Everyone had already reached a plan regarding the mulberry bark paper, and Gu Yuzhi then glanced at Chief Secretary Xie, and then at Chief Secretary Xie again.
He looked like he had something to say, but didn't know how to start.
Chief Secretary Xie found it somewhat amusing: "Your Highness, please speak frankly if you have something to say."
Gu Yuzhi's eyes lit up: "Then I'll really tell you."
Seeing Xie Changshi and the others laughing heartily, Gu Yuzhi pouted, unable to understand what was so funny.
He snorted and said again, "I really did say it!"
Gu Yuzhi chuckled to himself. You're all laughing so happily now, but you won't be laughing anymore once I tell you what's going to happen!
Seeing his reaction, Chief Secretary Xie clenched his fist and coughed lightly, saying, "Your Highness, please speak."
Gu Yuzhi cleared his throat, mimicking Xie Changshi's manner: "What I'm about to say might surprise you, but let me make this clear first: I've already made up my mind about this."
His chubby little face was full of seriousness, as if to say, "What I'm saying today is to inform you, not to discuss with you."
Gu Yuzhi had never shown such a strong side before.
Therefore, the smiles in Xie Changshi's eyes disappeared at this moment, and their expressions became serious.
Chief Secretary Xie said again, "Your Highness, please speak."
Gu Yuzhi then said, "The year we first came to the northern desert, there was a snow disaster there."
When he talked about this, Judge Qin felt it the most. During that time, he was out doing disaster relief, and it was precisely because of this that the conflict between Li Ji Trading Company and them suddenly intensified.
The group looked at each other, feeling as if a lifetime had passed even though only a little over a year had gone by.
Gu Yuzhi continued, "I heard from the prefects of other prefectures that whenever there is a severe snow disaster, many people choose to sell their children in exchange for food, and most of these children are girls."
Gu Yuzhi had thought of this matter when they were discussing how to bring up the girls' school.
It wasn't just the snow disaster in northern China, but also the floods in southern China last year.
According to Chen Dianyi's statistics on the refugees who came from Jiangnan, there were basically no girls among them.
He hadn't thought about it carefully before, but these past two days, with the topic of the girls' school being discussed, he seemed to understand. When disaster struck, those girls were either sold or abandoned; they weren't brought to the northern desert at all...
Gu Yuzhi thought about those unfavored girls and couldn't help but think of the days when he was unfavored in the palace.
But no matter what, he had his mother protecting him, while those young girls had been abandoned by their parents.
The thought of all this made him feel very sad.
Gu Yuzhi pursed his lips, blinked his big eyes, and looked around at Xie Changshi and the others: "I want to establish a charity to not only take in these homeless orphans."
“But this charity is not just a charity. I also want to hire some teachers so that they can learn some skills to make a living.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire council hall fell silent. No one expected Gu Yuzhi to suddenly say such a thing.
Not only Xie Changshi and others, but even Shu Xiaohan was surprised.
They clearly said it was a girls' school before, how did it suddenly become a charity hall as soon as the young prince opened his mouth?
Shu Xiaohan didn't quite understand what the charity hall meant, so she whispered to Wen Xiuzhu before suddenly realizing, "Isn't this just an orphanage?"
However, what the young prince meant was that what should be established was not just a simple orphanage, but one that also included a school!
Shu Xiaohan suddenly looked at Gu Yuzhi, her emotions so turbulent that she couldn't speak for a long time.
Gu Yuzhi scratched his head as he looked at Xie Changshi and the others, who were still in shock and hadn't said a word.
Previously, they had indeed been referring to a girls' school, but after much thought, Gu Yuzhi realized that if they directly mentioned a girls' school, Xie Changshi and the others would definitely object.
But he first talked about the girls who were sold during the snow disaster, saying that with the help of charitable organizations, Chief Secretary Xie and others wouldn't refuse them, and then he brought up the school at the end...
Gu Yuzhi grinned at Manager Wen, his little eyebrows practically flying up.
These were negotiation skills he had just learned from Manager Wen.
Present Xie Changshi and his group with something they can't refuse, and then gradually reveal your true purpose.
Seeing him like this, Manager Wen couldn't help but laugh, and like Shu Xiaohan, he gave him a thumbs up.
Gu Yuzhi became even more smug after receiving a response.
He shook his head, blinked, and looked at Chen Dianyi: "Last year during the Spring Festival, when I came to Xinliang, many children surrounded my carriage asking for candy, but I didn't see many girls."
"Chief Secretary Xie, Attendant Chen, I think if we make arrangements with the prefects of each prefecture to publicize our plan to establish charitable institutions, those people who were originally going to sell their children will be reluctant to do so."
Teacher Shu said that most parents are still reluctant to part with their children, but they have no other choice because they are too poor...
He thought, if these parents who couldn't bear to part with their children knew that there was a charity, they wouldn't just abandon their children, right?
Xie Changshi and Chen Dianyi exchanged a glance: "What Your Highness said is undoubtedly a very good thing."
Upon hearing this, Gu Yuzhi immediately understood that Chief Secretary Xie must have agreed!
He chuckled and said, "Right, right!"
Chen Dianyi nodded repeatedly: "But has Your Highness considered how much funding is needed to open a charity? Xinliang is under construction, which is precisely the time when money is needed."
"And what about the management of the charity hall? Does Your Highness have any regulations? And where do the teachers you mentioned come from?"
There are many charitable organizations in Sangchao, but many of them have been found to be profiting from these children.
Chen Dianyi didn't think that a charity in Xinliang, led by the young prince, would do such things. But people's hearts are unpredictable. Who knows what those people who were sent here were thinking?
They didn't want the young prince's passion to ultimately become a weapon that would harm him.
Therefore, in Chen Dianyi's view, it is better for the charity to remain closed than to open.
The idea of establishing a charity was just a spur-of-the-moment decision; Gu Yuzhi had no idea where the plan came from.
He scratched his head: "Money is not a problem, I have the Wen's Trading Company."
The Wen family business is making money now, enough to support the people of Xinliang, let alone a charitable organization.
Gu Yuzhi chuckled, looking at everyone with exceptional trust in his eyes: "Anyway, I've already thought it through. The charity hall and the school will be built together next year. It will be finished by winter, so we have more than a year to prepare."
With Xie Changshi and his colleagues being so intelligent, it's impossible that they couldn't have come up with something in over a year.
Xie Changshi and the others exchanged glances before nodding and saying, "Your Highness is right. The matter of the charity hall cannot be accomplished overnight. We still have plenty of time. We can take it slowly and eventually come up with a good plan."
Gu Yuzhi spoke, and Xie Changshi nodded in agreement; the rest of the people had no reason to object...
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