The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 217 - 206: Anxiety

Chapter 217: Chapter 206: Anxiety

Manbao and Bai Shanbao simultaneously turned their heads to glare at him, both itching to beat him up, but with the teacher present, both wisely refrained from doing so.

Mr. Zhuang snapped back to reality and, looking at the carefree trio of children, he couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

Manbao asked with concern, "Teacher, what’s wrong?"

Mr. Zhuang looked at her for quite a while before he finally said, after a long silence, "The Minjiang River has breached its banks."

"Where is the Minjiang River?"

Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment, then spread out a large sheet of paper, summoning the three disciples close, and started drawing a map with a pen, "The Minjiang River is above Yizhou..."

Although the children were young, Mr. Zhuang would occasionally teach them about geography, starting, of course, with the local area.

For instance, beyond Qili Village lay White Horse Pass, and further up was Luojiang County, while Luojiang County fell under the jurisdiction of Jiannan Road’s Mianzhou Baxi Prefecture, with the administrative center of Jiannan Road in Yizhou.

Therefore, aside from the distant imperial capital city where the Emperor resided, the highest authority above Qili Village was Yizhou.

As for the distance between Yizhou and Qili Village, according to Mr. Zhuang, if you rode a horse and left before dawn, perhaps you could enter the city before its gates closed. But on foot, it would probably take three or four days, that estimate being based on an adult’s pace; for Manbao, with her small arms and legs, it would likely take seven or eight days.

It was said to be a very prosperous place with countless people and an innumerable variety of delicious foods.

Of course, these accounts came from Mr. Zhuang and Old Master Bai, as they were the only two in the village who had been to Yizhou; Old Zhou, who had only ever gone as far as Luojiang County, couldn’t share any stories about Yizhou with Manbao.

And the Minjiang River was, in fact, the largest river in all of Jiannan Road. Mr. Zhuang sketched a flowchart of the river on the paper and said with a sigh, "The current of the Minjiang River is fierce, especially around Yulei Mountain due to its steep slopes, which makes the waters particularly turbulent. Since before the Qin Dynasty, whenever the Minjiang flooded, the areas below Yizhou suffered greatly, which led to the region being known as Ze Country."

Not only Manbao and Bai Shanbao but even Bai Erlang listened attentively, engrossed in the discussion.

Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment, considering their youth, he could only narrate it like a story, "Not until the Qin Dynasty did the Prefect of Shu, Li Bing, construct the Jin Dike on the Minjiang River, and only then did the situation begin to improve."

Then Mr. Zhuang told them about the Jin Dike. He had once aspired to public service, and being from Shu, he not only read books related to it but had also made a special trip to see the Jin Dike during his travels.

Even now, he still greatly admired those who had built the project more than nine hundred years ago.

Manbao and Bai Shanbao had seen the construction of water conservancy projects, but only the simplest kinds, like digging a canal. The most complex they had seen was last year’s construction of a dike, which was nothing compared to the Jin Dike.

In his day, Li Bing built the Jin Dike and Baopingkou to divert the water of the Minjiang River and constructed Pingshui Channel and Feisha Weir for flood prevention and irrigation. Since then, downstream areas seldom experienced floods or droughts.

This was because the Jin Dike not only prevented floods but also ensured the irrigation of tens of thousands of hectares of fertile fields downstream.

As a teacher who once had dreams and ambitions and who always paid close attention to the imperial court’s policies, Mr. Zhuang felt an urgency akin to a fire burning inside him because, "The last great flood in Yizhou happened in the seventeenth year of Dade, just eight years ago, and, moreover, the Feisha Weir was extensively repaired in the fifth year of Dazhen, only two years ago..."

Mr. Zhuang had a lot to say but didn’t know who to tell, so he could only talk about it to the three little children who couldn’t understand.

Bai Erlang may or may not have understood, Bai Shanbao didn’t know, but he certainly did grasp the teacher’s implied message. His eyes shone brightly as he looked toward Manbao.

Manbao’s eyes glittered too, and she turned her head to look at Bai Shanbao as well.

After Mr. Zhuang finished talking about the Jin Dike, more than an hour had passed. A servant from the Bai Family came to invite the teacher for a meal, as Old Master Bai was waiting for him in the front hall to drink.

Manbao and the others had their midday meal in the study, and they still had about half an hour’s break in the middle. If Old Master Bai and Mr. Zhuang had a longer chat over drinks, they might even get an extra hour or two.

The small stove had been lit like this for the last few days, so the afternoon class schedule was quite unpredictable.

As soon as Mr. Zhuang left, the servants brought in the children’s meals, just like at the school, to prevent them from being picky—meals and dishes all mixed in one bowl, but each child also got an extra bowl of soup.

Manbao didn’t think there was anything wrong with eating at the Bai Family’s house. She dragged her bowl next to Bai Shanbao and whispered to him, "Doesn’t it sound just like something out of a storybook?"

Manbao had thoroughly figured out how the system worked. Aside from randomly browsing the marketplace, her favorite thing to do was exchange storybooks with Keke.

Some books required a lot of points, but others, not so much. Manbao’s favorites were those with strong narratives that didn’t need many points.

She not only read them herself but also lent them to Bai Shanbao. After all, they had always shared books to read, so when Manbao spoke, Bai Shanbao understood.

Bai Shanbao nodded vigorously, also whispering back, "There must be corrupt officials involved."

"Such bad people!"

Bai Erlang sat diagonally across from them, straining to eavesdrop, but couldn’t hear a thing. Nevertheless, he firmly believed they were talking bad about him, so he slammed his chopsticks on the table loudly and demanded, "Are you two badmouthing me?"

The two, engaged in eager discussion, looked up at him and clicked their tongues simultaneously. One said, "Are you an official?"

"Do you even have the capability to be a corrupt official?"

In their view, being an official required great skill, and being a corrupt official even more so, because the villains in the books, especially corrupt officials, were usually very clever—indeed, often cleverer than the good officials.

Of course, in the end, the bad officials would be defeated, but based on statistics Manbao and Bai Shanbao had compiled, it took many good officials to bring down just one bad one; typically, it took seven good people to defeat one villain.

So, in the minds of the two children, under normal circumstances, corrupt officials were usually cleverer than good ones.

With a critical eye, the two looked at Bai Erlang and concluded, "You probably couldn’t even become a good official."

Bai Shanbao commented, "Becoming an official requires passing exams. I think you may not even be able to become one, unless you start studying seriously from now."

Bai Erlang’s eyes widened as he asked, "What are you talking about, good officials and bad officials? Did I say I want to be an official?"

"We’re discussing the Minjiang River breach. It might be a natural disaster combined with man-made ones," Manbao explained, pointing to the darkened sky outside, "The natural disaster is that, and the man-made disaster involves corrupt officials."

Bai Shanbao added, "But I don’t know who the corrupt official is."

Manbao, drawing upon her "many years" of reading experience, analyzed, "Generally, the corrupt official tends to be someone with high authority. For such a major task like repairing water conservancy projects, surely a high-ranking official would be in charge. So, the governor of Yizhou?"

Bai Shanbao suggested, "And possibly the military commissioner of Jiannan Road."

Manbao continued, "There is also the Prince of Yizhou."

Bai Erlang, utterly confused, asked, "What are you talking about?"

Why couldn’t he understand a single word?

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