Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

The Zhang family's villa is about an hour's journey from Xingzhou City. It's not far, but it's troublesome to go back and forth every day. They naturally have a private residence in the city, so Mrs. Zhang and her son have not returned to the villa these days.

The two masters sat in carriages, followed by a large number of servants and servants.

When the carriage reaches the foot of the mountain, it will go up to the wide and flat mountain road.

A maid stepped on a stone, twisted her ankle and fell to the side of the road. She felt something soft in her hand, and a group of black creatures, making squeaking sounds, ran away in all directions!

"Oh! So many mice!"

The maid screamed and jumped up, but the unlucky ones were actually the mice, because her fall just now crushed two of them to death!

No one paid attention. A servant nearby urged her to catch up in a low voice, but the maid immediately let out an even more terrified scream!

"Dead! There's a dead person!"

Encountering a corpse on the road is a very unlucky thing, but since you have encountered it, you can't just ignore it.

The carriage continued to move forward, and the maid crawled away using her hands and feet. Some servants came to deal with the body. This was the only way to Zhangjiazhuang, and it was not suitable for burying the body, so they prepared to move it to another place to bury it.

The body was half buried in the soil, covered with mud. It seemed that rats had just gathered and dug up some of the soil, revealing an arm, which had been gnawed away until only white bones and a little flesh were left.

The servants dug the soil with wooden sticks and vaguely saw the clothes on the dead man. They were not the cotton and linen clothes of ordinary people. Several servants were startled and immediately threw away the wooden sticks and started digging with their hands!

When the outline of the deceased's face appeared, the servant was immediately shocked. Who in the Zhang family's mansion would not recognize him!

"Master! It's the big master!"

The group of Zhang's mother and son returning to the village was in a panic, with crying women, tearful boys, and servants who were either worried or confused...

Although dozens of people tried to bring back Zhang Zhizhou's body in a decent manner, not only were his arms gnawed to pieces by rats, but he had also spent too much time in the flood and mud, and his body had become rotten and dirty, and it was impossible to clean it up...

When faced with such a situation, the county yamen runners had to show some humanity and put the matter of going to the village to bring people on hold.

Perhaps because it was summer, the body already gave off a foul odor, so it was hastily buried the next day after being brought back to the manor. The Zhang family had anticipated this, so the burial was quick but not hasty.

After receiving the news, Chu Shiyu immediately told Liu Rusi about it as a topic of conversation.

Liu Rusi checked the fresh bottle of alcohol she had just received. After a brief pause, she said, "That's a worthy death."

Chu Shiyu didn't understand for a moment, raised his eyebrows and asked: "Why do you say that?"

"The government-designated local granaries are empty, but his villa and private granaries are full. The rats fed the rats. How can it be considered a worthy death?" Liu Rusike still remembered the scene when he first arrived in Xingzhou City, when there were starving people everywhere and many people became robbers just to get a bite of food.

Chu Shiyu nodded in agreement. Although this was not the right way to calculate the account, the conclusion was correct.

Zhang Zhizhou certainly embezzled the granary, but the scale of the grain stored in those private warehouses was unreasonable. Even though grain was sometimes more important than gold and silver, it was not worth much money on weekdays. Compared with grain that could not be stored for many years, many people would try to convert it into silver and money that would preserve its value for a long time.

However, in order to maintain the extravagant life of that village, the amount of money that Zhang Zhizhou extorted from the people would be no less than that from those private warehouses.

"Your Majesty! There are several good things!"

Sun Zhizhao ran in with a happy face, and the voice was heard before he even entered the door.

Chu Shiyu raised his chin towards him, signaling him to speak directly.

"One is that 12,000 taels of silver from the capital have arrived as disaster relief money and are being counted and put into the warehouse." Even though the 89,000 taels of silver contributed by the Zhang family was more than enough, no one would complain about having too much money.

"The other thing is that the marching team behind will arrive tonight, and the problem of insufficient manpower in our direct subordinates can be solved!" Sun Zhizhao has been busy like a top these days. Many useful managers are following the marching team. Now he can relax a little.

After saying these two things, Sun Zhizhao hesitated for a moment and glanced at Liu Rusi next to him. It was obvious that there were some rather secretive things that were not convenient to say in front of Liu Rusi.

Liu Rusi immediately understood what was going on. She put the porcelain bottle in her hand back into the wooden box covered with straw and said, "I'll take the things back and try them out. You guys can continue chatting."

