Placid Chang'an

In a daze, Su Cen didn't know how long he had been in a coma. He only remembered a rope hanging down from the cliff at the end. He tied the rope around his waist with all his strength, and wondered as he fell asleep, where did Li Shi find it? Why is your helper so young?

It was already midnight when he woke up again, and there was the sound of water ticking in his ears. It seemed that the rain had not stopped, but his body was already dry. Lost the ability to understand, can hear those people talking, but can't read a complete sentence from it.

An old man slowly walked up to Su Cen's side, looked at Su Cen's dazed look on his face, and said to the child supporting him, "Huzi, go get a bowl of water."

It wasn't until a glass of water was down that Su Cen could breathe a sigh of relief. He could move his neck a little and look around. It should be a cave. There were dozens of people crowded in the cave, including men, women and children. They hid behind the fire and looked around cautiously. he.

Only the old man from before was standing beside him, who seemed to be the leader of this group, so Su Cen cleared his throat and tried to deal with this man.

"You guys saved me?"

The old man sat down on a stone, took out the tobacco rod from his back and waist, and knocked it on the stone wall. After pouring out the old tobacco leaves, he filled in new tobacco leaves, and let the tiger beside him take it to the fire to light it. , and said to Su Cen, "It was Huzi and Erya who discovered you."

Huzi just came back after lighting his cigarette, handed the cigarette rod to the old man, and made a face at Su Cen.

Su Cen forced a smile, "Thank you."

Huzi probably had never received such a formal thank you, so he blushed and hid behind the old man.

The old man then asked: "Who are you? How did you fall there?"

Su Cen struggled to sit up leaning against the stone wall, coughed twice, felt a dull pain in his chest, and replied: "My surname is Li, and my name is Xu. I am a tea merchant in Suzhou. I originally wanted to transport tea to Qingzhou. I never thought about it." Encountered a landslide and was washed down the mountain road."

He didn't hide his identity on purpose, but these people looked like rural people. He probably hadn't seen any officials. Su Cen was afraid that revealing his true identity would make them cautious.

It is estimated that his body will have to recuperate for a few days before he can move, and he still has to be supported by these people.

Su Cen asked the old man, "What's your name?"

The old man took a drag on his cigarette, and puffed out the clouds as he spoke, "My surname is Cao, you can call me Second Uncle Cao."

Su Cen was slightly taken aback, "Are you from Cao Village?"

"Have you heard of our village?" Second Uncle Cao made a not-so-good-looking laugh, then took another drag on his cigarette, and sighed heavily, "It's a pity that Cao Village is gone."

Su Cen remembered the flooded village with only roofs left at the foot of the mountain. He couldn't empathize with the pain of losing his home, so he could only comfort him: "Natural disasters are merciless, so sorry."

"Where is the natural disaster, it is clearly man-made!" The first voice behind the fire said suddenly.

Su Cen looked over again, and saw that the vigilant expressions on the faces of those people were restored, and they stared at him viciously, as if he was the chief culprit who destroyed their village.

Su Cen frowned, and looked at Second Uncle Cao: "What do you mean?"

Uncle Cao glared angrily at one of the people in the crowd, then turned to look at Su Cen: "You are a foreigner, so it's okay to tell you, this flood burst was caused by natural disasters, but the bigger reason is that some people wanton The diversion of the river, the cessation of the river, caused the flood to burst."

"There is such a thing?!" Su Cen didn't expect that there were so many secrets hidden behind this natural disaster. He just straightened up, causing a tingling pain in his chest, and coughed again uncontrollably.

Uncle Cao looked at the sparse rain curtain outside the cave and sighed quietly, "There is Nanqing River at the entrance of our village, which is a branch of Huaihe River and located in the upper reaches of Xuzhou. Originally, the Nanqing River flows into the Huaihe River, passing through Xuzhou and then entering the sea. There is no problem, but someone Thinking that the water in the Nanqing River has increased the burden on Xuzhou's embankments, they decided to divert the Nanqing River. There used to be an old river course that prevented the Nanqing River from flowing into the Huaihe River, but that river course has been abandoned for many years, and the downstream has long been blocked. , It has been raining since more than half a month ago, so much water, and the downstream is blocked, who will burst if it doesn't burst?!"

When Uncle Cao said this, he was choked by the smoke, coughed a few times, and the corners of his eyes were red from choking.

Su Cen felt the pain in his heart, as if he could not breathe, and asked in a deep voice, "Who is that person who diverted the river?"

"Who else is there, the governor of Xuzhou!" Another voice burst out from behind the fire.But this time, the villagers couldn't ignore it anymore, they all gritted their teeth and scolded the governor of Xuzhou bloody, and some people spit a few times, wishing to pull out the eighteen generations of the governor of Xuzhou and flog the corpse.

Su Cen had a little impression of this governor of Xuzhou. He only remembered that he was called Liang Fang, a Jinshi in the Yonglong period. The reason why he remembered him was because this person had been imprisoned because he offended officials and was rather straight and unyielding. He ate a lot. After suffering, he became famous after being rehabilitated, so he was transferred to Xuzhou as the governor.

It is really embarrassing that people who used to be fearless of power now disregard the lives of the people under their rule and forcibly divert the river, causing so many people to be homeless and displaced.

