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  Cold rain, pouring fiercely on the ground during the day, stopping at dusk, with some raindrops still falling.

  For 8 years in autumn, Jiangdong Weiyang Prefecture Baisha County could not get rid of such heavy rain.

  Innumerable houses collapsed in the torrential rain, and the accumulated water on the streets of the county town could be navigated by boat. In early September, even a section of the south wall of the county town was washed away by the flood, revealing a large ugly breach. For the past two days, the sky has slightly stopped raining, allowing Baisha County to catch its breath. However, there is accumulated water everywhere, and it will take some time for the water to drain out. The Baishui River outside the county town has also become a hanging river, with the floodwaters almost overflowing the riverbank; if not for the fact that Qinghe Town in the north had breached its banks over ten days ago, it is likely that the county town would have been inundated by the waters of the Baishui River.

  The disaster relief camp was set up on the Tomb Hill inside the river dike outside the city. The hill is a earth mound, over ten zhang high, shaped like a giant tomb without a tombstone, also known as Wò Méi Shān (Sleeping Eyebrow Mountain). There are no trees or grass, its all bare and the locals are used to calling it Tomb Hill.

  A tall young official, wearing a black hat and a green robe with a round collar, also disregarding the muddy road under his feet, walked towards the tomb of Kunlun Mountain where the disaster relief camp was located.

  The official arrived at Baisha to provide relief, causing a commotion among the crowd. Many shabbily dressed refugees swarmed around: "Now that Lord Dong has come, theres hope." "The great lord wont let us starve to death." "Who is Lord Dong? It was him after all."

  Young official is Dong Yuan, the prefect of Weiyang Prefecture. He has a reputation for being powerful and the people respectfully call him "Prefect". When the She family rebellion swept through eastern Fujian, Dong Yuan was the chief clerk of Xianxia County in northern Fujian. The rebel army came to attack, and the original county magistrate of Xianxia was incompetent, only thinking about surrendering the city and preserving his own life. Dong Yuan gathered the officials and citizens to lock up the county magistrate, close the city gates, and defend against the rebels, blocking their way into western Zhejiang. The She family rebel army besieged the city for over a month but failed to capture it, so they lifted the siege and left. Later, Dong Yuan served under Li Zhuo, the Minister of War and Governor-General of Fujian, and achieved many military merits. The She family rebellion in eastern Fujian had been going on for many years and was difficult to completely pacify. The imperial court and Li Zhuo, who was responsible for suppressing the rebellion in southeastern China, both had the idea of appeasing the She family. Dong Yuan disagreed with this view, so he left the military camp and returned to his civilian post. This spring, he was transferred to Weiyang Prefecture as the prefect.

  It had cleared up for a few days, but at dusk there were still some raindrops floating in the sky. Dong Yuan walked quickly and didnt mind the tiny raindrops falling on his face. Bai Sha County Magistrate Ding Zhi Ru and Dong Yuans colleague in East Fujian, Gao Zong Ting, followed half a step behind.

  "When will the second batch of grain allocated by Jiangning arrive?" asked Dong Yuan. The Weiyang Prefecture was not only affected in Baisha County, and the grain money needed for disaster relief had to be allocated from Jiangning, which was left in the capital.

  This morning, Taizu founded the foundation in Jiangning, and after the event, he made Jiangning the capital; During the Taizong period, to resist the Eastern Hu and other alien tribes in the north, the capital was moved to Yanjing Prefecture, and Jiangning was left as a reserve capital. Jiangning still retained the six departments, the Imperial Academy, the Hanlin Academy and other central government agencies, nominally equal to the six departments and three academies of Yanjing, but with much less actual power. Because Taizus tomb, Zhao Mausoleum, is in Jiangning, people also call the idle officials assigned to Jiangning as "Tomb Guardians". Even so, Jiangning Prefecture has been the center of politics, military affairs and economy in the southern part of the empire for over 200 years.

  Ding Zhi Ru said: "I just received a swift horse messenger, the disaster relief grain was loaded onto ships in Jiangning last night, and is expected to set sail at noon today. It should arrive here by tomorrow morning."

  "Alright. How is the disaster situation?"

