Du Ke was thinking about how to answer the emperor. It was not appropriate to answer directly that the emperor was wrong. But in fact, in Du Ke's eyes, this matter was not a bad thing. At least Qin Fang had solved the matter, and did not harm the innocent woman among the bandits, and all the evidence was in hand. As long as the bandits and the county magistrate were dealt with, and the remaining 70% of the money in the bandit den was returned to the people, the emperor's reputation would definitely improve. So in Du Ke's view, this matter couldn't be more perfect. However
, it was the emperor who asked the question. Even if the emperor would be generous and not care, as a minister, he still had to say nice things. Du Ke could become the emperor's confidant and secretly took sides before the emperor seized the throne. Naturally, he was a smart person.
So Du Ke just pondered for a while and replied: "This matter is a bad thing for the emperor and the court, but the good thing is that the matter has been resolved 70%, so it is also a good thing. Therefore, in my opinion, the emperor's answer is half right and half wrong."
Oh? Du Ke's answer aroused the emperor's interest. He looked at Du Ke with a chuckle: "This is rare. I can hear such an answer from you. It shows that you are quite satisfied with your attitude and measures to solve this matter. You just didn't tell me that I guessed wrong."
Du Ke said solemnly: "I dare not."
The emperor snorted: "Come on, tell me the story."
"As ordered." Du Ke continued, "Does the emperor still remember Qin Fang from the Yongzhou border camp?"
"Qin Fang?" The emperor thought for a while, "Is it Qin Fang who proposed to divide the surrendered barbarians into small groups for resettlement?" He did have an impression, mainly because this incident happened not long ago.
Du Ke said: "Yes, this matter is also related to Qin Fang." It is a good thing that someone who can make an impression on the emperor, and listening to the emperor's answer and expression, is still a good impression. "General Qin took three thousand surrendered barbarians and walked to Yunxiang County for resettlement. He was also transferred to Yunxiang County as the city garrison commander. On the way to Huanshui County, two major events occurred."
The emperor asked, his expression changing unpredictably: "Huanshui County? I remember that Huanshui County is relatively wealthy." It takes three days to ride from Huanshui County to the capital. The distance is not far, but from the geographical location of Qi State, it is not bad, so it is also considered a good county. "Why? Two major events can happen in this relatively wealthy county? I have not received any memorials from Huanshui County."
Qi State did not have a cabinet. Except for the memorials from military generals that would pass through the Ministry of War, the rest of the memorials were directly heard by the emperor. That is to say, if something happened in Huanshui County, the memorial would be sent directly to the emperor, and then sorted by the eunuchs. The memorials were classified according to the color of the memorials. Then the emperor began to review the memorials according to the urgency of the memorials.
Du Ke said: "The first thing is that several hundred of the three thousand barbarians led by General Qin are sick. This disease is a contagious cold. After the onset of the disease, the patient will cough, have a headache, and feel weak all over. Although it is contagious, if the medicine is taken on time, there is no danger to life. Now General Qin has isolated the patients from healthy people. However, the time from the onset of the disease to recovery is relatively long, about one month. During this month, if the medicine is taken every day, the cost of the medicine alone is not small."
What does the emperor fear the most? The common people are most afraid of getting sick, and the emperor is also most afraid of getting sick. The emperor respects doctors... No, he has his own doctors and medicines, but he is different from the common people. The common people are afraid of spending money when they are sick, but he is afraid of dying when he is sick.
When the emperor heard this, he became irritated. Although infectious diseases are different from plague and smallpox, they also make him irritated. Fortunately, Qin Fang has been under control and isolated: "Have you confirmed with the imperial physician? Are you sure it is just infectious and not fatal?"
Du Ke replied: "After I entered the palace, I went to the Imperial Hospital and confirmed with the imperial physician. In fact, this disease is more common in spring every year. However, every year, many people die from this disease because they have no money to buy medicine."
When the emperor heard this, he looked at Du Ke thoughtfully: "You mean, let the court give Qin Fang... Allocate funds to treat the barbarians?"
Du Ke's heart tightened, and he immediately said righteously: "The barbarians have just surrendered to us. If hundreds of them die at once, once the news spreads to other barbarians, not only will those who are waiting and watching dare not surrender again, but other barbarians will also be worried. However, General Qin has already solved this problem."
The emperor was surprised: "How did Qin Fang solve it? Did he pay for it himself?" He didn't think anyone would do this.
Du Ke said, "This is the second thing I want to talk about. It is also a more serious matter. It affects the reputation of the court and... your reputation , Your Majesty."
As soon as Du Ke said this, the relaxed atmosphere in the study disappeared, and the emperor's face became serious: "What's going on?" He would never allow anything that affects the reputation of the court and his personal reputation to happen.
