The weather in Jiangnan is very different than that in the Central Plains. Take the early summer season for example. Not only is the climate much hotter than when I was in the capital, but the rain is also more abundant, especially after entering the plum rain season in mid-May, it is even more stuffy, hot and humid. In addition, a heavy rain comes from time to time, which makes Li Ling and others who are not used to the climate here feel very distressed.

There are no air conditioners or dehumidifiers for later generations at this time, so Li Ling and the others felt that they were making saunas every day, and they didn’t know how much sweat they had to wipe off during the day. They could only fan the air with a fan and tell themselves that their hearts were calm and naturally cool.

Fortunately, while the weather was fine, the county government had asked craftsmen to renovate and repair the leaks in various houses. Finally, there was no need to worry about being disturbed by wind and rain. This made Li Ling no longer have to worry about whether Yue'er would suffer from the wind and cold again, so he put his whole heart into various official duties.

After working hard for many days without gaining anything, even Li Ling could only shift the focus of his work from the Fang family and put it back into more county affairs. As the magistrate of Huating County, Li Ling's responsibilities are also quite heavy.

The county magistrate of Dayue in later generations was equivalent to the combination of local county (city) presidents and secretary, plus the tax bureau chief, court president, and public security bureau chief... It can be said that he alone served as the top leaders of many departments in later generations. This power is indeed great enough, but the daily affairs need to be handled much more than imagined. Just the various official documents sent to the desk every day have reached dozens of copies.

As the plum rainy season enters and the flood season arrives, local officials here in Jiangnan have another major event of inspecting river defense to prevent the breaking of dams. In this way, Li Ling has to take a few days to check many important river sections inside and outside the county town in the past few days to confirm that the dam is high and reliable enough, and the water level is still under the warning line.

This matter is a great test for any local official. It not only tests their physical fitness after studying, but also tests his judgment, patience and care. After all, there is no small matter. As long as there is an inappropriate situation, hundreds of innocent casualties will be caused. This consequence is not something that a small county magistrate can bear, and even Li Ling can't do it.

So since he started patrolling the river, Li Lingzhen was determined to hit the ground. Even the affairs of the Fang family were thrown aside by him. Then he handed over many affairs in the county vassal to the two assistant officials and the most trusted Xu Sen. He himself took Li Moyun and others out early and returned late every day, and measured the Huangpu River passing through the county town with his feet to ensure that there was no omission in the embankment here.

Judging from the results of the inspection after a few days, the river embankment in Huating County is quite reliable. Not only is it tall and thick, but the materials are also very exquisite. They are all built with stones and mixed with yellow mud mixed with glutinous rice water. Even if you have a thousand pounds of force on your head, you may not be able to hurt the dam at all.

"Okay! This embankment is strong enough, even a word of solidity is not an exaggeration." Li Ling stood by the river embankment and slapped the embankment more than half a person high and praised.

This made the local people who accompanied him to patrol the river embankment relieved and said with a hurried smile: "Mr. County Master said that this embankment is the most solid line of defense in Huating County. Even if it is placed in other big cities, it will not be too bad. It is enough to protect Huating County."

"Haha, that's true." Li Ling nodded with a smile, and then patted the thick embankment hard. "I just heard from someone that this embankment has been built for a few years. It should have cost a lot of money at the beginning?"

"It didn't cost much money. It was all the materials provided by the county government. As for the manpower, in addition to us villagers, there were also two or three thousand people serving in the county. Only when the county government launched the operation can the embankment be built quickly." This time, the answer was not the rural eldest son in his thirties, but a farmer who was older, forty or fifty years old.

Originally, these ordinary people were trembling in front of County Magistrate Li, but after a few days of getting along, they found that Lord Li was very casual, without any airs, and liked to make fun of others, so they relaxed today and no longer had any worries when answering.

A strange thing flashed in Li Ling's eyes. He had seen the city walls of the county town many times. The guy was damaged and was different. Obviously, this is a major manifestation of the loss of power in the county government and the inability to allow the people in the city to serve and do things. Why did the matter turn upside down when it came to the river bank?

This cannot be explained by the fact that the river embankment is far more important than the city wall. After all, the river embankment blocks floods, but the city wall also blocks the possible thieves or beasts. Also, with Xu Gong's timid and cowardly personality, it is impossible to make such a decision, and no one will listen to it if he does...

Thinking of this, he suddenly turned a thought: "When was this river bank built?"

"It's almost ten years..." After looking at each other, the elderly man just replied.

