Protect Our Patriarch

Book 2: Chapter 49: Evolution! Ping'an Town gradually becomes stronger

In the face of life and death, Wang Shouzhe's mind was spinning rapidly.

He looked at Liu Ruolan with a doting and deep gaze, "My wife, I am too fond of your cooking. If you cook for me every day, how can I control myself? Wouldn't that lead me to overeat and drink? Over time, it would naturally be detrimental to my health, wouldn't that be harming your own husband?"

"Therefore, it would be enough for my wife to cook occasionally, this can also give me something to look forward to."

The coldness on Liu Ruolan's face gradually faded, and she glanced at Wang Shouzhe with a happy look, "My husband is indeed talented, even his compliments are so thrilling and unique."

In order to divert Liu Ruolan's attention, Wang Shouzhe wrapped his arm around her waist and whispered, "I have been out and about these days, and many things have been inconvenient. It has been a long time since I have experienced my wife's 'Mysterious Water True Scripture'."

Liu Ruolan's face turned slightly red, and she whispered, "It has also been a long time since I have checked the progress of my husband's 'Eternal Spring True Scripture'. However, our two children are still studying in the next room..."

The couple had been away for too long and hadn't checked their children's homework for a while, which led to the children completely letting go of themselves and now they were making up for it.

Kids are indeed troublesome.

Wang Shouzhe shook his head regretfully, and was about to focus his attention on the sand table.

However, Liu Ruolan, with a blushing face, bit her lip and said, "Forget it~ They have been neglecting their homework for more than a day or two anyway. I'll ask Qiao'er to look after the children, and we can go to Shuiyue Pavilion for some cultivation~"

"Alright."

After some consideration, Wang Shouzhe felt that he couldn't beat Liu Ruolan, so he followed her words.

Half an hour later.

In the study.

Wang Liyao and Wang Zongan, the brother and sister, were seriously doing their homework.

Their mother had said that she would come to check their homework later.

At their young age, they had already learned to read people's faces, knowing that they would rather offend their father a hundred times than make their mother angry once.

Therefore, they were writing diligently.

However, after waiting for a long time, their mother didn't come to check their homework.

"Qiao'er Aunt." Wang Liyao blinked her beautiful eyes, her face full of doubt, "Could it be that mother and father have gone to cultivate again?"

"This..." Qiao'er broke out in a cold sweat, and explained with a dry laugh, "Miss and young master are both geniuses, it's only right for them to work hard in cultivation."

The brother and sister looked at each other.

Well, today's homework was done in vain again.

Their parents wouldn't be back for two or three days once they started cultivating.

"An'an, let's go, sister will take you out to play." Wang Liyao suddenly perked up.

"This, sister, it's not very good." Wang Zongan was a bit guilty.

He wasn't as bold as his sister.

"What are you afraid of? Don't you understand our parents? They just find us annoying and want to find a place to hide and be quiet."

Wang Liyao grabbed Wang Zongan and walked out swaggeringly, and also instructed, "Aunt Qiao'er, you have to help us cover up."

Qiao'er was speechless, feeling helpless.

Miss, young master, how many years have you been using that excuse? Even the little miss can't be fooled, can't you come up with something new?

......

In the following days, the weather was rainy.

The water level of the An River kept rising.

Wang Shouzhe received the news that in the middle and lower reaches of the An River, many places with lower terrain had been hit by floods, causing waterlogging.

Changning Guard, being on the north side of the An River, with steep banks and high inland terrain, wouldn't be flooded as long as the drainage was proper.

However, the terrain of Ping'an Town was mostly hilly, with many low-lying areas, and the overall terrain was much lower than the north side of the An River.

This was why no one had ever come to reclaim this piece of land in Ping'an Town. If this was a good piece of land, would it still be Zuo Xuan's Ancestor's turn?

But for the Wang's Clan, Ping'an Town was their foundation, they had no choice but to manage it carefully.

Water conservancy projects have always been a long-term matter. Since his arrival, Wang Shouzhe has never relaxed on this.

The dredging of Zhuwei Lake was just the beginning.

Over the years, he has been constantly dredging rivers, opening up waterways, strengthening embankments, building flood discharge gates, and so on. This heavy rain was also the time to test his hard work over the past eight or nine years.

The entire Wang's Clan, and even many of the collateral members of the Wang's Clan, were involved in this flood control work.

The first to bear the brunt was the embankment of the An River.

Starting from Zuo Xuan's Ancestor, the embankment has been continuously built and reinforced. Every year, a portion of manpower and resources are invested in it.

