After the rain, the sky is clear and bright. Lin Xie, wearing a green official robe, stands on the slope by the river, gazing at the purple peak of Zicong Mountain across the water; these past few days, due to the disaster relief efforts, his cheeks have become sunken, thinner than when he left the river mouth.

  Zi Lang Mountain was originally called Wolf Mountain. Yang Jun, the prefect of the previous dynasty, thought the name Wolf Mountain was not elegant and changed it to Lang Mountain. Also because there are many purple rocks on the mountain, local people are used to calling it Zi Lang Mountain.

  Hu Zhiyong saw Lin Xuan looking at the distant Purple Peak Mountain and explained to him: "When I was young, Purple Peak Mountain was still an island in the river. In the previous dynasty, a monk named Jianxin crossed the sea and encountered wind and waves, so he took refuge on the mountain and stayed for several months, teaching more than ten disciples from Haizhou. These disciples built a temple on the top of the island, called Guangjiao Temple. The incense fire of Guangjiao Temple has continued for over 300 years, but because the temple was trapped in the river, it was inconvenient to travel by boat, and it received more incense offerings from fishermen along the riverbank. In recent years, the north slope of Purple Peak Mountain has accumulated silt and sand, connecting with the land, and the incense fire of Guangjiao Temple has gradually prospered. In the past two years, a large-scale construction project was undertaken, building many temples and halls from the foot to the top of the mountain..."

  Lin tied back and took a look, there were several busy figures of Guangjiao Temple monks in the disaster relief camp.

  He only had the name of assisting local disaster relief in Xisha Island, and naturally could not stop others from coming to the island to participate in disaster relief. Moreover, Guangjiao Temple was quite famous locally, so Lin Xie could only let Wu Qi's secret guards secretly monitor these monks.

  "I've climbed the mountain and passed by the temple, where there are monk soldiers. I couldn't get a clear count of their numbers, but it's not a small amount. They say it's to defend against pirates. But since Zi Lang Mountain and Jun Shan Water Fortress are right next to each other, is it really necessary to have monk soldiers?" Fu Qinghe said softly. Their high level of attention towards Chongzhou naturally allowed them to notice the abnormalities on Zi Lang Mountain early on.

  When the typhoon passed, he was in Pingjiang Prefecture and heard that the refugees on Xiasha Island had suffered a great disaster. The first thing he thought of was also to prevent the wealthy families from taking advantage of this matter. Unable to contact Lin Xie for the time being, he put other things aside and brought people directly to Xiasha Island, only to find that Lin Xie had acted faster and had been rescuing on Xiasha Island for two days.

  "Moreover, they support monk soldiers and engage in construction projects, relying solely on the incense money donated by fishermen believers. I'm afraid that even if the monks in the temple tighten their belts and save for 300 years, it still won't be enough." Lin said with a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

  The refugees stranded on Xisha Island suffered greatly, and the Xi family should have been the first to see the opportunity in it. However, Lin had not seen anyone from the Xi family appear in the past few days. Perhaps the people of the Xi family saw that they were the first to take advantage of the situation and could only hide in the dark and wait for an opportunity.

  It's easy to associate the suspicious aspects of Guangjiao Temple with Xia Jia, but there is still a lack of sufficient evidence. If that's really the case, then Xia Jia has indeed made a good calculation. When Donghai bandits launched a large-scale invasion into Yangzi River, using Ziluan Mountain as a transit point would be much more convenient than being far away in Sheshan Island, which is over 400-500 miles away.

  "The situation on this ten-mile radius of the river is indeed not ordinary...” Fu Qinghe let out a faint sigh.

  The appearance of Guangjiao Temple is suspicious and not worth mentioning.

  Zi Lang Mountain is actually five adjacent small mountains in the river, except for the main peak Zi Lang Mountain which is 35 zhang high and connected to the land on its north slope, the other four small mountains are all in the river, with heights ranging from 15-16 zhang to 22-23 zhang.

  Compared to the famous mountains and rivers in the Central Plains, Zilong Mountain is not worth mentioning. However, in Hailing Prefecture where the eyes are all low-lying and flat plains, the terrain of Zilong Mountain appears particularly rugged. The "Geography Records" says it controls the gateway of the Yangtze River and the sea, which is much more important than Xi Sha Island.

