poisonous woman

Chapter 158
Earthquakes are often followed by plagues. The food problem has just been alleviated for the time being, but the plague broke out in the city unexpectedly.

It may be that Xiao Junjue often went to visit the victims of the disaster, and he did not know from whom he contracted the plague, but he also contracted the plague.

The high fever persisted, and he was unconscious. All the clothes and things he used had been burned. The house was also lit with mugwort leaves to drive away the epidemic, and every corner was sprinkled with strong shochu and boiled vinegar.

Rong Zhao glanced through the screen, Xiao Junjue was lying there behind the curtain, and lost a lot of weight in a few days.He was unconscious and restless, coughing from time to time.

Rong Zhao didn't come to serve her, claiming what to do if she got infected too.She is neither a servant girl nor a doctor, and it is useless to be around Xiao Junjue.

Therefore, Ye Xiao hated her even more, and secretly called her a heartless woman.

Inevitably infected, everyone who entered and exited wore veils, Rong Zhao stood behind the screen for a while, and then left.

Ye Ying and Ye Xiao are busy at both ends now, the prince is down, but they still need someone to appease the victims, they check the status of the victims every day on behalf of the prince, and take turns to take care of Xiao Junjue at night.

Misfortunes never come singly, the relief food that was supposed to be transported to Meishan was robbed by bandits on the way, and the government office in Meishan County was overwhelmed with gloom.

When I came back from Xiao Jun's room, I passed a hand-painted corridor, and I heard a maid whispering, "I heard that the Baifu tree outside the city is very efficacious, just write your wish on the yellow cloth and hang it on the branch." , your wishes will come true.”

"Is it really so effective?"

"Yeah, my wish last year was to meet Ruyi Langjun earlier. I didn't expect to meet Brother Quan within a few days after hanging up. Do you think it will work? Besides, Brother Quan has already proposed marriage to my family. Next year we Just get married."

"Wow, then I'm going to hang up too."

"Well, the more you hang on, the sooner your wish will come true."

Rong Zhao curled his lips as he walked, and if he wrote his wish on the yellow cloth and hung it on the tree, his wish would come true. He is really foolish.If it really works, anyone can lie in bed and wait for gold to drop from the sky.

She scoffed at the time, but turned around and asked Qiu Shui to prepare yellow cloth strips, wrote a wish all night, and went out of the city early the next morning to find the Baifu tree to hang up.

When Ye Xiao heard about this, he became even more angry. If Ye Ying hadn't stopped him, he would have found Rong Zhao long ago.

The prince is so sick, she is still in the mood to play with the wishing tree, is she just looking forward to the death of the prince?

Ye Ying couldn't understand Rong Zhao anymore. Could it be that she really didn't care about the prince's life or death? It's just that he was calmer than Ye Xiao, but he wasn't as close to Rong Zhao as before.

But this day Rong Zhao called him into the room.

"I don't know what the princess is looking for from my subordinates?" The prince's illness is a rock in his heart. Usually he loves to laugh, but now he doesn't have a smile at all.With a solemn face and frowning brows, he treated Rong Zhao with respect.

Rong Zhao was silent for a moment, just looking at him.He waited for Rongzhao to speak for a long time before raising his head, and asked inexplicably, "Is there something wrong with the concubine?" After a pause, "Or let the subordinates go to Linzhen to buy lily cakes?"

Rong Zhao doesn't mind that others think she is a heartless person.

Said: "I think it's a bit strange that the relief food was robbed by bandits."

Ye Ying never thought that the princess asked him to come to talk about this matter, but when she mentioned it, he couldn't help being taken aback, "Why did the princess see it?"

Rong Zhao wanted to say that because she had lived her whole life, she knew that Fang Yude, the county magistrate of Meishan, swallowed up the relief supplies.

At this time in her previous life, she had already married Xiao Jinyu. When she was delivering soup to him that day, she overheard him ordering his subordinates to send a letter to Fang Yude Feige outside the study, and asked him to send a group of people to pretend to be bandits. The relief food was robbed.

There were hundreds of thousands of grains for disaster relief. They colluded with local rice merchants to drive up the market price and sold them at high prices. They were proud of themselves and made a lot of money. Xiao Jinyu alone earned nearly a million taels.

Xiao Jinyu also used this money to make arrangements in the court, bribe officials, and buy people's hearts.

But she couldn't say that.

So I made up a beautiful lie at random, "Because it was too coincidental, we came when the disaster was the worst, but the road was unimpeded. The relief food arrived later, how could it be blocked halfway, and this is imperial food , all humans and animals have to give way, why can’t they come in.”

Rong Zhao's reasoning became more and more smooth, "Besides, how courageous are those mountain bandits, they would even rob the disaster relief supplies allocated by the imperial court. There are rules, and the poor cannot be robbed. If they even rob the food for the victims, it will break the rules of the road."

Ye Ying listened to what she said, and believed it, "That's right, and the news came after the prince fell ill. Isn't this just bullying us for not having a backbone?"

"That's why I called you here to find out about this matter. I've always seen Fang Deyu, the county magistrate, acting sneaky these past few days. Go and investigate him." Rong Zhao directed the matter directly to Fang Deyu.

