362, the arrival of winter
362, the arrival of winter
After October, the snow in the north became heavier and the snowing lasted longer.
However, this year in Li County, unlike in the past, everyone did not hide at home to hibernate as soon as winter came.
That year, a free private school was opened in their county town, with a teacher giving classes every day. Anyone who wanted to go, whether adults or children, could go and listen to the teacher's lectures.
The brick kilns outside the city were still firing, and there was work for everyone who went there. The workshops in the city only hired female workers, and as long as their hands and feet could work, they would accept anyone who came.
If it was sunny, the government would organize people to repair the city wall. However, if it snowed continuously, the work would be suspended.
What Lu Mingfei didn't expect was that, probably because they heard that Li County was recruiting workers, people from other places also came here to look for work.
After hearing Fu Zheng's report, he thought for a moment and said, "Since they have come so far to find us, we can assign them to where we need help."
"But sir, we have hired so many people, and the daily wages alone cost a lot of money." Fu Zheng is now the manager who helps their master manage people. He knows exactly how many people have been hired and how much the daily expenses are.
Lu Mingfei knew all this, but when he thought about the people outside the city who braved the wind and snow and walked such a long way to find them, just to find a job to support their families.
Many people's families may be so poor that they can't even afford to eat. If they can't find work here, they are afraid that they will starve to death on the way back and will not be able to return home.
These men have hungry children and wives waiting for them to come home with money. If they can't return home, or can't earn enough money to buy food to take home, their entire family will starve to death at home.
When he thought of all the possibilities, he felt a little bit sorry.
"Recruit them first. I'll find a way to get the money." At worst, he could borrow some money from Zhao Lang, and then return the money to Zhao Lang after the spring of next year when the income from various accounts increased.
After chatting with Fu Zheng for a few more sentences, he asked Fu Zheng to do it according to his wishes.
"Yes, sir." Fu Zheng also knew that their sirs were soft-hearted.
Since their boss said he would find a way to solve the money problem, he had nothing more to say and turned around to go out to do his work.
After Fu Zheng left, Lu Mingfei spent the whole morning handling official business at the yamen.
Around noon, he packed up his things and left the house.
"Sir, where are you going?" the guard outside the door asked when he saw their lord coming out.
"Let's go, let's go for a walk outside." Lu Mingfei pulled his clothes. It was really too cold outside!
"Do you want to arrange a carriage?" Guard Ma asked, looking at the sky that was still snowing.
"No need." Lu Mingfei waved his hand and walked out.
Seeing this, Guard Ma couldn't stop the adults from going out, so he just picked up an umbrella and followed them.
When their master stepped out of the yamen gate, he opened the umbrella and blocked it over their master's head.
Walking out of the yamen, you will see the largest street in the county.
It is snowing outside today, but the snow is not heavy. There are still vendors setting up stalls on the street to do business, and there are cars and people walking on the road.
The entire county town did not seem to become depressed and deserted because of the arrival of winter.
"Brother Ma, where are you from?" Lu Mingfei asked suddenly.
"Your Excellency, I am an orphan. Like the other brothers, we were adopted by the palace since childhood." Guard Ma said.
"Oh." Lu Mingfei nodded. It was no wonder that the guards around Zhao Lang were so devoted to him.
Even when these people came to him, they were very respectful to him and never looked down on him just because he was a man.
He knew that this was due to both Zhao Lang and himself. If he were a helpless dodder who still relied on Zhao Lang to suck his blood, the guards who followed him wouldn't respect him as much as they do now.
However, these are not important things.
Lu Mingfei looked at the guard who was older than him and Zhao Lang and asked, "Do you want to get married?"
"Sir, why do you suddenly ask me this?" Guard Ma felt a little embarrassed.
Looking at the girls walking down the street, Lu Mingfei smiled and said, "If you want to get married, there should be quite a few unmarried girls in this city. I'll ask a matchmaker to help you arrange for them to come out so you can all meet."
"If you both like each other, we can start a family here while we're here this winter."
These guards had followed Zhao Lang to Kyoto for so many years, and had never betrayed him just because he was a hostage in the capital and might even lose his position as Crown Prince. For this reason alone, he would never treat these brothers unfairly.
Moreover, he knew in his heart that only by allowing these guards to get married and have wives and children would they have bonds and desire a better future.
