Wife Kim An

Chapter 90

When Zhixian learned that Lin Yi had slipped out of Nianchuan secretly, he felt bad.She figured out something, and was about to pack her bags and leave quietly before Yan Ning and the others arrived, but Feng Qingge came.She pretended to bring the topic to Feng Han, let Feng Qingge go to look for it, and fled in a horse-drawn carriage, but was arrested at the city gate by the officials who rushed over and brought her to Feng Qingge.

Feng Qingge sat on the seat, his face darkened, he slapped the table and said angrily: "Nianchuan Magistrate, you have delayed the report and delayed the disaster, resulting in the death of more than 7000 people in Nianchuan, Yizhou. Are you guilty?!"

When Feng Qingge heard the news from her subordinates, she only felt a surge of anger. At this moment, she was using all her strength to control herself to finish speaking, and the knuckles of her hands were being pinched by herself.

"Among them, more than [-] people drowned and more than [-] died of starvation."

"Sinner, guilty." The magistrate knelt on the ground, with disheveled hair and bound hands.Her heart turned cold, and she was thinking about how to blame herself.

"But Your Highness, the guilty minister has something to say." She put her head on the ground and said sincerely, "The flood hit Yizhou twice a year. I never thought of it. The reason why I concealed it before was because I thought I can properly do the disaster relief work to the best of my ability, and I don’t have to be rude to Her Majesty the Queen. However, the flood is vast, and His Highness must have discovered it on the way down. The number of victims is thousands. I have tried my best to rescue the people trapped on the mountain, properly resettled the refugees in the city, and provided thin porridge for free..."

As he spoke, the magistrate's eyes were astringent, and he said in a hoarse voice: "Your Highness, although this is a disaster from heaven, I have been doing my best to fight the disaster! Your Highness just wrongly blamed me, and I didn't want to escape , but want to check the dam of the Luoshui River and send people to repair it. If the humble minister wants to escape, why choose when the Highness comes down, because he will abandon the city and the victims before fleeing."

Seeing that Feng Qingge was a little moved, the magistrate pointed to the sky and swore to Feng Qingge: "Give the sinner half a year, and I will definitely strengthen the dam beside the Luoshui River and dredge the river. If the people suffer from floods again, if they benefit The state is submerged again, and the guilty minister is willing to drown himself in the Luoshui River to thank the world!"

"Papa papa." A series of applause came to mind.Feng Qingge heard the reputation and looked around, and saw the woman who had fought with her not long ago was standing at the door, looking at them mockingly.

She frowned tightly and was about to reprimand, but she heard Song Xiao sneer: "The magistrate's words are really touching. But natural disasters? Lord magistrate, can you swear that all this is really a natural disaster?"

"The Luoshui River's embankment burst, isn't it a natural disaster?" The county magistrate had a bad premonition, but he still bit the bullet and replied.

"Your Highness also thinks it's a natural disaster?" Song Xiao looked at Feng Qingge, bent slightly, and said, "The grass people came to plead guilty. I didn't know the emperor's presence before, it was really presumptuous. But after hearing the magistrate's words, The grass people really want to refute!"

She stood up straight, flicked her sleeves and said, "This is not a natural disaster, this is a man-made disaster!"

Before the county magistrate could speak, Song Xiao stepped forward and asked, "The empress allocated funds for disaster relief a few months ago, and even set up permanent warehouses in various places to balance the rise in food prices when the disaster hit. But what! The grassroots learned that, The rice here has increased from a dozen taels of silver to ten taels of silver, and even extorted to 20 taels of silver when the Luoshui River burst its embankment. It has doubled a hundred times! Ordinary people only have a salary of tens of taels of silver a year. It simply took away their hope of life!"

"A few months ago, I came to Nianchuan to investigate the Changping Warehouse. At that time, I wondered why a large amount of donations flowed out. You explained that it was used to buy a large amount of food for disaster relief. Now, magistrate, what do you have? Explanation?"

Under Feng Qingge's increasingly cold face, the county magistrate was sweating profusely and said: "Just after the flood a few months ago, I used some of the disaster funds to build dams and buy food. However, food is scarce, rich merchants charge too much, and some families In order to scramble for food and raise the price of each other, it led to the increase of food, and the minister is really powerless. Your Highness, the minister has free disaster relief, provides courtyards, and distributes food to the victims every day..."

Song Xiao sneered, "When the Luoshui River hadn't broken its embankment, I reminded your lord, but your lord ignored it. If the embankment had been strengthened at that time, perhaps the Luoshui River would never have burst its embankment."

"Since someone reminded you, why didn't you strengthen the dam!" Feng Qingge suddenly thought of something, and his face turned cold, "You said that the dam was built with the disaster funds before, so why did the dam collapse immediately!"

"Chen..." The county magistrate stuttered, flustered.

"The magistrate must be talking about catastrophe prevention again." Song Xiao stepped forward and said, "Let's explain it to the grassroots. It's because the magistrate is unwilling to spend money to build dams at all, or there is no money to build dams at all! Outside Changping warehouse In the name of benefiting the people, but actually invading the people inside, the magistrate used the power of buying and selling grain to collude with profiteers, and engaged in activities of embezzling relief grain and embezzling relief funds. As a result, when the flood came, there was no food to eat and no money to distribute .”

"Your Highness, don't listen to her nonsense!" Zhixian really regretted what he did to save Song Xiao back then!
"No money, no food, no rice to cook, thousands of victims squeezed into four small courtyards. A thin bowl of porridge, more than ten miles of rice, soup mixed with white mud, and a few weeds floating. During the catastrophe, how many people drank this "porridge" and struggled to starve to death. This is the reason why so many people died of starvation!"