  In the south of Zilang Mountain, in the river, Junshan Island is only about three miles around and twenty-one zhang high. In the previous dynasty, a naval force was set up here, so it was named Junshan Island. Ninghai Town set up Junshan Water Fort between them, with more than 600 water camp officers and soldiers, more than 400 miscellaneous soldiers, and more than 40 warships, guarding the gate of Hailing Prefecture.

  Junshan Shuizhai Du Jian, Deputy Du Jian and the garrisoned Wu Jiang are not outsiders. Du Jian Xiao Bairong and Water Fifth Camp Commander Chen Qianhu are both Ninghai Town Vice General, Ninghai Town Water Sixth Camp Leader, Qi Duwei Xiao Taoyuan's confidant; both participated in the Chongzhou Tongzi Robbery case. Deputy Du Jian Xiao Changze is even Xiao Taoyuan's eldest son.

  Xiao Tao Yuan's intentions are clear at a glance. He had his eldest son and trusted confidants lead the elite troops to keep watch over Chongzhou, so if there was any sign of trouble, Xiao Tao Yuan could still retreat from Pingjiang Prefecture to Junshan Island and then set sail calmly.

  To say that Xiao Tao had arranged for more than half a year, the six hundred or so officers and soldiers of Junshan Shuizhai, as well as the four hundred or so miscellaneous soldiers, should also be the elite under Xiao Tao's control.

  The situation in this area of ten miles is not only complex, but can be said to be extremely dangerous.

  It was then that Hu Zhiyong realized that this sharp sword had always been hanging over the heads of the Hu family.

  "It's really unfortunate yet fortunate that the storm hit Xisha Island." Lin Mou said softly.

  Fu Qinghe knew the meaning of Lin Xie, the disaster on Xi Sha Island was truly a great misfortune for the refugees. In the past few days, they had buried more than 8,600 bodies that had drowned in the floodwaters on the island, and the number of missing persons had reached as high as 10,240 people. Such a great disaster had not occurred since the founding of the Dai Viet dynasty.

  On another day, the imperial court would have sent a special envoy to comfort such a great disaster, but this time all the dead were refugees, and the local authorities pretended to be deaf and dumb, not wanting to take responsibility. Lin Tie ordered someone to follow Chongzhou County's bookkeeper Li Shuyi to report the situation of the disaster to County Magistrate Chen Kun. After hearing about so many casualties, Chen Kun shook his head in denial: "The strong wind passed through the border, not only Xisha Island was affected, but also the entire town of Hecheng had its houses and tiles blown away, and the sea tide flooded back, causing more than 30 miles of coastal embankments to collapse. Such a great disaster, and Chongzhou County has only over 600 people drowned or missing. Calculating from this, the number of people drowned or missing on Xisha Island is at most 200-300...

  His nose was twisted with anger, it was the local government's neglect and irresponsibility that made the refugees who had no experience in preventing typhoons and sea tides suffer such a great loss. This is not only a natural disaster but also a man-made one. He wished he could drag Chen Kun, the county magistrate of Chongzhou, from the county seat to Xiasha Island with his guards.

  Just think about it and forget it. The actual disaster situation, Lin Tie can only describe in detail in the private letter to Gu Wu Chen, also taking care of Gu Wu Chen's intention, which is to make him get along with the local government; In the formal official letter, the disaster situation on Xisha Island can only be reported according to Chongzhou County.

  More than 20,000 people drowned and disappeared in the disaster, but it was finally covered up as more than 200 casualties. Isn't this a great misfortune for the victims of the disaster?

  Lin Mou and his men had no chance to intervene in the Xisha Islands, but this time with the disaster and tidal waves, local authorities shirked their responsibilities, Lin Mou happened to be passing by and took on the responsibility of disaster relief, naturally also taking control of all major and minor matters on the Xisha Islands, for them it can't be said that it's not a blessing.

  Of course, disaster relief is not an easy task. Lin Tie felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and rolled up the wide sleeves of his official robe, saying to Fu Qinghe and Hu Zhiyong: "I will take Li Shuyi to Pingjiang Prefecture to prepare for food, and everything here will depend on you. We still need to discuss many things carefully when we return..."

  Hu Zhiyong and Hu Zhicheng brothers already knew the truth about Changshan Island, for them, boarding Lin Tie's pirate ship was the only choice for the Hu family.

  Lin Mouyi was originally just a powerless juren, and in order to protect nearly thirty Tongzhou children, he had no choice but to take some extreme measures.

