After causing such a commotion yesterday, I still have to prepare medicine for the villagers as usual today.
The doctors proceeded with dispensing the medicine as usual, while Lu Qiqi noticed that the villagers of Tianlong Village had improved considerably.
She walked up to Dr. Luo and whispered, "Dr. Luo, I came here to discuss with you whether the villagers of Tianlong Village still need to use the Tiger and Wolf Medicine."
Doctor Luo, head bowed, weighed the medicinal herbs without looking up, and asked, "You discovered it?"
"You already knew?" Lu Qiqi asked in surprise.
Doctor Luo raised his eyes and smiled slyly at Lu Qiqi, "I discovered it a day earlier than you, so I'm slightly better than you."
From just that one sentence, it was clear that Dr. Luo was in a good mood and even had the time to joke.
Lu Qiqi felt as if a heavy weight was pressing on her heart. "But this also means that the villagers of Tianlong Village are about to enter the next stage."
This is a stage where ginseng is needed to fill the deficit.
But their current difficulty is that they have no ginseng.
Both of them remained silent.
After a moment, Doctor Luo said, "It's not that there's no way."
Lu Qiqi suddenly looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with delight. "What's the plan?"
"I will write a letter and find a way to send it out to Physician Zhuang of Luzhou Prefecture. Then everything will be resolved."
"Imperial Physician Zhuang?"
Lu Qiqi was a little puzzled. How could Doctor Luo, a barefoot doctor, know the imperial physician?
Could it be that Dr. Luo has some hidden identity?
Doctor Luo said, "Imperial Physician Zhuang is an old friend of mine, and he will definitely help with this."
Lu Qiqi did not doubt whether Physician Zhuang could obtain a large quantity of ginseng.
Since Dr. Luo is so certain, he must have a solution.
However, getting the message to Luzhou Prefecture was not an easy task.
After much thought, she finally thought of someone.
Lu Qiqi smiled broadly and said, "Then I'll trouble Doctor Luo to write a letter in his own hand and ask the imperial physician to help the villagers."
After Dr. Luo finished writing the letter, Lu Qiqi returned to her courtyard and, using the same trick, sent Wangcai to deliver it.
However, she did not place all her hopes on Physician Zhuang.
The plague in several villages in Heshun Prefecture was ultimately caused by the inaction of the officials, which led to the current situation.
These days, if you want to refuse to give a single penny and wait for the villagers to recover, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
She absolutely had to get the officials of Heshun Prefecture to pluck her hair.
The villagers already knew about the situation yesterday, and today they appear calm on the surface, but deep down they all harbor resentment.
The remaining two villages, still suffering from the disease, are also watching the situation in Tianlong Village closely.
If the news comes from Tianlong Village, it is because they are missing a certain medicinal herb, which is why they cannot cure the villagers.
The villagers, determined to survive, would not sit idly by and wait to die. After all, they were going to die sooner or later anyway, so why not take a gamble and try to survive?
Just like the scene when the villagers of Tianxin Village fled back then.
"Are we really going to do this?" Zhou Yi asked, looking at Wangcai, who was carrying a letter out of the yard.
Lu Qiqi did not answer; her silence was the answer.
"Aren't you afraid that Tianlong Village will become the next Tianshui Village?" Zhou Yi said. "Destroying a village is no joke!"
When Li Changlong returned from outside, he heard Zhou Yi's questioning.
He closed the courtyard gate and said, "What's all the commotion? Would Qiqi possibly harm the villagers?!"
Lu Qiqi said, "Even without this plague, Tianshui Village wouldn't have existed for very long."
She didn't say this out of thin air; she learned it from a casual conversation with Zhao Xiaodong in Tianxin Village.
In the past two years, the Great Jin Dynasty has suffered from floods in the south and droughts in the north. The Tartars, who make a living by herding, have been constantly robbing and plundering the people of the Great Jin Dynasty under the harsh natural environment.
When the imperial court ordered the conscription of soldiers, Magistrate Zhu of Heshun Prefecture came up with a wicked plan: he arrested all the men in Tianshui Village, leaving only the old, weak, sick, disabled, and children in the village.
Even so, Magistrate Zhu did not show any preferential treatment to Tianshui Village, and the annual tax burden remained unchanged.
In the past, villagers could barely support themselves after paying taxes each year by farming.
However, this local official never did anything right; after arresting the men, the taxes remained unchanged.
In just one year, countless people starved to death.
While it was said that a plague wiped out the village, in reality, the vast majority of the deliberate actions were carried out by the greedy parasite that was Heshun Prefecture.
"Where could a group of elderly, weak, sick, and disabled people, especially those suffering from serious illnesses, possibly escape to?"
Upon hearing this, Li Changlong was utterly shocked and did not ponder Lu Qiqi's words.
On Monday, however, he said in a deep voice, "There was no such thing as escaping. He just wanted to prevent the plague from spreading and lose his official position."
“He’s a complete scoundrel,” Li Changlong finally managed to utter after a long silence.
Lu Qiqi said, "So this matter must be done, otherwise we simply cannot withstand the torment caused by the officials of Heshun Prefecture."
...
The Zhu residence, study.
"So much silver?"
"You want so much silver? That's robbery!"
"Tell them, is it I who need so many medicinal herbs?"
Holding a list, Zhu Datou pointed at the yamen runners below with wide eyes.
The constable lowered his head, barely daring to breathe, and cautiously said, "I told them, the people in the pharmacy all said this is their wholesale price."
"These bastards dare to steal my money! They've got some nerve! Arrest them all! I don't believe they'll dare to ask for more!"
Zhu Datou tore the document in his hand to shreds and threw it fiercely at the yamen runner.
"No, sir!"
Master Zhao arrived late, his sideburns were a bit loose, he must have run all the way here.
"Why not! You surnamed Zhao, if you don't give me a reason that I can accept today, believe me, I'll lock you up too!"
Zhu Datou got tired of standing and cursing, and slumped back into his chair.
Master Zhao bowed to Zhu Datou, then said to the yamen runner, "Go down now."
The constable glanced at Zhu Datou, wanting to ask for his consent.
Zhu Datou waved his hand dismissively.
After the yamen runners left, Zhao the clerk said, "The pharmacies in the city have already donated all the medicinal herbs they were supposed to donate."
This ginseng is no ordinary substance. The adults arrested them all and threw them in jail; we've really shot ourselves in the foot!
Zhu Datou calmed down and agreed with what Zhao Shiye said, but he felt bad about having to take out so much silver all at once.
He said, "Can you come up with a good way to get the wealthy and gentry in the city to donate some money?"
At this point, Master Zhao sighed inwardly, thinking, "Where are the wealthy gentry left in the city these days? They've either fallen on hard times or moved elsewhere. Those who remain are all ordinary people; even opening a shop is considered quite good."
Seeing that Master Zhao remained silent for a long time, Zhu Datou's initial hope gradually diminished.
Zhao, the clerk, said, "Sir, we still have a lot of silver in our accounts. It was all given to outsiders who fled famine and came to the city as entry fees. Why don't we take some out and get through this crisis first?"
Zhu Datou pondered for a moment, then waved his hand impatiently, saying, "You can leave now. Let me think about it some more."
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