On the fourth day of the new year, Shang Chengdu stayed in Laomiao Town all day.

But he didn't stay at Guan's house all day. Celebrating the New Year with the old lady of the Guan family, he had a hearty lunch with the characters who could be on the stage in the Guan family and a few squires from the surrounding villages, and he proposed to go for a walk in the village. Although no one understood what he meant by "go and go", no one could refuse the commander's proposal, so a large group of people surrounded him and went to the market town.

Shang Cheng wanted to take this opportunity today to "inspect" Laomiao Town, so as to have a more intuitive understanding of West Malaysia under his governance. But he soon discovered that there was a big gap between ideas and reality. First of all, his appearance is not pleasant; Secondly, when others saw his outfit, they knew that he was an official, and the dealers always had to stay away when they saw him, even if they were vendors who set up stalls on the side of the street, they saw them as if they had met bandits and robbers, and either turned around and ran, or left the stalls on the side of the road to close their doors; The most critical one, he is followed by local leaders, many of the farmers are tenants of these people, or the family rents the land of these people, and when he stopped him for questioning, he was afraid that he would offend the master by saying the wrong word, so he pretended to be honest and didn't know anything. Later, Shang Cheng himself realized this problem, so he had to give up the idea of "inspecting" the daily life and production of the villagers, and let Guan Miao lead him to the house of Xiang Yong, who was seriously injured during the crackdown on bandits.

The situation of several villagers is not bad, there is money in the grain cabinet in the hoard, there are always one or two new clothes on the head and feet of the women's dolls, and there are still two or three smoked mutton hanging on the beam of the stove room, revealing a happy harvest atmosphere. Shang Cheng also asked them about their recovery from their injuries; After knowing that Guan Miao had invited a doctor to go to the clinic regularly for treatment and change dressings, he praised Guan Miao with great satisfaction.

He also asked a few villagers if they had any difficulties at the moment, such as the problem of manpower, livestock, seeds and grain during spring ploughing, and so on.

Several townspeople are honest villagers, and the commander of the military village has already made them feel that their face has risen and the scenery is infinite, and then they heard Shang Cheng speak like this, in addition to giving his hands to express his gratitude, where can he still shake out a sentence......

Before leaving, Shang Cheng specially explained to Guan Xuan, the township Yong who participated in the suppression of bandits, whether it is the children of the Guan family or the children of the You family, must take a high look, whether it is paying taxes or levying forced labor, they must be different from ordinary villagers, especially those who died in the family of the village Yong, the local government should try to help, and the imperial court is exempt from tax and tax, and the reward must be implemented without discount......

On the day of the fifth day, the command post was officially opened, and he spent a morning arranging various official duties and went down to the village. He originally wanted Bao Kan to follow him, but Bao Kan had just decided on family affairs, and he was busy asking the three media to go to Liujiao, he couldn't disturb others at this time, so he thought about it, and finally brought Guan Xian.

He had expected that it would take only two or three days at most to visit the villages, and even if he delayed in the dozen or twenty small village settlements on the way, it would not take more than five days. But no one expected that he would be gone for nine days. The first few days were fine, although the military village did not deliberately keep in touch with him, but Ximazhi is such a big place, and there is always news in the morning and evening, but on the sixth day, no one can tell the specific location of the commander, according to the distance of the day, Shang Cheng should return to Zhongzhai at this time, but that night until the time of Tianjiaozi, I did not see the shadow of him and Guan Xian. On the seventh day, there was still no news from the Captain, but the people waited patiently for news; On the eighth day, there was still no news, and people began to sit still; On the morning of the ninth day, Bao Kan and Jiang Shuban, who had just returned from Shangzhai, stood at the head of the wall of the wall, their eyes were red, and they still couldn't see Shang Cheng's figure, so people were completely panicked. Jiang Shuban picked up his foot and scolded Bao Kan. Maybe there are bandits in Chuan Dao again, what if Shang Cheng is harmed by them? Even if the commander didn't meet the bandits, but there were still wolves, the hungry wolves in the winter didn't care about anything for a bite to eat, and there were only two of them, if they encountered a pack of wolves in the middle of the road, no matter how capable they were, they would have to feed the wolves...... After he scolded Baokan, he found the officer in charge of the stockade and asked him to immediately mobilize the border army to search along the Sichuan Road, and immediately send fast horses to send a message to the garrisons in the upper and lower villages, so that they could also go out immediately; The brave and strong men of the villages in Ximazhi must also cooperate with the garrison action, even if they plow the Sichuan Road, they must find out the commander! To live to see people, to die to see corpses!

When the last news came, Shang Chengcheng was staying there, and maybe he would know Shang Cheng's whereabouts when he got there......

