At dawn, Zheng Boyuan stood in the middle of the road leading into the village. Seeing the wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys of many houses in the village, he felt a little relieved. Magistrate Li stood beside him, watching his advisor direct people to carry the grain, quicklime, and other daily necessities that had already been brought to the village entrance.
Magistrate Li whispered to Zheng Boyuan, "Lord Zheng, was that official from the Imperial Guards last night really an officer?"
Zheng Boyuan turned to look at him. Zheng Boyuan was tall, while Magistrate Li was of average build. Zheng Boyuan glanced at him with drooping eyelids, then turned back and said casually, "Didn't Magistrate Li already see the other man's waist tag? How could this thing be faked?"
Magistrate Li quickly waved his hand and said, "No, no, I didn't suspect the waist token was fake. I was just wondering why the Imperial Guard would come to Yun'an County?"
Zheng Boyuan sneered inwardly, but said calmly, "Does His Majesty need to explain to me how he acts? It's really unreasonable for Lord Li to ask me this."
Magistrate Li was filled with anxiety. He hadn't gotten any useful information from Zheng Boyuan, and sweat kept pouring from his forehead. He kept wiping it with his sleeve. Zheng Boyuan naturally noticed Magistrate Li's actions and sneered inwardly, but his face remained expressionless. The more Zheng Boyuan acted this way, the greater the pressure Magistrate Li felt. Finally, he felt his legs going weak and could only apologize. He was then helped by his clerk to the roadside to sit on a rock and rest.
Magistrate Li was somewhat worried about the county government's accounts over the past few years. He had originally thought that it was just a son of a fallen noble family who came to train, but who knew that a member of the Imperial Guard, the emperor's personal bodyguard, would appear. Magistrate Li grabbed his clerk's hand and asked in a low voice, "Have all the matters in the county government been resolved?"
The clerk naturally understood what he meant and nodded slightly. Magistrate Li then felt a little more relaxed. He took out a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and stood up with the clerk's help. He said, "Let's go into the tent and rest for a while. There's nothing we can do to help here."
Zheng Boyuan turned and watched the figures of the two supporting each other walk away. He let out a soft snort. This county magistrate's career was over. He just didn't know if he had gotten involved in other things. In Miaozhou, all that was left was to arrest Chu Huaigui, who had now committed suicide. There were many things that were difficult to investigate, so the county magistrates of the counties under Miaozhou, although they hadn't taken any action yet, were all silent and trembling as they waited for the imperial decree from the capital.
After daybreak, Wu Muyue arrived with a group of men. Zheng Boyuan was surprised to see Xu Zhi and the others there as well, and quickly came over to pay his respects.
Wu Muyue said to Zheng Boyuan, "The situation is complicated now. I didn't dare leave the children at home, but I also felt that more manpower was needed here, so I simply brought them all over. How is your mother-in-law in the village? Has the epidemic been brought under control?"
As Zheng Boyuan led the way to his temporary tent, he answered Wu Muyue's questions. Once they were seated inside the tent, Wu Muyue asked, "Have you written a report to the capital explaining what happened?"
Zheng Boyuan nodded and said, "The message was sent by carrier pigeon, and then there were people on horseback carrying a statement of the situation to the post stations. After all, the epidemic is a very important matter."
Indeed, if the plague is not controlled, it will become a major event that shakes the foundation of the country. It is no wonder that the clerk and Magistrate Li did not even think of a solution at the time, but directly hired people to prepare to burn and kill the people in the village.
Wu Muyue nodded, then sighed slightly and said, "This magistrate of Yun'an County is really incompetent. He didn't even investigate the situation properly before ordering people to be burned and killed. He's treating human lives like a game. Boyuan, this matter will cause a storm. You should be prepared."
Zheng Boyuan naturally knew that this matter would cause a stir in the court. If the people of Zhoujia Village were really burned and killed, but the area of Zhoujia Village had not been properly eradicated, it might lead to a plague. And were there still many lazy and incompetent officials like Magistrate Li in the entire Liang Dynasty?
The carrier pigeons were brought by the Imperial Guards. Ostensibly, these guards were borrowed from Emperor Liang Cheng by Marquis Yongning and Xu Rao, but in reality, they were there to protect Chen Yuyuan. The Imperial Guards specially raised a type of pigeon for delivering letters, and they would not use these pigeons unless there was something particularly important. So, at dawn, when these pigeons flew to the Imperial Guards' office in the capital, the commander on duty was terrified. He took the wax-sealed letter tube from the pigeon's leg and immediately ran towards the Imperial Study.
Emperor Liang Cheng had been resting in a room on one side of the Imperial Study. When Chen Wufu was awakened by the eunuch, he was also terrified. The Imperial Guards were sending a message in the dead of night, and the most likely explanation was that something had happened to Chen Yuyuan.
Chen Wufu disregarded propriety and went directly into the inner room where Emperor Liang Cheng was sleeping, gently waking him up.
Upon hearing Chen Wufu's brief explanation, Emperor Liang Cheng, with a sullen face, got out of bed wearing only his undergarments, took the unopened letter tube from Chen Wufu, and went directly to the Imperial Study.
Chen Wufu helped cut open the letter tube. After reading it quickly, Emperor Liang Cheng found that it was not a message from Chen Yuyuan and was finally relieved. However, when he saw that a plague had appeared in Yun'an County under the jurisdiction of Miaozhou, his heart was in turmoil again.
Chen Wufu wanted to ask if something had happened to Chen Yuyuan, but he was also afraid that something really had happened to Chen Yuyuan. Now, so many people's lives were tied to Chen Yuyuan's, and it was truly a case of one thing affecting the whole situation.
After a long silence, Emperor Liang Cheng said in a low voice, "It's not about A Yuan. It's about a plague outbreak in Yun'an County. However, Chen Zhaoci has already rushed there and is treating the sick in the quarantined villages."
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