Royal Gold Medal County Magistrate

The better part of the day had passed.

Emperor Jing had people send sweet potatoes to the Hanlin scholars twice, but no one ate them, partly out of anger.

Secondly, branches, rotten leaves, leftover vegetable leaves, and various insect corpses floated on the water from time to time.

No one had the appetite to eat in this situation.

Although everyone felt a little hungry, they could still endure it.

It was already midnight. To prevent accidents, many carriages were parked around the Hanlin scholars, with torches lit and people on guard inside.

The main purpose was to prevent anyone from losing their strength and falling into the water and drowning.

On the other side, Li Yuanzhao took advantage of the night and led his sanitation team to set out.

A dozen team members, each carrying a large bucket, hurried through the streets.

Because they usually worked in such dark environments, they were already very familiar with the darkness.

Li Yuanzhao led the way, constantly pointing out the route. Finally, they were not far from the Yimen Gate, and they could faintly see the firelight. Li Yuanzhao stopped.

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket and held it up to the sky.

The handkerchief was gently blown by the breeze.

Li Yuanzhao withdrew his hand and said to the people behind him, "That's right, this is the place."

Captain Wang beside him wondered, "Brother, what are we doing bringing swill here in the middle of the night?"

Li Yuanzhao smiled, "You don't need to worry about anything else. Just pour it forward for me, pour it in the direction of the wind! Don't get it wrong."

"Once you've poured everything out, you can all go back and go to sleep."

Captain Wang didn't think much and issued instructions to his subordinates in a low voice.

A group of sanitation team members began to pour swill into the water. Seeing this, Li Yuanzhao quickly hid far away, pinched his nose, and smiled.

These bastards dare to mess with me and Lao Fang.

You're so willing to speak for Yan Guoan, then you can kneel! This prince will give you an extra meal!

"Brother! Should we put in the dead rats and snakes too?"

"Put them in! Put them in! Throw the dead rats as far as you can, have the snakes' teeth been pulled out?"

"Yes, they've been pulled out, and they're all non-venomous snakes."

Seeing this, everyone no longer hesitated and threw the prepared dead rats and snakes into the water with all their might.

Li Yuanzhao chuckled strangely, put his hands behind his back, and walked away swaggeringly.

.............

The Hanlin scholars were already dozing off, but no one dared to sleep, fearing that they would fall into the water and lose face.

Originally, being soaked in water consumed a lot of energy, and coupled with the cold weather at night, everyone suffered even more.

Many people felt the urge to relieve themselves after being soaked in cold water, but no one mentioned it. Everyone tacitly solved the problem in the water...

The only good thing might be that there was some buoyancy, and their knees didn't hurt so much, but the hunger in their stomachs was getting worse and worse.

Yang Yingcai was also very anxious when he saw this.

Everyone knelt here with the determination to remonstrate to the death! Now, in less than a day, morale has dropped to this point!

If we bow our heads in front of the emperor this time, will everyone still have a place in the future?

Anxious, Yang Yingcai said loudly, "Everyone, cheer up! If this continues, before His Majesty agrees to our request, we will have been defeated without a fight!"

"Isn't this old man kneeling with you at this age? Which one of you is not younger than me, and besides, I have rheumatism!"

"Being soaked for a day is already unbearably painful, but compared to the clarity of the court, what is this little pain?"

After his encouragement, everyone勉强勉强raised their spirits a little.

The Hanlin scholar next to Gutian whispered, "Brother Gu... I don't think I can do it anymore. I'm unbearably hungry... I seem to be hallucinating from hunger."

"I can vaguely smell a vegetable smell now... there's napa cabbage... fish..."

As he spoke, Gutian's saliva dripped down: "That's right, I'm also hungry! If I had known, I should have eaten two Prosperity Sweet Potatoes, so I could last longer."

"But you're right, I also smell a vegetable smell... could it be that being extremely hungry is like this?"

The people around him heard their conversation and chimed in, "I smell it too, but this vegetable smell is a bit mixed..."

"Yeah! It seems to be getting stronger and stronger, and it feels a bit nauseating...."

"Could it be that hallucinations can be affected by the dirty water below?"

So many people began to look at the dirty water below.

Suddenly, someone felt something touching their hand, and without thinking, they scooped it out.

Their face turned green as soon as they scooped it out.

Under the light of the surrounding fire, they could clearly see that what they were holding was a fish bone with a few noodles hanging on it.

The man hurriedly threw the fish bone away.

Soon, one after another, people felt a slight impact under the water.

Then, a large amount of swill arrived, and a large number of egg flowers, rotten vegetable leaves, and oil stains impacted the surface of the water.

This unusually unpleasant smell and unforgettable scene finally panicked the crowd, and everyone couldn't help but shout.

"Damn it! Why are there so many leftovers in this water!"

"No! No! There weren't these things during the day. Some mischievous people must be dumping swill... they should be killed, all of them!"

"I can't take it anymore... everyone... I really can't hold it back, I want to... vomit ~ ~ ~"

The smell was so strong that even the cotton could not stop it.

Finally, someone couldn't hold it any longer. After a day of torture, their willpower had been exhausted.

The strong smell of swill mixed with dirty water finally made someone vomit.

The situation worsened after this vomit... the vomit quickly spread.

The people around him saw this scene and collapsed even more, vomiting until the world turned upside down....

For a time, a small half of the one hundred and twenty people vomited into a mess.

Some guards who noticed something was wrong came out to investigate, and were stunned by the scene.

Then, standing on the carriage, they also vomited.....

Yang Yingcai's face was ashen as he looked at the scene in front of him.

What kind of evil did I commit... to suffer such torment...

Before he could think too much, he suddenly felt something constantly arching his hand in the water. He grabbed the thing casually.

It felt slippery to the touch....

His eyesight was not very good. When he looked at it up close, he was immediately terrified.

A snake was biting a dead rat, biting it repeatedly.

"Snake!! There's a snake in the water!!"

Yang Yingcai couldn't help but howl and hurriedly threw the snake away.

This throw directly threw it into the crowd, and then someone else screamed, followed by the sound of falling into the water.

One after another, people found snakes, and it was unknown whether it was the same one.

In short, everyone panicked, but even so, they did not dare to stand up from the water. The guards on the carriage were watching for His Majesty!

Gutian死死死死grabbed the corner of his clothes and howled, next to his colleague who was frightened by the snake and fell into the water.

"Brother Li! Don't pull me! Let go! Let go!"

"Glug glug glug...."

"Someone! Someone! Help! Help!"

The guard on the side saw that the situation was too serious and finally reluctantly jumped into the water to save people.

At this time, Yang Yingcai's heart was ashen, and he murmured, "Yan Guoan... you misled me..."

............