"They don't dare not open the door. We are here with an order. If they refuse to open the door, they are resisting the order. Your Majesty will most likely send troops to attack this place. At that time, the generals who defend the city and the prefect of Huizhou will be punished with death!"
He said calmly.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, the city gate was slowly opened. The general guarding the city was named Han. He had a flattering look on his face. When he walked up to Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai, he smiled and said, "Why are you two here in Huizhou?"
?We have not received such a decree..."
Meng Shaoqing took out a secret letter from his arms: "His Majesty's secret decree sent us here to thoroughly investigate the disaster relief. Do you have any objections?"
General Han did not dare to have any objections, but his expression was not good-looking: "The plague is now rampant in the city, and I am just worried that you two adults will go in. But since this is His Majesty's will, we naturally dare not stop it!"
"Let us go over there!" Su Xubai said calmly, "We have been traveling for several days and now we need to rest. General Han should not stop us here anymore."
Naturally, General Han couldn't say anything more and walked aside to let him go.
When Su Xubai and Meng Shaoqing entered the city, what they saw was a vast expanse of white. There were funerals everywhere, wailing and crying everywhere. The roadside was filled with coffins and corpses wrapped in straw mats. The ground was full of
All are white pieces of paper.
This plague killed many people.
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai walked in front, their expressions became a little solemn. This is a town. All towns look like this, and the villages and towns below are probably even more serious.
Cheng Chun wanted to poke his head out to take a look, but was pulled into the car curtain by Ji Lan: "The plague is raging in the city, I'd better be careful, lady!"
After knowing that Su Xubai and the others were coming, the Huizhou magistrate waited at the door of the mansion. The Huizhou magistrate was a bit old, and he didn't know if it was because he had been working too hard these days and was already graying out. He just stood there waiting for them to come.
There seemed to be some hope in his eyes.
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai got off their horses and walked to the prefect of Huizhou. The prefect of Huizhou took Meng Shaoqing's hand and said, "Sir..."
Meng Shaoqing looked at the gray-haired old man in front of him and frowned slightly: "Why is it that only the prefect is here, and where is the imperial minister who is here?"
The prefect's expression changed slightly, and then he said: "They went to the towns and villages to provide disaster relief!"
"Why don't you, the prefect, go with us?" Su Xubai looked at the prefect of Huizhou, "In this situation, the most important thing is for the prefect to follow us, right?"
The prefect looked troubled: "I...that's all, you guys go in and have a rest first. You must have been traveling for several days, so go and have a rest!"
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai did not hold on and followed the prefect into the house.
There was a very strong smell of herbal medicine in the mansion, and all of them couldn't help but frown slightly. Meng Shaoqing asked: "What kind of disease does the prefect have?"
"My house is full of doctors from the streets. I called them here to study prescriptions together. The plague is rampant, and I can't just watch the people suffer like this!" The prefect said, his shoulders slightly bent.
It gives people a feeling of intention but powerlessness.
Su Xubai, who had been silent until now, asked: "What is the current disaster situation? It would be better for the prefect to tell us."
The prefect was silent for a while, and then said: "This flood destroyed the dam, and all the farmland was affected. The food distributed by the court was far from enough for the people. Coupled with the spread of the plague, the victims outside the city
Hundreds of people die every day in the camp, and this is just the city, the villages and towns below are even more miserable..."
What the prefect said was a bit evasive. Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai could feel that he was concealing something, but at the moment they did not see the real situation. No matter what it was, there was no way to confirm it, and there was no way to hold him accountable.
After settling into Chengchun, Su Xubai and Meng Shaoqing hardly stayed at all, and took the prefect to the outside of the city to find out what was going on.
Because they were going to a refugee camp, the prefect forced them to wear doctor's clothes, covering their mouths and noses tightly. When the prefect put on these clothes, they felt particularly comfortable, and you could tell at a glance that this was not the first time they had worn them.
When they entered the refugee camp, Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai had already thought about the misery inside, but when they walked in, they couldn't help but feel a thump in their hearts.
All the patients were lying on the ground. Those who were more lucky had a straw mat, and those who were less lucky just lay straight on the ground. Soldiers came and went, constantly carrying out the dead bodies.
The entire refugee camp was not filled with hobbies and cries as they thought. Instead, it was very quiet. Apart from the sounds of coughing and vomiting, no other sounds could be heard.
In the simple camp, there were nearly a thousand people lying down, but there were only a few busy soldiers and doctors. Su Xubai couldn't help but frown: "Who is responsible for their food and drink?"
