A lazy bum transmigrates and marries a eunuch – it's awesome!

Chapter 165 Disaster Relief 2

However, the schemes of a few local gentry and farmers could not possibly escape the notice of Xiao Yuan, a shrewd man. He was not so foolish as to not even see through a delaying tactic.

But gradually boiling the frog in lukewarm water was one of his strategies. Now that they had followed his plan, Chief Supervisor Xiao was naturally reluctant to give these elders some face.

His subordinates were puzzled and asked their supervisor if it was too risky after the others left.

After all, the plague spreads rapidly, and burying the bodies a day earlier would reduce the danger. If those people were well-fed and had the strength to resist, wouldn't they be even more disobedient?

Xiao Yuan sneered, "Kids who have never tasted candy can resist it. They'll be even more reluctant to take it away if you let them lick it a couple of times."

Since we are newcomers and lack credibility among the people, we need to give them some initial benefits to establish an image of keeping our word, which will make things easier in the future.

You help each village separate the population and assign them to their respective territories, first distinguishing between healthy people and sick people.

Each team should bring a doctor, and we should make sure our people wear masks and are fumigated with mugwort daily to prevent infection.

If any disaster victims ask, just say that this is a method suggested by the Imperial Hospital. Anyone who is willing to help take care of the patients can not only receive masks but also receive five coins a day.

We'll allocate caregivers according to the standard of one caregiver for every five patients, both men and women are needed.

You don't need to worry about the selection process. Let the leaders of each village choose; they know best who is hardworking and who is lazy and cunning.

The series of orders issued by Governor Xiao not only caused a stir among the disaster victims, but also amazed the officers and soldiers involved in the disaster relief efforts.

These people have participated in disaster relief before, but they have never heard of disaster victims being paid for their work.

However, not a single person raised any objection, and there was not even a case of officers or soldiers embezzling wages.

Well, they've never helped such a wealthy disaster victim before.

In the past, disaster relief funds were allocated by the imperial court, but each layer of government funds was skimmed off, and it was considered good if 30% actually reached the intended recipients.

The officers and soldiers said that since they were on the front line of disaster relief, they naturally wanted to get some benefits. Since they couldn't get the big profits, they could only resell disaster relief grain to make a little money.

But this time, following Governor Xiao in disaster relief has been incredibly lucrative. It's no exaggeration to say that their disaster relief funds could cover five more disasters with a surplus.

Commander Xiao was not stingy. All two thousand soldiers, from top to bottom, had benefited. They had no interest in the few coins in the hands of the disaster victims.

The saying "money makes the world go round" is indeed a famous proverb. Only when people have enough to eat and wear do they have the leisure to follow any moral or ethical principles.

After the disaster victims ate the hot, thick porridge, their blue eyes cleared up, their tempers calmed down, and within two or three days, they regained their hope for life.

Just then, a rumor quietly spread among the disaster victims, saying that the emperor was paying so much attention to the flood because the master of Huangjue Temple had received a revelation from the Buddha.

The Heavenly Realm will select souls with celestial affinity from those who died in Xuzhou to ascend to the Nine Heavens. Everyone, regardless of age or gender, will have a chance.

However, it is impossible to be buried in the ground if one wishes to ascend to heaven; those who are buried in the ground have no chance of their souls returning to the underworld.

The Emperor took this matter very seriously and wanted to establish a good relationship with the immortals, which is why the imperial envoy was so generous in providing disaster relief.

Otherwise, when have you ever seen someone who can still have enough to eat after a disaster? When there is no disaster, can your family afford to eat white rice?

Moreover, according to rumors, the imperial envoy brought plaques personally inscribed by the emperor to build a shrine to virtuous women and a shrine to heroes here, to enshrine the ashes of all those who are cremated.

In this way, whoever is chosen by the immortals will have to be grateful for the royal offerings.

As for those who weren't selected, they didn't lose out either. Otherwise, how could a peasant like you possibly have the chance to be worshipped by the prefect every year with incense burning continuously?

Wealthy families are better off, but some poor families can't even afford a few sheets of paper money, let alone enjoy the high-class incense that only the most powerful people can afford.

