Chapter 107: Plum Blossoms 17 Do you know someone named Tingyan?

At that time, Song Yanze was not here to waste any more time. Xuan Qing was in plain clothes, so he just let him follow him.

Fortunately, the beheading must be done at 15:30, so the people detained today are all safe. There are many of them, and the matter has become a big deal, so the province will not think of disposing of them privately.

Song Yanze and Xuan Qing rode their horses to the provincial capital at midnight, with a knocked-out "bandit" tied to Xuan Qing's horse.

Before entering the city gate, he saw two adults in official robes waiting at the city gate from afar. To Song Yanze, they were both acquaintances.

Fang Yifeng and Qiu Yi.

They are also the two top leaders of Jiangnan Province.

In the evening, it rained again, not too heavily, but it has been like this for the past few days, so the situation on the river is not optimistic, especially when the breach has not been completely blocked.

"We are waiting here for the imperial envoy."

Song Yanze dismounted and glanced at the expressions of the two men. Fang Yifeng, who was standing in front, had a pale face and dull eyes, but Qiu Yi was fine, and even smiled and bowed to him.

"Ji Bai, where is Lord Ji?"

How could Song Yanze not know who was behind this? He dismounted and asked.

Qiu Yi's face froze, but Fang Yifeng opened his mouth to answer.

"Lord Ji is supervising the work on the Lingjiang embankment."

Song Yanze glanced at Fang Yifeng again, then turned around and motioned for Xuanqing to bring the person over.

"This man led his men to ambush and kill an official of the imperial court on the official road. I have already captured him. Why not lock him up in the provincial capital's jail? We will find out who is behind this at a later date."

"This person looks like a refugee, how could he have any..."

"Okay, Sir Song, follow me."

Fang Yifeng interrupted Qiu Yi and obediently waved his hand to lead the way for him.

Song Yanze was using this person to test their strength and find an excuse to go to the prison to check the situation. Qiu Yi looked at Song Yanze and saw that he had no intention of reminiscing or easing the tension, and his face was not looking good.

The constables guarding the prison were all from Fang Yifeng's office, not the Neisi office. Song Yanze looked at Fang Yifeng, his former classmate.

When they were young, they had never gotten along. Fang Yifeng looked down on him openly, and he looked down on Fang Yifeng secretly. After the conflict, they each spent a few years in the government, and they could become strangers.

But he keenly noticed that something was wrong with Fang Yifeng.

"What crime have these people committed?"

There was no need for Song Yanze to cover up. After locking the man in, he walked around and stopped in front of a cell where many people were imprisoned and asked.

"They are the ones who are taking advantage of Huaizhou's urgent rice shortage to resell rice at high prices."

"Master Xiao Song! It's Master Xiao Song!"

"It's unfair! Master Xiao Song, we are wronged!"

Qiu Yi stood up and spoke first, but before he finished speaking, the people in the prison looked at Song Yanze and rushed over excitedly, reaching out to him from the prison.

The jailer came over and scolded them twice and chased them away a few times before they went back and looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"The imperial envoy has spoken, ordering us to execute him on the spot tomorrow to serve as a warning to others."

"Ji Bai?"

Song Yanze looked straight at them, raised his eyebrows and called them by their names, then sneered and stretched out his hand to them.

"Bring over the files, the certified confessions, and the criminal documents from the trial."

In terms of rank, Qiu Yi and Fang Yifeng were both two levels higher than him. Qiu Yi was secretly annoyed and whispered a warning.

"What does Lord Song mean by this? Is he going to protect these people? This is an order from Lord Ji. He is acting on the orders of the emperor, which means he is acting on behalf of the emperor. Lord Song is going to disobey the order?"

"Okay." Song Yanze clapped his hands and smiled, standing in front of the prison door, with Xuan Qing following closely beside him.

He was only wearing cloth clothes, and he looked tired despite the dusty journey, but his eyes were bright.

Song Yanze stood in the dim cell, with frightened people behind him. The candlelight illuminated his face. He frowned and looked at the two second-rank officials in crimson official robes.

"He is an imperial envoy, and I am also an imperial envoy, the newly appointed governor of Jiangnan. He has an imperial decree, and I also have an imperial decree."

