Chapter 204
204
After the Chinese New Year, the factories were just getting back on track and the crops on the farms had been planted, so he planned to go and see the situation in several villages.
There were two villages whose land was not sold to the landlord, nor did he build farms there. The villagers were left to take care of their own fields. But when he arrived there, he found that many people had died of illness. It turned out that there was a plague in the villages under the county town that Xia Xiaowu was in charge of.
At the beginning of the plague, Xia Xiaowu did not take it seriously, which led to the spread of the plague. After the spread, he did not think of ways to save people, but ordered people to seal off the village and let them fend for themselves.
During this period, Cheng Yeran secretly collected evidence of Xia Xiaowu's crimes, arrested Xia Xiaowu, and avenged Shen Yuntang in his previous life.
During the years since Xia Xiaowu took office, he has taken bribes and oppressed the people, but he concealed it very well and used all his intelligence to destroy the evidence, so Cheng Yeran did not find it.
If Cheng Yeran had not gone to the countryside to check the situation in person during this epidemic, he would not have discovered that Xia Xiaowu actually didn't care about the lives of the villagers.
He immediately arrested Xia Xiaowu. Xia Xiaowu was afraid, and he begged Cheng Yeran, saying that if the emperor knew about it, he would definitely sentence him to death, exile his entire family, or even execute them all. But because his husband was Shen Yuntang, who was his cousin, he was spared.
Xia Xiaowu saw with his own eyes how good Cheng Yeran was to Shen Yuntang, and he also heard a lot of rumors about how much Cheng Yeran loved Shen Yuntang. He wanted to take a chance, hoping that Cheng Yeran would let him go because of Shen Yuntang.
But he had miscalculated. It was because of Shen Yuntang that Cheng Yeran could not let Xia Xiaowu go.
In his previous life, Shen Yuntang suffered so much at the hands of Xia Xiaowu. Every time he saw Xia Xiaowu, he wanted to beat him up. How dare he beg for mercy from him?
Cheng Yeran looked down at Xia Xiaowu, who was begging him to let him go with tears streaming down his face. "When you begged for mercy, did you ever think about the people you killed? I really regret not killing you earlier. If I had killed you earlier, so many people wouldn't have died because of you."
"The plague was not caused by me, and I stopped them all in the village and did not let them go out for the sake of the overall situation. If I had not stopped everyone in the village, everyone in the provincial capital would be dead now, and you would not be able to survive, and it might even have spread to the whole country. I saved everyone, even your life. You shouldn't have reported it to the emperor." Xia Xiaowu is still the same as before. All the mistakes are others', and he never blames himself.
"If you think you are not guilty, why are you afraid that His Majesty will know? Do you mean that His Majesty does not know right from wrong? He convicts you at random?" Cheng Yeran asked him.
Xia Xiaowu was so scared when he heard this that he trembled all over. "Master Cheng, you are really good at putting accusations on others. When did I say that His Majesty was wrong? I'm just afraid that you will distort the facts. I know you have always hated me. You hate that I was engaged to Shen Yuntang before and then broke off the engagement. You gave the person I didn't want to you, so you are so jealous and resentful of me. How can I not be afraid?"
"It's come to this, and you still don't know where you went wrong? When you discovered the plague, four people had died. How big is the difference from the current number? Not only did you not isolate the sick people, deal with the dead bodies and their used items, and give the patients treatment and medicine, but you locked up healthy people with the sick and the corpses in the same place. If this isn't killing people, what is this? You just want them all to die, leaving no one alive, so you can save trouble." Cheng Yeran didn't expect that not only did he not think he was wrong, but he was also talking nonsense here.
Cheng Yeran ordered that Xia Xiaowu be dragged out and tied up at the gate of the yamen, with a note about his mistake posted next to him. During this period, the people in the city were in panic due to the plague and no one dared to go out. This was what Cheng Yeran wanted them to do. Staying at home could also reduce the possibility of infection.
Last time, he invited two famous doctors from Beijing for Du Fengchen. When the doctors learned about the situation, they immediately asked Cheng Yeran to go and see the patients. After taking a look, they found out that they had smallpox.
