Going to Beijing to save his father, all the powerful officials in the city are vying to be his fath

Zou Tai shook his head: "We haven't discussed this matter yet. We can't take care of it now. Master Tong came in early this morning and reported the matter. We haven't had time to investigate the other matters in detail yet.

The most important thing now is how to deal with the disaster relief funds.

Some officials suggested giving relief money directly to the victims outside the city and letting them return home on their own, but some officials objected. They believed that the victims who stayed outside the city were only a small part of the victims in Chanzhou, and it would be unfair to give them relief money while ignoring the other victims.

Some officials still insisted on transporting the relief money to Chanzhou and handing it over to the local government office for distribution according to the registered population. However, they were again met with opposition. They said that something had already happened with the relief money and they were afraid that something would happen again during transportation. They were also afraid that the money would be exploited at every level after it arrived at the local government office, and not much would actually reach the hands of the victims.

You have no idea how serious the quarrel was today. It almost led to a fight."

Zhao Liangchen: "What was the final outcome of the argument?"

Zou Tai sneered, "Oh, now I have to admire our Prime Minister, Prince Liang. He is really smart. Seeing that everyone was about to fight and the emperor couldn't control them, our Prime Minister came forward to say that since the disaster area was so wide, we can't just take care of those outside the city and ignore the other victims who didn't come.

However, transporting the relief money all the way to Chanzhou was indeed unsafe, so our Prime Minister personally led the team to deliver the relief money to Chanzhou. He also promised that if anything happened to the relief money in his hands, he would take full responsibility. Given his status and reputation in the court, who could not trust him? Therefore, no one objected.

Zhao Liangchen was not surprised by King Liang's decision. What he cared about most was his reputation. It didn't matter if he lost a few of Zhao Kuo's men, and it didn't matter if he didn't beat Su Jijing to death, but he had to improve his reputation through the disaster relief case.

The reason why he didn't use the tactic of personally escorting the money but secretly replaced the disaster relief silver was not only because he wanted to pull Su Jijing down, but the most important thing was that the disaster relief silver came from the emperor's private treasury. If he was only responsible for escorting it, the good reputation would go to the emperor, and he would at most just benefit from it.

However, it would be a different matter if he was responsible for escorting the relief money after the case of embezzlement. This would make the emperor appear very incompetent, as he could not even do a small disaster relief and it almost caused a big disaster. He, the emperor's uncle, had to escort the relief money personally.

When they arrived at the disaster area, they had finally received the help from the court after waiting for so long. In addition, King Liang was good at pretending to be kind and virtuous, which made the people only remember King Liang's merits and would not remember at all that the silver was given by the emperor.

When the time comes, send someone to spread the word, and the people will only know King Liang and not the Emperor.

Zou Tai continued, "And you don't know how good he is at dealing with people. He said that the hundreds of thousands of taels of silver given by the emperor were not enough for the victims to rebuild their homes, so he donated 200,000 taels of silver himself to fill the gap. Once he made this promise, many officials followed his example and donated silver.

Some officials donated, and the rest of the officials couldn't help but donate, so the entire court, civil and military officials, donated, and even brothers like us who were on duty outside the gate donated. In just one morning court session, the hundreds of thousands of taels of disaster relief silver doubled to more than one million taels, enough to settle all the victims.

Zhao Liangchen had known this for a long time. In his previous life, King Liang had also made such a donation, which directly reduced the people's gratitude towards the emperor for donating disaster relief silver. Instead, they blamed the emperor for not donating enough and that officials had to make up for it.

It seems that this time, apart from rescuing Su Jijing and others and killing Zhao Kuo, nothing else has changed.

But it doesn’t matter. The most important thing to him is to save Su Jijing and kill Zhao Kuo. He has done both of these things, and other things can come slowly.

A thousand-mile dike can be breached by a single ant hole. King Liang has spent many years planning to achieve this. How could he be brought down by just one thing?

"Will the Imperial Guards still be escorting this time?"

Zou Tai shook his head: "With such a big incident happening to the Imperial Guard, who would dare to use us? King Liang proposed to transfer soldiers from the neighboring states to be responsible for escorting the disaster relief silver and escorting the victims back to their hometowns.

Until the matter is clarified, I'm afraid we won't have an easy time.

