Chapter 261 Migration (Two chapters in one)
It was still dark, and Xiao Zhen and Zhao Shiqing were not in a hurry to return to the mountain. They had been busy all night, and that group of people were also in the city, so they certainly wouldn't be idle either.
Tongzhou did not have a curfew before, but starting these two days, because the Fourth Prince was coming, a curfew was temporarily imposed.
When the two men came out of the provincial government office, they saw a team of patrol horses. They hid in an alley, and guessed that the patrol horses had gone far away. After waiting for a while, they were about to come out when they saw two black shadows that had gotten ahead of them and ran past their hiding place.
Zhao Shiqing rubbed his eyes: "If I hadn't been standing here, I would have really thought those two were us."
Xiao Zhen suppressed his laughter and said, "Let's go, follow them and see what's going on with these two people."
Zhao Shiqing didn't move, but blew a whistle. Xiaoguai flew over from somewhere. Zhao Shiqing whispered a few words to him, and Xiaoguai flapped his wings and flew away.
After about two cups of tea, Xiaoguai flew back. Zhao Shiqing said to Xiao Zhen, "Let's go. Xiaoguai has found where those two people are staying."
The two followed Xiaoguai through two streets and saw a person standing at the entrance of the alley from a distance.
The two found a place to hide. When Xiaoguai saw that they were not following him, he fell on Zhao Shiqing's shoulder.
Zhao Shiqing spoke to it for a few words, and it flew away again.
This time it came back quickly, whispering softly into Zhao Shiqing's ear. Zhao Shiqing patted its head and said to Xiao Zhen, "Xiaoguai said that there were a lot of people in the yard where those two people went (actually, Xiaoguai said eight, but Xiaoguai doesn't know how to count, so eight means a lot), and there were knives. There were people keeping watch at the entrance of the alley and outside the yard. I suspect that's where the group of people are staying."
Xiao Zhen said: "Just know the address, I'll have someone keep an eye on it."
The two of them did not hang around and returned to the mountain overnight.
The next morning, as soon as the city gates opened, four letters were sent out of the city.
However, the relocation notice was not posted. Firstly, it was stamped with a private seal, and secondly, the people would not cooperate if the relocation was done rashly.
However, after what happened last night, Qian Zhizhou will no longer use rumors to confuse the public and arrest people.
This time, no inscribed stone statue was unearthed, and the news of the flood in Tongzhou spread from the streets and alleys.
"Do you know why the city has suddenly become so strict? The Fourth Prince is coming."
"Really? Why would the prince come to our place?"
"It's because of the impending flood. When His Majesty heard that we were going to have a flood, he sent the Fourth Prince here to control the water. Not only Tongzhou, but also Baixian and the other three places will be submerged by the flood."
"Is it true? Didn't they say it was a rumor? The government even posted a notice refuting it."
"Young man, you don't understand. Based on my decades of experience, as long as the government refutes a rumor, it's most likely true."
"That's right, my brother-in-law's Yue family's neighbor's cousin is an official in the government office. The news that the prince is coming to Tongzhou is true. It couldn't be more true."
It was just rumor in the past, but this time, with the Fourth Prince coming to Tongzhou, the flood became more credible.
When the news reached the yamen, Qian Zhizhou was on edge. Now even he himself began to believe it. Could it be that a flood was really coming?
He did not issue a notice to refute the rumor, nor did he send anyone to arrest the rumormonger. As a joke, the manuscript of the poem that implicitly satirized Mrs. Qian still had his private seal on it.
If he dares to arrest someone, the poem will be sent to the capital and to the Yue family. Even though he now has Feng Ke as a big backer, this is only on the surface. In front of the Yue family, he is still the poor son-in-law from a humble family. Even Feng Ke was introduced by the Yue family.
At this time, He Bo, the magistrate of Gaoping, had just finished reading the letter from magistrate Qian.
Qian Ruanfan wanted him to open the city gates and take in the victims?
What disaster victims? From Tongzhou?
He Zhizhou did have a bad temper and offended many people, but although he had no hope of promotion, he was still able to sit in the position of Zhizhou today, all thanks to his political achievements.
Gaoping has been plagued by rampant banditry since ancient times, and the people there are fierce and tough. There is a saying that nine out of ten households are bandits. There have been many incidents of officials being attacked and tributes being robbed.
When there was nothing else to rob locally, they would rob passing merchants. Even old ladies who walked with a trembling gait would come to the official road with crutches to try to extort money.
When the army arrived, the young and strong had already fled, and only the old, weak and sick were captured.
Before Zhizhou He came, everyone avoided this place.
The reason why He Zhizhou came here was because he offended someone and was ostracized.
The first thing He Zhizhou did after arriving in Gaoping was to suppress the bandits.
