The Great Ming in the Box-Chapter 101: The Second Village Enters View
Liang Shixian began distributing congee to save the people!
First, starting right under his watchful eye, it began at the county seat.
At the entrance of the Chengcheng County office, a Charity Platform was set up. Using the flour provided by Li Daoxuan, thick noodle soup was cooked and filled into several large buckets.
Liang Shixian personally oversaw the operation, sitting beside the Charity Platform, glaring at the bailiffs responsible for distributing the food.
His Clerk from Shaoxing busied himself back and forth, constantly running between the kitchen and the Charity Platform.
At this time, Chengcheng County had become a sea of suffering. The drought alone made survival difficult, but after the bandit army rose up, people unwilling to join the remaining bandits found life even harder. Large numbers of common folk abandoned their homes and fields, fleeing to the county seat to beg for survival.
This led to beggars filling the streets of the county seat, turning it into a scene of ruin.
The news about the officials distributing congee was shouted out by bailiffs patrolling the city. Hearing the announcement, all the refugees ran towards the Charity Platform.
Before long, the refugees had formed a crowd several layers deep.
Had this been an ordinary wealthy family distributing food, the refugees might well have swarmed forward in a chaotic rush, toppling the Charity Platform.
But with the County Lord personally in charge and a large number of bailiffs and attendants maintaining order, the refugees dared not act recklessly. They obediently lined up, holding broken bowls to receive the noodle paste.
One man, after receiving a bowl of noodle paste, quickly walked to a street corner. He lifted a family member who was terrifyingly emaciated and on the verge of dying, slowly pouring the noodle paste into their mouth. He murmured: “Brother, you’re finally saved… drink this, and you won’t starve… you will survive…”
“Little brother… you… drink too…”
“I will!”
The two brothers took turns sipping the bowl of noodle paste, one sip after another. After finishing, they lay flat on the ground, rubbing their bellies. Just as they were starting to worry about what to do tomorrow, they heard the bailiffs roar in unison: “Don’t take more than you need! Drink until you’re full! There’s no need to save any for tomorrow! Tomorrow, His Excellency the County Lord will be back here distributing congee! Understood? It will be here every day!”
“Brother… it’s here every single day… our Chengcheng County finally has a good official…”
“Little brother, we’ve finally survived… wuwu…”
The two brothers hugged each other and wept bitterly. Two lightly glowing points of light flew up from their bodies. With a swish, they traversed the heavens, flew over thirty li, reached Gaojia Village, and entered the box.
…
Li Daoxuan saw that the “Rescue Index” was climbing rapidly. During the short time of the morning meal, it had already increased by over ten points. Judging by this rate, at least several hundred people who should have starved to death had been saved by this one meal.
The war fog covering the box must have cleared significantly again.
Li Daoxuan reached his hand towards the box’s buttons labeled “north, south, east, and west” and pressed them randomly in rapid succession.
Sure enough, his field of view instantly expanded considerably. To the south, he could see beyond the bamboo groves to another distant barren slope. To the north, he could now see over a small mountain covered with withered trees, revealing a stretch of dead forest and a rocky wasteland behind the mountain…
Huh?
Li Daoxuan suddenly noticed that at the very edge of his vision, to the northeast, appeared a small desolate village. Hey! He could see a second village now!
This was incredibly exciting! Unfortunately, the village consisted only of dilapidated thatched huts; it seemed utterly devoid of life. Everyone from this village must have migrated long ago.
Thinking of this, Li Daoxuan made a sound of surprise [“Huh?”] and quickly tapped the “center” button, switching his view back to the village. He found Gao Yiye: “Yiye, northeast of Gaojia Village, about five or six li away, there’s a small village. What village is that?”
Gao Yiye: “Ah? Isn’t that Zhengjia Village? Zheng Daniu’s village.”
The moment Li Daoxuan heard “Zhengjia Village,” the box abruptly emitted a large amount of golden light [“swish”].
This golden light was invisible to Gao Yiye; she didn’t even blink. But Li Daoxuan was dazzled and had to blink. When he opened his eyes after blinking, he saw something new on the side of the box, near the buttons labeled “north, south, east, west, and center”: two lines of semi-transparent text had appeared.
1. Gaojia Village
2. Zhengjia Village
He thought to himself: Could these two lines be the function he imagined?
He reached out and tapped on Zhengjia Village, and the view in the box suddenly jumped to the sky above Zhengjia Village. Then he tapped Gaojia Village, and the view suddenly jumped back directly over Gaojia Village.
“Hey, it indeed is the function I thought!”
A fast switching button.
Damn, this was ridiculously convenient!
Li Daoxuan said: “Yiye, go gather all the people from Zhengjia Village to assemble.”
After a short while, the people of Zhengjia Village had assembled. There weren’t many, only about twenty.
They were all honest and simple villagers. When Zheng Yanfu rebelled with Wang Er, he mobilized the villagers of Zhengjia Village, and most followed Zheng Yanfu away.
But these over twenty villagers didn’t want to join the rebel army and stayed in their village. Later, they were tricked by Thirty-Two using flour to come to Gaojia Village, then settled here, and had been living there for over a month.
Among them, Li Daoxuan knew Zheng Daniu best.
This guy was the most conspicuous one in Zhengjia Village, always turning up everywhere.
Zheng Daniu had now become the spokesperson for the whole village. He looked up and said: “Deity, what do you command? Daniu guarantees to complete it for you, then, heh heh, use the reward to swap chocolate with Village Chief.”
“Shut up, you fool,” the Village Chief cursed from the crowd. “Speaking so rudely, without any sense of boundaries.”
Li Daoxuan said: “You all just saw the people of Gaojia Village plowing the fields and preparing to sow autumn wheat. Did you have some thoughts about that?”
The crowd was silent.
After a few seconds of quiet, Zheng Daniu was heard murmuring softly: “So envious we were almost crying, but here there’s no land for us…”
True, the land around Gaojia Village was limited and all claimed by others.
It couldn’t just be occupied randomly.
So these honest villagers could only envy beyond envy.
“Your land, is it all in Zhengjia Village?”
“Yes,” Zheng Daniu responded loudly. “My family has two mu of land.”
Li Daoxuan said: “Hmm, have you considered returning to Zhengjia Village?”
For a moment, all the people of Zhengjia Village went silent, too afraid to answer, in case they said something wrong and were disliked by the Deity.
Zheng Daniu, being the boldest, looked up and said: “I don’t want to go back. Helping the Deity here makes me very happy. But my father wants to return for farming; besides that, he has no other skills and can’t help the Deity.”
Li Daoxuan said: “Farming is what makes him happy, right?”
Zheng Daniu shouted loudly: “Yes, My father is happiest when farming, happier than when I drink happy fat water.”
“Alright,” Li Daoxuan said. “Daniu, call Gao Chuwu now, immediately drive Solar Vehicle No. 2, and transport the villagers back to Zhengjia Village to take a look.”
Zheng Daniu said: “???”
He was utterly confused, not knowing what the Deity meant.
Li Daoxuan said: “You’ll understand when you go and see.”
.
!
Chapter 101: The Second Village Enters View
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