Didn’t you see the way those officials looked at us today? It was as if we were the most heinous criminals. I think if we hadn’t been withdrawn and there was no one guarding the palace, none of us would have been able to enter the palace gate.”

Zhao Liangchen comforted Zou Tai: "Don't worry about these things, as long as the emperor trusts us, that's enough.

Once the case is fully investigated, we can be reused."

Zou Tai said nonchalantly, "I don't mind. If I'm not welcome here, I'll find another place to stay. At worst, I can go to the border to find my father and elder brother, so I don't have to spend all day here scheming against each other."

Zhao Liangchen glared at him and said, "If you go to the border, your father will be furious. Besides, if you don't stay in Shangjing City to keep an eye on your father, aren't you afraid that your father will be plotted against?"

Zou Tai sighed: "Hey, I don't want to leave either, but you know, my brain is not very good, I really can't come up with such a trick."

Zhao Liangchen: "You don't have to play tricks. Just stay the same. If you suddenly change your temper, it will attract other people's attention. Just be more vigilant."

Zou Tai nodded: "Okay, don't worry, I know what's going on. I'm relieved that you're okay. I still have to go out of town to inspect. Before the garrison troops are dispatched, I still have to watch over the victims."

Zhao Liangchen glanced at the box of mooncakes, reached out and took it, picked out the broken ones, and handed it to Zou Tai: "Do me a favor. In previous years, I would go to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with my teacher. This year, I couldn't go, and I don't know if he got to eat the mooncakes. Can you help me deliver this box of mooncakes to him?"

Zou Tai saw the crumbs in the box and said with disdain, "You gave the teacher a gift that was broken?"

Zhao Liangchen explained, "This was a gift from the Emperor last night. I carried it up the mountain and it got broken. After all, it's from the palace, so it must be better than anything else out there. I wanted to let the teacher have a taste."

Zou Tai finally accepted it and sighed sympathetically, "Ah, you've had a hard time, too. You gave me so much silver to help the disaster victims and even sent money to the Ministry of Justice. I'm afraid your little savings have been completely depleted. Forget it, I'll go out and buy you some cakes to supplement your meal. This is too meager."

Zhao Liangchen did not refuse and bought more so that Su Qin could eat more.

"Thank you very much."

"Take good care of your injuries and don't worry about what's happening outside. I'll let you know if anything happens."

After saying that, Zou Tai took the box and left.

After he left, Lai Xi brought medicine. Zhao Liangchen took the medicine and fell asleep again.

Zou Tai bought a lot of cakes and other snacks and took them to Mr. Zeng's place.

Zeng Lao was a little surprised to see him: "Why are you here?"

Zou Tai and Zhao Liangchen had visited Mr. Zeng before, so Mr. Zeng was familiar with him.

Zou Tai put down the things in his hand and explained: "Liangchen was injured and couldn't come to see you, so he asked me to bring you something."

When Mr. Zeng heard that Zhao Liangchen was injured, he immediately asked, "Is Liangchen's injury serious?"

Zou Tai: "It's not serious, just a head injury. I feel dizzy and need to rest for a few days."

After that, he recounted everything that happened last night and this morning.

Zeng Lao's face looked very unhappy, but he didn't say much. Instead, he pointed at the cakes and asked, "Did Liangchen ask you to send these?"

Zou Tai dug out the box Zhao Liangchen had given him from among the things. "Yes, Liangchen was afraid that you didn't get to eat mooncakes because he didn't come to accompany you yesterday. This was a gift from the emperor last night. He was carrying it on his back the whole time, so it's a little bumpy and doesn't look very good, but it tastes good. Try it."

Mr. Zeng was a little puzzled. Zhao Liangchen had celebrated several Mid-Autumn Festivals with him, and he knew he didn't like mooncakes. Why did he still send them to him?

He doesn't want to eat it but still sends it to him. Who do you want to give it to?

Who else is here with him? Suddenly he remembered that Su Qin had stayed here for two days. If it wasn't for him, then it must be for Su Qin.

Su Qin is still outside the city and it is unknown when she will be back. She definitely didn’t eat mooncakes yesterday, and these pastries cannot be kept for a long time. What should I do?

Zeng Lao looked up and asked Zou Tai, "Are you leaving the city today?"

Zou Tai nodded: "There are so many disaster victims outside the city, we need to patrol frequently in case something happens."

Zeng Lao immediately decided: "Let's go, I'll go out of the city with you."