Chapter 59 Chapter 59 Snow Disaster
The further Wu Tianyue walked out of the city, the more refugees he saw crowded together. However, the total number was not large, so they could not cause any trouble.
He rode to Fengyu Manor and just as he reached the gate, he saw Liu Xianglian and his men returning from patrol. Wu Tianyue asked, "Why are you here? Where's Wu Yi?"
"Brother Wu is leading people to drive away the refugees."
"Drive away the refugees?" Wu Tianyue was even more puzzled. "Didn't the imperial court set up disaster relief tents outside the city?"
"Those sheds are small and shabby, and there aren't many of them. They can't accommodate so many people. Some refugees have nowhere to go, so they just look for houses to hide in," Liu Xianglian said. "Although they don't dare enter Fengyu Village, they will go to the homes of the surrounding villagers at night to steal things."
After hearing this, Wu Tianyue turned to Fei Yan and asked, "Didn't they say that there weren't many refugees coming to the capital?"
"Not many indeed." Fei Yan replied, "Just the Second Prince..."
This man has only grown old but not wise, Wu Tianyue thought, and ordered Wu Bu, who had rushed over, "Isn't there a house on the mountain behind where the fruit farmers usually live? Clean it up and put any elderly, weak, women, and children there first."
"Yes." There weren't too many refugees here at the moment, let alone the elderly and the weak. They could all be accommodated if they squeezed together, so Wu Bu quickly agreed.
Wu Tianyue continued, "Send someone to buy some food, cloth, medicine, coal, and other supplies."
After saying this, he turned and instructed Chang Jian, "You've gotten to know the people in the village well lately. Pick some people and work with Wu Bu to set up a porridge shed to provide relief to the refugees. Distribute food to the elderly, the weak, women, and children separately. Also, call back those who are studying medicine. Have those you select learn some simple remedies for colds. Don't let these refugees infect the people in the village."
After Chang Jian received the order, Wu Tianyue said to Fei Yan, Liu Xianglian, and Wu Yi, "If there are any young and strong refugees here, round them up and have them help with clearing snow, chopping wood, cleaning, and moving supplies. If they seem to have good character, make them farm guards and join the patrols."
The three of them quickly agreed. Wu Tianyue thought about it and felt that resettling the refugees was a huge matter, and the Second Prince was in charge now. He still had to communicate with the Crown Prince, so he did not enter the manor and returned to the capital.
As the end of the year approached, the Crown Prince was extremely busy, but upon hearing that Wu Tianyue had arrived, he hurriedly asked for him to be brought in: "What's the matter?"
"Your Highness, do you know about the snowstorm in the north?"
The prince nodded and continued, "The court has already sent people to provide disaster relief. I've noticed that there are fewer refugees in the city these days, so there's no need to worry."
"But it's not the coldest yet. In another month, the temperature may be several times higher." Wu Tianyue said, "We still need to take precautions early."
The Crown Prince pondered for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Father has already handed this matter over to Wu Yu. It's not for me to interfere."
"I went to Fengyuzhuang today and found that there are very few shelters outside the city to accommodate the refugees, and the porridge stalls are only open every few days. In the past, this would have been fine, but now that the New Year is approaching, if refugees suddenly arrive, it might cause trouble and damage the reputation of the royal family." Wu Tianyue advised, "We won't interfere. We will just unite with the nobles in the capital to set up warming tents outside the city and raise flags outside. This will not only deter the refugees, but also let people know that everyone is involved, so as to avoid others from accusing you of 'monopolizing the people'. Later, you can report to the emperor and show that it is your Majesty's good governance that so many people have been moved by your majesty and voluntarily accommodated the refugees."
A few days ago, Wu Tianyue led his men to drive out the ruffians outside the city, which earned the prince a lot of good reputation. The prince had tasted the sweetness, and Wu Tianyue's words just hit his soft spot. It would both win him popularity and avoid being accused of vying for power, so he readily agreed: "In that case, you can do it."
