When Su Hua and her servant arrived at the prefectural city, they ran into Xiao Jinhan and Qin Fang's group. They quickly told Qingdai to stop the carriage.
"Uncle Qin, Zichen, how is the river embankment doing?"
"Hua'er, don't worry." Xiao Jinhan gave her a reassuring smile. "The villagers near the embankment are safe, and there have been no casualties."
Qin Fang nodded repeatedly, "Yes, fortunately General Zhennan and Princess Le'an had made arrangements in advance. For the past month, they have been sending people to guard the dike day and night. Otherwise, if the dike had broken in the middle of the night, nearly a million people in Tangshan Prefecture would probably be in danger."
Upon hearing this, Su Hua felt a little relieved.
Although she guessed the great flood from the previous strange phenomena, she did not expect that the great flood would start with hail. Hail in the middle of summer is extremely rare. Coupled with a whole month of heavy rain, even the previously dredged river channels could not withstand it.
This flood was even more alarming than the one that occurred a hundred years ago when Yu the Great was the first to die. Fortunately, no one lost their life, which is a stroke of good luck amidst the misfortune.
The young girl looked up at the group of people following behind the carriage and was about to speak when an old man with a goatee walked over.
The old man was about fifty years old. As soon as he stood still, he bowed and said, "Yuan Li greets General Zhennan, Princess of Le'an County, and Prefect."
"Your Excellency, how should we resettle these disaster victims?"
Qin Fang turned around and sighed almost inaudibly, "Master Yuan, you should first send the yamen runners to set up tents outside the city gate and arrange manpower to distribute porridge. As for the food and silver, I have already made arrangements and they will be delivered later."
"Yes, I will do it immediately." Master Yuan bowed and replied.
"Prefect?" Su Hua was taken aback, only then noticing that Qin Fang's official robes had changed.
In the time of Yu the Great, the county magistrate wore a light red official robe, while the prefect wore a gray-blue official robe. However, after only a month, he was promoted directly from a seventh-rank county magistrate to a fourth-rank prefect.
He's been promoted three ranks in a row—that's an astonishing speed of advancement!
Xiao Jinhan's gaze remained fixed on the girl, and he naturally did not miss the curiosity in her eyes. He explained slowly, "Prefect Liu in front of us was a corrupt official who misappropriated public funds, causing the people to suffer. He has been suspended from his post and investigated by the Emperor, his house and land have been confiscated, and he has been imprisoned in Tangshan Prison."
Upon hearing this, Su Hua unconsciously recalled what happened a month ago. "Zichen, you said that day that Prefect Liu was trying to fill the huge hole that Liu Yuxian had created. Could his idea be to embezzle government funds?"
The man nodded. "That's exactly right."
Su Hua's heart skipped a beat. The events were linked one after another, so coincidentally that they seemed like a play. If Liu Yuxian hadn't targeted the Su family restaurant and hadn't hired the master thief, perhaps the Liu family wouldn't be in this predicament today.
After a moment of internal struggle, the young girl curtsied to Qin Fang, "Congratulations, Uncle Qin, on your promotion to Prefect!"
"Hua'er, you flatter me." Qin Fang shook his head, his voice filled with gratitude. "I am not the official prefect, but only the acting prefect."
Moreover, the key credit for my being able to take this position as acting prefect lies with Hua'er.
If it weren't for Hua'er's divine foresight in granting tax exemption and harvesting rice, and her alliance with the five major families of Tangshan, all the officials in Tangshan Prefecture would likely have been held accountable for this great flood, and their fate wouldn't have been much better than Liu Wenchu's.
“No, the prediction of unusual phenomena is only a prerequisite. The key is that Uncle Qin himself cares about the people, is capable and willing to do things.” Su Hua waved her hand. “Hua’er believes that with Uncle Qin’s talent, the ‘substitute’ in front of him will be removed soon.”
"Whether to remove it or not is another matter." The man looked distressed. "The acting prefect has been promoted, but this grand chair is really burning hot to sit on."
