New Return of the Pearl: The Group's Pet Swallow Flies

In Qingyun Pavilion, Duanmu Qing listened to his subordinates' words with a frown on his face. He had heard about those things before, but he never thought that those officials would never restrain themselves.

"However, I don't know if the emperor has known about this for a long time. We also found officials who were conducting secret visits in the Suzhou area. Although they were dressed very low-key, their noble demeanor and their anger towards the local officials in Suzhou were very obvious."

The fourth brother added, "If they were really sent by the capital, I think they should be able to eliminate those tumors more quickly and give the people peace."

Everyone was talking about their recent investigations, and Duanmu Qing breathed a sigh of relief after he had figured out what was going on.

"You guys should pay attention back. It won't be long before the emperor and his men investigate this place. At the same time, there are also people from the Xiao family. You just need to deal with them calmly and don't have too many conflicts with them." Duanmu Qing reminded everyone.

The others looked at each other in bewilderment. They felt a little uneasy when they heard that the emperor might target them. After all, they only had so many people, and they were afraid that they could not compete with so many officers and soldiers in the capital.

The third brother couldn't help but ask, "Master, you said before that you had something to do and then you took the second and fifth brothers out. What did you do?"

Others couldn't help but look at him curiously, waiting for the Pavilion Master's answer.

Duanmu Qing touched his nose and spoke in a weak voice, "I led people to block the procession where the emperor and his wife and princess were offering sacrifices to the gods..."

"what?"

Everyone was shocked. The Pavilion Master was so bold that he even dared to confront the Emperor and his parade directly.

"And then? What did you do?"

Someone asked about the follow-up.

Duanmu Qing took a sip of tea, swallowed it, and said with an erratic look, "Well, in front of the emperor and others, they slandered the father of the adopted princess and had collusion with the Qinglong Gang, saying that the little princess was the adopted daughter of the leader of the Qinglong Gang."

"........"

Everyone was silent. They were speechless. At the same time, they felt that what the Pavilion Master did was really unkind.

Duanmu Qing didn't wait for others to ask, and told the rest of the story in a few words, including the abduction of Xiaoyanzi.

Their heads started pounding when they heard this. What was this Pavilion Master really thinking?

"Could it be the little girl you brought back?" Someone guessed cleverly.

"It's her."

Duanmu Qing nodded and admitted it.

Everyone was speechless. They really didn't know what to say to this guy.

"Master, what do you think?"

"I, I just think that Xiao Zhihang was able to be made an earl by the emperor because he must have colluded with officials or done something evil. Otherwise, how could an ordinary person like him be favored by the emperor?"

Duanmu Qing expressed his previous thoughts, and he actually regretted it now.

"But now the emperor is probably eyeing us. When do you plan to send the little princess back? This princess is with us, and our mountain is always in danger."

"We'll send her back soon, don't worry."

---------

Xiaoyanzi, who was being missed, was so tired that she lay down on the bed to rest.

On this quiet mountain top, I smell the fragrance of flowers and hear the chirping of birds from time to time. I feel very safe. This feeling of enjoying nature is really good.

However, in her dream, she thought of her relatives and friends. But when she saw them looking at her with concern in the dream, the corners of her lips could not help but rise slightly.

Time passed quickly, and four or five days had passed. The people inside and outside the capital had been nervous for several days because of the disappearance of the princess, but no one had been found.

Even though they had received a reply from Xiaoyanzi and the others, the emperor and others were still very anxious. The small explosion that occurred in the village in the city that day had been confirmed to be caused by the people from Qingyun Pavilion before, but no one knew the specific reason for it.

They would never have thought that the fire happened because someone wanted to cook for Xiaoyanzi and accidentally exploded the pot and the kitchen.

Xiaoyanzi has been missing for longer and longer times, and Ziwei and the others are in a bad mood. They are all worried about Xiaoyanzi's safety, but they don't know where she is, or whether the letter is true or false.

In Chengqian Palace, it is always very quiet because Xiaoyanzi is not around. Xia Yuhe and her daughter are both worried, but life has to go on. They are just always worried about her.

Even when Ziwei and Yongqi went to the Shangshufang to study, the Shangshufang seemed less lively.