When a group of cavalry was assembled and ready to go amid his loud scolding, a border soldier came out of breath and reported: The commander is back!

Bao Kan whipped on the horse's buttocks, rushed to the gate of the village, and saw Shang Cheng in the dust, his first words were: "Suffer from your mother!" Where did you die? The reins were tightened too tightly, and the war horse spun directly in front of Shang Cheng. Bao Kanma scolded before he even got down: "After going out for so many days, I don't let out a single fart!" If you don't come back, I'm going to take someone to collect your body!" If it weren't for the two officers next to him stretching out their hands quickly, maybe his whip would have been drawn to Shang Cheng's face.

The true feelings of his comrades-in-arms moved Shang Cheng very much. He apologized and said to Bao Kan and Jiang Shuban: "I didn't send you the news in time, it was my fault, but this trip has a lot to gain......

He really gained a lot from going out this time, or rather, he gained a lot of shock.

The water shortage in West Mazhi was far worse than he knew, and the drought was far greater than he had imagined.

From the day he took up his post in West Malaysia, people kept telling him that there was a drought in Yanbei and a shortage of water in West Malaysia. However, from the lower village to the middle village to the upper village, the situation he saw along the way made him always have the impression that the water shortage is not serious. But this trip to inspect the place made him really realize how far the drought situation in the river has reached. The villages along the line of the West River are in a better situation, and the water of the West River can not only be used for people and livestock to drink, but also barely guarantee to irrigate the land. However, the West River only has water in the middle and lower reaches, and the upstream is almost to the point of breaking the flow; The two largest villages in the upper reaches, Shanghe and Shaogan, have been cut off for more than 40 months in the past four years. Not only is there no water in the West River, but the three deep wells in the two villages are also half-dry. Five of the seven small villages further north have been abandoned, and the population of the remaining two villages together is only seven households and 38 people......

No one ever mentioned these things to him. He estimated that even Jiang Shuban did not know the specific situation of those villages upstream.

And so it is. Jiang Shuban and they had only been to Shanghe and Shaogan, and they had never walked to the hilly areas to the north, and they had never gone that far. They didn't even know about the seven other villages over there, and today was the first time they had heard of it.

Shang Cheng no longer cares about blaming these subordinates who only know how to sit in the yamen. He had more serious things to ask them.

In order to compete for that pitiful water source, several large villages upstream have to fight every year of various sizes, and every year people are injured or killed in the fighting. Does the yamen know about these things?

A group of booksellers were a little embarrassed and said that they had heard a little bit of rumors. However, the practice in the yamen, as long as the local government does not report it, this kind of fight between households, the government has always pretended not to know and does not care.

"Bastard!" Shang Cheng's horsewhip was almost on these people. On the way back, he still exonerated them in his heart, and he thought that Jiang Shuban didn't know that the water shortage had reached such a serious point, so he didn't take measures to prevent and stop the clan fighting.

He bitterly rebuked several subordinates: "Human life is at stake! You're just watching people die for a sip of water?! ”

Several bookstores bowed their heads and did not dare to say anything. One person also stupidly whispered a defense: "We have been doing this for decades, as long as no one reports it, the yamen will not ......."

Shang Cheng couldn't bear it anymore, and the whip designated the person and yelled viciously: "Get out!" I don't want to see you again! Turn around and roll up and get out! ”

The man probably didn't expect that his words would cause such a big disaster, and it took him a long time to react, and he wanted to defend but didn't have the courage, and wanted his colleagues to say a few good words for him, but no one else looked at him, so he had to look at Shang Cheng with a blank eye. He immediately noticed that Shang Cheng didn't pay any attention to him. This time he learned wisely, and he didn't dare to open his mouth again, so he quietly hid to the side with his neck in his hands.

Shang Cheng didn't pay attention to him, panting and pacing back and forth in the office, turned around twice and walked in front of Jiang Shuban, and asked, "Is there a well driller from Duanzhou?" ”

"Here we are." Jiang Shuban said, "Yesterday morning, someone had already sent him to Shangzhai, and the craftsmen he had recruited were also with him." ”

"Send someone immediately," Shang Cheng's bloodshot eyes looked at him, and said word by word, "You send someone immediately, send someone to chase them back!" Start by digging wells for the two villages upstream. One by one, we have to recruit people, recruit craftsmen, find craftsmen who can repair houses and build houses, and build houses in Shanghe and Shaogan. He gritted his teeth and paused for a moment before explaining to the somewhat confused Jiang Shuban, "The village above can't live anymore, so we have to move down......

Lao Jiang spread his hands and said, "...... We don't have any money. Where can the yamen squeeze out this expense? ”

"I'll figure out how to deal with money. You immediately send someone to intercept the craftsmen who were digging the well, and teach them to go directly to the river and build a pond for the wells there......"