When disaster strikes, the most stable thing for people's hearts is food.

No matter what house or wealth is, as long as you can have a bite, people will have hope.

So starting from the ninth day of the seventh month, Liu Mingqi asked Miaoweilou to stop the pot for twelve hours a day, selling rice porridge and steamed buns for 2 cents at any time.

As a result, on the afternoon of the tenth day of the lunar month, Tian Rong came to find Liu Mingqi with a heavy face.

"Your Highness, our food is only enough for two days. If there is no new food to be shipped, I'm afraid we can't hold on!"

The boy was stunned, "Don't we have ten thousand stones?"

"Ten thousand stones were in June, and now it's the tenth day of July." Tian Rong smiled bitterly, "I used to consume 800 stones every day, but now there are only 2,000 stones left. And you also asked to open fire for twelve hours, which would be even more urgent."

"There is no news from my uncle?" Liu Mingqi asked with a frown.

"No." Tian Rong said, "Every day, Young Master Dongsheng would go to the dock to find out the news, but there was no echo."

If Xu Dongping was not a wide network of people, the Grand Canal was full of friends, and he was a nobleman, Tian Rong would have doubted whether he had been kidnapped by the water bandits or even tore up the votes.

Liu Mingqi said: "My uncle is a person who knows the importance of things. If he can't buy food, he will come back soon to report to us."

"But what if Young Master Dongping can't come back on time? You have to think of some solutions, right?" Tian Rong said.

"I understand." Liu Mingqi said, "If my uncle can't come back tomorrow, I will go find Brother Mingguan first and ask him to transfer a batch of food for me."

"That's all." Tian Rong said helplessly.

Li Wang's family is engaged in grain business.

Originally, King Li said that he would protect all the food in his younger brothers' homes alone.

However, after a recent batch of 50,000 shi of grain arrived in the capital, he saw Prince Yu’s mansion making a big splash and donated 50,000 shi of grain to the court to the King of Li, who claimed to be a literary and noble person. This made Emperor Jing He praise and thank him.

Everyone in and outside the capital knew about this, and he suddenly overcame King Yu and became the most generous prince.

But in this way, the amount he promised to give to all his younger brothers was not possible for the time being.

Fortunately, there was a lot of food in the palace of Prince Li. The housekeeper gave each prince’s palace 100 stones of food two days ago, which was considered as an emergency response. It would be fine after the batch of food arrived in the capital.

However, on the first day of the disaster relief, Liu Mingguan came to Prince Yu's mansion. While praising Liu Mingqi's kindness, he also told him quietly that he still had 20,000 stones of food in his family. If the food for disaster relief was not enough, he could find him, and he would try every means to get 10,000 stones.

Liu Mingguan is worthy of being a gentleman. He can make promises at such a time. People who do not have a sense of family and country will never be able to do it.

This is also the confidence of Liu Mingqi.

If my uncle can't buy back the food in time, then go to Liu Mingguan.

Prince Yu’s Mansion promised that after the disaster was over, the locusts should be transferred to the two lakes area at most two or three days, and they could survive no matter what.

If my uncle bought enough food before this, then it would be perfect to hold on for another ten days and half a month.

...

The two people who were discussing did not know that Xu Dongping was talking about, and that they had already arrived at the Bianhe Wharf outside Kaifeng Prefecture.

The Bianhe Wharf is actually not a commonly known wharf, but a hundred large and small docks along the entire coast of ten miles.

The imperial court's "Transportation Department" has specially designed thousands of officials to operate here. During the flood season, the busiest months were the most busy and they did not stop all day long.

When Xu Dongping's five large ships arrived, the ships in front were already crowded in a dense group, and it was unlikely that they could turn, let alone move forward.

In fact, as long as you go further 5 miles, get off the boat and load it at the pier on the east coast, you can enter the city safely within two hours.

Once you enter the city, things will be much easier. With patrols from the Imperial Palace, you don’t have to worry about the food on the car being robbed.

If you are near to the dock and take land, you will have to go around at least dozens of miles, and you may not be able to find so many carriages.

Even if there were so many carriages and so much food to arrive, Xu Dongping himself didn't know if any accident would happen.

Seeing that it was about to get dark, and there was still almost no movement in front of him, Xu Dongping was so anxious that he stopped a small boat patrolling the river and jumped on it.

Looking at the two officials and police officers on the ship, Xu Dongping shouted: "I am the third son of Qin Haibo's family. There are very important goods in the ship. Can you please arrange it for me to go to the line in advance and seize the time to unload the goods?"

"Capture Haibo?"

A young official in his forties smiled unconsciously, "Three Young Master, you don't know, right? Well, the fleet in front is the King's Family of the XX County. A little further ahead, the larger one is the fleet of the King's Mansion... They are all waiting!"

