The Empress’ Livestream
chapter-383

Chapter 383: Earthquake in Dongqing (15)

The audience in the streaming room stretched their necks and widened their eyes to see the contents of the booklet. However, it was a bit difficult for them to read traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese. After quite a while, they finally realized what Feng Jin had written about.

The audience was still uncertain, however, as to why the two of them suddenly looked at each other without speaking a word. They could only give ambiguous comments.

Yingyang Kuaixian: “Umm… Feng Jin has really nice handwriting. There are no incorrect words, either.”

Linglong Mibaosuo: “#scorn. With such nice handwriting, even if there were words written incorrectly, you wouldn’t notice.”

Sanzhisongshu Lingshi: “Is there an expert in the streaming room who can give an explanation? I’m so confused. I don’t understand it at all.”

That showed that there were all kinds of birds in a big forest. There could have even been an expert on diving with such a large group of people.

Guicai Guofengxiao: “It’s not difficult to understand what Feng Jin wrote in the booklet. The streamer asked Feng Jin to write the booklet on her behalf. The petition for disaster relief will be presented to the Emperor directly. That’s roughly what Feng Jin’s booklet is about, but the details are different. He added a hint of blackmail and extortion in it.”

Blackmail and extortion? Everyone was suddenly puzzled when they saw the two words.

Guicai Guofengxiao: “#nosedigging. Learn from him. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. He talked about the tragic scene after the earthquake, and wrote about the people’s miserable condition to earn sympathy. Then, he made a pitiful plea to show his loyalty, hoping to use his meager strength to help the Emperor provide relief for the people. This would show the benevolence of the Emperor. Finally, he complained of being insecure, saying that he was born into an aristocratic family and had the ambition to serve his country, but he had no reputation and achievement and felt that he was not enough… Tsk. I have to say that the emotional drama in it is sufficient, and the amount of flattery is just right… Thankfully, Feng Jin isn’t as old-fashioned as I imagined.”

Toudu Feiqiu: “I originally wanted to blast the user above, but I’ll hold it back since their analysis makes sense.”

Guicai Guofengxiao: “Thanks to my university major, I don’t have any difficulty reading traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese.”

Laosiji Lianmeng: “Birds of a feather flock together. People who hang out with the streamer naturally have personalities that are similar to hers.”

Jiang Pengji had originally just wanted to present the petition to the Emperor, as long as it was a good enough reason for waging a war. Feng Jin’s writing could have very possibly landed her an official government position.

“The people are now in a panic, and everyone feels insecure. If the Emperor knows about your sincerity, he’d naturally realize that it’s rare to have noble ministers.”

People were most afraid of comparison. After comparison, the good would get better and the bad would get worse. If she had a bit of luck, the Emperor would guarantee her an official title––that was, if he was in exultation. Even if it was just a false title without real authority, it was better than not holding any official government position.

“What a surprise. You have great talent.” Jiang Pengji did not try to cover it up. “In this case, I’ll give you a surprise, too.”

Feng Jin’s eyes lit up. Could the surprise she mentioned be…

“Yes.” Because Feng Jue was around, she only blinked her eyes and nodded, giving Feng Jin an affirmative answer.

“The booklet has to be submitted as soon as possible.”

******

On the other hand, Xu Ke was skilled in internal affairs, so he was not in a flurry. He unified people, set up a gruel stall, and hired young survivors. Some of them cleared up the ruins to create empty spaces. Another group of them was divided into several teams to look for survivors.

The earthquake was severe. The ground either collapsed or bulged and the road surface was uneven. The damage was serious, so it made the rescue effort a lot more tedious.

As the earthquake occurred in the middle of the night when most people were already in a deep sleep, many people were buried in the ruins. Some were killed on the spot, while other lucky ones managed to survive. Although they were alive, most of them were severely injured. They would die after a few days if they did not receive treatment.

There was a serious shortage of manpower. Jiang Pengji had already solved the shortage of food and medicine, but she could not solve the shortage of manpower.

As a last resort, she could only recruit every strong man she saw. She even had to help out in person, as well.

“Xiaoyu, take some people with you to set up an area to treat the wounded.” Jiang Pengji knew very well that they were in a hard battle, and race, against time. She was fighting for life with the King of Hell and quickly allocated tasks. “Huaiyu, you’ll help the injured settle down, and help out with the matters of the gruel stall. It’s close, so you can take care of Jingxian.”

The scholars in the ancient times had to learn the Six Arts of Rites. They had to know archery, dance, swordplay, and how to ride a horse. However, they were still civilians, so Jiang Pengji did not let them get involved in the search and rescue in the ruins. That way, there would be no direct threat to the lives of the people if there was, unfortunately, an aftershock. It was safer for them to be in the base camp.

As she finished speaking, Jiang Pengji took the rope that Taxue handed to her. She bit one end of the rope in a rough manner, and she agilely tied the other end of the rope to her sleeves. She then quickly made a slipknot on both ends of the rope, revealing two fair and strong arms for the convenience of the search and rescue process.

“Taxue, stay behind to make a stretcher and take care of the injured…”

Their luck was not too bad. The servants of the Liu residence had all survived. Amongst the survivors, there happened to be a servant girl who had learned some medical skills from a doctor’s father. Although she only had a superficial understanding of it, there was no room for nitpicking. The girl was directly asked to become a doctor.

She could not rescue those who were severely injured, but she could still treat those with minor injuries.

The search and rescue began from the closest area. Jiang Pengji took the lead in the front and let the ones behind know what divine power was.

Shortly after, their clothes were stained with dust and blood. The original colors of their clothes could no longer be seen.

Jiang Pengji was skillful, strong, and her five senses were acute. In addition to that, she had a powerful spirit that ordinary people did not have. She was equivalent to a mobile, human body search and rescue instrument that could discover traces of lives. In the principle of rescue, she of course saved those with the strongest traces of life first.

“Bring the stretcher here. Someone is alive…” Jiang Pengji figured out the structure of the collapsed wood and stone. She exerted strength and lifted the rubble with both hands. A bloody figure was revealed.

The pieces of wood were all ready-made, and they were directly pulled out from the ruins. Jiang Pengji gathered the fur and fabric that could be found so that the weaker servant girls could sew a simple stretcher together. It did not matter whether it looked good or not. It would have been fine as long as it was convenient to place the wounded on it.

Someone immediately came up from behind and joined forces to lift the person out and rest him on the stretcher.

Jiang Pengji roughly briefed them about the things they needed to pay attention to when lifting people so as to avoid worsening the injuries. Watching Jiang Pengji rescue one survivor after another, all of them thought that there were many survivors.

In fact, Jiang Pengji was the only one frowning, and her heart sank. There were too many people that had died…

She had no time to lament over it. Jiang Pengji could only purse her lips and brave the hot sun. Her hands soon became blistered. The blisters burst, then filled with sand and wooden thorns. Her palms looked extremely horrifying. The streaming room was quiet and the atmosphere was tense. No one dared to say a word.

Seismologically speaking, 72 hours after the earthquake was the golden search and rescue period. Jiang Pengji had already wasted a lot of time previously, so she had to grasp for every second and every minute. It was already noon, when the sun was the hottest.

Among the 203 survivors rescued, 190 of them were rescued by the team that Jiang Pengji led. The other teams rescued very few survivors. Most of them were cold and stiff corpses. The area that was cleared up was filled with the strong smell of blood.

“This is the general map of Shangjing City…”