  "For many years, the rivers within the territory have not been properly maintained. With heavy rainfall, weve been receiving reports of dike breaches for days on end. Although the rain has stopped in recent days, the floodwaters have yet to recede, and I fear that the number of casualties will not be less than 10,000. Whats worrying is that the water levels of the White River and the Yangtze River outside may take some time to drop, and the big dike is not as solid as gold - this is what were worried about now..."

  Dong Yuan fell silent for a moment, then said with hatred: "Bandits! After years of peace and prosperity, they dont know how to be vigilant. The counties of Baisha are flooded, the areas of Hailing and Chongzhou are affected by the tidal wave, and pirates have taken advantage of the chaos to land and join in the looting... Now, even the county school in Chongzhou has been robbed..." After saying these frustrating things, Dong Yuan couldnt help but sigh and shake his head in front of his subordinates and old friends. He flung out his sleeve and ordered Ding Zhi-Ru to repair the dikes: "At this time, repairing the dikes is also not possible, we can only wait until winter... Send more people to guard the dangerous dikes, and let those who can be evacuated from under the dike evacuate first. Those refugees who cannot be accommodated here should be dispersed to Wei Yang City. You must carefully consider the post-disaster relief work in the county, and bring me a plan..."

  "Roger."

  Dong Yuan, Ding Zhi Ru, and Gao Zong Ting were discussing disaster relief matters while walking towards the mountain top. On the other side, there was a pavilion from which they could gaze out at the Baishui River.

  Although the rain is still falling from the sky, the horizon is a vast expanse of clear blue. Standing in the pavilion on the mountain top, looking far into the distance, the autumn evening sun glows with a deep red light, as if infused with blood, suspended in the azure sky. The surface of the White Water River outside the embankment stretches out endlessly, its clear waves tinged with crimson.

  At this moment, a wisp of ethereal and light music drifted from the direction of the ferry terminal, and the surrounding commotion seemed to suddenly quiet down in response to this sudden sound.

  Dong Yuan followed the sound of the guqin down to the foot of the mountain, where several small boats were moored outside the embankment. Among them, a colorful painted boat was particularly eye-catching, and the sound of the guqin seemed to be coming from it, as ethereal as heavenly music. Many refugees in tattered clothes sat on the stone embankment of the Shi Raozi River, entranced by the sound of the guqin; they looked like tiny ants from afar. There were also several fishing boats surrounding a simple temporary ferry terminal, as if they had come specifically for the sound of the guqin.

  Dong Yuan stood still for a moment, his brow slightly furrowed as he asked, "Who is playing the piano?"

  "Jiangning famous courtesan Su Meis boat has been moored here for many days." reported Ding Zhiru.

  "Shes not in Jiangning, what is she doing here?" Dong Yuan had also heard of Su Meis reputation, knowing that she was a famous songstress in Jiangning City, beautiful and talented, and was quite popular among scholars, officials and nobles. He wondered why she would leave Jiangning and appear in the territory of Weiyang Prefecture at this time.

  "Du Rong returned to his hometown for his fathers 60th birthday celebration and invited Su Mei to accompany him back to Wei Yang to add to the festivities..." reported Ding Zhi Ru.

  Upon hearing Du Rongs name, Dong Yuan slightly furrowed his brow, flared his nostrils, and breathed heavily, his expression showing disdain for this person.

  Gao Zongting said: "The Xue family has the intention to surrender, except for Yanjing, there are also many people on this side of the capital who are active and making momentum for the Xue family. Du Rong is one of them. Someone checked the book and reported that Du Rong privately communicated with pirates, and Li Shuai also ignored it..."

  Ding Zhis eyes looked elsewhere, and he, a small county magistrate, did not dare to comment on court politics. Dong Yuan was notorious for his bad temper, and even dared to argue with Li Zhuo, the Minister of War in Jiangning and Governor-General of East Fujian, who appreciated his talent but disliked him as a person, so he simply transferred him under the table.

  Dong Yuan snorted: "In recent years, the pirates in the East China Sea have been rampant, and the Xie family cant escape their relationship - if there were no pirates to help them, Li Shuai would have long since swept away Dongfu, why bother with such a despicable act?"