There was no medicine to cure smallpox in that era, so Cheng Yeran bought a large amount of medicine online, isolated all the patients, and also isolated those who had contact with the patients.
He told the doctor from the capital how to vaccinate smallpox with the cowpox vaccine and vaccinate all the people in the city. He had seen this method of treating cowpox in a book before, and read it to kill time, but he didn't expect it to be of great use now.
The doctor had never heard of this method and was a little worried about its feasibility. Moreover, Cheng Yeran told them that it was found in an ancient book. They didn't know whether the book was reliable or not. What if it was unreliable? Wouldn't it endanger people's lives? They had to experiment first. It would be better to find a patient to experiment on.
Cheng Yeran directly proposed to use himself as the experiment first, but the doctors dared not to do it. Shen Yuntang also said that it would be better to let himself do it. The two of them started to compete with each other, and they were both worried about each other's health.
Cheng Yeran asked Shen Yuntang to stay at home with the children and not go out, but Shen Yuntang was not willing to let him go out alone at this time. He followed Cheng Yeran and ran around every day. He also bought food with his own money and distributed food and water to the quarantined people.
The doctor was so moved by the attitude of Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang that he burst into tears. He didn't expect that Lord Cheng and Shen Yuntang would care so much about the people that they even ignored their own safety.
At Cheng Yeran's repeated request, they vaccinated him with cowpox. Shen Yuntang, Cheng Zhao and all the servants in the family were also vaccinated. After the doctors observed that there was no problem, they went to vaccinate the people in the city.
When the people in the city heard that these two were doctors from the capital, they believed them and rushed to get vaccinated.
With the method of vaccinating against smallpox and the use of medicines bought from the future, the plague was quickly brought under control and the patients recovered.
He also distributed food to the disaster-stricken villages to help them overcome temporary difficulties.
He was afraid that the people here might have other infectious diseases, so he distributed soap to the villagers and asked them to wash their hands frequently on a daily basis. The soap was of a special quality, and he was afraid that they would not use it themselves and sell it for money. The soap was made very ugly, like a defective product, and the color was not right. It could be sold for money, but it was a lot of effort. Cheng Yeran ordered that no one in the city was allowed to buy this batch of soap, and it was too much effort to sell it in other areas, so he had to keep it for himself.
Improving hygiene can prevent various diseases.
He also made an agreement with the village heads that if they discovered such a situation in the future, they must report it. Not only smallpox, but also other diseases. For example, if livestock became sick and died, they must also be reported. They must never eat sick or dead poultry in private. Even if it is a pig, a chicken or a duck that died of illness, as long as they died of illness, they must be reported. If they are not protected, there will be punishment.
In addition to reporting dead livestock, the village chief also needs to teach villagers some health knowledge, such as not to eat spoiled food, and it is best not to drink raw water, but boiled water...
The village heads of several villages saw Cheng Yeran tying Xia Xiaowu up at the gate of the yamen. As small village heads, how could they dare to disobey Cheng Yeran's orders?
Cheng Yeran also planned to quickly pave the cement road to make the streets here cleaner to prevent them from becoming too dirty and breeding bacteria and causing other infectious diseases.
After the plague was over, many people went to the gate of the yamen to see Xia Xiaowu. Some people hated Xia Xiaowu for fearing punishment from his superiors, so he deliberately concealed the disaster and let the people fend for themselves, killing so many people. Some people came to watch the fun, and some came to mock Xia Xiaowu. After all, Xia Xiaowu used to be a county magistrate, but now he was tied up and allowed to be scolded by them, which made them feel very happy.
Every day people came to visit Xia Xiaowu, scolded him, and threw vegetable leaves and rotten eggs at him, making his life worse than death.
He thought he was a genius since he was young. When he was in the village, he studied better than Cheng Yeran. Both his knowledge and family conditions were far superior to Cheng Yeran. Even his husband was given to Cheng Yeran because he didn't want one. Why is Cheng Yeran climbing higher than him now?
