Zhu Kongshan still had many plans to implement. She did not use the banknotes sent by the account office, but asked the account office to keep them first and withdraw them when she needed them. She sold all the jewelry given by Xuan Tianmo, and the money she earned was enough to open a porridge stall in the north of the city in time for winter. She gave out porridge three times a day, all in the name of Prince Sheng's Mansion.
In addition, she even brought her maids to the market to buy vegetables with baskets, and stored a lot of cabbage and potatoes in the Sheng Palace. These vegetables that the Sheng Palace usually didn't eat were now treasured by her. From time to time, she would go to the market to buy some big bones, and then take the cabbage to the north of the city to cook a big pot of stew and give it to those poor people.
Big bones were very cheap in those days, and there was not much meat, but after they were chopped, there was bone marrow oil inside, and the soup was very fragrant. Cabbage was an ordinary vegetable, with no taste, but it was different when stewed in bone soup. The people in the north of the city were all poor, and even if big bones were cheap, they couldn't afford them, and it took a lot of firewood to make soup, so they couldn't bear it. What's more, most of the people here were beggars, so how could they afford to stew their own food?
Zhu Kongshan had been busy in the north of the city for more than half a month, and she had no intention of stopping. She even rented a small courtyard here. Although it was shabby, it could be used for temporary rest after cleaning and repairing. After renting the courtyard, she spread the word that she would insist on providing porridge and cooking for the poor in the north of the city this winter, not for anything else, but just hoping that they could survive this winter smoothly and not freeze to death or starve to death.
For a while, the news that a female Bodhisattva had appeared in the Sheng Palace spread to every corner of the capital, and with Xuan Tianmo's deliberate propaganda in the dark, the news spread even more. Xuan Tianmo was really impressed by this cousin now, not only because she could put down her status and go to the north of the city to do those things, and not only because she actually turned the tables for the Sheng Palace in a short period of time, but most importantly, it was Zhu Kongshan's attitude that made him look at her differently. She did not use the money in the palace, but sold the jewelry he gave her, and then used the money from the sale of the jewelry to do things for the Sheng Palace. She did not care about gains and losses, and did not care about money. Such a woman suddenly gave him an illusion that "Zhu Kongshan was another Feng Yuheng". This illusion made Xuan Tianmo very happy. If Zhu Kongshan could really support him like Feng Yuheng helped Xuan Tianming, then it would not be impossible to promise her a position as queen after he succeeded in the future. So what if she was a concubine? Turning a sixth-rank official's concubine's son into a legitimate one is just a matter of a flip of the hand.
He thought about this in his mind and continued to observe Zhu Kongshan's movements. At the same time, the person who sent things to Pengzhou also came back and told Zhu Kongshan the news of Pengzhou, and said that the things were sent to Zhu Mansion, and also emphasized that they were sent by the Eighth Prince and Yuan Guiren. The Zhu family valued her mother Liu very much.
When Zhu Kongshan got the news from home, she was naturally grateful to the Eighth Prince. In addition to her gratitude, she also took some new actions.
Distributing porridge and stews, she can't do it by herself. Even if the Sheng Palace has mountains of gold and silver, it can't withstand such a disaster. So, Zhu Kongshan contacted the ladies of the Eighth Prince's party and invited them to join. As for the benefits, to put it bluntly, there are no practical benefits, but it can win a good reputation for their own master. How important is reputation now! The reputation of the Eighth Prince's party is not good to begin with, and they are worried that there is no way to make it back! Zhu Kongshan's proposal was immediately agreed by the court officials, who urged their wives and daughters to join in and let them listen to Zhu Kongshan in everything.
With all the commotion outside, the concubines in the palace could no longer sit still. The concubines without children basically leaned towards the Eighth Prince's faction. When they heard that their families had taken action, they thought about it and decided to contribute their own strength. The concubines didn't have much money, but they had a lot of jewelry, and they were all made in the palace, which could be exchanged for a lot of money. They sent the jewelry to their respective families, which was considered to be a little bit of a brick and a tile, and their families were naturally happy to receive it.
As a result, the team distributing porridge in the north of the city became even larger, to the point that some families simply did not provide porridge, but directly gave dry rice, plus a spoonful of vegetables. Feng Yuheng secretly took a look at the scene, and it felt like a government cafeteria in the future.
So many people joined in, and the beneficiaries were the poor people. However, under the intentional guidance of public opinion from the Sheng Palace, they did not thank the ministers who participated in the charity too much, but attributed it all to the cousin of the Sheng Palace. They believed that these people came for the cousin's face, and the cousin had the greatest credit.
This was of course the effect Zhu Kongshan wanted. In addition, she had recently been collecting information about the people who were harmed by the fake Baicaotang opened by the Eighth Prince. All of these were included in her compensation plan. Of course, things had to be done step by step. She didn't want to empty her bottom all at once, otherwise her value in the Sheng Palace would be reduced.
In the Prince Yu's Mansion, Huang Quan stood beside Feng Yuheng, listening to Ban Zou's report on the events in the north of the city, and asked Feng Yuheng anxiously, "Miss, are you really not anxious? If he continues to do this, the people of the capital will be won over!"
