Transmigrated into a female county magistrate during a famine, leading her country to prosperity

Chapter 1207 I'm the Sucker

Jiang Zhiming knew that the people of Fuzhou were not convinced by him, but he never expected that he would play such a vicious role in their hearts.

"Lord Jiang?" Xin Ji tugged at Jiang Zhiming's sleeve, his face flickering in the firelight. "You can't even stand hearing these two sentences?"

"Just listening to these two sentences?" Jiang Zhiming felt that Xin Ji was talking without understanding the situation. "Young Master Xin, as a local official, if you don't win the hearts of the people, you'll face difficulties in every step you take!"

Looking at the layers of people, Xin Ji scoffed, "What about when Lady Shen first arrived in Tong'an County? I heard that back then, few people in Tong'an County respected her, and there were all sorts of rumors about her."

A bitter taste rose in Jiang Zhiming's throat. "How could I possibly compare to Lord Shen..."

Xin Ji raised an eyebrow: "You're really a coward. Your people are about to suffer from an insect plague, and you're still lamenting the passing of spring."

Jiang Zhiming choked, about to retort, when Xin Ji added, "If you continue to cower behind Lord Shen like a coward, I will definitely make things difficult for you when I see my father."

Jiang Zhiming's eyes widened suddenly. Xin Ji looked away and turned to Shen Zheng in the crowd: "I mean what I say."

Whether it was Xin Ji's threat that had an effect or not, Jiang Zhiming pushed through the crowd and strode toward Shen Zheng.

In the crowd, Shen Zheng's question was once again drowned out by wailing. Shen Zheng did not ask again, but instead snatched the locust from a young man's hand.

Jiang Zhiming walked over, not glancing at anyone around him, and asked Shen Zheng in a low voice, "Lord Shen, have you discovered anything?"

Shen Zheng looked back and forth at the locust in her hand. Jiang Zhiming then said, "This humble official feels something is amiss. You previously stated that the locust swarms shouldn't have even entered Fuzhou yet, and..."

Jiang Zhiming looked up at the night sky and frowned, saying, "It's too quiet in the sky; there's not a sound at all."

Shen Zheng nodded slightly, handed the locust in her hand to Jiang Zhiming, and then reached out and snatched a torch.

This time, the robbed youth finally reacted: "What are you doing!"

Shen Zheng didn't answer. Holding the torch, she squeezed out of the crowd and began to sift through the surrounding rice leaves, carefully examining the movement on the rice ears.

After circling most of the rice paddy, she finally spotted a few yellowish-brown figures in a corner, munching on the rice ears.

"There's more!" Jiang Zhiming exclaimed, burying his head in his hands to count: "One, two, three, four, five..."

Jiang Zhiming counts one, Shen Zheng catches one.

In a short while, Shen Zheng caught seven locusts.

The young man whose torch had been snatched by Shen Zheng had been following them. Seeing this, his scalp tingled, and despair filled his chest: "It's over, it's over... these must be the vanguard. It won't be long before the locust army arrives..."

The dark rice paddies stretched as far as the eye could see, and it would take at least two or three more days to harvest them all. There was no way they could finish in time...

While listening to the young man's desperate wails, Shen Zheng handed the torch to Jiang Zhiming and carefully examined the appearance of the locust in her hand—about two fingers long, with a pair of forewings, a pair of hindwings, a round head with compound eyes, and spiky hind legs.

This appearance was almost identical to the locusts she remembered.

No, there is still a slight difference.

Shen Zheng gently parted the wings of a locust.

The texture felt rough and dry on the fingertips, lacking the oily feel characteristic of swarming locusts, which proves that these scattered locusts have been separated from the flock for a long time and are not the "vanguard" that people talk about, but rather unfortunate ones that have gotten lost.

Shen Zheng whispered her judgment to Jiang Zhiming, who breathed a sigh of relief: "I knew it..."

Jiang Zhiming follows Lord Shen, how could he have no luck at all?

Shen Zheng put all the locusts she had caught into her purse, then turned to Jiang Zhiming and said, "Go, go tell everyone to hurry up and harvest them."

Jiang Zhiming's heart, which had just settled, jumped again: "Only...only this humble official will go?"

He just got scolded by the people, and if he goes in alone now, won't he get beaten up?

Shen Zheng nodded and waved her hand: "Hurry up, we still have a long way to go, don't waste time."

Jiang Zhiming paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and nodded emphatically: "Okay!"

He walked with stiff steps and a look of resignation as he squeezed into the crowd. The young man, afraid that he would lose his family's torch, also squeezed in.

"Everyone! Everyone! Quiet!" Jiang Zhiming's voice came from the crowd, getting straight to the point: "Listen to me, these few locusts tonight are not the vanguard, so you can rest assured and hurry up and harvest them!"

As soon as the words were spoken, it was as if the crowd had been frozen in place, and the wailing stopped abruptly.

After a long silence, an old man asked, "What did you say?"

Jiang Zhiming took a deep breath, raised the dead locust in his hand, and said in an even louder voice: "I'm telling you, this locust is not the vanguard. The government is also trying to control the insect plague. So stop crying. The most urgent thing is to hurry up and harvest it!"

The crowd fell silent for a moment upon hearing this, then someone exclaimed, "You're the prefect! I saw you the day you went to Liuyang Prefecture!"

"What?!" A gasp rang out from the crowd.

Just when Jiang Zhiming thought he was about to be beaten, the people all knelt down.

"What are you doing!" The expected pain did not come. Jiang Zhiming looked at the kneeling crowd in front of him and felt a tightness in his chest: "Get up! Get up and go harvest the rice. What are you kneeling for!"

"Your Excellency, I beg you, you must exterminate those beasts!" The farmer who had previously cursed Jiang Zhiming as "heartless" was the first to bow his head and kowtow heavily in the muddy ground stumped with rice stubble. "I misspoke earlier, I apologize, please, please don't let those beasts come..."

Jiang Zhiming's hand holding the torch trembled slightly as he felt the scene before him gradually overlap with a scene from his memory.

When the smallpox epidemic first broke out... the people of Xingning Prefecture also knelt down and begged him in this way.

And at that time, he did not seem to disappoint the people of Xingning Prefecture.

What about today?

"I will not let you down!"

With a loud shout, Jiang Zhiming vented his frustrations and displayed the authority befitting a prefect: "Get up and harvest the rice! I've invited Lord Shen from Liuyang Prefecture to oversee this locust eradication effort! Even if the prefectural government fails to wipe out the locusts, I'll kneel before Lord Shen and beg for next year's rice seeds for all the people in our prefecture! I won't let you spend any more money!"

Shen Zheng, standing outside the crowd, was taken aback.

I was the one who got the short end of the stick.

As Jiang Zhiming squeezed through the crowd amidst the people's profuse thanks, Shen Zheng and the others were already waiting for him on horseback.

As the figures of several horses gradually disappeared into the distance, the people suddenly realized: "The prefect just said that he has invited Lord Shen! The woman who snatched the torch from Gangzi earlier was Lord Shen!"

In the darkness of night, the horses galloped swiftly.

Shen Zheng held the purse, her eyes lowered as she pondered something.

She had a suspicion she needed to confirm.