Chapter 1678

The storm over Guo Dachun's death passed, and the Heavenly Prison returned to tranquility.

Chen Guanlou felt it was not quite real.

Such a major rebel, in such a short time, just died. From beginning to end, such a major rebel hadn't said many words, nor had he left behind a single last word.

It was so fast it was astonishing.

It gave one the feeling of just going through the motions.

He had once thought about whether to go to the military camp to find someone who knew Guo Dachun to identify the body.

Later, he dismissed this thought.

More trouble is worse than less trouble.

No news is good news!

What the Heavenly Prison needs most is peace. Peace means no one has to die. Chaos means many people might die!

He had thought this tranquility would last for a long time, but a heavy rain caused the prison cells to be flooded.

The Jia, Yi, and Bing sections were all unable to escape.

It could be called a hell-level disaster.

When the rain stopped, the inside of the prison cells was full of water.

Prison guards and attendants, including the prisoners, all grabbed pots and pans to bail out the water.

Chen Guanlou was responsible for finding funds and urging the Ministry of Justice to contact the Ministry of Works to repair the prison cells immediately.

Looking at the weather, there would be more heavy rain in a few days.

"If it really doesn't work, you sign a slip, and I'll go outside to find craftsmen. The Heavenly Prison can't afford to serve that group of ancestors from the Ministry of Works."

Chen Guanlou urged Sun Daoning.

Sun Daoning was also worried about the heavy rain in a few days, so he decisively signed the slip, drawing from the Heavenly Prison's public account first. After surviving this summer, they would settle the accounts.

With the signed slip, things became very simple to handle.

Three days later, the second heavy rain occurred; this time, only the Bing-grade prison was flooded with a little rainwater, which was not considered serious.

However...

Some prisoners were sick!

Within a short day or two, one after another fell ill.

"This is an epidemic; they must be quarantined!" Medical Official Mu's expression was serious.

Chen Guanlou made a prompt decision to clean up and disinfect the Jia-grade prison, concentrating the healthy prisoners there. The sick prisoners were placed in the Yi-grade prison.

The Bing-grade prison had the worst conditions, so it was simply left empty, waiting for thorough disinfection.

As a result, the Jia-grade prison was full. With seven or eight people locked in one cell, one could imagine how terrible the environment was with the waste produced in a single day.

The situation was reported to the Ministry of Justice, which treated it as a major threat.

The neighboring Imperial Prison also had an epidemic, and it was said that people had already started dying.

Immediately after, the Heavenly Prison also started having deaths.

Chen Guanlou went down to the Jia-grade prison and looked at the messy environment; no matter how much it was cleaned and disinfected, because there were too many people, the situation would only get worse.

"Healthy prisoners cannot continue to be locked in the Jia-grade prison. All prisoners from the Bing-grade prison, return to the Bing-grade prison."

Chen Guanlou was worried that the Jia-grade prison would not hold and the epidemic would spread; since the Bing-grade prison had just finished disinfection, he drove the Bing-grade prisoners back.

It was still too late!

More people were infected with the epidemic, and people were dying every day.

Even weak prison guards fell along the way.

Chen Guanlou gasped.

He simply ordered the Heavenly Prison to be sealed, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving.

He personally reported the situation to the Ministry of Justice, reminding the Embroidered Uniform Guard to close the Imperial Prison.

Yang Deguang did not dare to be careless and followed suit, ordering the Imperial Prison to be sealed.

The epidemic must not be allowed to spread within the capital.

The epidemic alarmed the imperial court, and Emperor Yuanding was even more shocked and angry, strictly ordering that not a single person be released from the Heavenly Prison and the Imperial Prison, otherwise, they would be executed without mercy.

Both prisons were carrying out corpses every day.

This was not the most terrifying part.

What was more terrifying was that the Shuntian Prefecture prison also appeared to have a similar epidemic. It was even possible that it had already spread among the general population.

Emperor Yuanding was so frightened that his breathing stopped; dominated by fear, he roared: "Kill them, kill them, kill them all! Any prison cell where the epidemic is discovered, kill all those people."

