Surprise! The villain is my brother, stay calm!

While Lu Zhanxing was waiting, a strange thing happened in Yuzhou. Some people suddenly started to mutilate themselves, and then their blood was sucked dry, and finally they fell to the ground and died. The people who believed in ghosts and gods were so scared that they thought it was an evil spirit at work, causing panic among countless people.

In the following days, this kind of panic-causing terrorist incident occurred not only in Yuzhou, but also in Jingzhou, Qingzhou, and Yizhou. Every three days, someone went crazy and mutilated himself, and then died after his blood was drained.

Lu Zhanxing immediately sent people to investigate thoroughly, but found nothing. Even one of the Shuntian Prefecture yamen runners suddenly began to mutilate himself. Then everyone watched helplessly as the runner was sucked dry of blood and finally died.

The officials of Shuntian Prefecture were terrified and immediately took people back to report to the emperor. This was really too weird.

This caused panic among the people of Daqian, and Lu Zhanyan summoned several trusted ministers to discuss the matter in the imperial study.

Gu Xuyao ​​said, "Your Majesty, this is most likely the Mu family using poison to harm the people. Not only do they want to cause panic, but they also want us to take over Qi as soon as possible. Otherwise, it won't just be one or two people who will be buried with them, but the whole world."

Hearing this, everyone's faces turned grim. They didn't expect that Mu Qingran would be so cruel and crazy as to threaten them with poison.

"Your Majesty, I'm afraid the medicine we gave to the people to control the poison is ineffective. The poisonous insects this time are even more difficult to deal with." Xiao Lanjue also said with a frown.

"Are we just going to leave Mu Qingran alone?"

Prime Minister Su had been to Yanzhou and Xuzhou before, so he knew how powerful the poison was. He was also frowning at this moment.

Lu Zhanyan frowned. If he didn't send troops to attack Qi State now, would Mu Qingran become more crazy about releasing poison?

It would be fine if this kind of poison could be dealt with, but now they are completely helpless against it.

Unless he kills Mu Qingran, he can always figure out the poison.

"Your Majesty, a letter from Prince Yi."

Huai Mo presented the letter, and Lu Zhanyan read it quickly, then his face was filled with joy: "Good, you are worthy of being my brother."

"Brother Xing has discovered the location where the Mu family is hiding. We can resolve this crisis by sending troops to kill them."

Lu Zhanyan was very excited. Xingdi had never let him down.

Everyone smiled when they heard this, hoping that the Mu family could be eradicated as soon as possible, otherwise they would still be a big threat.

Gu Xuyao ​​was worried about his brother-in-law Lu Zhanxing, so he volunteered to go and encircle and suppress the Mu family.

Lu Zhanyan agreed and gave Yangzhou the tiger talisman, which allowed him to dispatch the Yangzhou garrison. He also sent Xiao Lanjue to deal with murder cases that caused panic in various places.

Less than two days after the order was issued, rumors began to spread that Emperor Zhaoyuan was a traitor and unable to suppress evil spirits, otherwise how could evil spirits wreak havoc on the world?

They all demanded that Lu Zhanyan return the throne to the Chu family, otherwise the world would be in danger!

Many ignorant people believed that the Lu family was a traitor and unworthy of being emperor, especially those who believed in gods and Buddhas, who called for Emperor Zhaoyuan to abdicate and return the Daqian Kingdom to the Chu family.

When Lu Zhanyan heard this rumor, he snorted coldly. These were all leftovers from his tricks. How could they show off their skills in front of him?

He immediately announced to the world: "The Wu family used poison to bring chaos to the world and deliberately caused panic. Please do not believe the rumors. I have sent the Heavenly Punishment Department to deal with the poison. Please be patient. The relatives of those who were harmed by the poison can go to the government office to receive a pension of 100 taels..."

As soon as this announcement came out, the people felt relieved when they heard that the Heavenly Punishment Department would help deal with the matter. Moreover, those whose relatives died from the poison could receive a pension of 100 taels, which was a sum of money they could never earn in their entire lives. The lives of ordinary people were the least valuable, so it was worth it if they could exchange them for 100 taels.

These rumors were quickly quelled by this announcement, so that the people behind the scenes could no longer spread rumors about the emperor.

Lu Zhanyan summoned Prime Minister Su, Minister Wei, and Minister Mei to the imperial study to discuss the matter.

"I'm sure you have all heard of this rumor. What do you think?"

Lu Zhanyan's expression was relatively calm, but his eyes were deep and sharp. He scanned the faces of the three assistant ministers one by one, and his voice was cold.

Especially Lord Wei, he just felt that His Majesty was pointing at him.

He quickly knelt down to clarify: "Your Majesty, this rumor has nothing to do with Prince An... No, it has nothing to do with Chu Li. I swear a solemn oath that if it is Chu Li, my whole family will not have a good death."

Lord Wei was willing to swear such an oath because he was sure that this was not done by the former fifth prince Chu Li.

After the new dynasty came to power, Lu Zhanyan agreed to release Chu Li because of Wei Ge Lao's dedication to the court, but he also demoted him to a commoner, and the mansion became the place where he would be imprisoned for life.

There was no salary. It was already a great kindness on his part to let them live in Prince An's Mansion until they died. It was impossible for him to also provide them with food.

But they were not allowed to sit idle. A large area of ​​Prince An's Mansion was converted into a papermaking site, and Chu Li and his wife only had a small courtyard to live in. On weekdays, they had to go to the papermaking site to help with work. Each person was paid one or two taels of silver per month, which was allowed them to support themselves.

As for whether Lord Wei subsidized them, that was not something Lu Zhanyan could control.

Lord Wei saw that his son-in-law and daughter were safe and sound, and were working in the paper mill. He thought they would not starve to death, and with the occasional subsidy, they were living a pretty good life.

Since the assistant minister of the Ministry of War had defected and helped open the city gate, he had made a contribution, so Lu Zhanyan allowed his daughter, who was married to Chu Li as a concubine, to return home and marry on her own.

All other servants were assigned tasks, and no one was left idle.

At this time, seeing that Lord Wei had sworn a solemn oath, Lu Zhanyan temporarily believed that it was none of their business.

So he personally walked up to Elder Wei and helped him up: "Elder Wei, there is no need to do this, I trust you!"

Lord Wei looked grateful on the surface, but in his heart he was cursing Lu Zhanyan as a little fox. If he didn't swear, he would probably become suspicious, right?

But who exactly spread such rumors?

Emperor Chu Xiao of Jiaxing committed suicide by burning himself, Prince Chu Ji of Ping died, Prince Chu Li of An was killed right under his nose, and those relatives of the clan were exiled to remote areas. Jiuzhou was even more forcefully taken over by Lu Zhanyan. Who else would dare to spread rumors?

Could it be that Mu Qingran sent someone to spread the rumor?

Elder Mei pondered for a moment and then said, "Your Majesty, I guess that even if these rumors were not spread by Mu Qingran, they could have been spread by other two countries. We must not let them succeed."

Prime Minister Su also nodded in agreement.

Lu Zhanyan sighed and could only hope that Xingdi and Gu Xuyao ​​could really capture the entire Mu family, so that they would no longer have to fear the poison.

Half a month had passed since Mu Qingran kidnapped Ling'er. Lu Zhanxing finally arrived at the West Lake in Yangzhou. However, there were several pleasure boats above the West Lake, so it would take some time to confirm which one it was.

Ling'er being confined to the room was a bit troublesome.

Lu Zhanxing had people keep an eye on the five boats and had to eliminate the suspicious ships one by one.

It seems that I can only go to explore it at night...