A dozen or so skinny children squatted not far from the kitchen, drooling and staring longingly at the steam inside, wishing they could dive in and eat their fill.
Men and women with limps or blindness groped their way out of the dilapidated houses with great difficulty.
Even more disturbingly, an elderly man, disheveled and filthy, hid in the bushes, afraid to show himself, yet yearning for a hot meal…
Li Lao Er and everyone who delivered the supplies felt a lump in their throats, as if something was stuck there.
The next day, after the grand court assembly, Li Lao Er went to the imperial study.
The Emperor thought he had come to present flowers, since the name of the Hundred Flowers Garden was known to everyone in the new capital these days.
The Emperor chuckled and teased, "Lord Zhongshan, what beautiful flowers did you bring this time? I heard you sold a golden lotus for a sky-high price and hid two peonies, making all the flower lovers in Xindu so excited they can't sleep or eat."
Li Lao Er replied, "Your Majesty, I am not here to present you with flowers today. In fact, I will never present you with flowers again, not even a single one."
"How dare you!" The chief eunuch, who was pouring tea for the emperor, immediately rebuked him, looking at Li Lao Er as if he were a fool.
What's wrong with the Li family? Do they want to die?
How dare they be so disrespectful to the emperor?!
The Emperor was also surprised, but seeing that Li Lao Er was calm, and recalling the Li family's past loyalty, he waved for the chief eunuch to leave, and then asked, "Why does the Earl of Zhongshan say such a thing?"
Li Lao Er lifted his robe, knelt down, kowtowed respectfully, and said, "Your Majesty, I do not intend to present you with these beautiful flowers for your enjoyment. I intend to keep them to sell, and the money, grain, and medicine I obtain will be sent to the Relief Bureau!"
"Your Majesty may have heard that I exchanged a Golden Lotus for a considerable amount of grain and medicine, which I delivered to the Relief Office yesterday. But Your Majesty does not know that the Relief Office is nothing short of a living hell. The buildings are dilapidated, the elderly and children are destitute and emaciated, and people die from illness and hunger every day."
"My family fled from the north during the famine, and we know all too well the suffering of those who have nothing to eat or wear. I couldn't bear to see this, so I've already helped the Relief Agency repair its buildings and am planning to continue selling my flowers to buy supplies to continue contributing to the Relief Agency!"
"Therefore, I said that I would not present flowers to Your Majesty in the future. It is not that I am stingy, but I believe that Your Majesty would rather see the people free from suffering and live in peace and prosperity than simply admiring flowers!"
The room remained silent for a while before the Emperor suddenly laughed, personally getting up to help Li Lao Er to his feet, nodding repeatedly in praise: "What a peaceful and prosperous life! Marquis of Zhongshan, please sit down and let's talk."
Li Lao Er breathed a long sigh of relief, then carefully sat down on the drum stool brought by the eunuch, his expression showing a hint of fear, and said in a low voice, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for not blaming this subject for his nonsense."
"No, this is not nonsense..." The Emperor waved his hand, "If what you say is nonsense, then I hope that all the civil and military officials in the court will talk nonsense!"
The emperor sighed and continued, "Actually, I feel irritated every day listening to their praises and watching them present all sorts of treasures."
"Instead of spending their time searching for treasures and their leisure time writing reports late into the night, they should think about how to deal with the problem!"
"When Tianwu moved the capital here, everything was in ruins and needed to be rebuilt, but the powerful families continued to live extravagantly, and the civil and military officials continued to drift through life."
"If everyone were like your family, willing to do their best even for the smallest things, then countless small things added together would have brought Tianwu back to stability and vitality long ago. It's a pity..."
Li Lao Er has come today to show his loyalty, but he doesn't want to climb to the top by stepping on all the powerful families and officials!
If the Emperor's words were to get out, the Li family would become the public enemy of all the powerful and influential families in the martial arts world, as well as all the civil and military officials!
Therefore, Li Lao Er quickly stood up, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, I also have my own selfish motives. My family's abilities are meager, and we do whatever we can to help, hoping that Tianwu will be stable so that we will no longer have to flee famine. In fact, I have come today to ask Your Majesty for an official position!"
"Your Majesty, the Relief Bureau is currently managed by only a minor official of the seventh rank, named Cheng Ming. He is very conscientious, but his abilities are limited. In addition, the funds and provisions allocated to the Relief Bureau are not much, so the Relief Bureau has been getting worse and worse in the past two years..."
"Your Majesty, I request that you issue an imperial decree allowing me to take charge of the Relief Bureau in the future, so that I can help the people under its care to gradually survive and find a way to support themselves. I hope that the Relief Bureau will no longer be a burden on Tianwu, but rather contribute to Tianwu."
"Of course, this process will take at least two or three years. I cannot accomplish it on my own. I implore Your Majesty to allocate more funds and provisions to the Relief Bureau. With the supplies I raised by selling flowers, we can guarantee the basic needs of the hundreds of people in the Relief Bureau."
The Emperor listened to the whole thing, and he had to admit that he was increasingly moved by Li Lao Er's thoughtfulness.
But as an emperor, he would not make any decisions lightly.
So he nodded and said, "I am very pleased that the Earl of Zhongshan is willing to share my burdens. You should go back first today, and I will consider it."
Li Lao Er knelt down and kowtowed again, then respectfully withdrew.
The chief eunuch was so shrewd; without waiting for the emperor's orders, he immediately sent a junior eunuch to investigate.
Within two hours, when the emperor woke up from his nap, the truth had already been sent back.
While helping the Emperor change his clothes, the chief eunuch whispered, "Your Majesty, this old servant sent someone out of the palace to check on the relief office. Lord Li was right; the houses are indeed dilapidated, and the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled are living in great misery."
"Yesterday, Lord Li delivered a lot of grain and medicine, and even brought a doctor, but the relief office doesn't even have a single house that doesn't leak, so they had to find someone to repair it immediately. Today, the courtyard is filled with the smell of medicine; I heard that a doctor is brewing medicine for the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled!"
"Fortunately, the courtyard was large enough, and the previous official was conscientious. Whenever there was a dead body, it was sent out in time. Otherwise, it could have easily caused an epidemic this summer."
The Emperor nodded, his expression unchanged, and then asked, "How is the Ministry of Revenue calculating the funds and grain allocated to the Relief Bureau?"
"Your Majesty, well, the Ministry of Revenue allocates three dan of grain and two taels of silver to the Relief Bureau every month..." The chief eunuch reported the facts without embellishment, but the emperor was no fool and understood almost immediately.
For a family of several people, three dan of grain and two liang of silver per month would be more than enough.
But for a few hundred people, this is simply a drop in the ocean...
The emperor sighed deeply. He did not consider himself a foolish emperor, but before he ascended the throne, Tianwu was already riddled with problems.
Even though he has been doing his best to "treat" the disease for the past few years, it is always one problem after another, leaving him helpless and frustrated.
Take the Relief Agency for example. Its original purpose was to provide relief to refugees who fled from the north.
Of course, there are families like the Li family, where villagers come in droves, find a place to settle down, and struggle to survive.
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