  In the eyes of Hu Zhiyong and Hu Zhicheng, Lin Xie could have abandoned him and gone to Beijing to take part in the imperial examination to win a higher honor, without having to bear such great risk. With his ability and talent, his future prospects in officialdom would be boundless; they felt that this matter had implicated Lin Xie instead.

  **********

  Xiao Tao Yuan closely watched Chongzhou, while Lin Xie coincidentally rescued Hu Zhicheng, Hu Qiaoyi and other relatives of the Hu family who were trapped in the river. He took advantage of this opportunity to get close to the Hu family, which would not arouse Xiao Tao Yuan's suspicion. However, Lin Xie still could not approach the families of other Chongzhou children.

  Hu Zhiyong invited some enlightened gentry from the county to come to the island to comfort the victims and donate materials. Chen Enze's father, Chen Lei, was also among them. He was always worried that too many people knowing the secret would make Xiao Taoyuan aware of the flaw. Lin Fu was also ruthless in letting Chen Enze endure the pain of avoiding him.

  The most scarce thing on Xisha Island is food, and the Haiyang Prefecture and Pingjiang Prefecture were both severely affected by the disaster. The price of grain soared, previously one catty of coarse rice was three copper coins, now it's as expensive as fine rice.

  At the same time, Jiangdong County's summer grain transport had already begun, and Sun Jingxuan and his brother Sun Jingtang accompanied the ships to escort the grain to Yanjing. Sun Jingtang's son, Sun Wenbing, helped transport 4,000 dan of grain from Jiangning as an emergency measure, but it was only enough for ten days' consumption on Xisha Island.

  Xisha Island spends two hundred taels of silver on rice and grain every day. The key to managing Xisha Island well is the windbreak and wave-proof forest. Lin Zhen resolutely prohibits the felling of the few pieces of forest that have grown up with difficulty on Xisha Island, and even charcoal needs to be transported from outside the island. In addition to other supplies, Lin Zhen has to invest four hundred taels of silver on the island every day.

  Lin Xie didn't mind the silver, the key was that most of the silver in his hands couldn't be spent openly and aboveboard, he still had to go to Pingjiang Prefecture to raise grain for disaster relief personally.

  Afraid that Li Shuyi, the bookkeeper of Chongzhou County, would cause trouble for him on the island, Lin Xing took Li Shuyi to Pingjiang Prefecture together. Before leaving, he gathered Fu Qinghe, Lin Mengde, Hu Zhiyong, Hu Zhicheng, Zhou Pu and others to discuss arrangements for various matters.

  "For disaster relief alone, 40,000 catties of grain per day on the island is sufficient. If we consider all aspects of resettlement, even 60,000 catties of grain per day may not be enough." Lin Mengde had a clear account in his mind, calculating how much labor and grain would be required.

  "There's no oil or meat, no greasy food, and the physically demanding laborers can't withstand hunger," Zhou Pu said. "Those strong men who were organized to carry coffins for burial, many of them could eat over a dozen steamed buns for breakfast. The county officials invited by Hu Dangjia looked over and almost swallowed their tongues. As for arrangements, three catties of food per person per day is conservative. After these laborers dispersed, dozens of groups came to inquire about news every day, asking if there was any work available, just so they could fill their bellies, they were all scared of hunger."

  At the beginning of the disaster relief, the most urgent task was to set up ten relief camps in Guanyintan to accommodate more than 26,000 victims. Another pressing matter was to bury the bodies in time to prevent the spread of disease. More than 2,000 able-bodied men were organized from among the victims, and Zhou Pu personally took charge of this task. Local materials were used to build twelve simple cemeteries on the island to bury those who had drowned in the disaster.

  This life is dirty and tiring, with many taboos. Lin Ge's treatment for them was to open their stomachs to eat, with little meat, muddy and rapid river water, and no big harvest from fishing downstream, but steamed buns and white rice were enough to fill their bellies.

  These refugees, the vast majority of whom were landless tenant farmers, had never experienced a life of full bellies with white rice even before they left their homes; after half a year of wandering and fleeing, they had resorted to eating grass roots and tree bark to fill their stomachs, and now at the sight of white rice, their eyes gleamed like wolves. For these few days, no one shirked from the dirty and tiring work, but rather many people hid mantou and baozi in their pockets or under their pants to bring back to their families; Lin Xiao naturally turned a blind eye to such things.

  Lin Jia knew the refugees were suffering, but he couldn't possibly feed all of them.