Wu Tianyue didn't want to be the prince's advisor, and naturally didn't want to compete with the prince's subordinates for such a job of winning people's hearts and minds, so he quickly shook his head: "If it's about arranging troops, I'll go, but I can't handle these trivial matters of disaster relief."
At this point, he smiled and said, "But I do have a choice."
"who?"
"Ke Wen," Wu Tianyue said, "We need manpower to resettle the disaster victims. If we send people directly from the Prince's Mansion, we might be criticized. It would be better to hire the people in the manor directly and give them some income. Ke Wen has been to the manor frequently in the past few months. He knows everything about the people and things around Fengyu Manor. He's the best person to make all the arrangements."
After hearing this, the prince nodded and said, "Then let him go." Then he ordered someone to call Ke Wen.
After saying that, he saw Wu Tianyue come up to him with a smile and serve him tea, and asked with a smile: "What are you going to do now?"
"I have two small requests for your Highness," Wu Tianyue said with a smile. "The first is that my friend Chang Jian is also working at the farm. He's young, and I'd like him to learn some skills from your Highness's Junior Secretary."
This was indeed a trivial matter, and the prince agreed immediately: "Just let him follow. What else?"
"In winter, there are many refugees and beggars. If there's no one to maintain order during the porridge distribution, there's a good chance of a stampede. However, many of the nobles in the capital are just trying to save their reputations. It's not difficult to get them to pay for the porridge stalls; it only costs a small amount. But if we want to maintain order, I'm afraid those pampered servants won't be able to control so many refugees."
After hearing what he said, the prince said with a half-smile, "If they can't do it, you can?"
Wu Tianyue was unconvinced: "A few days ago, I destroyed a stronghold without a single soldier."
"It's just a small village, and you're injured. Is this something worth showing off?"
"That was an accident. Who knew that man even had hidden arrows?" Wu Tianyue continued to flatter him. "But I still want to thank you, Your Highness, for exiling the Chang'an prefect and helping me vent my anger."
"Don't flatter yourself. I just found out he was taking bribes and exploiting the people." The prince laughed and retorted, but still agreed. "You can come on this, but don't be as arrogant as last time and get hurt."
Wu Tianyue smiled and said, "As you wish."
Just as he finished speaking, a servant came in and said, "Master Ke is here."
Wu Tianyue heard this and smiled, "It's getting late. I'll go back first. Your Highness, please talk to him slowly."
The prince was just about to say, "You found me something to do," and then run away, when he saw Wu Tianyue quickly walk out the door and laughed, "You little brat."
Wu Tianyue left the Prince's Mansion and saw that it was getting dark. He no longer wanted to leave the city and turned back to Yihongyuan.
When Daiyu learned that Mrs. Xing, the second wife of Jia Zheng, the head of the Jia family, had her brother and sister-in-law with their daughter, Fengjie's brother Wang Ren, Li Wan's widowed aunt and her two daughters, and Xue Pan's cousins had come to the Jia family for refuge, she went to the front to eat and ate by herself.
After dinner, I waited for another half day, but the crowd still hadn't dispersed, so I went to sleep.
The next day, he ordered Lan Ye to deliver a gift before heading out of the city.
Ke Wen was indeed a reliable person. He sent people to tidy up the porridge stall in Fengyu Village early on, and he himself went to various places to lobby the nobles.
Wu Tianyue took a casual look and led Fei Yan, Liu Xianglian and others to patrol the surroundings again. However, in the past few months, he led people to catch ruffians every day. When there were no refugees, the villages around Fengyu Village were almost to the point where no one would pick up anything on the road. So he quickly brought people back, trained with everyone, and then returned to the city.
After Wu Tianyue accompanied Princess Zhongshun in distributing porridge several times, he saw more and more refugees coming from the north, and snowstorms began to occur around the capital.
There will naturally be friction when there are too many people. Wu Tianyue was naturally very busy. He took people outside the city to appease the refugees all day long. He even only stayed for a short while on the birthday of Wang Ziteng, a close minister of the emperor.
It was not until the weather gradually warmed up that the victims had passed the most difficult period and found work on their own, finally having a moment of free time.
