Chapter 164 God Helps Me!

The students in the academy probably woke up some people. When lightning flashed across the sky, students with good eyesight could see the residents of the house opposite climbing onto the roof with their wives and children.

Seeing that what they did was of some use, the students shouted even more energetically. He even took out bowls, basins and other objects from his classmates' dormitories and kept banging them.

Chen Heng really didn’t have much energy because of the previous struggles. Seeing that there were masters taking care of the scene, he simply sat against the wall and began to relax. Sitting on both sides of him were Xue Biao, Qian Dayou, and Jiang Yuanbai, all of whom looked wet and embarrassed.

But the joy of surviving the disaster still cheered up their mood. Everyone looked relaxed and could still exchange their views on the heavy rain in a low voice.

"The rain seems to have weakened a bit. I think they can already see things in the distance." Jiang Yuanbai paid close attention to the movements of the students and made this judgment when he heard their cheers just now.

Everyone agreed with his judgment, but they couldn't let go of their worries. Qian Dayou said worriedly: "It's better to stop. It rains heavily for a while, then it rains continuously...hey."

At the end of the sentence, he himself sighed first. Chen Heng had just borrowed some dry clothes from his classmates on the second floor. If he didn't change into the wet clothes, he was afraid that his small body would not be able to withstand the spring freeze.

There are big gentlemen all around, so there is no need to avoid any privacy. Take off your clothes and wipe yourself down a little. Chen Heng put on dry clothes and said with a smile: "It's going to rain, and my mother wants to get married, just let it be."

At this juncture, it is useless to think about anything else. If it doesn't stop raining and continues to rain like this for several days and nights, don't even think about government agencies providing disaster relief. Everyone stick two wooden boards on their bodies and dive into the water to escape.

When Xue Biao heard this, he suddenly felt that his friend was really interesting. Before the natural disaster, everyone was having fun, but Chen Heng was the most worried. Now that natural disasters are coming and everyone is worried, he is the most open-minded.

Xue Biao told others about his discovery, which immediately resonated with Jiang Yuanbai. The latter immediately clapped his hands and said: "This is probably what physiognomy says about capable people having visions."

"Don't leave." After changing his clothes, Chen Heng felt his body temperature rise slightly. He hurriedly moved in among the brothers, huddled together with everyone to keep warm, "You still praise me as Yushu Linfeng, and I am more beautiful than Pan An, which makes me happier."

"Brother Heng, don't lie to yourself." Jiang Yuanbai said with a bluffing face, then smiled to himself, "Among us, Brother Tadou is definitely the number one, and I barely ranked second. The rest. You have your own position."

Chen Heng deliberately laughed a few times, but Jiang Yuanbai was so proud that he only regarded the other's laughter as jealousy. A few people changed the topic before talking about their family members outside the city.

Let’s talk about the topography of Yangzhou. The highest topography in the city slows down from the west and north of the city to the southeast, and the waterway also flows in this direction.

Among them, Xue Biao's house is in the best area in the center of the city, and its condition should be the second best. The best thing is that he has a rich family. When his father was building the Gongyuan in the west of the city, he had already spent money to buy a house.

Knowing that Qian Dayou planned to take the college examination this year, he moved there early. I hope to be closer to Emperor Wenchang and benefit my stupid son. This stupid move brought great luck to the Qian family tonight.

Unless the flood floods half of Yangzhou, their old Qian family may be in some danger. Jiang Yuanbai's family also lived with the Qian family and took advantage of the situation to get an advantage.

The most dangerous one was naturally Chen Heng's house, but the house Chen Heng bought at that time was close to the east wall of the city. There is a moat outside. In order to ensure the flow of the moat, the Yangzhou government office also deliberately raised the foundation at that point.

Based on this calculation, the real danger is those of them trapped in the academy. When the four of them talked to this point, they were thankful that their family was fine, and they also smiled bitterly at their own situation.

"Don't be afraid, I have good water quality. If you really want to die, you lie on my back and I will take you to swim there." Jiang Yuanbai patted his chest. He had been wild since he was a child and often splashed in the river in the countryside. His water quality was very good. .

"I can't swim." Qian Dayou raised his hands with a grimace. He was the fattest. When he was a child, his family had a lot of control and he didn't have the opportunity to go to the river to play.