He suspected that Cheng Yeran had taken away his luck, and Shen Yuntang was the person who brought him good luck. That person was taken away by Cheng Yeran, so his fate became what it is now.
He was about to get married with Shen Yuntang, but Cheng Yeran fell into the water together with Shen Yuntang a month before his wedding. No one believed that this was not premeditated.
Before Cheng Yeran married Shen Yuntang, he had always been a hopeless piece of mud. After marrying Shen Yuntang, he seemed like a different person. Not only did he become more energetic and hardworking, he even became an official. He always had many wonderful ideas. Not only did he make money in business, he was also valued by the emperor. All this started because Cheng Yeran married Shen Yuntang.
He usually felt that Cheng Yeran was weird. He had seen the fortune-teller in the village before. Could it be that it was the fortune-teller who told the fortune for him?
If I was the one who married Shen Yuntang in the first place,
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The person sitting in Cheng Yeran’s seat was himself, and the person tied up at the gate of the county government office was Cheng Yeran.
The more he thought about it, the more excited he became. He had to tell Shen Yuntang about this and couldn't let Shen Yuntang continue to be deceived by Cheng Yeran.
As long as he lives, he will go to Shen Yuntang and expose Cheng Yeran's crimes.
As he thought this, he seemed to be unable to hear the insults from those around him, and he didn't even feel the pain when the rotten vegetable leaves hit him.
He was fantasizing in his mind when he saw a familiar figure in front of him. It was Shen Yuntang!
How did he get here?
Xia Xiaowu originally thought that he was here to find Cheng Yeran, but he saw Shen Yuntang standing in front of him, not just passing by, but stopped in front of him.
Could it be that Shen Yuntang came here specifically to see him? Does Shen Yuntang still have him in her heart? Shen Yuntang wants to plead for him?
He recalled some distant memories. Before he broke off his engagement with Shen Yuntang, he had met her privately several times.
He felt that Shen Yuntang admired him and liked him very much. One person's love for another person is not so easy to disappear. He was sure that Shen Yuntang still cared about him and was reluctant to let him be humiliated here. He would rather be suspected and scolded by Cheng Yeran than not plead for him!
Shen Yuntang loves him so much!
"Atang..." Xia Xiaowu's eyes moistened, "I didn't expect that when I was down and out, the only person who cared about me was you."
"I miss you and how miserable your life is, so I can't help but want to come and take a look." It was noon when Shen Yuntang came to see him. The people who were watching around had all left and there was no one around. Shen Yuntang came over, stood in front of him, and carefully looked at this enemy from his previous life.
Shen Yuntang's tone was full of hatred, but Xia Xiaowu was immersed in his own world and didn't hear it at all. Hearing him say that he missed her, he was extremely happy, "I knew you haven't forgotten me yet."
"Yes, how could I forget you?" Shen Yuntang looked at the man in front of him who was like a puddle of mud, the man who had tortured him and made him suffer in his previous life. How happy he was that things had turned out like this.
When Xia Xiaowu heard him say this, he was extremely happy, with a smile on his face. He thought to himself, so what if Cheng Yeran tied him up here? The person Shen Yuntang cared about the most was still him, and he had defeated Cheng Yeran.
He was just feeling happy when he saw Shen Yuntang bending down and picking up a pile of rotten vegetable leaves on the ground. He frowned in confusion. Why did Shen Yuntang do this? Could it be that he wanted to clean up the rotten vegetable leaves around him? Is he afraid that people will come over and continue throwing vegetable leaves at him in the afternoon?
He was just about to say don't touch that, it's dirty, but before he could say it, he saw Shen Yuntang throwing rotten vegetable leaves on him. He widened his eyes in disbelief. He thought he was hallucinating, otherwise how could he see Shen Yuntang throwing rotten vegetable leaves on him?
But soon, he saw Shen Yuntang throwing another handful of garbage on him. Shen Yuntang didn't mind the dirt and just picked up a handful and threw it on him.
Shen Yuntang knew that what he did was beneath his dignity, but he didn't care. He just wanted to make himself feel good.