To say that the disappearance of Little Swallow had a big impact, it was not at all. Everyone was leading a normal life, going to court and attending classes. However, those who cared about her were still feeling a little depressed, not knowing that the disappeared Little Swallow was happily playing in Qingyun Pavilion.

Xiaoyanzi was not found, but Fu Cha Fu Heng, who went to Hangzhou to investigate the matter, came back.

On this day, ten days had passed since Xiaoyanzi disappeared.

Fu Cha Fu Heng rushed back exhausted, with some scars on his face, and it was obvious that his journey was not a peaceful one.

Instead of returning home to rest, he went straight to the palace to meet the emperor with a serious expression.

In the Qianqing Palace, the Emperor was reviewing memorials as usual. Based on the letter sent by Xiaoyanzi, he had sent people to search for the whereabouts of Qingyun Pavilion nearby. Xiao Zhihang also went to the palace to confirm that Qingyun Pavilion was not a reputable and upright sect, but it had always been punishing evil and eliminating harm for the people, and would certainly not bully a three-year-old child. This made him feel a little more at ease. Otherwise, he would be worried in his dreams at midnight that Xiaoyanzi was blaming him for not saving him.

"Your Majesty, Master Fucha Fuheng is back."

Fu Cha Fu Heng's voice came from the door, and Xiao Luzi ran into the room with a happy face to report to the emperor.

Hearing this, Hongli rubbed his sore fingers, put down the memorial, and said in a gentle voice, "Send him in."

"Yes."

Not long after, Fu Cha Fu Heng, looking tired and even bruised, walked in and greeted respectfully.

Seeing his appearance, Hongli was quite shocked and asked quickly, "What happened? Why are you in such a mess?"

After Fu Cha Fu Heng sighed, he told everything about his experience in Hangzhou during the investigation.

Since the day he was ordered to go to Hangzhou, he took Liu Qing's father, Liu Chenfeng, with him to leave the capital and carefully investigate all the way in the direction of Hangzhou to see if he could find anything along the way.

Since he was not taking the official road, he was shocked to find that on many remote paths, he could encounter Japanese pirates who were robbing women or passing caravans. Not all of them were Japanese pirates, but many were soldiers in officer uniforms. After hurting the people, they would let them go and drive them to a county town to heal their wounds. Then they would unknowingly contract the disease, making their life worse than death. There were always one or two "kind" county governors who would take the initiative to spend their fortunes to buy precious herbs, boil them into medicine, and let everyone take it.

At the same time, there will be many merchants who will be morally blackmailed by them and forced to give up huge fortunes. At this time, the county town will be blocked by them by all means and no one will be allowed to enter or leave.

When Fu Cha and Fu Heng investigated thoroughly and found out that those officials were colluding with each other and saying that they were raising a large amount of medicinal materials to treat the people, but it turned out to be just an excuse for them to make huge profits, they saw that they secretly transferred all the money away and only left a little ginseng, soaked it in water, and let all the sick people drink it. It could relieve the symptoms but not cure the disease. They were so angry that their faces turned blue.

But in order not to alert the enemy, they had to hide secretly and quietly find out where the gold and silver had been transferred.

After this investigation, we discovered a lot of things. It turned out that those officials were secretly colluding with the Japanese pirates.

That day, in a small county town some distance away from Hangzhou City, several Japanese pirates dressed up as Qing citizens, wearing long gowns and jackets, and were led by the county lady to the backyard of the county lady's mansion.

This small county town is not very big, and logically, there are not many wealthy businessmen. However, those who can do business near Hangzhou city naturally have some money, so they were targeted by the county lord and the Japanese pirates behind them.

The leader of the pirates was short and spoke in Mandarin. He said disdainfully to the county lady who was leading him, "You are moving too slowly. This money is not enough. You need to get more."

The county lord herself was not a courageous person. She was just a small local official and usually there were no big leaders coming to her. She had been here for many years and had no intention of betraying her motherland. However, her family members were abducted and locked up by these Japanese pirates, so she couldn't resist. She was jealous but powerless.

Hearing what the man said, the anger and hatred in his eyes flashed away, and then he smiled and said, "Isn't it because there are too few people in our county, and there are not many wealthy businessmen. I want to work hard, but there is nothing I can do."