"Neither can I." Xue Biao spread his hands helplessly. His situation was similar to Qian Da's. He has been cared for by his servants and grandma since he was a child. How could the servants of the Xue family let the young master go to the river to have fun.

The three of them looked at Chen Heng together, who also smiled bitterly and said, "Neither can I."

Although he lives in the village, there is a pond nearby. However, Chen Heng studied early, and since he is an adult at heart, he does not want to follow the mud monkeys in the village. Naturally, I haven't learned how to get into the water.

Jiang Yuanbai was dumbfounded. After thinking for a long time, he made a gesture to get up, and said very excitedly: "I will go to their house and tear down some boards for you. You can just hold them and splash in the water."

How could Xue Biao allow him to make such a shameful move? The situation was not at such a critical stage, so he hurriedly stopped this kid with Qian Dayou.

At this time, Xu Jinhou, who was busy expressing condolences and caring for the students, was walking beside them. Seeing the four of them talking and laughing, the expressions on their faces also relaxed.

"Heng'er, thanks to you this time." Xu Jinhou already knew Chen Heng's previous actions. He didn't dare to imagine how bad the situation would be without this alert child.

"Master, this is all what I should do." Chen Heng declined repeatedly, with no intention of taking credit for it.

Some things, students don't take to heart, but he, as a teacher, must remember them. Xu Jinhou nodded and kept Chen Heng's righteous act in mind. He comforted the other three people again, and seeing that they were all in a stable mood, he went to the next student.

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Since the rainy night, Lin Ruhai has not slept well. He asked the officials of the government office to divide into two shifts and pay attention to the situation in the city day and night. After spending a day and a night in anxiety, he took a nap on the table of the government office, and was told by the officials who rushed back to the government office that the flood had entered the city.

However, the rain this time was too heavy, and in the time it took for the officials to report back. The river water pouring in from the ferry had begun to engulf the surrounding buildings.

Lin Ruhai, who woke up in a hurry, didn't care about anything else. He forced all the officials in the government office to go out in the rain, wake up the people in the city from house to house, and let them take precautions. He took other officials who stayed behind to check the disaster situation outside.

When Lin Ruhai led people to the center of the city, the rising water level had already reached their ankles. No one knew the risks of going further. The prefect and other officials who came with Lin Ruhai dissuaded the prefect from going further in.

"Sir, you can't take risks!" Prefect Zhang Shangxian desperately pulled Lin Ruhai's official robe, "Yangzhou City still needs you to take charge of the overall situation. No matter how worried you are about the people inside, you should also think about other people in the city."

Lin Ruhai knew that what the other party said made sense, so he had to choose to set up camp nearby. While watching the changes in the water level in person, he arranged people to deal with disaster relief.

Although this heavy rain came quickly and fiercely. But Lin Ruhai was not a person who would sit and wait for death. Long before the heavy rain came, he asked people to count the boatmen with small boats in the city.

These people usually travel between the city and Baobao Lake. They are very familiar with the distribution of waterways in the city and are the most suitable for rescuing people. Lin Ruhai took out the list he had prepared earlier and directly picked some boatmen who lived nearby. After calling them, he promised them on the spot that as long as they rescued one civilian inside, the government office would reward them with 20 taels of silver.

Some boatmen were brave and happy when they heard the heavy reward, while others were naturally timid. This is human nature, and Lin Ruhai will not blame the latter. He only hopes that after the former returns safely, he can give them more courage to take risks.

It was raining heavily, and there were not many things that could be done, but each one was very life-threatening. After Lin Ruhai arranged the things inside, he immediately asked people to go around from the west of the city and rush to the Huaihe River and Wuhu to observe the water level.

The river near Yangzhou had been rectified by tens of thousands of refugees as early as when Wei Yinghong was the prefect. Such a heavy rain came so suddenly. After so long, only one place in front of him was affected by the disaster. The previous efforts were not in vain.

But compared to the rain in the sky, the river on the ground is more frightening. Going up along the Huai River and Hongze Lake, there is the Yellow River, which is very familiar to people all over the world.

Needless to say, the temper of this river is not good. But it has a relationship with Yangzhou, and it has to start with Yang Guang. At that time, Yang Guang, who was determined to travel to the south of the Yangtze River, recruited millions of civilians from all over the world and built a Tongji Canal between the Yellow River and the Huai River.