Su Hua raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"
"Have you seen the huge crowd of people outside the city, Hua'er?" Qin Fang sighed softly and turned to look at the throng of disaster victims crowding the city gate.
"Although there are no casualties in the city, the breached dike has destroyed the houses of countless people downstream, and their food has been severely damaged. They not only have nowhere to live, but they also cannot even find enough to eat."
Moreover, in addition to treating the disaster victims, the breached embankment also needs to be repaired.
Everywhere, inside and out, money was needed, but the government office was now just an empty shell. The treasury was empty of silver, with only two meager bags of grain remaining—not even enough to feed the yamen runners.
Upon hearing this, Su Hua suddenly understood what he had just said to that Master Yuan, asking someone to send over grain and silver. It turned out that he had personally paid for all of this grain and silver!
As the three were talking, the sound of horses' hooves came from inside the city gate, growing louder as they approached.
Turning my head, I saw a group of men dressed as shop assistants escorting a dozen or so wooden barrels. The barrels were about half a person's height, and I could faintly smell the aroma of rice.
The waiter's shouts were particularly loud: "Everyone, make way! Make way! The government office has just served freshly cooked pork bone porridge. People who want some, hurry up and line up at the city gate. One bowl for everyone..."
Halfway through the conversation, the disaster victims who had been waiting rushed out in droves, and in the blink of an eye, the huge city gate was completely surrounded.
The workers lifted the lids of the wooden buckets and busily and orderly served porridge to the disaster victims. The ones leading the distribution of porridge were none other than the brother and sister, Qin Yucheng and Qin Yingxian.
The disaster victims were probably starving. As soon as they received the bone broth porridge, they didn't care that the porridge was still scalding hot and immediately brought it to their mouths to slurp it up, making a lot of slurping noises. Meanwhile, on the official road not far away, many more disaster victims were still coming in droves.
Qin Fang couldn't help but sigh repeatedly, "Heavens behold, if only this flood had come ten or fifteen days later, at least the people of the prefecture could have harvested their rice and wouldn't have ended up like this."
Su Hua frowned. Although the five major families of Tangshan Prefecture had led a group of people to harvest rice ahead of schedule, many people were still reluctant to accept the loss of their harvest. After receiving Liu Wenchu's statement that he would not come to cause a flood, they did not touch their crops at all.
However, Liu Wenchu's property has already been confiscated, and further condemnation will be of no use. Post-disaster reconstruction is not something that can be done overnight. The daily food expenses for the tens of thousands of disaster victims are a huge sum of money. Although the Li family is the richest family, they probably cannot afford such a diet.
"Uncle Qin, has the imperial court allocated any funds for disaster relief?"
"This flood came unexpectedly. When Liu Wenchu was dismissed, the court sent a message that the disaster relief funds were already being raised." Qin Fang shook his head and lowered his voice a few decibels. "However, the north is not peaceful right now, so the court may not be able to provide much disaster relief funds."
Su Hua's thoughts shifted slightly. The friction between Beiming and Dayu was intensifying, and war was almost a certainty. War is extremely expensive, and once weapons are drawn, the cost of silver is not insignificant.
Moreover, from the time the Ministry of Revenue allocates disaster relief funds to the time Tangshan Prefecture actually receives the funds, it is unknown how much will be left after all the skimming and embezzlement.
She paused for a moment, then pondered, "Uncle Qin, it's not a long-term solution to just lend money like this. In my humble opinion, instead of waiting for the court's disaster relief funds, we should raise some ourselves to solve this immediate crisis."
“Hua’er, you don’t know this, but the day before yesterday, when I took over Tangshan Prefecture, I thought about raising money in the prefectural city.” Qin Fang smiled bitterly. “But when the fundraising notice was issued, apart from the five major families led by General Zhennan and Jinyun who donated money, the other wealthy merchants were completely unmoved.”
Su Hua wasn't surprised; instead, she blinked her almond-shaped eyes and asked, "Uncle Qin, do you know what this wealthy businessman lacks most, and what he desires most?"
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