Lu Cijian frowned when he met those green-eyed stares.
However, the people in the river showed no sign of restraint, and their gazes toward the two of them only intensified.
The intense gazes made them a little uncomfortable for a moment, but fortunately, they were all kind eyes, without any malice, and mostly filled with joy.
Everyone had a smile on their face. Even though most of their bodies were submerged in the river, they seemed oblivious to it, and their eyes were filled with gratitude as they looked at them.
Jiang Yimian stared at the noticeably larger number of people in the river with some surprise, and asked curiously, "Why are there so many people? These shouldn't be people from the government, right?"
Before Zhao Jie could speak, a young man not far from them said with a grin, "We are citizens of the city. We heard that the adults were going to build a river, so we came to help on our own initiative."
Lord Lu, Miss Jiang, Qingnan is so fortunate to have you two.
"If it weren't for you, we don't know how much longer we would have suffered under the oppression of the Zhou family, and Qingnan would probably have continued to decline."
"Yes, it's all thanks to you. Although we weren't among the disaster victims outside the city, we are truly grateful to you."
They initially didn't believe these officials from the capital, until they heard that Zhou Shiwen had died.
They then learned from the city guards what had happened in the government office, and realized that these people were different from the officials who had come from the capital before.
Especially after learning that General Wei and the Princess were still in the yamen.
They became even more certain that these people were different.
General Wei's contributions to the Great Jin Dynasty are unparalleled. Although he is now old, he remains a hero of the Great Jin in their hearts.
As for the eldest princess, although she was always in the capital and rarely appeared in the public eye, they had heard that she was kind-hearted and had once saved many slaves who had been sold into slavery, allowing them to live like human beings.
The fact that they are here to provide disaster relief in Qingnan proves that the court does care about them. It's just that Zhou Shiwen manipulated things before, and with the embezzlement of disaster relief funds, the disaster-stricken people have nothing left.
Only moldy grains were forbidden, even from near the city gates.
At first, they thought the government was worried about an epidemic spreading throughout the city, but later they realized that Zhou Shiwen clearly didn't want to care about the people outside the city.
At that time, they also tried to resist and help the disaster victims, but what they got in return was coercion and beatings from the government.
Later, gradually, no one dared to pay attention to the people outside the city.
They didn't even dare to mention it, let alone anything else.
They could only pretend not to know, as this was the only way to lessen their guilt and sorrow.
Qingnan is too far from the capital, and Zhou Shiwen has too much power to inform those above of the truth, which is why Qingnan is in its current state.
Now that Zhou Shiwen is dead, and with the Eldest Princess and General Wei in charge, they believe that things will definitely get better from now on.
Jiang Yimian then understood, nodded slightly to everyone, and said with a smile, "With your help, I believe the river and reservoir will be completed soon."
She was initially worried that relying solely on the constables and soldiers brought by the yamen would make it difficult to complete the river and reservoir construction as soon as possible.
To everyone's surprise, the city's residents spontaneously came out to help.
That's good too. If they can finish dealing with Qingnan's affairs sooner, they can return to Beijing sooner.
Receiving a positive response, everyone worked even harder and were filled with hope for the future of Qingnan, unlike their previous pessimism.
Seeing this, Zhao Jie simply pulled the two aside and said with a smile, "I thought these people would continue to be like they were a few days ago, not telling us anything."
Unexpectedly, ever since the news of Zhou Shiwen's death spread, these people have become like different people. They changed from their usual indifferent demeanor and started asking you about your affairs.
Yesterday, when the Princess came to distribute porridge, these people boldly asked you many questions.
"You two are quite well-known in Qingnan now."
In the past few days, he has encountered many people on this side of the river who have come to ask about Jiang Yimian and Lu Cijian, and all of them have admiration in their eyes.
Upon hearing that the river channel was to be renovated and floods to be controlled, all these people spontaneously came to help, and they were completely different from how they were when I first saw them.
As a result, these officials also received a lot of care and greetings from the people, all thanks to these two.
He knew that this trip to Qingnan would not disappoint.
Jiang Yimian nodded, but her heart was filled with mixed feelings. She stared at the people who were busy in the river and said, "They have been suppressed for too long. It is already amazing that they can still be full of hope for the future."
These people had been oppressed by Zhou Shiwen for years and had long since become numb and indifferent, living like walking corpses.
In addition, the officials dispatched from the capital in recent years have colluded with Zhou Shiwen and only exploit the people, making them feel hopeless. This is why they dared not say anything when they first saw them.
After all, they must have experienced that kind of disappointment many times before.
Now that Zhou Shiwen is dead, the weight on their hearts has been lifted, and they naturally feel relieved.
Lu Cijian said, "His Majesty will definitely make a careful selection of the new prefect and will not allow Qingnan to fall into the same situation as in previous years."
Zhao Jie also said seriously, "That's right, Qingnan has finally made it through."
Those people no longer need to worry about floods. I think your method, Yimian, is truly effective.
After hearing about Jiang Yimian's method of building a flood discharge reservoir that day, he went back and carefully studied it with the people from the Ministry of Works. With Lu Cijian's annotations on the river topography, they finally understood the function of the flood discharge reservoir.
After carefully testing it several times on the sand table, it was confirmed that these reservoirs are perfectly capable of functioning as long as there is no particularly heavy rain.
Even in the event of an exceptionally heavy rainstorm, they can detect the anomaly in time, release the floodwaters early, and evacuate the people, ensuring that the villages outside the city will not be flooded again.
Jiang Yimian just smiled and didn't dwell on the issue. She then looked at the river topography map drawn by Lu Cijian and discussed with the others the best location for building the flood discharge reservoir.
"The drop in elevation here is too great, so there must be a flood control reservoir. Otherwise, the water rushing down from the mountain will definitely destroy the riverbed."
Lu Cijian nodded; he had also been thinking of building a reservoir at this location.
This place is located halfway up the mountain. Once the river on the mountain rises, it will all flow into the river below the mountain. If a reservoir is not built halfway up the mountain...
It is highly likely that Qingnan will repeat the same mistakes as this year.
As they were talking, Wang San hurriedly rode up on horseback, shouting, "My lord, Miss Jiang, something terrible has happened! Qi Shang is in trouble!"
Jiang Yimian and Lu Cijian were both startled. They didn't care about Zhao Jie and hurriedly got into the carriage and headed to the yamen.
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