detours may result in the bloody loss of lives.

When you look at intelligence, it's just a pile of cold numbers, but when you're there...

She just had an idea, but she couldn't guarantee whether it was right or wrong. She gritted her teeth and spoke.

"Eldest sister, I have a few ideas. Please listen to them and see if they are suitable."

Many officials frowned when they heard this.

They didn't think there was anything wrong with the eldest princess's arrangement. Even they had no effective suggestions. How could this sixth princess be better than them? And she even had a few ideas in her mouth?

"Your Highness, Sixth Princess, I know you have good intentions, but disaster relief is a serious matter and should not be taken lightly."

"Yes, the lives of the victims are at stake here, so we must be extremely cautious."

Qin Zhaoqiong frowned, but did not scold the officials. After all, his words were considered mature and prudent.

After the Imperial Study raised funds for disaster relief, she had expectations for Xiaoliu, but she still had to see how she could perform.

If the suggestion is not suitable, she will stand up to defend it;

If it is applicable, it will also help these self-righteous officials understand that there are always people better than you.

Qin Zhaoyue ignored the criticisms of others and spoke cautiously:

"About water..."

“I don’t know the specific disaster situation in Mingyan County, nor do I know the geography.

I wonder if there are any mountains that have not collapsed, or if there are any unpolluted springs on the mountains.

If we can find an unpolluted water source, we can recruit men and women to weave bamboo strips to divert the water and build bamboo canals to carry water.”

Qin Zhaoqiong immediately ordered: "Go and call the tea farmers."

"yes!"

Many officials frowned. This method was simple, but how could a clean mountain spring be so easy to find?

They also didn't know the specific situation of the mud dragon disaster, and subconsciously thought that the tea mountains were all swallowed up, but they didn't think of this for a while.

However, the Sixth Princess spoke cautiously, so no one dared to question her.

“Secondly, I have a scholar under my command who has a way to purify the water.

Firstly, it is quite complicated, and secondly, it requires experiments. Whether it can completely remove the toxins is still unknown, but weakening them should not be a problem."

"Oh?" At this point, everyone in the disaster relief team had an obvious reaction, including the eldest princess.

Purifying water on site is much more convenient than diverting water from outside or looking for mountain spring water.

"Sixth sister, are you telling the truth? I'm not doubting you, it's just a matter of great importance!"

Even she, the eldest princess, was restricted in her daily drinking water. One can imagine how severe the water shortage was in Mingyan County.

"Well, at least it can weaken the toxicity, so drinking some in a short period of time should be fine."

Hearing her firm answer, the hall suddenly became noisy.

"Sixth Princess, does that method really work?"

An official from the Tiangong Division immediately stepped forward and said, "If such a method exists, why don't people from the Tiangong Division know about it? Your Highness is still young, so don't let yourself be fooled."

This was already a very impolite statement, because he was born in the Tiangong Division and was naturally proud. How could he lose to a wild alchemist who came out of nowhere?

"I've seen many people who use the name of alchemist to gain fame and reputation over the years. Disaster relief is a serious matter and should not be treated lightly!"

It would be fine if it happened once or twice, but Qin Zhaoyue is not a good-tempered person if he keeps saying rude things over and over again.

She looked at the old man from Tiangongsi with a cold look in his eyes.

"Officials of the Department of Heavenly Works should better understand the principle of 'the vastness of the world' and must not imitate the frog in the well."

"you!"

After Qin Zhaoyue finished speaking, she stopped looking at him and looked around.

"It's not difficult to verify whether it works. It's just an experiment. I think we have enough time."

The official from the Ministry of Works was dissatisfied that day and said, "Then Your Highness, please invite that alchemist here so that we can confront him face to face."

Qin Zhaoyue said calmly, "He has already told me about the plan these past two days.

The first step is to open a hole in the bottom of the ceramic jar, and then fill it with charcoal, gravel, and fine sand for triple filtration.

The second step is to add a certain proportion of alum to flocculate and precipitate the toxins;

The third step is triple filtering again;

Step 4: Boil the water before drinking.”

Seeing that Qin Zhaoyue spoke so confidently, everyone couldn't help but believe it a little bit and looked at the old man from Tiangongsi.

This matter is too professional and people from other departments cannot get a say.

The old man stroked his beard and frowned so hard that he could kill a mosquito.

After listening to the plan, he knew that it was methodical. The methods of filtering and distilling were easy to do, but the most important thing was to use alum.

“How can we be sure that alum can precipitate the toxins?”

"I told you, you'll know how it works once you give it a try."

It was already Qin Zhaoyue's limit that she could come up with this method. Not to mention that she couldn't write those chemical formulas now, even if she could write them, she would only be regarded as a monster.

Everyone fell silent again. Although it sounded tedious, they had to stay in Mingyan County until the dredging was completed, so they still had time.

"Come here, immediately gather the materials needed to purify the water source. Keep this strictly confidential. No word can escape until we succeed."

"yes!"

Soon, the old farmer brought it.