In the end, Nan Wuyu couldn't argue with Nan Wusi and had no choice but to take her along.
Xiao Yi stayed at the county government office, fearing that some refugees might still commit crimes and recklessly rob or steal food from the office.
Nan Wusi and the other man also felt that this was very likely to happen, so they thought it would be good to leave one person here.
However, Nan Wuyu was worried about Xiao Yi's safety. If something happened to Xiao Yi, they would probably face certain death if they went back.
However, Nan Wusi wasn't worried at all. Despite Xiao Yiwen's frail appearance and blindness, his martial arts skills were many times better than her second brother's.
Nan Wuyu and Nan Wusi spent another week visiting the surrounding villages, guided by Manager Ding.
He used to drive around to various villages to collect rice and sell some groceries, so he was quite familiar with the affairs of each village. When he learned that Nan Wuyu and his group needed someone to guide them, he volunteered.
Manager Ding greatly admired Nan Wuyu and his team, feeling that the high-ranking officials from the capital were indeed extraordinary, having resolved the problem that had troubled the county magistrate for so long so quickly. Although he currently had no rice to sell, he still wanted to do his part to help the disaster-stricken people.
Nan Wuyu also admired Manager Ding, a young man with many ideas and a kind heart. He had the idea of bringing him to the capital and asked him about it.
"Manager Ding, are you interested in developing your career in the capital?"
Most people would be overjoyed to gain the favor of a high-ranking official, but Manager Ding shook his head and replied, "Just call me Ding Chen, sir."
“I don’t have any other skills, and I know my own limitations, so I’d rather not go to Beijing to develop my career. Besides, my parents are still in our hometown, and I can’t leave them to make a living in such a far place.”
Nan Wuyu nodded, liking Ding Chen's character even more—calm, composed, and very filial—so he didn't press the matter further.
The surrounding villages vary in severity, with some suffering very badly and others less so.
The villagers from the different disaster-stricken villages stayed in their villages and did not go to the county town to receive relief, while those villages that were almost submerged are now just a mess.
"Second Brother, restoring these villages will be a huge undertaking," Nan Wusi said worriedly, looking at the scene before him.
"That's true, but these villages still need to be restored." Nan Wuyu looked at the mess, his expression somewhat grave.
Fortunately, the bodies of the victims who lost their lives have already been disposed of; otherwise, an epidemic would have been a major problem.
"Let's go back to the city and do a survey to see which refugees belong to which villages, and then ask them if they'd like to return to their villages to rebuild. The government can allocate funds for them." This was the only solution Nan Wuyu could think of at the moment. If no one was willing to go back, reconstruction would be very difficult.
After visiting the last village, Nan Wuyu and his group set off back to Fanghong County.
Nan Wusi looked at Xiao Yi, who was sitting upright in the county government office, and asked him if anything had happened in the past few days.
“A few days ago, some petty thieves organized a group of people to try to steal relief grain, but I caught them all and locked them up in jail,” Xiao Yi replied calmly.
"Who ordered this?"
"They said that they saw there was a lot of relief grain, and they were really starving, so they resorted to this desperate measure. They hope that Magistrate Liu will be lenient with them."
"Then should we lock these people up?" Nan Wusi asked.
"It's only a few days. Let them stay put and then let them go out to work. Free labor is no use." Xiao Yi said indifferently.
"Alright." Nan Wusi nodded. If someone really wanted to cause trouble through them, she would follow the clues to find the mastermind behind it and eliminate any worries.
The next day, Namo Yu sent out soldiers to register which villages these refugees came from and whether anyone was willing to go back and rebuild their villages.
Surprisingly, after hearing that the government was willing to pay for them to rebuild their villages, most of the displaced people were willing to go back, including the woman with the child.
That left the question of how to organize people to go back and help them rebuild the village.
There are currently no extra manpower in the county to assist them, and the officers and soldiers cannot spare any manpower for the time being, which is still a problem.
Nan Wusi suggested asking these wealthy merchants and gentry to provide financial assistance, and that they could pay unaffected villagers to come and help. However, these people would definitely be unwilling, and they would need to be thoroughly disciplined, perhaps through a combination of coercion and enticement.
However, this would require Liu Lin's help, so everyone told him their plan. After all, they had come from afar, and even if he was a powerful figure, once he left, he wouldn't be able to keep up with them anymore.
This disaster relief effort is a lengthy process, and they naturally can't stay here indefinitely until the reconstruction is complete. Their purpose is simply to give the officials a warning and ensure the disaster relief efforts are implemented effectively.
Although Magistrate Liu is not very capable, he seems honest enough. Once construction begins, there shouldn't be any major problems later on.
During this period, several more groups of people caused trouble, but because the people were now dispersed, they did not cause much of a disturbance and were quickly suppressed.
However, they didn't get anything useful out of these people, since they were just doing their jobs for money and had no idea who was behind it all.
This is truly a headache, Namo thought. If we can't find out who's behind this, this matter won't be over yet. But even Second Brother hasn't found anything, so why are people constantly inciting trouble?
However, after experiencing numerous disturbances, Nan Wuyu sensed something was amiss. These people were clearly trying to cover something up through these disturbances.
After thinking in this direction, the only thing Nan Wuyu could think of was the disaster relief funds. Although Liu Lin had mentioned that he had specifically set up an account book for disaster relief funds, they had not seen it.
So Nan Wuyu asked Liu Lin to bring the account books and examined them carefully.
However, after reviewing the ledger, Nan Wuyu found that every single transaction was indeed recorded very clearly, with details on both the time and the amount of money spent. Therefore, it seemed that the account was not falsified.
If Liu Lin is ruled out as a suspect, then it must be his superiors who committed corruption. However, if the people are in turmoil, the court will not have the resources to investigate corruption.
They might even take the opportunity to destroy some evidence; their intentions are truly despicable.
"Lord Liu, could you please tell me more details about the date the disaster relief funds were disbursed?" Nan Wuyu asked Liu Lin.
"Lord Nan, I don't know how to explain this. Please come with me and take a look." Liu Lin said as he walked towards the government office's storeroom.
Although Nan Wuyu had doubts, he still followed Liu Lin to the county government's warehouse.
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