Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

The people in the warm pavilion dispersed.

Such a sudden event disrupted everyone's mood, and Emperor Jing simply made some brief arrangements before dismissing the others to their respective duties.

Alone in the warm pavilion, contemplating, Guo Tianyang stood by his side as usual.

After an hour of thought, Emperor Jing rubbed his brow and ordered that memorials be brought to him.

It was still early, and while the matter of the Prince of Wu was indeed sudden,

it wasn't yet a major concern, but he feared that something might go wrong on Fang Zheng's side.

He had already arranged for someone to go to Haiyuan City immediately, and there was no use in rushing things.

Before long, the memorials from the past few days were brought in, and Emperor Jing, as if nothing had happened, picked up his vermilion brush and began to review the drafts from the Grand Secretariat.

The Prince of Wu had indeed rebelled, but there were countless important matters in the world, each requiring his decision; since he had already made arrangements, he couldn't let this one incident delay other important matters.

Emperor Jing frowned as he reviewed the memorials, his mind wandering slightly.

The warm pavilion was quiet, with only the sound of Emperor Jing turning the pages of the memorials.

Just then, someone reported from outside the door: "Your Majesty, He Jin, the eunuch from the Directorate of Imperial Seals, requests an audience with Your Majesty on an urgent matter."

Emperor Jing put down his vermilion brush and raised his head in confusion.

What important matter could the Directorate of Imperial Seals have? Moreover, the name He Jin sounded somewhat familiar.

"Summon him in."

Soon, a eunuch carrying a tray, his head lowered, slowly walked into the hall.

After standing still, he said: "This servant, He Jin, greets Your Majesty!"

"What important matter do you have to report?"

He Jin's voice sounded somewhat nervous: "This servant is the Director of the Directorate of Imperial Seals. Today, while inspecting the Comprehensive Collection Depository, I accidentally discovered a letter left by the Prince of Wu, which was addressed to Your Majesty. This servant dared not delay and came here immediately."

A letter left by Fourth Brother? How could it appear in the Comprehensive Collection Depository?

Emperor Jing became somewhat wary and said sternly: "Present it!"

He Jin dared not delay, slowly moving his feet closer to Emperor Jing.

Looking at the letter on the tray, Emperor Jing was about to reach out to take it!

He Jin's face appeared somewhat pale, beads of sweat gradually seeping from his forehead, his teeth clenched tightly.

Just as Emperor Jing reached out his hand, He Jin released the tray with one hand and reached into his sleeve!

A cold light flashed! He actually pulled out a dagger from his sleeve and stabbed it straight at Emperor Jing's heart!

Emperor Jing felt his hair stand on end!

Instinctively, he twisted to the side to avoid a fatal blow. In the next instant, instead of continuing to dodge, he allowed the dagger to stab into his shoulder and threw a punch to meet the attack!

A lightning-fast jab landed on He Jin's Adam's apple!

The fist peak deeply penetrated his neck, and the sound of his Adam's apple shattering could be faintly heard. He Jin's neck suddenly bulged out!

Then, he fell a zhang away, clutching his neck, struggling for a moment before dying.

In the blink of an eye, the exchange was over.

Guo Tianyang was like a statue, completely motionless.

Only when he saw the gleaming half of the dagger stuck in Emperor Jing's shoulder did he let out a sharp cry: "There's an assassin..."

"Shut up!" Emperor Jing rebuked, then bent down to pick up the letter from the ground.

The dagger stuck in his shoulder seemed to not exist, and he naturally sat down again and began to read the letter.

Guo Tianyang felt his mind buzzing and dared not say a word.

After Emperor Jing finished reading the letter, he raised his head and said coldly: "Heh... it really is Fourth Brother's farewell letter. It seems he didn't think the assassination would succeed! I remember now, this He Jin used to serve him. He must have had his weakness seized by him to dare to assassinate me! The Wu Prince's manor was just raided today, and he came to assassinate me. It must have all been arranged in advance... Fourth Brother is still very deep, he's declaring war on me with his dissatisfaction!"

"Run... where can he run to? He can't stay in Da Jing. Haiyuan City is continuing south, could he be going to the vassal states in the Nanyang... impossible."

