Allure of a Country Maiden
Chapter 947 - 945_1

Chapter 947: Chapter 945_1

Many officials could not help but feel shame on themselves due to Jingrui’s actions and said, "The Magistrate is truly a good official! He cares for the people. I will definitely learn from him in the future!"

"The Magistrate’s character is so noble, which we cannot match. I was wrong about him. I have wronged him by attributing my petty thoughts to him!"

"From now on, I will only follow the Magistrate! He is a man of great deeds! Whatever he says, I will do it without any objections!"

...

Actually, these county magistrates cannot help but feel ashamed of themselves. Helping the poor to reinforce their houses is a great achievement, and they have scored this political point directly through Jingrui! They did not take any risk at all!

Originally, they were reluctant to do this. After all, the silver in the government office is usually used for disaster relief. Apart from the surplus used for road and water conservancy repairs, the rest is either paid as wages or stored in the warehouse for use in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.

When these junior officials take office, who doesn’t ask for merit but only asks for no blame! In times of peace, how many officials can make achievements?

As long as there are no mistakes, after a few years, they can be promoted! Therefore, many of these parent officials act steadily and conservatively. As long as they are not greedy and do not oppress the people, they think they are good officials!

As for how to make the people live better, they have never seriously considered it!

Jingrui’s approach disrupts the peace and stability that they had been pursuing, so initially, everyone was reluctant!

However, at least they knew to feel ashamed and were not beyond redemption. Many people also emulated Jingrui and dug into their own pockets to do something for the common people, strictly urging their soldiers to complete the tasks as required by the Magistrate.

Jingrui naturally didn’t know about the psychological changes of these officials, but even if he knew, he wouldn’t think they were wrong. This is human nature, indeed, it’s good enough not to be greedy and not to harm others! Let alone now they are actively helping the common people out of their own pockets!

The materials transported by Shangguan Xuanyi included wood, green bricks, mud bricks, cement, tiles, and food.

It was agreed to use the food to offset wages, and these were not ordinary foods, but paddy that could be used as seeds! The seeds for rice are provided by the Imperial Court on an allocated basis each year. Now that they are using these seeds as wages, many people rushed to tell the others when they found out, and then everyone was scrambling to do this job.

The grain seeds supplied by the Imperial Court yielding nearly 1000 pounds per acre are hard to find anywhere to buy. Now, by making a little effort, you can get the seeds, which is a great opportunity that everyone does not want to miss.

Grain seeds, for the common people, are more attractive than silver! Because you can earn silver by doing hard labor, but you can’t earn grain seeds.

Moreover, it is currently the slack season in farming, and everyone is idle at home. Therefore, almost all the villagers came out to help the poor families in their village to reinforce their houses, and some families’ houses were so dilapidated that they even demolished and rebuilt a main house.

When hearts are united, even Mount Tai can be moved!

Each village has only a few houses that really need to be reinforced, and only one or two need to be rebuilt. The reinforcement can be done in two or three days, and although the reconstruction of the house sounds like a big project, with the temptation of grain seeds, the help of so many villagers, and not a mansion to be built, but just one or two main houses, so about ten days is enough!

This matter doesn’t require much supervision from government officials. The common people voluntarily completed it, and some people even took the opportunity to reinforce their own houses!

Jingrui put the main labor force in the houses of the common people in the eastern coastal counties of Nanyue Prefecture because the eastern region is closer to the sea, that is to say, it is closer to Wanli Shitang, the epicentre!

Shangguan Xuanyi also sent a part of the soldiers to help, but this is not the main area, so only 100 people were dispatched, and the rest all went to the coastal area of the southern border to wait for orders!

Xiao’er and Shangguan Xuanyi also came to the border area of the southern border. The day of plate movement was getting closer. One day, as usual, they went out for a stroll and finally saw something unusual.

As they passed by a certain place, they found many people shouting at the edge of a pond: "What’s wrong with these catfish, they are like crazy!"

"Who cares if they’re mad or not? It’s a rare opportunity, let’s catch a few for dinner tonight, we’ll have steamed catfish!"

"Yes, it’s a great opportunity. Let’s catch them while we can!"

...

So many men carefully got into the pond to catch fish.

Xiao’er and Shangguan Xuanyi looked at each other and then walked over. They stood by the pond and saw many catfish swimming frantically.

Xiao’er knew that the opportunity to warn the common people had come, so she deliberately exclaimed: "Brother Shangguan, what’s wrong with these fish? They seem so scared, desperately trying to escape, like they’re going mad."

Xiao’er deliberately raised her voice a little so that the common people could hear her.

Shangguan Xuanyi cooperated well with Xiao’er’s performance. He frowned and said solemnly: "I have read in an ancient book that many animals behave abnormally when a major earthquake is coming. Catfish will swim frantically. Weasels, snakes and rats will leave their burrows. Sometimes the clouds in the sky will change color and well water will also undergo some changes. These phenomena all indicate that a major earthquake is coming."

The common people by the pond, and the people in the pond who were catching fish were all scared by the two’s conversation!

They stopped catching fish, climbed ashore hurriedly, and surrounded Shangguan Xuanyi and Xiao’er and asked, "Sir, is what you just said true?"

"I just read it in the old book, I can’t be sure if it’s true. But I heard that before the earthquake in Qinghe County, someone found that their well water suddenly changed color even though it didn’t rain for a few days. It should not be fake."

"No way, sometimes when it’s about to rain heavily, fish will also swim frantically out of the water!" An old man shook his head in denial.

As for this, Xiao’er would not deny it, because it is also true. Now there are more than three days before the earthquake, maybe there will be other phenomena, so she said: "Whether it’s true or false, let’s just believe it for now. When you sleep at night, try not to sleep too soundly. When you feel an earthquake, remember to run out of the house immediately and stay in an open space! That’s it!"

"Better to believe it than not," many people have taken Xiao’er’s words to heart, and then returned to their own villages. They told the villagers about this, and then the common people unknowingly followed Shangguan Xuanyi’s words and began to pay attention to any other anomalies.