Ever since she learned that the river embankment had breached, Zhuo Qiaoniang had been anxiously guarding the stairs to the upper city, waiting anxiously. Finally she saw her husband's figure and heard his voice, and she felt relieved.

After waiting for Leng Yi to comfort everyone, he continued to move forward, and then Zhuo Qiaoniang came out to meet him.

There were people all around, and although Zhuo Qiaoniang wanted to throw herself into her husband's arms, she just stood quietly until her husband came over, and then she went to greet him.

Leng Yi took Zhuo Qiao Niang's hand and walked forward along the city wall. The people along the way looked at him silently.

Magistrate Liao came to find him, holding his official seal, hissing and sighing, and repeatedly asked Leng Yi what to do.

Leng Yi reassured him that he would find a way to organize forces to block the gap. However, even though he said that, he had no idea what to use to block the gap.

Leng Yi and Cheng Luojie continued to inspect the people on the city tower. At this time, a big man raised his hand and greeted him: "Master Leng."

Leng Yi recognized him as Bao Lie, the deputy leader of the Boat Gang. When Leng Yi saw him, he suddenly had an idea and said, "It turns out that it was Gang Leader Bao who caused the flood this time, and your Boat Gang was also affected a lot, right?"

"

"Yes, the government is worried that if our boat sails at this time, it will impact the river embankment and prohibits us from getting out of the boat. Therefore, our boats are parked at the pier."

Leng Yi nodded and said: "This is my idea. Now that the river embankment has burst, we must plug the gap as soon as possible to reduce losses. Therefore, I would like to ask your boat to help me."

"If you have anything to say, sir, please tell me. If our boat gang can help, we will definitely help."

"Great," Leng Yi said, "I want to commandeer some of your ships to plug the gap in the embankment."

"Ah?" Bao Lie was surprised, "How can we block the gap with a boat?"

"Fill the boat with sandbags, tie the bow and stern of the boat with ropes, slowly lower it to the gap, and then have people scuttle the boat. Connecting several boats should be able to block most of the gap, and then the people on both sides

Just use sandbags to help plug the holes. These ships will be compensated when the government distributes disaster relief funds in the future."

Bao Lie said: "Okay, let's listen to the command of the eldest master." Bao Lie immediately called a group of boat gang members and followed Leng Yi to fill the gap. Leng Yi also asked Deputy Song to reorganize the people and young people to participate in the flood fight.

.

The boat gang's boat docked at the pier of the Ba River. At this time, the rain also stopped. The villagers held torches and began to carry sandbags and stones to several boats. At the same time, large rocks filled with iron cages were also prepared on both sides of the gap.

and sandbags.

After several ships were filled with stones and sandbags, they were towed by other ships to the gap. They lowered the anchors for stopping the ships. Following Leng Yi's instructions, they slowly and tentatively moved the ship that was to block the gap into the gap first.

Put everywhere.

However, the current in the gap was too strong and the weight of the boat caused the rope pulling the boat to break. The boat was rushed out of the gap and rushed into the dark city.

After discovering the problem, Bao Lie ordered the ropes to be replaced with iron ropes, and finally he steadily lowered the ship into the gap. The sailors on the ship began to scuttle the ship. Soon, the ship was scuttled. But the pulling iron ropes did not let go, and the ship was scuttled.

Make sure the sunken ship can stop at the gap.

Immediately afterwards, several more ships were scuttled and stopped at the gap. Most of the water flow was blocked and the water flow slowed down significantly.

Minzhuang on both sides of the gap began to fill the gap with sandbags and stones filled with iron cages. Although part of it was washed away by the water, the gap was still filled and narrowed little by little. At dawn, the breached embankment finally closed and it was a success.

Blocked the gap.

The people in the city cheered. But when they saw that the whole city was still in a vast ocean and many buildings collapsed, they couldn't laugh anymore.

Leng Yi arranged for people to inspect the river embankment, and at the same time organized people to drain the flood water out of the city. At the same time, he counted the dead and missing people.

This work lasted all day, and in the evening, the numbers were reported to Leng Yi. There were no deaths, but twenty-three people were missing. Moreover, these people were all involved in the river embankment's flood control. According to further understanding, these people were

He is responsible for the river embankment in the gap area.

Were they washed away by the flood after the embankment broke?

By this time, a lot of the water in the city had been drained, and it was only waist high. Leng Yi asked the sailors from the boat gang to help find the body of the missing person.

Soon, the body of a missing person was found in the water outside the yard of a house near the gap.

The body was carried to the river embankment.

Leng Yi came to the corpse, originally to express his condolences, but when he saw the corpse, he was shocked because the head of the corpse had obvious trauma and a cracked skull.

Leng Yi squatted down and inspected carefully. He found that there were long depressed fractures, and there were three in total.

Is this caused by the deceased being washed away by the flood and hitting a hard object such as a wall?

Before Leng Yi traveled through time, he had encountered many cases of drowning, but he had never encountered such a case of death due to impact during floods. He pondered for a moment, then called for Zuo, who came with a dissecting knife and prepared for an autopsy.

