Chapter 71: Burying the Body
Zhao Xiao rode up to him, raised his lips and said, "Lord Gong Yang."
"I don't deserve it, I don't deserve it. I heard that the general was coming, and I was very excited. I ordered people to prepare food in the mansion early. If the general doesn't mind, can you come to the mansion for a small gathering?"
"Okay." Zhao Xiao got off the horse, threw the whip in his hand to Zheng Daan, and walked in front alone.
Gong Yangqing immediately followed him, smiling and saying, "I wonder what brings you here this time, General?"
"It's okay, just take a look."
"Oh, oh." Although Zheng Jia said that everything had been cleaned up, Gong Yangqing was still nervous, feeling that Zhao Xiao's trip was not that simple.
"Your Majesty, are you still healthy? I missed you so much after not seeing you for a year!"
"It's pretty good." Zhao Xiao looked around as he walked. There were many people on the street, most of them were dressed neatly. The shops on the street were also open as usual, and there was nothing different about the city.
Arriving at Gong Yangqing's house, Zhao Xiao raised his eyebrows as soon as he entered the door. He saw a golden bamboo placed in the corner of the door. This bamboo is not cheap. It costs hundreds of taels of silver to transport one from Lingnan. Now the leaves have turned yellow due to the cold.
Gong Yangqing followed his gaze and the corners of his mouth twitched twice. He angrily cursed his servants in his heart for their poor performance. They actually placed the bamboo at the door!
Continuing to walk inside, the courtyard has not changed much from before, even the table is the same one we used last time.
After entering the house, Zhao Xiao pulled over a chair and sat down, saying, "The emperor ordered me to stop by on my way back to see how the official road is being repaired."
Gong Yangqing smiled when he heard this: "We have already repaired more than a hundred miles. The emperor gave an order a while ago to continue repairing after the spring plowing next year, so I ordered them to stop the work."
Zhao Xiao nodded: "That's good, I'll go to the official road later so that I can report back."
"Of course, of course. I'll personally accompany you to see it later."
Zhao Xiao nodded without denying it. After a while, the servants came up with hot meals, and Gong Yangqing even asked someone to bring a jar of wine.
"General, try this wine. It's Du Kang, which my friend brought back from Jiangzhou. It tastes great!"
"Forget about the wine. Drinking too much will delay your work."
"Okay, okay, then eat some food and try how the fish is stewed."
After the meal, Gong Yangqing personally accompanied Zhao Xiao to inspect the official road.
Outside Dongzhou City, a flat cement road about two meters wide extends northward.
Gong Yangqing complimented him again: "The cement road ordered by the emperor is really great! It will lead directly to Shangjing after it is completed. When the time comes, we can take a carriage to Shangjing in less than seven or eight days, which saves half the time compared to the old time!"
"It's really good." Zhao Xiao continued to move forward on his horse.
After walking nearly twenty miles out of the city, Gong Yangqing's expression gradually became solemn.
"General, it's almost done, you are tired from the journey, why don't you go back and rest?"
Zhao Xiao said, "I remember this place is not far from the salt field, so we can stop by and take a look."
"this……"
"The emperor praised your contribution to salt production. The salt tax you pay is increasing, and you are a model for other states."
"Is... is that so?" Gong Yangqing wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his heart beating fast. He didn't know how Zheng Jia arranged the salt field... If he found out, his head would be in danger!
The closer he got to the salt field, the paler Gong Yangqing's face became. Only after he arrived at the salt field and saw the well-organized salt workers did Gong Yangqing feel relieved.
He said with a smile on his face: "General, shall we go in and take a look?"
Zhao Xiao frowned and walked straight in.
Yuzhu said in the letter that the workers in the salt field worked day and night and were all exhausted and thin, but these people looked very normal.
I called a man over and saw that he was sweating profusely. His clothes were soaked with sweat and covered with crystallized salt.
"How long have you been working here?"
The salt worker knelt on the ground and said, "My Lord, I have been working here for six months."
"Get up, are you tired?"
The man smiled and said, "Of course it's tiring, but it's also fun to be able to make money!"
Of course he was happy. If he could handle it, he would get the ten taels of silver awarded by Lord Zheng. His heart was already beaming with joy.
Zhao Xiao waved his hand and said, "Go to work."
"General, what do you think of the management of this salt field?"
"good."
Gong Yangqing smiled flatteringly and said, "I hope the general can say a few more good words to His Majesty."
The more normal this place is, the more suspicious Zhao Xiao becomes. It is impossible that Yuzhu rushed 800 miles to send him a letter without any basis. Perhaps there is another hidden story in this salt field.
After leaving the salt-boiling shed, Zhao Xiao continued walking to the side.
Suddenly, several people came out and blocked their way: "Sir, there is a pigsty ahead. Don't let the filth of livestock dirty your shoes."
Zhao Xiao ignored them and walked straight in. Unexpectedly, one of them blocked his way.
Gong Yangqing was startled and shouted angrily: "You are blind! Do you think you can stop the general?"
The man immediately knelt down and kowtowed: "I know I was wrong, please forgive me, sir?"
As we walked in, we found that there was indeed a pigsty. Dozens of pigs were raised together, with excrement piled up nearby. The stench was so pungent that people couldn't open their eyes.
Gong Yangqing covered his nose and said, "General, if there is nothing else, let's go back. It's too smelly here!"
Zhao Xiao keenly smelled a scent of blood in the stench, but he did not act rashly and turned around and walked out.
It was getting dark outside, so Zhao Xiao rode his horse and took a group of officials back to the city to rest.
