"Have we taken the wrong road? Aren't we supposed to be going to a mountain village to the west? Why are we heading towards Linjiagou Village?"
Magistrate Tang asked the cart driver, fearing they might have misheard him about the place.
What I fear even more is that these people are doing this on purpose.
Otherwise, how could he, a magistrate of a county, be unaware that the villagers in his subordinate villages had begun to flee famine? It was because the county magistrate and the county commandant deliberately concealed the news from him, making him appear blind and deaf.
Thinking of this, he felt resentful. Even in this situation, they still couldn't resist scheming against each other. They were truly unworthy of being local officials!
"Sir, this is the right road. Xishan Village is right next to Linjiagou Village, separated by a few hills. Turn west at the fork in the road ahead and you'll get there."
Zaolijia quickly explained that he was just a nobody and that the adults' fights should not involve him; he would rather be invisible!
Sigh! He's just unlucky today. He never expected to be set on fire by the county magistrate. If he had known, he would have rather wet his pants than go to the outhouse at that moment.
"Oh. So, do you know this area? Why is it that only Xishan Village has water?"
Even though the county magistrate had gone out on many "incognito visits," his opportunities to go out were limited, and the places he could go were even more limited. The farthest remote village he had ever been was Linjiagou Village, which was truly a village nestled in a mountain valley. All the fields cultivated there had been reclaimed by generations of ancestors, and there was not a single acre of fertile land.
"Well, I don't really know much about that. I heard there's a deep, bottomless pit there, which used to be quite famous. It became known because of a drought. People said that Xishan Village had a water god, so they weren't afraid of droughts. They said it was a village protected by the water god. Back then, being able to marry a girl from Xishan Village or marry into Xishan Village was something to be envied. It's only after the disasters stopped that people gradually stopped talking about it."
Zaolijia scratched the back of his head. What he didn't say was that his second grandfather insisted on marrying a lucky girl from Xishan Village. In order to raise enough dowry, he poured all his family's savings into it. His grandmother was still resentful to this day and would bring it up to his grandfather from time to time.
"A bottomless pit?"
Upon hearing this, Magistrate Tang's eyes lit up; he felt that he might still be able to try again.
Upon hearing this, Master Li smiled and cupped his hands in greeting to Magistrate Tang, saying:
"Congratulations, sir!"
Magistrate Tang waved his hand and said:
"It's a bit too early to say this now; we'll have to see it to know if it will work or not."
After a long, bumpy ride, Magistrate Tang suddenly heard what sounded like a lot of people talking outside, along with the faint mooing of cows and the sound of wheels rolling. He leaned out of the window again, looked towards the source of the sound, and asked the bailiff B who was accompanying the carriage:
"What's going on over there?"
The constable, Yi, was a perceptive young man. He had already inquired about the group when he first saw them. Now that the magistrate had asked, he answered directly:
"I heard that they were villagers from a nearby village. They pooled all their resources to buy water from Xishan Village to irrigate their fields. A bucket of water cost six coins! All this was to ensure that the wheat could fill out properly and have a good harvest."
As the bailiff spoke, he smacked his lips, thinking that these peasant families really had it tough. Compared to them, the bailiffs who were supposed to have it tough didn't have it as tough as they used to think.
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