Because Yang Guang led the water of the Yellow River into the Huai River, there were thousands of boats crossing the shore on the Tongji Canal, and the concubines and civil and military officials of the harem went to the south of the Yangtze River.

That would have been fine, but the Southern Song Dynasty had another prime minister named Du Chong who killed talents. In order to resist the invading Jin soldiers, he directly dug the Yellow River embankment, causing the Yellow River to flood. Not only did the Jin soldiers fail to stop them, but they also drowned 200,000 people in vain, and the number of indirect deaths caused by the flood was several times more than that.

Let alone Du Chong, who was infamous for all eternity, the Yellow River changed its course because of his actions, becoming a knife hanging over the head of Yangzhou City. As long as it is not satisfied, the river water gushing out from here will directly flood northern Jiangsu through the Huai River and the Five Lakes. Yangzhou is north of the Yangtze River, so it is naturally included.

Lin Ruhai is most worried about this place, but unfortunately he is only the prefect of Yangzhou, and he has no way to command and coordinate other prefectures. It is even more unclear whether this heavy rain will only fall in Yangzhou, or spread throughout the whole of Jiangnan, or stretch across several provinces?

He can only use this method to prepare in advance. As long as the water level reaches the warning line, Lin Ruhai will immediately mobilize the people of the city to take refuge, and he will never sit idly by and watch millions of Yangzhou people in danger.

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Drought is easier to deal with, but flood is a danger for everyone. The people of Yangzhou, who were awakened by the government officials, regardless of their wealth or status, are living in panic.

Even the salt merchants who were rich could only pray that the heavy rain would stop soon, hoping that the river management work done by Prefect Lin would be useful.

Li Bian was the most miserable one among them. His residence was close to the low-lying area in the city, and the water had already flooded the door and poured into the room. When he was awakened by his servants, Li Bian himself was also shocked.

He had just been promoted to the fifth-rank academician. It was the time when he was about to make great achievements in his life, but why was his luck so bad that he encountered bad luck one after another as soon as he came to Yangzhou.

Li Bian quickly packed up his belongings and took his servants and the master to hide on the second floor of his house. He had just escaped from the predicament, and the surging thoughts in his heart began to haunt him again.

After all, he still regretted his greed. When the prime minister arranged the academician of Yangzhou, he promised that whoever took up this position would be the next prefect of Yangzhou as long as Lin Ruhai left.

Li Bian was young and his qualifications in officialdom were not as good as Tian An. When he was competing with Tian An for the position of Yangzhou Education Commissioner, he used countless connections to snatch the position from Tian An.

As a result, Li Bian won the title in front of him. Before he could leave the capital to take up his post, he encountered the prefect of Jinling and resigned. The court held several court discussions on this, and then Tian An, a big fool, took a huge advantage.

This is so embarrassing for Li Bianqing. Naturally, he feels tens of thousands of sighs and dissatisfaction in his heart. But the deal was already done, so Gu Zaiyong had no choice but to order the two of them to complement each other. Only then did Tian and Li both go south to take up posts, and only then did Tian An cheer for Li Bian at the dock.

The past has faded away, and now Li Bian only hopes that the heavy rain will be lighter and the flood will be lower. When the crisis comes, a landlubber like him has no place to run if he wants to, and can only live and die with Yangzhou City.

Standing at the window on the second floor of his home, Li Bian repeatedly worried about the rain outside. He couldn't help lamenting in his heart: If I had known what it would be like today, it would have been better for me to have been an official in the capital and slowly polished my qualifications than to worry about it in Yangzhou. , hit the wall again and again.

The servants and masters at home saw the master walking around and simply advised him to lie down and rest. Li Bian also knew that he could not change anything, so he had no choice but to take a nap on the soft couch holding the official seal.

Half asleep and half awake, he didn't know how long it had been before he suddenly heard a burst of cheers, "The rain has lightened up, the rain has lightened up." He quickly opened his eyes and saw the gray sky outside the window, only to realize that a night had passed.

Looking at the rain again, it doesn’t look as ferocious as last night. The continuous drizzle makes people feel more at ease after all. Li Bian collapsed on the soft couch, let out a long breath, and said, "God still treats me well."

