Chapter 36: Pray for rain in the event of a severe drought
Chapter 36: Pray for rain when encountering severe drought
Continuing from last time, Magistrate Chen received the urgent document in the official room, opened it on the spot, and handed it to Master Huang after reading it. Li You stood behind Master Huang and took a peek at it from a high position.
It turned out to be an urgent order from Suzhou Prefecture sent by the courier shop. It said that there would be no rain for two months and there would be a severe drought. In order to seek for the rain, the prefect issued strict orders to the counties as follows. First, slaughtering of cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens and ducks was prohibited.
For example, the second is to suspend the investigation of criminal cases; the third is that brothels, theaters and other shady businesses must be closed; the fourth is that weddings, birthdays and other happy events are not allowed; the fifth is that county officials must pray for rain sincerely and make no mistakes.
Chen Zhixian has been taught authentic Confucianism since he was a child, and has always respected the theory of ghosts and gods. He said to Mr. Huang: "Thunder and rain have their destiny. If you serve as an official, you must cultivate your moral character, work diligently and love the people, and practice benevolent governance. God will provide you with a good life."
Virtue: If there is a punishment from heaven on the people, you should write to the court to reduce or reduce the amount of money and food, and open warehouses to provide relief. How can you ignore the common people and ghosts and gods, waste money, food and manpower, disturb customs, and do that meaningless thing? "
Master Huang replied: "When there are droughts and floods in the country, the emperor must also bathe and pray. If the stars fall and the earth moves, he must issue an edict to sin against himself. How can local parents be exempt from vulgarity? People are doing it, and people are watching.
The boss is watching, and the people are watching too." What Mr. Huang means is that if you don't do this, the stupid people will think that you are disrespectful to the gods and will cause disaster. The boss will think that you do not pay attention to farming and are inappropriate. The unlucky one is you. Attitude determines everything.
"There are 100,000 households in this county, and there are so many affairs. The subordinates in each house have no time to spare. How can there be..." Chen Zhixian said, looking up and seeing Li You standing behind Mr. Huang, "Yes! This matter will be handed over to you."
With Li You." Anyway, he is idle.
Hearing that, Li You complained endlessly. This job... His soul comes from the era when faith is the most empty. He is an absolute unbeliever and has no interest in feudal superstition and dancing. What's more, these jobs are hard and boring. If you ask for it,
If God doesn’t show mercy and it doesn’t rain, then whose responsibility is it?
"Here at the river engineering institute..." Li You declined.
Chen Zhixian waved his hand and said: "We are not starting work either, so it doesn't matter if we suspend it for half a month. You can go and handle the rain prayers first to appease the people and calm the county."
Then Chen Zhixian issued a notice saying: "Prayers for rain and related bans are all under the control of Li You, the Dianshi, and all classes are at his disposal."
In fact, this was because Chen Zhixian didn't take the rain prayers and bans too seriously, so he left them to Li You to deal with the people he needed to deal with.
Li You didn't dare to disobey, so he had to accept the job. He was lamenting in his heart when the water conservancy project that could make him rich would be officially launched. Seeing that Xue Juren couldn't get his five hundred taels of silver, he felt very itchy in his heart.
.
When he returned to his public room, he saw two clerks in the same room working hard on writing documents. Li You sat down and knocked on the table and said: "Stop for now and discuss some things."
The two scribes, one named Wang Zhong and the other Yuan Ming, raised their heads after hearing this.
Li You asked: "It hasn't rained since the month before last, and we are seeing a severe drought. The great master has asked us to prepare for rain prayers. Do you know the past practice? We, Xiao, follow the rules and act according to the rules."
Wang Zhong and Yuan Ming first glanced at each other. Could it be that Li Xianren had fallen out of favor? He was actually assigned such a hard and difficult job.
Then Wang Zhong said: "According to our county's practice, this matter of praying for rain has been simplified into two urgent matters. One is to build a platform to offer sacrifices, and the county magistrate personally prays to heaven; the other is to invite monks and Taoists to find out the law."
