Qi Bao'er and Prince Li were invited to his home by Magistrate Qian. Mrs. Qian cooked the table herself and invited them to dinner sincerely.
They didn't cook the big fish and meat, they were just home-cooked side dishes, which Qi Baoer and Prince Li didn't mind either, because Mrs. Qian's craftsmanship was really good.
After the meal, Magistrate Qian wanted to let the two of them stay overnight at his house, but neither Qi Baoer nor Prince Li agreed.
The two returned to the camp outside the city. Qi Kang'an and others had eaten and drank enough. There was nothing going on here in Haicheng. After chatting with each other for a while, they went to sleep.
However, after dark, in Qi Kangan's tent, the father and daughter set up a table for a private meeting.
Qi Baoer: "There is nothing wrong with the Haicheng magistrate. He is a hard-working and honest person. His family is only the second in the family. There are only six people in the house. Mrs. Qian often cooks in person."
It is true that you can fake the appearance and deliberately show yourself to be diligent and honest in front of her and Prince Li, but you can't fake everything in your behavior and words, and you can't hide it as long as you are careful.
For example, the calluses on Mrs. Qian's hands, Mr. Qian's official uniform looks decent on the outside, but the inner clothes are untied.
For example, after the coachman returns home, he naturally goes to do other things. It is obvious that he wears multiple hats out of habit.
Of course, the most important thing is that they want to fake it but they can't hide it from Qi Baoer's spiritual detection, and both Zhifu Qian and his wife are meritorious people.
Qi Kang'an: "It's quite rare."
Qi Bao'er also nodded, "It's quite rare."
As for the dignified prefect, it is really not easy to be like this.
“Porridge relief has been going on in Bacheng. When the victims knew that there was porridge in Bacheng, they naturally flocked there, and they stopped going to other places after they arrived.
Bacheng's granary was empty after three months of disaster relief, so we had no choice but to ask Haicheng for help.
It was better when relief food came out in the past, but the two previous times the relief food was gone, and Haicheng also lost many government officials. This time, Dad, you should have noticed that the people who sent disaster relief to Bacheng in Haicheng were also garrison troops.
"
Qi Baoer jumped off the chair, took out the map and spread it on the ground. Qi Kangan also put down his wine glass and followed him and squatted next to him.
Qi Baoer searched for a while, then pointed to a place and said to Qi Kangan: "The first two times were here, and the other time was here."
"Guanfengkou? This is along the river. Did something happen in the river or...?"
"The disappearance was so sudden, and no news was sent back. In fact, the court doesn't know much, and what the court told us is all false.
There used to be a group of bandits in Guanfengkou, but they were suppressed by the Haizhou garrison. Then they were occupied by the White Ghost Cult, and then they were suppressed by the Haizhou garrison.
The first time the disaster relief team was found to be in trouble, it was several days past the originally expected time. They had not yet arrived in Yecheng. Yecheng sent people to check.
Not only did we not see the disaster relief food team along the way, there was no trace of the disaster relief food team.
It wasn't until we were almost within a hundred miles of Haicheng that we saw the traces of wheels on the road.
After knowing this, Magistrate Qian sent people to check along the way, but the result was still the same.
That’s why Magistrate Qian suspected that the place where the first accident occurred was Guanfengkou.”
Guanfengkou is closest to the place where the wheel tracks disappeared.
"The second accident happened along the river, and it was even more strange. The wheel marks disappeared on the river bank, and there were no traces on the other bank.
Moreover, the two times the relief grain was robbed, there was no trace of which direction the grain truck was pushed, and it completely disappeared into thin air."
Precisely because they disappeared out of thin air and there were so many places without wheel marks along the way, these two suspicious locations were just the speculation of Prefect Qian.
Officials are cautious, but there is no evidence for the speculation, so Magistrate Qian did not report the speculation to the court.
Qi Kangan's head was a bit big, "My dear, is there something wrong?"
"No, dad, the information the emperor gave us is completely different from what Magistrate Qian said."
What the emperor told them was that the first two disaster relief teams had incidents in Jiangzhou, but Magistrate Qian said they were in Haizhou.
This is not a good thing. Magistrate Qian cannot be so stupid as to take the responsibility on himself. This is a fatal matter.
"What do you mean, report the memorial to the emperor...hiss~"
Damn it, did they discover something terrible?
“Dad, do you still remember the abandoned inn we met on the road?
At first, I suspected that someone wanted to prevent the battle reports from Pingyuan Pass from entering the capital. Now, I suspect that it was to intercept the memorial, or both."
"Hiss~" Qi Kang'an rubbed his arm several times and said feeling cold.
"Daughter, we are in for a big deal."
Qi Baoer rolled his eyes and slowly rolled up the map, "Anyway, we are just sending disaster relief food and escorting the imperial doctors to prevent the spread of the plague. Besides, if we find out, we will send a letter to the emperor. As for the rest, that is not our job.
Things that should be taken care of."
What's more, this matter is big or small. They only have a few people and they have to protect this and that. They can't control it even if they want to.
Qi Kang'an felt at ease as soon as he heard this, and his daughter's heart was set on success.
I got up and sat back at the table to start eating. Now I was in the mood to talk nonsense, "I used to think that our life was hard. We worked so hard every day and didn't even have enough to eat. We were taxed for this and that."
Now I see that our people are still happy."
Qi Bao'er really didn't want to remind him, but he had to remind the stupid father in front of him who was drunk and already a little out of tune.
"Dad, you are no longer an ordinary citizen, you are the commander-in-chief of an army.
Also, why did the emperor let the fire-headed soldiers serve as pushers? It’s to give them more fighting power on the road, but it also gives you a chance to win over them.”
The number of a numbered army unit is at least 50,000, and only a numbered army unit is eligible to recruit soldiers.
The Qi Family Army now only has more than 5,000 people, and it can recruit more than 40,000 people. Those fire-fighting soldiers will be assigned at the right time.
It's not hard to guess what the emperor's thoughts were on this point. It was also a kind of alternative compensation for the emperor to let the father and daughter go to dangerous places, although they didn't really need it.
If her father subdued these fire-headed soldiers on the road and her father delivered all the relief food safely, this credit would be enough for her father to ask the Ministry of War for these fire-headed soldiers.
"Also, Dad, in the eyes of others, we are going to die now. We are safe for the time being, and no one will give us a chance. But if everything goes well and we return to Beijing, haha."
Her father sometimes takes things too superficially and has to remind him all the time.
Qi Kang'an: "..."
Girl, is your father really that stupid in your eyes?
-
Continue on the road the next day.
Transporting disaster relief food and supplies manually is not something that humans do. The hard work involved is truly beyond description in words. It can even be said to be more tiring than being a prisoner.
At least the prisoners didn't have to push silver carts and grain carts. They could also spend their own money to buy horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts when meeting Shan's government officials on the way.
As expected, the Haicheng team transporting disaster relief silver grains followed the large team, and followed closely behind the large food transport team, forcing the two exile teams to the rear.
Looking at it as a whole, there is almost no change in the entire team, except that the people guarding the grain trucks and pushing the grain trucks at the end of the grain transport team are Haicheng's garrison and civilians.