This was not what she wants, she never wanted to be an empress. Never intended to live in the imperial capital for a lifetime. She wanted to fly freely like a bird. Go to where she wanted to go and be herself. She wanted to do things she likes and live the life she always wanted.
These things were not what she wants. Really not.
*
There was a pile of charcoal fire burning in the old dilapidated house, which was warm enough. With this thing, it will not attract unnecessary people.
However, tonight, Jinyang County was destined to not be peaceful.
The city gate was closed in broad daylight, saying that there were important offenders to be arrested. The officials from the government sent out their men to search for the whereabouts of these so-called important offenders in large and small inns and houses in the city.
Jinyang County was not big, but if people want to look at every inch of the place, they can’t search in just a single day.
“Daren!”
A middle-aged man who was dozing off immediately became sober, and looked up to the person: “Have you found it?”
“Not yet!”
The middle-aged man was disappointed, and so he angrily said: “Then why are you here when you haven’t found them? Are you looking for scolding?”
The subordinate hurriedly said: “Daren, this subordinate feels that if you are looking for purposelessly like this, even if you look for them until tomorrow night, you may not find them.”
The middle-aged man raised an eyebrow: “Oh? Do you have a good idea?”
The young man laughed: “It’s not a good idea, but you can try it!”
The middle-aged man nodded: “Let’s talk about it!”
The young man immediately said: “Daren, although Jinyang City is not big, there are more than a thousand families in the city. Our yamen have limited manpower. In addition to this, you didn’t order people working outside the yamen to look for them. I’m afraid you won’t be able to find them in 3 days and nights.”
“This subordinate thinks that we can find these suspects if we narrow the search scope. By then, maybe we can find the hiding place of the suspects as soon as possible.”
The middle-aged man immediately became interested: “Then tell me, how can this range be narrowed?”
The young man took out the things he had prepared long ago, and it was a map of the housing distribution in Jinyang County.
The map depicts the main streets of Jinyang County, as well as the distribution of people’s residential terrain, which was very detailed. In some places, the names of lanes, shops, etc. were even indicated.
Such a detailed map, even he, the magistrate of Jinyang County doesn’t have it. So how can a mere district government officer have one?
The middle-aged man’s eyes turned cold. He slapped the table with his palm and angrily said: “You have big courage.”
Before the young man could speak, the middle-aged man’s face drastically changed. He looked at the magistrate in confusion: “Daren, this subordinate, this subordinate has not spoken yet!”
Master Qian pointed to the map spread on the table and asked: “Where did this come from? Why did you have this?” With this map, it can be said that Jinyang County has a panoramic view. Even the place where he lived was included. The several gates in the yamen, how many people were guarding in the gates, and when the guards will change their shifts, were all recorded on the map.
The young man hurriedly knelt and didn’t even think about why the magistrate got angry with him: “Daren, this, this picture was accidentally obtained by this subordinates. I thought it would be useful, so I took it.”
Master Qian asked angrily, “Accidentally? Tell me, is it really accidental or not? Where did you this? Or from whom did you get it?”
He served as the county magistrate of Jinyang for three years. After he took office, the county had many changes, including the Jinyang’s topographical distribution, the number of residents, and the degree of commercial prosperity. However, no one has ever drawn such a detailed distribution map as this.