This......

Liu Jin always thought that smallpox was a natural disaster, and it was the early spring that accidentally brought the smallpox virus into the palace, but he didn't expect Zhu Youji to suspect that it was a man-made disaster.

As soon as he thought of this, he couldn't help but secretly observe Zhu Youji.

Fortunately, he hasn't said anything that shouldn't have been said recently, let alone participated in this kind of conspiracy, and his position should still be kept.

"Your Majesty, I beg your pardon for not being able to answer this question. Judging from the results of the current investigation, it is possible for natural disasters or man-made disasters, but the minister believes that as long as the source of smallpox is found, everything will have rules to follow and the source can be investigated, and the truth will be revealed at that time! Song Cheng is not a person who likes to speculate, and immediately pointed out the most critical point.

Source?

Although Zhu Youzhu was not satisfied with this answer, Song Cheng undoubtedly provided a good idea, and this matter can indeed be traced back to the source to find out the people behind the scenes.

Up to now, it has always been a passive situation, and even his own life has been seriously threatened, and now it is indeed time to use this traceable infectious disease to oppose the customer.

Zhu Youzhu touched his chin, which only had a few stray hairs, and immediately said: "Even so, I will give you another three days, and you must find out the source of infection in the palace!" ”

"Command!" Song Cheng faintly felt the monstrous pressure exerted by the emperor, but still chose to face the challenge and bow his hand.

Although there is no substantive evidence of guilt now, he observed the spread of the epidemic in various parts of Beijing, especially the Imperial Palace, which was the first place where the epidemic was discovered, and he seriously suspected that the epidemic was a man-made disaster.

With such an unreasonable transmission route, it is more likely that someone is directing all this, just like when Wynne was inexplicably poisoned to death in the Fusi prison in Beizhen.

Liu Jin watched Song Cheng retreat, and couldn't help but silently turn his head to look at his emperor, and in the end, it was this black-faced young man who carried everything.

Perhaps the emperor didn't realize that he had already regarded this Shuntian Mansion Yin as the royal investigation official.

Today is a cloudy day, due to the epidemic prevention period, the whole Xiyuan seems to be very quiet, only the shivering cold wind remains.

The cold wind was coming from east to west, and it was welcoming the team coming from the West Palace.

Zhu Youzhu was sitting on the dragon chariot, feeling the cold wind of this winter, and when he passed the Jinao Jade Bridge, he saw Yi Kexi and other concubines from a distance listening to the Chao Pavilion and enjoying the scenery.

He did not abandon his concubines, but chose to take them to Xiyuan to avoid the epidemic, but tried not to have direct contact. The Empress Dowager Zhou and the Empress Dowager also arranged to leave the Forbidden City, and he sent the two to Tang Ling's palace together.

It's just that the Forbidden City needs someone to control the overall situation, and the queen insists on staying in Kunning Palace, while Qingyue and Fan Jinling choose to accompany Chang Yourong to stay in the Forbidden City.

Zhu Youzhu found that Yi Kexi saw him and was waving excitedly to this side, so he smiled and raised his hand in response.

Since the last time she lost 2,000 cotton clothes to the Mongolian headquarters, this woman has not only become more active, but also noticeably more and more clinging to herself.

If it weren't for the extraordinary times, he would definitely let the other party understand his waist strength.

"Your Majesty, it's here!" Liu Jin commanded the dragon to fall, and then stepped forward and reminded respectfully.

Zhu Youzhu looked up at the Heart Nourishing Hall in front of him, but the whole person was not happy.

The rebellion in southern Gannan the year before last, the bursting of the Yellow River last year, and the smallpox epidemic this year, and even his own safety could not be guaranteed, which made him feel a deep sense of exhaustion.

It's just that he knows in his heart that the territory of this empire is too vast, and it is a high probability event that some major disasters occur every year. As for the hope that the wind and rain will be smooth every year, it can only be in the world, and the real world must be laborious.

Zhu Youzhu is not a complaining character, think about everything he has now, and after adjusting his mood, he began to deal with the current work.

Now the epidemic situation in the palace is investigated by Song Cheng, and the epidemic situation in Beijing City is jointly responsible for the six departments, so his eyes are immediately focused on overseas.

If an empire only wants to be glorious for hundreds of years, it is enough to be a tinker, but if you want to become an empire on which the sun never sets, you can only grab overseas resources.

Although the Ming Dynasty had fewer gold and silver mines, the rulers of successive dynasties could not escape the fate of indiscriminate currency issuance, resulting in the collapse of the dynasty's monetary credit.

Now the Ming Dynasty is not to mention the waste paper-like Ming treasure banknotes, even the copper coins issued by the official have changed from the original one or two silver for a thousand copper coins to nearly two thousand.

