The loyal minister was forced to marry the traitor

Yongzhou Prefecture is located in the southwest of Daliang, with a lot of water and few mountains. Most of the people mainly plant rice and millet. In previous years, the climate was hot and humid, but this year it was frosty early. As soon as Bai Yan and his party stepped into the border of Yongzhou, they saw many refugees along the way.

It was the harvest season, but all of them were sallow and thin, with thin clothes hanging on their bodies, and the children grabbed the dirt lumps on the ground and stuffed them into their mouths in disgrace.

There is still mud in the field, and occasionally a few people can be seen digging hard in it, but there is only a rotten smell.

Dressed in rags, his face numb, the man leaned against the dead tree and breathed lightly. If it wasn't for his wife and children beside him, he would have thought it was a corpse.

"My lord, it's a good thing that I listened to you and changed the carriage, and broke up the team. Otherwise, if these people rushed up, I'm afraid they could even snatch the carriage." The coachman's tone was full of rejoicing.

Bai Yan sat in, opened the corner of the curtain and watched silently.

Yongzhou Prefecture should not be like this.

He had received the news of Yongzhou Mansion's embankment collapse half a month ago, only two days later than the imperial court, but the Ministry of Household Affairs did not report until the imperial court seven days later.

I don't know how many people have passed through the news, it's hard for Bai Yan not to think about it.

And at this time, he had already had a bad guess in his heart. Before he saw that no one in the court reported it, he had written a letter and asked Huai Chun to send it to the emperor's case, but for some reason, following the emperor's sudden illness, The matter was left alone, and then he was distracted by Xiao Jiuqin's return to Yingdu, and the matter was delayed.

But no matter what, counting from the day when the Minister of the Ministry of Households reported the report, Yongzhou Mansion should not be like this now.

unless……

Bai Yan clenched his fists tightly, if someone really was acting as a monster in it, deliberately concealing it and not reporting it...

Bai Yanqiang suppressed all his speculations. After more than an hour, the carriage stopped at the gate of the prefect of Yongzhou Prefecture. Before he could get off, someone came to drive him away, "There is no such thing as a long-sighted thing. The carriage dares to go to the gate of the prefect. Stop, get out!"

"Bold, do you know who is sitting here?" The rest of the people hadn't been there for a long time, and the groom bit the bullet and asked, after all, he couldn't let Bai Yan come and pester people in person.

"It doesn't matter who you are, even if the king of heaven comes, you have to stand aside!" The person who came was sure that such a broken carriage would not take any dignitaries. None of the people.

The groom was so angry that he wanted to throw his whip on the man's face, but Bai Yan came out from inside.

After bumping on the road for so many days, the old disease relapsed again, and he looked sick and weak.He was dressed in an indigo cross-collar robe, his hair was only gently pulled up with a headband of the same color. Although his face was pale, his brows remained undiminished. "Where is Fang Yue?"

"You, you dare to call the magistrate by his name, how courageous!" The man was about to call someone to beat Bai Yan out, but he didn't expect the weak young man in front of him to kick him.

"Ouch!" The kick came so suddenly, not to mention that the man was unprepared, even the groom was shocked: Aren't Yu Shi always talking but not using hands, why is he so powerful...

"Give this to Fang Yue." Bai Yan took out a sign and threw it into the arms of the person lying on the ground, and walked out of the city by himself.

"My lord, where are you going?" The groom asked in a daze.

"Find a random inn and settle down, and meet other people later." Bai Yan left after speaking. What he saw was just the tip of the iceberg as he walked this way.

It's not that he didn't want to work with Fang Yue to understand the situation first, but just now, with the bullying dog, he can almost predict that Fang Yue is not clean, so he still believes what he sees.

Bai Yan walked for a while, Yongzhou Fucheng was sparsely populated, half of the shops were closed, and occasionally there were a few small stalls selling some stale dried vegetables.

"Young master, do you want to buy some?" Bai Yancai just walked to the stall, and greeted Convenience graciously. He seemed very unfamiliar with selling, and he didn't seem to be used to business.

Seeing the calluses on his hands, Bai Yan basically got the bottom line, took out a piece of broken silver and put it in front of him.

"Young Master, this is it?" The other party's eyes lit up first, then he was a little puzzled, and a little bit defensive.

"Ask you something." Bai Yan said.

"Master, just ask." The other party had never known a gentleman with such an elegant temperament like Bai Yan. Although he was dressed in simple clothes, he knew that he was not an ordinary person just by his overall temperament, so he spoke with a little more respect.

"If you answer well, there will be some money for you." Bai Yan promised.

"My son has something to say, but it's okay to ask, I will know everything."

Bai Yan nodded, "Let me ask you, when was the Yongzhou Mansion's embankment broken?"

The other party was slightly taken aback when he heard the words. He didn't expect such a simple question, but he didn't think too much about it, so he answered honestly, "I remember very clearly, it was on the night of August [-]th...more than ten dams were washed away. It's too late for people to block it, after all, it has been pouring rain for the past two days, and that night there were bean-sized raindrops, which hurt people's faces!"

"Are you sure it's August [-]th?" Bai Yan's heart sank.