"Did you misunderstand something? You blame me for not marrying you and marrying your cousin instead? So you have been holding a grudge against me? That was not my intention, it was my mother's. Besides, there was another reason why you fell into the water. It was because of Cheng Yeran. Listen to me!" Xia Xiaowu turned his head with difficulty, trying to dodge Shen Yuntang's attack, but his face was still covered with rotten vegetable leaves.
The officers and soldiers who were guarding Xia Xiaowu trembled when they heard what Xia Xiaowu said. They didn't expect that Xia Xiaowu had this kind of relationship with Lord Cheng and his wife. They heard the gossip about Lord Cheng today. Will Lord Cheng deal with them?
It was not right for them to hide away, and it was awkward for them to stay here. Just when they were in a dilemma, they heard Shen Yuntang say to them: "Shut his mouth."
When the two men heard this, they quickly covered Xia Xiaowu's mouth to prevent him from saying something more outrageous and being heard by the two of them. Then Lord Cheng would kill them both to silence them.
Shen Yuntang felt relieved. He dusted off his hands, turned around, got on the carriage and returned home.
He didn't want to bring it up with Cheng Yeran. He didn't want Cheng Yeran to know what bad things had happened to him in his previous life.
Xia Xiaowu's mouth was covered and he could only make a whimpering sound. He couldn't understand why Shen Yuntang treated him like this?
Didn’t he just break off the engagement? Was there any need for Shen Yuntang to hate him so much?
Just as he was thinking about it, he saw Shen Yunfeng coming over.
He had been tied up here for several days, and Shen Yunfeng had never come. He was still blaming him in his heart.
Some time ago, Shen Yunfeng filed for divorce with him and wanted to take the child away. He was definitely not happy about it. How could a man take the child away after divorce?
Even if the servants in the house all helped Shen Yunfeng, so what? He was the county magistrate, and Shen Yunfeng couldn't leave the county even if he wanted to, let alone divorce.
I didn't expect that Shen Yunfeng hated him so much, but still came to see him.
As a result, Shen Yunfeng didn't even look at him and went straight into the government office. Xia Xiaowu's eyes widened.
But on second thought, Shen Yunfeng should have gone in to plead for him.
However, Shen Yunfeng came to the wrong place. He should have gone to find his cousin. Xia Xiaowu couldn't help shaking his head and scolding Shen Yunfeng for being stupid in his heart. If he was smarter, he should have asked his cousin to persuade Cheng Yeran.
Xia Xiaowu guessed wrong again. Shen Yunfeng did not come to plead for him, but brought all the evidence of his crimes.
Shen Yunfeng took the evidence and found Cheng Yeran. "I have evidence of Xia Xiaowu's bribery over the years. I want to ask you something. Since you are my brother-in-law, you must agree to this small request of mine."
Cheng Yeran didn't expect him to come. When they were in the village, Shen Yunfeng liked Xia Xiaowu so much. Why did they run away when the disaster happened?
"He has made such a big mistake now, he can't escape punishment anyway. He is dead end now. It makes no difference whether you produce the evidence or not." Cheng Yeran looked indifferent.
Shen Yunfeng was frightened by his behavior. He thought he had enough bargaining chips to negotiate with Cheng Yeran, but Cheng Yeran didn't care at all. He quickly pleaded, "I want to divorce him and take the child away. I don't want to be implicated by him. I know you still have me in your heart and you are also reborn. As long as you agree to divorce him, I am willing to come back to you. I was wrong. I shouldn't have been obsessed and abandoned you to be with him?"
Cheng Yeran: “???”
Although Cheng Yeran didn't understand the second half of his sentence, he understood another thing, "No wonder Shen Yuntang fell into the water with me in this life, it turned out to be you who did it?"
"I know I was wrong. Even if you let me be your concubine, I would be happy to do that." Shen Yunfeng knew that he still liked him, otherwise Cheng Yeran would not have made things difficult for Xia Xiaowu.