He first dissected the head and found that the three injuries on the head were all pre-mortem wounds. In other words, the three injuries on the deceased's head were caused by heavy blows while he was still alive.

This result made Leng Yi frown. He then dissected the chest and abdomen, focusing on examining the intestines and lungs of the deceased. The results of the autopsy made his face suddenly look grim. - No mud from the flood was found in the intestines, stomach and lungs of the deceased.

sand

This means that the deceased had stopped breathing when he was washed away by the flood, so his stomach and lungs did not inhale the flood water.

So the deceased was murdered

At this moment, the body of another missing person was found. Similarly, the head of this corpse also had several depressed fractures caused by blunt force blows.

Leng Yi also conducted an autopsy on the body. As a result, no flood sediment was found in the lungs and intestines, proving that the deceased was beaten to death before sinking into the flood.

This was a horrific murder. The murderer killed Minzhuang, who was guarding the river embankment.

These two people were guarding the section of the river where the embankment collapsed. Why did the murderer kill these people?

Leng Yi didn't tell anyone about the result, and he didn't even let his wife participate. He was afraid of alerting others.

The salvage continued, and as the floodwaters in the city further dropped, more corpses were recovered. Leng Yi checked one by one and found that all of them were killed by being hit on the head with a blunt instrument.

The salvage search went on for two consecutive days, but several bodies were still missing and were probably buried in the thick mud left by the city's floods.

Almost all the water in the city has been drained. However, the whole city is devastated. Most of the wooden houses and houses have been washed away. Only a small half of the brick and tile structures have been washed away. In other words, the houses have been damaged.

, mainly common people.

The water level in the Ba River began to drop, but it still remained high. Therefore, Leng Yi arranged for Minzhuang to continue to search for defenses on the river embankment day and night. Officials sent to various counties and villages to understand the disaster situation came back one after another. Seeing Ba

The city of Zhoucheng had changed beyond recognition, and they were all surprised.

And the news they brought back surprised Leng Yi and Prefect Liao even more. - Most of the rice fields that had already been eared were damaged by the disaster in all counties in Bazhou, and most of them were destroyed by flash floods caused by heavy rains. Many villages were hit by floods.

Houses collapsed and many villagers were killed or injured.

Leng Yi immediately asked the household secretary to sort out the disaster situation, write an emergency memorial, and jointly submit the memorial with Magistrate Liao, requesting the imperial court to provide disaster relief.

While Leng Yi was busy providing disaster relief, he launched an investigation into the cases of the twenty-three bermmen who were killed. The strange thing is that since no one found any clues that night, there was no such thing as screams or digging.

The sound of the river embankment, etc., seemed as if these people suddenly fell down at the same time, and the river embankment suddenly collapsed.

There were no clues in the case, and Leng Yi was very anxious. However, there were too many things that worried him now, mainly post-disaster reconstruction issues. Many people in the city had lost their homes, had no shelter, and no food. And the rice merchants in the city

All the granaries in the city were destroyed by the flood, and even the food of large families was destroyed by the flood. As a result, a very serious problem appeared in the city, that is, lack of food.

Leng Yi had already expected this result, so he was not very panicked because he had already agreed with Bai Hong that the bounty would be paid in advance to purchase grain. He also asked Bai Hong to buy grain and wait outside Bazhou to find someone.

A trustworthy big business came forward to provide food relief on Leng Yi's behalf. However, Leng Yi looked for Bai Hong but could not find him. He only found the clerk from the Xinghuang Restaurant. After asking, he found out that Bai Hong had left Bazhou after Leng Yi looked for Bai Hong last time.

, and never came back.

Leng Yi felt anxious. Bai Hong had obviously gone to buy grain. But he never came back. This was a problem. What else was going on? Leng Yi didn't know.

The situation is urgent. People without food have begun to starve, and some have gone to the mountains to dig wild vegetables to satisfy their hunger.

After Leng Yi discussed with Magistrate Liao, because the Yamen did not have extra money to use enough grain, he summoned the big households in the city and asked them to go to nearby counties to buy grain immediately.

A few days later, the people from the big grain purchasers came back, and the news they brought back was very depressing. All the neighboring states and counties were hit by floods. Some states and counties were even more severely affected than Bazhou, and they also faced a shortage of food.

danger.

The yamen granary was built with bricks and tiles and was protected by the yamen's high walls, so it was not washed away by the flood. However, it was soaked by the flood and buried in the mud brought by the flood. Leng Yi could only organize the people to strengthen and dig it out.

In the thick mud, the flood-soaked grain was dug out from the yamen granary and sold to the people who were short of food at a fair price. Moreover, each person had a quota. However, the grain in the yamen granary was not much, and it could not last for a few days.

.

While Leng Yi was trying to raise food in various ways, Magistrate Liao called him over. Because the water level of the Ba River was still high and the danger had not been eliminated, the office of the Yamen was temporarily arranged on the city tower.

Magistrate Liao was running around anxiously in the attic. When he saw Leng Yi coming, he said anxiously: "What should I do?"

Leng Yi hurriedly asked: "What happened?"

Magistrate Liao handed an official document to Leng Yi: "To add insult to injury, it's really adding insult to injury." To be continued.
Chapter completed!