The other party nodded, "How could I forget such a recent day, the heavy rain that night destroyed the fields in the next village, and some people were washed away, we went to save them..."

Bai Yan fell into deep thought, if this is the case, the time will not be right.According to the news he had received before, the day of the embankment breach would be postponed by at least seven days.

These seven days... are not short in terms of human life, and what's the point of delaying reporting to the court?

"Young Master?" Seeing Bai Yan frowning, the man thought that he didn't answer well, so he explained again and again, "Other people also remember the incident of the dike collapse clearly. If you don't believe me, you can ask other people. I am absolutely sure." Will not lie."

"I believe what you say." Bai Yan's gaze fell elsewhere, and he continued to ask, "Since you set up a stall here, you must have dealt with many people. Let me ask you, since the time when the embankment broke until now, has there been any people in Yongzhou Mansion?" Did something unusual happen?"

"Abnormal things?" The other party scratched his head, "Every day there are some things about old sesame seeds and rotten millet, and I don't know what the young master's question probably has to do with it."

Bai Yan motioned him to look in the direction of the magistrate's mansion, "For example, what did the magistrate do... I heard that Fang is a well-known good official, he should love the people like a son, and he has made a lot of political achievements in the past few years, right?"

"Hey, just that big corrupt official, where did he do any human affairs? Since he took office, he has fished and meated the common people. From time to time, he used the excuse of patrolling to occupy fields everywhere, and when he saw a beautiful woman, he coaxed and tricked him into the mansion. There is such a strong If he refused to follow him, the beast threatened his parents and brothers, and three months ago, a woman was forced to death!"

As soon as Fang Yue was mentioned, the stall owner gritted his teeth angrily, "It's a bullying thing, he also has dozens of thugs, there are many private farms, and there are many shops, most of which are in the business of cloth and silk. Many of them are grain noodles. Since the embankment broke, the fields of the common people have been flooded, and the price of rice and grain has soared for a while. Mr. Fang refused to open a warehouse to release grain, and even colluded with other rice merchants to raise the price of rice... "

Bai Yan thought it was true.

I heard the stall owner scolding again, "Yongzhou Mansion was originally rich, but this time the embankment collapsed seriously, and the government officials did nothing. Only the villages of each village are taking the villagers to plug the gap..."

"Where are the soldiers stationed in Yongzhou Prefecture?"

"The leader of the army is Mr. Fang's brother-in-law. He has always looked forward to Mr. Fang's leadership. The two of them don't know what their plans are. While refusing to send troops to consolidate the embankment on the grounds of suppressing bandits, they also try their best to collect money. Now, my lord, look at this. The prefecture is not very popular, that is to say, someone from the imperial court has tipped off the news..."

Bai Yan's eyes darkened slightly, "What do you mean 'someone in the court tipped off the news'?"

"Hey!" The stall owner also found himself accidentally saying something important.

"You can tell it all, I have some silver for you." Bai Yan took out another piece of silver.

It's a coincidence that Bai Yan originally wanted to find a local commoner to inquire about something, but he didn't expect that the stall owner was quite familiar with the source of the news, even the "unknown" news of Yongzhou Prefecture. Not a lot.

"Young Master, let's be honest, I was originally a hunter, and the wild animals I hunted were sent directly to the magistrate's mansion. There is a young master in Mr. Fang's mansion who takes care of these wild animals, and he wants live animals every time. The money is not enough. So many things come and go and I always know more than others.”

He looked helpless, "It's just that some time ago, I hunted a wild mink and sent it, but it hurt the young master, so the deal was broken..." He said here with a layer of resentment, "It wasn't me at all. It was my fault, but the other party not only refused to settle all the money for me, but also beat me up!"

He pointed to the wound on his forehead, "This is what those thugs beat up," he sighed, "Most of the dikes have been destroyed, and the weather is unpredictable, so I haven't gone into the mountains for a long time, but there are old mothers and young children at home, Life is unsustainable, so I can only get some dried vegetables that are sun-dried on weekdays and sell them..."

"What else do you know?" Bai Yan probably had some understanding in his heart.

"Others," the stall owner thought for a while, "well, last time when I went to deliver the wild things, I accidentally saw a few Jin Yiwei walking in."

"Jin Yiwei?" Bai Yan was taken aback.

"Yes, I can't be mistaken, it is indeed Jinyiwei. I still know Feiyufu and Xiuchundao. Also, I remember that Jinyiwei came to Yongzhou Mansion last year, but I just went to the prefect's mansion to see off After being reprimanded, I didn’t dare to look at it again, but at that time I was accompanied by a housekeeper, so it shouldn’t be an ordinary person.”

Speaking of this, Bai Yan had more doubts.

Originally, it was just a dam break, but as strange things appeared one after another, he faintly felt that he had broken something, but the thread hadn't been completely connected yet.

"Fang Yue bullied men and women to harm Yongzhou, so no one would report him?" This was what Bai Yan wanted to ask just now.

"Report? Young Master, you are joking. Whenever there is any trouble in Yongzhou Mansion, that Master Fang will come here. He is afraid that he does not want to live, so he goes to report him..."