"Your Majesty, whether the food is sufficient or not, I'm afraid we need to conduct a detailed investigation before we can draw a conclusion." Wu Jiye looked at Zhu Youxiao and said cautiously.
Turning his head to look at Wu Jiye, Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, "Okay, go ahead."
After Wu Jiye left, Zhu Youxiao reached out and called Chen Hong over, saying, "Go find Xu Xianchun and have him bring people to investigate. I want to know whether what Wu Jiye said is true or not."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong quickly agreed and ordered someone to find Xu Xianchun.
This time, the Jinyiwei also came along, but they were not following Zhu Youxiao's ship. Zhu Youxiao did not bring them with him when he entered Dezhou City this time.
Originally, Xu Xianchun's official position was enough for him to follow him into the city. However, Zhu Youxiao wanted him to investigate something in secret, so he didn't let him follow him, not wanting him to show too much in front of others. This was also something Zhu Youxiao had thought of long ago.
"Let's go to the north of the city and take a look." Zhu Youxiao said after looking at his ministers.
Since I was here to see the disaster victims, I would be remiss if I didn't go to the north of the city to see them. No matter what their living conditions were like, I had to see them with my own eyes.
After hearing what Zhu Youxiao said, several officials hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, the situation in the north of the city may be worse and more chaotic. Why not call in more people?"
This is what Xu Guangqi said, he did not dare to say anything to stop it. Under the current circumstances, whoever dared to speak out to stop it would be suspected by His Majesty.
However, Xu Guangqi was also genuinely worried. Every time a major disaster occurred, there would usually be chaos. In such a situation, going to a place like the north of the city was obviously irrational.
Even a slight infection of some disease is unacceptable. For the emperor, this is too dangerous, and His Majesty must not let anything happen.
Zhu Youxiao glanced at Xu Guangqi and said, "Don't worry, my dear minister. I'm just going to take a look."
In fact, Zhu Youxiao was telling the truth this time. He really just went to take a look and didn't want to do anything. He also knew that he couldn't do anything. The reason was simple. He could save people here but not everywhere. The number of victims in Dezhou was still small, and it was not the worst hit.
It was unrealistic to force the Dezhou prefect to do anything. After all, the government in Dezhou did not have much money and grain. If they really forced the government to open the granaries and release grain, they would have no explanation afterwards.
But I can also go down and ask them to open the government warehouse, and they won’t be responsible afterwards.
Hearing Zhu Youxiao say this, Xu Guangqi was not relieved, but he also knew the emperor's temper, so he did not continue to persuade him, but just said: "Okay."
The group did not hesitate any longer and headed straight towards the north of the city.
Liu Mao, the governor of Dezhou, who was standing up and watching, felt terrible. Looking at the direction the emperor was going, he knew that the emperor was going to the north of the city, obviously to visit the victims.
Liu Mao felt like he was about to lose his soul.
It's over, it's over!
The emperor grew up in the deep palace and is still young. He certainly doesn't understand much about local affairs, and he doesn't understand the difficulties of being a local official like himself.
If His Majesty saw the plight of the victims, he would definitely think that his own local officials had failed to provide adequate disaster relief, and then he wouldn't even have a chance to explain himself. Thinking of this, Liu Mao was so anxious that he almost jumped up and down.
Zhang Kang, who was standing next to Liu Mao, was also sweating profusely. He looked at Liu Mao helplessly and said anxiously, "Sir, let's hurry up and catch up. If His Majesty gets angry, we can explain it to him."
"How can it be that easy?" Liu Mao said with a sad face: "But you are right, there is still a chance after all."
After saying this, the two men didn't dare to stop and quickly headed north of the city, faster than the emperor. They wanted to rush over first to see if there was anything wrong and deal with it quickly.
There were no major accidents along the way, and Zhu Youxiao brought his men to the north of the city.
The further north you go, the fewer people there are. It is obvious that the people in the city are unwilling to come into contact with the victims. Most people choose to go around them, and the north side of the city becomes deserted.
There are major disasters and epidemics, and no one dares to accept the victims at this time.
When Zhu Youxiao walked out of the north gate of the city, he saw groups of ragged victims.
There were also several servants standing under the city wall, and porridge was being cooked in a large pot with a fire burning.
After taking a look at the time in the sky, Zhu Youxiao shook his head.
Obviously this is another lie. It's not even time to eat yet, but he's already cooking porridge. It's obvious that he's just doing it for himself.
It was a blessing from heaven that these disaster victims could eat two meals of porridge a day. Dezhou Governor Liu Mao had done a good job.
Cooking porridge at this time is like burning newspapers at the grave - to fool the ghosts.
Zhu Youxiao glanced around and ordered, "Go get the Dezhou prefect. He's always causing trouble like this. How can we see this?"
"Yes, Your Majesty." Chen Hong quickly agreed.
Then someone left the team to look for Liu Mao and the others, and soon found Dezhou prefect Liu Mao and Zhang Kang not far away.
Liu Mao and the other man were also trembling with fear when they came in front of Zhu Youxiao.
Glancing at Liu Mao, Zhu Youxiao asked, "Did you order the person cooking the porridge over there?"
"Your Majesty, we've been providing free porridge for over twenty days now. Since the arrival of disaster victims in Dezhou, I've organized the wealthy households in Dezhou to donate food and supplies, and the porridge stall has been running non-stop."
"Your Majesty, look over there! I've organized the disaster victims to build houses. I've also organized the city residents to donate clothes and quilts. There's also a shed over there filled with doctors I've organized in the city. There are always doctors here, treating the disaster victims to prevent the spread of an epidemic. If anyone is sick, they're there to treat them. I dare not slack off even for the slightest bit."
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