"We have been without food for two days. What we have eaten these two days are some wild vegetables I sent people to dig in the mountains, and boil some soup and water to barely eat!" The prefect's voice was very soft, as if he was the only one who could do it.
hear.
Meng Shaoqing's face was getting worse and worse. He looked at the prefect in front of him: "What happened in Huizhou? Do you still want to hide it?"
The prefect's face turned pale, his head lowered, and he could not speak for a long time.
Su Xubai quickly stopped Meng Shaoqing: "If there is anything we can go out and talk about, don't make a fuss here."
Meng Shaoqing threw up his sleeves and left, leaving Su Xubai and the prefect alone looking at each other.
"Master Magistrate, you should know why we are here. The relief food distributed by the household department this time can at least sustain the situation of the entire Huizhou for four or five months. No matter what, it will not be like this now.
"Look, where did the money and grain distributed by the imperial court go?" Su Xubai looked at the prefect and said coldly, "Of course, you'd better tell the truth, otherwise as the prefect, you will
You must bear the responsibility for this crime alone, this is a serious crime to destroy the nine tribes!"
The prefect's face was ashen.
Su Xubai turned around and left without saying a word.
As soon as he walked outside, Meng Shaoqing's face turned ugly. He looked coldly at the Huizhou magistrate in front of him: "I'm just going to ask you once, where did the money and food go?"
"I don't know!" The magistrate of Huizhou looked up at Meng Shaoqing, his face full of despair, "You talk about disaster relief money and food, but you have never been to Huizhou from the beginning to the end. What I received is box after box.
Empty box!"
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai's expressions changed greatly: "Why don't you report it to the court?"
"My memorial can't get out of Huizhou at all!" The magistrate's eyes turned red, "Huizhou is a dead city right now, and the news inside can't get out at all. Not to mention the people, I'm going to die here, Imperial Envoy
, What an imperial envoy. I have never seen him since he came to Huizhou, but to the outside world, all the silver taels are in my warehouse, and tens of thousands of taels of snowflake silver have also evaporated overnight. No matter what,
I'd better die!"
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai looked at each other. Along the way, they thought about officials protecting each other and about officials enriching their own pockets. However, they never thought that they were even framed by the prefect.
The boxes were brought to the prefect's house one by one. Everyone could see them clearly, but who knew what was in the boxes?
Even if you report such an aboveboard act to the emperor, the emperor may not believe it!
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai suddenly understood that if the prefect told the truth, then this matter would become very troublesome, because they had already found a scapegoat. Unless they could find the missing snowflakes, it would be difficult for the prefect to do so.
Give up the blame.
But right now, the most important thing is disaster relief. The huge Huizhou has run out of food, and the people are in dire straits. No matter what, they must have food first.
Meng Shaoqing and Su Xubai decided not to pursue the issue of disaster relief funds. The most important thing now was to borrow food.
Meng Shaoqing immediately asked people to detain the generals who defended the city, and then sent people as a court to the surrounding towns to borrow food. His colleague Su Xubai sent a letter to Xie Chengyin, informing him of the true situation in Huizhou and asking him to find a way to raise money again.
.
Since arriving in Huizhou, Cheng Chun has never seen Su Xubai again. Even if he knew that they were in the mansion, he could not see them in person. He only knew that they were too busy and unable to do anything.
Cheng Chun has never seen anyone. He just heard that the general who defended the city was arrested. Now Silang is guarding the city gate tower. Su Xubai and Meng Shaoqing are running outside every day, either to this county or that county. No one
stop.
The grain and grass were delivered one after another on the fourth day. Jiangnan was prosperous, and most of the surrounding towns had surplus grain, and there was a lot of borrowed grain and grass.
Meng Shaoqing led the prefect to distribute the food, and porridge sheds were set up in various places. Su Xubai led the military doctors and doctors to discuss the plague.
Throughout the ages, there have been many places where entire cities have been burned to death due to plague. I have always been kind to the emperor and would never give up saving them unless it was a last resort. Therefore, Su Xubai refused to give up and stayed in the places where the epidemic was most serious every day.
travel through.
There is currently no specific medicine that can treat the plague. What they can do is to prevent and control it. All the patients are gathered together in a temporary camp and treated together, while those who have died can only be treated with a handful of
The fire burned.
As for those patients whose high fever persists, they can only try various medicines. There is a strong smell of medicinal herbs in the camp every day, but even so, many people are still carried out of the camp every day.
All kinds of life and death were staged every day. The more Su Xubai saw it, the more he became numb!