Because of the bandit suppression, his son was kidnapped and killed, and his wife could not bear the blow and hanged herself; because of the bandit suppression, he used up all his savings of many years and even the family business passed down from his ancestors; because of the bandit suppression, he was injured many times and suffered from many injuries.
Under his governance, Gaoping became increasingly peaceful and the people lived and worked in peace and contentment.
After he had made political achievements, someone came to reap the fruits. However, just after he was transferred away, banditry arose again. The new official almost died in office. In desperation, he had to be transferred back.
There have been many rumors over the years, and the most common one is that he is colluding with officials and bandits. Otherwise, why would those bandits only fear him and not others?
However, rumors are just rumors, but it is true that He Zhizhou's family was destroyed. Now he is a bachelor, and he is not afraid of anyone, and he does not give face to anyone. As time goes by, his position becomes more and more stable, and no one from top to bottom dares to make a move on Gao Ping.
Although He Zhizhou offended many people, he still had one or two old friends in the capital.
The news of the Fourth Prince coming to Tongzhou was reported to Gaoping together with the news of the flood in Tongzhou that was widely circulated in the capital.
Now that he had received the letter from Qian Zhizhou, He Zhizhou felt that he had finally done something good for himself by living a life of idleness and waiting for death.
Gaoping doesn't have much other than a lot of barren mountains and wasteland. Otherwise, there wouldn't be such poor mountains and bad waters and such unruly people.
What Qian Zhizhou could not have imagined was that He Zhizhou not only welcomed the Tongzhou immigrants, but also wanted to keep these immigrants in Gaoping.
Most of these immigrants are honest and hardworking people. Wouldn’t it be better to let them stay in Gaoping to open up wasteland?
While Qian Zhizhou was walking around in circles, He Zhizhou had already called his subordinates to discuss how to resettle the victims.
These subordinates have followed He Zhizhou through fire and water, and are his iron-blooded team.
So, while the Fourth Prince was still on his way, Gaoping had already opened the city gates and launched a series of land reclamation policies to welcome the arrival of the disaster victims.
After receiving the letter from He Zhizhou, Qian Zhizhou was completely dumbfounded.
No, he wasn't mistaken, was he?
Is there anyone who welcomes disaster victims these days?
He just can't!
If the accident happened somewhere else and a large number of victims came to Tongzhou, he would definitely close the city gates and not let the victims enter the city.
What are disaster victims?
He was just a hidden thief and murderer, a bandit who robbed and looted houses. He would hide as far away as possible. He also wanted to wait for promotion in peace. Unless he was pointed at a knife like that night, he would never let the victims enter the city.
But now the problem arises. Relocating people is a big deal. He asked the people to migrate before the Fourth Prince arrived. What would the Fourth Prince think when he knew about it?
Qian Zhizhou continued to spin in circles.
Xiao Zhen and Zhao Shiqing couldn't wait any longer, as rumors of the flood had spread from the city to outside the city.
Xiaowangzhuang.
A peddler carrying a load of goods on his shoulder was apologizing to a group of women: "Buy as much as you can. I won't be here for a long time."
Aunt: "Why don't you come? Aren't you married? Is it possible that your wife is about to give birth? It's your wife who is giving birth, so do you want to accompany your wife during the confinement period?"
The peddler said, "To be honest, my wife is pregnant, but I'm not going to accompany her for the confinement period. I'm going to accompany her to Gaoping. You may not know yet, but Tongzhou is in flood. The Fourth Prince is already on his way with officials from the Ministry of Works. Not only will Tongzhou be flooded, but even Baixian and Yuzhou will become a vast ocean. If we don't leave now, what are we waiting for? Well, you should go too. Gaoping has posted a notice that any good citizen with a road permit can settle down in Gaoping. There is also a lot of wasteland over there. Whoever opens it will own it. Okay, okay, I won't say anymore. I have to go home to pack up and leave tomorrow."
The peddler left as soon as he said he would, not caring about the small amount of goods he had sold. He could get one or two taels of silver for free just by saying a few words in the village. Today he had already visited three villages, which meant three or two taels of silver. In the past, he could walk around the streets for a month and wear out a few pairs of shoes, but he still could not earn three or two taels of silver.
In another village, under the big locust tree at the entrance of the village, old men and women were watching the peddler's footsteps as he walked away, discussing whether they should also go to Gaoping.
"Whoever wants to go can go. I'm not going anyway. My family has been here for generations. Our ancestral graves are here. I also have ten acres of land. Apart from the old rich man, my family has the most land in this village. I'd rather die on my own land."
"You old fool, didn't you come out with your ears? The peddler just said that flooded fields won't grow any crops without ten or eight years of cultivation. You're half buried in the ground, so you're dead, but you should also think about your descendants. What will happen if there are no crops? Can you bear to watch your eldest grandson starve to death?"
