The cruel little princess

At this moment, Shen Youyou, the beloved little princess whom His Royal Highness Prince Jin thought about day and night, was busy and energetic, adjusting the prescription for Doctor Yang and others.

She was pleasantly surprised to find that simply adding a single ingredient, Brucea rubrum, to the original prescription would clear away heat and detoxify, with even better results!

Time flies, and it is already mid-October. The weather is getting colder, and the cotton-padded clothes and quilts purchased by His Royal Highness Prince Jin from other places have been distributed to the people of Tongniu County one after another.

Thanks to Shen Youyou's tireless efforts, the plague in Tongniu County was finally under complete control! No new cases were reported, and patients were gradually improving every day! The local people were filled with respect for the amiable Princess Jin, honoring her as the messenger of Guanyin Bodhisattva sent down to earth to save all living beings!

Meanwhile, County Magistrate Liu, who was under close surveillance by His Royal Highness Prince Jin's secret guards, had finally made a breakthrough! Magistrates Liu of Wutong County and Zheng of Tongan County were both implicated! And their backers were surprisingly the eldest prince's in-laws—Zhang Haoyang, the Minister of War and son of the current emperor's old tutor!

County Magistrate Liu’s wife is the distant cousin of Minister of War Zhang Haoyang.

County Magistrate Liu was once a dedicated official who served the people wholeheartedly and diligently, committed to solving practical problems. However, due to his inability to curry favor with his superiors, he was never promoted and remained a minor magistrate in Wutong County. Despite this, he was deeply loved by the local people.

Last spring, County Magistrate Liu received an urgent letter for help from the magistrate of neighboring Tongniu County. The magistrate had discovered a group of bandits hiding on Tongniu Mountain, but despite the county's efforts, he was unable to apprehend them all. Therefore, he sent a secret letter to the magistrates of the neighboring Wutong and Tongan counties, requesting their assistance in suppressing the bandits.

While searching the mountains, one of County Magistrate Liu's yamen runners stumbled upon a small, shimmering golden stone. The stone looked so beautiful, the runner took it out of the mountain. At the time, County Magistrate Zheng's young daughter was playing at an inn at the foot of the mountain. The runner, thinking the stone would make a fun toy to amuse the child, gave it to her.

When the little girl picked up the small stone to play with it, she was seen by three county magistrates who were discussing something.

Although these yamen runners would come into contact with some cases on a daily basis, they were ultimately limited in knowledge and did not understand the true value of this stone.

However, the three county magistrates were different. They were all people who had experienced the hardships of officialdom, were knowledgeable and well-informed, and naturally they could recognize the preciousness of this stone!

After careful observation, they were surprised to discover a shocking secret! It turned out that Tongniu Mountain actually contained a gold mine!

At first, they were ecstatic, thinking that this was a gift from God, as if they saw a bright future of smooth careers and rapid success.

But when they calmed down and thought about it, they realized that if they reported the matter to the court, at most they would only receive a small reward from the emperor, such as some gold, silver and jewelry. Compared with the mountain of gold before them, those rewards were simply insignificant!

So they began to plot how to privately swallow up this gold mountain. However, with only the manpower they had, it was obviously beyond their ability to mine this gold mountain.

Therefore, they urgently needed to find a strong and reliable backer to support their plan. At this time, County Magistrate Liu suddenly remembered his wife's distant cousin - the Minister of War, Zhang Haoyang!

After secretly contacting each other, they began to plan how to privately mine this gold mine! Previously, they were frustrated by the lack of hope for promotion, but now they have completely lost the desire for promotion! After all, who would be willing to leave the gold mine they guard?

However, mining a mine is not an easy task and requires careful consideration and long-term planning. In addition, in order to avoid being discovered, it is best to choose a place far away from human habitation for mining.

But before they could determine the specific mining plan, internal conflicts had already quietly emerged.

At the beginning of this year, the county magistrate of Tongniu County was unwell and planned to resign and return home after getting more gold, silver and treasures.

After the Minister of War learned of this, he comforted him on the surface and expressed the hope that he would consider it carefully.

