Repudiating a Good Wife Is Out of the Question

132. Land Desertification

Translator: Sissy That Walk

Cao Mo chuckled, “I’ve arranged officers at every depots, not only will they hand out compressed biscuits and water, but also they will educate the victims on how to provide for and help themselves. I’m sure the victims would rather go back to their hometown rather than become rebels and go into exile.”

“Brilliant!” Xiao Yugui nodded with satisfaction, but he didn’t think it was Cao Mo who came up with such a brilliant plan, he thought Xiao Yi was the actual brains behind this. Xiao Yugui blamed Xiao Yi in the heart for not telling him in time.

Xiao Yugui found quite disagreeable to the eye, he blamed Cao Mo for stealing his filial son. But Xiao Yugui dared not to show his dislike for he relied on Cao Mo for handing out the super filling compressed biscuits to the victims.

The first batch of victims walked towards Cao Mo and Xiao Yugui in the afternoon, they were from the worst-hit villages by the drought, every one of them looked sallow and emaciated. Some elders and children were sitting on the carriages carted by cows, the cows were skin and bones.

Xiao Cheng and five of his workers blended in with the crowd as Cao Mo told him, he had been sounding the villagers out along the way.

“Xiao Cheng, you told us there were several depots ahead, how come we still haven’t seen one?” asked the old village head.

Xiao Cheng used his hand to block the sun as he peered around, and he exclaimed as he saw a road sign, “Look, we are almost there! Depots! And there’s a road sign right there! I told you our Shizi Madam is truthful in speech and firm in action!”

The villagers were not well educated, but some men knew the word ‘depot’, so they all exclaimed, “Hang in there, people! There are depots ahead, Shizi Madam is handing out food and water himself, we will have a full belly soon.”

The young villagers all sped up for fear of missing out, the aged and the weak ones were falling behind.

The road sign was five kilometers away from the depot, two hundred people led the way and were received by the officers, the officers would run a basic physical check-up on the villagers and register their names while they handed out compressed biscuits.

The villagers were all disappointed on seeing the palm-sized biscuits, ‘Is this enough?’

But they were too famished to be picky, they gobbled down the biscuits only to find the biscuits were quite tasty and quite filling after gulping down some water.

Such a small biscuit yet so filling!

Soon all the villagers had arrived at the depot, Xiao Cheng took the old village head to see Cao Mo.

Cao Mo was giving orders in the tent when Xiao Cheng and the old village head showed up, Cao Mo walked to them, “Xiao Cheng, good job, and this is?”

Xiao Cheng replied with a solemn face, “This is the village head, they are from the worst-hit area, all the crops died from drought, the villagers have no other way but to flee. There were about five thousand villagers in total, but there are only four thousand who have made it this far.”

The old village head was in tears, “Shizi Madam, it’s not like we are fleeing from out hometown to make trouble, land desertification is a real problem back in our hometown, we will be starved to death if we go back!”

‘This is why they choose to go into exile, there’s no hope back home, they all don’t want to go back. Chances are their village is going through desertification, the land becomes dry, empty, and unsuitable for growing crops thus they have to move.’ Cao Mo frowned, “I’m sorry to hear that, I will see what I can do. Do you have any plan?”

“We want to become tenant peasants in the suburbs of the capital city thus we can live from hand to mouth.”

“But you can’t make it to the capital city, and I’m afraid there won’t be fields for you to become tenant peasant.” Cao Mo said in grief.

“Why? We are humans too, the emperor needs to show solicitude for us too!”

Cao Mo replied, “People need traffic permit to go to the capital city, how can you make it to the capital city without traffic permits?”

The old village head slumped down on the ground and wailed bitterly.

“Please don’t get agitated, I’m sure we will figure something out.” Cao Mo didn’t have the heart to see this old man weeping like this.

Cao Mo supported the old village head up, “Settling down somewhere else isn’t a bad idea, I will report this first and see what the government says. I will inform you as soon as I hear back from the government. Xiao Cheng, take the village head to get his food and water first.”

Xiao Cheng nodded and left with the old village head.

Another batch of victims had arrived, the officers worked so hard to hand out food and appease their complaints. Some victims tried to falsely claim more food and pick a quarrel, the officers flog them in public as a warning to others.

The well-fed villagers were arranged to head off to the next depot, they found they were on the way back to their hometown instead of the capital city.

The officers explained, “The government has already sent people to their hometown to dig wells and combat drought, they don’t have to go to the capital city to make a living.”

Some victims were doubtful, they even tried to plunder the compressed biscuits, luckily they were suppressed by Xiao Yugui’s subordinates.

Cao Mo’s plan worked, the victims were appeased and they were not in a rush to march towards the capital city.

… …

Xiao Yugui arrived at the government courier station in Pinglin Town this night, he needed to freshen up immediately because he was covered with sand despite he stayed in a carriage the whole day.

A servant delivered Xiao Yugui a letter when he was about to have dinner, it was from Cao Mo. Cao Mo said desertification was a main reason that a large number of villagers decided to go into exile, he said the villagers had to settle down in the west and he hoped the government could combat desertification before it was too late.

Xiao Yugui was quite informed, he knew Cao Mo had made a pointed remark, but he also knew how challenging the problem was, “To combat desertification? Easier said than done! There won’t be this many refugees every year if it’s that easy.”

But Xiao Yugui agreed with ‘to settle the villagers down in the west’ considering how vast the west was, he didn’t mind where Cao Mo has in his mind, as long as he could stop the villagers from marching towards the capital city.

Xiao Yugui pulled a long face on seeing how Cao Mo said he suggest the government spent a few decades to combat desertification, ‘this is a thankless task!’