Du Ke said, "The county magistrate of Huanshui County colluded with the bandits, and General Qin..." He told everything, and then presented Qin Fang's letter, which also had a lot of testimony from the bandits.
The emperor read the letter first. Of course, there was no problem with what Qin Fang wrote in the letter. If there was a problem, Du Ke would not hand it over. However, after reading the letter, the emperor said in a nonchalant manner: "He would think of writing to you."
Du Ke did not try to figure out the meaning of this sentence, he explained: "General Qin has just been promoted to General Wude, and he probably doesn't know the rules of the court yet. At the beginning of March, I went to the Yongzhou military camp and I was somewhat familiar with him, so he wrote this letter to me." The addition of the word "may" also shows that he is not very clear or sure about Qin Fang's actions, and can rule out the possibility of collusion between him and Qin Fang.
The collusion between civil officials and military generals, even if they don't plot against the prince, is not what emperors of all generations want to see. Du Ke knew this very well, so he explained for himself. However, he also knew that the emperor would not doubt it, after all, what was Qin Fang's background? He was born in a grassroots family, without backdoors or backing, and was promoted this month. With such an innocent identity, no one would suspect him. Especially the wise emperor.
But it was one thing for the emperor not to suspect him, and he still had to show his attitude as a subject.
The emperor smiled and said, "Qin Fang is interesting. He has given up on suppressing the bandits, but now he wants to take 30% of the money as military pay and use it to build a military camp in Yunxiang County. This is like the Marquis of Yonghe."
Du Ke smiled apologetically and did not answer.
The emperor said again: "But it's good this way. If everyone is as self-aware as Qin Fang, and needs money to find a way by themselves, why should I worry about the money in the treasury? Look at those who need money to build dams and cause floods. Why don't they learn from Qin Fang to suppress bandits and make money?"
Du Ke continued to smile. How should he answer this? Saying that they are afraid of death and dare not suppress bandits? "Then the emperor promised him 30% of the money?"
The emperor said: "Give him 40%, and the extra 10% is my reward for him." In other words, it will be privately owned by Qin Fang.
However, the emperor will not lose. This money was earned by Qin Fang from suppressing bandits. Originally, 70% was intended to be kept for the people of Huanshui County. Now he gets 10%, which means that the people can only get 60%.
However, since it was a reward from the Emperor, Qin Fang could certainly get it.
Three days later
"General... General, I'm back." As soon as Tao Shan arrived at the bandit den, he rushed inside. The rain had stopped and the weather had improved. Those who were healthy still lived in the brigade camp, while the sick were moved to the bandit den.
Kunshi and others came out
one after another when they heard Tao Shan's voice. Qin Fang was free these days, waiting for Tao Shan to come back. It took six days to come and go, and he was getting impatient. He was mainly afraid that the county magistrate would suddenly come. But there was something unexpected. It had been a few days, and the county magistrate had not sent anyone. Maybe the thieves and the county magistrate rarely contacted each other except for dividing the spoils.
Qin Fang finally waited for Tao Shan to come back. Looking at Tao Shan, who was covered in dust, he said, "Thank you for your hard work. Did you deliver the letter to Lord Du Ke?"
Tao Shan smiled honestly, "It's not hard work. The letter has been delivered to Lord Du. I brought back Lord Du's letter and the emperor's edict."
Qin Fang heard it and immediately knelt down to receive the edict. Tao Shan respectfully took out the edict and handed it to Qin Fang.
Qin Fang received the imperial edict and said to Tao Shan: "You go and have a good rest first."
Tao Shan: "Yes."
After returning to the house, Qin Fang read Du Ke's letter first. Du Ke wrote in the letter that he would come to Huanshui County soon, and because he was not as fast as Tao Shan on business trips, he asked Tao Shan to bring his letters and the imperial edict first. At the same time, he also asked Qin Fang to detain the county master first after receiving the imperial edict, and the rest would be discussed after he came. In addition, the letter mentioned that the emperor promised 30% of the stolen money as his military pay, and rewarded him with 10% of the stolen money as his reward.
Qin Fang was very happy after reading this letter. The bandit's silver has been counted, a total of 50,000 taels of silver, not counting the rest of the jewelry and other things. If he is rewarded 10%, it must be at least 5,000 taels of silver.
Qin Fang seemed to see the white silver flying. It turned out that... suppressing bandits is the fastest way to make money.
The door of the house suddenly opened, and Qin Fang came out with the imperial edict: "Come here."
Soldier: "General?"
Qin Fang: "Hurry up and count the number of people. Everyone, follow me to the county city to capture the county magistrate."
Soldier: "Yes."
Half an hour later, all the soldiers gathered at Wulipo. The 200 soldiers of Qiguo and the 300 soldiers of Manzi, a total of 500 soldiers were all here.
