Chapter 74 You're awake!
The Yanghe River embankment collapsed, and loose sand and gravel were washed ashore.
Once the floodwaters had completely receded, the crown prince, accompanied by many officials, once again inspected the breached riverbank.
Xing Dongyang, the Assistant Minister of Works in charge of water conservancy, squatted on the riverbank, carefully examining the rocks washed out by the breach and the exposed foundation piles. After half a day, outsiders could only see that his brow had become increasingly sunken.
The magistrate, trembling with fear, couldn't help but ask, "Master Xing, what's wrong with these sand and gravel?"
"What do you mean by 'problem'?" Xing Dongyang threw down a fist-sized stone and let out a cold snort. "The entire dam was built with a shortcut in mind. The craftsmen were spared trouble, and materials were used sparingly, but who knows where all the money allocated by the imperial court went!"
After speaking angrily, he led the prince to the dam to examine the situation more closely.
"Your Highness, please look. The stones used to repair the Yanghe River dike are mostly small, broken stones. The cap stones are uneven, and the wooden piles underneath are of poor quality and too short. The fact that this dike has lasted until this year before collapsing is truly a blessing from Heaven!"
The magistrate exclaimed several times, "What a terrible thing!" and clasped his hands together, saying, "Your humble servant was only transferred to Guiyi three years ago. I only knew the surface, not the essence. If I had known earlier that the Yanghe River dike was so vulnerable to impact, I would have reinforced it in advance and taken precautions..."
Yu Mingshu couldn't help but glance at him. His anxious attempt to distance himself from the situation was practically as if he had "I didn't build the dam, and I wasn't even a employee back then" written all over his face.
Liang Yuanjun's face darkened. "Who were the officials in charge of repairing the dike back then?"
The county magistrate stammered, "I only know that the magistrate at the time was surnamed Wen, and he was later promoted to governor of Liangzhou. As for the other officials, I can't remember them clearly, but there are records in the county office. Would Your Highness like to retrieve them?"
Liang Yuanjun left only four words: "Investigate to the end."
An investigation is definitely necessary, but it shouldn't be done immediately by digging up old lists and settling old scores.
Cases of this magnitude must be handled according to procedure. First, a report must be submitted to the Emperor, who will then issue an edict appointing officials to form an investigation team, followed by a thorough review at each level.
The process is cumbersome, but it has to be followed.
That afternoon, Yu Mingshu handed the prepared explanation to the courier, who then sent it to Chang'an overnight.
The following afternoon, the Crown Prince also embarked on his journey home.
Just before she boarded the carriage, a courier returning from Chang'an rushed to Yang Leyi's side and handed her a bamboo tube.
"Secretary Yang, this is a letter from Youzhou."
Upon hearing the words "Youzhou," Yu Mingshu paused for a moment as he was about to board the carriage, his gaze involuntarily drifting towards the bamboo tube.
Yang Leyi said to the courier, "Go back and collect your reward." Then she got into the carriage.
The Crown Prince's carriage was spacious enough to comfortably accommodate the three of them. Liang Yuanjun took a sip of hot tea, then accepted the letter from Yang Leyi and smoothed out the creases.
The carriage suddenly fell silent, with only the sound of horses' hooves coming from behind the door.
After a long silence, Liang Yuanjun said, "He Zheng fought with Liang Feng and was slightly injured."
Yu Mingshu's heart leaped into her throat. "Is the injury serious?"
“The wound isn’t serious,” Liang Yuanjun said, “but Liang Feng is cunning and poisoned the blade.”
Yu Mingshu had just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the second half of the sentence and held his breath again.
Liang Yuanjun looked at her slightly pale face, her hands clenched into fists at her knees, and after a moment of silence, she smiled and said, "Fortunately, there is nothing serious. The military doctor has cleared the remaining poison from him."
Yu Mingshu was quite frightened by the Crown Prince's heavy breathing. Even after hearing these words, he still dared not relax and waited nervously for a long time. Only when the turning point did he finally feel completely at ease.
"It's good that people are alive."
Having observed her reaction for a while, Liang Yuanjun put away her playful smile and said seriously, "He Zheng has captured Baishi City and killed the traitor Liang Feng. Fan Qing has also led elite troops north to launch a surprise attack and captured two major tribes under the command of the King of Northern Yan."
"Taking advantage of the situation, the Huyan clan launched an attack, pointing their swords at the royal court, and the Northern Yan was thrown into complete chaos..."
Yang Leyi asked, "The Huyan clan has started fighting with the King of Northern Yan? Should our army continue its northward march?"
