The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 278 Going to Great Lengths for the Eldest Brother
Tu Chengyu hadn't expected this situation; to prevent the house from being flooded, he had no choice but to leave so much open space.

But now that things had come to this point, he couldn't give up, so he thought for a moment and asked:

"Grandpa, could you please leave a little less open space?"

The old official shook his head and said, "If we leave too little, we might not be able to prevent a major disaster."

It seemed that this method wouldn't work, so Tu Chengyu had no choice but to ask some other people nearby.

"Do you have any good ideas on how to avoid wasting so much space?"

As soon as Tu Chengyu finished speaking, a senior official from the Ministry of Works said:
"Your Highness, I do have an idea."

Tu Chengyu recognized this person; he was the most skilled in arranging the layout of mountain and water manors within the Ministry of Works. Tu Chengyu had summoned him to advise him on how to arrange the placement of the houses.

This person is truly capable, so as soon as he spoke, Tu Chengyu quickly said:
"Master Wang, please feel free to say whatever you wish to say."

Wang Yunling, who was in charge, said:
"Your Highness, surely the houses you're building here aren't arranged like ordinary houses, right, right?"

In Tu Chengyu's vision, this place will be built in the style of modern villa estates, with each small courtyard house separated from the others.

So he nodded and said, "They won't be next to each other; there will be open space in the middle of each courtyard."

Upon hearing this, Wang Yunling said, "In that case, it's easy. Your Highness can turn the empty space in the middle into lakes of varying sizes. These lakes can be used to raise fish and flowers on ordinary days, and can be used to store water when there is a flood."

Upon hearing this idea, Tu Chengyu's eyes lit up.

The capital city is relatively short of water, so there are very few manors with lakes.

Wouldn't it be even more attractive if the manor I built had so many lakes?

Thinking of this, Tu Chengyu said:
"Your idea is excellent. Once the land is leveled, design a layout for me with interconnected lakes."

Wang Yunling was naturally very willing to gain Tu Chengyu's appreciation.

"Your Highness, rest assured, I will certainly design this place well."

With Wang Yunling's agreement, the matter was considered settled.

Next, Tu Chengyu led Wang Yunling and the other people from the Ministry of Works to tour the construction site.

He also told Wang Yunling what kind of manor he was going to build, so that Wang Yunling would have a clear idea in mind when designing it.

This man truly deserves to be called the best manor layout master in the Ministry of Works. He can easily understand Tu Chengyu's layout based on the modern villa style.

The only thing he couldn't understand was the cement that Tu Chengyu mentioned.

In his view, the best material for building an attic is wood, and he rarely heard of using bricks and stones entirely.

However, Tu Chengyu told him not to pay attention to this, so he put it aside for the time being and focused on designing according to Tu Chengyu's requirements.

After finishing the design that day, Tu Chengyu didn't stay there any longer.

It was just a job of leveling the ground, requiring no special skills, so Tu Chengyu handed over all the work here to Su Xuanbao, giving him full responsibility.

He himself was in charge of leading people to negotiate land prices.

The ancient alley is still nominally under the control of the imperial court, so he has to buy the land.

Fortunately, he is the current prince and also the emperor emeritus's favorite grandson.

Therefore, none of the various factions in the imperial court deliberately made things difficult for him.

With the emperor's covert cooperation, Tu Chengyu finally managed to acquire the land.

However, it took him three whole days to finally get it, after arguing with several officials.

Given his status, he could have easily caused such a big problem by simply acting like a rogue.

But Tu Chengyu didn't want to cause himself any trouble, so he could only follow the court's regulations and go through all the procedures step by step.

In the end, he didn't win easily and had to pay a higher price.

The three days passed in the process of Tu Chengyu running around.

In these three days, the land in the ancient alley has been completely leveled.

The disaster victims' first trip to the city to work was successfully completed.

To encourage the disaster victims and to appease the newly arrived ones, Tu Chengyu decided to pay the disaster victims who had worked in the past few days in advance.

He originally planned to pay the victims monthly once they had done enough work.

However, considering that this was the first time the disaster victims had worked on such a large scale, he decided to distribute the supplies ahead of schedule.

