It was raining heavily outside and the river was raging. But in Xujiazhuang, the fragrance was already fragrant.
Now, with the addition of seven or eight stickmen and family members, the entire Xujiazhuang now has a total of nearly forty people, which can be regarded as a small-scale village.
The few stickmen who joined later were holding thick bowls and still didn't dare to take a bite, even though the aroma in the bowl almost drove away the gluttons.
Having been in Tangjiang for a long time, they have heard too many legends about Hemu. How dare they eat such Hemu messengers...
"The knife is stained with blood, the man is hanging eggs, but he is too afraid to even take a few bites of fish." Si Hu raised his head and laughed, reached into the pot again, and fished out another fish.
"Eat, it's okay." Xu Mu said with a smile.
A few big stickmen gingerly took the first bite, and then, with ecstatic expressions on their faces, they began to devour it.
"Chen Sheng, get some jars of wine!"
After going through life and death, you should always relax.
On the chairs next to them, Gongou and Heifu were injured and couldn't drink together, but they also ate the fish and laughed.
…
The heavy rain has not stopped for several days, and the monument line has been flooded for another two sections.
In Tangjiang City, many people were shouting at each other, kneeling in the rain to worship the river mother, and throwing frightened livestock into the rolling river.
Xu Mu felt heartbroken when he saw it.
These livestock are the most valuable assets of ordinary people.
"Heifu, during the floods in previous years, what did the official office say?"
Although he knew that asking might be in vain, Xu Mu couldn't help it.
"My boss, there is something very strange! Those officials can only collect money and don't care whether we live or die. If any supplies are handed out and it reaches our hands, we will probably only have soup."
At the feet of the Emperor, Xu Mu originally thought that the colluding officials would be more restrained, but it seems that he thought too much.
"However, although it's not the case in Guanfang, in the past, during floods like this, everyone would sacrifice to the river mother."
This sentence is equivalent to saying that in Tangjiang City, there are many people worshiping Hemu. Xu Mu has seen Hemu Temple, and the asbestos sculpture of Hemu is a strange mansion with the head of a human and the tail of a snake.
"My boss, listen to me. The Hemu Festival over Jijiang River uses living people."
Xu Mu was stunned for a moment.
"The person in charge of the official office?"
"It's not the officials' business, it's the old temple people's business."
Old temple people are like fortune tellers. No matter which dynasty, there are people who spread panic.
Heifu moved his mouth and said, "Master, I'm thinking of waiting for the rain to stop. Judging from the heavy rain, human sacrifice should be needed this year."
Xu Mu lowered his mind and felt uncomfortable in his chest. After traveling through time, he was even more disgusted with such ghostly and confusing things.
"Wow! Dong, Dongjia!"
Not far away, a young man raised his arms tremblingly and suddenly shouted in shock.
Everyone present hurriedly followed the direction and looked up.
In the mist and rain.
In the center of the river, a huge black figure emerged wetly, with the head of a snake and the body of a human, holding a tall three-headed fork in its right arm.
In the turbulent river, he remained motionless.
"This, this is the river mother!"
"What a river mother."
"I ate an unjust fish earlier, will it come to seek revenge on me?"
Xu Mu frowned, and for a moment, he felt even weirder.
Outside Zhuangzi, many people in Dongfang also saw it, and they knelt on the ground, sobbing and crying.
A big wave passed by, and in the blink of an eye, the river mother who had appeared had disappeared.
It is this gesture that makes those who see it feel more and more respected.
"My boss, if not, throw all the smoked fish into the river." Hei Fu's voice trembled as he spoke.
A good man who was not even afraid of knives, but now his face turned pale because of something like this, let alone ordinary people.
"Heifu, did the river mother show up when there was a flood in the past?"
"Obvious, obvious, otherwise, everyone wouldn't be so scared. Boss, we don't want to provoke the river mother and throw the innocent fish into the river."
"If you don't vote, my boss hasn't had enough." Xu Mu shook his head coldly.
In the past few months, Xu Mu has understood very clearly that there are any ghosts and monsters in this world that he has traveled to.
Two days later, the heavy rain finally subsided a lot, and the originally turbulent water level rarely retreated by two monument lines.
The river water was turbid, and even the well water drawn from the old well was turbid. With no other solution, Xu Mu could only ask someone to filter it several times before heating it up and drinking it to avoid getting sick.
Many of the bloated livestock carcasses were stuck on the river surface and did not flow downstream. The rotting smell slowly spread throughout Tangjiang City.
Xu Mu walked out of the village and looked down. The soaked rainwater had soaked many of the bricks on the earthen wall next to the village, making the earthen wall that stretched for more than a hundred steps crumbling.
"The government has an order that all households should contribute a share of water control money. Large households have ten taels, medium households have one tael, and small households have two taels."
Three or four cavalry officers, wearing raincoats and riding horses, began to run around the East Square to tell each other.
"Hei Fu, do you have to pay the money for water treatment every year?"
"It's all paid."
"I handed it in, what next?"
"Then... I won't put you in jail."
Xu Mu sneered, what kind of bullshit logic is this? It's nothing more than taking advantage of the situation and scrapping the people's wealth and wealth all over again.
A horse-riding officer quickly stepped in front of Zhuangzi. As soon as he stopped the reins, the officer hurriedly got off the horse and cupped his hands.
"The little boss is polite, but the Tangjiang River was flooded, and the official had no choice but to collect money for disaster relief."
In Tangjiang City.
The prestige of the little master at Bianguan has spread so widely that even officials like them are not willing to come to Dongfang to provoke them when nothing happens.
One hundred and nineteen people from Xifang couldn't stop them...
"The Li family in the restaurant over there donated two hundred taels generously, and the Chen family in Buzhuang also gave out one hundred taels. The little boss——"
Xu Mu looked coldly and took off the money bag from his waist.
The official officer standing in front of him became excited. Everyone in Tangjiang City knew that this young boss from the border had a net worth of at least three thousand taels.
If this is more generous, one or two hundred taels would be considered a good sum.
But Xu Mu's next move immediately made Guan Zhi stunned.
From the huge money bag, the young boss only took out a handful of broken silver and counted it several times.
"Little boss, this is a disaster relief matter——"
"Nakato Ichiryo?"
"indeed……"
"I counted it several times, and it was indeed one or two."
Throwing the pieces of silver coldly into the hands of the official, Xu Mu walked into the village again without looking back.
He has money, but he is not sick.
In the final analysis, this so-called mercury cure will eventually fall into the hands of officials and line their own pockets. If he really wants to save people, he might as well just give it to the victims.
The officer looked hateful and threw the pieces of silver in his hand randomly into his pocket, at least four or five of them flew away. Then he got on his horse angrily, stepped through the rain that had lost his horse's hooves, and walked away coldly.