Yang Rixuan hurriedly said, "Something serious has happened. I entered Hangzhou during the day, but I didn't dare to come here rashly, so I came to bother you in the middle of the night."

"What happened?"

Sun Mian asked hurriedly, he actually already had a vague guess in his mind.

As expected, Yang Rixuan said, "Zhao Jun, the head of the Political System Council, was inspecting Shouzhou and sent people to investigate various places. He discovered that the people of Huoqiu were poor and young. Upon questioning, he learned that the imperial government's disaster relief grain had been embezzled, resulting in the deaths and injuries of many Huoqiu residents. Zhao Jun was furious and is now investigating."

"What?"

Sun Mian just felt bitter in his heart. He had just filled one hole, but how could he forget another one?

It was also his fault that the severe drought in Huainan happened two years ago, and he embezzled grain and grass at the beginning of the year before last. He did so many bad things, and it was normal for him to forget about it after two or three years.

But he quickly regained his composure and asked, "Is there nothing Brother Chui Xun can do?"

Yang Rixuan smiled bitterly and said, "After Zhao Jun learned about this, he temporarily suspended my brother's position for dereliction of duty. Now he has taken over the Huainan Transport Commissioner's office and is investigating the matter. I'm worried that the cover-up won't last much longer."

"The most urgent thing is to think of a solution."

Yang Rixuan then continued, "The current Huoqiu County Magistrate has committed suicide out of fear of punishment. My brother's suggestion is that if we can silence the people below and shift the blame onto those county magistrates, perhaps we can get away with it."

"Even so, if I continue investigating the case, I'm afraid I won't get much good out of it given the methods used by this Magistrate."

Sun Mian looked grim.

He was the magistrate of Shouzhou when the corruption case occurred. Even if he found a scapegoat and shifted the blame, Zhao Jun could use dereliction of duty as an excuse if he insisted on punishing him.

Just like he always framed others with very small reasons or no reasons at all, confiscated the property of wealthy businessmen and exiled them to enrich himself.

Whether in the officialdom or among the people, every level of oppression was crushing people to death. As a local prefect, Sun Mian held absolute power, a dark cloud hanging over the people's heads. Wasn't Zhao Jun also the sword of justice hanging over his head?

"Let me take care of this."

After a long silence, Sun Mian finally said, "I will deal with it as soon as possible."

"I'll leave everything to Brother Yuangui."

Yang Rixuan said, "If you can get through this, my brother said he owes you a favor."

Yang Riyan was actually dragged into this matter because of bribes from Sun Mian and others, but now he says that if Sun Mian can handle this matter properly, he owes Sun Mian a favor.

In the final analysis, it was because Zhao Jun put too much pressure on Yang Riyan, forcing him to try every possible means to grasp at a life-saving straw. Otherwise, if he were to be transferred all the way, it was possible that Zhao Jun would really dare to kill him.

"rest assured."

Sun Mian nodded.

Sun Mian personally sent Yang Rixuan away and began to think about countermeasures and make arrangements overnight.

I have allergic rhinitis caused by a cold. I bought a spray and nasal drops, and now I'm feeling a little better. There's actually a benefit: I used to code a portion of the next day's work and usually went to bed at 11 PM. Now, after a full day at the computer, I can barely finish coding a little over 4,000 words. I finish around 10 or 11 PM, and then go straight to bed. And because I'm dizzy and my head is swollen, I drift off very quickly, waking up at 8 AM the next morning. Surprisingly, my sleep schedule has improved a lot.

The situation is much better today, so I’ve resumed two updates. Keep it up!

(End of this chapter)