Inspection

The Zhang residence was bustling with activity for almost half the night.

Cooking two pigs was no small task, and even with Rong Li in charge, it still took a lot of time.

"They're cooking meat!"

"I cooked a lot of meat!"

The new parents entered the Zhang residence with their crying child. Wei Qing, who was driving the carriage, did not dare to get off, while Li Guang stayed by the side of the new emperor.

The two men sniffed the rich aroma of pork, realizing that Zhang Xuezhou and the others were quite meticulous when it came to food after returning to Chang'an City.

"It smells pretty good!"

The new emperor smacked his lips, while Li Guang gestured towards the Zhang residence.

"Should I go to Dongfang Shuo Shuo's place and get some meat?" Li Guang asked.

"A gentleman doesn't steal other people's food... Fine, go buy some from him!"

The new emperor touched his waist pouch and then took out a piece of broken silver.

After a long period of busy work, he felt a bit hungry and thought that fragrant food should taste pretty good, making it a great late-night snack.

"Yes!"

Li Guang originally intended 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 even knock on the door and enter, Li Guang saw the door open and Wei Shao'er and Chen Zhang happily walk out.

"What? Did you cure the disease with a single touch?" Li Guang asked in surprise.

"Dongfang Shuo is truly a divine physician!" Chen Zhang exclaimed happily.

"He removed the thick cloth that wrapped us up, let Qubing crawl around on the ground, and he was perfectly fine," Wei Shao'er said happily. "Qubing can crawl now, and in a while he should be able to walk and talk!"

"They left quite early!"

Li Guang responded.

His words were ambiguous and clearly quite unpleasant.

However, Wei Shao'er and the others didn't make a fuss and happily carried the child back to the carriage.

"Hey, is Dongfang Shuo home?"

"Plum..."

"I am Mao Yikuai, a guard from the Marquis of Pingyang's residence. I'd like to ask if you sell any of the meat you cook. I'll pay for it!"

Seeing Zhang Xuezhou peek out from afar, Li Guang cut off the way the other man recognized the name he was about to use, quickly waved the loose silver in his hand, and also said what he wanted.

"We don't have the official approval document here, so we can't sell the meat at the 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, "This is a private gift, not a market transaction!"

There are many drawbacks to dealing with people in the imperial court.

If Li Guang was not backed by a new emperor, Zhang Xuezhou might indeed have linked it to entrapment.

Zhang Xuezhou glanced at the kitchen.

After receiving the silver coins tossed to him by Li Guang, he didn't stand on ceremony and went straight to the kitchen to get two pieces of meat with bones, each weighing one pound.

This bone-in meat is part of Rong Li's " pig-killing stew," which includes spices brought from Hibiscus City and salt. It's stewed until extremely tender, and would taste even better with some pickled cabbage added.

You didn't even send a bowl!

"Have some bones to gnaw on. I just got back to Chang'an City, and I have nothing at home. I'll have to buy bowls when it gets light!"

Li Guang grumbled, then had no choice but to accept it with both hands.

Zhang Xuezhou could only reply helplessly.

The bowls used by the people of Zhang Household Village outside Chang'an City did not appear out of thin air; they were taken from the Zhang residence.

To his surprise, Zhang Xuezhou discovered that his family was also in dire straits, lacking even bowls and trays for holding food.

"Was your house burgled?" Li Guang asked curiously.

"It's just that I've been away for a while and no one has been taking care of me!"

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

"On my way back to Chang'an City, I saw a group of displaced poor people who were surviving by eating grass every day. I planned to bring them some food at dawn!"

Li Guang asked a couple of questions casually, and Zhang Xuezhou replied with the same casual response.

This left Li Guang speechless.

Their eyes were focused on the imperial palace, a natural barrier separating them from ordinary people. How could Li Guang possibly know which families Chang'an City were starving?

It's fine to have Li Guang fight battles, but it's difficult to have him help the poor.

Having asked for meat, Li Guang nodded, carrying a bone stick, and then strode out of the house.

"The meat is still warm; it seems the fire has been burning it the whole time!"

"There were some embers in the stove, so the meat stayed warm!"

Li Guang boarded the carriage and handed over the meat.

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

He glanced at Li Guang, then at Wei Qing, then at himself, and finally at the two pieces of meat weighing one jin in his hand.

If Zhang Xuezhou hadn't failed to come out and check, the new emperor would have seriously suspected that Zhang Xuezhou was plotting some kind of "two peaches to kill three warriors" scheme.

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

"The taste is not bad!"

The pork I bought tasted surprisingly good; it didn't have that gamey smell, and the meat was tender and not greasy. I felt that I could easily eat the meat from those two pound bones.

"His meat has a rich aroma; he must have cooked quite a lot of it," the new emperor said. "The weather is still hot; isn't he worried about it spoiling if he cooks so much meat?"

"Dongfang Shuo said that on his way back 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 have 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 the newly added graves. Apart from those who died of illness, no one outside the city died of starvation. Winter is over, and there is plenty of food in spring, summer, and autumn. How can there still be such impoverished people, people that Dongfang Shuo could even see 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 gnawed on the pork bone, only to find that the once-delicious pork now tasted rather bland.

He still had some pride. The new emperor could hardly see how the people of the Great Han Dynasty survived further away, but Chang'an City was under the emperor's nose, a place he could see with a short inspection.

If there are countless starving corpses outside the city, then he is unfit to be an emperor.

These policies included allowing residents from outside the city to freely sell their goods, permitting them to cultivate land, and cracking down on vagrants and local bullies. Under these preferential policies, as long as they were hardworking and did not encounter natural disasters, people from outside the city could not only make a living but also sell the grain they grew in the city.

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

If it weren't for these kinds of policies, these easily cultivated fields wouldn't be available to these poor people.

The new emperor thought for a long time but still couldn't figure out who had ended up in such a miserable state.

"Little Sheep rode in the same carriage as Dongfang Shuo the whole way, how come he didn't notice this...? That's right, his mind was full of business, he wanted to squeeze every last penny out of others, he probably couldn't see the hardships they faced!"

The new emperor pondered for a moment.

"Let's go check it out when it's light!"

Inspecting outside the city was not what the new emperor intended to do on this trip, but he made a slight last-minute change to his plans.

He also wanted to see why, despite the preferential policies of Chang'an City, such destitute disaster victims still existed.