Cheng Yeran was so angry that he laughed, "Are you having some kind of hallucination? How can you say such a thing? Come here, take the evidence from him and arrest him as well. You knew about it but didn't report it, and you protected Xia Xiaowu. Put them in jail together. Wait until I ask His Majesty for his opinion, and then I can convict you."
Shen Yunfeng never thought that he came to negotiate terms with Cheng Yeran, but was thrown into jail by Cheng Yeran! His conditions were easily snatched away by Cheng Yeran. It was not until he was thrown into jail by the police that he came to his senses. It turned out that Cheng Yeran had never liked him, but he mistakenly thought that he was still obsessed with him.
…
The people sent by the emperor to pick up Cheng Yeran and his family back to the capital were stopped outside the city. It was said that Cheng Yeran had closed the city gates and even surrounded several villages, not allowing people in the city to go out, let alone outsiders to come in.
None of the people sent by the emperor saw Cheng Yeran, so naturally even the emperor's edict could not be delivered to Cheng Yeran.
When the emperor heard the news, he was very angry, but he could not say that Cheng Yeran was disobeying the emperor's order. He had not even received the imperial edict, so how could he be said to be disobeying the emperor's order?
The Emperor planned to send more people to break down the city gate and bring Cheng Yeran and his family out. The situation inside must be extremely dangerous, otherwise Cheng Yeran would not have done such a thing.
But when the emperor sent the second group of people over there, he heard that the plague had been under control. More than a thousand people died in such a short time. This kind of plague has occurred before. The last time, nearly 30,000 people died. And this number of 30,000 is also inflated. Officials were afraid of taking responsibility and deliberately reported a lower number.
What method did Cheng Yeran use? But they knew Cheng Yeran's character very well and he would not lie about the death toll.
When the plague broke out, Cheng Yeran locked himself in the city, regardless of the safety of his own family, stayed with the people, and controlled the spread of the plague, which made them admire him.
Later, these officials and the emperor
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From Ye Ran's report, we learned that the plague was smallpox, which spread in a small village. That village was under the jurisdiction of Xia Xiaowu. He concealed the matter and even fenced off the village to prevent the news from leaking out.
But smallpox still spread to other villages, and the situation became out of control.
When Cheng Yeran learned about this, more than 900 people had died and countless people had been infected.
His report also wrote about how to prevent smallpox, and requested the emperor to issue an order to vaccinate the entire country against smallpox. He also said that he had found the method in an ancient book, and that his family had tried it personally and confirmed that there was no problem.
The emperor and all the civil and military officials in the court admired Cheng Yeran's means, courage and loyalty. For the sake of the people, he even personally tested the prescriptions, risked his own life for the people, and saved so many lives. The merits he has accumulated are enough for him to become an immortal.
The emperor ordered that officials and their families be vaccinated first, and then the common people. He also ordered that Cheng Yeran's deeds be written in the newspaper so that people all over the country would know about Cheng Yeran's contributions and spread his merits. He should not let his work be in vain, and he should be given some material rewards.
The emperor thought that if Xia Xiaowu had not concealed the truth, perhaps not even those thousand people would have died. When the plague occurred in the past, were there officials like Xia Xiaowu who, because of their concealment, allowed the plague, which was not that serious at first, to expand to an uncontrollable level?
He must be severely punished, and must be beheaded and his entire family exiled to appease the souls of the more than a thousand dead people. It can also serve as a warning to other officials so that they dare not follow his example.
In addition to being angry at Xia Xiaowu, the emperor was also afraid. Although Cheng Yeran did this for the sake of the people, he disregarded his own safety. That body was his and belonged to the Cheng family. How could Cheng Yeran be so careless and act so recklessly? What if I die next time?
He even regretted letting Cheng Yeran leave the capital this time. He asked two imperial doctors to go to Cheng Yeran and check his health to make sure nothing happened to him. And Cheng Zhao was his son, so he must not be in any trouble. At the same time, he was also considering putting the matter of letting Cheng Yeran return to the capital on the agenda.
He could only feel at ease if he kept the whole family under his nose to prevent any accidents from happening outside. Cheng Yeran was a troublesome person, and he would feel uneasy if he didn't keep an eye on him.
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