During the Southern Song Dynasty, Lin'an City was suddenly attacked by a strange disease, and the people vomited and had diarrhea. Although it could be temporarily restrained by looking for Lang TCM treatment, the disease recurred after a few days and could not be eradicated. For a time, the people of Lin'an City panicked, and the prefect of Lin'an was also worried.

On this day, the prefect received a report: Recently, a Taoist priest came to the city to cast spells, saying that the reason why Lin'an had a strange disease was because the people were disrespectful to the sky and were punished. If you want to eradicate the strange disease, you must take the divine water that the Taoist priest applied the divine talisman. Each bucket of divine water costs ten taels of silver. After hearing this, the prefect's nose was crooked in anger. Isn't this clearly pretending to be a ghost and harming people?

The same day, the prefect rushed to the altar and shouted to the Taoist priest, "Bold demon, who asked you to pretend to be a ghost here?"

The Taoist priest said indifferently: "It turned out to be the prefect, and the poor dao has not been far away to welcome, so please forgive me. But now the poor dao is casting spells to deal with disasters, please come down from the altar, don't delay the poor dao to save the common people."

The prefect was furious and said, "It's just a deception."

Unexpectedly, the Taoist priest did not change his face: "To be honest, the poor Taoist has been practicing Taoism in the Ziguang Cave of Mount Emei. If it were not for the kind invitation of the chief attendant, Eunuch Chen Minxian, I would not have left the mountain."

When the prefect heard this, he couldn't help but be shocked. Chen Minxian, the chief attendant, was a eunuch by the emperor's side. Could it be that the emperor meant that he sent someone to invite this Taoist priest?

Seeing that the prefect was silent, the Taoist priest said coldly, "Do you have anything else to do? If you have nothing to do, please come down from the altar, and don't delay the poor dao to offer the divine water." The prefect could only suppress his anger and leave.

Along the way, when the prefect saw the people, he asked them if the divine water worked, and the answer he got was almost always: "It works, it really cures the strange disease." The prefect frowned even more tightly.

The next day, the prefect invited several famous local doctors to discuss the matter. An old man said, "My lord, we have treated this strange disease before, but the patient soon committed it again, and we don't know why."

The prefect sighed and said, "Does it really depend on that Taoist priest pretending to be a ghost to work?

The old man suddenly asked, "My lord, I heard you met that Taoist priest yesterday.

The prefect shook his head and said, "The harvest is very small, there must be something wrong with this matter, but there is no way to start."

The old man smiled mysteriously and said, "The so-called reading ten thousand volumes is better than walking ten thousand miles.

The prefect was stunned for a moment, and when he heard something in his words, he nodded. After lunch, the prefect came to Lin'an Lake and looked around the lake carefully, but found nothing. The prefect was so tired that he sat by Lin'an Lake to rest, and while wiping his sweat, the old man suddenly appeared in front of him and said, "I didn't expect the lord to walk around Lin'an Lake. Tired, right?"

The prefect sighed and said, "Yes, but nothing was gained."

The old man reminded: "Don't you see that there are a few more horse washing farms by Lin'an Lake?"

The prefect's eyes widened and said, "I see! could it be that there is a mystery in the horse wash?"

The old man nodded and told the truth. It turned out that horse wash farms poured dirty water after washing horses into Lin'an Lake, polluting the water quality. The water of Lin'an Lake is the drinking water of the local people. After drinking it, it is no wonder people will not get sick.

The prefect asked, "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

The old man smiled wryly and said, "My lord, the owner of these horse washing farms is Chen Minxian, the chief attendant." If you hadn't broken into the Taoist altar and walked around Lin'an Lake today in order to find clues, how could I dare  talk too much? That's all I know.

When the prefect heard this, he couldn't help but ponder.

The next night, the prefect suddenly went to see the Taoist priest, and after meeting him, he bowed and smiled again: "This official has always wanted to see Eunuch Chen Minxian, but I had no noble person to guide the way. It was a mistake to break into the altar by mistake that day." Saying that, he took out a jade pendant and handed it to the Taoist priest, "This jade is from the Western Regions, and it is a priceless treasure.

When the Taoist priest saw the jade pendant, he smiled happily and said, "This is too expensive, how can I accept it?"

The Prefect smiled and said, "I wonder how many days Immortal Dao will cast spells?

The Taoist priest said angrily: "I don't know. But the emperor already knows about Lin'an's strange illness. Eunuch Chen is persuading the emperor to open an altar to pray for blessings, cure the disease and save the people."