After she finished speaking, she was about to pick up the box and leave. Chu Shiyu quickly reached out and picked up the wooden box and said, "I'll help you carry it back to the house. There are also porcelain dolls we made underneath. Take them out and have a look first."

After sending Liu Rusi back to the house, he returned to the small hall not far away and continued to listen to the news brought back by Sun Zhizhao.

Chu Shiyu was still not sure whether she could accept some cruel things, and he didn't want to take the risk of letting her know for the time being.

"Your Highness, we have made great progress in the investigation of the frogman attack at the South Gate when the city was flooded! There is evidence pointing to the Provincial Government of Henan Province! It is enough to be handed over to the Dali Temple for review, and even reported to the emperor!"

Chu Shiyu was puzzled when he heard this. He did not ignore the fact that the guards who left the south gate were attacked. When reviewing the incident afterwards, in addition to lamenting that the Qingyang Bull was really spiritual and led them to escape a disaster, he was also secretly looking for the traces of those frogmen.

The so-called frogmen are actually people who are extremely good at diving. The good ones can even stay in the water for nearly a quarter of an hour without taking a breath. It is not an exaggeration to call them frogmen. It is not surprising to find such extraordinary people on the banks of big rivers.

But the guards could hardly open their eyes in the muddy yellow water and could not see the frogmen at all. And when they were on the shore, they looked like ordinary people and could not be distinguished.

The mastermind behind this will surely cover up the frogmen's tracks. They have no roots in Xingzhou City, so it is difficult to investigate from this aspect. Chu Shiyu has already secretly conducted an investigation in this direction based on his own speculation.

"How did you find out about the frogmen and the governor?" Chu Shiyu asked seriously.

"Our people did as the prince said and chatted with many fishermen and boatmen about the river's breach, which led to rumors about people swimming around the river without permission." Sun Zhizhao reported in detail.

"The day before yesterday, when chatting, a local mentioned that there was a man in their village who was like a white shark in the waves, who could swim freely in the turbulent river. From then on, he started eating government food and moved his family to the provincial capital to live."

"I had someone investigate in that direction and found the whereabouts of a frogman who was supposed to be silenced but escaped. After that, we found the frogman and proved that we were not the governor's men. The frogman then told us everything."

"The governor recruited swimmers and arranged for them to wait at the south gate of Xingzhou. He specially noted our clothes when we entered the city. When the flood came, the frogmen did not see you, Your Majesty, but saw that the guards were ours, so they sneaked up to the guards, wrapped them with ropes and dragged them to the bottom of the water, causing the guards to drown and then released them."

"How did you find out the whereabouts of the frogman?" Chu Shiyu's brows were getting tighter and tighter. How could the frogman escape the local governor's attempt to kill him, but his whereabouts were easily discovered by them?

Sun Zhizhao was puzzled about the prince's focus, but he told the truth: "Several of my men heard people talking on the way to Kaifeng. There is a small fishing village with only a dozen households near the river. All the men, women and children in the village have disappeared. Passersby speculated that they offended real water ghosts because of their excellent swimming skills, and were dragged into the river in the middle of the night."

"My men were investigating the frogmen. When they heard the news, they went to look for the small fishing village. As a result, someone ambushed them in the village. Fortunately, some of my men were smart and escaped to the nearby mountains and forests."

"As soon as he escaped from the forest to the official road, a passing merchant saw that his men had knife wounds on their bodies. He gave them medicine and lamented that the world was going downhill. A few days ago, he met a poor man in the deserted mountains whose family was wiped out and who swam alone upstream from the river to Xingzhou."

"Those who can swim upstream in the river are naturally very good swimmers. Several subordinates returned to Xingzhou to report. Under the pretext of helping the displaced victims build houses, the subordinates encouraged the people to find laborers who were sleeping outside to work and get food. When they heard that there were people who did not want to go out, they sent others to investigate, and soon found the frogman on a deserted mountain."

Hearing this, Chu Shiyu was certain that someone had led them to discover the frogs along the way. He said in a deep voice, "The people who talked about the frogmen, the passers-by who talked about the destruction of the village, the merchants on the official road, and the person who found the frogmen on the barren mountain, find these four people."

Sun Zhizhao was stunned. These were all people he had just met by chance. If they suddenly came to him, it would be no easier than looking for a frogman.

"Go find it first."

Ruifeng narrowed his eyes slightly. Even though everything was in his favor, Chu Shiyu didn't like the feeling of being led by the nose!