My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

The paper Tian Cheng hid in the lining of his military uniform contained three sentences.

Yong'an Granary is empty.

The county magistrate is not a county magistrate.

If the warehouses are opened on the third day, the living people will die again.

The first sentence is easy to find.

The second sentence is difficult to find.

The third sentence is the most crucial.

Because today is the first day.

Three days later, regardless of whether there is grain in Yong'an Granary, people will die.

I placed the paper on the long table in the western camp of the Ministry of War.

Cao Heng had just been taken away by Gu Xingzhi, while the nineteen soldiers who were supposed to die on the North Post Road were still standing on the drill ground.

Nineteen prepared compensation documents were laid out in front of them.

A person is alive.

The method of death has also been arranged.

At this point, no one felt that Tian Cheng's warning was meant to scare them.

"Lord Shen, this humble general requests permission to proceed to Yong'an."

"What are you going to do?"

"Save people."

"How can we save him?"

"Lead the troops to seal off the granary and arrest the county magistrate."

"Once you arrive with your troops, the third battle report will be ready."

"What battle report?"

Bai Zhi pulled out the third pre-written report.

The Qingxia transshipment warehouse was looted by the southwestern rebels.

Twelve of the defending soldiers died.

Six business owners died.

We don't know who the pursuers in this report were originally.

However, if Jiang Tongruo were to lead the soldiers of the Western Camp to Yong'an at this moment, he would easily become the imperial army that was being pursued on paper.

Lan Gu even chose the deceased in advance.

Naturally, no one would overlook those who went to save the dead.

"Then let's just watch?"

"No."

"First, find out who is using the Yong'an County seal."

An official from the Ministry of War said, "The magistrate of Yong'an County is named Lin Huan. He has served for three years, and his performance evaluation is average, with no major faults."

"Are you in Yong'an?"

"According to the Ministry of Personnel records, yes."

"According to the post roads?"

"What do you mean?"

"The county magistrate is required to go to the capital every year to report on his work or send someone to deliver the performance evaluation list."

When was Lin Huan last visited the capital?

With the emperor's short edict still in hand, the investigation was much faster than usual.

Half an hour later, the Ministry of Personnel sent Lin Huan's performance evaluation file, his travel permit to the capital, and all his handwritten letters over the years to the Censorate.

I did not return to the princess's residence.

Bai Zhi first looked at the characters.

Xiao Lingyi reviewed the officials' resumes.

Ah Liu is in charge of guarding the gate.

He had already crawled through the drug den once today and found nineteen pensions under a military vehicle; his mental state was much worse than in the morning.

But at least they know that guarding the gate can't just be about watching the living.

Whenever someone delivered a document, he would first ask:

"Did you die last year?"

Later, when I heard that Jiao Wu was still delivering urgent messages over 800 li after his death, I felt that this problem was not too much.

Lin Huan is forty-seven years old this year.

I served as the magistrate of Yong'an County three years ago.

Two years ago, he offended local powerful figures by investigating the false grain reserves in the granary, and submitted a memorial requesting a verification of the granary's grain reserves.

I asked an official from the Ministry of Personnel, "Did he visit the capital two months ago?"

"There is no sales record in the file."

What does "no sales" mean?

"When local officials arrive in the capital, they must go to the reception hall to verify their arrival and have their identity confirmed."

"Lin Huan Road was the cause."

"His name is not on the list of names at the Huitong Hall."

"So he didn't come?"

"He might have fallen ill along the way."

Now, whenever I hear those two words, I feel like a pre-written death file must follow.

Xiao Lingyi pointed to the back of the road permit.

"Here are the small slips from the Imperial Medical Academy's pharmacy."

It was not an official seal of the Imperial Medical Academy.

It was a note that officials could use to enter the capital to obtain medicine if they fell ill en route.

I looked at Physician Song.

He had just arrived at Xiying from Luo's Grain Shop when we took him to the Censorate.

His expression had changed from unhappiness to a desire to give me a permanent medical record.

Don't look at me.

"This is not an official document from the Imperial Medical Academy."

"Where did it come from?"

"Chengnan Yanghe Pharmacy".

"Who's in charge?"

"Nominally, it belongs to the Imperial Medical Academy's external pharmacy."

"A lot of people actually handled it."

I put Lin Huan's medical record together with the fake medical record that Nan Yaopeng wrote for me back then.

Once a person is written into this format, they will transform from an official, witness, or disaster victim into a patient who is unfit to be seen by others.

"Check out Yanghe Pharmacy."

