Chapter 153 Search and Rescue
Zhao Bingchun felt something explode in his brain, followed by a mouthful of blood gushing out of his throat.
Everything went dark before Zhao Bingchun's eyes, and he fell straight forward, causing several officials in the surrounding yamen to scream in fear.
"grown ups!"
"grown ups!"
The black-robed aide quickly supported Zhao Bingchun and held him steady, "Sir, now is not the time to fall. The people coming from Kyoto may be Rong'an Marquis's men, or the Second Prince's men. No matter who they are, we will not be in any danger."
As Zhao Bingchun's buzzing ears rang with these words, his violently pounding heart slowly calmed down.
The black-robed aide continued, "Even if the people coming here are His Royal Highness's men, we are not at the final stage yet. It is true that His Royal Highness was in trouble, but have you forgotten? The establishment of our government is far less than this."
These words immediately brought Zhao Bingchun back to reality from his confused and frightened state.
Yes.
The number of people in his office is far less than the number of people in front of him.
Among the registered personnel in his office, there were a number of people who did not exist and were drawing salaries without working.
In order to obtain more funding and salaries, he specially made a booklet, which was divided into half into real and half fictitious personnel.
Seeing that he had reacted, the black-robed aide lowered his voice and said, "Your Excellency should go and see the Kyoto envoy right now. If they want to hold us accountable, we can push those people out and just say that they accompanied Your Highness to suppress the bandits. Anyway, we don't know ."
Zhao Bingchun gradually calmed down.
The non-existent person who is drawing a salary without doing any work is his best scapegoat.
After catching his breath, Zhao Bingchun's complexion gradually recovered. The yamen runners who followed him also breathed a sigh of relief , wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads, and hurriedly followed Zhao Bingchun away, heading to the gate of the yamen to welcome the visitors from Kyoto.
Huang Zhaozhong, the former vice minister of the Ministry of Justice and current prefect of Jingzhao, stepped out of the carriage in an official robe and greeted the officials of the Nanchong County government with a tired look on his face.
Huang Zhaozhong didn't have time to say those polite words, and the first sentence he asked was, "Your Highness, how is it, have you found the person?"
Zhao Bingchun's heart skipped a beat. Could it be that Lord Huang already knew about it?
Immediately afterwards, Huang Zhaozhong's words confirmed Zhao Bingchun's guess.
"I have already reported the news of the Crown Prince's death to Kyoto. You have already started the search and rescue, right? Do you have enough manpower? I brought a thousand elite soldiers from Kyoto, and they are now stationed outside the city."
Zhao Bingchun just felt like his brain was stuck.
Why are the people coming from Kyoto this time so...unconventional!
The Crown Princess, the Crown Prince, and now here comes Huang Zhaozhong. Why do they all speak and act in ways that are out of the normal thinking of normal people?
Seeing that Zhao Bingchun was stuck, the black-robed staff member replied respectfully, "We just received the news that when the Lord arrived, our Lord was selecting people to prepare for the search and rescue."
Huang Zhaozhong frowned, "You haven't gone yet?"
Zhao Bingchun came back to his senses. "I was just about to go. I was really about to leave, but I received a message from someone in the capital. I was afraid that I might delay His Majesty's will..."
Fortunately, those people were indeed gathered by Rong Que early this morning to prepare to suppress the bandits, and they had not yet changed their weapons and uniforms.
Zhao Bingchun felt uneasy in his heart.
He had heard of Huang Zhaozhong. This man was a sworn enemy of the Duke of Zhenguo, but he didn't seem to be a member of the prince's party. Was he the emperor's man?
Zhao Bingchun looked at Huang Zhaozhong suspiciously, guessing Huang Zhaozhong's purpose of coming to Nanchong this time.
Huang Zhaozhong had a serious look on his face. He didn't even bother to go in and drink some water before arriving at the government office. After hearing what Zhao Bingchun said, he immediately said, "Let's take people to search and rescue right now. I will be traveling with Lord Zhao. Lord Zhao can also tell me about the situation on the way."
Zhao Bingchun responded repeatedly.
According to the yamen runner who came back to report, Rong Que chased the bandits who came to provoke trouble all the way to the vicinity of Jialing River. However, when they arrived at the riverside, they were suddenly ambushed by the bandits who had set up the morning, and all the people Rong Que brought with him were wiped out.
Looking at the piles of corpses by the river, Huang Zhaozhong frowned, "Who reported this?"
Zhao Bingchun immediately called forward the bailiff who had brought the news.
Huang Zhaozhong glanced at him and asked, "How do you know the situation so comprehensively? Your Highness and his men were completely wiped out. How did you survive?"
Zhao Bingchun's heart tightened and he looked at the young yamen runner.
He sent this yamen runner to monitor Rong Que. While Rong Que was fighting bandits, this little yamen runner had been hiding in the dark and watching. Naturally, he could see the situation clearly.
Huang Zhaozhong arrived too suddenly, and he did not have time to coordinate his testimony with the young yamen runner.
"Your Excellency, I had a stomachache this morning. We followed His Royal Highness the Crown Prince here to fight bandits. I had a stomachache so I went behind the rock over there to relieve myself.
When the smaller ones are dealt with, this is what it will look like here."
This lie was so crude that it couldn't stand up to scrutiny.
But Huang Zhaozhong seemed to have no doubts at all . He accepted it all, and was so sad that his eyes turned red. He personally led people to look for the person among the pile of corpses.
Those who came with him were naturally selected from Kyoto. They all knew what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince looked like. A group of people searched among the corpses, back and forth three times. Even the corpses were neatly arranged one by one, but they still couldn't find Rong Que's body.
Rong Que was not found, nor were the two followers of Rong Que, Minglu and Minghe, both of whom were not there.
"Where are the people?" Huang Zhaozhong's breathing became heavy due to anxiety.
Zhao Bingchun was even more anxious.
He was not afraid of the prince's death, but he was afraid that the prince would be neither alive nor dead.
"Could it be that they were washed away by the river?" The white-robed aide pointed at the river and speculated in a low voice, "The river here is turbulent, and nearby villagers are often washed away. The battle site is so close to the river."
Huang Zhaozhong, who was in deep grief, immediately gave an order upon hearing this, "Search downstream immediately, now, immediately!"
He issued this order to the yamen runners.
These yamen runners all obeyed Zhao Bingchun's arrangements and did not move at all after hearing this.
Huang Zhaozhong looked at Zhao Bingchun in astonishment, "Master Zhao, what do you mean? Now that His Highness's life or death is uncertain, are you not going to search for him?"
If Huang Zhaozhong had come alone, he might not have decided to search and rescue.
But Huang Zhaozhong had a thousand elite soldiers standing behind him.
He doesn't dare.
"Master Huang, what are you talking about? How can we not save him? We'll have to dig three feet underground to find him." Zhao Bingchun shouted at the yamen runners behind him, "What are you all standing there for? Go find him for me!"
He wanted to add that he wanted to see the person alive or the body dead, but since the other party was the prince, he held back.
With a shout, all the yamen runners dispersed. Seeing them immediately start the search and rescue, Zhao Bingchun turned around and smiled bitterly at Huang Zhaozhong, "Sir Huang has really wronged me. I really am... You don't know, my wife was poisoned to death in public a few days ago. Now the Crown Prince is in trouble again. To be honest, I am at a loss."
