Chapter 101: A Second Village Enters View
Tonight, as this humble servant gazed upon the heavens, the stars aligned to form a plus sign. It seems the celestial decree is for an extra chapter, so here it is!
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Liang Shixian had begun distributing gruel to save the people!
He started right under his nose, within the county seat itself.
Outside the Chengcheng County yamen, a relief station had been set up. Thick, flour-paste gruel, made from the flour provided by Li Daoxuan, simmered in several large barrels.
Liang Shixian personally oversaw the operation, sitting beside the relief station, his eyes sternly fixed on the yamen runners responsible for handing out the food.
Meanwhile, his quick-witted secretary from Shaoxing bustled back and forth, constantly shuttling between the kitchen and the relief station.
Chengcheng County was now a sea of misery. Surviving the drought was already difficult, but with the bandit army running rampant, those unwilling to join the rebels found life even harder. Vast numbers of common folk had abandoned their homes and fields, fleeing to the county town to beg for survival.
As a result, beggars were everywhere in the county seat; it was a scene of utter devastation.
Before long, the disaster victims were packed three deep, swarming the area.
If this had been an ordinary wealthy household distributing food, the refugees might have stampeded, grabbing everything in a chaotic rush and overturning the entire relief station.
But with the county magistrate himself presiding, and numerous yamen runners and local toughs maintaining order, the refugees dared not cause trouble. They dutifully lined up, clutching their tattered bowls, to receive the flour gruel.
One man, after receiving a bowl of gruel, quickly hurried to a street corner. He gently helped up an emaciated, barely clinging to life family member and slowly poured the gruel into their mouth, murmuring, "Brother, you're finally saved. Drink this, and you won't starve to death... you'll live..."
"Brother... you... drink too..."
"I will!"
The two brothers took turns, spoon by spoon, finishing a bowl of gruel. They lay flat on the ground, rubbing their stomachs, still worrying about tomorrow, when they heard the yamen runners shout in unison, "Don't take too much! Just eat your fill. There's no need to save it for tomorrow. Magistrate Liang will be distributing gruel here again tomorrow. Did you hear that? Every single day!"
"Brother... it's every day... Our Chengcheng County finally has a good official..."
"Brother, we've finally survived, boohoohoo..."
The two brothers embraced, sobbing. From their bodies, two faint specks of light drifted upwards, soaring through the sky. They traveled over thirty li, arriving at Gao Family Village, and flowed into the diorama box.
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Li Daoxuan watched as the "Salvation Index" rose rapidly. In just a short breakfast period, it had increased by over ten points. By this calculation, at least several hundred people who should have starved had been saved by this single meal.
The war fog in the diorama box must have cleared significantly.
Li Daoxuan reached for the "East, South, West, North" buttons on the box, tapping them vigorously.
Indeed, his field of view expanded considerably. To the south, he could now see beyond the bamboo grove to another barren slope in the distance. To the north, he could already glimpse over the small hill covered in dead trees, revealing a withered forest and a stretch of rocky ground on the other side...
Huh?
Li Daoxuan suddenly noticed a small, desolate village appearing at the corner of the northeastern view. "Hey," he thought, "I can actually see a second village now."
This was truly exciting, though unfortunately, the village consisted of dilapidated thatched huts, seemingly devoid of any living souls. It appeared everyone there had long since moved away.
At this thought, Li Daoxuan murmured, then quickly tapped the "Center" button to switch his perspective back to the village. He found Gao Yiye: "Yiye, about five or six li northeast of Gao Family Village, there's a small village. What village is that?"
Gao Yiye replied, "Oh? Isn't that Zhengjia Village? Zheng Daniu's village."
The moment Li Daoxuan heard "Zhengjia Village," the diorama box burst forth with a torrent of golden light. Gao Yiye, being unable to see this light, didn't even blink, but Li Daoxuan was temporarily dazzled. When he blinked again, he saw two lines of translucent text next to the "East, South, West, North, Center" buttons on the side of the box.
1. Gao Family Village
2. Zhengjia Village
He thought to himself: *These two lines of text... could they be for the purpose I'm imagining?*
He touched "Zhengjia Village," and the box's view instantly jumped to directly above Zhengjia Village. He then tapped "Gao Family Village," and the view immediately switched back to directly above Gao Family Village.
"Heh, it's exactly what I thought!"
A quick-switch button.
This was incredibly convenient!
Li Daoxuan said, "Yiye, go gather all the people from Zhengjia Village."
Soon, the people from Zhengjia Village had assembled. There weren't many, only about twenty.
These were all honest, simple-minded folk. When Zheng Yanfu had joined Wang Er's rebellion, he had mobilized the villagers of Zhengjia Village, and most of them had followed Zheng Yanfu. However, these two dozen villagers had refused to join the rebel army and remained in the village. Later, they were persuaded by San Shier with flour to come to Gao Family Village and had lived there for over a month now.
Among them, Li Daoxuan was most familiar with Zheng Daniu.
That fellow was the biggest character in Zhengjia Village, always in the thick of things.
Zheng Daniu, now acting as the spokesperson for everyone, looked up: "Does the Heavenly Lord have any commands? Daniu promises to carry them out, and then, heh heh heh, I'll trade my rewards for chocolate with the Village Chief."
"Shut up, you oaf!" the Village Chief of Zhengjia Village yelled from the crowd. "Don't speak so disrespectfully."
Li Daoxuan said, "You just saw the people of Gao Family Village tilling the fields, preparing to sow winter wheat. You seemed to have some thoughts about that, didn't you?"
Everyone remained silent.
After a few seconds of quiet, Zheng Daniu mumbled softly, "We were almost crying with envy, but we don't have land here..."
Indeed, the land around Gao Family Village was limited and all owned. They couldn't just occupy it freely.
So these honest, simple farmers could only envy, and that was all.
"Is your land all in Zhengjia Village?"
"Yes!" Zheng Daniu answered loudly. "My family has two mu of land."
Li Daoxuan said, "Hmm, have you thought about returning to Zhengjia Village?"
Immediately, the people from Zhengjia Village fell silent, somewhat afraid to answer, fearing they might say the wrong thing and displease the Heavenly Lord.
Zheng Daniu, however, was the boldest. He looked up and said, "I don't want to go back. I'm very happy helping the Heavenly Lord here. But my father wants to go back to farm. Besides farming, he has no other skills and can't help the Heavenly Lord."
Li Daoxuan said, "He's only truly happy when he's farming, isn't he?"
Zheng Daniu enthusiastically confirmed, "Yes! My father is happiest when he's farming. Happier than when I drink Happy Fat Water."
"Alright," Li Daoxuan said. "Daniu, call Gao Chuwu. Immediately drive Solar Car No. 2 and take your fellow villagers back to Zhengjia Village for a look."
Zheng Daniu looked utterly bewildered, unsure of what the Heavenly Lord meant.
Li Daoxuan simply said, "You'll know when you go and see."
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