"If you don't cut the weeds at the root, they'll grow back in the spring breeze." Yu Mingshu said, "Northern Yan is currently beset by internal and external troubles and is too busy to fight. If we don't attack now, when will we?"
Yang Leyi sighed silently and said, "I'm afraid the national treasury won't have enough money and grain to support the subsequent war."
Liang Yuanjun took another sip of tea, put down the empty teacup, her eyes turned cold, and said, "Money is something that can always be squeezed out if you try."
Where do you squeeze in from?
Yang Leyi and Yu Mingshu across from her exchanged a glance, then looked in perfect unison at the list of names lying on the coffee table.
If we investigate these filthy accounts as soon as possible and confiscate the property of these corrupt officials, the money in the national treasury will naturally come back.
Liang Yuanjun suddenly chuckled, “Before He Zheng set out on his campaign, His Majesty declared—whoever drives out the Yan people and recaptures the city will be rewarded with 500 mu of land. Whoever breaks through Yan City and kills the traitorous servant Pu Feng will be granted the title of fifth-rank viscount. Whoever storms the Northern Yan royal court will be enfeoffed as a marquis of a thousand households. If He Zheng proves himself and actually marches to the Northern Yan royal court, wouldn't his rank be a head higher than his father's and brothers’?”
Yang Leyi smiled and shook her head, "This is against etiquette. If His Majesty really wants to grant General Xiao He a title, he should first promote him to the title of Earl of Anyuan."
Yu Mingshu thought to himself: But if both An Yuanbo and He Zheng are enfeoffed as marquises, and He Ting is only the heir apparent, then in terms of rank, He Zheng is superior to He Ting, and the hierarchy of this family will still be unclear...
Well then, let's not even talk about whether He Zheng can actually reach the royal court. Just the fact that this was said by the emperor in a fit of anger means it's not certain whether he can keep his word.
Making empty promises before the war and then withdrawing them afterward is not uncommon in history.
…
Inside Liang Jun's command tent, the air was filled with the bitter smell of medicine.
A cough came from the bed behind the screen, startling Yunying, who was half asleep by the stove. She opened her eyes and was momentarily dazed. She first checked the medicine pot drying beside her before running behind the screen and bending down to check He Zheng's pulse.
The moment his fingertips touched He Zheng's wrist, the man withdrew his hand and pressed the blanket over himself.
Their eyes met, and Yunying was suddenly overjoyed.
General He, you're awake?
The boy in front of her had a wide smile, revealing four big white teeth, and his attentive attitude was strangely enthusiastic.
He Zheng looked away, lifted the covers and sat up. Yun Ying reached out to help him, but he turned away.
How long have I been lying there?
"Three days."
Yunying pouted and said with dissatisfaction, "Liang Feng's weapon was poisoned. If I hadn't been knowledgeable enough to immediately identify what kind of poison you had been poisoned with, and hadn't cleaned your wounds and prescribed medicine for you, you would be lying in bed with him on your way to the capital right now."
That's not how it works. Even without him, the other military doctors aren't useless. Yunying can detoxify and prepare medicine, so naturally the other military doctors can too.
He Zheng didn't voice his thoughts, after all, Yun Ying's name should indeed be credited at this moment.
He put on his fur robe and walked straight to the desk, his voice slightly hoarse, "I understand. I will add your name to the commendation report, and you will receive the reward you deserve."
Yunying glanced at him, mouthing a silent curse for his heartlessness. Then, her eyes met He Zheng's deep gaze, and she quickly flashed a standard smile.
He poured the cooled medicine into a bowl, steadily placed it in front of He Zheng, and said, "General, please take your medicine."
He Zheng glanced at the dark liquid in the bowl, but there was no sign of a hole.
Where is Jing Hongren?
"He went to eat and will be back in a bit," Yunying said, then tapped the rim of her bowl. "If the general doesn't drink it soon, the medicine will get cold."
He Zheng remained unmoved, like a mountain.
"You're afraid I'll poison you?" Yunying suddenly realized what I meant, her eyes widening. "If I wanted to harm you, I could have just let Liang Feng poison you to death. Why would I save you first and then kill you!"
"When did I ever say I doubted you!" He Zheng was exasperated.
Yunying frowned and pointed at the medicine bowl, saying, "Then why won't you drink it? You... are you afraid of the bitterness?"
He Zheng reluctantly took the bowl of medicine, drank it all in one gulp, then put the bowl back in his hand and said, "Is this alright?"
Yunying took away the empty bowl with satisfaction, and soon brought over a bowl of dark brown paste.
