Qingyu Case: Female Minister of Dali Temple

She was willing to keep Quan Shuyu, not only because Chan Yi wanted to keep her, but also because she was tactful. She had lived in the East Wing for quite a while, but she rarely left the East Wing, not to mention when Ding Lisheng came to Chengfeng Courtyard.

Since she didn't come out when Ding Lisheng arrived at Chengfeng Courtyard, how did Ding Lisheng know that she was the one living in the east wing?

Ding Lisheng's face turned pale immediately, and he knelt on the ground in a hurry to explain: "My lord, you are wise. I only said so because I heard him say that he was looking for Miss Quan San. I didn't know that the person living in the east wing was Miss Quan San."

Chen Shao asked, "Did I rescue many people from the prefectural government?"

Ding Lisheng's face turned even paler. "My Lord, please be wise. I have never told anyone that Third Miss Quan is in the prefect's mansion. I swear that if I lie, I will be struck by lightning!"

Chen Shao sneered, "The Yulin Guards are guarding Chengfeng Courtyard inside and outside. Since Quan Shuyu moved in, only you few have entered and left Chengfeng Courtyard. If it's not you, who else could it be?"

Ding Lisheng quickly said, "It's definitely not me!"

Chen Shao snorted coldly and retracted his gaze, and continued to ask Quan Li'an: "When did the fourth master Wen send someone to tell you, why don't you confess quickly!"

Quan Li'an was already terrified, and seeing Ding Lisheng like this, he was undoubtedly even more frightened. "To answer your question, Master Wen Si sent someone to Hanyuan County to tell me the other day."

"The day before yesterday..." In order to clear himself of suspicion, Ding Lisheng immediately said, "Isn't that the day when the young master went to the Wen family manor?"

Turning his head to look at Quan Li'an, he added, "Master Wen Si's actions were clearly intentional! Fortunately, he has been executed by the Master!"

Wen Ting is dead? Quan Li'an felt a chill in his bones.

"The young master found Miss Quan, but he didn't send anyone to inform you to pick her up. You should understand that Miss Quan's identity is no longer the same as before." Seeing that Chen Shao didn't respond, Ding Lisheng turned his head and scolded, "You are so good. You only recognize the fourth young master Wen, not the young master. You came all the way here to ask for her in person. You are really brave!"

Quan Li'an was so frightened that two of his three souls died immediately, and only one of his seven souls remained. He slapped his face and said, "Sir, please spare my life. I know I was wrong!"

Chen Shao glanced at Ding Lisheng, then looked back at him, "Since you know you are wrong, you don't need to be the county magistrate anymore. Take him away and give him a thorough trial to see if you can find out anything else!"

Ding Lisheng responded promptly, and without waiting for the bailiff to come, he personally escorted him away.

As soon as they left, Fu Jiu came with a few shop owners from the medicine shop.

After Chen Shao scanned the people one by one, he got straight to the point and said, "There is only one official pharmacy, but there are many pharmacies participating in the election. After screening, I have temporarily selected you. But who among you should I choose has given me a hard time. After thinking about it, I can only think of one solution, which is to add another round of elections. The deadline is the end of this month, and then I will make the final choice based on the reputation of the people who have come to your pharmacy for treatment within this month."

The shopkeepers of the four selected medicine shops had already had some guesses on the way here, but they did not dare to make any rash judgments when they saw that there were other shops coming with them. Now that their guesses have really come true, the tense hearts of several people can't help but relax a little, especially Shopkeeper Zhao of Anrentang and Shopkeeper Xu of Sizhentang.

Anrentang is just an inconspicuous little medicine shop, and Sizhentang is not much better than it. The business of the two medicine shops has always been bleak, and the ones who took over have always been the less favored descendants of the Gu, Zhu, Fan and Qi families. If it weren't for the official medicine shop this time, the Gu, Zhu, Fan and Qi families would not even remember them. Therefore, for Shopkeeper Zhao and Shopkeeper Xu, adding another round of elections is undoubtedly the fairest and most just way.

Because if they really compare strength, they are no match for Wanhetang and Kangletang.

Wanhetang and Kangletang were not much better than them. The two pharmacies were indeed stronger than them, but they had falsified their account books, prescriptions, and drug prices. If this had happened before Wen Gui, Ren Yujie and others, they would not have panicked, but the successive incidents of Wen Gui, Ren Yujie, and the Wen family forced them to panic. What if they stood out by falsifying and were reported by others?

With Chen Shao's thunderous means, he would definitely not let them go, and they didn't want to die. Now, in one month, they have won with real "performance" and won fairly, and no one can say anything.