*
After dinner, a sedan chair stopped at the back door of Gongyang Mansion. After a while, the door opened, Zheng Jia got off the sedan chair and hurried in.
"My Lord, how are you today?"
"The salt field was arranged perfectly, and Zhao Xiao didn't find anything!"
Zheng Jia breathed a sigh of relief: "That's good. Let the tenants work at the salt field for the time being, and replace them when new people are found."
Gong Yangqing waved his hand: "It's up to you."
"But I didn't expect that he actually came to the salt field. Did someone leak the news?"
Zheng Jia said: "It's useless to think so much now. Sir, you just need to make this person happy and send him away, then we can be safe."
"I don't need to." Gong Yangqing was not satisfied with the preaching tone he used when talking to him.
Zheng Jia lowered his head quickly and said, "I sent someone to Huizhou to sell salt a while ago and got a painting of flowers and birds by Zhang Dong of the Shang Dynasty. I'll have someone send it to you in a few days."
"Zhang Dong's painting!" Gong Yangqing's eyes widened: "Is it real?!"
Zheng Jia raised his lips slightly and said, "I am a rough man and don't know how to appreciate things. You must personally check to see if they are real or fake."
"Okay, okay! Show it to me right after they leave!"
"yes."
*
In the inn in the city, Zhao Xiao, his deputy general and the captains prepared a special meal and had a good meal. After the meal, he called Zheng Daan to his room alone.
"General, what do you want to talk to me about?"
"Don't rush to sleep tonight. Go outside the city and arrange for a thousand soldiers to enter the city tomorrow morning to receive orders."
Zheng Daan was stunned: "General, is there something wrong in the city?"
"I'm not sure yet. I'll let you know after we enter the city tomorrow."
"Okay! What about you?"
"I plan to go to the saltworks again to find out what's going on."
After it was completely dark outside, Zhao Xiao quietly jumped out of the window, climbed over the city wall alone, and walked towards the salt field in the suburbs.
At this time, Song Yuzhu was also operating the system and following closely behind him.
When Zhao Xiao came to the salt field during the day, he was very anxious. Everything in the salt field was a fake! Zheng Jia had great skills and had changed the whole place from inside to outside in just a few days!
However, he could only watch but not speak, and there was no way for him to contact Zhao Xiao in time to tell him what had happened here before.
It took less than an hour for Zhao Xiao to reach the salt field outside the city.
At this time, the workers in the salt field had already rested, but there were still many torches lit around for lighting, as if they were deliberately guarding against something.
Zhao Xiao quietly walked around and when he approached the salt shed, he heard two people chatting nearby.
"I don't know why we are asked to stay here. Who would come to this damn place in the middle of the night?"
Another supervisor said, "Shh - don't tell me, I don't know what happened these days, I always feel a chill on my back, as if something is following me."
The person next to him rubbed the goose bumps on his arm in fear, "Lao Zhang, it's the middle of the night, you scared me!"
"Why should I scare you?"
So many people died here in the past few days, and there is a lot of resentment. Who knows if any ghosts will come back to claim their lives.
He clasped his hands together and bowed in the direction of the pigpen: "Brother and sister, please don't blame us. There is a reason for every wrong. It is the people above who want to kill you, and there is nothing we can do!"
"Okay, go in and sleep quickly. Someone else will be on duty tomorrow."
After the two men walked away, Zhao Xiao seemed to be thinking about something and walked towards the pigpen where he had been during the day.
The pigs in the pigsty had fallen asleep, but the stench was still overwhelming. In order not to disturb the animals, Zhao Xiao only walked around the pigsty to check.
As he was walking, he felt like he stepped on something. He took out a lighter and lit it, and saw that it was a human hand!
Zhao Xiao understood instantly that this pigpen was originally used to cover up the smell of death!
He took a few steps back and was shocked. If it was true as Yuzhu said in the letter, then there should be thousands of people buried here!
Even though he had killed so many people on the battlefield, he was still shocked by the cruelty of these people! In order to prevent others from discovering the evil they had done, they actually killed all the original people.
Zhao Xiao lowered his eyes and clenched his fists. No wonder Yuzhu said that he could execute first and report later. Gong Yangqing and Zheng Jia really deserved to die!
Song Yuzhu also secretly sweated. Fortunately, Axiao discovered the burial site. Otherwise, when he sent people next time, he didn't know where Zheng Jia would bury the bodies.
The next morning, Gong Yangqing got up early and prepared to see Zhao Xiao off.
When I arrived at the inn, I saw Zhao Xiao sitting in the lobby, eating breakfast.
Gong Yangqing smiled and walked forward, bowing and saying, "General, did you have a good rest last night?"
Zhao Xiao picked up a side dish and said, "Not very well. I had a nightmare last night and couldn't fall asleep for half the night after waking up."
"I wonder what kind of nightmare it is?"
"I dreamed that countless people who died tragically grabbed the corners of my clothes and asked me to redress their grievances."
Gong Yangqing said calmly, "Perhaps you dream about what you think about during the day. The general has fought dozens of battles this year. It's time to take a break."
"I would like to take a break, but there are always people who commit suicide, leaving me no time to rest."
Gong Yangqing smiled bitterly, thinking that he should quickly send this plague god away so that he could appreciate Zhang Dong's famous paintings.
After listening to what Zheng Jia said yesterday, he felt itchy. Although Zheng Jia was just a second-rate businessman, every gift he gave him could touch his heart.
After Zhao Xiao finished his porridge and put down the bowl, a group of soldiers suddenly rushed in from outside the door and surrounded the two men.
Gong Yangqing was stunned: "General, what are you doing?"
(End of this chapter)
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