"It's been ten years. At that time, the river embankment that Ren County Magistrate led everyone to rebuilt. I remember clearly that Ren County Magistrate took the lead in jumping into the river despite his bad health. With this example, what else do we men have to think about? They went into the water and drove piles and stones without any hesitation."

"I remembered this... County Magistrate Ren is a good official. Like County Magistrate Li, he has no airs and is willing to talk to us muddy legs. He also said something, "Leading the dike will last for a hundred years..."

Someone raised his head, and many older villagers also agreed, talking about how big the scene was when the embankment was built, how hard the county magistrate was, and how hard he worked and led everyone to work day and night, so that this embankment became a solid line of defense to protect the entire Huating County.

In the end, one person sighed: "What a pity, such a good official actually got an acute illness due to fatigue, and died of illness in our Huating County... If the Xu family hadn't stopped him, we would have probably had an extra ancestral hall in our city to commemorate Ren Magistrate."

"Yes, County Magistrate Ren is a rare good official. It would be great if he was still here..." Another person said with emotion, and then he was tugged by the villagers beside him. Then he remembered that the young man who was easy to talk to was the current county magistrate of this county. It was really inappropriate to say this.

Then, everyone reacted, with a look of fear and fear. They looked at County Magistrate Li, but saw him silent and thoughtful. Now everyone became more and more uneasy. The chief of the there quickly apologized: "Sir, don't listen to these guys' nonsense. You are sincerely admired and respected the county magistrate..."

"Yes, yes, the county master is also a rare good official. We just want you to stay in our Huating and lead us to a good life of prosperity..."

Everyone looked for repairs, but as they were talking, Li Ling still did not respond, and just lowered his head and thought about something. This scared them. After a moment, everyone knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly: "Sir, please forgive me, young people, you said the wrong thing. Please forgive me."

Their quarrel finally pulled Li Ling out of his thoughts. Seeing this, they were shocked and quickly helped him up and knelt in front of him: "What are you doing? Get up quickly! You did nothing wrong, so how could I blame you for no reason?"

Seeing this, the village chief breathed a sigh of relief and smiled apologized: "It was me who said the wrong thing too much, which made the county magistrate unhappy..."

"There is nothing. I just thought about the past and I was a little distracted and there was no point in blaming you. You are right. If an official does a good thing that is beneficial to the people, the people will naturally remember him. Ten or twenty years, even if a hundred years have passed, you will all grow old. As long as the river bank is still there, the county magistrate will always live in the hearts of our Huating people."

Seeing that Li Ling said this, everyone finally calmed down and stood up one after another, but they didn't dare to say anything else.

Li Ling continued to walk along the river embankment to ensure that there was no accident. He smiled and nodded until he confirmed that there was no problem with the entire embankment: "It seems that you have been spending a lot of time on the river embankment in the past few years, otherwise the river embankment would not be as strong as this ten years later."

"This is what grass-roots should do..."

"Well, since that's the case, I'll be relieved. The village chief, I'll leave this river bank to you. This year's flood season is in front of you, and there is no need to lose it. As long as you do this, after the flood season, I will definitely reward you on your merits!"

"The people of Cao are obeying the orders of Lord and will definitely be optimistic about the dam this year."

"Okay, then everyone will disperse, well, you stay." Li Ling waved his hand and let the villagers who had followed him for several days disperse, and finally pointed to the elderly who mentioned the matter of Ren County Magistrate's dike repair just now, and kept him.

This person was obviously a little nervous, but he still stayed as he said. It was not until the others were far away that Li Ling looked at him: "It seems that you still know a lot about what happened ten years ago. I have some questions to ask for."

Seeing that the county magistrate just asked about his past events, the man finally felt relieved: "I dare not say anything to ask for advice. If you have any questions, just ask me."

"Why did the county magistrate make this decision at the time? The river bank is not easy to repair, and Huating is not rich. How did he raise the supplies? Also, what was the attitude of the Xu family and the Fang family at that time?"

"Grandpas, the villain is not in the county town, so the specific situation is limited. However, it is said that the magistrate Ren did withstand a lot of pressure before forcibly starting to build the dike. At that time, many people in the yamen objected, but they were all suppressed by the magistrate Ren. As for the supplies, I heard that in addition to the part of the county yamen warehouse, there were also some of them produced by the Fang family. They were big businesses, so it was still easy to get a lot of supplies."

Li Ling nodded thoughtfully: "Will anyone in the yamen support Ren County Magistrate's decision to repair the dike?"

"This... it seemed like there was no yamen at that time. Except for a clerk, it seemed that he had always helped the county magistrate keep the accounts and so on, which was very important."

"Oh, who is this person?"
Chapter completed!