Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 148

Chapter 148 Make A Sudden Attack
Just as Lu Zhen had judged before, when the three cases were handed over and dealt with by Shun Tian Manor, they completely disappeared, and no one in the civil or official circles brought them up again.

Actually, those officials and officials in the bureaucracy were not idiots who could not rub the slightest bit of sand in their eyes. They naturally knew what was hidden behind these three cases. If they insisted on digging deeper, they would offend the factory guards. At that time, no one would be able to think well of it.

Previously, they had only dared to publicly impeach him because they knew that a mere Great Xing County Magistrate was involved. However, now that they had become Shun Tian Prefecture Governors, their identities were completely different, and they had powerful backing behind them. They naturally gave up on the idea that the case had already been resolved or they had completely forgotten that there were still three other cases.

Of course, Shuntian Prefecture was quite dissatisfied with Daxing County’s actions. In the past, only his superior had been blaming his subordinates. He had never acted in such a reverse manner. Although he didn’t say anything, he already had a very deep opinion of Lu Zhen, the new county magistrate of Daxing County. Perhaps, he would be embarrassed at some point.

Actually, it was easy to say in the official circles. Everyone knew the rules. As long as they understood the inside story, they could pretend that nothing had happened. Even more troublesome was the people. Although the government had enormous power, it could not stop the crowd from talking.

But this time, Shun Tian Manor’s luck was pretty good. After they took over three cases, another big event happened in Beijing City. It quickly attracted the attention of all the citizens. That was, the Yongding River that passed through the capital suddenly collapsed a dam for some reason. The river water poured into several villages outside the city, flooding many fertile fields and houses, and hundreds of people were displaced.

This was Beijing City, and after such a calamity, it was natural for everyone to look at it with a sidelong gaze. For this reason, the Son of Heaven personally intervened, and the Cabinet and related yamen below ordered them to quickly reassure the people and rebuild their homes for the victims as soon as possible.

With the imperial edict, half of the Imperial Court began to move. They paid out money and people, and finally managed to temporarily control the situation. However, the people who had lost their homes still entered the capital to seek refuge with their relatives and friends, and some of them even became refugees that were rare in this era.

Everyone was sympathetic. Seeing that people like him were suffering, the people of the capital naturally worried. As a result, in the next few days, what everyone talked about the most was how the Imperial Court would settle these people, as well as their future. They completely forgot about the three cases, and no one brought them up after that.

As one of the most affectionate yamen in the capital, Daxing County naturally shouldered a heavy burden in this disaster relief. Especially not knowing if the Shuntian Prefecture intentionally handed over more than three hundred victims to them for resettlement, which was busy to the detriment of Lu Zhen and his subordinates.

Resettling the victims was not an easy task. Just finding a clean and large place would require some thought. In addition, the rations of three hundred people would be consumed. This made Daxing County a little unsustainable.

Fortunately, Lu Zhen had a backer behind him. When he encountered such a difficult problem, he secretly went to see Hu Ying and asked him to come forward to greet the Household Registry. Only then did he get a sum of money to help the victims. At the same time, relying on Zeng Guang and the others’ connections over the years, they also found a few temples and temples to accommodate the people, finally temporarily solving the basic survival problems of the victims.

However, these two items were clearly not enough, because their influx made the capital no longer as peaceful as before. In order to take care of the safety, the county government had to deploy people to guard it. And the daily relief porridge was personally cooked by the county government, so it could be said to be extremely busy.

During the busiest period of time in the county government, Lu Tu, as the second in command, simply used illness as an excuse to stop appearing. It wasn’t just him, even his remaining trusted subordinates were always absent for various reasons, or if they came, it would only be a sham. This made the burden on the other servants heavier.

Quite a few people had opinions about this, but it wasn’t directed at Lu Zhen, the county magistrate, but at Lu Tu. This was because Lu Zhen had practically done all kinds of work like them these past few days, and he didn’t put on any airs as a county magistrate at all. It was precisely because he, as a county magistrate, did not care about his status and set an example for others, that the clerks and servants below were busy with their work according to their temperament. Otherwise, they would have long since abandoned him.

What he had done had all fallen into the eyes of the people below, causing them to unconsciously feel some respect for the county magistrate. Regardless of whether it was Zeng Guang or Yue Liqiu, the other officials, the clerks below, or even the leisurely helpers at the bottom, they were all convinced by the new county magistrate. They had been in the county government for many years, but they had never encountered such a reliable and unassuming superior.

