fifth form

Chapter 1836 Inspection
Zhang's house was busy for almost half the night.

Cooking two pigs is not an easy task, and it takes a lot of time even with Rong Li as the chef.

"Cooking meat!"

“That’s a lot of meat!”

The new parents brought their crying child into Zhang's house. Wei Qing, who was driving the carriage, did not dare to get off, while Li Guang stayed with the new emperor.

The two of them sniffed the strong smell of pork and felt that Zhang Xuezhou and others were not ambiguous about the food when they returned to Chang'an City.

“It smells pretty good!”

The new emperor smacked his lips, and Li Guang pointed at Zhang's house.

"Do you want me to go to Dongfang Shuo and get some meat?" Li Guang asked.

"A gentleman does not take other people's food... All right, go buy some from him!"

The new emperor felt his waist pocket and then took out a piece of silver.

After being busy for a long time, he felt a little hungry and thought that the fragrant food would taste good and would be a good midnight snack.

"Yes!"

Li Guang originally wanted to eat for free, but since the new emperor was willing to give him money, he used the money to buy it.

He took the silver and then jumped off the carriage.

Before he could knock on the door to enter, Li Guang saw the door open and Wei Shaoer and Chen Zhang walked out happily.

"What? Can this cure the disease easily?" Li Guang asked in surprise.

"Dongfang Shuo is truly a miracle doctor," Chen Zhang said happily.

"He took off the thick cloth that wrapped us and let Qubing crawl on the ground. Everything was fine." Wei Shaoer said happily: "Qubing can crawl now. After a while, he should be able to walk and talk!"

"Leaving pretty early!"

Li Guang responded.

His words were neither positive nor negative, and were obviously quite unpleasant.

However, Wei Shaoer and the others did not make a fuss about it and happily carried the child back to the carriage.

"Hey, Dongfang Shuo, are you home?"

"plum……"

"I am Mao Yikuai, a guard at the Marquis of Pingyang's mansion. I would like to ask if you would like to sell the meat you cook at home. I will pay for it!"

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou sticking his head out from a distance, Li Guang interrupted the other party before he could recognize the name he was about to say, quickly raised the silver change in his hand, and said what he wanted.

"We don't have any official documents, so we can't sell meat at market price, but since you want to eat meat, I'll give you a piece," Zhang Xuezhou replied.

"Then I'll give you a piece of silver." Li Guang nodded and said, "This is a private gift, not a market transaction!"

There are many disadvantages in dealing with people in the court.

If the new emperor was not behind Li Guang, Zhang Xuezhou might really have thought of it as a sting operation.

Zhang Xuezhou glanced at the kitchen.

After taking the change that Li Guang threw over, he didn't say anything polite and went straight to the kitchen to get two pieces of bone-in meat weighing one pound.

These bone-in meats are part of the pig-killing dish prepared by Rong Li. She added some spices brought from Chengdu and salt to the dishes, stewing them until they were very tender. If some sauerkraut could be added, the taste would be even better.

"You don't even bring a bowl!"

"Take the bone stick and chew it. I just returned to Chang'an City and there is nothing at home. I have to buy a bowl when the sun rises!"

Li Guang complained, and then had to take it with both hands.

Zhang Xuezhou had no choice but to reply.

The bowls used by the people of Zhangjiazhuang outside Chang'an City did not come from thin air, but were taken from Zhang's house. After Zhang Xuezhou counted them, he found that his family was also a poor family, lacking even bowls and trays for food.

"Has your house been robbed?" Li Guang asked curiously.

"It's just that I was out for too long and no one was taking care of me!"

"Are you hanging so much meat in your house to prepare for a banquet?"

"On my way back to Chang'an City, I saw a group of displaced poor people. They were eating grass every day to survive. I was going to send them some food when the sun rose!"

Li Guang asked two questions casually, and Zhang Xuezhou replied with two questions casually as well.

This left Li Guang speechless.

Their eyes were focused on the imperial palace, and there was a natural gap between them and ordinary people. How could Li Guang know which household outside the city of Chang'an was not getting enough food?

It is no problem to let Li Guang fight in wars, but it is difficult to let him help the poor.

After asking for the meat, Li Guang nodded, holding the bone stick, and then strode out of the house.

"The meat is warm. It looks like the fire has never been turned off!"

"There are some sparks in the stove, so the meat is kept warm!"

Li Guang got on the carriage and handed out the meat.

The new emperor didn't mind and took the meat.

He looked at Li Guang, then at Wei Qing, then at himself, and then at the two pieces of meat weighing two pounds in his hands.

If Zhang Xuezhou had not come out to take a look, the new emperor would have really suspected that Zhang Xuezhou was doing some trick of "killing three warriors with two peaches".

This kind of meat was difficult for the new emperor to distribute, so he had to eat it himself.

“It tastes pretty good!”

The pork tasted unexpectedly good, without any fishy smell, and the meat was soft and not greasy. The new emperor felt that he could easily eat these two kilograms of bone meat.

"The meat is very fragrant, so he must have cooked a lot of it." The new emperor said, "It's still hot right now, isn't he afraid that so much meat will go bad?"

"Dongfang Shuo said that when he was returning to Chang'an City, he saw a group of displaced poor people who were eating grass to survive. He planned to send them some food at dawn," Li Guang replied almost verbatim.

"Displaced? There are still poor people who need to eat grass to survive?" The new emperor said in disbelief, "I inspected the area outside the city at the end of the year and saw new graves. Except for those who died of illness, no one outside the city died of starvation. Winter is over. There is plenty of food in spring, summer and autumn. How can there still be such poor people? Even Dongfang Shuo can see them on the roadside!"

"I don't understand either!"

Li Guang shook his head repeatedly, indicating that he did not understand the lives of people outside the city.

The new emperor was gnawing on the pork bones and meat, only to find that the delicious pork had become a little tasteless.

He still had to have some dignity. It was difficult for the new emperor to see how the people of the Han Dynasty in the distance survived, but Chang'an City was at the feet of the emperor, and he could see it with a quick inspection.

If there are piles of starving people outside the city, it means that he is unqualified to be an emperor.

Measures including allowing residents outside the city to freely enter the city to sell the things they carry on their shoulders, allowing people outside the city to cultivate fields, and cracking down on vagrants and land bullies are all preferential policies. Under the care of these preferential policies, as long as people outside the city are diligent and hardworking and do not encounter natural disasters, they can not only have enough food and clothing, but also bring the grain they grow into the city to sell.

Outside the city of Chang'an are the Jing River and the Wei River, which provide convenient irrigation and make the land relatively fertile.

If such policies had not been formulated, these easy-to-reclaim fields would not have belonged to the poor.

The new emperor thought for a long time but could not figure out who had ended up in such a miserable state.

"Xiaoyang has been riding with Dongfang Shuo all the way, how could Xiaoyang not notice such things... Yes, his mind is full of business, and he wants to squeeze a half tael out of other people. I'm afraid it's difficult for him to see the hardship!"

The new emperor pondered for a moment.

"Wait till daybreak and go take a look!"

Inspecting outside the city was not what the new emperor planned to do on this trip, but he made some temporary changes to his plan.

He also wanted to see why such destitute disaster victims still appeared despite Chang'an City's preferential policies.