  Ordinary refugees were given wild vegetable porridge, two meals a day, with half a catty of rice as the fixed amount, mostly hungry and less full, just to maintain not starving; those who were organized to do miscellaneous chores ate coarse rice, with one and a half to two catties of rice as the fixed amount, occasionally with some meat; those who did the dirtiest and most tiring work naturally had the treatment of having mantou and rice to fill their stomachs.

  After the burial of the bodies was completed, in order to prevent opinions from being raised by the people of Chongzhou County, Lin Jie immediately dispersed the 2,000 strong and sturdy men who had been temporarily organized on the spot into ten relief camps.

  In fact, in addition to luck, physical fitness is also very important for survival in a major disaster. When the tide rushes in and the big waves strike, even if you can grab onto floating objects in time, you have to hold on until the tide recedes to survive. Among the 26,000 or so victims on the entire island, most were robust men and sturdy young women; the elderly, children, and people with weak bodies and illnesses drowned or went missing, a truly tragic scene.

  It's really hard to imagine how serious the situation would be if these refugees were controlled by the luxury family!

  Lin Xie knew that Zhou Pu had something on his mind that he hadn't said, he wanted to say that these refugees were all starving, what else could they do but move for a full meal?

  Things are not as easy as imagined, and now unless there is a rebellion, it is impossible to organize these refugees on a large scale.

  The local authorities in Chongzhou County would not agree, and even Gu Wudeng would not agree.

  Lin Xie and Li Shuyi, the head of the household registration office in Chongzhou County, had agreed that on this trip to Pingjiang Prefecture to purchase grain, he would select 200 people from among the disaster victims to follow him, so as not to lack sufficient manpower when they arrived at Pingjiang Prefecture. This was a relatively safe and unlikely-to-arouse-suspicion number. Li Shuyi delayed for another day to report back to Chen Kun, the magistrate of Chongzhou, before responding to Lin Xie.

  People are different, take Lin Jingzhong and Lin Mengde as examples. Even if Lin Jingzhong experiences a few more years, his ability to handle things may not be worse than Lin Mengde's, but Lin Mengde's influence is something that Lin Jingzhong can't catch up with for the time being.

  Before the chaos in Hongze Pu, Lin Jingzhong was capable and ambitious, but he could hardly gather any followers when he returned to Shanglin; Lin Mengde, although a collateral descendant of the Lin family, could rally people with one call, and it was no problem for him to gather over a hundred men for Lin Xian - this is the difference in influence and prestige.

  At this time, Lin wanted to select 200 people from the disaster victims to go to Pingjiang Prefecture to prepare for food. Some of the "Lin Mengde" type of personnel had to be selected and some of the "Lin Jingzhong" type of personnel also had to be selected. This arrangement not only made the remaining disaster victims more stable, but also enabled the 200 people to be won over in the future, so as to maximize the impact of this relief effort for a long time.

  The refugees from Xisha Island originally had no household registration information, and after the disaster, it was even more chaotic. When setting up relief camps, they were only roughly divided by location, and it was not possible to grasp the information of over 20,000 people in just one or two days.

  Lin Xie also had enough manpower, after all, there were two hundred armored soldiers who came with the ship, and more than a hundred sailors, laborers, and Hu family members. However, for disaster relief, Lin Xie used the method of self-recommendation and mutual selection to select people from among the victims. He, along with Lin Mengde, Fu Qinghe, and others, did not shirk from hard work and participated in it, seizing the limited time to contact and communicate with more victims. To achieve this, Lin Xie even bought grain at a high price from Hailing Prefecture in the early stages without rushing to Pingjiang Prefecture to collect grain.

  Lin Jie set up the disaster relief camp at Guanyintan, northeast of Xisha Island. In addition to being the closest to Chongzhou, it also overlooks Zilang Mountain and Junshan Water Village to the north. The Hu family has several hundred mu of sugarcane fields south of Guanyintan. Later, when resettling these disaster victims, it would naturally be centered around Guanyintan, which would provide a convenient opportunity for the Hu family to continue increasing their influence among the disaster victims on Xisha Island.

  To avoid suspicion, Lin Mou will withdraw all the people who belong to him on the surface in the future, leaving only those who are secretly left behind. As for controlling Xi Sha Island directly, it can only rely on the Hu family.

  If Chongzhou really wants to settle the refugees on Xisha Island, it is natural to select local gentry as Li Chang and Jia Shou to be responsible for local affairs on Xisha Island. What excuse can they use not to select Hu Zhiyong and Hu Zhicheng brothers?