Of course, Tu Chengyu wouldn't do something as unprecedented as distributing money to disaster victims so quietly.

He had to make this matter more effective; he wanted to use the money given to the disaster victims to generate greater profits.

So after he decided to distribute money to the disaster victims, he immediately went to the palace to see the emperor and explained the ins and outs of the matter.

Then, with the Emperor's permission, he went to the Crown Prince's residence to see the Crown Prince.

He sought out the Crown Prince not for any other reason.

Tu Chengyu planned to invite the Crown Prince over so that he could distribute money to the disaster victims.

Of course, it wasn't about having the Crown Prince personally distribute money to these people; there were too many people around, and it wouldn't be realistic for the Crown Prince to do it.

The prince's arrival was primarily symbolic.

This proves that the imperial court has not forgotten these disaster victims and is encouraging and inspiring them.

At the same time, Tu Chengyu also wanted to use this method to increase the Crown Prince's prestige.

However, after hearing Tu Chengyu's words, the Crown Prince absolutely refused to come.

According to him, Tu Chengyu did all the work, so how could he take credit for it?

Fortunately, Tu Chengyu had the Emperor's approval, and with his persistent pleading, he finally got the Crown Prince to agree.

Now that we've invited the Crown Prince, this matter can't be handled so simply.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu did not rush to do it immediately. Instead, he and Quan Wenwei and others prepared for two days before finally getting everything ready for this money distribution.

Besides other preparations, he also had Quan Wenwei clear out a large area in the disaster relief camp specifically for distributing money.

To ensure there wouldn't be any unexpected incidents when distributing the money, he went to the palace to request an imperial decree, which led to the overnight transfer of a battalion of soldiers from the imperial camp to guard the area.

It can be said that Tu Chengyu went to great lengths to ensure that the Crown Prince would have a perfect performance in this money-giving show.

On the day of receiving the money, Tu Chengyu came out early to prepare.

After he arrived, he personally inspected the site.

Only then were those participating in today's event allowed to enter the venue.

Tu Chengyu carefully selected the people who came to participate in today's event.

Besides the thousand people who received the money, he also specially selected a few well-behaved individuals from each disaster camp to observe the ceremony today. Tu Chengyu invited these people simply so that after the visit, they could return to their camps and tell all the disaster victims about what had happened there.

After a busy day of preparations, everyone at the campsite was finally in place.

Under the protection of the guards, the crown prince slowly emerged from the city.

Because of this money-giving initiative, Tu Cheng-yu specifically had people promote it from the very beginning.

So when he appeared, his figure attracted a lot of attention.

Whether they were ordinary citizens of the capital or disaster victims outside the city, everyone rushed to the roadside to look at the Crown Prince.

The crown prince knew the purpose of today's event, so while he was in his sedan chair, he had the curtains and window screens hung up so that the disaster victims outside could see him.

The disaster victims outside the city originally thought that the news that the Crown Prince would distribute money to them was just a rumor spread by others, so many people did not believe it.

But when they saw that the Crown Prince had actually appeared, and that they were meeting each other so openly and honestly.

Those disaster victims who stood in front and saw the prince with their own eyes were overjoyed.

They weren't happy about the money they received.

They were happy because this time, the imperial court truly cared about them, the disaster victims.

What pleased them was that from the moment they arrived in the capital, the person who settled them and looked after them every day was the emperor's own son, a prince of the current dynasty.

What pleased them was that after they received the relief grain from the imperial court and had just done some work for the court, the crown prince personally came to distribute their wages.

The starkly different attitudes towards the disaster victims were evident to them from the very beginning.

Therefore, their emotions had been building up for so many days, and finally exploded the moment the Crown Prince appeared today.

So when the crown prince came out of the city gate, before he even crossed the bridge over the moat, some of the disaster victims guarding the area had already knelt down and shouted "Long live the Crown Prince!"

When one disaster victim knelt down, the surrounding victims followed suit.

Then those following them also knelt down, and then it was passed down one after another. In the end, even those who had not come out of the camp and had not seen the prince at all were infected and knelt on the ground.

