Traveling through the busy farmland of a peasant girl

Chapter 234: Resettlement of Disaster Victims

After everyone was settled in the county government office, they hurriedly ate a few mouthfuls of food and then anxiously followed the government officials to the front line of disaster relief.

The cold wind after the snow blew like a knife, blowing into people's collars, but everyone knew that every moment of delay might lead to more lives being swallowed up by this ruthless snow disaster.

The streets were in shambles, with collapsed houses everywhere and the grief-stricken cries and shouts of survivors echoing from time to time among the rubble.

Those people who managed to crawl out of the ruins were all ragged and their faces were filled with fear and despair.

There was a young child, clinging tightly to the corner of his mother's tattered clothes, his lips trembling from the cold, his eyes full of helplessness and fear;

A white-haired old man, leaning on a crutch made of a tree branch, was staggering in the cold wind, tears streaming from his cloudy eyes, and he was muttering about his home buried in the snow.

The porridge stall was built with great difficulty with the concerted efforts of everyone.

Shen Li walked over quickly. When several busy servants saw her, they stopped what they were doing, bowed respectfully to her, and then went back to their work.

Shen Li saw that in order to make these pots of thick porridge, the hands of the servants in charge of cooking the porridge were all burned red, and some even had blisters, but they simply dipped their hands in cold water and continued to stir the porridge in the pot, for fear that the wrong heat would affect the quality of the porridge.

The firewood nearby was piled up like a small mountain, but in this cold weather, the firewood was consumed very quickly. The servants had to run to the distant woodshed again and again to carry it. They were so tired that they were panting, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down their foreheads and instantly condensed into frost in the cold air.

On the other side, Zhao Lin and several guards were also working hard to set up the tent.

The logs cut from the mountain were thick and heavy. They carried them on their shoulders and walked with difficulty in the snow, one foot deep and one foot shallow, leaving a deep snow pit with every step.

The snow on the mountain was several feet thick, and if they were not careful, they could slip and get injured, but no one backed down.

When they were fixing the bracket with ropes, their fingers were numb and stiff from the cold, and it took a lot of effort to tie a knot, but they still gritted their teeth and completed each step meticulously.

It was particularly difficult to fix the thin wood on the top of the tent. The howling cold wind almost blew the newly put up wood down. They could only hold it down tightly together and reinforce it repeatedly with ropes. Their hands were rubbed until they were bleeding, but no one had time to cry out in pain.

Soon, several policemen arrived with straw mats. These mats had become wet and heavy from being dragged through the snow. The policemen were so tired that they could barely straighten their backs, but they still tried their best to move the mats into the shed and lay them out.

After the porridge shed and tents were ready, Shen Li began to help arrange the victims to line up for porridge.

She shouted loudly, trying to bring order to the chaotic crowd: "Fellow villagers, don't worry, line up properly, everyone can get porridge and have a place to shelter from the wind and snow!"

However, hunger, cold, and fear had caused the victims to lose their minds, and the queue remained chaotic. Shen Li was anxious, constantly moving among the crowd, comforting the emotional victims and patiently explaining the process and importance of order in collecting porridge.

An old woman was pushed to the ground by the crowd because of her frailty. Shen Li hurried over, helped her up with great effort, took off her cloak and put it on the old woman, and said softly: "Grandma, don't worry, take your time."

Thanks to Shen Li's efforts, the team finally became somewhat orderly. The victims moved forward slowly and orderly, one by one, to receive bowls of steaming life-saving porridge.

After arranging the porridge distribution, Shen Li went to the tent area again. She found that some disaster victims were afraid of missing out on the porridge distribution and did not dare to enter the tents to avoid the wind and snow. They were still shivering in the cold wind.

Shen Li persuaded them one by one: "Everyone go in and warm up first. There will always be porridge. Don't catch a cold." Her voice became hoarse from shouting for a long time, but she still did not stop.

A little child started crying because he was cold. Shen Li held him in her arms with heartache, walked into the tent, found a relatively warm corner to sit down, and gently coaxed him until the child stopped crying and fell asleep.

Shen Li was busy working with other yamen runners to distribute some simple cold-resistant items to the victims in the tents, such as worn quilts, hay, etc., to make them feel as warm and comfortable as possible.

Throughout the disaster relief site, everyone was fighting tenaciously against the severe weather, heavy tasks and exhausted bodies. Despite the numerous difficulties, everyone had only one belief in their hearts, which was to do their utmost to help these disaster-stricken people survive this devastating disaster, even if it was just to give them a little warmth and hope.