Tian An was finally forced to drink a bowl of porridge with Zhao Yiming. After finishing the porridge, the two of them leaned against each other and took a nap. But it didn't take long for something to happen.
The two men heard a noisy sound outside the tent. As soon as they walked out of the tent, they saw the head of the village and the village chief gathering people.
Someone from the county government came and said that the earthquake had caused cracks in the embankment upstream, and that they had to perform labor service in advance. They required every household to send an adult male to repair the embankment.
Everyone suddenly wailed.
A young woman with a young child said in a broken voice, "Our house has collapsed, and all the men have been taken away, leaving us orphans and widows. How are we going to survive?"
"Yes! My house collapsed, and my parents-in-law also died in the earthquake. Not only do we have no place to live, but the funeral for my parents-in-law hasn't been held yet! If I, the head of the family, pass away, how will you let me, a woman, take care of all this with my children?"
Tian Xing's wife, a villager, sat on the ground, holding her five-year-old son, and burst into tears, her face filled with despair. Her two daughters also cried breathlessly.
Tian Xing had no other choice but to hug his children and wife tightly, his face full of despair. He had to do labor service for at least a month, and his family was in this situation now. How could his wife and children survive this month?
The village head was also helpless. "There's a crack in the embankment. If it's not repaired in time, if there's a heavy rain and a flood, all the villages downstream will be ruined."
"Then when are we leaving?"
"The situation is urgent. We must leave in three days."
"Three days? That's not even enough time to bury my parents!"
"Can you please be flexible and at least let us repair the house before we set off?"
The village chief and the head of the village remained silent. This was a decision made by the higher-ups, and they, the common people, had no right to have a say.
"Three days is the maximum limit given by the higher-ups."
Upon hearing this, the scene became chaotic and cries resounded through the sky.
Tian An and Zhao Yiming looked at each other for a while, then turned around and found a place where no one was around to talk.
"What's wrong with the new county magistrate? There's an earthquake, and not only did he not send anyone to check on the situation and help, he even directly pulled people away. How are we supposed to survive?"
Tian An said angrily. Zhao Yiming passed the imperial examination and was exempted from corvée labor, so he didn't have to go, but the situation of other families in the village was really bad!
"Repairing the dike is indeed the top priority. There has been a lot of rain this year, and the county magistrate's concerns are not groundless." Zhao Yiming looked at the somewhat gray sky.
"Then at least send someone to check on the situation in the village!"
Zhao Yiming sighed, "Ordinarily, someone should be here, but there's still no movement, and we're forced to do corvée labor early. I'm afraid the situation in the county is even worse than in the village, and the county magistrate is too busy to mobilize anyone. I wonder if the levee can hold up until everyone starts repairing it."
Thinking of the people in the county town, Tian An also became anxious, "I don't know how Lan Niang and the others are doing."
The communication is backward and the news is too blocked.
Zhao Yiming frowned: "Let Liu Da go to the county town to check the situation later."
Tian An nodded, "That's the only way."
However, before Liu Da left for the county town, Lan Niang and Liu Hui returned with their men. Their arrival confirmed Zhao Yiming's suspicions.
Lan Niang and Liu Hui called Tian An and Zhao Yiming to a place away from the crowd before they dared to speak.
"All three shops collapsed. Nothing was saved from the noodle shop and the cosmetics shop. Fortunately, I was counting the accounts at that time and took a few silver bills from the drawer. As for the silver and copper coins, they were buried underneath." Lan Niang handed four silver bills of one hundred taels to Tian An.
"Where are the people? Is anyone injured?" Tian An asked hurriedly.
"We got out just in time. Only Dong Wan was a step behind and got hit on the hand by a falling tile. But luckily it's not a serious problem. She's been given medicine."
Liu Hui also took out three silver notes of 100 taels each and gave them to Tian An. "One hundred taels is from the noodle shop. Two hundred taels is from the grain shop. Wang Hui asked me to give it to the girl."
Tian An took the banknote and looked around the crowd. When he didn't see Wang Hui, he asked, "Where's Wang Hui? And where are Chen Feng and Deng Yuan?"
Lan Niang carefully looked around and lowered her voice, "Miss, the grain store is in the best condition of the three stores. After we escaped the disaster and the earthquake passed, we went back and moved all the grain out of the warehouse while it was dark."
Liu Hui continued, "Ninety percent of the shops in the county town collapsed. Only the courtyards of some wealthy families managed to hold on. The county government office was in a complete mess, with broken eaves and broken walls lining the streets. We had to take a long detour to transport all the grain out of the city, but we didn't dare to bring it back to the village, so we had to transport it to the woods halfway along the way. Wang Hui, Chen Feng, and Deng Yuan were watching over it."
"Food is the most eye-catching thing during a disaster. You've done a good job." Zhao Yiming nodded in approval and asked, "Is it stored safely?"
Liu Hui replied, "We wrapped the food in oilcloth and covered it with straw and old clothes. We found a small cave in the woods and blocked the exit with leaves so it wouldn't be easily discovered."
"I'll go over tonight and take a look. I hope nothing goes wrong."
"Okay, sir."
After they returned to the camp, Tian An treated Dong Wan's wounds again, and the wounded who had been treated before also woke up one after another.
Because they would have to perform labor service in three days, the villagers had no choice but to accept their fate and start making preparations after feeling sad.
It is definitely not okay to have no place to live. Adults can just bear it, but children can't.
Except for the house in the village that Tian An helped build at the back, which had only collapsed tiles, the other houses had all become a pile of ruins. It was definitely unrealistic to rebuild the house, so they could only find tree trunks to build a simple thatched shed as an emergency measure.
The blue brick walls of Tian An's house can be used, but tiles are impossible to buy now, so he can only use thatch to cover the roof.
The families whose walls did not collapse were also extremely grateful at this time. They had exchanged their land with Tian An for houses. Like Tian An's family, they covered the roof with thatch and started to clean up the house, which was much faster than others.
As soon as it got dark, Liu Hui quietly took Zhao Yiming out.
Although the house had been repaired, everyone still set up tents outside to be on the safe side and brought quilts from home to sleep on the floor for the night.
Tian An waited in front of the fire until midnight when the two men came back.
"How is it, is the place safe?"
Zhao Yiming took the hot water that Tian An handed him and drank it before saying, "The mountain they chose is too soft. If it rains heavily, it will easily slide. I chose another place."
After finishing his talk, Zhao Yiming urged Tian An to go back to the tent, "You didn't sleep all night last night, go and get some rest quickly."
If she hadn't been waiting for Zhao Yiming, she would have collapsed long ago. She returned to the tent and fell into a deep sleep as soon as she covered herself with the quilt.
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