After Xiao Yuan spread rumors, he only organized the able-bodied men to start repairing the ancestral hall outside the city, but did not urge everyone to burn the corpses. Instead, the clan elders began to inquire about the matter through their words.

All officers and soldiers gave the same answer: they didn't know, they weren't clear about it, and they hadn't heard of it.

The Emperor only mentioned building shrines to honor the cremated victims, but also stated that it was entirely voluntary and there would be no coercion.

It's said that you can't make a sale by being too eager, but Xiao Yuan's move of retreating to advance made these people feel uncertain.

The first to arrive were several women who wanted to cremate their deceased children.

The death of a young child causes great grief to the parents, who are then considered "debt collectors" and are not accepted by the clan.

Unable to be buried in the clan's ancestral land, the woman was poor and had no money to buy incense and candles for offerings. The mother, who felt sorry for her child, thought she would try her best.

Whether it's true or not that the child can go to heaven, at least let the child's soul have a place to rest. Just burn it, since they don't have the means to buy a simple coffin for a proper burial anyway.

Although the ancestral hall was not yet completed, a memorial stele was erected first because of the cement. The bodies of the children were quickly burned, and the stonemason engraved their names on the memorial stele.

Zhang Erniu from Zhangjia Village, Li Cuihua from Lijia Village, Wang Ergou from Wangjia Village, Zhao Erya from Zhaojia Village...

These villages located in the flood discharge area have always lived a relatively hard life. Only extremely wealthy gentry families could afford to have stone tablets carved, while ordinary families could only afford a wooden board at most.

Many people are now tempted by the fact that the nicknames of several poor children who died young have been engraved on such a beautiful and tall stone tablet.

Why do they value ancestral halls? Isn't it so that someone will worship them after they die?

Wouldn't it be better to have one's name engraved on this royal stone tablet and worshipped by officials every year than to have it enshrined in an ancestral hall?

Putting aside what the ancestral hall looks like, they, as peasants, will never enjoy the stone tablet with the stone lion carved on it in their entire lives.

Once it happens, it will happen again. Following the deaths of some children, some girls who contracted the disease also began to have such thoughts.

Unmarried young women like them, who died in their parents' home, were often used for ghost marriages.

Rather than not finding peace after death, it's better to burn everything to ashes and gamble on a better future.

Even if she couldn't be chosen to ascend to heaven and become a deity, at least she would be worshipped. It would be worth it just for the name of the chaste woman on that monument.

The promise of becoming a god has tempted many parents. Their daughters have worked hard and never asked for anything in all these years, so they've agreed to let their children ask for a better future.

Perhaps it was a case of what one thinks about during the day manifesting in one's dreams at night, because two women actually dreamed that their children had appeared to them in their dreams and said that they had been chosen to go to heaven as attendants, which immediately caused a great deal of discussion among the crowd.

Xiao Yuan never expected that such a low-tech scheme would be so effective.

In just a few days, not only were there more families of the deceased willing to bring their loved ones to the monument to burn as offerings, but some who had already been buried even dug up the remains of their ancestors just to have their names listed.

In the past, the soldiers who maintained order and the cooks who cooked were the most exhausted during disaster relief efforts. But this time, the stonemasons are the ones who are the most tired.

These stonemasons swung their hammers until they were smoking, and wore down several chisels. Regardless of how many stone tablets they would need in the future, they chiseled non-stop every day.

Without the corpses causing chaos, the epidemic was quickly brought under control. Xiao Yuan left a group of people to guard outside the city and led the rest into Xuzhou City.

The Fifth Prince's uncle was not a very good official either. Even though he received the news that Xiao Yuan had arrived in the disaster area, he didn't dare to go out of the city to greet him because he knew there was a plague outside the city.

Xiao Yuan didn't give him a friendly look either. He didn't even like Jin Zekang, so how could he possibly like his uncle?

It was only at this time that Governor Xiao had not yet received the rumors about him in the city, otherwise he would have given that old bastard a good beating.

Shortly after Xiao Yuan entered the city, three horses galloped along the official road leading to Xuzhou.

Yan Fei gazed at the distant city of Xuzhou and revealed a wicked smile.

My husband, I miss you so much!