Zhu Youzhu naturally knew that gold and silver had no substantial value, but the monetary system that the Ming wanted to reconstruct would only force the people to rebel by relying only on imperial power, but it needed enough gold and silver support.

It is undoubtedly easier to mine gold and silver overseas than to plunder gold and silver at home.

Now the Ming Dynasty is a monopoly and a nominal suzerain, so it is not too much to take some gold and silver mines overseas, and the reserves of overseas gold and silver mines are actually more considerable.

For example, Luzon is barren, but it has amazing gold reserves, and it is undoubtedly a good place to mine gold.

"To the Ministry of Officials: Discuss the selection of the governor of Luzon and create the governor's yamen on Luzon Island."

"To the Ministry of War: Discuss the selection of the commander of the Luzon garrison and establish the Nanyang Luzon Guard Station on Luzon Island."

"To the Ministry of Works, send capable officials to lead craftsmen to the south and build the Ming Luzon City in the chosen place on Luzon Island!"

……

After Zhu Youzhu made up his mind to obtain gold and silver, he immediately issued several decrees to various yamen, officially launching the Ming Dynasty's plan to settle in Luzon.

Unlike later generations, the population of this era was limited by food, so Luzon had a small population and its power was dispersed.

Now depriving the Marani of the title of King of Luzon is the first step, and the next step is naturally to divide the various forces, so that Luzon will form a situation of six kingdoms.

Although there is no problem with the overall strategy of Daming, in fact, the most important thing is the candidate, only the right person can make things twice as effective with half the effort.

After more than two years, and through his continuous observation and training, he does have some usable talents in his hands.

"Slave Huang Pan to see Your Majesty, long live my emperor, long live, long live!" Huang Pan hurriedly walked in from the outside and knelt down respectfully.

He was an old man in the East Palace, and his performance in the East Palace was not outstanding originally, but he was suddenly reused a few days before the emperor ascended the throne, and he became one of the early henchmen.

It's just that although he has enough loyalty, his knowledge and talent are not outstanding, and he was sent to the inner study hall for further study in the early days, and last year he followed Wei Cheng to learn business.

After such a long period of training, he has become a manager who can take charge of himself, at least recently he has kept the Royal Weaving Factory in good order.

Zhu Youzhu looked at the white and fat young eunuch in front of him, and nodded lightly with great satisfaction: "Huang Pan, although you have only followed me for three years, I can feel your loyalty!" ”

"The slave is stupid, fortunately Your Majesty does not give up, and the slave and maid are proud to serve Your Majesty!" Huang Pan's eyes were slightly red, and he immediately solemnly kowtowed to show his loyalty.

Zhu Youji's eyes flashed with reluctance, but he still said according to the plan: "I want to set up the Royal Mining Company today, and this company will look for gold and silver mines in Nanyang and transport the mined gold and silver back to China. Wei Wei said that you have business acumen, you are quite talented in management, and you are loyal enough to me and Daming, but I don't know if you dare to take on this errand? ”

"Your Majesty, the slave is willing to die for Your Majesty, but ......" Huang Pan immediately expressed his position, but he seemed to have some scruples.

Zhu Youzhu knew that people who really wanted to do things would have questions, so he asked quietly: "What's the matter?" ”

"The slave maid is not shirking, but also very willing to serve Your Majesty, but there are many seas and few lands in the South Seas, and the slave and maid are afraid that it will be difficult to find gold and silver mines, which will disappoint Your Majesty!" Huang Pan already knew about the situation in Nanyang in the inner study hall, and immediately had scruples.

In his view, the larger the land, the more likely it is to have gold and silver mines, and it is a matter of probability. On the contrary, there are many seas and few lands in the South Sea, the middle is a vast sea, and there are islands to the east and south.

It is precisely because of this that he feels that it is better to really look for gold and silver mines than to be in the land of the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, and going to Nanyang seems to have made the mistake of abandoning the basics.

Zhu Youzhi had no intention of correcting Huang Pan's erroneous notion that "there is more land and more gold", and said in a serious manner: "You don't need to be afraid that you can't find gold and silver mines, when I was sorting out the royal collection last year, I actually had a big harvest, and you only need to send craftsmen to search in a specific area of Luzon Island." You are my confidant, I don't know if you dare to take this errand and relieve me of the dilemma of gold and silver? ”

"The slave and maid will definitely live up to Your Majesty's expectations, and will dig back all the gold and silver for Your Majesty and Daming!" Huang Pan's eyes were firm, and he seemed to be very affirmative.

The corners of Zhu Youji's mouth twitched slightly, not to mention other places, Luzon's gold reserves alone have ranked third in the world in later generations, even if Huang Pan can't dig it up in a few lifetimes.

With Huang Pan taking over the errand, the Royal Mining Company was officially established and began its journey of overseas gold mining.