Hearing this, Guard Ma was stunned for a moment, but he did not refuse their master's kindness and won for the other brothers. "Then I, on behalf of the other brothers, thank you, Master."
"Haha, why are you being polite? How could I let you suffer any loss?" Lu Mingfei gave a look to the guard following behind him.
Guard Ma also started laughing.
Lu Mingfei has been fond of eating noodles recently, so he took his guards to a noodle shop that has been open for many years and ordered two large bowls of mutton noodles, one for each person.
When they were about to go out after eating, they saw an old man begging outside the door.
Pausing for a moment, Lu Mingfei said to the boss who had escorted them out, "Boss, give the old man a bowl of noodles."
"Yes, sir." The boss responded quickly.
"Thank you, Master." The old man knelt down and kowtowed to the master who gave him the meal.
Before he could kowtow for the second time, he was helped up by a hand.
"Old man, please get up." After helping the old man up, Lu Mingfei thought for a moment and said, "After you have eaten your fill, come to the government office to find me."
"If there are other companions who can't find work, call them over and I'll find a way to find you some work."
"Yes, yes, thank you, sir. You are really a living Bodhisattva..." If his hands had not been supported by their adults, the old beggar would have kowtowed a few more times to their adults who were like living Bodhisattvas.
"You're welcome. I'm just an ordinary person with flesh and blood, just like you." After leaving these words, Lu Mingfei withdrew his hand and walked away.
The guard Ma took out a purse from his pocket and gave the boss a few copper coins.
"No, no, this is a small bowl of noodles, please." The boss didn't dare to take the money.
"Take it." Guard Ma stuffed the copper coin into the boss's hand, and quickly caught up with their master and asked his master.
"Sir, that beggar...old man looks quite old. What kind of work can we assign to them?"
"Let me think about it." Lu Mingfei had originally planned to go to the private school, but after meeting the old man, he gave up the idea of wandering around outside and returned to the yamen.
The yamen provides lunch at noon, so all the officials in the yamen will return to the yamen to eat at this time.
Lu Mingfei found Fu Zheng eating in the cafeteria, and talked to this old senior about how to accommodate the elderly in the city.
"..." Fu Zheng hadn't even taken a bite of the bun when he stuffed half of it into his mouth. He looked at their... such a kind adult with a look of confusion on his face.
They had spent over half an hour this morning discussing money and expenses. Now their master came to him again, saying he wanted to arrange work for the elderly people in the city?
What's the difference between this and the government directly supporting those elderly people? There are so many elderly people. Do their masters know what they are talking about? There is no money in their government accounts. Now the government's expenses are all provided by their masters.
It was the first time he had seen someone become an official, and hold such a high position as the head of their family.
However, Fu Zheng then felt that their masters could see the plight of those elderly people and raised this issue, which seemed... not a bad thing. If it weren't for their masters, none of them would be alive and sitting here to eat today.
They can't just get the rice and then not allow others to eat, right?
"Sir, please wait until I finish eating this bun, and then we can find a place to discuss this matter properly." There were other people around, and Fu Zheng knew that this was not a place to have a conversation, so he said to them.
"Okay, take your time eating, and come find me when you're done." Lu Mingfei also realized this and stopped talking. Seeing that there were still several buns on the plate in front of Fu Zheng, he gestured to Fu Zheng and the other seniors to eat slowly and come find him when they were full.
After signaling to others to eat and not to worry about him, he stood up and left.
Fu Zheng, Wang Wang and a few others quickly ate their fill and then came over to their master.
Lu Mingfei had a pot of tea brewed and poured a cup for each of the elders before he said, "I also know that the government's account is short of money and we can't afford to provide extra money to accommodate the elderly in the city."
"But if we don't take care of them, I'm afraid they won't survive this winter and will no longer be in this world."
"Then, sir, do you have any ideas?" Fu Zheng was naturally aware of this.
The others present also knew that many people would die every winter, and most of these dead were elderly people and young children who had no one to support them.
But when they were in Kyoto Prefecture, they were used to living a life of superiority and never looked down at the common people below, let alone caring about these issues.
But now that they have come to Li County, many things that they could not see before are now before them.
Especially their adult, who would occasionally talk to them about the people's affairs, and made them start to pay attention to these very realistic issues.
After learning about their adults' intentions, no one here objected. Everyone actively participated in discussing with their adults how to place these elderly people.
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