"How can it be as serious as you say? I've lived for decades, and I've seen everything."
"Bah! Have you ever seen a flood? I heard from my grandfather that they fled here because of the flood in their hometown. If they could stay in their hometown, why would they leave their hometown and come here?"
At this time, the village chief came over and said, "Everyone, stop arguing. Let my eldest son go to the city tomorrow to find out if this is true."
In the city.
Many people have come to inquire about the news in the past two days, all of them are from nearby villages.
It is true that the prince came to Tongzhou to control the flood.
The Tongzhou flood is also real.
Some people even talked about someone digging out a stone statue a few days ago.
"Do you know? There's something engraved on that stone statue. It says that in a certain year and month, Tongzhou was hit by a flood. A hundred miles of water was flooded, and nine out of ten houses were empty."
......
Dahuaishu Village was the first village to flee because the village chief's son heard the news in the city. On the day he returned, the village chief gathered all the villagers and everyone agreed to flee together.
Men, women, young and old rushed to harvest food, taking away everything they could. Regardless of whether the rumor was true or false, they chose to believe it. At worst, they would just go out to take shelter, and they couldn't escape because they had to leave their fields here. If there was really a flood, it would be fine, but if nothing happened, they could still come back. At least, they were still there, and their belongings were still there.
The daughters-in-law of Dahuaishu Village sent letters to their parents' home before leaving, so some people from other villages followed them. Some followed their daughters and sons-in-law from their parents' families, and some married daughters and sons-in-law followed their parents' families. Some villages were united and followed others when they saw others leaving. Some left, but of course some did not. Some thought it was no big deal, and some were too smart and thought they were very smart.
On the official road from Tongzhou to Gaoping, one can occasionally see disaster victims fleeing with their families. Some are from the same village, some are from the same surname and clan, and some people with only one surname do not want to be left alone, so they follow behind the main group so that they can be taken care of if they encounter any problems on the road.
They all heard that Gaoping was famous for its many bandits, but it has been better in recent years and they haven't heard of any robberies. However, people are less respected when they leave their hometown, and who knows if the people there will bully strangers. It will always be better if there are more people together.
Xiaoshi Village is a remote place, dozens of miles away from the nearest village. No peddler would come here all year round. This year, a peddler came for the first time, but he brought bad news.
No one in Xiaoshi Village believed it. They rarely saw outsiders, and they didn't trust them even more.
They cursed at the peddler, thinking he had ulterior motives, and he was almost beaten.
The next day, the most capable young man in Xiaoshi Village returned from the city.
He is a dentist.
When he was twelve years old, he was kicked out of the house by his stepfather. After suffering a lot of hardships, he went to the city. Because of his sweet mouth, he was noticed by the owner of a shop and stayed in the shop as a clerk. He was eloquent and when he grew up, he became a courier with his clever mouth. He returned to Xiaoshi Village in glory and became a promising man envied by everyone in the village.
He came back to the village this time to pick up his mother.
I'm not going to take my mother to the city to enjoy life, but to take her to Gaoping.
"Do you know? There's going to be a flood here. Someone dug up a stone man. On the stone man is a warning from heaven. Oh, believe it or not, I'm going to take my mother away."
The guarantor ignored his stepfather and carried his mother on his back and left. His stepfather's family tried to stop him and he was beaten black and blue, but he still left Xiaoshi Village carrying his mother on his back.
"Oh my god, he's been beaten like a pig, but he still wants to take me away. Is there really going to be a flood here?"
"It must be true. He's a pawnbroker. The village chief said pawnbrokers are registered with the government and know the officials. He must have received confirmation from the officials and risked being beaten to return to the village to pick up my mother."
"I think not only did he get the confirmation from the official, but he also said that the heavens appeared and the stone man gave a warning."
"How about we go out and hide?"
"Where can we go? We don't know anywhere outside the village."
"Didn't the peddler that day say we could go to Gaoping?"
"I've never been to Gaoping and I don't know the way there."
"There's a mouth under the nose. If you don't know the way, you can ask."
No one expected that the first family to leave the village would be the stepfather of the broker. Their wife had left, and their promising adopted son had also left. Of course they had to go to find him. It was Gaoping, so they had to go to Gaoping too.
Seeing them leave, someone went to find the village chief, saying they also wanted to leave.
At this time, Niu Qiu and Shen Wangxing, accompanied by Shen Guanyue, had already arrived in Gaoping.
They did not come empty-handed, they brought twenty carts of rice.
Gaoping took in the disaster victims, and they were able to reclaim wasteland, but it would take at least until next year to grow crops. During this year, without the relief grain from the court, what would the victims eat?
He Zhizhou looked at the little boy standing in front of him and the twenty carts of grain behind him and fell into deep thought.
"Young Master, may I ask your name?"
"Just call me Master Guanyue."
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