Gu Xingzhi has already sent someone there.

Bai Zhi did not look up.

She was putting Lin Huan's handwritten letters over the years together with the urgent reports from Yong'an.

After looking at it for a while, she suddenly said, "The urgent report wasn't written by Lin Huan."

An official from the Ministry of War said, "Most official documents in the county government are written by clerks."

"The main text can be substituted."

"The last sentence won't work."

The Yong'an emergency report ended with:

This is the county magistrate's own account.

Bai Zhi spread out the folding book that Lin Huan had asked to inspect the Yicang granary two years ago.

"When Lin Huan writes the character '责' (ze), the last stroke ends to the left."

"The character for 'responsibility' on the urgent report should be moved to the right."

"And the character for 'grain'."

"Lin Huan has a habit of pressing down the last bit of the rice radical."

"This urgent report is not included."

The Ministry of War official still maintained, "It's normal for handwriting to change when written in a hurry."

"Hands can transform."

"Old wounds cannot be treated."

Bai Zhi opened the appendix to Lin Huan's first year's performance evaluation.

Because his left hand is prone to smudging ink, he would deliberately place the paper at an angle.

The characters on the urgent report from Yong'an became increasingly heavy from right to left.

The county seal is genuine.

The county magistrate is not a county magistrate.

This means that the person sitting in the Yong'an County government office and stamping Lin Huan's official seal was not Lin Huan at all.

Ah Liu hugged the door frame.

"Young master, can a county magistrate really be replaced?"

"able."

"The common people don't recognize him?"

Xiao Lingyi asked, "What if it's not a face transplant?"

"What do you mean?"

"Lin Huan might still be at the county government office."

"He just can't speak."

This is much easier than finding a fake magistrate to sit in court.

The county magistrate is ill.

The county magistrate's seal.

The people could still occasionally see the county magistrate make an appearance.

A county magistrate can simply not be a county magistrate.

The person who truly controls the county government will hide behind his official seal.

Gu Xingzhi's men returned from Yanghe Pharmacy soon after.

The front door of the pharmacy was closed.

However, seven medical records of patients who had not yet been destroyed were found in the ward.

The medications used include calming incense, acacia dew, and datura powder.

It shares the same origin as the medicines used on disaster victims by the Southern Medicine Shop.

I asked, "Where are they?"

The guard said, "They were taken away three days ago."

Who answered?

"People from Yong'an County have come."

"Is there any documentation?"

"have."

"Who signed it?"

Lin Huan, the magistrate of Yong'an County, has stabilized somewhat and is permitted to return to his post to recuperate.

The inscription was stamped with Lin Huan's own county seal.

A man who had been drugged used his own seal to authorize his return to the county.

The accounting committee has always been very particular about its work.

"Where did the car go?"

"Go out through the south gate."

"Travel permit?"

"Yong'an official vehicle".

"How many people are traveling with you?"

Six people.

"Is the person who took over the vehicle the correct identity?"

"Registrar of Yong'an County"

"name."

"Sun Jing".

Bai Zhi opened the register of officials in Yong'an County.

A student of Wang Song's students.

He was later demoted to a local post due to errors in the accounts.

The year after Lin Huan took office, he was transferred to Yong'an as the registrar.

That is, after Lin Huan submitted a memorial to investigate the Yicang granary.

This year, it went directly to the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital.

This is not about changing the county magistrate.

The real magistrate was portrayed as a patient, and then the registrar was made to act as the magistrate with his seal.

I asked, "Has Lin Huan shown up since returning to Yong'an?"

Gu Xingzhi's men did not answer immediately.

Because the second team of guards had just returned a box from the meeting hall.

The report concerns the empty grain reserves in Yong'an Granary.

The account contains 10,000 shi (a unit of dry measure).

The actual grain in the granary was less than two thousand.

The remaining 8,000 shi (a unit of dry measure) was divided into three accounts: relief grain, military grain, and temple grain.

The complaint ended with:

The registrar, Sun Jing, had been secretly holding the county seal for some time.

Before they even entered the Huitong Hall, they were taken to the Yanghe Pharmacy.

There are seventy-three names on the list.

These are all disaster victims from Yong'an County who were reported dead from the epidemic last year but are actually still alive.

Tian Cheng ranked twenty-first.

Bai Zhi's face darkened after reading it.

"These seventy-three people were not included in the active register we re-enrolled yesterday."

Why?

"They are not in the capital."

"Where?"

"Lin Huan wrote it."

The underground of the Yong'an Old Warehouse.