Wu Tianyue took a rest and saw that the prince had not reported it to his superiors. The people began to spread the rumor that the disaster relief was the prince's credit. He had a feeling that something was wrong, so he ordered people to sing praises for the emperor in the crowd while he went to find the prince.
When the prince learned the purpose of his visit, he was very conflicted. The Crown Princess had advised him a few days ago, but because he had a good reputation among the people and officials for these things, he delayed for a few days. Only recently did he want to report to his father, but he heard people say that he did this to steal the credit from the second prince. Every word he said nailed him to the pillar of shame for stealing the credit from his brother, so he could not make up his mind to meet the emperor.
Wu Tianyue grumbled inwardly, wondering how he could accomplish anything with such an indecisive character. But then he realized the emperor only had two sons, and the crown prince was at least relatively kind. If the second prince took the throne, wouldn't the court be even more chaotic? So he patiently advised him, "Don't mention the second prince's case, or that you were the one who started it. Just say that there have been so many refugees lately, and you wanted to do your part, so you set up a porridge stall outside. Unexpectedly, you noticed that not only the nobles, but also the wealthy people in the city were helping the victims. You were moved, so you came to report this."
The prince still couldn't make up his mind: "But everyone in the government and the country is saying that I want to take credit for Yu's achievements."
"Don't mention yourself. Focus on the fact that His Majesty governs the country well. The people in the city are grateful for His Majesty's grace and have spontaneously provided relief. His Majesty will investigate the rest," Wu Tianyue said. "Also, those rumors are meant to confuse you, so you won't dare to speak to His Majesty. If he finds out later, he'll claim you were secretly recruiting people."
The situation was so serious that the prince was frightened and quickly changed his clothes and went into the palace to report.
After hearing what the prince said, the emperor was naturally very pleased. He rewarded the family who set up the porridge stall generously and appointed Ke Wen, the Junior Secretary of the Prince's Mansion, as the Grand Marshal to assist in military affairs and government affairs.
This was the first time in all the years of fighting between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince that the Crown Prince had reaped such a huge reward. At the same time, the Emperor also promoted Wang Ziteng to the position of Inspector General of Nine Provinces. These two things combined showed that the Emperor had almost gained control of the government and was no longer constrained by the Emperor.
Therefore, everyone in the Prince's Mansion was in a joyous mood, except Wu Tianyue who had some doubts. Although the Emperor supported the Prince, he himself was the most suspicious. The Prince reported so late that the rumors could not be suppressed at all. How could the Emperor not know about it, but why didn't he show any reaction?
Before Wu Tianyue could figure it out, the end of the year was approaching, officials from all over the country came to the palace to pay tribute, and small countries also came to pay tribute. He had already started to get involved in court affairs. Every day he had to meet with officials with the prince. He was very busy and had no time to think about these things. Seeing that there was nothing to do, he just put it aside.
But he actually guessed correctly. He was talented and had learned the information from the system since he was a child. He trained the farmhands and the servants and guards around him better than the regular soldiers of the court. Wang Ziteng noticed him after returning to Beijing, and then he found out what he and the prince had done and hurriedly reported it to the emperor.
Although the emperor did not like him giving up literature to take up military affairs, he did not say it out loud. He just waited for him and the prince to speak up. However, as he waited for a long time and nothing happened, he gradually became dissatisfied. After listening to the prince's report, he did not show any anger on the surface, but secretly ordered someone to reveal the matter between the two to Wu Wuyu.
Wu Wuyu and Wu Tianyue had been at odds since childhood. When he learned that it was Wu Tianyue who proposed this, he became even more furious and ordered people to pull out Wu Tianyue's pigtails.
With the secret help of the emperor's people, he quickly investigated everyone around Wu Tianyue. However, the court was busy with affairs and there were foreign guests, so it would be easy to ignore such a small matter if he reported it, so he kept it secret.
However, Wu Tianyue didn't know that after dealing with the envoys from a small country today, he went to pay his respects to Princess Zhongshun as usual. Unexpectedly, as soon as he sat down, Princess Zhongshun asked him a question that caught him off guard.
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