Chapter 336 Take Her for Yourself
Minister Cui said, "Your Majesty, news has come back from Bohai County that the herbs they need to treat the epidemic were sent from Lingnan."
Ever since Lu Shiyan took over Bohai County and several other coastal cities and began to settle refugees and grow sea rice, the Great Zhou has been sending people to monitor Bohai County's every move.
Xiao Ye and the other officials were also aware of the Bohai Commandery's practice of locking up those who had contracted the disease, giving them medicine, and releasing them after they recovered.
They even captured the doctor of Bohai County and tortured him to get the prescription for treating the plague in Bohai County.
But the same prescription could cure the plague in Bohai County, but it was useless in the capital.
At first, they suspected that the doctor was hiding something and sent several people to investigate. Finally, they found out that there was nothing wrong with the prescription, but the problem was with the medicinal materials.
Xiao Ye asked, "Could it be possible that the seawater in Lingnan could also be used to grow medicinal herbs?"
There were already quite a few refugees who had moved from outside Cangwu City to several places in Bohai County, and there were also refugees from other places who flocked there after hearing the news.
According to the soldiers he sent to investigate, there were many quarantine villages set up in Bohai County.
With so many sick refugees, a lot of medicinal herbs are needed.
In the past two years, Lingnan, like other parts of the Great Zhou, has been plagued by drought.
In this situation, how could Lingnan still provide so many medicinal herbs to help the refugees?
Xiao Ye was thinking about sea rice. A guess that he was unwilling to admit but often appeared in his mind surfaced again.
I'm afraid that Jiang really has supernatural powers.
“I heard that after Jiang was exiled to Lingnan, she quickly won over the village’s steward and allowed him to do whatever he wanted for her.
The original village that accommodated criminals stipulated that exiled criminals could not leave the village at will and had to work in the fields. This was to meet the criminals' daily needs and also to make them suffer the hardship of labor so that they could reflect on their mistakes.
But Jiang took in servants on the way. After arriving at the farm, he left the farming to the servants and started a business. He soon made money and bought a large piece of land in the farm to grow medicinal herbs.
The refugees outside are saying that the herbs they use are harvested from Jiang's herbal fields. They say she had divined the coming of droughts and plagues, so she stockpiled food and herbs long ago..."
Minister Cui originally wanted to bet on both sides and wanted to do the Lu family a favor, so he did not report some of the things that happened during his exile to the emperor.
But since the Lu family didn't give him face, sent the Cui family's sons to do forced labor, and confiscated the Cui family's property in Lingnan, he felt resentful towards the Lu family. So he deliberately brought up the Lu family's past affairs.
"How could an exiled criminal bribe his servants?" As the ruler of a country, Xiao Ye had too much official business to attend to daily. He had no time to care about such trivial matters. Therefore, this was the first time he had heard someone mention this.
Minister Cui carefully observed Xiao Ye's expression and said, "In theory, exiled criminals cannot buy servants. But the Jiang family didn't go to the government to buy the servants, but only signed a private contract.
The most important point is that Jiang was very cunning. He bribed the escorting officers and soldiers with delicious food and huge profits on the way. The escorting officers did not care, and the emperor was far away, so the situation was chaotic.
"What kind of huge benefits did Jiang promise to make a group of escort officers not afraid of death and bribe them all? Why were these things not reported when the Lu family rebelled?" Xiao Ye was extremely angry, his eyes like sharp knives, stabbing at Minister Cui fiercely.
Minister Cui had already thought of a reason, and he had anticipated the emperor's anger, so he was not panicked.
Although he was calm and composed in his heart, he still pretended to be terrified on the surface. "Your Majesty, the main thing is that the escort officer was cunning. He was bribed by Jiang on the way and got the money-making recipe, but after returning to the capital, he remained calm and did not rush to use the recipe to do business.
Instead, he had been preparing slowly and secretly. Only after he was fully prepared did he hide his identity and open the shop.
At the beginning, we really didn't expect that the shop was run by the escort officers and soldiers who escorted the Lu family.
He actually believed that it was a recipe she came up with after eating too much pig offal. He admired the widow's intelligence. When the widow wanted to open a new shop, he specially informed his subordinates and asked them to protect the widow and not make things difficult for her.
But who would have thought that she was in cahoots with those escort soldiers and was a secret agent planted by the Lu family in the capital."
"You mean the widow Qiao whose husband died in battle and whose mother-in-law is paralyzed? She has a pair of children of her own to raise, but she still refuses to take the children of her husband's comrades home to take care of them?"
A sense of absurdity arose in Xiao Ye's heart.
Because he had eaten Qiaoji's braised pork before, and even openly praised Qiao in the court, saying that women should learn from her filial piety to her parents-in-law.
It can be said that the fact that Widow Qiao was able to go from a small stall selling braised offal at the door to a wealthy businessman in the capital was inseparable from his praise.
After all, she was the one he openly praised in the court. Who would be so blind as to embarrass her?
But this widow who seemed to have no background was actually a secret agent planted by the Lu family in the capital?
He actually helped the Lu family and personally placed secret agents in the capital, and allowed his family to grow stronger step by step thanks to his prestige.
"That's right!" Minister Cui replied, his face pressed to the ground. "It's my fault for not discovering it earlier..."
"Where is the person! Bring him to me, I want to interrogate him personally." The Lu family actually fooled him like this, it was outrageous, outrageous!
"The people are under control, but most of them have already evacuated the capital. We only captured a few soldiers."
Minister Cui advised, "Your Majesty, the key right now is to find a way to control the plague. As for those officers and soldiers who colluded with the Jiang family, it won't be too late to find a way to arrest and deal with them after we've overcome this crisis."
"Are you teaching me how to do things?"
Minister Cui met Xiao Ye's icy gaze and immediately broke out in a sweat. Ever since the war with the Western Rong, the imperial court had been at a disadvantage.
The Great Zhou was facing both external and internal troubles, with constant natural and man-made disasters, and coupled with illness, if Xiao Ye took off his yellow robe, he would look like just a weak and skinny old man.
But even so, he is still the one who can control his own life and death.
Minister Cui kowtowed and apologized immediately.
Only after his forehead was bruised did Xiao Ye finally let him go.
Minister Cui didn't understand why the emperor wanted to personally interrogate the officers and soldiers who escorted the Lu family into exile, but the emperor's sharp and cold eyes seemed to see through his selfish motives. He didn't dare to play tricks again and honestly sent the people over.
In fact, Xiao Ye has always had a bold guess in his mind. The reason why he wanted to interrogate these people personally was just to confirm his guess.
After personally interrogating the officers and soldiers who had escorted the Lu family, Xiao Ye confirmed his long-held guess, and suddenly a crazy idea came to his mind.
He wanted to have her for himself at any cost.
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