At the same time, His Royal Highness the King of Jin, who had no longer committed bears, took the warrant of Emperor Xuanqing and went to the areas where the drought was severe in the west.

Zhu Jizhang has not been in vain all these years, he has really seen how the people suffer, but they are too tenacious, so tenacious that they gradually get used to the seemingly endless suffering year after year. He has seen numb and empty eyes, he has seen the backbone crushed by a difficult life, and he has seen a thin child climb mountains and mountains for a bowl of clean water.

But when it came to the place where the drought was most severe, everything was still far beyond his imagination, and even made him have an inner questioning of "this is really my country and my people, and the territory of the Ming Dynasty".

"Your Highness, be careful. ”

The guard's reminder, Zhu Jizhang didn't seem to hear it, he looked at the scene in front of him, and his heart really felt as if a large piece had been dug up, painful, panicked and empty.

At the foot of the mountain, more than a dozen ragged villagers helped the old and the young to move forward slowly, they did not lack food, they lacked water. The drought has caused people to lose almost all their color, and even water to drink is scarce, let alone wash their clothes. At the foot of the mountain there is a wet muddy field, which has long been stagnant because of the lack of water supply. In the Ming Dynasty at all levels of medical centers every year to preach all kinds of disease prevention and epidemic prevention knowledge, almost everyone is familiar with the situation, the villagers see this shallow, breeding mosquitoes, flies and invisible disease source of the muddy water, they are still regarded by them as a treasure.

Some of them spread out a cloth on the muddy floor, and when it was full of water, it was replaced with another, and some wrung out the cloth that was full of water. A bucket of muddy water is filled, filtered through layers of gauze, and falls into another bucket, which should be filled with something like fine sand charcoal powder that can make the water more or less clear. The water poured from above and flowed out from below, still tingling a turbid yellow color, and when the villagers had made a fire on the spot and boiled it, the last man was given a bowl of muddy water, and the excess water was put away.

When the villagers drank water, a donkey that followed the villagers licked the remaining wet mud.

"Where's the closest water source to here?"

"Two hundred miles away. ”

"Go down and tell them where you go. ”

Zhu Jizhang did not go down the mountain, because he was not very hopeful, these people would not leave their homeland as long as they could live. For them, their families have houses and land, poultry and livestock, and they will never leave their homeland unless they are really thirsty and starving to death. Having a house means that you don't have to live on the streets, and having land means that when the rain falls, the land can be cultivated to produce grain and vegetables, and there are poultry and livestock to be fed, and no one is willing to kill them.

Sure enough, when the guards went down the mountain and told them that there was a stable water source for long-term drinking 200 miles away, the villagers had mixed their joys and worries. This year's drought can be said to be the most serious year since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, and many large tributaries of the main streams such as the Yangtze River and the Yellow River have dried up, and even if the Yangtze River itself is filled with rain from the south, the water level has dropped again and again.

"Two hundred miles, if you build a tap water pipe network, how much will it cost?"

The guards couldn't answer Zhu Jizhang's question, he only knew that the pipe network in Nanjing City didn't cost much, but it was because there were mature flood control fortifications under Nanjing City, which saved a lot of manpower and material resources for excavation. So, this didn't cost much, and if you change it elsewhere, you have to add this expense.

"Let's write it down first, and then go back and talk to the Ministry of Engineering of the College of Engineering. ”

Zhu Jizhang's trip walked for a whole month in the most serious place of drought, and when he returned to Bozhou, the bear child who fell in Meng Yue's eyes had completely changed his face.

"His Royal Highness the King of Jin?" "What's wrong, is there any big mess in the court, how did it become like this." I haven't seen it for more than a month, and it looks like I haven't seen it for a few years, and it's still a few years of wind and frost and waves.

"Sister. Zhu Jizhang now calls his sister directly, one is that after returning to Nanjing, he knows that his brother and sister-in-law regard Meng Yue as his sister-in-law, so he naturally calls his sister, and the other is that Meng Yue looks worried, so he unconsciously calls his sister directly.

"Don't talk about it yet, hurry up and wash up, I'll have someone prepare something for you." Meng Yue looked sad, in the past, he hated the bear child who had to get a piece of dust on the soles of his shoes, but now this face is full of dirty faces, it really makes people believe that it is the same person, no wonder Queen Xiao said that she was a different person, she really looked like a different person than her.

When Zhu Jizhang finished washing and changing, he was a little Langjun with a jade face, but he lost a lot of weight, he used to be a merry young man with a round face, but now this is really distressing: "Hurry up and eat more, don't be hungry." ”

The meals of the Meng family have never been particular about seven plates and eight bowls, they are all meat and vegetarian dishes, and they have never been very extravagant. Even so, Zhu Jizhang stared at the food on the table for a moment, but didn't say anything, just buried his head in eating the three dishes and one soup that were not much.

"Is it enough, not enough to make you more?"

"That's enough, thank you, sister. After Zhu Jizhang took a breath, he told Meng Yue about what he had seen and heard along the way, and he was about to get up and go to the engineering college. Although all the fortifications are under the management of the Ministry of Engineering, the College of Engineering is closer to the northwest, and the College of Engineering also has the right to start work.

Meng Yue: "Okay, let's go together." ”

It is necessary to let the northwest have tap water as soon as possible, at least, the drinking water must be satisfied first, and the rest can be slowed down.

On the side of the College of Engineering, before Zhu Jizhang came over, he had already discussed with Wang Li about laying the water pipe network: "The material resources are easy to solve, the reinforced cement engineering college can be built, how to say the human and financial resources, go to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Approval documents, it will take a few months, and when it is implemented, it will take a few months." Left and right for a few months, everything is cold. ”

"It's not difficult to say, you can mobilize all the people and dig water pipes. The local villagers are suffering from water shortage, and they must be willing. ”

"This is perverse, Zhizhou, in this case, we Bozhou can bear this expense by ourselves. "Every year, the local government can keep a part of the tax for all aspects, Liang Zhizhou, who took office, is thrifty, and the state government still has a lot of surpluses on its books.

"First of all, make a notice and ask the villagers what they mean, the state government still has to report to the governor's yamen, and you should be able to get a reply in three or five days. ”

When Meng Yue and Zhu Jizhang arrived, the matter of Bozhou Mansion had basically been resolved, and it was just waiting to be implemented. Zhu Jizhang came, bringing the news of the severe drought-stricken areas in the northwest, which made the faces of all the people in the hall wrinkled again.

"Just looking at Chen Wendi's report, I can't see that the local villagers have lived such a difficult life. ”

"Your Highness has to come forward in this matter, and if Bozhou shares the cost of laying the pipe network, the Northwest Prefecture must be able to keep up. Otherwise, you have to go to the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household for a few months of reversal. "Of course, you can't blame the Ministry of Industry and Households, the south is flooded and the north is drought, and Chen Wen of the Ministry of Industry and Household is like a mountain, but it must be handled carefully, and it can't just be approved and read.

"Yes. Zhu Jizhang didn't breathe a sigh of relief until now, and the whole person was no longer so tight, and this loose string actually fell asleep leaning on the corner of the desk.

Everyone in the School of Engineering and Bozhou Mansion looked at Zhu Jizhang's face softly, and the dean said to Master Meng: "This child is really not easy, he was raised in sugar water, and now he has such a responsibility." If I can be like this for all my young people, why worry about the country and the country not being prosperous and the nation not strong. ”

Oh, yes.

What's even more fortunate is that the Ming teenagers of this era are indeed like this.