Song Yanze took out the red-stamped paper calmly, waved it in front of them, raised his eyebrows and said.

"I will take over all the prisoners in the provincial prison. All the case files related to the Sanjiang Dam incident must be delivered to me within two days."

"All the files of the cases handled before must not be missed. Otherwise, as Lord Qiu said..."

“It’s considered as disobedience.”

Song Yanze did not raise his voice, but spoke calmly and word by word.

Qiu Yi flicked his sleeves and said, "What qualifications do you, a fourth-rank official, have..."

"Lord Qiu." Song Yanze stretched out his hand to him and asked for the token.

"I am the Right Censor-in-Chief and the Governor of Jiangnan, and the Imperial Commissioner sent directly by the Ministry of Personnel to inspect documents."

"Don't get angry for a moment, think clearly before you speak." Song Yanze even laughed and reminded him indifferently.

Fang Yifeng's eyes were complicated, and he clenched his fists while watching their confrontation. He pulled Qiu Yi's sleeve. Qiu Yi knew that he had to follow him for the time being, and threw the prison token over.

Song Yanze stretched out his hand to take it, without arguing with him at all. He turned around, picked up the token, and gave orders to all the jailers in a cold voice.

"From now on, except for the people in the prison, no one will be allowed to enter or leave the prison at will. Daily meals and tea will be tested by three people before they can be handed over to the prisoners."

"At night, we must light large candles and form teams of three to report on each other."

This is a slap in their face right in front of them.

Fortunately, Jiang Tingyuan sent Xuanqing over. The Imperial Envoy was the most professional in this regard, and he might not be able to think of a better idea, so he handed the token to Xuanqing.

This is really a waste of talent for the imperial envoy.

"Wait." Song Yanze turned around and saw that they were about to leave, so he stopped them in a cold voice.

"Where are the people in charge of repairing the three river dams in the River Administration Office being held now?"

Qiu Yi laughed: "Master Xiao Song, don't you know? The three yamen have the right to deal with them on the spot. The three masters have already confessed their crimes and accepted the punishment."

It's not that Song Yanze didn't guess it, but the more anxious he was, the more problems there were.

"Then please hand over the signed and sealed confession tonight."

"Okay." Qiu Yi almost suppressed his last syllable, flicked his sleeves, and strode out.

"Someone, bring the confession that Lord Song wants!"

After the two men left, Song Yanze turned around and walked into the cell, looking at the people of Huaizhou inside.

"Are you all from Zhaojia Village, Zhunan County, Huaizhou?"

Immediately, a young man stepped forward to answer on their behalf.

"Master Xiao Song, the fifteen of us are all from Zhaojia Village. They also arrested several people from Linjia Village a few days ago, with the same charges, but they were released after a few days."

Song Yanze frowned, thought for a while, and remembered what the peasant woman said.

Only five days after the imperial court distributed relief grain, a group of wealthy merchants came with grain and asked them to sell their land at a low price.

"Only by selling your land can you survive. Other methods may seem like a way to survive, but who knows if they are actually dead ends. When you come back to sell your land, even if you get ten dan per mu, you won't be able to get it back."

"Are you sure they are from Linjia Village buying grain with you?"

Song Yanze confirmed again, and the man was very confident, saying that they were all from neighboring villages, knew each other, and bought grain together.

Song Yanze had some guesses in his mind, but he couldn't act on them at this moment. He could only think of a way to protect them first and secretly collect evidence.

The disaster is severe. Ji Bai has been on the dam day and night, but the disaster has not been alleviated yet. The journey from Kyoto was fine, but further south, the floods are still raging.

If this continues, more and more farmlands and villages will be flooded.

Song Yanze had been on the road for a long time and was assassinated as soon as he arrived. His nerves were still tense and he couldn't stop rubbing his forehead.

Now that the situation here is stable, we will quickly go to the river bank.

"Dear fellow villagers." Song Yanze straightened his sleeves, stood under the candlelight and bowed to them with a solemn expression.

"Disaster relief is like putting out a fire. At this moment, the Sanhe Dam has not been blocked and the flood is raging. Song is incompetent and has no moral integrity. I have no choice but to ask you guys to stay here temporarily until I can stabilize the disaster situation and give you justice."

