Chapter 2805 Suspicion
Lord Yu and his men did not leave because they had a lot of sealed things to take over, including confessions, petitions, official documents, medical records, prescriptions, and various medicinal materials that they had searched back from the Medical Bureau.
They have to take over all the things related to this case, but there are quite a lot of things, so Lord Yu and the others decided to seal them up first and then study them slowly.
By the time they finished, it was dark.
The four of them washed their faces as soon as they entered the city. Now they were tired and hungry. After sending someone to look after their things, they went to take a shower.
After taking a shower, they gathered together to eat and discuss the case.
Imperial Physician Lu and Imperial Physician Xiao Tan were both flipping through an account book in their hands. This was the account book that Zheng Gu had sent back to Zhou Man, and Zhou Man later handed it over.
They had already looked at it more than once, and now they were just comparing it with the previous few account books.
Imperial Physician Lu found the account books and presented them to Lord Yu. "This is the list of medicinal herbs purchased and their expenditures for September of last year. Compared to this year, the purchases for the same period last year were less than a third of this year's. Furthermore, the difference widened with each subsequent two months. By November, he had purchased five times as many cold-fighting and epidemic prevention herbs as he did during the same period last year."
Lord Yu compared it carefully and found that the account book also had a list of purchased medicinal materials attached, which was pasted, folded and stuffed into the book so that it could be seen intuitively.
Lord Yu compared them and couldn't help but exclaimed, "This method is quite intuitive. How did you in the Imperial Medical Bureau come up with this?"
Doctor Lu raised his eyelids and glanced at him. "When the Imperial Medical Bureau was first established, we had to purchase a lot of things. When things got busy, it was too cumbersome to write down the purchase orders one by one in the account book. So Doctor Zhou simply recorded the expenses in the account book and pasted the purchase orders directly on that page. This way, it is clear at a glance and saves a lot of time. He can copy them down later when he has free time."
But generally speaking, they don't have free time anymore, so the account books remain like this.
Obviously, Zheng Gu was also very busy for a period of time last year, so he was lazy like this.
This year, I carefully recorded the purchase orders one by one in the account book.
Lord Yu tapped the table and thought, then picked up a steamed bun and took a bite.
Master Xia, standing nearby, unfolded a long, thick notebook and pointed to the list of patients. "This is the list of patients starting from the second day of October. I've noticed that the number of patients has been slowly increasing since this day, almost doubling compared to the same time last year. And it seems the number is increasing as time goes on."
After flipping through a few pages, he said, "And the people who come to consult are not only from Luoyang County, but also from other counties."
"Are they all poor people?"
"No, it's half and half," he said, "and a considerable number of them are asking for medicine on my behalf."
Lord Xia showed this paragraph to everyone. There was a word "dai" after the list above, which recorded two names: one was the name of the patient, and the other was the name of the person who got the medicine on his behalf.
Lord Xia couldn't help but sigh, "I remember it very carefully."
Such a detailed account book is generally impossible to be fake, because it contains the household registration address, age, and name, and it is almost accurate when checked. Fake accounts are not made like this.
Even the Imperial Censor, Lord Xia, couldn't help but marvel at this. When they consulted late into the night and retired to their rooms for sleep, Lord Xia couldn't help but remark to his roommate, Lord Yu, "Only the Ministry of Revenue could produce such detailed accounts. The Imperial Medical Bureau alone is far superior to many other departments. I wonder how Dean Xiao trained these people."
Lord Yu scoffed and said, "Have you never checked the accounts of the Imperial Hospital? Is this something that Dean Xiao could have done?"
He said, "I think this is a matter of inheritance from a master, and has little to do with Xiao Yuanzheng."
Lord Yu also found the accounts comforting. He lay down on the bed and said thoughtfully, "Speaking of which, Zhou Man has always been a doctor of the Imperial Medical Bureau. The establishment of the Imperial Medical Bureau was based on her suggestion. She can be considered one of the elders. So, the other students in the Imperial Medical Bureau also learn this way of accounting, right?"
Lord Xia smiled and said, "It will be much easier to check the accounts of the Imperial Medical Bureau in the future."
The Censorate supervises all officials, and the Dali Temple is simply the place where officials, royal relatives, dignitaries, and some major cases are tried. They review the accounts of officials and departments the most. Sometimes they get so angry while checking the accounts that they want to shake each other's heads and spit. At least you are from a Mingjing background, can you use your brains when doing the accounts? Use your brains?
But it's hard to say.
Both of them are very experienced officials. They have come across many cases of beautifully made false accounts, but those that are so detailed and have corresponding account books are basically true.
Lord Yu pondered, "If he was after money, he could have easily tampered with the accounts. There was no need to go through the trouble of buying fake medicine. Not only would it kill the patient, but it would also easily lead to theft."
Lord Xia nodded. "I also tend to believe that he is innocent. At least, he was not aware of the fake medicine."
"The two possibilities are dereliction of duty and being framed."
At first, most people thought of the former, and they didn't think Zheng Gu would deliberately buy fake medicine. He was the young master of Jishitang and had plenty of money. How much money could two fake medicines bring him?
Apart from those who are naturally greedy and cruel, only fools would do such a thing.
"If they are negligent, we need to investigate the person who handled this batch of herbs, as well as the drug dealer he purchased them from."
Lord Yu had already lain down, pulling the quilt over his body. "Let's investigate tomorrow. Tomorrow we'll go see Zheng Gu. He's the person involved and should know more about this matter. And..."
And what, Lord Yu didn’t say.
"And he's purchased so many cold-resistant and epidemic-preventive herbs," Lord Xia said quietly. "Clearly, he's already foreseen the cold snap in Luozhou. So, what's the situation in Luozhou? Why hasn't the capital received any reports on the situation?"
The current emperor is diligent and loves the people. He has repeatedly emphasized that all local disasters must be reported, especially the Shengzhou flood that was concealed and delayed a few years ago, which caused considerable consequences. The emperor dealt with many Shengzhou officials in anger. Local governments no longer dared to conceal the disasters and would report to the capital whenever there was a natural disaster or man-made disaster.
No matter whether the emperor and the court provide relief or not, just report it if there is any.
The emperor and the imperial court would not give relief money and food casually. In most disasters, the local areas had to save themselves, and then officials from the Censorate or the Dali Temple would be sent to inspect the local areas. Only when encountering slightly larger natural disasters would the imperial court allocate funds for assistance.
Therefore, Lord Xia reasonably suspected that the officials of Luozhou concealed the disaster in order to prevent officials from the Censorate and the Dali Temple from inspecting the disaster.
Lord Yu also suspected this, but without evidence, he couldn't just say such things, even though they were both working on the same case.
See you at 4 p.m.
I saw a comment yesterday saying that swallowing the keyboard during live broadcast can offset all the missed updates. For a moment, my heart was moved.
But after thinking about it, I decided to just forget it and make up for it honestly.
(End of this chapter)
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