The notices issued by the government overnight, coupled with the rain that lasted all night, made the residents of the city realize the seriousness of the situation. Otherwise, the government would not have taken such a big step to evacuate the people as soon as possible.

Early the next morning, the yamen runners went to each household, requiring each household to send one person, preferably a young and strong man, to guard the river embankment.

People dared not slack off; this was the ancient form of corvée labor, which had to be carried out, or else they would be thrown into prison.

Groups of people, led by yamen runners, headed towards the river embankment.

It's only three miles from Xunzhou City to the riverbank, but due to wind and rain, the road is slippery and becomes more difficult to travel the closer you get to the river.

Most of the hundred soldiers brought by Li Guang stayed on the river embankment, where they planted many large flags and stood firm in the wind and rain.

The people on duty were shocked by what they saw. They hadn't expected there to be so many people on the river embankment, including soldiers and government officials, all of whom were soaked to the bone.

Fortunately, the weather is suitable for this season, and for young and middle-aged people, such rain is not a big problem.

Not far away there is a high ground where several camps have been built, providing places for people to rest.

No one dared to delay, and they quickly went up to the river embankment to begin their patrol duties.

By this time, the river water had overflowed the bottom of the river embankment. Under the battering of the wind and waves, the bottom of the embankment began to erode, and the soil and water were gradually lost.

This is not a good sign. The best course of action in this situation is to throw stones to stop the flood from eroding the riverbank.

There were many stones nearby that could be collected and used. An official on site immediately ordered everyone to collect the stones and then throw them on the inside of the river embankment to slow down the erosion of the embankment by the wind and waves.

At this moment, thousands of people gathered on the river embankment. They finally understood the emergency notice issued by the government the night before. It turned out that the flood situation was very serious. If the river embankment could not be held, their homes would be destroyed.

Without anyone urging them, everyone was moving stones to protect the embankment. They had only one goal: to protect the river embankment.

And so they worked all day, and it rained all day. By dusk, the river had risen more than a foot, and all the stones they had painstakingly thrown down were now submerged.

The rain was still continuing, but fortunately the wind had stopped, and without the pounding of waves, the erosion of the soil at the bottom of the river embankment was slower.

Seeing that the work was almost done, the officials present told the men to go home and come back to work the next day. They also warned their families to evacuate as soon as possible and not to risk their lives.

Judging from the current situation, the river embankment cannot be saved and may be abandoned, with all people in the city being evacuated.

However, the people in the city were completely unaware of the impending disaster. The purpose of having every household in the city send someone to protect the dike was to let them know about the current danger, which was the best way to spread the word.

As expected, these people dragged their exhausted bodies home, and without taking a break, immediately arranged for their families to follow the government's instructions and prepare to evacuate.

The next morning, the rain subsided, and the situation in the city was different from before. People began to pack their belongings and follow the government's arrangements to evacuate in an orderly manner.

Prefect Jiang breathed a sigh of relief. Once the people mobilized, it would take only three days for everyone to evacuate.

However, what was unexpected was that the difficulties encountered in evacuating so many people at the same time were far greater than imagined.

Not to mention the many inconveniences of evacuating in the rain.

People knew that if the city flooded, everything in their homes would be destroyed, so they tried to take as much stuff as possible when they left, which slowed down their evacuation.

Prefect Jiang realized this wouldn't do. At this rate, they wouldn't be able to evacuate in five days. The river embankment was in critical condition and wouldn't hold out for more than a few days.

Once the dikes breach and floodwaters enter the city, there will be no way to escape, resulting in a large number of deaths.

Upon realizing this, Prefect Jiang immediately ordered that everyone could only take their personal belongings with them when evacuating, and no other items were allowed.

This measure was very effective, and the evacuation was much faster. Now, saving lives is the priority, and nothing else matters.

On the embankment of the Xunjiang River, people continued to throw stones. Although this could not save the embankment, it bought time for the city's residents to evacuate.

Those who will suffer the most losses will be the shops, as they will be unable to take anything with them during the evacuation and will have to lose the items they have left for sale.

They were helpless about this; even if they were allowed to bring it, they couldn't take all their belongings with them.

Three days later, most people in the city had evacuated, but by then the river embankment had reached its limit and was in danger of collapsing at any moment.

The rain had stopped, but the sky was terribly overcast, which was probably a sign of impending disaster.

Li Guang carefully inspected the river embankment. At this time, the river water had overflowed to the middle of the embankment, and there were many piping leaks on the outer side of the embankment, from which river water was flowing out, and the flow rate was getting faster and faster.

Li Guang predicted that, barring rain, the river embankment could hold out for another five or six hours, meaning that the embankment would definitely break tonight.

Overall, the river embankment built by Prefect Jiang was of good quality, at least buying the people a lot of time to evacuate.

At this point, there was no need to maintain the river embankment anymore. Thinking of this, Li Guang summoned the officials on the embankment and ordered them to evacuate everyone from the embankment.

After all the dike guards left, Li Guang ordered all officials and yamen runners to return to the city immediately and told Prefect Jiang that they must all evacuate before dark and that no one should remain in the city.

At this time, only Li Guang and his soldiers remained on the river embankment. Li Guang ordered his soldiers to put on life jackets and from now on, they were not allowed to take them off.

The soldiers immediately complied. Li Guang left twenty soldiers there and ordered them to hold their ground and not leave the camp. He also instructed them to secure the remaining wooden boats.

Once a flood occurs, there will be people in distress. With these wooden boats, rescue operations can be carried out.

After arranging everything here, Li Guang led the remaining soldiers back to the city.

At this time, a large number of people were still evacuating from the city, and a large number of yamen runners stood at the gate, urging the people to leave quickly.

Seeing this, Li Guang frowned. How could so many people still not have evacuated? It would be dark in two more hours.

When Li Guang arrived at the city gate, he saw Prefect Jiang leading several officials out of the city. Prefect Jiang was exhausted and covered in mud. When he saw Li Guang return, he quickly came to greet him.

Prefect Jiang wanted to say something, but after moving his mouth for a long time, he couldn't say anything.

It seems that Prefect Jiang's voice has gone hoarse and he can't speak for the time being. He has done his best to get the people in the city evacuated as soon as possible.

Seeing that Prefect Jiang was speechless, one of the officials beside him spoke up:

"In the past two days, the prefect has personally taken to the streets to urge the people to evacuate."

By now, most of the city's residents have reached the resettlement points, and it is estimated that all those who need to be evacuated should be out by nightfall.