The war god prince climbs the wall every night, and the princess is angry

Even though Shen Qionghua was reluctant, the matter was suppressed quietly.

Some important officials in the court learned the inside story through other means, but pretended not to know and did not spread it widely. However, they could not help but reconsider their stance in private.

I feel that although the emperor favors Prince Rui, he still values ​​Prince An very much, and he is willing to do his utmost to protect Prince An even when the Yongning Marquisate commits such a serious mistake.

However, some officials with lower positions, who had no special access to the inside story, felt that the emperor doted on Prince Rui too much. Since the Ministry of Revenue had money, they took the disaster relief matter from Prince An and gave it to Prince Rui.

After the Shen family's silver was counted and stored, Prince Rui received the emperor's order and began to arrange disaster relief.

First, some food and clothing were distributed to the victims, and porridge sheds were set up. Then, dozens of temporary residences were immediately built to accommodate the victims.

In addition, some imperial physicians in the palace and doctors from the people were asked to treat injured people and remain vigilant at all times to prevent the occurrence of epidemics.

With the leadership of the imperial court, many families also opened porridge stalls in front of their government offices to provide porridge to the people.

Of course, Shen Qionghua would not delay Prince Rui's retreat. The Shen family had stockpiled a lot of food before, which was more abundant than other mansions. Therefore, not only did they provide porridge, but each victim who came to the Shen family's porridge stall could also get a steamed bun for each meal.

The same is true for the porridge stall in Shidinglou and the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion.

Even though it is just an extra steamed bun, it can be a lifesaver in this situation, so the three porridge stalls are crowded every day.

Although the emperor suppressed the matter of the disaster relief silver, the people did not know that the Yongning Marquis' Mansion had tampered with the disaster relief silver, but they did know that the merchant family Shen had handed over three million taels of silver for disaster relief.

The imperial edict that previously conferred the title of County Lady on Shen Qionghua was clearly written without any concealment. Therefore, many grateful people came to the Shen family's door to receive porridge and steamed buns, and before leaving, they would bow in front of the Shen Mansion to express their gratitude.

The effect of three million taels of silver was greater than originally expected.

Shen Qionghua was a little surprised when she learned that the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion was also distributing steamed buns. She only found out when she wrote a letter to ask Luo Xiyao that the other party had seen the continuous rain and remembered what she had said before, and hurried to stock up on food.

Even so, the price of grain was much higher than before. In the letter, he expressed deep regret and said that he was a fool for spending so much extra money. He said that he would definitely listen to her advice in the future.

The funny tone made Shen Qionghua laugh uncontrollably. At the end of the letter, he asked her whether the recent private discussion in the capital about the replacement of disaster relief silver was true. He said that Prince Rui had been so busy recently that he had not returned to the Prince Rui's Mansion for a long time, and there was no one to ask.

Shen Qionghua paused, picked up the pen and wrote a reply to Luo Xiyao, telling her the whole story. At the end, he specifically told her not to get angry, as it was not worth it.

Then he stamped the envelope and asked Shaoyao to go to the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion and hand it to Luo Xiyao personally.

After a while, Shaoyao came back with Luo Xiyao's reply.

When Shen Qionghua opened the letter, she almost choked while drinking her tea. In the letter, Luo Xiyao cursed Prince An bitterly, throwing all kinds of insults at him, and finally said something quite bold -

If Prince An was really so short of money, he could sell himself at Nanfeng Pavilion. With his status as a prince, someone might buy him for ten thousand gold coins a night. This would be faster than making money by eyeing other people's wealth!

Shen Qionghua couldn't help but admit defeat at the sharpness of Luo Xiyao's words, but for some reason she felt that there was some truth in what Luo Xiyao said.

The two of them discussed the matter with great interest for several more letters, and only stopped talking when the court issued an order to repatriate the victims.

After all, the capital is under the emperor's feet. It is not a good thing to have disaster victims wandering around the streets all day long. Besides, if all the people come to the capital, what will happen to the land?

Fortunately, the Ministry of Revenue now has silver, and the court has become a little more generous, promising to provide travel expenses as long as they return to their hometown.

Farmers can borrow seeds from the seed warehouses in various states and counties. When the harvest comes, they can exchange the grain for money and then pay the silver for the seeds.

In addition, all taxes for the coming year in the areas of Jiangnan that were most severely affected by the disaster were reduced or exempted, and 50% of the taxes in some affected areas were exempted.

Orders were issued one after another, and it was two months later before the streets of the capital returned to their former prosperity.

The streets were crowded with tourists, young men from various families could be seen in every restaurant and brothel, and jewelry and rouge shops were also frequented by noble ladies. The tragic situation in the capital some time ago seemed like a dream, dissipated by the wind, without a trace, leaving no trace.

On this day, Shen Qionghua was checking accounts at home.

Although the Shen family lost money after donating silver, they gained reputation.

During the period when the disaster victims were repatriated, Shen Qionghua kept a portion of the food and asked the servants of the Shen family to pack the rest in small cloth bags and give them to families with children who came to the Shen family's porridge stall to get porridge.

There wasn't much food, so we just wanted to make sure the children had enough to eat on the road so they wouldn't get sick from hunger.

Running back and forth between the two places was tiring for the adults and even more so for the children. When they first arrived in the capital, countless children fell ill due to acclimatization and died because they had no money to buy medicine. It was impossible that they could have survived such a big difficulty and then died.

Shen Qionghua did this secretly. The servants saw that the person who was taking care of the child was quietly called aside one by one and given it to him.

Naturally, those people did not dare to speak out about the extra food they had obtained, for fear that it would be snatched away. They just expressed their gratitude to the Shen family profusely.

Shen Qionghua did this not to win people's hearts, but because she saw that many of those children were about the same age as Shen Yi, and thought of Shen Yi's fate in his previous life, she felt moved.

I did this just to accumulate blessings for Shen Yi. I hope he can grow up in peace and without disasters in this life.

I just finished counting the accounts and took a break. I thought that I hadn’t been to Shidinglou for a long time. I wondered if the business was affected by being closed for a while.

So he asked Shaoyao to arrange a carriage, went out and headed to Shidinglou.

The journey was bustling and lively, and we soon arrived at Shidinglou.

Shen Qionghua got off the carriage with the help of Shaoyao and walked inside. She saw that the hall was full of people, waiters were walking fast with trays in their hands, and servants were leading guests into the rooms. It was obvious that business was good, and Shen Qionghua finally felt relieved.

It seems that An Jin has put a lot of effort into the reopening of the business in the past half month.

After taking a quick look around the lobby and not seeing An Jin, Shen Qionghua guessed that she was busy, so she walked towards the room reserved for settling accounts and resting, as if she was familiar with the place.

As soon as I went up to the second floor, I saw An Jin talking to a woman at the corner.

The woman was wearing a light pink flowing sand dress, had a slender figure, and wore a veil on her head. The veil almost reached the ground and almost covered her entire body, as if she was afraid that others would recognize her.

Although she was wrapped tightly, her soft tone and the pride in her gestures made Shen Qionghua recognize her the moment she spoke.

Zhou Lingyi... Why is she here, talking to An Jin?