Su Cen looked at the expressions on the faces under the firelight, wishing to drink his blood and eat his flesh, and suddenly he was startled: "So, you are planning...to rebel?"

The voices came and went.

"We're just going to Xuzhou City to ask for an explanation!"

"Yes, let the dog officer give us an explanation!"

"If he dares to ignore us, we will go to the capital to sue, to the emperor Lao Tzu!"

Su Cen looked at the group of people and couldn't help but smile wryly, "Don't you guys know that Xuzhou City has already been flooded?"

The villagers of Cao Village froze in place.

Second Uncle Cao looked at Su Cen in disbelief: "What did you say? Xuzhou City...is flooded?"

"It was because after the Nanqing River burst, the flood accumulated for many days entered the Huai River, and the embankment couldn't support it, so it flooded."

The cycle of karma and retribution is not good. If the Nanqing River had not been forcibly diverted back then, it might not have resulted in the result it is today.

The expressions on these people's faces changed from anger to bewilderment. Su Cen understood the feeling of the sudden collapse of the beliefs that supported them. The home was gone, and there was no place to appeal for grievances. What should they do next?What can they do?Where is their shelter?

Someone began to cry softly.

Uncle Cao silently smoked in front of the rain curtain without saying a word.

Xuzhou city.

After Li Shi took Qi Lin to inspect the resettlement of the victims, he was told when he returned to the palace that a person who called himself Qu Ling'er came and had to meet the prince.

Li Shi frowned: "Bring him in."

The only person brought here was Qu Ling'er, her appearance was haggard, her forehead was swollen and her eyes were swollen from crying. When she saw Li Shi and Qi Lin, her eyes that had finally stopped crying began to turn sour. Two lines of tears fell.

Li Shi frowned, and said, "Speak."

Qu Ling'er cried so much that she was almost sobbing, she wept intermittently and said, "Brother Su...it's gone..."

Li Shi stood on the spot, neither speaking nor moving, his cold pool-like eyes were filled with thick mist, which was so deep and frightening.

The surroundings were extremely quiet, as if there was no sound of wind and insects. Qu Ling'er gradually stopped crying in this weird atmosphere, and looked at Li Shi cautiously, waiting for someone to question or get angry.But there was nothing, not even asking him "what's wrong".

Someone came from outside the door to report that the gentry in Xuzhou City wanted to see the prince.

Li Shi nodded and left without looking back.

Qu Ling'er suddenly felt unwilling for his elder brother Su, and rushed over thousands of miles non-stop, dying on the way, but this man didn't even say hello!

Qu Ling'er turned her head and shouted at Li Shi's back: "Brother Su is dead!"

The man didn't even pause in his footsteps until the last piece of his clothes disappeared at the corner of the hall, and he pulled away completely.

Qu Ling'er was trembling with anger, his brother Su, his best brother Su, was not worth it for such a person!

It wasn't until his trembling body was slowly wrapped into a warm embrace that melted away all his hardness, anger, and grievances that Qu Ling'er slowly stopped trembling, and began to cry loudly.

He rushed like crazy all the way, afraid that he would think about it when he stopped, and now he was finally exhausted and couldn't hold on anymore.

"Brother Su is gone...he died, he died to save me..." Qu Ling'er cried hysterically, "I have no home anymore, Brother Su can't come back..."

Qi Lin hugged her tightly in his arms, let the tears and snot wet his front, kissed the red and swollen forehead, secretly rejoicing like he was alive after a catastrophe, that you are fine.

After comforting Qu Ling'er, Qi Lin came out to look for Li Shi again when she saw someone crying and hiccupping and fell asleep.

He knew that the prince's emotions were not easy to show, but it was abnormal to be so calm like today. For a moment, he was not sure whether the master's morality had deepened again, or he really felt that people could not be resurrected after death, and it was useless to think too much.

When he found him, Li Shi was talking happily with a group of squires under the lights.

In order to thank Prince Ning for saving the people of Xuzhou from the fire and water, the gentry specially wrote a couplet to praise Prince Ning.

The first couplet is: wear the liver and gallbladder, save lives, and the brilliance reflects the sun and the moon

The second couplet is: Kuang Datong, helping the community, merits carry the Spring and Autumn

Li Shi was overjoyed, and even donated calligraphy to personally give a horizontal batch, four large characters drawn with iron and silver hooks, moving like a dragon, and the pen and strokes are in place:

Share weal and woe

What a grand scene to have fun with the people.

Qi Lin felt uneasy in his heart. This is abnormal, too abnormal. Although the master is indifferent, he is definitely not a person who knows how to act on the occasion. Even if he is indifferent to Su Cen's death, he will not just throw it away right now. In the back of my mind.

The group of country gentry thanked Li Shi thousands of times before leaving for half an hour, Li Shi's eyes gradually withdrew his smile, the coldness pierced his bones.

Qi Lin stepped forward: "Master..."

Li Shi got up: "Go and check the tents of the victims outside the palace again, there is heavy dew at night, don't make any trouble."

"Master," Qi Lin rarely obeyed, "You should rest first."

Li Shi waved his hands, and slowly came out from behind the table. He had just taken two steps, when his steps faltered, and a mouthful of black blood spewed out.