  Lin Xie's relationship with the local government of Chongzhou County is definitely irreparable. He only nominally owes a debt of gratitude to Hu Zhicheng and Hu Qiaoyi, so he pulled the Hu family together to participate in disaster relief; but the Hu family still belongs to the local gentry class, and once Lin Xie leaves, they have no substantial contradictions with Chongzhou County.

  Lin Xie had Gu Wu's dust cover at this time, not to mention Chen Kun, the county magistrate of Chongzhou, even Hailing Prefecture did not dare to really tear his face with Lin Xie.

  Currently, Lin Xie is connected to Chongzhou County through local connections, apart from Li Shuyi, it's through the Hu Zhiyong and Hu Zhicheng brothers, which means that they want to create a momentum for Hu Zhiyong and Hu Zhicheng brothers as local disaster relief representatives.

  "The sugarcane fields on the island are very good," Lin said, tapping his fingers on the table board while thinking repeatedly. "We can't wait for the county government to come up with a specific plan for disaster relief and then make arrangements. If we make good use of these hundreds of acres of sugarcane fields, we will take the initiative. The craftsmen from Jiangning will arrive tomorrow. After I go to Pingjiang Prefecture, you should build a fence house first. The outer wall of the fence house also needs to be built first. Except for taking materials such as river sand and mud locally, we will purchase and transport green bricks, lime, stone ash, bamboo wood strips and other materials from Danyang. I think the foundation of the outer wall should not be less than three feet wide. I will roughly draw a diagram for you, and you can discuss and decide how to build it after the craftsmen arrive..."

  Although Xisha Island is a barren island, the land on the island belongs to official fields. Even if this is excluded, before the county government and Hailing Prefecture, Chongzhou County have not taken out specific measures for the settlement of refugees, Lin Tie cannot build a large-scale building that can accommodate 80-100 households in Guanyintan to settle refugees.

  The Hu family had a sugar workshop, and they needed to plant large tracts of sugarcane fields. They spent some money to bribe the officials in Chongzhou County to get more than 300 mu of sugarcane fields at Guanyintan. Lin Xie could also borrow the name of the Hu family to build two inner courtyard buildings on this sugarcane field first, so that they had a foothold.

  The Xisha Islands should be able to see the benefits of the disaster, but the Xisha people have not yet come forward and are still on guard. The Zilong Mountain Guangjiao Temple is suspicious in appearance, and Xiao Tao's deployment in the Junshan Water Fortress is always a threat. On the Xisha Islands, there is no solid and reliable foothold, and even if Lin leaves his strongest elite troops on the island, they will be subject to deadly attacks at any time.

  First, build the inner wall of the Hu family's courtyard, in case of emergency, hundreds of people can retreat to defend it. Once the specific plan for the settlement of refugees is released, the middle and outer walls can be expanded outside the inner wall. A large-scale enclosure with an outer layer wrapped around the middle layer and then the inner layer is like a solid fortress. The thick and heavy outer wall not only prevents bandits but also typhoons and sea tides.

  The unstable terrain of the Xi Sha Islands is also a headache, in the tidal waves and heavy rains, the natural dike is prone to collapse, and the short-term solution is to build a stone dam. Lin hopes that inside Guanyin Beach, Jiangwanzi can first build a small section of stone dam, so they have a reliable anchorage point on the riverbank, which can accommodate medium and small-sized ships.

  At this time, "Ji Yun One" and "Ji Yun Two" stopped in the middle of the river, using a small assault boat with a load capacity of only 14 or 15 tons to transport goods ashore; Dongyang was also pulled hard by manpower to the beach. Fortunately, there were many refugees gathered at Guanyin Beach, so it didn't feel particularly troublesome.

  Apart from picking some strong men from the refugees to maintain the basic order of the disaster relief camp, Lin Tie ordered Zhou Pu to lead half of the Wuwei troops to stay behind as a precaution, and temporarily left the Dongyang number to Lin Mengde, Fu Qinghe, Hu Zhiyong, and Hu Zhicheng. Lin Tie took Gao Cunxin, Ao Canghai, Wu Qi, and half of the Wuwei troops, as well as more than 200 strong men selected from the refugees, aboard the "Ji Yun One" and "Ji Yun Two" ships to go to Pingjiang Prefecture to prepare for grain.

  *****************

  P.S: Looking for red envelopes.