When it came to Wang Shouzhe, he paid even more attention to the construction and reinforcement of the embankment in the peaceful section of the An River.

Now, in addition to being rich, the Wang's Clan also holds a great weapon, that is the legendary cement.

Simply mixing stones, gravel, and cement, and adding water according to the ratio, you get the famous concrete.

However, the time left for Wang Shouzhe was too short, and currently, he had only built stone slopes and concrete embankments in a few of the most dangerous places, accounting for only about one-third of the 140-150 miles.

Even so, compared to the original embankment, its flood resistance has already been incomparable.

Wang Shouzhe braved the rain and inspected the embankment all the way.

As the water level rose, some of the previously safe embankments had some hidden dangers. He immediately dispatched clan members, organized tenant farmers and civilians to temporarily reinforce those embankments.

At the same time, he also inspected the flood discharge gates.

On Earth, some flood discharge gates use high-power water pumps to pump water. The manufacture of a simple water pump is not difficult, the difficulty lies in the lack of electricity in this world.

However, human wisdom is infinite.

In this world, there are also some irrigation water wheels.

Over the years, Wang Shouzhe has undertaken many tasks, including collaborating with professionals to improve the design of water wheels.

Among the three major flood discharge gates, the Fenggu gate located at Fenggu Farm was built by the Ancestor Zouxuan.

Over the past eight years, Wang Shouzhe has repeatedly repaired and renovated this gate, turning it into a major flood discharge outlet.

Now, towering on either side of the gate are two "Water Dragon Arrays".

The "Water Dragon Array", as pleasant as it sounds, is essentially a large water wheel with a simple structure.

When the river flows, it drives the rotation of the water wheel, which resembles a small Ferris wheel. The rotation of the water wheel, through the durable and precise bearings and gears crafted by the refiners, powers a simple reciprocating pump.

This reciprocating pump then drains the water from the gate into the An River.

The water channels within the gate are interconnected, linking all the waterways and lakes within Ping'an Town.

Wang Shouzhe possesses a wealth of knowledge from Earth. Although these are not his areas of expertise, he knows the general direction, and there is no shortage of intelligent craftsmen and refiners in this world.

Through their collaboration, the "Water Dragon Array" of today was created.

Of course, this large water wheel is not simply exposed in the river.

Wang Shouzhe drove piles along the riverbank and built a large foundation with concrete, forming a figure-eight-shaped water channel with the gate bank that is wide at the front and narrow at the back.

In this way, more water can enter through the bell mouth, and as the water channel narrows towards the back, the speed of the water flow will increase, generating more power for the water wheel.

At the entrance of the water channel in front of the water wheel, there is a winch-operated gate about two zhang wide. When the water wheel is not needed, the gate can be lowered to cut off the water flow.

Additionally, a metal grid is installed at the bell mouth to intercept any large debris or ferocious aquatic beasts that might be swept down with the water flow, preventing damage to the water wheel.

The two Water Dragon Array projects at the Fenggu gate, despite their simple structure, took Wang Shouzhe five years of communication with craftsmen and refiners, countless trials and improvements with small-scale structures, and tens of thousands of Top Gold to complete.

Of course, the results are quite evident.

The person in charge of managing this gate is a capable member of the Wang's Clan. Upon seeing Wang Shouzhe, he rushed forward and excitedly reported, "Master, both Water Dragon Arrays are running smoothly."

The massive water wheel rotates steadily in the turbulent water channel. It appears slow, but in reality, its rotation speed is not slow. It only appears slow because the circumference of the water wheel is large.

Driven by the water wheel, water continuously sprays out of the pipe aimed at the An River, like two large white water dragons.

This scene is the origin of the name "Water Dragon Array"!

"Keep watch for twelve hours. If there is any malfunction in the Water Dragon Array, repair it at all costs."

Seeing the Water Dragon Array, into which he had invested years of hard work and a large sum of money, playing an active role, Wang Shouzhe felt quite proud.

He regards Ping'an Town as his territory, his home, and naturally, he will do everything possible to make it as secure as an iron bucket, hoping that it can withstand various natural disasters.

Previous calculations showed that when a large Water Dragon Array is running at full speed, it can drain about 200,000 cubic meters of water per day.

And there are six of these Water Dragon Arrays at the three flood discharge gates. When running at full speed, they can drain about 1.2 million cubic meters of water per day.

The numbers sound large.

But in reality, taking Zhuwei Lake as an example, the lake, with its ten thousand mu of water area, holds about 28 million cubic meters of water when full.