These days, no one knows what the Japanese pirates did to the people, causing them to inexplicably contract the disease. If they don’t soak it in water with ginseng or something like that and drink it, they will be contagious, and in severe cases, they may die directly, which is terrifying.

However, these medicinal herbs were taken in by the government early on, just for this purpose, to stage a drama, a drama targeting those wealthy businessmen.

In just a few days, the epidemic almost paralyzed the entire county. When the people were on the verge of death, they learned that the government had a magic medicine that could save them. They couldn't wait to flock to it. They heard that the medicine was free, but the quantity was limited, and it was first come first served, or that the rich merchants had to pay to buy the magic medicine together. Then, when the people were on the verge of life and death, they would point the finger at those rich merchants...

Fu Cha, Fu Heng and others who were eavesdropping did not listen carefully to what the Japanese pirates said to the county lord, but they roughly knew that they must have other uses for amassing wealth, and what the causes of the epidemics were.

According to these investigations, it was finally discovered that the Japanese pirates secretly made gunpowder on Qingcheng Mountain outside Hangzhou City, and even abducted many innocent people to test the medicine or the power of gunpowder.

Since those people were all ordinary people, one or two people were missing in each place, mostly women. In the eyes of most villagers, the missing of women was unimportant, and even if they were lost, they would not be searched for too long, resulting in the fact that the people lost in those villages could not be found.

When Fu Cha Fu Heng and others investigated the news, they were so shocked that they didn't know how to react. They quickly sent people to Hangzhou City to find the prefect of Hangzhou, Xia Yuhe's father, Xia Shi.

Upon learning that there were Japanese pirates on Mount Qingcheng who were making huge fortunes and even killing people, he quickly arranged for officials to help Fu Cha Fuheng to clear them out.

However, this cleanup also involved a lot of fighting, during which many people died.

Fortunately, the gunpowder was not fully developed, otherwise, more people would have died.

In the capital, in the Qianqing Palace, Hongli clenched his fists in anger when he learned that the Japanese pirates were so bold as to kidnap officials' family members and even innocent people to test medicines, and even more cruelly let people be infected with diseases just to force wealthy businessmen to give him money.

He became furious when he thought of those innocent people being killed.

"What about the Japanese pirates?"

Hongli asked through gritted teeth.

Fu Cha Fu Heng touched his painful face and said seriously, "We arrested some people and wanted them to confess, but unfortunately, they committed suicide by cutting their stomachs. We didn't find any useful information. We only know that they planned to enter Beijing very early, almost ten years ago. Many people were hurt along the way, but those officials did not dare to report it because their families were trapped, so they had to help the tyrants.

Along the way, we rescued many people and sent people to wipe out the Japanese pirates, but some of them escaped secretly. I don’t know how many Japanese pirates are still in our country, and it’s difficult to find them.”

Speaking of the latter part, Fu Cha Fu Heng felt his face turn red, and he felt that he was a little useless.

Hongli's face was grim and his voice was cold, "No matter what, we must wipe out all these Japanese pirates! We will not allow them to do evil on the territory of the Qing Dynasty!"

"Yes!"

"Okay, go back and rest first. You've worked hard during this period, so go back and heal your wounds first. I think that clearing out one of their hideouts this time should keep them frightened for a while, so we'll wait until they show up."

Hongli rubbed his brows, feeling that he had too many troubles, so he went back to heal his wounds first. After all, the wounds on his body were still very obvious.

"Yes, Wei Chen is resigning."

Fu Cha Fu Heng saluted respectfully with his fists clasped, then walked back with somewhat unsteady steps.

Many of the wounds on his body were caused by explosions. In order to save people, he had run to the Japanese pirates many times. Even if the enemy's gunpowder was not yet completed, those things would burn when they came into contact with fire, which was not fun. Thinking of those people who died tragically, he hated the Japanese pirates with a vengeance.

Looking at Fu Cha and Fu Heng's somewhat messy footsteps, Hongli sighed softly. At the same time, he was thinking in his heart how to find all the Japanese pirates so as to restore peace to the Qing Dynasty and give the people a safe home.