124: Chapter 124 Let the county town invite the gods first

After Clerk Liu got up and steadied himself, he straightened his collar, tidied his cuffs, and smoothed out the creases on his official robe that had been pressed into it when it was dug out from the ruins.

He turned to face the direction of Qin Family Village, raised his hands to brow level, bowed, and cupped his hands.

He bent his waist very low, and the brim of his official hat almost touched the tabletop.

He maintained that posture for several breaths before straightening up.

"So many of you villages all want to invite a god, and all want to seek the protection of Lord Qinling."

Clerk Liu glanced around at the village chiefs of these ten villages and continued.

"Wouldn't that disturb Lord Qinling?"

The village chiefs in the hall opened their mouths, wanting to argue something further.

Clerk Liu waved his hand and spoke before these village chiefs could open their mouths.

"After the Disaster of the Evil Tree, the population losses in each village were severe. How many people are left in your respective villages?"

He looked at them one by one, and those village chiefs lowered their heads.

"Fifty-seven people."

One village chief said in a muffled voice.

"Forty-nine people."

Another village chief's voice was even softer.

"A village with just a few dozen people still wants to independently invite a god and have Lord Qinling protect them one by one."

Clerk Liu looked at those village chiefs and said.

"Isn't this still disturbing Lord Qinling?"

No one in the hall answered.

Clerk Liu's voice softened as he said.

"This official's meaning is to merge them—every two villages merge into one. With a larger population and a larger village, it will be easier to recover and rebuild in the future."

"Food can be shared and distributed together, houses can be built together, and able-bodied laborers can be utilized together."

"After merging, when you go to invite Lord Qinling, it won't result in Lord Qinling having to protect those small villages of just a few dozen people, saving us from the trouble of not even being able to provide enough tributes for Lord Qinling by then."

Those village chiefs raised their heads and looked at each other.

Naturally, they had no reason to refuse Clerk Liu's proposal.

After a moment, the chief of Zhao Family Village spoke first.

"Our Zhao Family Village agrees to the merger, to merge with Liujia Village."

The chief of Hewan Village spoke next.

"Hewan Village also agrees, to merge with Dawangzhuang."

There were also some villages with too few people, so Clerk Liu directly merged these villages into Liuhe Village, Wangjia Village, and Sun Family Village.

After the Disaster of the Evil Tree ended, as the clerk of Guanhai County, he naturally knew very quickly that these three villages had changed their worship during the Disaster of the Evil Tree.

They changed the divine statue and worshipped Lord Qinling.

Of course, this violated the laws of the Great Qian, but Clerk Liu turned a blind eye to it.

The people in the three villages being able to survive the Disaster of the Evil Tree was presumably due to the protection of Lord Qinling.

Soon, the dozen or so villages present had all merged, leaving only five villages.

These five villages were Zhao Family Village, Hewan Village, Lishan Village, Pengqiao Village, and Meijia Village.

Looking at these five villages after the merger, Clerk Liu supported his chin with his hand, rubbing his fingertips back and forth against his chin.

He always felt there was still a bit of a problem...

He looked at the village chiefs in front of him, his mind spinning.

Clerk Liu's hand came down from his chin and rested on the armrest, his fingers tapping lightly.

Tapping and tapping, he suddenly stopped, his eyes lit up, he lifted his finger from the armrest, raised an index finger, and said.

"Ah, I've got it!"

Clerk Liu said to the village chiefs in front of him.

"This official has thought about it. Even though you have already merged into five villages, the temple in Qin Family Village still cannot accommodate a god-inviting ceremony of this scale."

"Looking across the entire Guanhai County, only the county town has a temple large enough to hold a ceremony of this scale."

"Therefore, you five villages don't need to rush. Wait until this official personally goes to Qin Family Village to invite the god."

"After inviting Lord Qinling to the county town, you five villages can then come to the county town's temple to invite the god together. Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

The village chiefs who had not yet left looked at each other.

The village chiefs of the five merged villages cupped their fists, bowed, and said.

"We commoners obey the clerk's arrangement."

Hearing this, Clerk Liu nodded and looked at the bailiffs beside him, signaling that these village chiefs could be seen off.

He watched these village chiefs turn and walk out of the county office hall, a smile appearing at the corners of his mouth.

They say that deities need incense offerings, and after the Disaster of the Evil Tree, he would become the first person to go to Qin Family Village to invite Lord Qinling.

Furthermore, the place where he would invite Lord Qinling to arrive was none other than the county town of Guanhai County!

Even though the Evil Tree had overshadowed the county town, the population of the county town still exceeded all the villages combined.

By then, Lord Qinling would see his piety.

Just thinking about it, he knew how much favor Lord Qinling would bestow upon him~

The moment he thought about gaining the protection of Lord Qinling, Clerk Liu felt that his whole life was all set.

He leaned against the back of the chair, resting his hands on the armrests, squinting as he looked at the threshold of the county office hall.

Sunlight poured in over the threshold, landing on his face, feeling warm.

Suddenly thinking of something else, Clerk Liu stood up from the grand master's chair, supporting himself on the tabletop with his hands, and his kneecaps made a cracking sound.

He bared his teeth, steadied himself by holding the edge of the table, straightened his collar, tidied his cuffs, and stretched out that official robe he had fished out from the storage room once more.

"Let's go, let's go take a look at the temple."

He stepped down into the hall, with two bailiffs following behind him.

These two bailiffs were precisely the ones who had caught and eaten rats together with Clerk Liu during the Disaster of the Evil Tree.

After the Disaster of the Evil Tree, many of those bailiffs who had fled returned one after another, but Clerk Liu only kept these two by his side.

They could be considered his right-hand men. After all, they were companions in adversity who had eaten rats together; they were handy to use and trustworthy.

The thin bailiff walked on the left, half a head taller than Clerk Liu.

The fat bailiff walked on the right, whose body could fit two Clerk Lius inside.

The three of them came out from the main gate of the county office and walked along East Street in the direction of the City God Temple.

The stone slabs on the street had not been completely paved yet; some places were still broken, and rubble was piled up in some areas.

Clerk Liu did not walk very fast, his boot soles making a faint crunching sound as they stepped on the gravel.

The two bailiffs followed behind him, their paces also not fast.

The temple was right in the center of the county town, not far from where that Evil Tree had fallen.

Clerk Liu stood before the temple gate, looking up, looking up; sunlight leaked down from the eaves with a hole in it, landing on his official hat.

This temple was better than he had imagined.

The temple gate was still there; the door panels were thick, and the copper nails were still present. Although covered with a layer of dust, they were not broken.

Half of the courtyard wall had collapsed, but only half; the remaining half still stood firmly.

Some tiles on the roof were broken, exposing the pitch-black decking underneath, but the roof beams were not broken, the pillars were not crooked, and the main hall body had not collapsed.

He stepped across the threshold and walked into the courtyard.

The courtyard was very large, paved with bluestone slabs, and the slabs were not broken.

He stood there and turned around in a circle: the main hall, side halls, and rear hall, courtyard nested within courtyard, hall connected to hall.

He counted them: three grand halls.

The main hall was the largest, able to hold several hundred people standing.

The two side halls were smaller, but combined they could still hold quite a few people.

Even if the villagers of the five villages all swarmed over, old and young alike, they would still fit.

Holding the god-inviting ceremony for those five villages would be completely without issue!