Chapter 324

Iron-gray shadows occupied the sky.

Sunlight could still penetrate the gaps in the dark clouds in the morning, but in less than half a day, the mottled clouds thickened into a sheet, drifting down a drizzling rain.

On the square boat, the boatman stood in the rain, his hair all soaked with sweat and stuck to his face; he straightened his body and pointed to the low mountain in the haze ahead.

"Lord, ahead is the Shahe Mountain. The terrain is high, the boat can't pass, you have to ride a horse."

Wei Shao looked at the Shahe Mountain under the dim sky: "Find a place to dock."

"Yes."

Two boatmen found a position and set up the gangplank.

Wei Shao grabbed the green horse and jumped off the boat board, hurried to the foot of the mountain without stopping, tied the reins, and went up the mountain.

Someone ran over to report, but Wei Shao ignored him and went straight into the "River Transport Tea House."

Rainwater dripped along the edges of the broken beams, seeping into the gaps in the bricks and stones.

Young and strong martial artists moved the beams, using shovels to shovel broken tiles and bricks into baskets, carrying them down the mountain basket by basket, a scene of busyness.

Passing through the front hall, tea bowls were scattered on several square tables, and two plaques, "Heaven, Earth, Sovereign, Kin, Teacher" and "Just and Bright," were stacked in the middle, red and white intertwined, with several nanmu spirit tablets pressed on top.

Wei Shao's brows furrowed, and the ominous premonition in his heart grew like wild grass.

What's the situation?

Did the Shahe Gang get taken down by Liang Qu?

The Shahe Gang had Wolf Smoke experts at the very least, so how could they let Liang Qu, a tiny Galloping Horse martial artist, make such a mess?

"Found it, found it! It's not crushed!"

A martial artist looked excited, lifting a yellow-bottomed plaque from the ruins, with the four characters "Righteousness for a Thousand Autumns" written on it!

The surrounding gang members cheered.

The entire Gathering of Righteousness Hall collapsed, but the three plaques worshipped were not damaged at all, which could be called a happy event.

"Thank you all for your hard work."

A large hand covered in brown spots grabbed the plaque and placed it on the tea table, leaving the gang member who found the plaque quite stunned.

Huyan Shijing put down the plaque, said a word of hard work, leaned on his crutch, and came to the front hall with Lian Jingye to bow and greet Wei Shao.

"I didn't know you were coming, Lord, I failed to welcome you, please go inside for tea."

"No need for polite words, you know the purpose of my trip, tell me, how many boats does the Shahe Gang have left?"

Wei Shao's straightforwardness made Huyan Shijing and Lian Jingye feel that the River Patrol was truly of the same lineage.

Huyan Shijing looked regretful: "Lord, you are one step late."

Lian Jingye took the opportunity to hand over the account book.

Wei Shao's face tightened as he took the account book and flipped through it.

The account book contained information on most of the Shahe Gang's boats, their size, and scale.

More than half of it was circled with a cinnabar pen, indicating that it had been borrowed by Liang Qu.

The remaining boats certainly existed, but they were all written with purposes, making it impossible to mobilize, or their volume was too large, making navigation inconvenient, so they were left behind.

The more Wei Shao flipped, the tighter his brows furrowed.

Liang Qu had actually borrowed them, and the scale was so large.

Just looking at the information revealed between the lines of the account book, one could see that the Shahe Gang had put in great effort, giving almost everything they could.

Some of the boats were even loaded with rice and grain to help with the emergency.

Thinking that he had wasted several hours and encountered the worst result, facing Wei Lin tomorrow...

The indescribable pressure made Wei Shao's heart beat faster, and he couldn't help but confirm again: "Not a single empty boat left?"

"That's how it is in the Shahe Gang."

Wei Shao grasped the key: "That's how it is in the Shahe Gang?"

"Before Lord Liang left, he instructed us to try our best to mobilize empty boats from nearby towns, not to let the River Patrol lords return empty-handed. In the past few hours, there have been some results."

Wei Shao was stunned, and some inexplicable emotions arose in his heart.

"How many did you mobilize?"

Lian Jingye took out the second account book.

Wei Shao flipped through them one after another.

No surprises.

A few hours was too short, and the Shahe Gang went all out to facilitate this matter, but the boats mobilized were less than one-third of Liang Qu's fleet.

"Better than nothing..."

Wei Shao's brows relaxed slightly.

Muddy flood tides surged into the village one after another, and the gaps in the walls were full of fine white foam.

Sitting in bath barrels, hugging trees, the people were fished out of the flood one by one by the watermen.

Long gangplanks were set up between the roofs and the large boats; children cried and shouted, not daring to step forward, causing the villagers behind to curse loudly.

Women had to pick up their children and climb across the gangplank, exhausted.

Liang Qu stood on the high mast, regardless of how the boat swayed beneath him, as if he had taken root.

He burned his golden eyes, surveyed the overall situation, and commanded the fleet in an orderly manner.