Glancing at the few people again and seeing their happy expressions, Chen Shao took out the prescriptions he brought back from the Wen family farm, divided them up casually, and said, "There are forty-seven prescriptions here, eleven for Anrentang, and twelve for each of the other three families. Take them back and prepare the medicines, and then send them to Tongchuntang."

Several shopkeepers came forward one after another and received their own prescriptions. Chen Shao spoke again: "You must follow the prescription to prepare the medicine. You cannot change the medicinal materials for any reason. As for the quality of the medicinal materials, you can decide for yourself. I have only one request. While ensuring the efficacy of the medicine, you must also ensure that ordinary people can afford it. In addition, you pick two doctors in your own pharmacy and report their names to me."

None of the shopkeepers knew what she was going to do, but they all gave her the name of the best doctor in the pharmacy.

After Chen Shao wrote down the names one by one, he instructed: "Starting from tomorrow, each of your four pharmacies will have one day, and the doctors you reported will take turns to go to Tongchun Hall to see patients."

Glancing at the few people, Chen Shao said, "Let's start with Kangle Hall, Kanghe Hall tomorrow, Wanhe Hall the day after tomorrow, Sizhen Hall the day after tomorrow, and finally Anrentang."

Several shopkeepers said yes in unison.

After they left, Chen Shao looked at the list they had submitted and instructed Fu Jiu, "Arrange someone to invite Master Qi and Zhao Liangzhu, as well as the families of Luo Shurong and Wang Zhouli."

Zhao Liangzhu arrived the fastest.

After receiving the news, he came here almost at full speed.

The last time Chen Shao asked him if he was willing to work with her, he already had the answer. It was just that Chen Shao was not in the county town these days, so he had been holding back from coming. After getting off the horse and entering the prefect's mansion, Zhao Liangzhu suppressed his excitement and walked quickly to the second hall. He stopped and slowed down for a moment before walking in. After entering the second hall, he bowed and said without waiting for her to ask, "I am willing to work with you!"

Although it was an expected answer, Chen Shao couldn't help but feel relieved. It was hard to find another capable person like him who could lead the whole village to prosperity and even take over a business with his own ability.

After moving to the side hall, asking him to sit down and asking Chan Yi to pour him a cup of tea, Chen Shao asked, "Do you have any ideas?"

Zhao Liangzhu took a sip of tea and was about to stand up to answer. Chen Shao motioned him to sit down: "Since the herbs in the pharmacy are entrusted to you, you will have more opportunities to reply in the future. If you have to go through so many formalities every time, you won't have to do anything."

Zhao Liangzhu felt warm in his heart, "I have an idea, but I don't know if it's feasible."

Chen Shao said gently, "I have no experience in this area, but as the saying goes, three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang. Just tell me if it's feasible and we can discuss it slowly."

Even so, Zhao Liangzhu still looked at her face as he spoke: "Last time, you said that we cannot stop certain people from growing certain medicinal herbs based on their personal likes and dislikes. I think this is wrong. Think about it, even if there are only ten households in a village, if ten households have ten different ideas, how can we manage them? If we follow their ideas in everything, won't one person be able to take care of them all? If we send more people, the actual cost will increase. In this way, the people may benefit, but our medicine shop will definitely not last for a few years."

Chen Shao nodded and let him continue.

Seeing that she was really receptive to his advice, Zhao Liangzhu felt relieved and began to speak out his own ideas boldly: "If I want to benefit the people without causing them so much trouble, and at the same time keep the medicine shop open, my idea is to hire them to grow medicinal herbs. I believe that the Huimin Medicine Shop is not only in Hongyuan County, but will be in other counties sooner or later. Medicinal herbs, like food, must grow naturally. In this case, the benefits of hiring the people to grow them will be more numerous and greater. First, it is easy to manage, second, it can be planted on demand, and the last and most important point is that it can be called up faster and more flexibly. For example, some medicinal herbs are only suitable for growing in Hongyuan County, so we can reserve a large amount of similar medicinal herbs, and then distribute them to county towns that do not grow such medicinal herbs, and then bring the medicinal herbs that are not suitable for growing in Hongyuan County from other county towns. In this way, we can not only get what we need, but also avoid too many disputes with the people."

Isn’t this the concept of a circulation market?

Chen Shao looked at him in surprise and couldn't help but praise him: "Your idea is very good."

Zhao Liangzhu didn't expect to receive such straightforward praise. He was excited but modestly said, "These are just some of my preliminary ideas. I need your advice on how to improve them."

Chen Shao refused directly: "I can't give you any ideas, so I'll leave this matter to you. When you have perfected your ideas, just write them down and give them to me for review."