The practice of chanting sutras in the field.”
Yuan Ming added: "The required silver taels can range from hundreds to thousands, so we must first raise them."
"It's God, it's a monk, and it's a Taoist priest. Which god has the aura in the past? Is it useful to worship only one?" Li You asked disrespectfully.
"This... I don't know."
To do anything, you have to ask for money first. Li You went to see Chen Zhixian again and made a slobbering statement, but he was only allowed one hundred taels. Mr. Chen was so awe-inspiring that he only respected heaven and earth for what he could see, and only respect for what he couldn't see.
Our ancestors don't want to see these strange things, so they feel that they have taken great care of Li You by approving one hundred taels. What's more, the autumn harvest has not yet come, and the remaining money from this year's tax has not come up yet. The autumn harvest is approaching two or three months ago.
It's a busy time for the county government.
Li You smiled bitterly and said: "Master! These one hundred and two are enough to build an earthen platform and put some sacrificial instruments. The master loves the people and does not need to pay for his appearance. But there are other fees for the monks and Taoists to perform rituals.
It requires at least dozens of people, and the process often takes ten days and a half, so the cost is not low."
Taiwan fee? This is what Jiangnan calls incense money. Chen Zhixian thought while saying: "Our county is the hometown of poetry, calligraphy and ethics in Jiangnan. How can there not be a few compassionate masters who show mercy to the world! Go and find some truly noble masters.
Come."
After Li You retired, Wu Dianshi, who was looking for a workshop, arranged for the construction of the altar. It was agreed to recruit twenty craftsmen, collect a certain number of civil servants, and the construction period would be five days. Li You sent Wang Zhong and Yuan Ming to take turns supervising the work with whips to ensure that
Completed on schedule.
The next step is to organize monks and Taoists to perform religious services. The total number of temples and temples in Xujiang County is double digits. Of course, Li You will not think about visiting them all. He listed a few famous temples and thought that if he talked about
Once that's done, they can organize the trip themselves, saving worry and effort.
According to custom, Wang and Yuan were arranged to go for such a troublesome matter, but they refused to go. Li You scolded: "How dare you avoid work and be lazy!" Wang Zhong said hurriedly: "My identity
I am humble enough to go to invite the eminent monk for fear of being considered disrespectful. Even if I am not a county official, I will at least have to go to the Dianshi. So we will definitely not be able to accept this job."
What he said made sense. Li You booked an official ship and decided to take care of the matter tomorrow.
Let’s talk about the other side of things. Zhu Zhili, a resident of Zhujiaji, sued the Yan Mansion. This is a big news in Xujiang County recently. The Yan family and his son felt that something was fishy, so they called in the man who went to Zhujiaji with Sun Guanshi at the time.
Zhuang Ding inquired, but the matter was still unclear and shrouded in mystery. The key figure, Steward Sun, was also missing and his whereabouts were unknown.
But the trial of this case was interrupted by God's will. It turned out that because of the severe drought with no rain in the past two months, one of the five injunctions issued by the prefect in order to pray for rain was to suspend the suspension of sentence and dismissal of the prison sentence. In this way, Zhu Zhili's case against the Yan Prefecture came to an end.
Delayed.
When Li You's father heard about this, he couldn't help closing his eyes and sighing: "It's up to people to plan things, but it's up to God to make things happen!" He still held a volume of the popular romance of the Three Kingdoms in his hand.
When the day came for the trial, as long as he used his very professional and experienced experience to give the Yan family the body of Manager Sun, and accused the Yan family of killing people, it would be difficult for the Yan family and his son to tell the truth even if they had a hundred mouths. It happened that the county magistrate was also tired of it.
If the Yan family is captured, the father and son will be stripped of their skin even if they can't be beaten to death.
But now in the height of summer, after praying for rain, the corpse has rotted into dregs and the day lilies have become cold.