In the end, every single refugee in the entire camp knelt on the ground and cried out.

They not only shouted "Long live the Crown Prince," but also "Long live the Emperor."

Moreover, Tu Chengyu also heard two or three shouts of "Your Highness Prince Su" mixed in, which made him both amused and exasperated.

The crown prince never expected that his appearance would cause such a sensation.

So after crossing the bridge over the moat, he had to get out of the sedan chair and, under the protection of the guards, help up the first few old people who had knelt down.

After the elderly people got up, the crown prince did not leave immediately. He stood beside the disaster victims, chatting with them about everyday things, while waiting for the rest of the disaster victims to get up as well.

After all the disaster victims got up, the crown prince did not return to his sedan chair. Instead, he walked into the disaster victim camp, passing through the crowd of victims.

His action once again drew cheers from the disaster victims.

Seeing this scene, Tu Chengyu was very satisfied. He had gone to so much trouble to prepare, just to achieve this effect.

With what we just saw, Tu Chengyu has already achieved half of the effect he wanted today.

It took the prince almost half an hour to walk from the south gate to the place where the money would be distributed today.

Upon entering, he saw Tu Chengyu who had come to greet him, and his first question was:

"Was what happened just now arranged by you?"

"What is it?" Tu Chengyu feigned surprise.

"You still want to pretend you don't know about the disaster victims kneeling down just now?" the Crown Prince said, glaring at him. "If you didn't make arrangements, how could you have taught me how to chat with the disaster victims yesterday?"

Seeing that the Crown Prince had seen through it, Tu Chengyu smiled and said, "I really didn't arrange for them to kneel. I just arranged for some well-behaved disaster victims to be in the front positions. Their kneeling was truly voluntary."

The crown prince didn't want to get entangled in this matter either. He glared at him and said:
"Don't go too far with this kind of thing, or if the censors find out, they will impeach me for overstepping my bounds in court."

"Brother, don't worry about those censors. I've already spoken to Father about this. As long as Father doesn't mind, there's nothing to worry about."

The crown prince listened, nodded, and then stopped worrying about it. He then asked about today's arrangements.

"How do I handle the distribution of money?"

Tu Chengyu said, "Just do as I told you yesterday. I've arranged everything else."

Upon hearing this, the crown prince nodded and understood.

Next, Tu Chengyu told the Crown Prince to wait there while he went to give Quan Wenwei his final instructions.

Once everything was ready, Quan Wenwei came out from the back, walked to a temporary platform, and said a few words loudly.

The gist of it was that the Emperor's grace was boundless and the Crown Prince was caring, and then he invited the Crown Prince to the stage to read the imperial edict.

The Crown Prince came today not on his own behalf, but on behalf of the Emperor.

Therefore, what he is about to say to the disaster victims today is also on behalf of the emperor.

After the crown prince ascended the throne, he did not rush to produce the imperial edict, but instead said a few words first.

"His Majesty has decreed that everyone is exempt from kneeling today."

After saying this, he calmly took out the imperial edict and began to read it aloud.

The imperial edict issued to the disaster victims was not delivered in a flowery, incomprehensible style.

The above content is a very brief and straightforward expression of concern for the disaster victims.

Others talked about the significance of paying wages today and the encouragement it gives to disaster victims.

The prince finished reading it quickly, without saying much.

However, this imperial edict was of extraordinary significance to the thousand strong men who came to collect their wages.

They were all very excited as they listened, and couldn't help but shout "Long live!" a few more times.

Once the Crown Prince descended from the high platform, today's activities officially began.

The wages paid today are not much for the disaster victims. Each person only receives thirty coins a day, which adds up to ninety coins over three days. In addition, each person receives ten coins as a reward in the name of the Crown Prince today, so the total is only one hundred coins.

However, there are a thousand of them, and it will take some effort to distribute the money to each and every one of them.

Therefore, Tu Chengyu also designed the process for distributing the money.

He divided the thousand disaster victims into several levels based on their performance in the past few days.

Then, according to their different ranks, different people would give them money.

Of course, the rewards received by different levels are also different, in addition to wages.

(End of this chapter)