Emperor Jing was still muttering to himself when he suddenly realized that the person beside him hadn't reacted to the pile of words he just said, so he couldn't help but look at Guo Tianyang.

Guo Tianyang was already swallowing hard, looking at Emperor Jing's shoulder gradually being soaked with blood, he had something to say but dared not say it.

Only when two fierce glares shot towards him did he suddenly come back to his senses.

"Do you want to see me bleed to death? Why aren't you quickly calling for the imperial physician!"

"Yes!" Guo Tianyang shuddered and hurriedly ran out.

Before long, the imperial physician was brought back, and upon seeing a dagger stuck in Emperor Jing's shoulder, he was almost scared out of his wits.

Emperor Jing personally pulled out the dagger, examined it, and found that it had not injured any bones or tendons. The imperial physician quickly applied some herbal medicine, then hurriedly bandaged the wound and retreated.

Guo Tianyang cautiously approached Emperor Jing, worried: "Your Majesty... are you alright?"

"Do I look like I'm alright?"

"......"

Plop!

"Alright, alright! Stop kneeling, it's an eyesore to me. By the time you react, I would have died ten times over!" Emperor Jing waved his hand impatiently.

Guo Tianyang immediately got up, panicking incessantly: "It's all this old servant's fault, it's all this old servant's fault!"

"Later, send people to strictly investigate the palace to see if there are any more of Fourth Brother's people."

Guo Tianyang hesitated for a moment, nervously saying: "Your Majesty, this servant always feels that something is strange about this matter."

"Your Majesty had Lord Fang investigate the salt merchants, so why did the Prince of Wu run away as soon as he found out? Isn't that reaction a bit too extreme!"

"Also, attacking Taoyuan County and assassinating Your Majesty, one ring after another, could there be someone else involved? Should this old servant..."

Emperor Jing couldn't help but lower his eyes to look at the letter, affirming: "No, he's not overreacting, he's cautious."

"Now it seems that Liu Xun and the salt merchants must be related to him. He's clear in his heart that with such a large operation, as long as a little flaw is exposed, it can't be concealed, so leaving the capital immediately is the wise choice."

"It would be fine if he was just hoarding wealth! Now, cornered like a dog jumping over a wall, he actually dares to harbor rebellious thoughts, you scoundrel!"

As he spoke, Emperor Jing was already vaguely angry, but he quickly suppressed it.

"For now, don't spread the word about the assassination tonight. Remember to clean things up, go do it."

.......

Haiyuan City.

In the past few days, the entire Lu family had been imprisoned.

Afterwards, Fang Zheng immediately arranged for people to move all the gold, silver, treasures, and valuable items from the Lu family's residence to the yamen's warehouse.

Fearing that the warehouse wouldn't be large enough, he even cleared out a few more rooms for backup.

At first, the dozens of yamen runners were extremely excited, after all, being able to see so much silver with their own eyes was a great event.

But this novelty didn't last long, and soon they were as exhausted as dead dogs.

After a day of moving, seeing silver was already a state of numbness, no different from seeing silver bricks and ordinary bricks, and they even felt nauseous.

After everything was arranged, Fang Zheng pulled all the accountants from the yamen's eastern accounts room to start tallying.

A portion of it had been taken away by the soldiers, and another portion of the silver had been used to subsidize the people.

Only the remainder would be handed over to the imperial court, and naturally, a new ledger had to be made.

In addition, he opened the gates of the yamen, allowing the people to report their grievances and collect evidence of the Lu family's crimes.

However, things were somewhat unexpected... Fang Zheng didn't expect so many people to come to the government to report cases, all kinds of things, and the workload far exceeded expectations!

Since he had boasted, it was not good to change his mind, so he could only clear out a few more rooms and assign several brothers to hear the cases separately, and Fang Zheng himself also joined in.

After working for a morning, he stopped the work at hand and asked Xie Xian to accompany him to inspect the warehouse.

Watching several accountants tapping away at their abacuses, Fang Zheng couldn't help but remind them:

"You must be careful when accounting for this official! You must not make any mistakes. Although the abacus beads are small, they are bigger than Fang Zheng's head. You must remember that what you are manipulating is Fang Zheng's head!"

"Don't worry, Master Fang, we've been doing this for twenty years, there won't be any mista... eh?"