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Lin Ruhai waited all night for this opportunity. Immediately ordered all the boatmen to take the officers in to rescue people. When the water level was at its highest last night, it had already reached his knees. Lin Ruhai really couldn't imagine the scene in the center of the flood.

When these boats arrived at Leyi Academy, they saw that all the walls of the academy had been submerged. The boatman tried shouting several times inside, which immediately attracted responses from hundreds of students.

"Is there an emergency?" The officer stood at the bow of the boat and asked the children about the situation. Lin Ruhai had ordered them to give priority to treating the elderly, weak, women and children, and people trapped on the roof.

The conditions of the students are pretty good, and most of them say they are fine. He just told the officers that their mountain chief was still trapped in the small building in the back house.

This was a big shot, so the guards quickly asked the boatman to go around him. It didn't take long to pick up Pei Huaizhen and his wife.

"Chief of the mountain!"

The students were very excited to see their teacher out of trouble. Standing on the corridor in the drizzle, Pei Huaizhen couldn't help but wave and say hello to the boat.

"Kids, are you all okay?"

Pei Huaizhen was also worried all night, fearing that something might happen to the students in the academy. At this moment, I saw that they were all full of energy, and I breathed a long sigh of relief.

"Chief, we are just hungry, nothing else is wrong!"

"Xue Zheng and other masters are also with us."

"Chief, I want to eat!"

"Okay, okay, I will order someone to bring you something to eat when I get out." Pei Huaizhen agreed immediately, and the two parties exchanged a few words in the distance.

Seeing the boat carrying the mountain leader away, the students gathered together happily and counted the boats passing in front of them. Although the water level has not dropped now, the rain has lightened up after all. Everyone feels much more relaxed and no longer as nervous as yesterday.

Many students who had worked hard all night planned to go to their classmates' dormitories to catch up on their sleep before the supplies from the government were delivered.

Chen Heng and Xue Biao were among them, and they began to take a nap in the second half of the night. Now that things are getting better, sleepiness immediately arises. The two of them chose a room with few people at random. Chen Heng lay on the bed and fell asleep for a while before being shaken awake again.

Being suddenly awakened by outsiders, Chen Heng thought the situation had changed, and immediately asked anxiously: "What's wrong? Is it raining heavily again?"

The student who woke him up quickly waved his hand and said with a smile on his face: "No, no. Senior brother, your family is looking for you. Go out and have a look."

family? Chen Heng was startled at first, then realized that he had heard correctly. He quickly got out of bed and ran outside the house.

He guessed that his father and mother must have been so worried that they risked such a dangerous situation to come here. I just don’t know what means they used to overcome floods and rain.

Chen Heng trotted out and passed by a group of classmates who smiled inexplicably at him. I saw two familiar figures standing at the stairs in the corridor.

One of them is Xinda, and the other... turns out to be Zhen Yinglian.

How could it be her? !

Seeing that both of them had signs of being wet by the rain, Chen Heng stood still for a moment and said hurriedly: "Why are you two here? Are you okay at home?"

"Okay, second brother, everyone at home..." Xinda stood there before opening his mouth to explain. A beautiful figure has rushed out from behind him, bursting into Chen Heng's arms and blooming like fireworks rushing into the night sky.

"I thought something happened to you."

Zhen Yinglian cried with trembling voice. On the way from home, she was more afraid of meeting him than ever before. At this moment, seeing Chen Heng standing alive in front of him, the tense and fearful mood finally relaxed, and tears immediately fell down his face.

Before Chen Heng had time to react, the classmates around him who had been waiting to watch the excitement started making cheers and whistles. The seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy had just escaped from a catastrophe, and he could not care about the usual ethical restraints. Each one of them was even more excited than Chen Heng and kept saying to others.

"Hahaha, I just bet that there will definitely be such a scene."

"Those opera singers really didn't lie."

Someone saw Chen Heng's hands hanging at his side, and he had no intention of hugging her back, so he encouraged him and said, "Senior, hug her!"

"The beauty came to see you in the rain and water regardless of the danger. Senior, please don't let me wait and be disappointed."

"Senior, can you do it? If not, let me do it."

Today, I have a lot of things to do, and I didn't get home until 8 o'clock. I haven't had dinner since I wrote this. It's too pitiful. I ask for some tickets. Let's go to dinner by the way.