None of the soldiers dared to disobey the orders of the Prince Consort. They all hid the talismans on their bodies. Seeing that the soldiers had obeyed, Zhao Xiaofei smiled to himself. He had succeeded in his first attempt at psychological suggestion. What a sense of accomplishment.
After the talismans were distributed, Zhao Xiaofei said, "Brothers! Today's mission is the most important! That is to carry the dying out of the West Gate and send the newly sick out of the Chaoyang Gate for isolation. The people from the Ministry of Works set up the tents yesterday. Once people go in, don't let them out unless they are well. If anyone tries to escape or try to break in, just like yesterday, they will be killed! Do you understand?"
"Understood!" The soldiers had experience. Whenever the prince consort asked a question, he liked everyone to answer in unison, so this time everyone answered loudly and in unison.
"Okay! Let's go!" Zhao Xiaofei gave the order, and 5,000 people began their epidemic prevention work step by step. The entire city had been screened yesterday, and those with sick families were circled. Soldiers began visiting homes according to the map, carrying away any sick people they saw. Family members who dared to stop them were beaten on the spot.
I ran into a wealthy family who said they didn't want to be quarantined. Sure! Pay the money for the whole family to get shots, 1,000 taels per shot. What? You think it's too expensive and you can't afford it. It doesn't matter. Zhao Xiaofei already said, what antiques do you have at home? Calligraphy and paintings! Porcelain and so on? Each one is worth 1,000 taels of silver.
Of course, not all families gave silver or antiques. For example, there was the Imperial Censor, Lord Wang, who was like a stone from a pit, smelly and hard, and he was above the fifth rank. This put Zhao Xiaofei in a difficult position! He would definitely not offer free treatment. If he gave it to him, others would also want it if they knew about it. What would he do?
Xiao Si suggested, "Sir! Let's block him every day. Don't let any of his family members go out, except for that Lord Wang! He can't possibly not eat or buy groceries, right? A dignified fourth-rank imperial censor, can he go out to buy groceries himself? Besides, isn't his youngest son sick? Without our medicine, his whole family might get sick. When they're almost dead, let's see if Lord Wang will give us any money!"
"Alright! Let these dozens of soldiers block their door, and let this Lord Wang go alone! Everyone else, get out and beat them to death! I won't sell him even if I have medicine!" Zhao Xiaofei said. Zhao Xiaofei hated these censors who were so careless and even reported things based on hearsay. I'll see how you can report things this time!
That day, while a pair of horses pulled people into quarantine, Zhao Xiaofei visited the homes of wealthy individuals with patients, collecting either money or antiques and paintings. He even hired a pawnshop owner named Lan, known in the capital as Lan Ban Zhang. He could tell the value of any painting or calligraphy by simply glancing at half of it. He was also an expert in other antiques. This time, he hired him specifically to verify the authenticity of the antiques he was given. By evening, Zhao Xiaofei's twenty carriages were packed to the brim with jewelry, antiques, paintings, calligraphy, and silver, all destined for Misty Rain Tower.
Sitting among the jewels, Zhao Xiaofei felt as if he were actually flying. Turning back to look at the antiques, he couldn't help but laugh. This was simply robbery, and it made him rich faster than robbery.
The next day, as expected, Lord Wang's entire family was infected with the plague, and Lord Wang himself was also infected. Lord Wang crawled out of his house, holding a jade porcelain bottle and saying, "Prince Zhao! Please! I was wrong. Please quickly give my son and grandchildren the medicine to save their lives!"
Zhao Xiaofei laughed exaggeratedly, imitating the villains in TV dramas. "Hahahaha! If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have done it in the first place! Lord Wang, you only have one bottle, and you can only save one person. Who do you think I should save?"
"My Lord and Lady! My family is poor, and this is the only valuable thing I have. Please use it to save my son and grandson! I will give my granddaughter to you as a maid, or a concubine." Lord Wang said.
Zhao Xiaofei didn't believe the old man's story. When Li Zicheng captured the capital, he arrested all the officials and tortured them for money. They usually pretended to be poor, but when the chips were down, they were all loaded with silver. He took the jade porcelain vase and showed it to Lan Banzhang, who nodded and said, "Your Highness! This is carved from a single piece of jade. It's worth at least 6,000 taels of silver. Take a look?"
"Okay! I'm a man of my word. Since this thing is worth so much, I'll leave one needle for each member of his family." Zhao Xiaofei said.
The people from the Imperial Hospital behind him heard Zhao Xiaofei's order and immediately started giving injections to the family. Zhao Xiaofei walked up to Lord Wang and said, "Lord Wang, your granddaughter is too young. I can't afford her!" He thought to himself, when Li Zicheng's army enters the city, your granddaughter will probably be in a terrible state!
It was said that Li Zicheng treated ordinary people well after entering the city, but he was cruel and ruthless to officials and their families. A girl like the one in Lord Wang's family would probably not be able to escape.
The experience of this Lord Wang's family became a living advertisement. After they recovered, many wealthy nobles, regardless of whether their family members were sick or not, rushed to ask Zhao Xiaofei to come to their homes to give injections. These wealthy people cherished their lives the most, fearing that if they died, their money and women would become someone else's.
Over seven days, Zhao Xiaofei collected over 6,000 antiques, paintings, jewelry, and jade, as well as 700,000 taels of silver. He was truly a wealthy man! Furthermore, the plague was under control, with deaths decreasing significantly. After collecting enough silver and antiques, Zhao Xiaofei began giving free medicine to the people in the quarantined areas, especially those outside Chaoyang Gate. He skipped injections, however, and had them drink streptomycin. He wanted to avoid the public's suspicion that he'd made money and then given these people free medicine. Otherwise, those wealthy people would hate him to death.
Just when he was feeling proud of himself, impeachment memorials against him came to Chongzhen's desk like snowflakes.
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