It would take more than twenty days for the six large Water Dragon Arrays running at full speed to drain Zhuwei Lake!

Not to mention the water content of the numerous large and small river channels and scattered small lakes within Ping'an Town.

For this reason, every year before the rainy season, the six Water Dragon Arrays must start running in advance to lower the water level of the rivers and lakes within Ping'an Town, to prevent the embarrassing situation of not being able to discharge the flood in time when the flood season arrives.

And it's still raining now. Even if most of the rainwater is absorbed by the land or enters underground water channels, the small amount of remaining water that is discharged into the river is not a small number.

For this reason, even with the six large Water Dragon Arrays running at full capacity, the water level in the river is still rising slowly.

Although it's slow, it's still rising.

Fortunately, the water level in Ping'an Town was lowered in advance before the rainy season. Otherwise, many wheat fields might already be flooded by the river.

Wang Shouzhe's expression was somewhat solemn.

Six Water Dragon Arrays are ultimately too few.

Even if this year's flood season is far less severe than the two historical floods, it's almost reaching the limit of the Water Dragon Arrays.

Having spent eight years gradually building the water conservancy project, which is still in its infancy, Wang Shouzhe thought to himself that after this flood season, he must increase investment in water conservancy construction.

After all, the entire Ping'an Town now belongs to the Wang's Clan. No matter how much is invested, it's just a long-term investment. One less flood disaster would pay for itself.

In the following six or seven days, the entire Wang's Clan led the forty thousand people of Ping'an Town into the intense flood control efforts.

At such times, no outsiders could help the Wang's Clan.

After all, the flood season is fierce, and every place is threatened by floods.

During this period, three river embankments developed breaches, and the situation almost got out of control. Wang Shouzhe and his wife personally took charge of the front line and joined the flood control efforts.

In the face of the overwhelming power of nature, their current capabilities, being only at the Spirit Platform realm, were quite limited. However, with them at the helm, everyone had a backbone. Under the concerted efforts of the Wang's Clan and all the townspeople, they managed to block the breach time and again, preventing the occurrence of floods.

Finally.

After two consecutive days of clear skies, the turbulent flow of the An River finally slowed down a bit, and the overall water level began to slowly decrease, dropping more than half a meter in two days.

This signified that the flood season had finally passed.

It also meant that Ping'an Town had successfully crossed the Tribulation this time, surviving the flood season, which was the most prone to floods.

However, everyone in Ping'an Town remained vigilant, still working together to strengthen the weak points of the embankment, preparing for the recurrence of the flood season.

In this way, several more days passed.

The water level of the An River continued to drop, and the water's momentum gradually eased.

The flood season had finally completely passed, and Ping'an Town immediately fell into a wave of cheers and celebrations.

The flood season this time was fierce. If it had happened ten or twenty years ago, flood disasters would have been almost inevitable, causing significant damage.

But this time, apart from some areas having reduced yields due to waterlogging, the overall grain output still maintained a relatively high level.

Most importantly, only a few people died in this flood season.

This was a great victory!

The prestige of the Wang's Clan in Ping'an Town had already been off the charts, but after this time, the people's hearts were once again elevated to a higher level.

Celebrations were everywhere in Ping'an Town, but Wang Shouzhe and his wife were collapsed in their mansion, not going out for two full days.

They were both exhausted.

It wasn't until two days later, when Wang Shouzhe's trusted "lieutenant" Wang Mei secretly came to report on her work, that Wang Shouzhe managed to muster a bit of energy.

Wang Shouzhe secretly met with Wang Mei in his study.

As he perused the various pieces of information Wang Mei had compiled, a faint sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

Heh, after so many years, he had laid out so many baits, and the puppet master from sixty years ago finally couldn't hold back and revealed a flaw!

Next, there might be a resurgence of turmoil.

The entire Changning Guard might be about to enter a period of sudden changes.

"Wang Mei, you've worked hard." Wang Shouzhe looked at Wang Mei with a slightly complex expression.

The reason for his complex expression was because of her outfit today.

Her outfit was clearly similar to the uniform style of the female disciples of the Purple Mansion Academy, heroic yet soft and beautiful.

Most importantly.

Her makeup artistry had reached a stage of constant innovation.

She wore a ponytail, her eyebrows slightly raised, her face as cold as ice, her demeanor heroic, as if she had the temperament of a goddess-like senior sister.

If she were thrown into the academy, she would undoubtedly be another popular goddess senior sister.

......