However, in private, the Minister of War secretly colluded with County Magistrate Liu and instructed him to secretly eliminate the Tongniu County Magistrate! He always believed that only the dead could keep secrets forever!

On the one hand, County Magistrate Liu continued to maintain a friendly relationship with the Tongniu County Magistrate, even actively recommending a good doctor to him for health care. On the other hand, he was struggling to find a "good plan" to perfectly resolve the current situation. One that would satisfy the Minister of War and quickly resolve the Tongniu County crisis!

Who would have thought that County Magistrate Liu, who appeared to be kind, upright and wholeheartedly serving the people, was actually a deeply hidden hypocrite!

He had orchestrated this grand plan with the sole purpose of eliminating all the people of Tongniu County! He did this precisely because Tongniu County's unique geographical environment and topographical conditions gave him an opportunity to take advantage of.

Tongniu County is located in a mountainous area, surrounded by mountains and relatively low in elevation. This unique topography makes it easy for rainwater to accumulate. Knowing this, County Magistrate Liu came up with a plan: to exploit Tongniu County's geographical advantages to carry out his conspiracy.

So he began to implement a series of plans, including vigorously encouraging the people of the county to reclaim wasteland at the junction of the two counties in the spring, and sending people to spread the news among the people about digging canals to store water and widening rivers to facilitate irrigation of farmland.

However, the magistrate of Tongniu County did not realize that this was a conspiracy against them, and thought that Magistrate Liu was really taking these measures to improve people's livelihood.

He even reminded County Magistrate Liu several times that widening the river might have an adverse impact on Tongniu County downstream, but each time County Magistrate Liu evaded the question with various excuses.

As time went by, the rainy season finally arrived and the river water rose rapidly. At this time, County Magistrate Liu secretly led his confidants to block the other tributaries in advance, leaving only the big river leading to Tongniu County.

To be on the safe side, he borrowed people from the Minister of War in advance. On the night when he blocked the tributary, he secretly sent people to kill everyone in the Tongniu County government from top to bottom!

Due to the rapid flow of the river and its huge flow, Tongniu County was instantly submerged by the raging flood, and the people of Tongniu County suffered an unprecedented disaster!

County Magistrate Liu had originally hoped with great joy that the people of Tongniu County would die quietly in this sudden flood, but the reality surprised him.

He was extremely shocked and angry to find that half of the villagers had stubbornly survived, but the situation was too late to reverse.

Now that things had progressed to this point, Magistrate Liu decided not to hesitate any longer. Once the arrow is shot, there's no turning back! He wanted to resolve the issue thoroughly to avoid future trouble.

So, he led his subordinates to search for food in rat holes without hesitation, and tried every means to mix the food into the disaster relief food.

In this way, the people of Tongniu County had just escaped the disaster of the flood, but fell into another disaster - the torture of plague!

They managed to survive the flood with great difficulty, but ultimately they couldn't escape the fate of death!

To create a good image for himself, County Magistrate Liu actively mobilized the people of Wutong County to go to Tongniu County to rescue the victims after the flood. As a result, the people of Wutong County were full of gratitude to County Magistrate Liu, who was considered a responsible and capable official.

Everyone praised him highly, even children of a few years old respected him and felt that County Magistrate Liu was a good official who served the people wholeheartedly.

However, they were unaware that the seemingly glamorous Magistrate Liu was actually a hypocrite with a beastly heart. His actions not only brought great disaster to the people of Tongniu County, but also caused the loss of countless innocent lives. This behavior was simply outrageous!

County Magistrate Liu knew very well that it would be almost impossible to conceal such a major incident in the neighboring county.

Therefore, he specially prepared a petition from the people and submitted it to his superiors together with his memorial.

This petition became a tool for him to cover up his crimes and an excuse for him to shirk responsibility.

Through this petition, he tried to show the world his "achievements" in order to quell people's doubts and accusations against him.

Soon, the emperor sent imperial doctors to treat the plague. However, faced with such a rapidly spreading plague, these doctors were helpless and could only treat the symptoms but not the root cause.

Seeing that everything seemed to be going smoothly, the imperial physician who came all the way from the capital was unable to control the plague. County Magistrate Liu's mood was as happy as a little bird.