"I hereby swear and promise that as long as I am here, I will not let anyone be wronged for no reason."

As he was about to swear to heaven, an old farmer immediately slammed the wooden fence, tears streaming down his face.

"Master Xiao Song, you are embarrassing us! Master Xiao Song is our great judge, why shouldn't we believe him?"

"I just ask that if you pass by Zhaojia Village, please let them know that you are safe."

Song Yanze immediately agreed. The man who had just answered the question helped his father up and asked Song Yanze hesitantly, "Master Song, you just said that the river bank is still breaching?"

"But the imperial envoy clearly dispatched soldiers on the first day he came here, and the young men nearby also went to help voluntarily. They had already blocked the gap, so there shouldn't be any more floods."

"The person who reported back said that there are many cracks in the dam and it is difficult to block them." Song Yanze thought for a while and said slowly.

"Absolutely not!"

A man in shorts standing behind the crowd shouted, then walked to the front and bowed to Song Yanze.

"I am Wang Er, a bricklayer. I participated in the initial construction of the Sanjiang Dam, as well as the subsequent reconstruction and reinforcement."

"When we first started building it, we looked at the materials. The water was strong and the materials were all inferior. Not to mention cracks, it was possible for the flood to wash it out."

"But they were so slow in their construction that they didn't even lay the foundation. They just blew up the old dam and haphazardly put it there."

"Then, I don't know what happened. Someone came from above and replaced a batch of materials. They worked day and night to rush the work. They used first-class hard stone materials. The foundation was solid. It was all solid hard stone. How could it crack?"

Song Yanze's mind tensed up and he realized that this might be the key to why the Sanjiang Dam suddenly burst.

Song Yanze thanked him, bowed with gratitude, and strode out of the prison. Seeing that Xuan Qing had "persuaded" the jailers one by one, he felt relieved and went to the river bank.

He wanted to keep Xuan Qing so that he could feel at ease, but Xuan Qing just bowed and said: "Commander Jiang asked me to stay with you, sir. If anything happens to you, I won't have to go back."

Xuan Qing blew a special whistle, but no sound could be heard. Soon, another imperial envoy came. Song Yanze watched them talking to each other and thought of Jiang Tingyuan.

He did so many inappropriate things that he always forgot that Commander Jiang was a big spy chief and a lackey of the imperial court who worked closely with the emperor.

Except for the first time they met, it seemed that he had never drawn a knife in front of him?

At such a tense moment, when Song Yanze thought of him, he felt like secretly taking out the sweet milk cake and licking it a few times, and his heartstrings suddenly relaxed.

Xuan Qing bowed to him and said, "I will escort you to the Lingjiang Dam."

Song Yanze nodded and looked at Xuanqing. He looked older than Jiang Tingyuan and had a long scar from his ear to his cheek.

"You and Jiang Tingyuan...your Commander Jiang, since when did you know each other?"

Xuan Qing's scalp tingled. Fortunately, his boss was not here. He was so petty, which was rare in the world. If he saw Master Xiao Song looking at him like this, it would be bad.

"I know him in the army. He once saved my life."

Song Yanze's heart trembled, and his eyes lit up: "So you also joined the army in Yanzhou?"

Seeing Xuanqing nodded, Song Yanze immediately asked him: "Brother Xuanqing, do you know a man named Tingyan? He is from Huizhou, Ting means courtyard, and Yan means wild goose."

Xuan Qing was stunned, looking at Song Yanze with confusion and disbelief, as if he had asked a question that he could not understand at all.

He thought for a while and was about to talk to him, but when he was almost at the river bank, he heard someone screaming in the distance.

"Hurry and hold Master Ji!"

The two of them didn't care to continue the topic now, there were plenty of opportunities anyway. Song Yanze nodded to him, and Xuan Qing quickly rushed up and grabbed the hand that was clinging to the slope.

A young man dressed as a Confucian scholar was covered in mud and water. He lay in a safe place, gasping for breath, and turned to thank Xuan Qing.

"Ji Bai, Master Ji?"

Song Yanze walked slowly over, frowning as he looked at the condition of the dam. The large hole in the middle had been blocked, but cracks could indeed be seen on the dam near this side, and water was seeping out of the gap.

