Xu Yuehuai also received strange looks from the disaster victims, who stared at her with condemning eyes. Although she felt a little uneasy, she remained calm and ignored them.
Then, Xu Yuehuai didn't explain anything else. Instead, she focused on protecting herself and stayed with Xia Sen, taking good care of Xia Sen's grandfather.
When the disaster victims saw that those who had spread rumors about the plague had all fallen silent, they believed even more the words of the people from Qili Village. They thought that those who spread rumors about the plague must be deceiving them. How could there suddenly be a plague?
But at this very moment, while the people of Qili Village were outwardly trying to appease them, they were secretly passing the news to the imperial court. The people in the imperial court quickly received the news and immediately gathered together to discuss what to do next.
"Should we go and rescue the people in Qili Village? There are so many disaster victims there. If they all die at once, then the people in the surrounding villages will all perish."
"If the people in the imperial court find out, we probably won't have enough heads to chop off."
As the magistrate spoke, he looked at the clerk beside him.
Upon hearing this, the advisor fanned himself with his fan and slowly said, "But right now, our manpower and resources are simply insufficient to house and protect so many disaster victims. They are currently trapped in Qili Village, so let's just pretend we don't know anything. If the court blames us later, it won't really concern us."
"We only need to prove that we rescued a group of disaster victims, while we had no idea that the other victims who died existed."
Upon hearing this, the magistrate thought that the advisor's idea was excellent. If they did it that way, they would certainly not be blamed by the court officials.
However, they hadn't been talking for long when they received a message. Upon opening it, they discovered that the people from Qili Village were saying that the people in the temporary disaster relief camps seemed to have contracted a plague.
"How could it be a plague? If the plague isn't dealt with properly, many villages and towns around us will be affected. If the court finds out, we'll be doomed! My lord, what should we do now?" The magistrate was extremely anxious, his hands trembling as he held the letter, worried that if a massive plague broke out, he would lose his head.
The clerk frowned, pondered carefully for a moment, and finally spoke to the magistrate.
"Actually, all we need to do is get rid of all these people who have contracted the plague, and then the plague will definitely stop spreading."
"So how exactly do we deal with these people who have contracted the plague? They're still trapped in Qili Village!"
The county simply couldn't think of any good way to deal with the plague victims.
The advisor continued, "Although we can't open up the road in between right now, we can have some people impersonate government officials and help the refugees in the temporary disaster camps by taking them to other places."
“We just need to have people lie in ambush there, and then once they all get there, we’ll stage a natural disaster so that they all die there. If they’re all dead, the plague won’t spread.”
"By fabricating their cause of death, the people in the court will not be able to find out the reason, and they will have no way to blame us."
Upon hearing this, the magistrate clapped his hands and looked at the clerk with great excitement.
“Your method is excellent. I will have someone write a letter right now to instruct the people of Qili Village to do so.”
The advisor said, "Everything is for your sake, sir, to help you overcome your troubles. I only hope that everything you want to do will come to fruition."
"Hahaha, good, there's a reward!"
As the magistrate spoke, he then sent someone to fetch a large amount of gold for the clerk. This was merely to bribe the clerk so that he wouldn't reveal the matter later. They were on the same side, so naturally they had to protect their own people and prevent the clerk from reporting the whole story.
Next, Jianli arranged for someone to do what the advisor had just mentioned.
Although Qili Village is trapped in a mountainous and muddy area, and they are currently unable to connect to the mainland and rescue all the disaster victims inside, it is still very easy to send out some messages and bring in some supplies.
Then the government officials used kites to deliver the letter written by the magistrate and some prepared official robes to Qili Village.
When the people of Qili Village arrived at the agreed-upon location, they saw the kite flying in the sky. One of them then flew a kite himself and pulled it down from the sky.
"I didn't expect the imperial court to reply to us so quickly. I wonder what their plans are. Maybe we'll be able to escape then."
"This is such great news! Everyone is saved!"
"Don't get so excited yet. Quickly open this letter and see what it says."
The people of Qili Village opened the letter and carefully gathered around to examine its contents. At first, their faces were filled with joy, thinking that they would be safe soon.
But after reading the contents of the letter, they fell silent, their faces turning extremely gloomy. They had never imagined that the letter would contain such a thing.
The letter the magistrate had written to them instructed them to impersonate government officials and have someone take the people temporarily residing in the civilian camp to a certain place. Once this was done, they were to find someone to rescue them; otherwise, they would be trapped there and die.
After they saw the contents clearly, they immediately understood that the government officials had no intention of rescuing the people in the temporary refugee camp. They only wanted to control the plague and kill all those infected with it.
The people of Qili Village never expected that the government officials would be so cold-blooded and ruthless.
Those were precious lives, but the government officials didn't even think about saving them; instead, they were thinking about how to kill them all.
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