Daily Intelligence System: Don't Kill Me, Honey!

Chapter 696: Chapter 199 Chen Jiusi, don’t be ungrateful_3

”Yes, I understand.”

Si Xi immediately nodded and followed a group of people as they left.

Outside, Zhou Chu looked at Si Xi and said, ”Si Xi, why were you pulling on me just now?”

Si Xi replied while looking at Zhou Chu, ”If I hadn’t pulled you, what would you have done? Persuade the Gang Leader to give up on those towns? To build embankments to protect Xiantao Village?”

Zhou Chu said, ”Yes.”

Si Xi said, ”Old Zhou, let’s not talk about whether your idea is mature or whether it can truly stop the flood. Even if you can stop it, when you can clearly use one village to solve the flood problem, you now insist on destroying three towns...”

”So what? Xiantao Village, Xiantao Village, that’s the Gang Leader’s hometown, his relatives and friends, his family’s ancestral graves are all in Xiantao Village; are you just going to stand by and watch the flood wash away the Gang Leader’s family graves?”

Si Xi was stunned.

The ancestral grave, in this era, was of great importance, it was a person’s root.

Just like after Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he immediately marked his hometown as the Longxing Land and placed his ancestral grave in the Imperial Temple, turning it into the Imperial Mausoleum, and even assigned eunuchs and officials to guard the grave of the ancestors.

This shows the importance people of this era placed on ancestral graves.

Not to mention in ancient times, even in modern days, if you dig up someone’s ancestral grave, see if that family won’t fight you to the death.

Digging up ancestral graves, that was something one would do only if filled with hatred toward someone.

Now, if we do not block this diversion, then Chen Jiusi’s family grave would surely be destroyed, an incredibly serious matter!

Si Xi originally had many reasons to argue, such as Xiantao Village only having a few hundred people, easy to evacuate, while those three towns had thousands, and it would be impossible to evacuate them in time.

Issues like choosing the lesser of two evils, considering the bigger picture.

But when Zhou Chu brought up the Chen family’s ancestral graves, Si Xi was rendered speechless; nobody dared to take the Gang Leader’s family graves lightly. Even if he truly cared for the people, when compared to the Gang Leader’s family graves, it seemed trivial.

What was an ancestral grave? It was a blessing for the Gang Leader. If the ancestral grave was destroyed, breaking our Gang Leader’s fortune, how would one reconcile with that?

Si Xi, with a stomach full of words, found himself unable to speak. Zhou Chu then looked at him and said, ”Si Xi, I understand what you’re saying, and I know what the big picture is. If it were anywhere else, I would not hesitate to choose to destroy the village and protect the towns, but this is different; do you understand?”

Si Xi nodded quietly.

Yes, on one hand, there were the Gang Leader’s family graves, and on the other, thousands of villagers. Thinking about it, Si Xi said, ”Old Zhou, although... sigh, let’s go with your plan!”

”As for those villages and towns, try to evacuate as much as possible.”

Having heard this, Zhou Chu said, ”Hmm, that’s all we can do. I’ll donate ten thousand taels of silver for disaster reconstruction.”

”Old Zhou, you?”

Si Xi looked at Zhou Chu, who smiled wryly and said, ”Cough cough, if I’ve done wrong, I have to pay to atone for my sins.”

After saying that, Zhou Chu turned and walked away. Si Xi watched his retreating figure, feeling a rush of mixed emotions.

Meanwhile, Uncle Zhong and Liu Yishou also talked to each other in the back.

”Ah Zhong, why the long face?”

Wu Zhong said, ”This flood...”

Liu Yishou sighed, ”Sigh... a natural disaster and a man-made calamity. But Ah Zhong, you don’t need to worry. Xiantao Village is the Gang Leader’s old home, it’s the Longxing Land, and it won’t suffer the flood’s wrath; didn’t Zhou Chu just say so? They will block the dam!”

Wu Zhong replied with a bitter smile, ”But if we do that, the three towns downstream will be doomed.”

Liu Yishou said, ”That’s not our Fishing Guild’s territory, plus with the natural disaster, there’s nothing else we can do.”

Wu Zhong said, ”But if Xiantao Village is flooded, using the village as a water storage area, then those three towns could be saved, and thousands of lives will be spared.”

Liu Yishou laughed, ”Haha, Ah Zhong, stop daydreaming. Xiantao Village is of great importance to our Fishing Guild. Not to say whether the Gang Leader would agree, if people from inside the guild hear about flooding Xiantao Village, would they agree?”

”Chen Xiaohu, the head of White Tiger Camp, Chen Heng, Chen Wang, you, the madam, and hundreds of elite disciples from White Tiger Camp, you all are people from Xiantao Village!”

”Your family, friends, houses, fields, wealth, ancestral graves, are all in Xiantao Village. If given the choice, would you let the flood wash away Xiantao Village?”

Liu Yishou said, suggesting that Xiantao Village’s fate involved more than just Chen Jie; there were hundreds from the White Tiger Camp!

Their parents, spouses, were all within the range of the great flood’s reach!

Would they agree?

Even if the Gang Leader agreed, would they have no objections?

The resistance was too great!

Liu Yishou shook his head; he did not believe Chen Jie had the courage to destroy Xiantao Village in order to protect the three villages and towns downstream.

Upon hearing this, Wu Zhong was stunned. After a moment of thought, he turned back to look at the house, then turned and left. He planned to return to the village first, then discuss with Chen Erba whether to follow Jiu Si’s plan to start evacuating people.

At this moment inside the house, Chen Jie looked at the map, then circled a few places with a pen.

If these places were used as flood diversion areas, there shouldn’t be any problems, right? Sacrificing a few villages to save most of the villages and towns.

Chen Jie rubbed his temples. Once this matter was resolved, he resolved to raise the embankments in Mianshui County.

Actually, if the embankments had been heightened in advance this time, a barrier of four zhang in height would have easily handled the water level of three zhang three.

But the embankments of Mianshui County were only two zhang high, which, although capable of stopping normal floods, were clearly inadequate against an uncommon natural disaster like this.

And the traditional rulers of Mianshui had never considered raising the embankments.

With that thought, Chen Jie sighed. How short-sighted these rulers of Mianshui were. They should have constructed some large flood diversion reservoirs at these places. With such reservoirs in place for flood disasters, they could serve as flood diversion areas.