Chapter 93: House Seizure/Delivery of Crops

The people finally got to drink porridge after a long time, even if it was just coarse grain porridge, they were still overjoyed. One by one, they took the porridge and cherished it, standing aside and sipping it slowly. Even if they drank slowly, a bowl of porridge would soon be gone. Just as they were feeling regretful, someone suddenly knelt down towards the sky. “Thank you, Taizu, for your divine grace! Thank you, Heaven, for your mercy! Thank you, Your Majesty, for always thinking of the people, long live the emperor!” One person took the lead, and all the people in the city followed suit and knelt down. “Thank you, Taizu, for your divine grace! Thank you, Heaven, for your mercy! Thank you, Your Majesty, for always thinking of the people, long live the emperor!”

… At the same time, in nearby cities, counties, towns, villages, and even villages, anyone who received porridge and grain would spontaneously kneel down to express their gratitude, or be led to kneel down and say a lot of grateful words. As long as these people were sincerely grateful, it would turn into gratitude points in the trading mall. Listening to the continuous “ding ding dong” sound, Xiaoqi was so happy that he turned into a ball and bounced around in the space, bouncing around. To say the least, the scene was a little creepy.

However, Qian Xiaolan glanced at the system data and smiled with the corners of her mouth. Just in this short time, they had received over 50,000 gratitude points, and they were only 8,000 points away from the system reaching level 6. Xiao Jue’s current disaster relief activities were definitely only in areas close to the imperial city, and in a few days, when the supplies spread throughout the country, wouldn’t the gratitude points come in like a torrent?

*The Dayan Dynasty had been in a state of panic for three years due to natural disasters. Although Xiao Jue and the civil and military officials tried their best to exchange grain and water from other countries for the people, there were still people who were not satisfied, and they were filled with resentment by those who had ulterior motives with a few words. As a wise emperor, Xiao Jue’s methods were definitely not lacking, besides the secret agents, he also cultivated a loyal intelligence organization. It could be said that his spies were all over the country. Two months ago, he received news that someone was finally restless. Before, he had been worried about the people’s food problem, but now he had the trading space, and the supplies had been brought to light, so he finally had time to sound the alarm for those people. Xiao Jue not only had the officials distributing porridge and grain warn the people, but he also took direct action in the court. It was too fast, catching everyone off guard! He threw out a pile of evidence of corruption and bribery against a second-rank official. Then, he directly ordered people to arrest the official, seize his property, and confiscate his family assets. He also imprisoned all those who were colluding with this official. In an instant, the court was empty by one-tenth. Such a decisive action made all the officials feel apprehensive, those who were not clean and whose crimes the emperor had not found out were even more nervous, afraid that the emperor would take action against them next.

Xiao Jue was not a tyrant, but he was a man of ruthless methods. When Xiao Jue first ascended the throne, he caught a third-rank official in the court. Just like this time, he directly threw out the evidence of the official’s abuse of power. He colluded with merchants to raise prices, forced good people into prostitution, and bullied men and women! The people were angry but dared not speak out! Xiao Jue was very decisive, and as soon as he ascended the throne, he used this official to establish his authority. He confiscated his and the woman’s property.

 All the male members of his family were sentenced to hard labor in the frontier after being executed as criminals, and the women were immediately sent to be prostitutes. This was nothing, the most ruthless thing Xiao Jue did was to have people find a lot of hooligans to go to those prostitutes, and then have people escort the official and the woman to stand outside and listen to their wives, daughters, and mothers being humiliated. This was nothing short of killing a person’s soul! However, what was even more terrifying was that the official and the woman were executed by Lingchi. When they were being executed, all their family members were present to watch, and after the execution, the men were exiled regardless of whether they had gone mad or not.

The women who could hold on continued to be prostitutes, those who couldn’t were either frightened to death or driven mad on the spot. That time, the entire court was shocked, and they had a new understanding of this young monarch. Before, they only thought he was brave and resourceful, and had extraordinary talent. Later, they realized that his methods were terrifying. Now, after many years, Xiao Jue started to arrest people to establish his authority again, which immediately made the officials in the court feel uneasy. The emperor was a good emperor, but sometimes his methods were too cruel.

The civil and military officials waited anxiously in the court, and when they were dismissed, the emperor personally led people to confiscate property. Seeing the emperor move all the tables, chairs, books, bookshelves, desks, wardrobes, chests, flower pots, and other items from those officials’ homes. Seeing the emperor carry out boxes of gold and silver jewelry from the secret room. They also saw the rockery being demolished and the floor tiles being pried up. The civil and military officials: “…” The civil and military officials had the expression of an elderly man on the subway looking at his phone. What was the emperor doing? Was there a secret under every floor tile?

Xiao Jue frowned. There were no secrets. He just thought these tiles were pretty, maybe the female ghost would like them? He prepared more things, so he could definitely exchange for more supplies. Back in the palace, he had people carry the dozen or so boxes of things collected from the officials’ mansions to the back of the imperial study, then he dismissed everyone and entered the space. [Miss, I confiscated many boxes of books today, there are some medical books and famous calligraphy and paintings, the rest are miscellaneous books, you can read them for entertainment when you are free.]

It was 10 am in Beijing. Qian Xiaolan was continuing to wander around Beijing with Gu Yanqing and Qian Rongsheng, experiencing the cultural atmosphere unique to this era. Sensing the movement in the space, Qian Xiaolan stopped and sank her consciousness into the space, took a look, and replied:

[Thank you, please put the books on the shelves! A large amount of grain has arrived this morning, you can get some more things to exchange.] Xiao Jue was overjoyed and replied, [Is there anything else you need, Miss?] Qian Xiaolan thought for a moment and asked, [Do you have any craftsmen’s skills related to houses? The mansion that my family inherited is broken, modern craftsmen’s skills are not good, they can’t restore it to its original state.]

Actually, she wanted to build a quaint courtyard in the countryside in the future. If it worked, she could also donate it to the country, so that the country could restore some ancient buildings. Compared to the concrete and steel of modern society, she loved quaint buildings so much.

Xiao Jue didn’t suspect anything, and readily agreed. The three of them were just walking to Dong’an Market when Qian Xiaolan saw a stall selling roasted sweet potatoes. She blinked and then submerged her consciousness into the space.

[Your Majesty, do you have any high-yield crops like sweet potatoes, corn, and potatoes?]

Xiao Jue looked puzzled, [What do these crops look like?]

Qian Xiaolan immediately had Gu Yanqing buy a few roasted sweet potatoes, secretly smuggled one into the space, and took out a bag of potatoes and a bag of fresh corn that Wenxuan had just delivered this morning and put them on the shelves. She also attached a written explanation: [Sweet potatoes are drought-resistant, tolerant to poor soil, and highly adaptable, they can be used as a staple food. Potatoes are drought-resistant but afraid of too much rain, they are highly adaptable, have high nutritional value, and can be used as a staple food.

Corn does not have high soil requirements and can grow in general land, it is also relatively drought-resistant, and can be used as a staple food. The grain I gave you the other day included corn kernels ground into grits.]