"We came here to escape disaster, not to settle down. This place has nothing, how can we settle down?" The man was dressed as a scholar, and looked to be around thirty years old. He was a commoner, but he was quite bold.
Among hundreds of thousands of people, no one dared to stand up and protest, but he dared to take the lead. At times like these, being a show-off is not a good sign.
Zhong Beiqiang glanced at the man, looking impatient. "Didn't you see the dark clouds in the sky have already dispersed? It hasn't rained since yesterday, and the weather will be sunny for the next while. Everyone, let's settle down here first. After traveling for so long, let's rest well today and start working tomorrow."
"Work? What work do you expect us to do?" The scholar looked indignant, as if he had been tricked. He glanced at the soldiers with swords around him and then became too ashamed to make any further moves.
Zhong Beiqiang continued shouting, "You have no houses to live in, right? Although the houses here have been destroyed, some of the walls are still quite sturdy. We'll cut down these trees tomorrow and build wooden houses here. Everyone can stay here for now. We don't know when we can go back to Xiyancheng yet."
"Can't we go back once the floodwaters recede? Is it really necessary to build a wooden house here?" someone asked, mustering their courage.
"Who told you that you could go back immediately after the flood receded?" Zhong Beiqiang paused, glanced around, and then explained loudly again, "The entire city of Xiyancheng was submerged. After the flood recedes, there will be a lot of silt, all kinds of filth, animal carcasses, and so on. Everyone saw snake tides during the escape."
We escaped to Qingyang Prefecture in one breath thanks to the elixirs. The snake horde wasn't so lucky; probably more than half of them perished in the flood, as everyone witnessed. But many other creatures, which you didn't see, also suffered heavy losses.
"When these dead things are soaked in the flood, they will ferment and cause a plague. If you are not afraid of death, go back and try it yourselves. If you want to live, stay here and wait until the plague has dissipated."
"When will we be able to wait?" someone sighed.
Back in Qingyang Prefecture, the government had already anticipated today's situation. In the past few days, Zhong Beiqiang had been summoned to a room by Song Wu and Wu Chong to receive intensive training on various aspects of flood disasters. That's why he was able to quickly respond when someone asked him about it.
Moreover, his argument was so logical and well-founded that it was impossible not to believe him.
"If it were winter, it would be hard to say. The cold weather and low temperatures would make it harder for the virus to dissipate. However, in two months it will be summer, and with the strong summer sun, the virus should dissipate after a few months of intense sunshine. But because this flood has affected such a wide area, just to be on the safe side, it's best not to go back this year. It would be safer to wait until next year."
If anyone doesn't believe me, they can go back and check on the situation in winter. If they feel they should go back then, the government won't stop them. But they must stay here until winter and are not allowed to go anywhere.
Thousands of soldiers drew their swords in unison, their posture clearly indicating that anyone who dared to disobey would be killed on the spot.
Everyone was fleeing with their families and belongings, so it wasn't easy to sneak away. If it were just one person, there would be a chance of escaping.
Thinking about fleeing, I didn't know where to go. I had heard years ago that there were disasters in various places, and other places were also affected. It didn't matter where I went. Now the government had arranged for everyone to settle here, which was safer than fleeing outside.
Everyone deeply understands the hardships of fleeing along the way, and no one wants to continue the journey. Although this place is quite disappointing as a resettlement point, considering that everyone is in the same situation, there is nothing to complain about.
The people seemed to have resigned themselves to their fate, and each found a place to stop and rest. Those with carriages or oxen rested in the carriages, while those without carriages found a drier place to lie down and rest.
After resting for half an afternoon, everyone woke up and the officers and soldiers organized people to go out and collect firewood. After a day in the sun, they were able to collect some semi-dry firewood, which would be perfect for starting a fire and cooking dinner in the evening.
The next day, they would start building the wooden house. Those with some carpentry skills would do the carpentry work, while the others would be responsible for cutting down trees, mowing grass, and so on.
Some people discovered bamboo on the mountain and decided to build a bamboo house. Those who knew how to build houses discussed it together and decided to help each other build thatched houses.
That's often how it is. When you're not doing anything, you feel too lazy to do it, because building a house is really not easy. But once you start, you feel like you can do more and do it better.
Just like the matter of building houses, the government originally intended to simply build a wooden hut to make do for a year or two, and then leave whenever they wanted.
Zhu Qiuyu mentioned the small village in the swamp forest, where the houses were all surrounded by fences, which could somewhat protect against attacks from wild beasts. Zhu Lin thought this was a good idea.
We can then enclose this abandoned town with a fence, so that the people can sleep more peacefully at night. Originally, we planned to start building the fence after everyone built simple wooden houses, but now everyone has their own ideas and wants to build better houses, so the fence project will have to be postponed.
Although the number of people fleeing this time was large, no major troubles occurred along the way, which was thanks to the local officials. Xiyancheng, located on the frontier, had a total of over 100,000 people.
Wu Chong was the newly appointed prefect. Under his leadership, all the subordinate officials were also newly promoted. They were obedient and capable. These county magistrates, clerks, and constables managed the village heads and other local leaders in the towns very well.
With each level of the organization under control, the large number of people kept to themselves and didn't dare to cause trouble, which was reassuring. If chaos had broken out, tens of thousands of people could have caused a huge uproar.
The officers and soldiers weren't just patrolling around with knives all day; some of them were helping to build houses, specifically thatched huts, which were intended for officials like Wu Chong to live in first.
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