@ @ @ @

On this day, Lu Zhen personally sat in front of the porridge shed beside the Guandi Temple and served porridge to the victims along with a few clerks.

This porridge for disaster relief was quite exquisite. For personal gain, some officials would often add a large amount of water to the rice, so that they could even see the silhouettes of people in the bowl of porridge. For this reason, the Imperial Court often issued repeated orders, and even set a series of targets. For example, if chopsticks were inserted into a bowl of porridge, they would not be poured. However, they were still useless. They should continue to be greedy, and the victims were powerless to do anything about it.

But today, Lu Zhen’s porridge shed was a different scene. The bowls of porridge that were scooped up were all real, only slightly thinner than dry rice. Even if they were wrapped in towels, they would not squeeze out much water.

When these victims lined up to collect porridge, they would always salute Lu Zhen respectfully and call him Lord Lu. Because they had already known what Lu Zhen had done for their family in the past few days, they were naturally very grateful and respectful to him.

This was because Lu Zhen had not only provided them with the greatest assistance in terms of food and shelter, he had also specially invited the doctors in the city to treat their illnesses. This was a real merit. May I ask, which official would take such careful care of these displaced people?

Actually, Lu Zhen was only doing this to buy some reassurance. With so many people gathered together, the most infectious diseases were unlikely to worsen into a plague in this era. For the sake of his own safety and the safety of the capital, he naturally had to take precautions against the illness. However, this action alone was enough to make the people feel grateful and respectful towards him.

When facing them, Lu Zhen always smiled and responded one by one, and even offered a few words of sympathy to some old people. At this moment, he was smiling and asking about the health of an old man who was about 70 years old. The old man chuckled as he replied. Many people around him were looking at the county magistrate who was obviously thinner than a few days ago with respectful gazes.

At this moment, a scholar walked over with a gloomy expression, as if he had something to report to him. Seeing this, Lu Zhen said a few more words before he got up and walked over, “What happened?” When he asked this, his heart unconsciously tensed up. Could it be that Lu Tu was finally planning to attack him at this time?

“My lord, I just got news from a friend. It turns out that there are less than a hundred victims in Wanping County this time, but we, Daxing County, have to take care of more than three hundred people. This is really unfair.” The man said angrily.

After Lu Zhen heard this, he was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, “So that’s why you look so unhappy. This official was shocked, thinking that something had happened to the county government.”

After a pause, he continued, “Do you think this is because the Shun Tian Manor deliberately made things difficult for us? Is that why you are unconvinced?”

“Don’t you find it irritating, my lord? Although Wanping County is not within the capital, it is still a government office under the capital. Why are they so generous? Furthermore, many of these victims came from Wanping.” This person said in a somewhat resentful tone.

What he said was correct. About 40% of the victims here belonged to Wanping County. If they followed the rules, they should be settled by Wanping County, but in the end, they were still sent to Daxing County by Shuntian Prefecture to take care of them.

However, Lu Zhen did not get angry because of this. He only smiled and said, “We are all citizens of the Imperial Court, so why should we divide the money between each other? Furthermore, we did not give out the money. We have the Imperial Court to provide the money. We are just doing our duty as officials.”

“But my lord” Before he could continue, Lu Zhen waved his hand and interrupted, “Alright, I know that you are unconvinced for me, but since you are an official, you should do something for the people. Why should we divide them into counties? As long as we do our jobs well, we will not suffer any losses. There are so many eyes watching from both inside and outside the Imperial Court.”

“… Yes.” Seeing that Lu Zhen did not want to talk about this matter anymore, this person no longer insisted. He looked at Lu Zhen with a somewhat respectful gaze before retreating to help him.

Seeing this, Lu Zhen shook his head gently and turned around again to get busy. Since the Shun Tian Manor had this intention, he had to be even more sincere and not leave anything behind for them. He knew what troubles his previous actions had brought to the superior yamen, so it was acceptable for the other party to find an opportunity to rectify him. As long as he did it with all his heart, he would be fine.

But just as he turned around and was about to do something, another servant hurried over with a panicked expression. Seeing Lu Zhen from afar, he shouted loudly, “My lord, my lord is not well. Something has happened!”

Hearing this, Lu Zhen frowned and immediately turned around, “What, did you find out that Wanping County only needs to settle a hundred or so victims?”

“Ah?” The servant was obviously stunned for a moment before he hurriedly said his intention, “Sir, a group of people suddenly surrounded our county government and said that they wanted to seek justice from you. The one leading them is Ying Ding!”