Lu Zifeng glanced at Prince Qing lying on the ground and ignored him. Instead, he went straight to the next room and called Lu Qiu.
"I've captured Prince Qing. The capital isn't allowing him to be killed for now, so I'll keep him for now. I have a task for you."
Lu Qiu immediately bent down and said.
"Please try it, Master."
Lu Zifeng whispered a few words into Lu Qiu's ear and let Lu Qiu go out.
All that was left was to wait. Lu Zifeng looked at Prince Qing with boredom.
On the other side, Lu Qiu left Lianzhou City and came all the way to the military camp outside the city.
It is already winter, and there is only more than a month left until the Chinese New Year. It has been snowing in the capital since yesterday. At first, it was just some snow grains, but who knew that it turned into heavy snow in less than half an hour. It snowed from yesterday afternoon until this morning.
A night of heavy snow brought disaster to the people in the capital. The heavy snow collapsed many houses. Many people's homes became ruins overnight, and some people even had their legs broken by the collapsed beams.
In the palace, Emperor Situ Yong looked at the Minister of Revenue below.
"Lord Lin, have you fully investigated the situation of the people affected by the disaster in the capital?"
Lin Zhaoran hurried out and said.
"Your Majesty, the prefect of the capital has just reported that there are approximately 300 households and 2,100 people affected by the disaster. Aside from the dozen or so people who died, most of them were injured. Prefect Liang has already led people to rescue the victims. In accordance with the emperor's order, porridge stalls have been set up at the four city gates. In addition, the homes of the nobles and officials in the capital have also set up porridge stalls to provide food and drink for the affected people."
In the mansion of Marquis Cheng'en, father and son Lu Mingyuan and Lu Lancheng were also discussing setting up porridge stalls outside the city. Since many families in the city had already set up porridge stalls, Lu Mingyuan asked the emperor to go outside the city to check early in the morning. Just now, news came that many disaster victims near the capital had come to the capital. Most of them gathered under the city wall outside the city, waiting for the emperor in the capital to give them food.
"Father, let's arrange this. Let the third son follow me. If he enters the officialdom in the future, he will need to deal with these things. It will also be beneficial to him. Even if the second son secretly ran away to Lianzhou Prefecture, I still have a helper here."
Lu Lancheng smiled when he heard that.
"Xiao Er, don't worry about him. His elder brother is watching over him in Lianzhou Prefecture, so we don't need to worry about him. I thought about it and decided to go to the Duke's Mansion to discuss it with your elder brother or your mother. They are much better than us in this regard."
Lu Lancheng had no other choice. Although his second son was very smart in school, that little bit of intelligence was indeed lacking in the capital. He himself was also from a peasant family. Although he could read, his knowledge was limited. He should let him go to his eldest brother to ask! At the very least, there was still his sister-in-law who could always show Mingyuan a way.
Lu Mingyuan took a carriage to the Duke Dingguo's Mansion and first met his mother.
When Kang saw her second son coming, she was very happy and hurriedly arranged for Nanny Cheng to come.
"Madam Cheng, go and bring Mingyuan his favorite snacks so he can try them."
Lu Mingyuan smiled and bowed to Kang, then told her the purpose of his visit.
"Mother, you know that the nobles and officials in the capital are all distributing porridge. I can't just sit there and do nothing! So I came to ask you, what can I do?"
Kang didn't expect that her second son would have the idea of giving out porridge, but she still felt sorry for her second son and said with some concern.
"Yuan, do you have enough money in your house? If not, I can get some for you."
Lu Mingyuan knew that his mother had misunderstood, so he quickly refused with a smile.
"Mother, don't worry. Although I don't have much money, you should know that Lu's Trading Company now belongs to our brother Feng. We are not short of money, and we have prepared a lot of food. So mother, don't worry about this. I am just a little worried that I won't do well. If I cause any trouble, it will be bad."
"Mother, you should have heard that I too have experienced famine before. There are many bad people among the victims. If anything goes wrong, it would be a shame to the Emperor and the Empress."
Kang finally understood what Lu Mingyuan meant and thought about it.
"How about this, we still have some guards in the Duke's Mansion. I'll ask your sister-in-law to assign you fifty people to help you open the porridge stall and let them watch over the disaster victims for you."
After saying this, she told the maid to go and invite Cui over.
In fact, Cui was also busy. All the noble families in the capital had opened porridge stalls, and she naturally had to go to the Duke Dingguo's Mansion. After all, the Lu family was the Queen's family, and she couldn't bring shame to the Queen.
When Cui heard the old lady asking her to come over and the second master had also arrived, she thought that it was probably about opening a porridge stall.
When Lu Mingyuan returned to the Marquis of Cheng'en's Mansion, the family had already prepared everything needed to set up a porridge stall. Tan Yunniang had planned to go with him, but was stopped by Lu Mingyuan.
"What are you going to do? It's too chaotic there. The third brother and I will go there. Besides, I borrowed fifty guards from my eldest sister-in-law, so you don't have to worry about safety."
After saying that, he took his son Lu Zimo and dozens of guards and walked towards the city gate, carrying food, big pots and other things.
After leaving the city, Lu Mingyuan took a breath when he saw the crowd gathered outside the city gate. He didn't expect that so many people would be affected by the heavy snow in the capital.
With the help of the guards and city defense soldiers, Lu Mingyuan finally managed to clear out an open space with his men, set up a big pot, and started to cook porridge.
The situation in Lianzhou Prefecture was also tense. The disappearance of His Royal Highness Prince Qing and the death of General Shen Laiqing immediately made the army in Lianzhou Prefecture lose their composure. Several generals under Shen Laiqing had realized that Prince Qing might have been captured, and they were discussing what to do next.
"Everyone, Prince Qing has disappeared. I think he's been captured. Do we still need to work for him?"
One of the big men with a full beard stood up and said.
Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. Yes, when Prince Qing was around, everything was easy to deal with. If they followed him, they might even be considered to be following the emperor. But now Prince Qing is gone, and there's a high possibility that he's been captured. So do they still need to continue resisting?
Seeing that no one else spoke, the bearded man said.
"I've thought about it, why don't we just surrender? I don't think those people will kill us. After all, we're turning from darkness to light, right?"
"Besides, when we followed Shen Laiqing into the forest, it was all because of that bastard Shen Laiqing who tricked us. We were already on the pirate ship and didn't know what to do for a while. Now that Prince Qing is missing, it's only right for us to abandon the dark and join the light!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com