Just like Murphy’s Law, the more you fear something, the more it will happen. The more the people of Jiangnan feared that the downpour would continue, the more the downpour continued, showing no sign of stopping even after a day and two nights of rain.
The ponds were full, the rivers were full, and the streams also surged, seemingly ready to flood at the drop of a hat.
On the following day, after Zhu Pingan made a round of inspections, he felt deeply that flooding was imminent.
“Dignitary Zhang, I’m appointing you as the head of the Qing River, responsible for the management of the Qing River as well as flood prevention and flood control, etc.; Dignitary Liu, I’m appointing you as the head of the Xiaochuan Stream, responsible for the Xiaochuan Stream and flood prevention and flood control, etc.; Dignitary Han, I’m appointing you as the head of the ……”
Zhu Pingan summoned all the xuxu officials at the county government office, drawing on the successful experience of China’s modern river chief system, he appointed all the xuxu officials at the county government office as the river chiefs of the major rivers, streams, and lakes within the jurisdiction of Jingnan, responsible for the organisation of the management and protection of the corresponding rivers, streams, and ponds, and the main task at the moment is the work of flood control and flood prevention.
Of course, Zhu Pingan himself had also claimed a river, the Sanli River outside the city, which had the heaviest task of flood prevention and control.
After appointing the river chief, Zhu Pingan also planned a number of high terrain, open flood shelter areas based on the inspections over the past few days, built rain shelters, stocked up on food, drinking water, pots and pans, bedding and other supplies, so that villages along the river, streams, lakes and other high-risk villages would move to the flood shelter areas ahead of time, to avoid the risk of flooding.
“Bam bam bam ……Folks of Xiaozhao Village are paying attention, in view of the rainfall for days, Fengxi River is surging and there is a danger of breaking the dyke, the county honourable father has an order to order Xiaozhao Village to transfer to the flood avoidance area of GaoLiShi slope as soon as possible.”
In the middle of the wind and rain, a yamen wearing a straw raincoat, carrying a yellow bag with a small red flag on his back, rode a yellow hussar to Xiaozhao village, carrying a gong in his hand, and while banging it, he said loudly to pass on the order.
This is the ancient standard “water newspaper” dress, people see this attire people know is the water newspaper.
“What, I didn’t hear wrong, right? This rainy day wants us to leave our families behind and move?”
“No, Brother Differential, are you sure you didn’t pass on the wrong message, how come the county honourable father suddenly asked us to transfer ah!!!”
When the villagers heard this, they instinctively resisted, they were not willing to move towards any flood prevention area on a rainy day.
For one thing, it is now pouring rain outside, transfer, then more suffer ah; Secondly, the Chinese have always had the nature of the land, the thought of leaving home to transfer, even if it is temporary, but also resisted; Thirdly, they are not to the east end of the village of the Fengxi River dyke to the repair, how to also transfer.
“Folks of Xiaozhao Village, I have a few heads that dare to falsely pass on the orders of the County Honour, this is a thousand times true. Folks, quickly pack up the gold and silver, bring food, quickly transfer it. Folks, this is not alarmist talk, I just came from the Fengxi River dike, and the water of Fengxi has already risen almost to the top of the dike.”The errand boy sat on the back of his horse and said loudly to the folks of Xiaozhao Village.
“What? Really?!”People didn’t expect the water of Fengxi River to rise so fast.
“Rizheng, who is the Rizheng of Xiaozhao Village?”The errand boy shouted.
“The little old man is.”The Rizheng of Xiaozhao Village walked out from the crowd, an old man of sixty years old.
“The Gao Li Po Flood Shelter is in Gao Li Po, do you old man know the location? Do you know where it is? It doesn’t matter if you don’t know, there are signs along the way, red ropes are bolted to the trees, you can lead the folks to follow the red ropes at the entrance of the village, about five miles or so will be the GaoLiPo Flood Shelter Area, the county has already set aside resettlement land in the Flood Shelter Area for XiaoZhao Village. I’ll leave this place to you, I have to go to Wangzhuang to convey the transfer order.”
After explaining to Xiaozhao Village’s Rizheng, the errand boy anxiously spurred his horse in the direction of Wangzhuang to convey the relocation order.
“Young and old, you all heard what the errand boy said just now. I’ve just come down from the Fengxi embankment, and what he said is true, the water in Fengxi is about to fall over the top of the embankment, and it’s just an elbow’s height away. If your father hadn’t ordered us to repair the dike, it would have been swept away by Fengxi, and our village would have been in flood waters. County Honour bought us time to escape, we can’t let down County Honour’s good intentions, young and old hurry back to pack up their gold and silver, bring dry food, help the old and the young, we’ll go to the GaoLiPo flood avoidance area.”
Rizheng although a handful of years old, but hale and hearty, clapping his hands to the villagers said, commanding the crowd to transfer.
“Rizheng, do we have to move? If we leave, what will happen to our family? What will we do if there are thieves?”
Some people were nervous about their homes and didn’t want to move.
“You bastard, is it human life that matters, or is it the things in your house that matter? It’s already time, and you still can’t prioritise! You just don’t care about your own life, you also have to think about your father, your mother, your wife and children’s lives, right?!”Rizheng sniffed and cursed in anger.
“Rizheng you guys go, I’m not going, when the time comes, if the flood really comes, I’ll climb on the roof.”
A villager thought he was smart and said.
“You still climb on the roof, why don’t you climb to the sky. Your house is a mud house, when the flood comes, the house will soak down!”
Rizheng sniffed and cursed even harder.
“All of you transfer to me, not a single person from Xiaozhao Village can stay. Whoever stays in Xiaozhao Village, I will open a shrine and expel him from Xiaozhao Village.”Rizheng didn’t give everyone a chance to discuss anymore and directly ordered.
Only when they heard Rizheng threaten to expel them from the village did the villagers not dare to make any more claims and honestly went back to pack their things.
In this day and age, once you are expelled from the village, life can be difficult. No land, no house, then become a refugee.
Under the strength of the Rizheng, the villagers of Xiaozhao Village started to move with their old and young, carrying their baggage and driving their pigs, cows and sheep.
While all parts of Jingnan began to mobilise for relocation, the neighbouring Taiping County and Linhai County were already flooded, especially Taiping County, where the situation was even more serious. Tai Ping County has many rivers within its jurisdiction, including Xiangxi, Maichuan River, Qingxi River, Yangxi River, Shuxi River, Suxi River, and Lingyang River, and the terrain is somewhat complicated, which is already prone to flooding. Last night, the Ma Chuan River and Qing Xi River in Taiping County were flooded, and several villages downstream of the two rivers were razed to the ground by the flood waters overnight.
During the daytime today, the situation in Taiping County was even worse, the flooded river was like a crazy beast, rushing and roaring to flood more than ten miles, and the nearest town of Magawa River was flooded.
The new governor of Taiping County was in a hurry to organise flood relief, but it was too late to do anything about it. There was one emergency report of flooding after another, even the city of Taiping County was flooded, and the rainwater in the courtyard of the Taiping County Government Offices was not even above the neck of the feet.
Thinking of the beginning, Taiping magistrate regrets the intestines are green, the whole person crazy like, from the rubbish bin to find out that he discarded the letter, regardless of the stains on it, a mouth into the mouth.