"Yes, this subordinate will investigate now." Nighthawk took the order.

At night, Ye Ying came back to report, seeing his angry face, Rong Zhao knew he had found out.

"The subordinate followed Fang Deyu all the way, and found that he had another house in the city. After some investigation, he found that it was a granary, with hundreds of thousands of grains in it, and the seal of the imperial court had not been torn off. "

"The subordinates also overheard that Fang Deyu was going to trade with the owner of the largest rice shop in the city at midnight tomorrow night, and it was this batch of disaster relief food."

Rong Zhao has a plan in mind, "Tomorrow night, you will quietly take someone there, and give him a chance to catch the thief on the spot, and catch the turtle in the urn."

Cut off Xiao Jinyu's fortune first, and then catch Fang Deyu and say that he might be implicated in this matter.

On the second night, Nighthawk took people to go, catching every one of them, neither Fang Deyu nor the owner of Mipu ran away.Suppressing people and food, Nighthawk returned to the government office beating gongs and drums, and the trial began that night.

King Chu was ill, but Rong Zhao went to court.To put it bluntly, she is the biggest now.

Sitting on the magistrate's chair, Erlang raised his legs, slapped the gavel, and Yeying Qiushui stood on both sides, Rong Zhao shouted in his heart, "It's cool!"

"Who is in the hall, report to me!" Rong Zhao squinted his eyes, as if he just saw clearly, "Yo, so it's Mr. Fang, the magistrate of Meishan County? What happened? They're all under the shackles, it seems Your crime is not small."

Nighthawk almost couldn't hold back his laughter, Princess, you are asking the question knowingly.The people were arrested under your order, so now you're pretending to be an idiot.

Being caught straight, Fang Deyu didn't have any sophistry, and repeatedly hesitated, "I'm an official, I'm an official..."

"What are you doing?" Rong Zhao raised his voice and turned his ear, "What did Master Fang say? I didn't hear you clearly, please speak up." A person with a guilty conscience will speak in a low voice. Could it be that Master Fang is also at night? Be a thief?

Nighthawk laughed out loud and quickly covered his mouth.

Rong Zhao glanced at him sideways, cleared his cough, and said, "I think Mr. Fang was pinched by the shackles around his neck, so he thought he was on the guillotine, and he was afraid that his head would be separated as soon as he spoke. If this is the case, come, we will Lord Fang's shackles are gone, let him speak well."

As soon as Fang Deyu's shackles were removed, Rong Zhao slapped the gavel fiercely, and shouted, "Fang Deyu, why don't you hurry up and recruit this princess!"

This sudden sound, not to mention Fang Deyu, even Nighthawk was startled, princess, can we not be so startled.

Fang Deyu hurriedly kowtowed to the ground, and begged for mercy: "Princess, spare my life, my concubine, spare my life. The officials are obsessed with ghosts for a while, so they embezzle the food and salaries for disaster relief. Please spare the officials' lives."

Even though it was midnight, there were quite a few spectators, standing outside to watch, at first they all felt that Wang Hao's trial was new, and they probably had never seen it before in all dynasties.But when he saw that the prisoner was the county magistrate, he started to mutter in his heart, and then he heard that the magistrate himself admitted to embezzling food and salaries for disaster relief, and there was an uproar.

"Now that the city is full of disaster victims, he is still greedy. Isn't this killing people?"

"I heard that there was no rice in the government's granary two days ago, and it was the king of Chu who took out the money to buy high-priced rice for the victims."

"Prince Chu is really a good prince."

"Princess, you must seek justice for the people of Meishan County."

"This corrupt official must be punished!"

It feels good to be supported by others, but Rong Zhao is a little smug.She waved her hand towards the common people, "Be quiet, be quiet, this princess is the most fair, this person owes you, this princess asked him to return you even the capital and interest!"

"Oh, oh." The people below cheered again, "The princess is a thousand years old, the prince is a thousand years old."

"Shh!" Rong Zhao hissed with his index finger, "Silence!"

The common people were really saving face, and they fell silent for a moment, which made Rong Zhao feel a little uncomfortable.

"Fang Yude, tell me in detail what you have done. Don't miss a single word. If you miss a single word, I will slap you." Rong Zhao raised his eyebrows, possessing the aura of domineering people in the prosperous age, not angry and pretentious .

Fang Deyu narrated the whole incident verbatim, how he colluded with the rice merchants, how he robbed the relief food, and even reported more deaths to the court, all of which were brought out.

"I have recruited all the officials who can be recruited. I beg the princess to spare the life of the official. I will never dare to be an official again!" Fang Deyu slammed his head on the ground and thought, he never thought that he would look at other people here every day. Kowtow to him, and now he has his share.

"No more?" Rong Zhao suddenly asked.

Fang Deyu paused, "It's gone."

Rong Zhao compared her fingers to the candle, and the candlelight shone through her fingers, making her fingers pink and tender, "You are just a magistrate, you have such courage, I don't believe it when you say it, do you?" Is there someone instigating behind it?" Rong Zhao took his time, and deliberately elongated his voice at the last "ah".

Suddenly, the voice rose suddenly, the gavel was knocked again, and he yelled, "Say! Who ordered you behind!"

(End of this chapter)