He Zheng's brow twitched. "What is this now?"
“Your injury is external, so in addition to internal medicine, there is also external medicine.” Yunying glanced at him, then moved a small stool over and pretended to loosen his belt.
Unable to bear it any longer, He Zheng got up and moved away from him, saying, "You are a doctor, not my servant. It's not your place to serve me by changing my dressings."
Yunying said, "It's only natural for doctors to take care of patients. Why do you have so many questions?"
He Zheng remained silent, his gaze coldly fixed on Yun Ying, the strange feeling in his heart growing stronger.
Jinghong returned just in time. As soon as he entered the door, he saw the two of them standing about ten steps apart, seemingly facing each other.
"My lord, what's wrong?" he asked, bewildered.
He Zheng sat back down at the desk, snatched the medicine from Yun Ying's hand, and said, "You can leave now."
Jing Hong was taken aback: "Me?"
He Zheng glared at him speechlessly, then pointed at Yun Ying and said, "I'm talking about him!"
Jinghong breathed a sigh of relief. He knew it; how could his master possibly kick him out?
Yunying sat stiffly for a while, and seeing that He Zheng didn't look at her again, she left in a huff.
Jing Hong then came over and sat on the stool, unbuttoned He Zheng's shirt, and removed the bandage from his arm.
A chill ran through him. He looked down and saw that the wound was only two inches long. After three days of rest, a hard scab had formed. It was only a little itchy and didn't hurt.
Why would you need to apply medicine if it's like this?
He immediately stopped Jinghong, saying, "There's no need to change the dressing. Bring me a clean set of clothes."
Jinghong insisted, "Even the smallest injury needs careful care. Young Master Yun said that this medicine will prevent scarring."
“Only young ladies care about this,” He Zheng said dismissively.
Jinghong replied, "It is precisely because the young lady cares that the young master cannot leave a scar."
"What nonsense are you talking about?" He Zheng frowned at him.
Jing Hong's gaze was so firm that He Zheng hesitated for a moment.
Reconsidering Jinghong's words, a face suddenly flashed through He Zheng's mind, causing him to catch his breath and immediately change his mind.
"Change the dressing, change it now."
Jing Hong smiled and carefully applied the medicine to He Zheng's scars, then re-bandaged them with a clean bandage. Afterward, he found clean clothes for He Zheng to change into.
He Zheng, annoyed by Yunying's slow movements, fastened his own clothes and dressed neatly, saying, "Don't let Yunying enter my tent at will in the future."
"Does the young master still doubt him?" Jing Hong was slightly taken aback, somewhat puzzled.
He Zheng retorted, "Are the two eyes on your face just for decoration?"
Jinghong was even more confused. He had been scolded for no reason and just wanted to cry out to the heavens for justice.
Judging from his reaction, he hadn't yet realized the problem. He Zheng sighed and suggested, "Check carefully whether the magistrate of Sangyang County has a daughter."
Jinghong's eyes widened, his pupils filled with disbelief. "Young Master, are you saying that Young Master Yun... he... he... he... he is a woman?"
He Zheng stopped answering him and started reviewing the military affairs he had missed in the past two days.
Jinghong asked cautiously, "When did you discover it, my lord?"
He Zheng said, "I have never been wrong, so how can I say I have made a discovery?"
The day Yunying stormed into the county government office, from the first moment he saw her, he could tell that her figure was not that of a thirteen-year-old boy. She was very thin, but taller than the average thirteen-year-old boy.
He asked her age, and she instinctively answered sixteen. Coincidentally, Magistrate Yun also had a daughter who, if she had survived, would be sixteen this year.
Jing Hong vaguely recalled that Yun Ying had taken care of He Zheng for three whole days without taking off her clothes while he was injured and unconscious...
There was a woman in the general's tent, and he had spent three days with this beautiful young woman! If this news got out, there would be huge trouble!
Jing Hong frowned, his hand gripping the edge of the table involuntarily. "Why did she hide her identity?"
He Zheng simply said, "How can an orphaned girl like me find a place to live and make a living?"
Jing Hong suddenly felt a pang of sorrow in his heart.
Yes, Yunying's parents are both dead. If she were a man, she would have a chance to rise above others with her talent. Once she enters officialdom, with her status as the orphan of a loyal martyr, why would she have to worry about not being able to marry and start a family?
But she was a woman. In this world, what options did an orphan girl have? She could only seek refuge with relatives and live a life of dependence.
If you're lucky, you'll marry an honest man and live a peaceful life; if you're unlucky, you'll fall into the hands of a villain, and your days thereafter will be no different from those of a walking corpse.
