The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 264 Lin Daiyu on an errand with a group of beauties
Seeing that they had made their decisions, Tu Chengyu stopped trying to stop them.

He ordered his men to open the area where they were being held, and after the guards went in to inspect it first, Tu Chengyu calmly led Lin Daiyu and the others inside.
To be honest, although Tu Chengyu knew about this camp specifically for accommodating women and children, he had never been inside to take a look.

The reasons are well-known: firstly, Tu Chengyu has been quite busy lately and hasn't had time to come here; secondly, there are many women resettled here, so it wouldn't be appropriate for him to come specifically for them.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu was quite curious after he came in with Lin Daiyu and the others.

He looked around and compared it with other camps that housed disaster victims, and then he noticed the differences.

Firstly, because there are many women in this camp, it is kept relatively clean and does not have the unpleasant smell found in other camps.

Secondly, the atmosphere here is somewhat dull compared to other places.

At this resettlement site, both adults and children wore expressions of deep sorrow, as if burdened by endless grief.

Tu Chengyu was able to notice this phenomenon, and naturally, Lin Daiyu and the other girls, who were more perceptive, also noticed it.

So Lin Daiyu quietly asked Tu Chengyu:

“Your Highness, they all seem to be preoccupied, unlike the other disaster victims we just met.”

In fact, Tu Chengyu didn't understand why they were like this at first either.

But upon closer reflection, he understood.

Because the people here are all women and children who have lost their families; in short, they have lost the pillars of support who could back them up.

In ancient times, without the men in the family, these women and children lost all hope for the future. How could they not worry?

This explains it clearly: as fellow disaster victims, those outside become energetic and full of hope for life once they have a full meal.

Tu Chengyu told Lin Daiyu what he was thinking, and after she listened, she understood what was going on.

At the same time, this also made several girls worry about the people here.

"Your Highness, what should we do about them in the future?"

Tu Chengyu didn't know what to do either. This was something he hadn't anticipated, and he hadn't come up with a good solution yet.

It wasn't that Tu Chengyu couldn't think of a solution, but there were too many people here, and it would be difficult to settle them using ordinary methods.

Moreover, with the arrival of more disaster victims, the number of women and children to be resettled here will only increase, making resettlement even more difficult.

Therefore, when faced with Lin Daiyu's question, Tu Chengyu could only say:
"The best way right now is to try to find relatives or fellow villagers among the disaster victims so that they can go back with us next year."

Lin Daiyu was clearly somewhat worried about this method, and she said:
"Your Highness, I've heard that in the countryside, many people enjoy bullying women who have lost their support. Even if they go back with relatives or fellow villagers, they're still bound to be harmed. Does Your Highness have any other solutions?"

Lin Daiyu's concerns were not without merit, but given the circumstances, Tu Chengyu was powerless to resolve them.

He could only suggest another solution: "If this doesn't work, then we can only help them find husbands among the disaster victims. If they find husbands, they will have hope for the future."

This method is good, but it won't be able to take care of some older women and children.

Tu Chengyu had also thought of this, but there was no way to solve it.

Lin Daiyu felt a pang of pity looking at these people who appeared numb and sorrowful.

She said to Tu Chengyu, "Your Highness, can't you keep them here as servants in the palace?"

After listening, Tu Chengyu said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry:
"This matter is not that simple. Not to mention that the servants of the Prince's Mansion are carefully selected and have clean backgrounds, disaster victims are basically not selected."

Besides, how could I, a prince, dare to openly support them? Look around, most of the people here are women.
If I were to express my intention to take them in today, I would be impeached tomorrow, accused of being a licentious and immoral Prince Su, who is seizing the wives and daughters of disaster victims.

This won't help them; it will only make them more upset.

Hearing this, Lin Daiyu finally understood Tu Chengyu's predicament.

She said worriedly, "What will they do in the future?"

Not only Lin Daiyu was worried, but the other girls also looked worried.

Seeing this, Tu Chengyu was powerless and could only try to comfort her.

"Don't worry, there's still plenty of time. Maybe we'll figure out a way to settle them in a few days."

Lin Daiyu said, "But Your Highness, their current appearance is worrying."

These people looked so lifeless; their condition was indeed a bit worrying.

If their condition continues like this, coupled with the physical depletion from their escape, and if this drags on for too long, it won't even take until later. Most of them will likely collapse before they can return home.

The best solution now is to find them some work to do, so that they can forget their worries while they are working.

However, there were too many women here, and Tu Chengyu's men were all young and vigorous soldiers.

Therefore, it's difficult to arrange things for Tu Chengyu.

Thinking of this, Tu Chengyu saw Lin Daiyu and the others, and a great idea suddenly popped into his head.

So he said to Lin Daiyu and the others:

"If we want them to stop going on like this, there might be a way that works."

"What method?" Lin Daiyu asked hurriedly, and the other girls also looked over.

Tu Chengyu said directly, "The solution is to find them some work that they can do. This way, they can not only get out of their grief, but also earn some wages and have something to look forward to in the future."

That was indeed a good idea, so Lin Daiyu quickly asked:

"Since there's a way, why doesn't Your Highness assign them tasks?"

Tu Chengyu said, "I would like to, but I have a bunch of men under me, and I don't have a suitable person to lead them."

After hearing Tu Chengyu's words, they all fell silent. After a while, they looked at each other, and then Lin Daiyu spoke up:
"Your Highness, what do you think of us?"

Tu Chengyu had been waiting for this very sentence. From the very beginning, Tu Chengyu's solution was to guide Lin Daiyu to take over this task.

It wasn't that Tu Chengyu was deliberately trying to make things difficult for Lin Daiyu, but rather that Tu Chengyu felt that the Lin Daiyu standing in front of him now was completely different from the Lin Daiyu in the book.

