Chapter 667 Frozen Bodies on the Road
Gu Shuyan shook her head. "If I fall asleep at His Majesty's banquet, wouldn't that just give others an opportunity?"
Yun Yichen also knew how many people were waiting to find fault with Gu Shuyan, so how could he turn a blind eye to her forcing herself like this?
Just as I was about to advise Gu Shuyan to take a nap, the Empress spoke up.
"I saw Lady Yun and Lord Yun whispering to each other. I wonder if you two have something interesting to discuss?"
As soon as the Empress spoke, those who had been whispering with their heads down immediately sat up straight, afraid of being discovered being called out in public like this.
Gu Shuyan's name was called, so naturally she couldn't stay seated any longer.
"Your Majesty, I have indeed recently told a rather amusing, colloquial joke."
When most people are called out by name, they feel so ashamed that they stutter.
But Gu Shuyan is quite something. Even when caught whispering, she can still so confidently go along with what the other person is saying. Most importantly, this person is the Empress.
The Empress did not expect Gu Shuyan to act so unconventionally. According to her plan, she would find a reason to make things difficult for Gu Shuyan, and then Consort Sun would step in to help resolve the situation.
In this way, no matter how much unpleasantness Gu Shuyan and Lu Yuanbin had in the past, they would feel more grateful to Consort Sun.
They can then proceed gradually, and they won't have to worry about Gu Shuyan not becoming familiar with Consort Sun.
Gu Shuyan is the apple of everyone's eye in the Gu family. With her around, how could the Gu family possibly side with Lu Changqing and that second prince they've never even met?
But now that Gu Shuyan wasn't following their plan, the Empress had no choice but to go along with Gu Shuyan's words.
"Since Madam Yun says it's fun, why don't you tell everyone about it?"
"Yes!" Gu Shuyan did not hesitate for a moment, immediately bowed to the Empress, and turned to look at everyone, saying, "Before we begin, may I ask you gentlemen and ladies a question: have you been eating meat in your households lately?"
Gu Shuyan's question was inexplicable, and apart from a few who shook their heads, the others nodded almost without thinking.
After all, they were all officials of the third rank. Unless they themselves didn't want to eat meat, who, apart from the emperor, could stop them from eating meat?
"May I ask you all again, is all the meat in your household completely consumed at every meal?"
Apart from the previous few, everyone else shook their heads.
One adult couldn't help but say, "Madam Yun, just get to the point. Why bring up the issue of eating meat?"
Gu Shuyan didn't care about what the adult said. She just smiled and said to the emperor and empress, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the funny thing I was talking about is related to this meat."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
The emperor knew that Gu Shuyan was the younger sister of Gu Renjie's family. Although he didn't have a deep impression of the girl before, he had heard some rumors about her.
Upon hearing her say this, the emperor couldn't help but become somewhat interested.
Once the emperor has spoken, the ministers naturally dare not say anything more.
Gu Shuyan slowly said, "This is what happened. A few days ago, some refugees appeared in the city. When they passed by a restaurant in the city, there were several swill buckets at the back door of the restaurant. They saw that there were leftover chicken and duck meat in the buckets, so they took them out and squatted by the door to eat."
"The refugees thought that since no one was eating those things, it wouldn't matter if they ate some themselves. Little did they expect that the restaurant staff would come out and have several refugees beaten up, saying that they had eaten meat meant for the owner's dogs."
"When the refugees heard that they were feeding dogs, they immediately sat down outside the gate and began to weep bitterly. An old man passing by saw how pitiful they were and asked where they came from. Only then did they learn that they had come from Jingzhou. Because of the earthquake, their houses collapsed, and they had nowhere to go, so they came to the capital."
"The next day, the most seriously injured of the refugees died in front of the restaurant because he had no money for medical treatment. A scholar who was passing by heard about this and couldn't help but sigh in front of everyone: 'Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste, while on the road, frozen corpses lie.' Unexpectedly, this scholar was arrested and imprisoned that very day on trumped-up charges."
At this point, the smile on Gu Shuyan's face disappeared, replaced by a deep chill.
"Previously, my husband and I were far away in Suzhou. In order to have enough to eat, I organized young women to go up the mountain to dig for wild vegetables and find medicinal herbs. Now I hear that the owner of a restaurant in the capital feeds meat to dogs, and the treatment of refugees is even worse than that of dogs. Isn't that ridiculous?"
After Gu Shuyan finished speaking, everyone present fell silent.
Many of them had heard about this before, but in their view, the lives of refugees were so cheap that they were not worth speaking up for them.
Is what Madam Yun said true?
The emperor's previously happy face couldn't help but show anger. This kind of thing might not be a big deal under normal circumstances, but as Gu Shuyan said, Yun Yichen had just returned from Suzhou. What if the people found out and lost faith in him, the emperor?
Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it. Although the emperor also felt that the lives of ordinary people were not as good as his own, he knew very well that if the people were dissatisfied with him, it would be very detrimental to his governance of the country.
"Your Majesty, I request that the restaurant owner be thoroughly investigated, and that such an incident be prevented from happening again."
This time, it wasn't Yun Yichen who spoke first, but Gu Renjie, who was standing next to Gu Jin.
Although he held the rank of fifth grade official, he was Gu Jin's son, so there was no problem with him attending the banquet.
The emperor's tightly furrowed brows relaxed considerably when he saw Gu Renjie.
"Okay, I'll leave this matter to you."
The emperor was very satisfied with Gu Renjie's reaction. Regardless of whether he was acting out of the same considerations as the emperor, at least he was thinking about the people, which was much better than his other two sons.
It seems that Gu Jin has taught him very well.
"Your Majesty, I have another matter to discuss."
Gu Renjie ignored the emperor's changing expression and continued to bow respectfully to him.
The emperor had hosted such a banquet for so many ministers today specifically for Gu Renjie's sake, and now that he heard Gu Renjie had more to say, he raised his hand to signal him to continue.
"Now that Lord Yun of Suzhou has personally stepped forward to solve the fundamental problem, this is not enough to completely resettle the people in various places. Therefore, I would like to ask Your Majesty for a favor on behalf of the disaster victims in various places, so that the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War can jointly set up disaster relief points in each prefecture, and then the government can coordinate to help these disaster victims make a living."
Gu Renjie's words were forceful and clear. As the emperor looked over, even Lu Changqing and Lu Yuanbin couldn't help but look over as well.
Gu Renjie's words clearly implied that local officials were deceiving their superiors and subordinates, and were unreliable in their work.
Most importantly, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War were asked to jointly set up resettlement points. This not only offended local officials, but also added a lot of trouble for the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War.
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