The seventy-three dead people in the tent were locked in the warehouse by Sun Jing under the pretext of epidemic isolation.

Yong'an Granary is not without grain.

The two thousand bushels of real grain in the granary were meant to keep them alive.

The 10,000 shi of grain in the account will be publicly inspected when the granary is opened three days later.

If there is not enough food in the granary, "migrants from the southwest" will flood the granary.

Seventy-three people without household registration were just the right number to wear the old clothes from the southwest.

They were disaster victims when they were alive.

After his death, he was accused of robbing grain and rebelling against the army.

One corpse can replace one rebel.

Seventy-three bodies are enough to write a story of a mutiny in a county town.

Ah Liu looked at the list.

"Tian Cheng said that the living people will die again."

"It doesn't refer to the group from yesterday."

I said, "It refers to these seventy-three people who haven't had time to change their lives yet."

They had already died in the county government's accounts.

When the warehouse opens on the third day, he will die again in the military report.

The first time I died was to collect relief food.

He died a second time, to force the imperial court to wage war against the southwest.

Gu Xingzhi asked, "Should we send troops now?"

"Sending troops would force Sun Jing to act prematurely."

"Send a secret order to someone trustworthy in Yong'an?"

"The county seal, the post station, and the registrar are all in their hands."

"It's hard to say who will get the secret order first."

Xiao Lingyi looked at Lin Huan's list.

"Then let them think for now that we don't know there are people underground."

"At the same time, the grain contracts were sealed."

How can we save this person?

I unfolded Tian Chengzang's military uniform again.

Besides the Tibetan paper, there was also a little grayish-black powder stuck to the lining.

It's not medicine.

I rubbed the angelica root between my fingers.

"Charcoal ash."

If people were to be imprisoned underground in the Yong'an Old Warehouse for an extended period, they would need charcoal for heating.

However, open flames are strictly prohibited in granaries.

It's impossible for charcoal to be delivered in large quantities through the main gate.

Tian Cheng was able to sew the paper into his military uniform and then have the uniform travel to Beijing with the military vehicle, indicating that the secret passage was connected to Wang's grain cart.

"Check the old map of Yong'an Warehouse."

There are no records in the Ministry of Revenue's granary register either.

Finally, Bai Zhi pulled out an extremely thin piece of paper from the inner lining of Lin Huan's denunciation.

Only half of the warehouse map is drawn above.

Du Rong, who was taken away by Lan Gu, had the other half of the picture in her hand.

They used her to open the door in the underground of Yong'an Warehouse.

The position will be opened three days later.

But Du Rong and Tian Cheng might be taken into the secret passage today.

I looked at Gu Xingzhi.

"Send two groups of people."

"Officially, the Wang family was granted three grain contracts."

"Investigate the mortuary outside Yong'an City through covert means."

"Who's leading the covert operation?"

Yan Xiaoyi had returned at some point.

He leaned against the door, a little blood on the hem of his clothes.

"I."

"Did they catch up to the guy behind the grain shop?"

"no."

"Whose blood is that?"

"his."

Where are they?

"He jumped into the river."

"Dead?"

"have no idea."

Yan Xiaoyi is very honest.

"Too lazy to fish."

"Go to Yong'an."

"Find a mortuary."

"Find the secret passage first, so as not to alert the county government."

Yan Xiaoyi nodded.

"How many people?"

"You choose."

"Ah Liu."

Ah Liu suddenly looked up.

"Why is it small?"

Yan Xiaoyi said, "You know how to hold the tent."

"Master Yan, the people imprisoned in Yong'an's underground are people."

"There might be an account."

Ah Liu looked at me.

"You go with me."

The four words in Ah Liu's eyes changed to "Take care, young master."

But he still folded the list of seventy-three people carefully and tucked it into his bosom.

"What if we find them?"

"Count first."

Bai Zhi said, "Count the living people."

"Count the grain again."

"Record every single one missing."

Ah Liu nodded.

When Yan Xiaoyi took him away, it was already getting dark.

If they travel day and night, they can arrive the day before the warehouse opens.

There's only one chance.

I thought I had already received enough bad news that day.

After nightfall, the Censorate received another letter.

This is not an urgent report.

This is not an official document.

It was a private letter from the southwest, delivered directly to the gatekeeper of the Censorate.

The envelope read:

To Shen An (personal address).

The sealing wax is in the shape of a tiger's head.

The signature is Lie.

This time, it wasn't for transporting military rations.

It is Shen Lie's real private seal.