Liu Mao turned to Zhang Kang and said, "Have you given all the instructions? Is there anything wrong?"

"Don't worry, sir. I've already given instructions." Zhang Kang said quickly, "This is a matter that concerns everyone's lives. No one dares to neglect it."

"Have the disaster victims been settled?" Liu Mao looked at Zhang Kang and asked with a sullen face, "I'm not worried about anything else, but I'm only worried about those refugees. If His Majesty sees this, we'll all be in big trouble."

After hearing this, Zhang Kang said helplessly: "Don't worry, everything has been arranged."

"But this isn't our fault. We don't have the relief money and grain from the imperial court, so what do these refugees have to do with us? Your Excellency has organized donations from the wealthy families in the city, and we've provided a lot of relief these days. It's just that there are too many victims, and our Dezhou Prefecture is so small. The imperial court hasn't allocated any money or grain, so we can't do much about it."

"That's easy to say." Liu Mao said unhappily, "Who are you going to tell this to?"

"We haven't been affected by the disaster, but since the victims have come here, we have to take care of them. If His Majesty saw this, do you think he would listen to your explanation? Besides, why did the victims flee? Isn't it because it's detrimental to the economy?"

"The court allocated a lot of grain and money for disaster relief, but where did it go? Don't you know? Why are you saying such things?"

"If they start to expose us, how can we survive in the Shandong officialdom? Will the governor's office let us off?"

"It's our greatest luck to send His Majesty off safely and without incident. As for other matters, it's none of our business."

"People say being an official in the capital is hard, but being an official in Shandong is easy."

Listening to the complaints of his family members, Liu Maoyou sighed helplessly.

People say that being an official in Beijing is not easy, and being an official in the local government is a lucrative job. However, in Shandong, it is not these people who are in charge.

Who owns the fields in Shandong? Who owns the land in Shandong? Who controls Shandong's grain? Shandong officials know all of this.

But what if you understand? What do you dare to say? What do you dare to do? You don't even dare to ask.

Some people are hoarding goods, some are selling inferior goods as good ones, and some are driving up food prices. What do you dare to do? You don't even dare to ask.

"Sir, don't worry, it's okay, it has been arranged long ago." This was the only way Zhang Kang could comfort his lord.

Zhu Youxiao and his group were strolling in the city, buying things from time to time, and everyone was accompanying Zhu Youxiao.

They had plenty of opportunities to go out on weekdays, so naturally they had no interest in these things. Furthermore, accompanying the emperor shopping made them feel nervous and anxious, and they had no mood to enjoy themselves.

However, Zhu Youxiao didn't care about it.

But as they walked, everyone discovered that something seemed wrong, because a person came out from nowhere and merged into the team.

Xu Guangqi looked at Qi Jin and asked, "No one should be able to approach this team. After all, Qi Jin had already arranged for guards. If anyone could walk here, then what were these guards protecting?"

Qi Jin glanced at the person who came and said hesitantly to Xu Guangqi, "Lord Xu, that's someone from the Imperial Household Department."

After hearing this, Xu Guangqi frowned and sighed helplessly in his heart.

As expected, Your Majesty did not get off the ship for no reason, nor did he really want to visit Texas, but he had something to do.

However, Xu Guangqi also understood that there was no way around this. He couldn't really ask His Majesty to ignore everything and not pay attention to anything.

After all, the purpose of His Majesty's trip this time was not simple, but Xu Guangqi did not expect His Majesty to meet with people from the inner court.

Zhu Youxiao glanced at the visitor and asked, "Are you the person in charge of Shandong in the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"

"Your Majesty, I am Wu Jiye, the Secretary of the Shandong Administrative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and I am here to see Your Majesty." Wu Jiye said hurriedly.

Zhu Youxiao fought with Wu Jiye from top to bottom.

This is a middle-aged man in his forties, with a thin build and a mustache. It can be seen that he is a very shrewd person.

"What's the situation in Texas?" Zhu Youxiao looked at him and asked.

"Your Majesty, the situation in Dezhou is still acceptable," Wu Jiye said quickly. "Although there are some disaster victims in Dezhou, their number is not large."

"Dezhou Governor Liu Mao also arranged for town relief, organizing the city's wealthy households to donate money and grain, setting up porridge stalls, and arranging for doctors to treat the victims. Although a few people died, they didn't die of starvation. Most of them had contracted serious illnesses from the journey and couldn't be saved after arriving here."

Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "So, he did quite well. But after I entered the city, I didn't see a single disaster victim. Could it be that no disaster victims came into the city to beg?"

"Disaster victims are not allowed to enter the city." Wu Jiye thought for a moment and then said, "Once the disaster victims arrive here, they will be arranged outside the city and will not be allowed to enter the city to disturb the people inside."

"When they learned that Your Majesty was coming, the Dezhou prefectural government had already driven all the disaster victims north. Prefect Liu Mao was a relatively down-to-earth man. He didn't directly drive the victims away. Instead, he moved all the porridge stalls to the north of the city and sent the victims there."

After hearing this, Zhu Youxiao nodded.

If we follow Wu Jiye's statement, then Liu Mao, the governor of Dezhou, is still a qualified official. As for driving away the people, there must be some hidden reasons.

With a soft sigh, Zhu Youxiao said, "You still don't want me to know."

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!