hotmtlnovel Page 466
Page 466
Wu Zhe handed over an account book, and the Xi'an prefect frowned as he took a look at it.
"Why are there only small grain shops? Where are the large grain shops?"
The amount of grain purchased, as stated above, was only two thousand shi (a unit of dry measure), which was far from enough for disaster relief.
"This... I haven't gone yet."
Wu Zhedao.
The Xi'an prefect was displeased upon hearing this: "Why aren't you going?"
"Master Jiang has taken care of it."
The more the Xi'an prefect listened, the more bewildered he became.
"What do you mean?"
Wu Zhe then recounted what had just happened at Li's Grain Shop.
"what?"
The prefect of Xi'an looked astonished.
You're saying he's Jiang Ning?
Wu Zhe nodded.
"Jiang Ning instructed Li Bo to inform the people behind the large grain shops in Xi'an to sell all their grain to the government at pre-disaster prices. If they dared to raise prices, Jiang Ning would personally visit them. So, after leaving Li's grain shop, I immediately returned to report this matter to the prefect."
The prefect of Xi'an frowned as he listened.
“This… Although Jiang Ning is a member of the Jianghu (江湖, the martial arts world), he was once awarded the title of Great Hero of Guanzhong by the imperial court. He can be considered half a member of the imperial court. He is currently working for the imperial court. Although his words were a bit extreme, it is understandable.”
The Xi'an prefect took a long time to organize his thoughts before he could speak.
Wu Zhe nodded and asked, "Your Excellency, should I still go to those large grain shops to purchase grain?"
The Xi'an prefect was silent for a moment, then said, "Since Jiangning has said so, let's put this matter aside for now. Isn't Li Bo going to donate all the grain? You can take charge of this matter. Go and contact the Li family, note how much grain they want to donate, and transfer it to the disaster-stricken counties as soon as possible."
"Yes, Prefect."
Wu Zhe accepted the order.
After waving Wu Zhe away, the Xi'an prefect stood up as if pricked by a needle and rushed towards the hall.
"I was a little delayed by some business, and I apologize for keeping you waiting, Master Jiang."
Jiang Ning stood up and said with a smile, "You may simply call me Jiang Ning, Prefect."
Upon hearing this, the prefect of Xi'an repeatedly said, "How dare I! I was unaware of Master Jiang's identity before and have been negligent. I hope you will forgive me."
Previously, the prefect of Xi'an had assumed Jiang Ning was just a junior and hadn't paid much attention to him. Now that he knew Jiang Ning's identity, how could he dare to act casually?
Moreover, Jiang Ning possessed the title of "Great Hero of Guanzhong" bestowed by the imperial court. Although he held no official rank or title, the Prefect of Xi'an could no longer treat Jiang Ning as an ordinary person, especially since Jiang Ning was no ordinary individual.
Jiang Ning didn't dwell on the matter further and asked, "May I ask, Prefect, how is the grain allocation progressing?"
The Xi'an prefect quickly replied, "People have already been arranged, and the first batch of prepared grain will be transferred to Lantian County shortly."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ning said, "In that case, I will take my leave. I will go to the disaster-stricken county with my fellow disciples for disaster relief later."
Upon hearing this, the prefect of Xi'an bowed.
"Hold on, Jiang Daxia and the rest of the righteous heroes."
"correct."
Jiang Ning added, "I'm sure Wu Jingli has already informed the prefect about today's events. If any families still want to profit from this flood, I will personally handle it."
Upon hearing this, the prefect of Xi'an was at a loss for words, and could only say, "Thank you for your trouble, Master Jiang."
Jiang Ning then left.
……
Listen to Yuxuan.
"That's the gist of it."
Li Bo looked at everyone present and said.
There were more than a dozen people present, all of whom were heads of powerful families in Xi'an Prefecture.
Upon hearing Li Bo's words, everyone's expression changed.
"Li Bo, are you telling the truth or not? Could it be that you're deliberately trying to trick us into selling our grain at a low price so you can secretly buy it up and make a fortune?"
Some people questioned this, and it wasn't just one person.
"Yeah, Li Bo, what you're saying is hard to believe. Why would Jiang Ning from the Huashan Sect send you to deliver a message to us? Do you think we're all three-year-olds?"
Besides those who didn't believe it, there were also those who were half-believing and half-doubting. At this moment, one person couldn't help but say, "Isn't he meddling too much? If we all sell to the government and ordinary people at the pre-disaster prices, then we won't make any money?"
"Yes, that's impossible."
"They're always coming to our door, is there no law anymore?"
The others echoed this sentiment.
The rest of the people frowned and remained silent, watching Li Bo.
Li Bo sneered.
“I have delivered the message. I was prepared to donate everything to the government for disaster relief. That’s why King Ning spared my life. Otherwise, my entire Li family would probably have been wiped out by King Ning by now.”
"Believe it or not, it's up to you, especially you, surnamed Huang. I heard that the price of grain in your grain shop has risen to one tael and seven mace per shi. Don't believe me, keep raising it, and then you'll know whether what I said is true or not."
