Chapter 164
Cheng Zhifu was almost furious when he heard it: "Your husband and son are gone, just go outside and look for it. Who gave you the courage to smash the holy car?"
Aunt Liu was reprimanded by Cheng Zhifu, so frightened that she dared not lift her head, her daughter-in-law shrank behind her, her body trembling uncontrollably. Lu Heng swept across the hall lightly, and said, "Your Majesty loves the people like a son. He is very concerned when you hear your grievances, and sent me to inquire about it. If you have any grievances, you can speak bluntly now. If you dare to hide..."
Lu Heng didn't say anything else, but Aunt Liu fully understood the meaning behind. Strange to say, among the officials present, the fat official on the right glared at them, eager to rush up to tear them to pieces; the other man was taciturn, his face was cold and serious, and it was frightening just by looking at them; The one sitting alone in the middle, fair-skinned and handsome, with a smile on his mouth, seems to be the kindest face, but in fact, Aunt Liu is the most afraid of him.
Aunt Liu was trembling in her heart, and nodded quickly: "Minwomen dare not speak nonsense. Minwomen and daughter-in-law have worked so hard to come here just to ask for something clear, and they will never dare to deceive the adults."
Lu Heng said calmly: "I will check if it is true. If there is any grievance, I will definitely give you an explanation. Now, you will explain the whole thing in detail."
Aunt Liu took a deep breath and stumbled and said: "In April this year, Li Zheng sent a message to every household in the village, saying that the emperor and empress in the palace would pass by us, and the county magistrate asked each household to have two men. , go to the practice palace in the city. There are only two men in our family, and their father and son have gone with the villagers. Usually, my wife and I can deal with things in the field, but we are about to harvest rice. Our mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are looking forward to it every day. I look forward to it every night, and I can't wait for them to come back. It's already July, and the emperor and the empress should be here. Why can't the palace be repaired? We went to the village to ask, and Lizheng didn't know what was going on. We were taking us to the county, and after several trips, the county magistrate said that the men in Hegu Village encountered bào rain on the road and were swept away by the flood, and all the men in the village were gone."
Hearing this, Lu Heng quietly glanced at Cheng Zhifu: "Cheng Zhifu, is there such a thing?"
Cheng Zhifu looked embarrassed and hurriedly said: "The emperor's southern tour is a major event. Wei Hui is fortunate to pick him up. Of course, the palace must be well arranged. I was afraid that the construction period would be too late, so I recruited laborers from all over the world. But Wei Hui has been constantly moving from natural disasters since ancient times. Some time ago Heavy rain, flash floods in many places, and their team happened to encounter flash floods, and there was nothing they could do."
Lu Heng asked, "No one was spared?"
The muscles on Cheng Zhifu's face trembled faintly, and sweat was oozing from his forehead: "Xiaguan I don't know... Mr. Lu forgives my sins, Xiaguan will let someone investigate."
Lu Heng waved his hand and said, "No need. Since no one came back, I think the whole team will be miserable."
He looked at the pair of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and asked, "Your husband didn't come back after he went out. I can understand your grief, but natural disasters are ruthless and far beyond human ability. Why do you complain?"
Aunt Liu saw that the grown-up was discussing matters and his words were quite calm, so she dared to say: "Sir, you don't know anything, our old Liu Nong worked as a boatman on the river when he was slack, and he knew the river course very well. My son also soaked in the water since he was a child. , the water is very good, and they can swim back and forth in the river, how could their father and son be washed away by the water?"
When Cheng Zhifu heard it, he scolded angrily: "Long hair and short knowledge, it's ignorant! Flash floods are changing rapidly, and people are washed away in the blink of an eye.
The daughter-in-law Mrs. Liu heard it and whispered: "My father-in-law is on the water to make a living. He is very cautious when entering the water. He has always warned us to go out to check the weather. If it rains heavily, he will never approach the river."
"It's stupid." Cheng Zhifu was furious and scolded, "How can the labor force be the same as usual, when there were more than your family in the team at that time, which round will they be the masters?"
Aunt Liu said: "The county magistrate also said the same thing. After returning to the village, he was persuading us to look away. This should be an accident. Our mother-in-law and daughter-in-law had already accepted their fate, but since their father and son disappeared, the osprey at home has disappeared. The osprey flew back suddenly two days ago, with a cloth strap tied to its claws. I thought the cloth was familiar, so I took it off and looked at it, but it turned out to be my son's clothes with the words 'Save me' written in blood."
Cheng Zhifu took a small breath, suffocated his face, and was speechless. Hearing this, Lu Heng said, "Where's the stuff?"
"Here." Aunt Liu hurriedly flipped through her clothes and took out a blood-stained piece of cloth from her belt. The soldier took the thing and handed it to Lu Heng. Lu Heng took it over and opened it, and at a glance, he was sure that it was human blood. He raised his eyelids lightly, stared at Aunt Liu and asked, "Who knows about this piece of cloth?"
"Only the two of us." Aunt Liu hurriedly said, "We originally wanted to go to the county magistrate to report the case, but when the yamen saw us, they slammed us out, saying that the flood was missing, so let's not disturb the county magistrate again. How can we beg It was useless, and in the end we really had no choice, so we ran outside the palace, trying to see if we could avenge our grievances."
Lu Heng gave the cloth to his own people and signaled them to put it away. Lu Heng looked at Cheng Zhifu, Cheng Zhifu's face was completely white, sweating and restless.