The Wealthy Eldest Sister Rules Supreme

Chapter 604: Chapter 591: Praying for Rain

However, this situation where the old, weak, women and children had to join the fight also led to an increase in sudden accidents.

Today, a child from a family slipped and accidentally fell into the river. Luckily, many people around were fetching water and some were skilled swimmers, and they were able to rescue the child in time.

Tomorrow, a man from another household may faint from dizziness due to carrying water all day without any breaks for meals. He might hit his head on the stones by the river. If no one carrying water nearby saw him and rushed to save him, he might not be saved.

…

The chiefs of several villages were anxious and utterly stressed over these incidents.

However, no matter how worried or downtrodden they were, it didn’t help with the drought situation. What everybody could do was rise early and go to bed late, fetching and pulling water from the river, helping to irrigate the fields together, to ensure the autumn crops could be planted smoothly.

Even with these efforts, facing the scorching sun day by day, relying solely on carrying water manually was not enough to resist the drought.

In a short time, sighs and lamentations are heard among people in every farmer’s household.

Somehow, someone mentioned the drought situation in Lu, sparking off fervent discussions on how terrible the drought in Lu was, the number of fatalities, and how many people have had to abandon their homes and seek refuge in other places.

Anxiety began to spread gradually from one household to another, from one village to another, from town to town, like a wild gust of wind blowing across more than half of the county town.

Most people were worried and fearful, while others took advantage of the situation to hoard supplies, hiking up the price of grains to make profits.

Xu Zhengping, in his fury, apprehended a few examples and paraded them on the streets of the county town in order to serve as a lesson to others.

Those with ulterior motives, seeing Xu Zhengping’s approach, dared not stir any more trouble for the time being. This brought relative peace into the county town.

However, despite the peace, fear remained high amongst the common people and even showed signs of intensifying.

Right at the time when the weather was gradually becoming harsher and the common people more fearful, a gigantic structure was erected beside Enji Village.

This tall, round object was one that they had never seen before. Moreover, it was erected beside the river, and crucially, personnel from the County Government Office came forth to set it up. The villagers of Enji came to marvel, surrounded it and point here and there, all wondering what this thing actually was.

“What in heaven’s name is this thing I’ve never seen anything like it…”

“I don’t know, it looks quite bizarre. It’s shaped like a cartwheel, but I’m not sure if it can move.”

“I reckon it can move. When they were setting it up just now, I saw it shake a little.”

“If it can move, would it be like a genuine cartwheel?”

“If it were a cartwheel, why would they put it in the water? You hardly expect someone to ride a carriage in the water, right? Only boats can be driven in water, not carriages!”

“Hey, do you think… this contraption… could it be used for praying for rain?”

“It’s hard to say, didn’t Zhuang Qingning used to kill demons? She might have some tricks up her sleeve. I wouldn’t rule out rain prayers.”

“Exactly. Zhuang Qingning is really capable. If she can pray for the rain to come, that would be a huge help.”

“…”

After the discussion, everyone agreed that this object must definitely be a tool Zhuang Qingning uses to pray to heaven for rain. They even discussed whether they should bring some offerings to show their sincerity to heaven.

Being mostly unfamiliar with religious rituals and not wanting to offend the heavens any further, they approached Zhuang Qingning to inquire what they should bring along from home.

“Go home and bring what?” Zhuang Qingning was momentarily taken aback by their query.

“Yes, what should we prepare? Should we bring an incense burner and altar table, or some rice cakes and pastries?” An elderly woman asked.

A young woman chimed in, “They say big offerings are needed for autumn rain prayers. If things don’t work out, we could slaughter our pig and bring the pig head as an offering?”

“No…” Zhuang Qingning was even more confused, “Why would you bring those here?”

“Aren’t you praying for rain? If you’re praying for rain, surely we should prepare some offerings; Miss Zhuang, we all know you’re kind and always considerate towards us, not wanting us to waste money and taking on all responsibilities yourself during hard times. But you must listen to us this time; you can’t do everything on your own. Everyone has to contribute so that heaven can see our sincere hearts, and then we could have rain.” The young woman advised earnestly.

Having heard this piece of advice, Zhuang Qingning finally understood their misunderstanding and laughed, “Actually, this tool is indeed to obtain rain, but we don’t obtain this rain by praying to heaven, but by relying on ourselves.”

“Relying on ourselves?”

The villagers who had asked Zhuang Qingning what offerings to bring were now befuddled, not comprehending what was going on.

“You’ll understand when you see it.” After saying this, Zhuang Qingning walked over to the pedal connected to the waterwheel.

Naturally, Chu Jinnian stepped on the other pedal.

“Get ready…Begin!”

At Zhuang Qingning’s command, she and Chu Jinnian held on to the horizontal bar in front of them and started to pedal vigorously. As they alternated their pedaling, the massive waterwheel began to rotate, and the sloping buckets on the wheel filled up with water from the river. As the waterwheel turned, they moved the water to the other side, where it subsequently poured down through the set up bamboo pipe, flowing into the prepared ditch next to it. The water then followed the ditch gradually flowing into the rows of trenches in the adjacent farming field.

Once a trench gathered enough water, they blocked it off allowing the water to continue flowing to the next trench…

This method allowed for a large water flow at a high speed, and only required two people to pedal.

If several people took turns pedaling like this, water could continuously flow from the river to the field trenches, and those crops dying from the drought could be saved. In a short time, they could irrigate the entire field.

The villagers stared in disbelief, their astonishment soon turned into cries of joy and sighs of relief.

“What is this thing called, it’s so useful!”

“Indeed, this is way better than carrying water bucket by bucket!”

“Exactly! It doesn’t even require many people; only around a dozen young laborers working in turns would do. Even if we were to pay wages to these workers from each household in our village, it would still be worthwhile.”

“No wonder Miss Zhuang said earlier we need to depend on ourselves to make it rain. So, this is what she meant. Hey, Miss Zhuang, could you tell us what this wonderful thing is actually called?”