Rumors became more and more outrageous day by day, and as the relief money and escort personnel had indeed disappeared, local officials, including Liu Jinchang, were simply unable to come up with the relief money and food issued by the court to appease the victims, and the victims inevitably felt resentful.
In order to prevent large-scale civil unrest, the imperial court had to punish the officials involved in the case who caused negative emotions among the victims in accordance with the law.
Even though Liu Jinchang is the brother-in-law of Lu Mian, the third branch of the Lu family, and a real crony of the Lu family, the Lu family does not dare to protect him at the current critical moment.
But if they don't protect Liu Jinchang, Liu Jinchang's hope of survival will undoubtedly become extremely slim.
Liu Jinchang was unwilling to accept this. He didn't get any benefit at all. Why did these people want to execute him for the disappearance of disaster relief funds and grain?
Don't even mention the greater good to him. To be frank, aren't these people just trying to use his death to gain favors with those who were also reaching out for disaster relief funds? Why? Why should he sacrifice himself for the so-called greater good of the Lu family?
He wanted to expose those people as well. If nothing else, at least these people could help him share the blame. However, before he could put this idea into action, the Master Wang, whom he had always relied on and trusted, had already been ordered to kill him.
What Liu Jinchang didn't know was that this Mr. Wang was actually specially arranged by his good brother-in-law, Lu Mian from the third branch of the Lu family, to be by his side. He also didn't know that the Lu family actually had placed characters like Mr. Wang around many of their "own people".
Normally, these people would be the most reliable right-hand men and left-hand men of the "own people" of the Lu family. However, once the Lu family needs to sacrifice pawns to protect the king, these people would become a sharp knife inserted into the chests of the "own people" of the Lu family.
As for Liu Jinchang's wife and children, once Liu Jinchang died, who could they, the widows and orphans, rely on except the Lu family?
You have to know that Liu Jinchang died in the name of embezzling disaster relief funds and grain. With such a stigma in front of him, even if his wife and children returned to the Liu family, Liu Jinchang's clansmen would definitely not treat them well.
For the sake of her children's future and marriage, no matter what Liu Jinchang's wife thought in her heart, she had to maintain good relations with the Lu family on the surface.
With the full cooperation of Liu Jinchang's confidants, the Lu family successfully completed their action of sacrificing pawns to save the king. Those rats who ate up nearly half of the disaster relief money and food once again escaped the punishment of the law.
At this time, they didn't know that all the warehouses in their house were looted by a mysterious thief because of their corruption.
The mysterious thief who looted their warehouse was now rushing towards the capital.
The disaster relief money and grain that were embezzled by Liu Jinchang in the original book were now being sold to the people at a fair price and within a limited quota by Yu Zizhen's subordinates, as well as the warriors and bodyguards who gathered around Yu Zizhen because of Chen Qing and Zheng Yuzhi, under the banner of a mysterious caravan.
When Yu Zizhen was acting with the escorts under the name of "Tanlang", Zheng Yuzhi once asked him this question.
She asked Yu Zizhen, "Why don't you give these disaster relief funds and grains to the affected people for free?"
Yu Zizhen knew what Zheng Yuzhi was thinking, but she really couldn't do that. She sighed, "Because the prince couldn't explain why she had so much money and food to support her as a Shancai boy."
Who would dare to give it away for free? Are they afraid the court won't suspect them? This isn't the way to seek death.
The answer was plain and simple, but Zheng Yuzhi instantly understood that Yu Zizhen and her subordinates did have their own difficulties.
She felt a little ashamed of her own inconsiderateness and petty mindset, "I thought things were too simple."
Yu Zizhen didn't mean to blame her. Before meeting Zheng Yuzhi, Yu Zizhen already knew her character. He was not surprised at all that she would ask such a question.
She assured Zheng Yuzhi, despite her identity as "Greedy Wolf," "The Crown Prince has instructed us to use all the money and grain allocated by the imperial court for disaster relief, except for the inevitable losses during transportation, for the rest to benefit the victims."
"If Miss Zheng doesn't trust us, you can send more of your fellow disciples to join us. Alternatively, you can write a letter to the Crown Prince personally, requesting access to the overall ledger of this disaster relief operation."
Yu Zizhen's tone was gentle and her attitude was sincere. She had no intention of being angry or sarcastic, but the more she acted like this, the more ashamed Zheng Yuzhi felt.
She waved her hands repeatedly, "No need, I trust the prince, and I trust you all."
Yu Zizhen smiled at her, then patiently explained to her, "Doing good is not an easy thing. There are many malicious eyes staring at our prince in this world. Although our prince has good intentions, he can't sacrifice himself just because he feels sorry for the victims, right?"
Relying on the fact that he had a different face at that time, Yu Zizhen shamelessly took the opportunity to gain the favor of the "Prince".
"You also know that she is the only noble official in the world who is willing to sacrifice everything to help ordinary people survive, just like our prince."
"If anything happened to her, do you think there would be anyone else in the world who would do such a thing, risking their own ruin?"
Zheng Yuzhi was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes.
She felt that what "Tan Lang" said was absolutely right. Isn't Yu Zizhen the only powerful person in the world who is willing to find a way to make a living for ordinary people?
No, she had to protect such a person well and never let him suffer because of her rare kindness.
Thinking of this, Zheng Yuzhi immediately pulled Chen Qing over and asked him to tell the owner of the escort agency and the master of the martial arts school who knew some of the inside story to keep their mouths shut about this matter.
The owner of the martial arts school was Zheng Yuzhi's biological father, so after Zheng Yuzhi made up her mind to break up with Liu Jinchang, she took all her relatives and fellow disciples out of Cangzhou City.
These are all powerful warriors that Yu Zizhen has been coveting for a long time. Now that the opportunity has been presented to her, she must seize the time to recruit them.
With Zheng Yuzhi, who had a very strong filter for the "Crown Prince", acting as a middleman and lobbying, Yu Zizhen, who was recruiting talents for the "Crown Prince" in the identity of "Greedy Wolf", easily convinced the warriors of the martial arts school and the escort agency.
Of course, this was also related to the attractive and generous conditions she offered to this group of warriors.
After getting what she wanted, Yu Zizhen did not stay in Cangzhou any longer. She compiled a collection of locust-killing methods suitable for this era overnight, which was exchanged with system points. She handed it to Lu Mingxuan, Zheng Yuzhi and others who stayed behind to continue to be responsible for disaster relief matters, and told them to pay attention to catching and killing locusts. Then she took her four guards and rode back to the capital at full speed.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