Ban Zou also meant the same thing, but he was not as straightforward as Huang Quan. He just nodded at Feng Yuheng, meaning that he had the same idea as Huang Quan.
But Feng Yuheng was still not in a hurry. She just said, "The hearts of the people are not ours, so we can't treat them as our private property and not allow others to get involved. What's more, I spent more than three years to regain the hearts of the people in the capital. Do you think Zhu Kongshan can win them over in just one winter? You think too highly of her."
"But the Eighth Prince is also trying hard!" Huang Quan stamped his feet and couldn't help but complain to Xuan Tianming: "Our Highness is really patient and didn't even bother to help the young lady."
"How can she help?" Feng Yuheng laughed. "Men are responsible for the affairs of the previous dynasty. Are you going to let her hang around the backyard all day? To compete with Zhu Kongshan? That would be really unworthy of her status. Don't worry! Your young lady is not a pushover. Didn't I say that we can let that cousin show off a little bit, and we can make a move later, so that the poor people in the north of the city can get more benefits." She thought for a while, and then said, "By the way, the warm tea in Baicaotang has to be distributed as usual. Well, you can also spread the word that the refugees in the north of the city have more food to eat. , and they have to pay attention to their physical condition. They live in an unsanitary environment all year round and are very likely to get sick. Especially in terms of the stomach, they used to eat the food they ordered, but now they have freshly cooked white rice porridge and big bone soup, and they even say that they just stewed the rice? Eating like this will make their stomachs upset, right? Try to get this message to Zhu Kongshan, and at the same time, we should prepare more medicinal herbs in Baicaotang and wait for her to buy them. It is a waste not to make money from the Eighth Prince and his party."
Huang Quan became excited when she heard Feng Yuheng say this, and she happily went to take care of things. However, after Huang Quan left, Ban Zou said to Feng Yuheng, "You shouldn't have taken Wang Chuan to Pengzhou. The political situation in the capital is unstable, and you can't be without a calm person around you. Huang Quan is impatient, and she didn't think things through."
"Don't we still have you?" Feng Yuheng laughed, "Wang Chuan is gone, and there are some things that she should have done, so you have to do it now."
The arrogant secret guard rolled his eyes, leaving an obvious expression of "I really can't stand you", and then disappeared without saying anything else.
Feng Yuheng shrugged. Her secret guards were becoming less and less cute! Well, Ban Zou had never been cute, but he was very considerate. She knew that they all really cared about her. She sent Wang Chuan to Pengzhou because the things in Pengzhou were also very important, and she was worried about leaving them to others.
Zhu Kongshan, this cousin who appeared out of nowhere, might not be as easy to deal with as she said, and it might take more trouble.
Now, the Eighth Prince's party has successfully reversed the bad impression of the Eighth Prince in the hearts of the people in Beijing because Zhu Kongshan has united the ladies of various families to do charity for the poor in Beijing. The people's attitude has reversed, but it is limited to no longer being as disgusted with the Eighth Prince as before, and it has not risen to the level that can affect Feng Yuheng's achievements. Just like Feng Yuheng said, she spent three years to win the hearts of the people, how could she be seduced by a little girl in just one winter.
Zhu Kongshan also understood this principle. She was not in a hurry to squeeze Feng Yuheng. She just did what she wanted to do. She was doing good things anyway, and no one could find fault with her. She did it silently. After hearing about the medicine for the poor, she also went to find out and found that many people were indeed sick. So she didn't care too much and asked the servants to take the silver notes and go to Baicaotang to buy medicine.
But unexpectedly, after the poor people took the medicine from Baicaotang, they did not feel grateful to the people who paid for the medicine. Instead, they gathered together and said, "The medicine from Baicaotang is still the best. Princess Yu is our Medicine King Bodhisattva." Zhu Kongshan was not angry when he heard this, and even said a few good words for Feng Yuheng. In people's eyes, this Miss Zhu was generous, kind, and a female Bodhisattva!
This winter began in a peaceful atmosphere in the capital. Until the first heavy snow fell, no one was heard of freezing to death or starving to death due to the cold weather. Emperor Tianwu specially rewarded the Eighth Prince for this, and also gave a lot of things to Zhu Kongshan and the ladies who participated in the charity. Those things were naturally used by Zhu Kongshan to do charity. The emperor sighed again and again, saying that if all the women of the Dashun noble family could be like this, his world would be truly prosperous.
The Eighth Prince was rewarded, and his momentum set off a new round of waves in the court, with a posture that he was superior to other princes. Of course, no matter how popular the Eighth Prince was, no one dared to ignore the pressure from the Ninth Prince. Some people even said behind his back that whenever they saw the purple lotus between the Ninth Prince's eyebrows, they would feel a little scared for no reason, as if the purple lotus would eat people, so they dared not look at it a second time, and even dared not say a word about it in their hearts.
At the same time, the noble lady Yuan in the harem could no longer sit still. Zhu Kongshan once said to her, "A son also needs the help of his mother to live a better life." This sentence has been lingering in her mind. Yes! She has been a noble lady for too long, and it is time to return to the position of concubine.
So on this day, stepping on the snow that had not been cleared in the palace, Yuan Guiren and her maid Yuexiu walked step by step towards the Queen's Jingci Palace...
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