"Old Song, split the fleet into three parts, separate two to go to the Cangji Town in the east..."

"Separate all the young and strong! Don't put them in the same cabin as the women and children!"

"Old Song! Send a few people to the cabin to carry ten bags of rice to cook porridge, don't take too much, remember not to cook it too thick, one bowl per person, just don't starve to death. Give the young and strong an extra bowl, let them drink it and help with work!"

Countless gang members followed Liang Qu's orders, shuttling and acting between the boats.

Even Lu Xinqing was no exception, digging out a large iron pot, preparing to boil water and open the stove.

"Lord Liang, did something happen over there?"

Old Song looked up and shouted at Liang Qu on the mast.

Liang Qu turned his head and found two young men on the deck fighting in the middle, rolling into a ball, and soon others joined in, with a group of people on the side watching at a loss.

The boat leader hurriedly jumped out to ask: "What's going on? What's going on? Why are they fighting over there?"

"Oh my, it's the two dogs from the Li family and the Chen family!" The village elder who was rescued understood at a glance, "These two families used to be neighbors, often arguing because of a little land..."

Liang Qu's voice came from afar, clear and powerful: "I don't care what grudges they have, throw them all down for me!"

The village elder hesitated: "Lord, this..."

"Do you want me to do it myself!"

Before the village elder could react, a Shahe Gang member had already stepped on the gangplank, rushed onto the deck, slapped the two young men down, grabbed one in each hand, threw them into the water, and cursed loudly.

"Two dog days, what centipede shit, toad urine did you eat in your last life to want to be human? Today I'll let you two have your wish! Since you have so much strength, go down to the river and play!"

After solving a farce, Liang Qu heard screams coming from the east again.

"Boat Master, there's a big crocodile over there!"

"The big crocodile is coming, the big crocodile is coming! Help, help!"

Two large crocodiles, each a foot long, swam toward a small wooden barrel, just about to put their claws on it, when they suddenly felt a heavy pressure slam into their minds.

A giant ape with glowing golden eyes appeared in the minds of the two beasts, and their body muscles immediately stiffened, flipping straight out of the water.

The woman in the barrel poked it with a stick, the big crocodile didn't move, it was actually dead!

"Send a few people to fish the person up! Catch the big crocodile too, slaughter it and stew it with the porridge!"

"Lord, there is some rice and grain in the village ancestral hall, it shouldn't have been flooded, it was collected by the village elders last year for disaster relief."

"Good! Send a few people to help move the rice and grain out!"

"I'll go!"

"I'll go too!"

On the Black Water River, more than a dozen long boats stopped in the port.

A large number of emergency tents were set up on the open ground from the dock outward.

Soldiers lined up to move rice and grain down from the boats, some placed on the spot, some placed on small boats to be transported to various parts of Huazhu County.

Xiang Fang Su and others stood on the deck responsible for supervision.

They were the second wave of this rescue, bringing preliminary emergency supplies.

Ke Wenbin allocated a batch of rice and grain, letting the soldiers set up stoves on the spot to boil porridge for relief.

Xiang Fang Su stared at the Pingyang County mark on the rice bag and sighed: "Magistrate Jian opened the Pingyang County official granary to help with disaster relief, and even took the lead in donating 8,000 taels of silver to purchase rice and grain. He is truly wealthy."

Ke Wenbin smiled: "8,000 taels is not much, didn't you also spend 5,000 taels to buy a hot pot recipe?"

"Don't mess around, can that be the same? I bought a recipe, I can earn it back sooner or later, but that donation is a one-way trip."

"Not necessarily, the imperial court will definitely have rewards afterward, it doesn't count as a loss."

Remissions and official disaster relief must be approved by the Emperor for ministers to have the authority to execute, but for those officials who open granaries to release grain when encountering sudden disasters, they are all without exception rewarded as positive examples.

"They are all verbal rewards, what's the use?"

"You don't understand, the benefits Magistrate Jian can get are invisible and untouchable for now, but they will be reflected when he becomes a Prefecture Master in the future. At least a wisp of Xuanhuang Qi will not be missing.

With Xuanhuang Qi in hand, the Grandmaster path is equivalent to walking halfway. Given his age, maybe there is hope for a Martial Saint in the future."

"That thing comes too slowly. Thinking about building Pingyang County into Pingyang Prefecture is exhausting. You can't get many benefits, and you get blamed for everything.

Look at the Huazhu County Magistrate, a dike collapse for no reason, no matter how well he did before, it's useless!"

"I don't think so, Pingyang County will definitely become a prefecture within three years!"

Xiang Fang Su shook his head, unwilling to argue, and changed the subject: "I don't know where A-Shui is and how the matter is going? That kid is a Water Official for the first time, won't he make any mistakes?"

Ke Wenbin shook his head.

"Rest assured, A-Shui is not old, but his heart is actually quite meticulous."