Qin Fang stood at the front, holding the imperial edict in his hand and said, "The emperor has ordered us to capture the county magistrate of Huanshui County. Everyone, get ready to set off."
"Yes." The neat voice was very loud. The soldiers have had 30% of their military pay in the past few days, and they have eaten several meals of meat, so they are in high spirits now.
Huanshui County City
The reason why the county magistrate paid attention to the Wulipo thieves' den was that they rarely contacted each other, and only contacted each other when dividing the loot, because if they contacted each other too much, it would be bad if someone found out. Second, he was also busy recently, and the matter of the Feng family clinic made him very irritable. There was no way to deal with the murder case hastily, not to mention that everyone saw it.
County
Yamen The county magistrate glared at Doctor Feng who was sitting next to him and said, "How many times have I told you not to test drugs on ordinary people? Don't test drugs on ordinary people. Why didn't you listen? Now look what happened. Three people have died. What if their families become restless?"
Doctor Feng smiled indifferently and said, "When you took the money, you looked so happy. I thought you were just talking and didn't care that I tested drugs on ordinary people."
The county magistrate said, "You... but now someone has died."
Doctor Feng didn't take it seriously and said, "Well, you are not... The lives of these worthless people are worthless to begin with, not to mention that the people I chose are all from extremely poor families. If I give them a little money as compensation, they won’t care about these lives.”
The county magistrate said with a spit: “Why don’t you talk about how you almost dragged in a person of status a few days ago? If the head of the police hadn’t asked the other party to leave directly, this matter might not have ended well if irrelevant people were dragged in.”
Doctor Feng: “Everyone is gone, why are you still bringing this up?”
County magistrate: “I’m warning you for the last time, don’t test drugs on ordinary people, otherwise…”
“What else?” Doctor Feng asked back, “Are you ready to part ways with me, sir?” He had another question to ask, County magistrate, do you dare? He just didn’t say it.
But how could the county magistrate not know what he meant?
At this moment, there was a sudden noise outside, and the captain of the police rushed to the door: "Sir... Sir, something is wrong."
The county magistrate shouted in the room: "What's wrong? What happened?" The anger that was not vented on Doctor Feng was directed at the captain of the police.
The head of the police said, "Someone claims to be General Wude, and has been ordered to arrest you. He has surrounded the county government office."
The county magistrate was stunned, and although he shouted, "How dare you, General Wude, you are so brave. I haven't heard any news from the court. Who dares to fake the imperial edict?" As he said that, he strode out of the room, "Where is that shitty general?" In front of outsiders, he is an honest county magistrate. Only in front of his own people, he reveals such a "true nature".
The head of the police: "At... at the entrance of the county government office."
At this time, at the entrance of the county government office, Qin Fang was wearing the uniform of General Wude, standing there majestically. He was tall and had a resolute and cold face. In addition, his years of life at the border made his skin much darker than that of ordinary people. So he was silent and looked like a martial god. Although he had been in office for a short time and did not have much authority, he had become more arrogant and more authoritative after this bandit suppression campaign. He was very good at pretending in front of the common people in the county. Moreover, he was holding the imperial edict, and he felt that he had a 10% reward in his heart, so it was the right time for him to be full of energy.
Therefore, in the eyes of others, he was a great general.
"What's going on?"
"I don't know."
"This is the general, generals all wear clothes like this."
"Why did they set up the county government?"
"That's right, they are so brave."
"Could it be that the county magistrate has done something wrong?"
"Shut up, don't talk nonsense, be careful not to get into trouble."
"That's right, just take a look, don't say some things casually."
"Be gentle, be careful of what you say."
Amid the discussion of the people, Qin Fang said loudly: "Dear elders and villagers, please be quiet, your county magistrate is colluding with officials and bandits, and this general is here to arrest him under the order of the court, and the imperial envoy will be here soon."
"What? The county magistrate is colluding with bandits?"
"Isn't that possible?"
A brave man asked curiously, "General, are you talking about the bandits in Wulipo?"
"You are asking for your life, how dare you mention the bandits in Wulipo?"
"I mentioned them, but they can't kill me in front of you, general."
"Those damn bandits from Wulipo should have been arrested long ago."
"Even if they had been arrested long ago, so many people wouldn't have been killed."
Qin Fang said, "Yes, they are the bandits from Wulipo outside the county town."
After Qin Fang's admission, the people started talking about it again. "I said it, every time the county magistrate said that no one can be arrested without evidence, it turns out that the officials and the bandits are colluding, and the county magistrate must have benefited."
"Bah, how can such a person be the county magistrate? He should be arrested."
A woman in the crowd quietly left. She ran home desperately. After turning left and right in the county town, she came to a dilapidated hut: "Mother... Mother... God has opened his eyes, God has finally opened his eyes."