"Who is the one in front?" Xu Dongping was also surprised.

King Su is the master of the clan mansion. His fleet is only more than one mile ahead and he can't move, so he really can't squeeze through.

"There are all kinds of emergency supplies for disaster relief, not only what we need in the capital, but also the capital area and the two lakes. There are so many." The young official shook his head, "There are too many in a sudden, and the front is crowded, so how can we arrange it?

You either wait for tomorrow or switch to land. However, the land is still very crowded now, and many victims from the family are rushing to the capital. Maybe it is not as fast as the waterway."

"well!"

Xu Dongping nodded discouragedly.

Just as he was about to climb back to his boat along the rope ladder, he didn't expect a thirty-year-old policeman next to him who had not spoken before stopped him.

"I dare to ask if the capturing Haibo is the one from the Xu family?" asked the policeman.

"Yes." Xu Dongping said first.

"The princess of Prince Yu's mansion is..."

"It's my eldest sister."

"ah!"

Hearing this answer, the four people on the boat couldn't help but exclaim.

Looking at their appearance, Xu Dongping was very happy and sighed: "This time I was also on my elder sister's order to buy things in other places, but I didn't expect that I would be so crowded and delayed when I came back."

"But food!?" the little official who had just spoken asked impatiently.

Xu Dongping pretended to look at him in surprise.

The third young master is not that stupid. Where is there no shortage of food in this place? If he talks out and is reported by these people, wouldn’t that add trouble to Prince Yu’s Mansion?

But the little official misunderstood his expression.

He sighed: "The King of Yu family is indeed the best in the world. The family's food is almost used up. I bought grain from other places at a high price and came back to help the people. I really admire it!"

"Who said no?" The policeman named Xu Dongping broke his identity and said with a smile, "My wife also spent two cents to buy half a pound of rice porridge and five big steamed buns. It tasted so good to eat!"

Another police officer said: "You are rich. My neighbor's family is a family of five. The head of the family was injured in his leg last month and was lying at home. So the family's life is gone. Now, there is a sudden rise in rice prices again, and I almost have no way to go.

As a result, Prince Yu, Princess Yu and His Highness took the initiative to save people for two cents per meal. They only need the woman and my mother to queue up to buy them every day to ensure that the family can eat enough. How can this kind of favor be made by ordinary people?"

"Natural and natural! The family of King Yu is of great merit!" the last little official concluded.

Now Xu Dongping understood, it turned out that his nephew really used food to provide disaster relief!

With so many people, it is impossible for them to make up such a big lie to deceive him, right?

So he didn't hide it anymore.

"Everyone, the food I bought for my elder sister from both sides of the Grand Canal, totaling 20,000 shi." Xu Dongping said, "Now their food is basically sold out, so I have to send it into the city quickly. If I go by land, I am worried that something will go wrong and will miss my elder sister's kindness and great trouble!"

The first little official nodded: "But it's impossible to delay. How many people in the Imperial Palace are waiting to buy rice porridge and steamed buns from Miaoweilou every day to fill their stomachs!"

"In this way, I'll talk to Lord Wang and see if a channel can be drawn out." Another small official suggested, "By the way, you can contact some colleagues and friends, and work harder together to let the food from Prince Yu's mansion enter the city as soon as possible."

"Well, I'll go find the ship from our police yamen now." A policeman said.

"You can also plant the flag of Prince Yu's Mansion in the other three young masters. If you see it, you will give you some face to facilitate your entry." The second policeman suggested this.

"Okay! OK! Thank you everyone!"

Xu Dongping was very happy.

But he was also a little confused. These were obviously small lower-level officials. Could they help their fleet squeeze into the front in such a messy environment?

It turns out that these little people have much more power than they imagined.

One stick of incense after the four left, three small boats with the police yamen and the shipping department flags drove over and directed Xu Dongping's fleet to move forward.

At the same time, there were more than a dozen identical boats swimming around in front of them, and people above were shouting and directing other boats to move away.

Just like that, the five boats moved forward, and it took only half an hour to squeeze into the Dongshuimen near the capital, with the huge city wall just two miles away.

Then they helped to hire the carriages and horses in the carriages, and the police officers in the police yamen also rode horses and escorted them. Everything went smoothly without any accidents.

Until Xu Dongping entered the city with his carriages and horses, he felt incredible.

He also suddenly felt a force from the lower-level people.

This made him understand a little why his nephew was willing to spend such a great price to provide disaster relief and help them.

This feeling of being respected from the heart is really cool!

...

Note: In ancient times, the names of months were complicated. Except for the winter and twelfth lunar month, my brothers believed that they did not understand them. Therefore, they still used the names of February, March, April, etc. to facilitate understanding. I hope that my brothers would know them well.
Chapter completed!