Not far away, several soldiers were lying on the shore to rest due to exhaustion, as well as a few young men dressed in plain clothes.

"Master Ji, what are you doing..."

Ji Bai looked exhausted. He wiped his face, smiled bitterly, and bowed to Song Yanze: "I wanted to go down and check the situation myself, but I'm sorry to trouble you all."

Song Yanze frowned, remembering the prince's evaluation of him.

Although he is a member of Li Heng's party, he is interested in practical matters. It's just that he has been in the study for too long and has a strong bookish air.

This is to say that he is honest and straightforward. How could such a person kill civilians without knowing the facts? Moreover, if the landlords and the government colluded to pressure and annex the land, it would not benefit the Beijing official Ji Bai, but would instead make him responsible.

Song Yanze had already made up his mind. He handed the handkerchief to him and asked him directly.

"Did you give the order to execute those fifteen people from Huaizhou?"

Ji Bai was stunned for a moment, then nodded immediately: "They took the opportunity to resell grain and rice, disrupting the rice price, and then ganged up to buy up land on a large scale, and sold it at a low price."

"If you don't kill the typical example, you can't establish your authority."

That's right, if it was Song Yanze, he would do the same thing. But it was just a case of transplanting flowers and trees, and he was taken advantage of.

"Master Ji has asked and interrogated him?"

Ji Bai frowned and answered him, "That's the matter under the jurisdiction of the Neishi Yamen. The Censor came to ask for my opinion, and I asked him to verify it and then execute him immediately to serve as a warning to others."

Ji Bai looked at Song Yanze's expression, and his heart tightened, realizing that something was wrong. But he added, "It doesn't make sense. We are all Lord Li's men. How could he..."

"What about fellow party members?"

Song Yanze stood there and looked at him with his eyes downcast, as if he was looking at an ignorant junior. He had already asked someone to get the map and continued to speak to him in a calm voice.

"How could he not think about himself? Who would want to bear the infamy and risk alone? If everyone knows, then they will go through the hardships together. If only one person knows, then he can transfer the risk and protect himself."

Ji Bai's face turned pale. He had encountered obstacles and traps everywhere during his visit to Jiangnan Province in the past few days. On one side were the people, and on the other side were conspiracies and intrigues.

He was exhausted physically and mentally, and felt truly desolate at the moment. He was a white-collar Hanlin, and Li Heng's party had so many capable people, but they chose to send him here, and did not tell him anything before he left.

He came here with all his heart to help with disaster relief, but he might just be a disposable pawn.

Song Yanze didn't have time to pay attention to Ji Bai's exhaustion at the moment. He counted the people and checked the materials for repairing the river embankment without stopping, but he didn't see anyone from the river office at the scene.

It was too late now. Song Yanze had been busy all night and even went down to carry sandbags himself. No matter how Xuan Qing tried to persuade him, it was useless. He could only watch as Master Song took off his shoes and socks, stepped into the mud, and worked hard with them to block the hole.

Ji Bai didn't remain depressed for long and joined in helping.

It was like this until the daybreak, when everything was fine. Song Yanze was so tired that he could not speak, and he almost fell asleep on the way back to the post station.

Even so, he had to wash himself again, and he didn't even bother to put on his underwear. He just put on one sleeve and fell asleep on the bed.

Before going to bed, he reminded Xuanqing to wake him up in two hours.

After a while, a man pushed open the door and walked in. It was Jiang Tingyuan in plain clothes. He sat down quietly on the bed, looked down at him, and kissed his forehead with heartache.

Then he took his arm around him and helped him put on his inner garments and covered him with the quilt.

He couldn't stay long as he had important matters to attend to, so when he was about to leave, Song Yanze subconsciously turned over and pressed down his ponytail, and groped to hug his arm.

Jiang Tingyuan couldn't help but kiss him and sighed again.

"See you soon. Thank you for your hard work."

He walked out quietly, called Xuan Qing, listened to his deep report, nodded and gave a few instructions.

"He likes to eat salty cakes, so don't buy him any more. Remind him to eat something before going to the government office."

Xuan Qing nodded hesitantly and told him what Song Yanze asked Tingyan.

Jiang Tingyuan raised his eyebrows, clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction, hummed, and was about to leave.