Zhao Liangzhu couldn't hide his excitement and said, "As for the personnel..."

Adhering to the principle of trusting people when hiring them and not hiring people if you doubt them, Chen Shao simply said, "You are responsible for hiring people. Generally speaking, I will not interfere with you."

"However..." Chen Shao changed the subject, "I won't interfere too much in all aspects related to medicinal materials, but Hongyuan County has more than 150 villages, which is not big, but not small either. At present, medicinal material planting is just a concept. There are many specific issues on how to implement it, such as which village should plant what, how to plant it, etc. If I leave it all to you to solve, I'm afraid it won't be easy... Let me arrange some people to go to each village to feel out the situation, to see how many people in each village are willing to plant medicinal materials, or how much money they need a year to be willing to plant, and what kind of medicinal materials are suitable for planting. After they collect the information, you can make plans."

Zhao Liangzhu nodded in agreement.

Chen Shao instructed Fu Jiu: "Send someone to call Liu Deming and the others over, and call all the thirty people who investigated Shi Xing's case."

Fu Jiucai had just made the arrangements when Luo Shurong and Wang Zhouli also arrived.

Chen Shao did not meet them, but instructed Chan Yi: "Take them to the east wing of Qingfeng Courtyard and ask Quan Shuyu if she can write a business contract. If she can, ask her to draft two business contracts for them to sign. If she can't, ask the mayor for two business contract deposit receipts and ask her to write two copies accordingly."

Shortly after Chan Yi took people there, while waiting for Qi Ye, Liu Deming and others to come, Chen Shao handled Shi Xing's case again.

If it weren't for the need to add details, Shi Xing's case would have been closed long ago. Now that all the evidence, including the process of committing the crime and the motive for committing the crime, has been completed, Chen Shao no longer delays. After calling Ding Lisheng over, he ordered: "Shi Xing and Hu Lilan can be executed, and Wang Yuquan and Liu Renda can also be executed together. Post their charges today and execute them tomorrow morning."

Ding Lisheng glanced at Zhao Liangzhu and asked, "What about Shi Hui and Shi An? How should we deal with them?"

"They..." Chen Shao thought for a moment, "Temporarily arrange them to Tongchun Hall. As for the Xue family, you go and interrogate them. Just tell me the result after the interrogation. Don't dawdle, do it today."

Not long after Ding Lisheng left, Liu Deming and others arrived.

The side hall was small and couldn't accommodate so many people, so Chen Shao returned to the second hall.

The excitement of Liu Deming and the others at the Wen family farm had not yet completely subsided. When they saw her come out, their eyes lit up.

"We're not going to another manor." Chen Shao said simply, interrupting their expectations before getting down to business. "I asked you to come here because I have something important to tell you."

After giving them a brief introduction to the official pharmacy and the idea of ​​growing medicinal herbs, Chen Shao said, "There are a total of 153 villages in Hongyuan County. Each of you will be responsible for five villages. As for whether you want to find accomplices for help or form a group on your own, I don't care. I only have one condition, which is to collect all the information Uncle Liangzhu needs within half a month. As for which five villages each of you will be responsible for, draw lots. Fu Jiu, prepare the tools for drawing lots."

While Fu Jiu was preparing the tools for drawing lots, Liu Deming and the others were also busy, either surrounding Zhao Liangzhu to inquire about the information they needed to collect or looking for accomplices. Amid their noise, the Seventh Master finally arrived.

The second hall is too noisy.

Chen Shao welcomed the Seventh Master to the side hall.

The Seventh Master was the first to ask, "Is the pharmacy going to open?"

Chen Shao nodded: "If Master Qi is willing, we can open it now. If Master Qi has something to do today, then it won't be too late to open it tomorrow."

"Then let's do it now." Master Qi stood up without even drinking his tea and asked, "Is there a doctor?"

"Yes, but you have to wait until tomorrow." After asking him to sit down again, Chen Shao explained the doctor's rotation to him in detail. After that, he said, "We don't have our own doctor at the moment, but I will arrange one as soon as possible. If Master Qi knows a doctor, you can also ask him if he is willing to come. We can discuss the monthly salary and so on."

"I do know two of them," Master Qi pondered, "but they all have inherited their skills from their ancestors. They usually only treat patients in the surrounding villages. They have never worked in a pharmacy or a clinic before. I don't know if they are suitable for me."

Chen Shao said: "As long as the medical skills and character are good enough, it will be fine."

"Then I'll go ask them later." Master Qi stood up again, "While it's still early, I'll go and take a look at where the medicine shop is."