A piece of common sense.
Many ordinary people who came to the Luming Street County Office to watch the young county magistrate resolve the case actually wanted to watch the final repertoire of the prisoner's cries of mourning as he was executed.
Therefore, more and more people are gathering in Luming Street now.
In Jiangnan, where the poor lack spiritual life, watching the county magistrate ascend to the throne is second only to the Caishikou Beheading Platform in terms of entertainment novelty.
People have a herd mentality and love to watch the excitement.
Should we reflect sadly?
Seems like the point.
But it is these simple and obedient "foolish people" who have something called justice in their hearts.
Seeing that not only the bad guys were exiled and the bad guys were punished, but also the young county magistrate and his confidant female master were personally whipped. He stood under the plaque with the words "Longcheng County" at the gate, and every whip after he raised his hand broke the silence. Air.
Not fussy or perfunctory at all.
Among the crowds crowding the streets, some looked curiously, some looked in awe, and some couldn't bear to stare.
Among the group of grain merchants and country squires who had been watching from beginning to end, some of those who were hesitant about the new construction of the lobby also calmed down.
No matter you are pretending or sincere, holding back your emotions and acting according to the rules is always the best tranquilizer under any circumstances.
It is more powerful than all the words said and all the cakes painted just after closing the door in the county government lobby.
Because everyone knows that you are a discerning person, you will naturally only do discerning things.
Why was Liu Ziwen able to unite all the squires in the county to speak to the outside world?
In addition to the fact that the Liu family is the most powerful and has inherited the connections from his father's generation to run Dragon City for many years, it is also because Liu Ziwen was also very particular about doing things before.
It's just a pity that after the new county magistrate took office, Liu Ziwen did not lead the squires to resolve the conflict with the Longcheng County government. He did not put everyone's interests first. He wanted to kneel down the county magistrate more. In fact, that's all, but Liu Ziwen still refused to kneel to the new county magistrate.
This is very rude.
For the squires who have now defaulted to making new money.
A grain merchant tilted his head and joked in a low voice:
"Master Wang, your brother-in-law did not admit his mistake. He is both principled and flexible. The key is to be able to do things and get things done.
"This is just the beginning of his official career, and he does not lack the stepping stone to become a Jinshi Qingliu. If the long-term floods in Longcheng County are really completely cured one day..."
The corners of Wang Caozhi's eyes twitched. The servants admired him, but the ones who were whipped were Wang Xie's children.
Another grain merchant was suddenly enlightened and said in surprise:
"It turns out that the newly built business this time is just a bonus, and the real profit is from this gentleman's favor."
Wang Caozhi was silent after hearing this.
What his colleagues said was indeed correct, but he had never imagined that Ouyang Rong would dare to treat Xie's legitimate daughter like this.
Although Wang Caozhi's "brother-in-law, brother-in-law" is a joy these days, it is just a joke to suit his liking.
Because he always thought that Ouyang Rong was pursuing Sister Ling Jiang. After all, the appeal of the legitimate daughter of the fifth surname to the scholars of the lower class gentry was super doubled.
Ouyang Rong was extremely lucky to have the great Confucian Xie as his disciple, and he also had a young junior sister. He was lucky enough to be able to get close to the people first, so why not pamper and protect his junior sister?
But now it seems that it is a little different from what Wang Caozhi imagined. This is... Sister Jiang of the Discipline Order?
And he never expected that Sister Ling Jiang would be so obedient and obedient. She was whipped seventy times by Ouyang Rong and was nailed to the spot without moving a step.
That’s a lot of fucking information.
Ouyang Rong didn't know what the people below were thinking.
After each stroke of the whip, he could hear the little junior sister burying her face in a slight "hmm" sound, so it was not considered silent. Only Ouyang Rong, who was the closest, could hear it.
When he put down the whip with a trembling hand and asked her sternly and received her particularly obedient reply, he could already see some blood stains seeping out of the fabric on Xie Lingjiang's back.
There is no need to take off the clothes for the torture of scholars and women. Xie Lingjiang's clothes are made of fine silk and satin, and there should be a thick corset inside, so the outer clothes are not damaged, but are made of soft material. , which also caused the force of each whip to hit the flesh.
The caning was finished on one side, and the seventy spanks Liu Zilin spanked on the other side had also been finished without any delay.
The latter went from soft-spoken begging for mercy at the beginning, to abusive words in the middle, to miserable wails later on...
Now Yan Liulang and others put away the board, he has become physically silent, and the outgoing air like a gossamer in his mouth is no longer much more than the incoming air...
An old government official took out a piece of gray cloth and casually covered the bloody and torn buttocks of the Liu family's third young master. Liu's servants rushed to save him with mournful faces.
