The person who died, Shen Hao, had the impression that he was a personal guard of Qianhu who was at the third level of Qi refining. He had been staying around Shen Hao to listen to his instructions. Although he couldn't pronounce his name, he looked familiar.
How did this man come into contact with the source of the plague? Why didn't anyone else get sick? Even the wounded who were carried back due to poisoning were getting better and no one died.
After asking other sergeants who had been with the deceased, they found no abnormalities or injuries to the deceased before his death.
"He is very careful. He keeps supporting the Qi shield at night, so no poisonous insects can bite him."
"During the day, he also listened in the middle and rarely participated in the search team, so he didn't seem to have encountered any danger."
"He was always fine, and suddenly he died."
It is impossible to be infected by the plague source at night. Because everyone was nervously responding to the situation throughout the night, the poison shield protected by the Qi shield would not touch the deceased. Otherwise, he would definitely not be the only one infected with the plague.
Moreover, the Xu family in Xiushan Village is just an ordinary family. It is remarkable that the family has produced minor officials in the military. Later, Xu Tianwu’s descendants did not become monks. After going to that special place before, it was impossible to block the night. It is a poisonous insect, so the Xu family can only dare to go in during the day, and the Xu family can only contract the plague during the day.
But there are no poisonous insects all over the sky during the day. Could it be that the source of the plague isn’t bugs?
Shen Hao carefully recalled what he had seen and heard along the way, as well as the scene where the deceased was wandering in front of his eyes. Finally, a picture flashed through his mind: On the day after the boulder was attacked by insects at night, Shen Hao vaguely remembered that the deceased had killed a pea-sized insect beside him, remembering it was on his neck.
He quickly looked at the corpse and used a long stick to press the corpse's head. Shen Hao's eyesight could clearly see that there was an obvious ulcer mark on the right side of the deceased's neck. It was very small and difficult to find among the black spots on the skin. But it couldn't escape Shen Hao's eyes.
That's the spot! Shen Hao was sure that the place where he saw the deceased slapping a bug to death was the ulcerated spot on his neck.
Is an inconspicuous little bug the source of the plague? And there are those bugs during the day. Shen Hao was a little horrified when he thought that the source of the terrifying plague would be a small insect that looked harmless, and could even be slapped to death as if it were a mosquito.
He found several personal guards from Qianhushuo, told them his judgment, and asked them to enter the foreign land again, but without going deep, they carefully found the place where the ghost pear plants were found in the forest. Catching bugs, especially pea-sized bugs. Grab your sheepskin hands, pick up the jade bottle, and set off immediately.
Arrangements were made here to verify the source of the plague before leaving. On the other side, Wang Yiming hurriedly found Shen Hao with an order to suppress the governor's Yamen.
"Sir, Sir Jiang has an urgent order!"
It was actually Jiang Cheng who crossed Wu Changhe and gave him the order directly? What's so urgent?
Shen Hao took the order and waved away Wang Yiming. He had some guesses in his mind, probably about that special place. After all, many of his peers were not his direct subordinates, so it was understandable if he wanted to take credit, but he didn't expect that he would go directly to Jiang Cheng. I wonder how long it will take Wu Changhe to operate in Fengli City to eliminate the influence left by Jiang Cheng?
Opening the order, it turned out as Shen Hao expected, it was about that special place. The words were very urgent, asking Shen Hao to report the details directly to him, and ordered Shen Hao to not give up the front line from Wanhekou to that special place to anyone before he gave Shen Hao the order to withdraw, and must hold it firmly.
Isn't Jiang Cheng a man who is eager for quick success and quick gain, so he crosses the Wu Changhe River to command the Black Flag Camp of Fengri City so arrogantly for a so-called "treasure land"? He also made it clear that no one was allowed to interfere with the frontline affairs of Wanhekou. This was already allowing Shen Hao and the local government to seize power.
It's just some resources. It won't make Jiang Cheng miserable, right? At least based on Shen Hao's understanding of Jiang Cheng, he didn't believe it.
Shen Hao felt an unusual aura.
Sure enough, in the next two days, the Wanhekou front line, which was originally being cleaned up and restored, had another incident. Wu Changhe came with an order suggesting that Shen Hao could withdraw and hand over the cleanup to the local government, but Shen Hao rejected it because "the source of the plague is unknown."
Immediately afterwards, the Jingxi Army also sent a document, saying that considering that the plague situation had not yet been completely stabilized, and that the Xuanqing Guards were short of manpower, they hoped to help share some of the pressure and hand over the frontline prevention and control of Wanhekou to them.
The most vehement words were from the local government offices in Fengri City. They blocked the door of Shen Hao's temporary apartment and almost cursed him. Anyway, his words were very ugly, and they all meant the same thing: Xuan Qingwei is here. Acting recklessly and overstepping one's authority!
Shen Hao didn't know that he was acting recklessly and overstepping his authority, but there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn't ignore Jiang Cheng's order unless he no longer wanted to hang out in the Xuanqing Guard.
Fortunately, the third group of spies who entered the mountain brought back exciting news for Shen Hao: the bugs were caught.
Several of the spies lost weight. They were so exhausted by this mission that they were so frightened that they could even catch an insect.
The jade bottles they brought were all used up. A few people went back and forth between the mountains and that special place and caught a total of thirty-eight kinds of pea-sized insects. Now they were all placed in front of Shen Hao, all in the jade bottles. All alive.
Shen Hao looked at it for a while. How could he remember what the insect that the deceased killed looked like? He only remembered the size. However, there are not many rules and regulations in this world, and Shen Hao has a lot of room for manipulation, although it is a bit cruel.
"Find someone to draw portraits of these bugs, and then find more death row prisoners to try. Put one on their neck and beat them to death to see who will get sick and infected with plague the next day. Once confirmed, you can put it into the file and report it. Hurry and do it. "
There was no shortage of prisoners on death row. Wang Yiming nodded and left. There were still many local officials in the dungeon who had committed dereliction of duty and concealed reports. It was time to use them to make contributions, which was much more valuable than beheading.
Shen Hao was not asked to wait long before the results came out. Wang Yiming came back with a description of death and a picture of a bug. The admiration in his eyes could not be concealed. No one expected that Shen Hao actually found the source of the plague.
"Name it the Black-spotted Plague Insect. Immediately edit the file and show it to me after sorting it out. We will try to report it to the Qianhu Office within today."
"Okay, sir. A Baihu official came outside. He said he came from the Zhenfu Envoy Yamen. His surname is Chen. He said he was an old acquaintance of yours. He has been waiting for a while."
Shen Hao hurriedly welcomed him out, only to realize that the person who came was actually Chen Sheng, whom he had not seen for a long time. This former 100-household tester now also has the title of 100-households. He had followed Jiang Cheng to the Zhenfu Envoy Yamen and still served as Jiang Cheng's close relative. Chief of Guard.