Therefore, she should live a different life than the one described in the book.

In addition, Tu Chengyu's thinking is somewhat different from that of people in this world. He doesn't care if his future woman shows her face in public, but he cares more about whether they will have common topics.

Therefore, he felt that Lin Daiyu no longer needed to learn from those well-bred young ladies, staying at home all day without ever leaving the house.

It would be better if she could do something meaningful like me. And now, there is a great opportunity for Lin Daiyu to embark on a completely different path in life.

On the other hand, having Lin Daiyu and others help manage these women and children would be much more convenient and would free up more manpower for Tu Chengyu.

Therefore, upon hearing Lin Daiyu's words, Tu Chengyu immediately said:
"You want to help them?"

Lin Daiyu and the others nodded in unison, clearly indicating their agreement.

"Yes, Your Highness, we want to help them."

Hearing this, Tu Chengyu suppressed the urge to smile and pretended to disagree, saying:

“But helping them will be very hard work, how can you do such a thing?”

Lin Daiyu said firmly, "Your Highness, rest assured, we are not afraid of hard work. Besides, we are just looking after things, we don't actually have to do any work."

Seeing that they were all like this, Tu Chengyu stopped trying to stop them and said:

"It's great that you want to work here, and I agree to it. However, you'd better tell your families about it and wait for their approval."

Upon hearing this, Xue Baochai, who had remained silent until now, spoke up:

“Your Highness, providing relief to disaster victims is a good deed, and our families do it every year, so my family won’t stop us.”

Upon hearing Xue Baochai's words, Tu Chengyu would have almost believed her if he didn't know how wealthy people in this era did good deeds.

The gentry of this world do indeed enjoy providing relief to disaster victims or doing other good deeds.

But their way of doing good deeds is at most to donate some money or set up a few soup kitchens.

How could anyone be like this, personally bending down and running among the disaster victims, leading them to do things together?

However, since Tu Chengyu wanted them to do things for him, he naturally wouldn't expose Xue Baochai's words.

He continued, "Since you want to help these women and children, then I will hand over this disaster relief settlement to you for management."

However, you must agree to one condition; otherwise, you cannot do it.

"What are the conditions?" Lin Daiyu asked on behalf of everyone.

"The conditions are very simple: you can't stay here at night, you can only manage this place during the day."

Tu Chengyu made this condition mainly for the sake of their reputation.

Although most of them are still young, they are still girls, and it's hard to say whether they will stay out all night.

Lin Daiyu and the others naturally understood that Tu Chengyu was doing this for their benefit.

So none of them objected and readily agreed.

When the matter was settled and Tu Chengyu asked them to prepare to take over the management of the camp, they were dumbfounded.

The girls in front of me, from the mistress to the maids, were all very young and had never properly managed anything.

So when they were suddenly put in charge of such a large camp, they were at a loss as to what to do.

Lin Daiyu went directly to Tu Chengyu and asked, "Your Highness, what should we do?"

Tu Chengyu found it somewhat amusing, but not wanting to discourage them, he said:

"First, you need to prepare some work that they can do, and then tell them that you will manage them and lead them to work to earn money."

These are mostly women and children, so they're relatively easy to talk to. With the two I just mentioned, that's enough for now.

Now that they had a solution, they were no longer flustered.

Lin Daiyu's quick wit also kicked in, and she said to Tu Chengyu with a smile:
"Your Highness, you just said that they just don't have anyone to teach them how to work, so there should be some suitable jobs for them here?"

Tu Chengyu never expected that Lin Daiyu would focus her attention on him and seize upon his words.

However, Tu Chengyu didn't have any aversion to this. The fact that he thought of asking for my help so quickly shows that he knows how to get things done.

Otherwise, given their lack of understanding of worldly affairs, it would take them forever to find suitable work for the disaster victims here.

Tu Chengyu smiled and replied to Lin Daiyu, "You certainly know how to find loopholes, but I do have some work here that's suitable for them to do."

"What kind of work?" Lin Daiyu asked.

“They are all relatively simple jobs. One is to help the soldiers wash their clothes. As you can see, to manage so many disaster victims, the soldiers are living and eating here, and many people have nowhere to wash their clothes, so I want to give this job to them.”

For women of this era, washing clothes is an essential skill, so this job is just right for them.

Then, Tu Chengyu started talking about the second task.

"There's another job, which is to help make clothes. These are the clothes you're wearing today. If any of them know how to make clothes, they can get fabric from me, make clothes according to the designs, and then I'll pay them per piece."

Tu Chengyu obtained a lot of stockpiled materials from the emperor, but these materials were naturally not of the highest quality for high-ranking officials and nobles.

But for ordinary people and disaster victims, that was the material.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu had planned from the beginning to use the cheap labor among the disaster victims to make clothes from all the stockpiled materials and then sell them at a low price.

In this way, not only could the imperial court's stockpiled wine and cloth be disposed of, but the common people and disaster victims could also buy cheap clothes, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

By entrusting this task to the women here, I can consider it a trial run of my plan.

After discussing the two, Tu Chengyu moved on to the third.

"The third thing is relatively easy, which is to arrange for them to help take care of other disaster victims' children."

In a few days, the imperial court will organize disaster victims to go to work. That will create problems for those families who have no one to care for their children. So I was thinking, if it's convenient here, we can bring these children here to be cared for."

Lin Daiyu and the others thought that Tu Chengyu wouldn't have that many tasks assigned to him.

However, what they didn't expect was that Tu Chengyu not only assigned a lot of tasks, but each one was easier than the last, and all of them were very suitable for women and children to do.

So, after Tu Chengyu finished speaking, Lin Daiyu happily said:

"Since Your Highness has arranged such a good job, we will definitely take good care of this place and not let Your Highness worry."

(End of this chapter)