"Food is scarce, and I can only distribute food in this way, in order to let more people survive..."

"For more people?" Song Xiao shook his head, "After the flood, the victims entered the city to register. However, some powerful people can be registered and enjoy relief. However, those vulnerable groups who really need relief cannot register. After being kicked out of the courtyard, receiving a small bowl of thin porridge becomes a luxury. Is this really fair? Some officials even give money when they register. Small officials take advantage of the disaster for personal gain. Crooked, the whole Nianchuan government government has been corrupted from the top to the bottom, and when it is time to save people, they don’t save people, but when the people above come, they start pretending to save people, how can this disaster not be serious? How can disaster relief not be messed up like this?”

Song Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, expressing everything he had seen and heard for a month.The panic of the people during the catastrophe, the sorrow of having no food to distribute, the helplessness of being bullied by officials, and the sorrow of having nowhere to vent their wives and children, the separation of their families, and the death of their families.

"Natural disasters are not terrible, but people are terrible. If the magistrate really repaired the dam, if she was willing to report to the court before the Luoshui River broke the embankment and the flood flooded, would everything be the same as it is today? However, the magistrate did not report it. It proves her guilty conscience. Her guilty conscience and greed led to the flooding of Yizhou and the displacement of tens of thousands of people."

Song Xiao looked at Feng Qingge who was shocked by the words, and said softly: "Dare to ask Your Highness, do you still think this is a natural disaster?"

"The little county magistrate dared to be blatantly greedy for ink, it's an unforgivable crime." Feng Qingge calmed down his turbulent mood, and said coldly, "Come here, put him in prison, and wait until Master Yan arrives to personally interrogate him! "

The matter of the flood was handed over to Yan Ning by the Queen Mother. Even though she is a princess, she cannot cross the boundary.

Zhixian fell to the ground all of a sudden, his mouth was trembling, his face was frighteningly pale, as if he had thought of something terrible.

"Your Highness, for the sake of finding the Ninth Prince, I beg you..."

"Drag on!" Feng Qingge waved his hands impatiently, and said coldly, "Gag her!"

When the county magistrate was dragged away, Feng Qingge glanced at Song Xiao curiously, and said with a smile, "You are eloquent, really amazing. Fortunately, I didn't continue arguing with you this morning." She paused, and said in a low voice. Asked, "Did Xiaohan stay in Nianchuan to expose the magistrate's secret activities?"

"Caomin's crime of deceiving the emperor!" Song Xiao said softly, with his body half bent, "Caomin's friend is not the Ninth Prince. The magistrate has been reluctant to save people for a long time. He was a young man who even mistook Cao Min’s friend, so he came up with a plan to let him pretend to be the Ninth Prince..."

"Don't lie to me." Feng Qingge narrowed her eyes and patted Song Xiao's shoulder lightly.Because of what happened just now, she greatly changed her view of Song Xiao and became appreciative.

"How can there be such similar people in the world. Is Xiaohan throwing a temper? I, the older sister, ask him to accompany me..."

"Your Highness, he is really not the Ninth Prince. Your Royal Highness is so noble, how can ordinary people climb above him." Song Xiao raised his eyelashes lightly, his dark eyes looked at Feng Qingge for a moment, and said softly, "Mr. Familiar, or not, can this really be faked? The way he looks at you is strange..."

The way he looks at you is strange...

After Song Xiao left, these words kept echoing in Feng Qingge's ears.She suddenly recalled that when she held his hand and called him Xiaohan, the moment she looked back did reveal a strange atmosphere.

He's not Feng Han, so who is he?

Where is Feng Han?
No, she wants to ask clearly.

Feng Qingge hurried out of the house, but at the corner, she saw a scene that shocked her.Five women surrounded a boy, insulting him with obscene words and even touching him.The young man lowered his head and wept softly. No matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't get rid of the woman's tight grip on his hand.

"Young master, it's a lonely night, how many sisters would you like to accompany us?" Eldest sister Wang caressed the young man's dewy face, but her face, which looked warm and delicate, felt very cold to the touch.

"Don't...don't..." The boy backed away in a panic, his voice as thin as a mosquito.

"My sister will love you..." Sister Wang approached, smiling wretchedly, "If you step back, you will fall, come, hold my sister's hand."

The boy gently extended his hand, his face and lips were purple, and his whole body felt strangely cold.When Sister Wang was wondering, she was suddenly pushed hard.

The boy looked up at them strangely, and then fell heavily into the water.

He thumped a few times and sank.

"Sister, he... fell! What are you pushing him for!" Third Sister Wang panicked.

"I didn't push him, he fell by himself!"

"Let's go quickly, don't be found."

They had just walked a few steps when they were suddenly stopped by someone. The woman in front of her had long hair like black ink and flaring black hair. She was holding the sword in her hand, her veins were bulging, and her face was livid: "In broad daylight, they actually robbed civilian men and forced people to suicide!"

Sister Wang wanted to refute, but suddenly her back hurt, and someone hit the Ya acupuncture point with a small stone.She was stiff and sweating coldly.

Feng Qingge looked at the lake water, because of the heavy rain in the past few months, the lake water has risen by two meters.Seeing that the boy did not swim up for a long time, she was afraid that his life might be in danger, so she took a deep breath, jumped into the water, and started searching.

(End of this chapter)