Jinghong asked wistfully, "What does my lord intend to do with her?"
He Zheng simply said, "Mind your own business and let her be."
Jinghong looked up at his expression and immediately understood what her husband meant—to see through her but not say anything, and let her find her own way out.
…
The autumn rains have stopped, and the cold winter of Fengle 21 has quietly arrived.
The emperor was furious that officials were involved in embezzlement related to the Yanghe River embankment. Within two days, he appointed investigators to begin investigating these ten-year-old accounts.
Xie Huaijin, as the presiding judge, was excessively young, which sparked endless discussion among the court officials.
How old was Xie Huaijin at the time of the incident? How much could he possibly know about the officials involved?
However, the emperor valued him highly and insisted on entrusting him with important responsibilities, and no amount of persuasion could change his mind.
This matter was discovered during the Crown Prince's disaster relief efforts, so Liang Yuanjun naturally added Yu Mingshu's name to the investigation team's list.
Too much time has passed, and the officials who were in charge of the dike construction have been scattered to various prefectures, making the investigation extremely difficult.
After the investigation team made two trips to Yanghe, they compiled a list of officials who needed special attention and requested an imperial edict to suspend these people from their posts and "escort" them to the capital to facilitate their cooperation with the investigation.
Yu Mingshu also sat in on the initial interrogations twice. After just those two times, she gave up the idea of starting with interrogation.
Daliang's interrogation methods still mainly relied on torture. Sitting in the courtroom, all one could hear were wails and cries, and all one could smell was the stench of blood and urine.
Yu Mingshu tried to overcome her psychological barriers, but the personality and values she had formed over the past twenty years were like an impenetrable wall, making it impossible for her to calmly observe the interrogations.
She secretly observed Xie Huaijin's expression; he didn't even blink while watching the scene, which filled her with awe.
There's a saying that goes, "It's better to give yourself a break than to push yourself too hard." Yu Mingshu decisively changed direction, shifting the focus of his investigation to the accounts.
It was late at night, and the charcoal fire in the room was almost burned out. A cold wind seeped in through the cracks in the door, and after a while, the officials, who had been concentrating intently, realized that their fingers were frozen stiff.
The door creaked open, and Xie Huaijin entered, reeking of blood. The servant immediately lit several candles and boiled water to make tea for him.
“I interrogated Wen Min and Lü Shaojie again, and their testimonies were unchanged.”
Xie Huaijin slammed a stack of confessions on the table. The officials looked at each other in bewilderment, and then passed them around in an orderly fashion.
After everyone finished reading the confessions, the hall became lively.
"After five interrogations, 90% of the statements were repeated, even the word choice and word order were the same... If I hadn't memorized the script beforehand, I would have swallowed charcoal ash!"
"Wen Min is one thing, but Lu Shaojie was just a small foreman more than ten years ago. Did he have the audacity to change the stones on his own?"
"When greed takes hold, nothing is impossible."
"This is a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family!"
"That's a windfall of immense wealth."
Yu Mingshu glanced at the two men who disagreed, tapped the table, pointed to the account books and property lists found in the homes of the officials involved, and said, "The accounts don't match, and there are still 600,000 strings of cash in embezzled funds that are still missing."
Xie Huaijin said, "Wen Min insists that he pocketed the 600,000 yuan all by himself and had already squandered it all."
"Do you think that's possible?" Yu Mingshu found it absurd. "Six hundred thousand strings of cash, no matter where it's spent, should leave a trace. If it's all used to buy gold, silver, and jade, it could pile up into a mountain of gold and silver. Wen Min swore that he squandered it, but did he ever confess where it all went?"
Xie Huaijin pulled out a single sheet of paper from a stack of confessions and pointed to one of the records: "Eating, drinking, whoring, gambling."
Yu Mingshu could only sneer after hearing this.
How could he have consumed hundreds of thousands of coins in ten years of eating and drinking? How come he didn't burst from overeating? How come he didn't become a giant? If she remembered correctly, Wen Min seemed to have a fairly well-proportioned figure.
As for prostitution, that's even more impossible. With the physique of a normal human being, one could only squander a few thousand coins in this area before reaching the end of their lifespan, meaning their lifespan would be over.
Gambling is a bottomless pit; no matter how wealthy a person is, once addicted to gambling, they will eventually go bankrupt. But squandering such a huge sum of money in a gambling den will inevitably leave a trace.
Yu Mingshu turned to the last two pages of the testimony and pointed to an unfamiliar place name—Shanglinfang.
"Then check the gambling dens he's been to."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com