mtl008 Chapter 1213 Wangyue Village
Chapter 1213 Wangyue Village
Xin Ji admitted that Jiang Zhiming's performance had been commendable since he arrived in Wangyue County.
But that doesn’t mean Jiang Zhiming deserves to be his father.
“My surname is Xin,” Xin Ji continued in a devilish whisper. “My father’s name is Shunyun.”
A son calling his father by his given name is considered unfilial.
But at this moment, Wang Cuncheng couldn't care less about anything else.
If the son's surname is "Xin", what is the father's surname?
Surely we can't have the surname "bitter" (苦), right?
“...Young Master..." Wang Cuncheng’s back tightened as he guessed Xin Ji’s identity.
Behind him was the son of the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner.
On the left is Prefect Jiang of Fuzhou.
On the right is Lord Shen, the Assistant Minister of the Six Ministries, Prefect of Liuyang, and Magistrate of Tongan County...
He couldn't bear the wrath of any one of these people.
"Speak," Xin Ji's voice came from behind again. "With such a disaster upon us, instead of leading people to help the people salvage the harvest like other county magistrates, you're engaging in that ridiculous sacrificial ceremony. What are you trying to achieve? Didn't you receive a message from the prefectural government instructing you to salvage the harvest as soon as possible?"
Shen Zheng and the others looked over.
"Received, received..." Wang Cuncheng swayed on his horse, glancing left at Shen Zheng and left at Jiang Zhiming, his voice trembling. "My lords, please understand, although I led the people in the sacrificial ceremony, I also issued a notice to rush the harvest. Furthermore, knowing that the villages are far from the county seat, I did not send the villagers to the county seat for the ceremony. Instead, I used local materials to build the altar, so... the harvest could proceed without delaying the ceremony..."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Zhiming and Shen Zheng looked over at the same time.
Before the two could speak, Xin Ji's sneer reached Wang Cuncheng's ears: "Won't that delay the harvest?"
As he spoke, Xin Ji raised his hand and turned Wang Cuncheng's head, forcing him to face the farmland beside the road: "Take a good look, how much rice is still left to harvest? Even your neighboring county has harvested more than half of it, but you haven't even harvested half, and you still dare to argue that 'it won't delay the harvest'?!"
Wang Cuncheng's gaze fell on the fields beside the road, his confidence waning: "This...this is because the locusts appeared early in the county, causing widespread panic among the people, which delayed the progress..."
As he spoke, he swallowed hard and looked up at the graying sky: "The locust plague is a divine punishment that can turn thousands of miles of land into barren wasteland... Human effort alone is not enough to drive away the locusts. Therefore, I can only follow the will of Heaven and Earth, lead the people in offering sacrifices, and beg Heaven for mercy, so that we may borrow the power of the gods to drive away the locust swarms."
Shen Zheng's gaze remained fixed on Wang Cuncheng.
This is hardly a magistrate who cares for the people; he's clearly a "highly enlightened monk" from a temple.
In Wang Cuncheng's mind, locust plagues were equivalent to divine punishment, which in turn was due to the people's lack of sincerity. Sacrifices, on the other hand, were equivalent to sincerity, and sincerity could drive away the locusts.
He regarded a self-consistent yet utterly absurd logic as gospel.
Jiang Zhiming resisted the urge to whip Wang Cuncheng and looked ahead, saying, "After this matter is settled, I will settle accounts with you properly."
Divine punishment, is it?
It's beyond human resistance, isn't it?
He wanted to show this fool what the dreaded locust plague was compared to Lord Shen!
......
Before the sun had completely set, the group finally arrived at Wangyue Village.
The village is nestled at the foot of Wangyue Mountain. The lights in the fields are scattered like stars as the villagers rush to harvest. The sound of horses' hooves only distracts them for a moment. After glancing up, they bend down again and continue wielding their sickles.
"Magistrate?!" Suddenly, someone in the field recognized Wang Cuncheng.
Before Shen Zheng and the others could dismount, the man had already run over and knelt down, his face full of fear: "Your Excellency, please forgive us! Your Excellency, please forgive us! It's not that we didn't want to build the altar, but there was simply no time. We could only... we had to rush to harvest the crops..."
Only now did Shen Zheng realize that there was no smell of incense in Wangyue Village, and the air was filled with the fragrance of rice straw.
"Don't you have any sacrifices?" Jiang Zhiming looked around and asked the people kneeling on the ground.
"No, no..." The man pressed his upper body against the ground with all his might. "Sir, our village is closest to Yanzhou. We really can't afford to delay the harvest. Please, let the villagers harvest their rice seeds first..."
Jiang Zhiming breathed a sigh of relief and was about to call the man to stand up and speak when he saw several teenagers and girls rushing straight towards them like calves.
"Uncle Zhong, why waste your breath on them!" The little girl leading the group headbutted Wang Cuncheng in the chest. "Just like before, tie them up and throw them into the cowshed. When the locusts come, send them all to the fields to feed the insects!"
The little girl was small in stature but surprisingly strong. Wang Cuncheng was knocked off balance and fell hard onto the muddy ground.
"Xiao Ruan!" The kneeling man was shocked at the sight and scrambled to his feet to help Wang Cuncheng up. "Your Excellency, Your Excellency, are you alright? Are you hurt? The child is just being silly, please don't take it to heart..."
As he spoke, he secretly gave Xiao Ruan and the others a wink, signaling them to run.
But Xiao Ruan was so frightened by his address "Magistrate" that she stood frozen in place, unable to take a step.
"Hurry up and go..." The man was extremely anxious when he saw Wang Cuncheng stand up.
"They didn't do anything wrong, why are they running away!" Cui Jinyin grabbed Xiao Ruan and asked, "Did you throw someone into the cowshed earlier?"
Looking at Cui Jinyin's exquisite face and glittering golden hair ornaments, Xiao Ruan stared blankly and subconsciously answered, "The yamen runners came and told us to set up an altar to worship the Locust King. We wanted to harvest the rice, so we didn't want to worship. They wanted to go back to the county office to file a complaint, so we tied them up..."
Hearing Xiaoruan's answer, Jiang Zhiming felt relieved.
Finally, there's a smart village here. It wasn't for nothing that they went hungry for two days and rushed here in such a hurry.
"That's exactly what we should do!" Under the man's terrified gaze, Jiang Zhiming revealed the prefect's token: "I, Jiang Zhiming, have specially invited Lord Shen of Liuyang to come here to work with you all to combat the locust plague! Tonight's arrangements are underway, and I hope you will cooperate with the prefectural government to ensure the peace and tranquility of Fuzhou!"
The Prefect has arrived!
They even invited Lord Shen from the neighboring Liuyang Prefecture!
For some reason, the villagers of Wangyue all had one thought in their minds—there is hope.
"I am Zhong Shushan, the village head of Wangyue Village. I greet Lord Jiang and Lord Shen!" The man knelt down again to pay his respects, and Xiao Ruan and the others followed suit.
"So you're the village head?" Jiang Zhiming was extremely pleased with Zhong Shushan and personally helped him up. "No need for formalities. Immediately gather a few men and take me and Lord Shen to the western side of Wangyue Mountain to inspect the terrain of the pass!"
The pass on the west side?
Zhong Shushan was stunned for a moment, then immediately shouted to the fields, "Gouwa, Gousheng, Goudan, Gouzhu, Goushuan, come here!"