  "Im afraid that after the surrender of the Xie family, they will become even more arrogant." Gao Zongting sighed again, "Before I came to Yangzhou, I stayed in Jiangning for a few days. The scholars of the Xixi Academy also openly agreed with the Xie familys request to surrender. It seems that the court has already made up its mind to appease General Li."

  "These bookworms, who claim to be elegant scholars, only know how to talk big!" Dong Yuans words were quite impolite, but his tone was also somewhat helpless. He was just the governor of Weiyang, and he couldnt influence the politics in the imperial court. Moreover, it was because he had disagreed with others on the matter of Shi Chongguis surrender that he had been kicked out to Weiyang.

  Are they just a group of bookworms? Ding Zhi thought to himself, looking at the painting on the embankment outside Xixi Academy. The Shi familys surrender and enfeoffment would not only leave them with nearly 10,000 elite soldiers but also allow them to join forces with the pirate factions in Donghai, making them a regional lord; they would remain a threat to the imperial court in the southeast. However, the court was preoccupied with the war against the Eastern Hu people in the north and urgently needed to redeploy elite troops and strong generals from the southeast to reinforce the northern defenses. Accepting the Shi familys surrender was also a given. Of course, there were also concerns about Li Zhuos intentions to rebuild his military strength. The most important reason was that over the past decade, the cost of suppressing the Shi familys rebellion in Dongming had been staggering, with military expenses and troop deployments amounting to tens of millions of taels of silver, leaving the imperial courts finances increasingly strained.

  Ding Zhi Ru saw Dong Yuans eyes looking at himself, and not wanting to continue the conversation with Gao Zong Ting, he smiled and said other things: "Su Mei passed through Baisha County and saw that the flood was severe and the refugees were pitiful. After returning from Weiyang, she stopped her boat outside the river dike and performed for charity. The wealthy people in the county could board the ship to listen to music, songs, and plays, and all the money and goods obtained were donated to help the refugees; Du Rong also joined in the fun and promised that if Su Mei performed in Baisha for ten days, he would donate a thousand taels of silver - this is already the eighth day...". Seeing Dong Yuan looking at the direction of the transmission piano painting boat, he flattered: "If the master has the interest to listen to music, I can send someone to invite Miss Su Mei to come ashore and help with the wine excitement."

  Dong Yuan shook his head and said: "Refugees are all over the place, we are in a high hall elegant room drinking wine listening to the zither, what kind of moral integrity is this?"

  Ding Zhi Ru saw that Dong Yuans expression was not resolute, and said: "I actually have other thoughts, I hope the lord wont mind; I really want to ask the lord to praise Su Meis disaster relief efforts..." Seeing Dong Yuan didnt say a word and turned to follow Gao Zongting down the mountain first, he thought that he had accepted his explanation, and smiled to himself: Who doesnt like beautiful women? He saw a yamen runner standing not far away, beckoned him over, and while following Dong Yuan into the city, instructed the runner to invite Su Mei to attend the evening banquet and help with the festivities.

  Zao Yi Ya Cha was a stout man with thick eyebrows and narrow eyes. He received the order and walked down the mountain towards the riverbank.

  The original ferry had long been submerged in the river, and a simple dock was built on the outside of the dike with pillars driven into the riverbank and planks laid flat. At this time, it was also half-submerged in water. The pleasure boat was tall and large, and after the water level of the White River rose, its gunwale would be higher than the wooden dock by a big margin; even the tall and imposing constables could not see over the top when standing on the dock. The ladder at the bow of the boat had been pulled up, and the constable couldnt see the situation at the bow, nor did he want to climb up in a sorry state, so he pointed to a nearby awning boat and asked the boatman to punt it over; the awning boat was one margin higher than the dock and one margin lower than the pleasure boat, borrowing a foot from the awning boat was better than climbing onto the pleasure boat with all fours.

  The black-clad official had just jumped onto the bow of the awninged boat when a young servant in green clothes suddenly emerged from the cabin, and the two nearly collided. The black-clad official was startled and cursed: "Youre trying to scare me to death! Your familys good-for-nothing young master has come back to life, and even scared the mourning woman we invited into a coma... You damned thing, do you want to scare me to death too?"