"Your Majesty says to kill them all, may I ask who is to be killed?"

Emperor Yuanding gritted his teeth: "From prisoners to prison guards, all personnel inside, kill them all."

"Regardless of whether they are healthy or not?"

"Healthy? Who can guarantee that a certain person is definitely healthy now? You all said that the epidemic has an incubation period. Healthy today, maybe they will fall ill in a few days. If we don't kill them, what if it spreads outside? What will happen to the millions of people in the capital then? Do you want to watch the capital of the Great Gan be covered in corpses? By then, the Great Gan will be finished!"

Emperor Yuanding was restless and anxious, pacing back and forth, his heart in utter chaos.

He demanded they all be killed!

The ministers hesitated, struggled, and were conflicted!

"Killing people, and killing them all, must be done with caution. If this matter spreads, it will surely damage Your Majesty's reputation and the prestige of the imperial court. I hope Your Majesty will think thrice!"

"Whether or not to kill, why not slow down first? If the epidemic can be controlled within half a month, there is no need to kill everyone. Only those who have the epidemic need to be killed. If it cannot be controlled within half a month, or if it becomes even more serious, it will not be too late to kill them then."

Emperor Yuanding also knew that killing them all in one go was not very realistic.

The personnel and prisoners in several prisons added up to at least several thousand people.

To kill several thousand people in one go, the army must be used.

The commotion would be too big!

Furthermore, even ants cling to life, let alone humans. At the moment of death, they would surely resist fiercely.

Thinking that there was still a Ninth-Rank martial artist in the Heavenly Prison, Emperor Yuanding was immediately filled with resentment.

A Ninth-Rank martial artist is too hard to kill!

So he nodded and agreed to the second plan: delay for half a month.

At the same time, he ordered that all streets around the several prisons be sealed off, so that not even a mosquito could fly in. The families of the prison guards were all concentrated and guarded; once there was a situation, measures could be taken in time to ensure it would not spread.

Medical Official Mu was also trapped in the Heavenly Prison, working day and night to find ways to control the spread of the epidemic, and ideally, to eliminate it.

Fortunately, there were a large number of infected prisoners for him to use for trial and error! Without needing the prisoners' consent, a bowl of medicine was poured down their throats. After trying day and night for several days, an effective method was finally found.

Fight poison with poison!

Using a certain trace amount of poison as a primer, supplemented by other medicinal herbs and decocted, the effect was very obvious.

The side effects were equally obvious.

After recovery, there would be physical weakness and damage to the heart and lungs. In other words, a shortened lifespan!

Compared to the speed at which the epidemic spread and killed people, everyone could accept a mere shortened lifespan.

Chen Guanlou reported the intelligence again, just in time for Emperor Yuanding's half-month deadline.

Sun Daoning learned this good news and felt a sense of relief, reporting the situation to the Secretariat and the palace at the first opportunity.

Emperor Yuanding was half-believing: "Minister Sun, is this matter true?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, Prison Warden Chen is an upright person. If he did not have certainty, he would not report this news. There must have been huge progress in treating the epidemic in the Heavenly Prison."

"Since that is the case, let the Imperial Prison use the medicine! If the Imperial Prison uses the medicine and it is also effective, I will approve it."

Clearly, Emperor Yuanding did not trust the news from the Heavenly Prison, nor did he trust Sun Daoning.

Sun Daoning had no time to be sentimental and agreed immediately.

Chen Guanlou gave the prescription for the epidemic antidote to the neighboring Imperial Prison at the first opportunity and also lent Medical Official Mu as a favor, letting Medical Official Mu help the Imperial Prison for a day or two to ensure the epidemic could be controlled.

Emperor Yuanding trusted the Embroidered Uniform Guard and naturally trusted the Imperial Prison.

Several days later, when the Imperial Prison reported that the antidote was effective and the epidemic was effectively controlled, Emperor Yuanding felt a sense of relief.

He chuckled: "It does have some luck."

It was unclear who he was talking about.