Huang Pan had just left, and a little eunuch reported through Liu Jin: "Imperial Doctor Cui has arrived!" ”

"Let's get started!" The corners of Zhu Youji's mouth rose slightly, and he said lightly.

Although smallpox is indeed an incurable disease in this era, who allows himself to have the memory of future generations?

The best way to deal with this infectious disease is to actively contact people with mild infection, and actively infect yourself through this human pox vaccination, so that your body can produce antibodies.

Although the ancestors of China did not understand the principles of immunology, they found through years of practice that anyone who had smallpox would not be infected with smallpox again.

In view of this, if you are actively infected with mild symptoms of smallpox, you can choose to take the initiative to add it if you can't beat it, which can effectively avoid the storm of smallpox, so the methods to summarize are: pox coating method, pox slurry method, dry seedling method and water seedling method, which is also commonly known as the "human pox method".

Of course, the most effective is naturally the cowpox prevention of smallpox by Edward Jenner, the father of immunology.

Vaccinia and smallpox produce the same antibodies, and the human pox method has a 2% mortality rate, but human pox does not kill people, so active infection with cowpox is the safest practice.

Earlier, a large yellow cow with cowpox on its body was successfully brought into Xiyuan.

The sky was overcast, and it looked like it was going to snow.

Due to the epidemic, the cabinet has now moved back to Wenyuan Pavilion.

Song Cheng, as an investigation officer, was also temporarily assigned a duty room, but his face was very dark at this time, without a trace of expression on his face, and even frowned slightly.

Now the matter is no longer a matter of one person and one family, but a matter of millions of people in the capital, although he does not know how to heal, but he knows the importance of finding out the mastermind behind the scenes.

It's just that the epidemic is getting more and more serious, but he can't afford to relax a little, so he hurried to Donghuamen after leaving Xiyuan, intending to start the investigation again from Chu Chun.

He still believed in his own judgment, Chu Chun was not the one who brought the virus back to the palace, and the place of infection in Chu Chun should be in the palace.

"Isn't it?"

"Isn't it?"

"Nor not?"

……

Song Cheng re-checked the palace maids and eunuchs that Chu Chun had come into contact with through the records, and even found out the eunuch who was eating with Chu Chun, but still found nothing.

At this point, the investigation is at an impasse.

"It's rare that early spring is really an extrauterine infection of smallpox?" Song Cheng looked at the list in his hand and couldn't help but start to doubt himself.

Syllable!

Song Cheng's eyes were still firmly fixed on the list, and he reached out to pick up the teacup, but the back of his hand accidentally knocked over the hot tea, which immediately made him avoid it.

Just as he was scrambling to salvage the roster, his eyes suddenly fell on a name that happened to be wet, and a bright light flashed in his mind.

Liu Ji walked out of his duty room, saw Song Cheng who was leaving in a hurry, and asked curiously: "Xuan'an, where are you going?" ”

Song Cheng seemed to have entered his own world, completely ignoring Liu Ji, the second assistant of the cabinet who called him later, and left in a hurry along the courtyard road.

"Lord Jifu, this person is relying on His Majesty's favor, and there is really no one in his eyes!" The cabinet officials who accompanied Liu Ji looked at the back of Song Cheng leaving, and immediately said indignantly.

Liu Ji looked thoughtfully at Song Cheng who was leaving, turned his head and reprimanded: "Hugh wants to talk nonsense here, Song Cheng just concentrated on handling the case for His Majesty and didn't hear it, this is obviously a loyal minister!" ”

"Jisuke-sama has learned a lesson!" The cabinet official knew that his horse's ass had slapped on the horse's leg, and he was even stunned.

Liu Ji looked at the direction in which Song Cheng disappeared again, and guessed uncertainly: "Broken?" ”

There are more than 200 eunuchs and palace maids infected in the palace, and these people have been arranged for quarantine, and all the personnel are arranged in the palace next to the Donghua Gate.

If there are fatalities, they will be pulled out by the Tung Wah Gate and the bodies will be burned directly.

There were personnel on duty outside the palace, and in the face of Song Cheng, who asked to meet Chu Chun, he shook his head lightly and said, "Lord Song, you are late, Chu Chun just died!" ”

"Dead?" When Song Cheng heard this, he couldn't help but glare.

The guards knew that Song Cheng was in charge of investigating the case, so they pointed to a corpse covered with a white cloth in the courtyard and said, "Lord Song, the corpse is there!" ”

Song Cheng faintly felt that things were too coincidental, and immediately put on a mask and stepped forward to pull the corpse cloth open, and saw the palace maid Chuchun with a red rash on her face, but his eyes quickly locked on the neck of the palace maid Chuchun.

(End of chapter)