Ouyang Rong took a clean white robe from Yan Liulang that he had left at the county government office, and put it on the back of the little junior sister who endured the pain and groaned.
Xie Lingjiang couldn't help but look at his senior brother's expression.
Wearing an official uniform, he pursed his lips and said nothing, his face seemed calm. After putting on his clothes, he turned around silently and climbed up the steps, facing the sun.
Ouyang Rong stood on the three steps in front of the county government office. He faced the people on the street who were about to disperse and said loudly:
"Everyone happens to be here! I have something to announce."
The flow of people on Luming Street stopped and flowed back again like water hitting a solid wall. Many people turned around blankly and looked at the slender figure wearing light green official uniform.
He said calmly:
“Since I took office, although I have opened warehouses to release grain, built disaster camps, provided work-for-work relief, and adjusted grain prices... the disaster relief has been somewhat modest, the root cause of the Butterfly Creek flood has never been solved.
"I am depriving myself of the people's salary, but I have yet to do anything. I am very ashamed."
"It should be noted that floods in Longcheng County are by no means as simple as appeasing the refugees, cleaning up the dilapidated houses, and reviving commerce! If we only provide disaster relief but not control the floods, if we only pray for destiny and not rely on man-made efforts, if we only bury our heads in fear and not stand up bravely.
"Everything that I and you have worked so hard to regain on these ruins today, your pots and bowls, your hotbed, your fields, your wives and daughters... will surely be lost unexpectedly in the next battle. It was destroyed by the torrent of water and turned into nothing again!"
"The flood in Dragon City is definitely not destiny. If we don't act, it will be a man-made disaster!"
The whole place was silent.
In everyone's ears, the young county magistrate's voice was not impassioned or even sonorous, but his eyes were firm and he was stating something he was extremely sure of word for word.
He was seriously telling all the people of Dragon City a very common but extremely cruel truth.
Such calm words uttered by the speaker himself with conviction are particularly contagious.
Some people in Longcheng whose houses were washed away and relatives taken away by the last flood couldn't help but cover their faces and cry. The silence of the crowd on the street was broken a little, and sadness is the most contagious.
Everyone gathered on Luming Street today was all attentive, their eyes falling straight on the young magistrate like the sun above their heads.
Liu Ziwen, who originally threw up his sleeves and left to return to the carriage, also stopped in his tracks. The more he listened, the more he had a bad premonition. He couldn't help but frown and look back at the pretentious county magistrate.
"Then how to control the water?" Ouyang Rong nodded, "You must want to ask this question, should we continue to repair the Duke Di Gate?"
"No." He shook his head firmly: "Di Gongzha treats the symptoms but not the root cause."
"What is the basis?"
The young county magistrate pointed his index finger towards the west:
"The twists and turns of the Butterfly Creek that cannot be discharged into the river are the origin! Every time the floods in Yunmengze flood the Butterfly Creek, the gentle river water that used to nurture generations of people in Longcheng turns into a devouring creature during the flood season. beast!
“This beast is showing its teeth and claws, it’s extremely wanton!
"If we don't tame this beast, the floods in Longcheng County will never end. The rich can still move and escape, and officials can still leave their jobs and be rotated.
"But what about you? Where are your children? Where are your children's children? Will you always live in fear of a flood every four years?"
"Maybe some of you are used to it, have accepted your fate, and have even regarded it as normal, but I am not used to it, I do not accept my fate, and I do not regard it as normal. When I serve as an official, I do not say that it will benefit one party, but I must seek someone with a clear conscience. Do your best!
"And I also firmly believe that some of you sons and daughters of Wu Yue will never get used to it, never accept your fate, and won't always treat it as normal!"
"If you are not such a person, you can go home by yourself now, because what I will say next is only for the people of Dragon City who refuse to accept their fate! The next thing can only be done by us!"
The crowded crowd remained motionless, staring up attentively. No one raised their feet, and some even couldn't help but utter a weak voice:
"Sir, what should we do? How can we block the water if we don't repair the Dickong Gate?"
"Good question."
Ouyang Rong nodded and turned to look at Yan Liulang, who immediately led the detectives up the steps and pushed open the gate of the county government office behind Ouyang Rong.
The main door had been closed when the hall was raised, but now it was finally opened with the combined efforts of a group of detectives.
Soon, the scene in the open space in the rear yard was revealed to everyone:
There is a huge sand table in the courtyard about eight meters long and wide.
The sand table simulates the general landscape of the upper and lower reaches of Butterfly Creek where Longcheng County is located, which is quite detailed. People who often climb mountains and look far away will be surprised to find that this sand table restores the twists and turns of Butterfly Creek very realistically.
