"Mother, I won!"
"Don't be complacent," Li Yao said, "This man was too weak, and is no match for our barbarian enemies. If you want to go to the battlefield, you still have to train diligently."
"I understand, mother!"
Zhang Gu did not know how to describe his mood.
The 32 barbarians who died under his knife, were they really that weak?
What kind of monsters are these two women?
Slap!
A basin of cold water was splashed on him, waking Zhang Gu from his fainting spell.
As the bright candlelight came into focus, it revealed a delicate and beautiful face.
"Who are you?"
"You wanted to kill me, yet you don't know who I am?"
"Li Yao?"
Zhang Gu recognized the voice as the monster mother he had encountered earlier.
And standing next to her was the little monster who had knocked him out with an iron rod.
"I didn't expect to be defeated by a child."
"You got lucky with me," Wang San'er said, "If you fought my mother, you would have been finished with one look."
Zhang Gu: ......
"Tell me," Li Yao said, "Who sent you?"
"No one sent me. I'm just a refugee, nearly starved to death, and wanted to steal some food..."
"You don't have to say," Li Yao said, "I'll take you to the Yizhou government office right now and hang you at the gate. Let's see what Prefect Hu will do with you and your family."
"You..." Zhang Gu sighed inwardly, "Since you already know, why bother asking?"
It must have been Prefect Hu.
Li Yao really didn't know what she had done to offend him.
Luckily this Prefect Hu didn't dare come openly, he could only covertly act against her. And she was confident that few could match her in these dark arts.
"Hand him over to Magistrate Song for punishment."
......
When Magistrate Song arrived at He Wan Village, the sky was still dark.
Seeing that Li Yao had already organized the villagers and captured all the refugees who had come to cause trouble, he finally felt relieved.
"I shouldn't have worried," Magistrate Song thought to himself, "With Li Yao's intelligence, of course nothing would happen."
After sunrise, all the villagers of He Wan Village gathered in the open space.
The dozen or so bandits were tied up, including Zhu Yougui.
Magistrate Song announced their sentence in front of everyone - all were to be exiled 3,000 li!
"Ah..."
A miserable cry suddenly rang out from the crowd.
It was Zhu Yougui's old mother. Upon hearing her son was to be exiled 3,000 li, she nearly fainted on the spot.
"Your honor, you can't exile my son!"
"I beg you sir, spare him just this once!"
Seeing Zhu Yougui's mother's miserable state, Magistrate Song was unmoved.
He had seen far too many people like this.
If she had not raised Zhu Yougui poorly, how could he have ended up in this situation?
"Take them away."
In the midst of miserable wailing, Zhu Yougui and his group were loaded onto prison carts and quickly disappeared from sight.
And Zhu Yougui's old mother seemed to have lost her soul, staggering after the prison carts.
No one tried to stop her or followed her.
Because everyone knew, no matter who tried to persuade her, it would be useless. It was best to just let her leave this way.
......
"Cough, cough..."
Returning to the county office, Magistrate Song immediately heard his wife coughing and hurried into the room.
"Is it an infection? Have you called for a doctor?"
"The doctor came and prescribed medicine that is being decocted."
Seeing his wife's frail state, Magistrate Song was distressed. But with the pressing official business at hand, he consoled her for a bit before heading out again.
But when he arrived at the road work site, he discovered that overnight, many of the refugees seemed to have caught chills, with many coughing and some even having fevers.
This alerted him that something was wrong.
These were the signs of an epidemic!
"Quick, have them all go back, don't let them wander everywhere!"
"Notify all village heads - it's best if everyone stays home and doesn't go out!"
But it was too late.
On the way back to the county office, Zhang County Captain and a group of yamen runners also showed signs of fever and coughing.
At the refugee camp in Baichuan Market, there was coughing everywhere, with hundreds already having high fevers, and some even unconscious.
"Magistrate," Zhang County Captain suppressed his discomfort to come report, "Headmen from several villages just came saying many villagers have started coughing and running fevers."
Magistrate Song felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
The refugee issue was not yet fully resolved, and now an epidemic had broken out.
Heaven, will you not give the common people a way to live?
"Immediately gather all doctors, requisition medicine from pharmacies, and prioritize treatment for critically ill refugees!"
"Yes sir!"
For now, this was all they could do.
But Magistrate Song knew, in the face of the surging epidemic, this was but a drop in the bucket.
......
Since that night's events, Village Head Wang Jiafu had gathered 30 strong young men from the village to form a patrol team for He Wan Village.
Now no matter who wanted to enter He Wan Village, they had to be checked.
And Wang San'er led a few boys his age patrolling around the village outskirts, preventing anyone from entering from the back hill.
Added to He Wan Village's remote location, with refugees unlikely to come this way, no villagers had been infected yet.
Due to the refugee incident, the two workshops couldn't ship products out or bring materials in. So Li Yao gave the workshops time off while she herself planned to take a couple days to rest and develop some new products.
"Mother, what are you making now?"
Seeing Li Yao messing with herbs again, and even using very concentrated rice wine, He Xiaoya couldn't help but be curious.
"Flower water."
Summer was almost here, flower water would definitely sell well.
She was also planning to plant some watermelon and mint, and make products like watermelon cream lozenges.
But before the flower water was done, Zhou rushed over anxiously.
"Trouble, sister-in-law. Old Four has fainted."
Old Four?
Li Yao quickly remembered that she meant the fourth son of the Wang family, Wang Yuanbang.
"What happened to him?"
"That night he got a bit injured, and didn't think much of it at the time, didn't even mention it," Zhou said. "It wasn't until last night we discovered the wound was infected and festering, he had a fever, and just now fainted."
Li Yao was speechless.
With the extremely poor sanitary conditions of this era, an infected wound leading to fever and unconsciousness was no small matter!
If not treated properly, it could easily become fatal!
Rushing anxiously to the Wang family mansion, Wang Xueshi and Wang Jia Gui were already anxious as ants on a hot pan.
"Li Yao, what should we do now?"
"Have you called for a doctor?"
"We did," said Wang Xueshi. "But now the city gates won't open, won't let anyone in, said there's some kind of plague."
Plague?
Li Yao's heart lurched, and hurriedly asked: "Who went?"
"Me," said Wang Jia Gui.