After being persuaded by Wei Hongmei and the Cao Gang, the people of Yunan County finally retreated, but they still followed the prison van and watched Wei Hongmei leave with tears in their eyes.
There was even an old man who ignored the soldiers' attempts to stop him and insisted on handing over two black potatoes.
Wei Hongmei took the potatoes, tears in her eyes, and kept wiping her tears with her sleeves. She could only persuade the old man to go back.
She glanced at the Cao Gang members following the prison van, and a tall man among them nodded solemnly. Only then did she feel relieved, looking into the distance with peace of mind, and persuading everyone to go back and rebuild their homes.
Lu Yanzhou hadn't even had much time to rest when he returned to the camp when he heard Lu Zhixing coming back with someone else. He swept everything on the table to the ground and shouted, "You bastard!"
Lu Zhixing just let a few dozen people handle this great humiliation so easily?
Xia Xingde knew what Lu Yanzhou was angry about, but now was not the time to be angry. "Your Highness, disaster relief is the most important thing right now. If you take the heads of the people in Yunan County, your reputation will be in jeopardy!"
It's more than just a loss of reputation.
This is a serious crime. If the Lin family or Prince Yu catches us, we will have evidence against us.
Why did they kidnap you? Why hasn't disaster relief been effective for so long? Disaster relief efforts are supposed to be quick and decisive. They can't be delayed. The longer they delay, the bigger the problems they uncover.
In the end, Lu Yanzhou had no choice but to destroy his tent and move to the next disaster relief site.
Wherever they went, they only built symbolic dams. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that it was just a face-saving project and would not be able to withstand the next flood.
Even the materials distributed are as little as possible, not distributed if possible, and bad materials are passed off as good materials if possible. In short, it is a scam.
This is how Lu Yanzhou and Lu Zhichen did disaster relief in the past. He even pretended to go to the front line in person just to feel the admiration of the victims.
Unfortunately, he miscalculated. This disaster was more serious than ever before, and the people were not easily fooled. An old man even came to the high ground where he was standing and spat a mouthful of thick phlegm.
This made Lu Yanzhou very angry, and he immediately ordered the soldiers to arrest the old man. However, he did not expect that before the soldiers even touched the old man, he lay on the ground and started twitching.
"The soldiers are beating people! The soldiers are beating people to death!"
Seeing this, the people nearby immediately started shouting. Even if Lu Yanzhou, who always presented himself as tolerant and gentle, was angry, he could not whip the old man's corpse at this time. He could only wave his hand and let the soldiers retreat.
Xia Xingde, who knew Lu Yanzhou's character well, whispered a word to a soldier beside him. The soldier nodded, walked down the platform, and secretly followed the people who were carrying the old man.
Seeing that these people had walked to a sparsely populated area, the soldiers drew their swords and were ready to rush towards them who were powerless.
"bass--"
A sword gleaming with cold light was placed on his neck. "If you don't want to die, get out!"
The soldier was frightened and nodded stiffly, then ran away without looking back.
When the old man and the people around him noticed something was wrong and turned around, they found nothing.
In Lu Zhixing's carriage.
Liu Bai was reporting outside the carriage that he had successfully intercepted the people sent by Xia Xinde.
"I have to say, Xia Xingde is really a good dog." Song Yushu carefully peeled a bowl of corn for Lu Zhixing and was about to push it to him, but Lu Zhixing refused and asked her to eat it herself.
"You eat first." Lu Zhixing said as he picked up a corn cob and began to chew it gracefully. "This old man shouldn't embarrass the prince in public. Imperial power is cold."
You straight guy, I can eat it myself! His hands hurt from peeling the corn. Song Yushu glanced at Lu Zhixing and angrily ate the corn he had peeled.
Lu Zhixing keenly sensed Song Yushu's attitude, put down the corn in his hand, and took the small bowl from her. "You peel it better."
Song Yushu; “…”
The two of them followed Lu Yanzhou's disaster relief team at a close distance all the way until Lu Yanzhou returned to the court.
Originally, Lu Yanzhou thought that they would follow him back to Kyoto, but he had not received any news from Lu Zhixing's convoy for several days.
However, Lu Zhixing came with the army of the Ministry of War, so naturally he had to go back with them. It was not surprising.
However, when he returned to Beijing, what awaited him was not the praise of the whole court, but strange expressions and attitudes. Even the emperor's face looked very ugly.
It was not until the emperor left him alone and threw a few memorials at him that he knew why.
"You are a crown prince, but you can't even do such a small thing as disaster relief. It's bad enough that you always let me clean up your mess, but you were robbed? That's bad enough, but you let the robbers make a book for the people? Now the whole capital is in an uproar, and everyone is saying that the prince is not good at disaster relief!" Although the emperor favored this son, he was also very concerned about his reputation.
After so many years in office, this is the first time I have received a letter from all the people. This must be recorded in history books!
"I was originally thinking of executing the robber on the spot. It was Lu Zhixing who insisted..." Lu Yanzhou suddenly felt dissatisfied. If Lu Zhixing hadn't been behind this, how could he be so embarrassed?
Unexpectedly, the emperor suddenly waved his hand and interrupted him, "Alright, alright, a blind man like him can control you. Don't you think about this? He followed the Ministry of War to rebuild the dike and gave away all his wealth to disaster relief. Do you know how much he has won the support of the people?"
Lu Yanzhou really didn't know this. He had been thinking about how to get Song Yushu back all the way.
As soon as the emperor saw his son's expression, he knew that he had never expected Lu Zhixing to take advantage of him. He was so angry that he overturned everything on the table.
"The dam you supervised was washed away by floods within days. It was Prince Jing and the Ministry of War who rushed to the rescue and saved countless lives. The relief supplies you provided weren't enough for one family to eat for a day. It was the supplies Prince Jing sent that kept them alive. You, do you know where you lost?!"
Lu Yanzhou put his hand down dejectedly, and the document in his hand fell to the ground. "No, no, son, I did a great job this time, no different from before!"
"This is all your fault! Is this disaster the same as before? Did you always have a Prince Jing following you?" The emperor was extremely disappointed, but he couldn't do anything to his son. He could only wave his hand and said, "Go back to the palace and reflect on the past! I don't want to see you now!"
"Your Majesty! I just..." Lu Yanzhou wanted to struggle, but was suddenly glared at by the emperor.
"I told you to get out!" The emperor showed no mercy.
After a long time, the emperor sat on the dragon throne, stroking his forehead in pain.
The chief eunuch, Eunuch Li, who was standing beside him, quickly stepped forward to give him a massage. "Your Majesty, this is not the Crown Prince's fault. It's that Prince Jing was too cunning."
"It would be great if Lu Zhixing didn't have Lin's blood." The emperor sighed, a fierce look flashing across his slightly lowered eyes. "He can't stay. Do you understand?"
"I understand."
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