What’s even more magical about this micro-landscape sand table is that it is filled with well water pumped from a well, and under the control of the equipment of Liu Ashan and others next to the sand table, the water of the "Butterfly Creek" on the sand table is poured into it. Very fast.
It stands to reason that if the meandering river channel of Butterfly Creek was completely simulated, then the rapid water flow would probably rush out of the river channel and submerge most of the sand table.
But at this moment, no matter how fast the water poured in, it passed through the huge sand table steadily, and no water in the river overflowed.
Among the doubtful people standing on tiptoes on the street, scrambling to look out, some sharp-eyed people suddenly discovered that the Butterfly Creek on the sand table seemed to be a little different.
It seems that there is an extra "straight" river channel, which directly ignores the butterfly wing-like river channel that twists into two "ji" characters, connecting the two ends, and turns into a "concave"-like river channel pattern.
The double "ji"-shaped river channel like butterfly wings where Penglangdu was originally located has become a tributary.
The extra "one horizontal" main stream below allows the river water rushing down from the upper reaches of Yunmengze to pass through Longcheng County in the middle reaches unimpeded and rush into the Yangtze River downstream.
The more people watched, the more surprised they became. It was this simple "one horizontal line" that, like a miraculous workmanship, caused the Butterfly Creek, which was prone to violence due to rising water, to succumb to a delicate little sheep!
The simulation on the sand table may have the meaning of talking on paper, but a certain rule of time and the twilight of despair slowly emerge from it, like the first light before dawn.
Ouyang Rong looked at the people in Longcheng whose expressions began to change. Without looking back, he pointed at the sand table behind him and said proudly:
"Since every time Yunmeng floods find it difficult to enter the river, let's open a river channel and let it enter the river! Since Butterfly Creek is winding and winding and cannot discharge the flood, let's straighten it and let it discharge the flood obediently! Since this beast is showing its teeth and claws so freely At the end of the day, we, the government and the people, will use shovels to dredge and spread it until it is dug through and tamed!"
As soon as these words came out, they were like thunder on the ground, shaking the whole place. Many people were stunned and speechless. Even Xie Lingjiang, Yan Liulang, Wang Caozhi and others who had already digested the shock subconsciously looked sideways at a certain young county magistrate.
But even if it was convincing, there were still people in the crowd who looked worried and asked:
"Sir, if a new river channel is opened, what will happen to the current Penglangdu... and the ancient sword furnaces on the west bank? Wouldn't it divert the water of Butterfly Creek? I heard the old people say that the water of Butterfly Creek has the aura of a dragon. The location of the sword furnace cannot be moved, let alone changing the river course..."
The young county magistrate stretched out two slender fingers and interrupted in a cold voice:
"First, Penglangdu has not given up. It is still too small. The county government is just building one more ferry to divide the pressure;
"Second, I would like to ask which one is more important, the swords of the dignitaries from far away, or the wives and daughters of the common people in Dragon City in front of you."
The person who asked the question immediately shut up.
The tone of the young county magistrate seemed to indicate that this was not a multiple-choice question, but a life-threatening question... If not, it was a divided question.
The only problem was "solved" and the whole place returned to silence. The people who had been devastated by floods for generations looked at each other in amazement. When they thought that this vast and novel "magic work" was about to begin, many people who were imagining their breathing gradually became thicker.
Under the blazing sunshine at noon, the young county magistrate, who was sweating on his forehead but did not look sideways, said in a voice that echoed throughout the audience:
"I announce that from now on, the Longcheng County Government will take the lead and recruit the young people of Longcheng to join dozens of merchants and squires to start the water conservancy construction of Butterfly Creek by cutting the bend and straightening it! We will dig the water conservancy project east of Luming Street. Create a brand new river, build a brand new ferry and several brand new dock shopping streets!
"I understand that this kind of water conservancy has never been heard of by you. Before Longcheng County, Jiangnan Road and even the entire Zhou Dynasty had never had it. However, I firmly believe that this water conservancy will definitely benefit the present day and will be used in the future! I hope you will You will actively help us and together we can completely control the floods in Longcheng."
"Finally, I also know that there may be some people who have some slight objections, but... this is a notification, not a discussion."
With the last words, Ouyang Rong seemed to have something to say and turned around to leave.
Behind him, most of the people on Luming Street were extremely excited, and many people rushed to study the water conservancy sand table on display.
But behind the lively crowd, a certain young head of the Liu family had cold hands and feet in the sun, and his body was crumbling. Fortunately, his arm was supported by a lame servant on the side.
Liu Ziwen took a deep breath, and he suddenly understood something:
This Ouyang Lianghan didn't come to snatch that thing, he actually came to control the water, and he even didn't hesitate to... completely destroy it!
Four thousand words.