Chapter 634: No Need for Service
The man whose name was called was a middle-aged man with a large belly. His face darkened after hearing Li Bo's words.
"What do you mean?"
Li Bo seemed to have a grudge against this person, and sneered, "That's the idea."
"I've delivered the message. Do whatever you want, but don't blame me if the King of Hell comes knocking on your door later."
After saying that, Li Bo turned and left, leaving the others looking at each other in bewilderment.
After a long time.
Is King Ning Yama really in Xi'an Prefecture right now?
One person asked.
No one answered, because no one else knew either.
After a while, another person asked, "Do you think... what Li Bo said just now was true or false?"
“I don’t think it’s fake. Li Bo has no reason to lie to me, otherwise he would offend all of us at the same time.”
"Let's see what Li Bo does next. First, make sure all the stores under his control stop raising prices and lower them."
"To what extent?"
"Revert to the original price."
After everyone had discussed it, they left one after another.
……
Wow!
"Junior brother, be careful."
Liang Fa looked at the river and called out worriedly.
puff!
A head emerged from the surging river. Tao Jun wiped his face and swam towards the river with one hand, while dragging a commoner with the other.
Liang Fa quickly ran to the shore and pulled Tao Jun ashore.
"Ugh, I'm exhausted."
Tao Jun breathed a sigh of relief after climbing ashore.
Liang Fa helped the man to sit down on the other side. The man was no longer moving. Liang Fa pressed his hands on the man's chest and kept pressing until the man woke up.
"how do you feel?"
Liang asked.
The commoner opened his eyes and saw Liang Fa and Tao Jun panting beside him. He was stunned for a moment, then realized what was happening and quickly kowtowed to the two of them.
"Thank you both for saving my life."
"It's okay, it's not safe here, let's go upstairs quickly."
Liang Fa said.
The people nodded repeatedly, got up, and ran away.
Watching the man run away, Tao Jun looked down at the river, which was much higher than in previous years, and cursed.
"Who built this lousy river embankment?"
The severity of the floods in Shaanxi this time is unprecedented. The dikes of many rivers have been breached, resulting in countless deaths and injuries, flooded farmland, and even many villages have been submerged in the floodwaters, which is unimaginable.
It's unknown how many more people will perish in this flood.
Liang Fa couldn't help but ask, "I wonder how Junior Brother Jiang Ning is doing in Lantian County."
It is now the end of August. Liang Fa, Tao Jun, and several other Hengshan disciples have been in this county for some time to carry out disaster relief. Jiang Ning and others have gone to other disaster-stricken counties to carry out disaster relief.
So far, although Liang Fa and Tao Jun have not been able to control the disaster in the county they are in charge of, at least the disaster has not spread much. The number of people who have died from the flood has gradually decreased. They are all homeless, but that is much better than losing their lives.
Tao Jun then sat up and said, "I guess it's not much better. I heard that Lantian County was the most severely affected. Several rivers have breached their banks and flooded the entire county. The flash floods have cut off the roads, and the relief grain cannot be transported in. The disaster relief efforts there are the most difficult."
The two fell silent, a sense of unease creeping into their hearts.
In the past, they were all martial arts practitioners with martial arts skills, but in the face of this natural disaster, they could do no better than ordinary people.
"All right."
Having rested and regained his strength, Tao Jun stood up and said, "Senior brother, let's go and take a look at other places."
"it is good."
Liang Fa stood up and left with Tao Jun.
……
puff!
"Come on, everyone, let's give it our all!"
A constable was shouting ahead, while a group of people were pushing more than a dozen carts loaded with grain. At this moment, the wheel of one of the grain carts got stuck in a mud pit and couldn't be pushed out. Everyone put in all their strength, but the stuck wheel still couldn't be pulled out.
"No, it's too slippery, I can't push it up."
"A bailiff said, panting."
"How to do?"
Another constable suggested, "Why don't we wrap a piece of cloth around the wheel and pull it up together?"
"Where can we find cloth here? There's no village or shop in sight, there's no way to find it even if we wanted to."
The constables discussed amongst themselves, but after a long time they still couldn't come up with a solution. One of the constables said to one of them...
"Squad leader, what do you suggest we do? We can't be stuck here, can we?"
The constable, known as the head constable, thought for a moment and said, "These grains are all being transported to Lantian County. Anyway, we're not far from Lantian County. It's better to send someone to Lantian County to find people to help than to just sit here and wait."
With the head constable having spoken, the other constables had no objections. The head constable immediately selected a constable to go to Lantian County to seek help, and the rest of the group waited and rested there.
About an hour later, the constable who went to ask for help finally returned, but to everyone's surprise, he only brought one person.
The squad leader was immediately displeased upon seeing this and asked a question.
"Wang Yue, what happened? Didn't I tell you to find someone to help? Why did you only bring one person?"
Before the constable could speak, the other person in his group spoke up.