A blind old lady came out of the dilapidated hut, and a little girl was supporting her. The old lady asked in a hoarse voice: "What happened?" Her voice was full of tension and concern. This hoarse voice was not natural, but was blinded by crying.
The woman said, "Mother, a group of soldiers came to the county just now. They were not the county yamen runners, but soldiers from the army, led by a general. The general led the soldiers to surround the county yamen. The general also said that the county magistrate colluded with the bandits in Wulipo, and that the officials and bandits were colluding. He came to arrest people under the order of the court. He also said that everyone should not worry, and the imperial envoys will come soon. Mother, let's go find the general now and ask him to redress our grievances. "
The old lady hesitated: "But...but will the general redress our grievances?"
The woman said: "Are we going to let our husband die with regrets? Moreover, the imperial envoy is coming soon. What if that beast kills someone to silence him before the imperial envoy arrives? Or, if that beast escapes before the imperial envoy arrives, won't we be able to catch him for the rest of our lives and won't be able to avenge our husband?"
The old lady heard it and immediately said: "You are right, we I will go to the general and ask him to redress our grievances."
The lady continued, "Mother, I will go by myself. You and Juer will not go. You can hide here. If the general does not redress my grievances and instead colludes with that beast, then you can leave me alone and run away."
The little girl who was called Juer held back her tears and nodded, "Mother, I know. Don't worry."
The old lady said, "I will go. I will go to the general to redress our grievances. You and Juer can hide. Daughter-in-law, , I am old and will not live long. If I follow Juer, it will implicate her. But you are different. You are still young. I will feel relieved if you take care of Juer. "
The woman also knew this, but: "Mother..."
The old lady shook her head: "I have decided. You send me to the general and then find a place to hide yourself."
Qin Fang didn't know that an unjust case was waiting for him. At this moment, he waited for the county magistrate in front of the county government.
The county magistrate of Huanshui County was a thin man, and he didn't look like he had much meat. No wonder no one suspected that he was colluding with officials and bandits, because he was too thin. At first glance, he couldn't afford to eat meat and was not well off. If officials and bandits colluded, the county magistrate must have money and must eat and drink a lot. Such a person should be fat.
The county magistrate in front of him looked like a man who was always hungry. If he hadn't learned the truth from the thieves, he would have been fooled by his appearance.
While Qin Fang was looking at the county magistrate, the county magistrate was also looking at Qin Fang. The man in front of him couldn't tell his age from his appearance, but his tall figure was full of aura, which made the county magistrate swallow his saliva. He had no doubt that the other party could suppress him to death. However, as a local snake, the county magistrate had experienced ups and downs. He even dared to cooperate with thieves, let alone a general? He said in a cold voice: "Who are you? You dare to pretend to be an official of the imperial court and break into the county government office. You have committed a serious crime of exterminating nine clans. You leave quickly. I can still plead for you."
Qin Fang was too lazy to talk to him. When he saw him coming out, he said directly: "Come here, tie him up with this general. If he dares to fight, just cut off his limbs."
Captain Yang: "Yes."
The county magistrate felt cold all over. When a scholar met a soldier, he couldn't explain himself clearly. Shouldn't the other party explain his identity to him at this time? Then he continued to question his identity to buy time, and then think of a way to escape. However, the person in front of him was obviously different from the person he planned. He didn't say a word and directly sent someone to tie him up. What's going on?
The county magistrate hurriedly stood behind the captain: "Captain Zhang, stop them."
Captain Yang mocked: "When I was killing the enemy on the battlefield, you were probably still bullying the people. Stop me. I don't know how much blood my knife has seen. How dare you come?"
Speaking of it, Captain Yang is not a gangster, but when he opened his mouth, he really looked like a gangster. I don't know if he did it on purpose.
The captain took a few steps back. To be honest, he was just a tyrant in Huanshui County, but he didn't dare to fight with these people who had been on the battlefield.
Captain Yang said again: "We, the generals, are here to arrest corrupt officials under the order of the emperor. If you know what's good for you, surrender and you can suffer less. If you don't know what's good for you and want to die in vain, it's your own fault."
The yamen runners who were blocking the county magistrate immediately made way.
Captain Yang immediately led his men to arrest all those who should be arrested.
Qin Fang was waiting outside, watching Captain Yang show off his power. At this moment, a cry came from the crowd: "General, it's unjust... General, it's unjust..."
The crowd made way, and saw that the one who was shouting injustice was a blind old lady. She took a cane and walked a few steps, then knelt directly on the ground: "General, the old woman is unjust..." Because she didn't know where Qin Fang was, she knelt directly.
The people looked at the old lady and then at Qin Fang. Qin Fang was also a little confused. It was the first time he met someone who cried out against him.
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