The prefect thought about it and said, "When the emperor opens the altar to pray for blessings, the divine water of the Immortal Dao will definitely come in handy. At that time, the Immortal Dao will definitely rise to the top, and I hope the Immortal Dao will help you a lot in the future."

When the Taoist priest heard this, he was very proud. After the prefect took the opportunity to pat his horse again, he saw that the Taoist priest was unguarded, so he pretended to be sincere and said, "Can the Immortal Dao give me some divine water? Let me also be dipped in immortal energy."

The Taoist priest laughed and said, "What kind of divine water, as long as it is not the water of Lin'an Lake, it is divine water." Speaking of which, he suddenly realized that he had leaked his mouth, and hurriedly smoothed the scene, "This is because my divine water and the water of Lin'an Lake are at odds. This is a secret, and it cannot be leaked."

The prefect nodded hurriedly and said, "I dare not, how can the secret be leaked to me, an ordinary person?" So he said a few more polite words and left.

The next day, the prefect asked several people who had bought divine water. The people told the prefect that, in addition to eating vegetarian food every day, they could only drink divine water and could not drink other water.

The prefect slapped his forehead and secretly shouted: "Understood, as long as he doesn't drink the polluted water of Lin'an Lake, this disease will naturally be cured. It seems that Chen Minxian already knows that the horse wash farm polluted the water of Lin'an Lake, causing the outbreak of strange diseases. But instead of turning off the horse-washing farm, he took the opportunity to flatter the emperor, let the emperor open the altar to pray for blessings, and then secretly turn off the horse-washing farm, and the strange disease will naturally be cured. At the same time, before opening the altar to pray for blessings, he used Taoists to fool the people and sell "divine water" to scavenge the people's wealth. How ingenious, but how vicious.

But how to expose Chen Minxian and shut down the horse wash? Write a letter of impeachment? I have no evidence at all. Even if the emperor orders a thorough investigation, any official dares to investigate in depth, and the emperor is involved. All night long, the prefect was so anxious that he didn't sleep.

Early the next morning, the prefect still hadn't thought of a countermeasure, and was very anxious when he suddenly heard the "dong dong dong" sound of the unjust drum. When the prefect ascended to the hall, it was actually two alcoholics who asked the prefect to rule: whether Lin'an wine was better or Dukang wine was better. The prefect was so angry that he wanted to order the yamen to kick the two guys out, when one of the alcoholics suddenly jumped three feet high and shouted, "Lin'an wine is the imperial wine of today's long life sacrifice to heaven."

Suddenly, the prefect's eyes lit up, leaving behind the alcoholic and two classes of yamen. He ran back to the study and wrote a memorial

A few days later, the imperial decree came, and he first scolded the prefect, and then asked the prefect to immediately thoroughly investigate and close the horse washing farm in Lin'an Lake. It turned out that the prefect wrote in the memorial: The royal wine used by the emperor to offer sacrifices to heaven was brewed from the water of Lin'an Lake. But just a few days ago, he accidentally discovered that several horse washing farms had been opened by Lin'an Lake, causing the water of Lin'an Lake to be polluted. This is a great disrespect for God, please condemn the emperor.

On the same day, the prefect closed the horse washing farm with an edict, and then made a plea: The strange disease that broke out in Lin'an City was traced back to the people drinking the polluted Lin'an Lake water. Now that the owner of the horse wash farm has been arrested, he confessed that Chen Minxian is the owner of the horse wash farm, and he does not dare to deal with it easily.

Two days later, the imperial decree came: The prefect was stupid and caused a catastrophe, but he knew his mistakes and made changes, and his loyalty was commendable, so he took it lightly and was demoted to the common people

The day the prefect left Lin'an, the people came to see him one after another, and the old man reluctantly took the prefect's hand and told the prefect that the Taoist priest had been beaten away by the people with rocks.

The prefect nodded and said, "I already know about this, but it's a pity that I can't bring down Chen Minxian. What's more, it's a pity that the money that the people were harmed can't be recovered."

The old man said, "As the saying goes, it's not that you don't report it, the time has not come. Good people will be rewarded, and adults must not blame themselves."

As the old man said, the prefect was reappointed a year later, which won trust of the emperor. On the other hand, Chen Minxian was snubbed by the emperor after the Lin'an strange illness case, and finally died in depression. As for the Taoist priest, he was actually killed by the thief.