The difficult year that Qing'an County had just endured showed no signs of relief in the new year.
Despite driving away the Marauder Army, not a drop of rain fell throughout the winter.
After spring began, the Qingshui River completely stopped flowing, leaving the riverbed full of sun-dried fish.
Soon, these dried fish were scavenged by people to stave off hunger.
With irrigation sources cut off, spring farming could not proceed, and panic spread everywhere.
This left Lord County Magistrate Ye Xiangming in a frenzy, organizing a large workforce to dig wells and collect water, while also guiding farmers to plant drought-resistant crops like sweet potatoes.
Although sweet potatoes are hard to swallow and require processing to be edible, it's better than planting rice or wheat and harvesting nothing.
Even so, by summer, a large number of disaster victims still appeared within the borders of Qing'an County.
"Sir, madam, have mercy and give us some food!"
