Qi Baoer doesn't know what happened in Prince Xian's Mansion for the time being, but even if she knew, she wouldn't flash back now. She would arrange for people to guard the Prince's Mansion every time she left, so she never had to worry too much about safety.
In the evening, after the setting sun had disappeared into the skyline, Zheng Xiang dragged his legs that were almost disabled and returned to the inn.
After being led to the private room by the waiter, he felt depressed when he looked at the girl sitting there eating so much.
But the other party was the prince, so he had to endure it even if he was angry.
Qi Bao'er was grabbing a chicken leg and gnawing on it. When he saw her, she looked at him with her oily paw as if she didn't see the coriander on his face.
"Uncle Zheng, come quickly. Don't be hungry. The food in this inn is delicious."
Prime Minister Zheng: "..."
What else could he do when he met such a shameless wise king?
He went over and sat down with a straight face. This was his last act of stubbornness as the prime minister of a country.
He was really hungry. He drank a few cups of tea after a few hours. His stomach didn't growl now because he was sensible and allowed him to maintain a bit of dignity as a prime minister in front of the wise king.
Qi Bao'er really didn't know that this guy hadn't been able to eat since the two separated. She was already talking about her second meal.
He called the waiter to give Zheng Xiang some rice and bowls and chopsticks. After the waiter left, Zheng Xiang was not slow but elegant. He first finished a bowl of rice and some vegetables to put his empty stomach down, then put down his bowl and prayed.
Baoer talked about what happened after she left.
Zheng Xiang and Qi Baoer's visit to Nianzhou was not a public trip, so the officials in Nianzhou were not informed in advance.
The magistrate and magistrate of Nianzhou were already frightened when they learned that Prime Minister Zheng had arrived. Then they found out that a private prison had been built in the area under their jurisdiction, and it was possible that many people had been imprisoned in the private prison.
With so few people, it can be said that these two are on the verge of being scared out of their wits.
So the two of them hurried to Washington DC to see Prime Minister Zheng and the underground prison in Washington DC. They remained silent the whole time and did not dare to say anything. They just apologized and apologized again and again.
From Qi Bao'er's ears, Prime Minister Zheng's conclusion was that as long as he breathed a little louder, the two of them would immediately kneel down and shout, "The crime of lowering an official is worthy of death."
You said that people are so scared, who can still think of Prime Minister Zheng’s belly?
Qi Baoer threw the bone aside and picked up another one, and said pertinently: "It's not surprising that they are afraid. This matter can actually punish them for the crime of poor governance. Losing their official position and losing their lives is not just because they are blindly afraid.
.”
If it were not for the inaction of the governor and the governor, not to mention how no one would have known about a dungeon being built in Washington, let alone the victims who had been locked up in the dungeon, how could they have been safely transported?
To Washington?
Also, we can’t say that all the victims were brought from other places, right?
Is there really any local among them that is baffled?
Therefore, the two of them cannot escape the crime of incompetent governance.
Of course they themselves understand.
As for whether the two of them were involved in other matters, Qi Bao'er was neither curious nor concerned. That was none of her business. She didn't even see Zheng Xiang sitting here.
Zheng Xiang remembered that the two people looked very worried as Qi Baoer guessed, "I went to the Yamen to check their records. In Jiancheng alone, villagers in the surrounding villages and beggars in the city have people missing every year.
, they are all unsolved cases.”
There is an old saying that even in Qi Bao'er's previous life, where the law was relatively comprehensive, it was still recognized by the people, that is, "the people will not hold the officials accountable".
What's more, in today's world, as long as you don't report it to the official, no one will care if you kill someone.
The common people are afraid of the government, and they will complain about big things, but ordinary people don't dare to go to the government for small things.
So Qi Baoer was really surprised when she heard Xiang Zheng say that there were missing persons every year in the official records, and there were even beggars among them.
Prime Minister Zheng saw her surprise and said, "Qi Tongzhi from Jiancheng is a good official who does his duty, but there are people above him who are suppressing him, and he is powerless in many things."
Listen to this...
Qi Baoer glanced at him silently and said nothing. We all kept silent. Isn't it because the colleague surnamed Yuan belongs to him?
Seeing that Qi Baoer heard what he meant, Zheng Xiang did not continue the topic, "Coincidentally, the magistrate of Jianzhou and the magistrate of Jiancheng are actually brothers-in-law. The magistrate married the eldest sister, and the magistrate married the eldest sister.
Young sister."
"Wait a minute, isn't the prefect of Jiancheng a few years older than the prefect of Zhou?"
Prime Minister Zheng nodded without saying anything, yes, the prefect was in his early fifties, while the prefect was only in his forties.
The magistrate of Nianzhou, whose surname was Pang, was born in the Pang family in the capital, the same Pang who was stationed at General Pang's family in the Pang family army in the southwest. He was the eldest son of General Pang's concubine's uncle.
The prefect of Jiancheng, whose surname is Ye, does not have a big family background. His hometown is in a remote rural area in the northwest. He is a noble son who truly comes from a poor family.
Both of them married the daughters of the Rong family, a wealthy family in Jiancheng.
Speaking of the Rong family, they have some status in the capital.
The Rong family is mainly engaged in the fabric business, and its specialty is the plum snow cloth that can be used to keep warm in winter and cool in summer.
It is no longer important whether the plum snow cloth actually has the so-called warm-in-winter and cool-in-summer effects, and no one has pursued this point, because during the reign of the late emperor, the late empress had been very fond of the plum snow cloth of the Rong family for a long time.
, the late emperor even personally ordered this cloth to be a special cloth for the royal family, and the Rong family became an imperial merchant.
It is still the case today.
In other words, although the Rong family is in Nianzhou, a city that is not even prosperous for the Qilin Kingdom, as long as they are still emperors and as long as the royal family does not withdraw from Wang Mei Xuebu's royal exclusive use, it will
The status of a family is something that ordinary people cannot touch.
This is the reason why a merchant's daughter can marry into a family like the Pang family.
The situation of Magistrate Ye was different. Magistrate Ye had a wife in his hometown earlier, but later it was said that she died of illness. Magistrate Ye then asked to marry the youngest daughter of the Rong family who was also a newly widowed woman at the time.
However, the above is not important. What Zheng Xiang really wants to say is: "These two brothers-in-law are really well matched. One is less responsible than the other. They are timid and fearful and only want to keep their official positions."
Um??
Qi Bao'er looked at him in confusion. Zheng Xiang was always a steady person. Except when her sister's only son had an accident, this was the first time she saw such an obvious look of anger on this man's face.
This made her a little curious, "Did they do it?"
"It would be fine if they did something. The most annoying thing is that they knew many things but did nothing."
I don’t know if the Zheng family has an advantage because of their wide connections, or because Prime Minister Zheng’s people have already spread all over the country. Prime Minister Zheng can just go to any place and get the results as soon as possible for whatever he wants to check?
In short, in less than a day, Prime Minister Zheng had already thoroughly investigated the first prefecture and the first prefecture.
Prime Minister Zheng didn't hide anything from Qi Bao'er. To be precise, he came to the inn specifically to find Qi Bao'er, just to tell Qi Bao'er what he found.