Chapter 132: The Law of Heaven
Under the simple thatched porridge shed, the officials built a blue brick stove, and eight boiling pots emitted a faint rice aroma.

Wang Daosheng patiently explained to the official: "In a year of great disaster, even if it doesn't reach the point of exchanging children for food, there will definitely be brothels buying girls. Don't worry, I won't make it difficult for you. Just report my name to Lord Zhang. I'm an old acquaintance of him."

Just when Chen Ji thought the official was going to refute, he saw that the official had already stopped talking and said with an embarrassed look: "It turned out to be Lord Wang. I didn't recognize the great man."

Chen Ji asked Bai Li beside him in a low voice: "Princess, is Mr. Wang very famous?"

Bai Li glanced at her in surprise, then leaned closer and whispered, "Have you never heard of Mr. Wang's name? He was already famous when he passed the imperial examination a few years ago."

Chen Ji hummed. He really didn't know that his new teacher had such a great reputation. Just saying his name could make the officials in the government office polite.

At this time, the official looked at Wang Daosheng and said with some embarrassment: "Sir Wang, we can do the registration, but as you can see, there are only a dozen officials here in the porridge shed, and they will be too busy to distribute porridge later... Can you wait until we can transfer some more people?"

Wang Daosheng glanced at the porridge stall, then at the number of officials and runners: "You go and register, we will take care of the porridge stall."

The official was stunned for a moment and said, "Sir, it is a strenuous job to spoon out thousands of servings of porridge. How can I let you do it for me?"

Wang Daosheng did not answer him, but looked at Chen Ji and others: "Do you have any questions?"

Chen Ji replied: "Don't worry sir, I'm fine."

Bai Li also rolled up his sleeves with a smile: "Sir, I have no problem with that either!"

Seeing this, Zhang Xia immediately tied Zaozao's reins to the side of the porridge stall and walked over with his sleeves rolled up: "Sir, we're fine."

At this time, the prince said: "There are not enough people."

On the ox cart outside the porridge shed, Chen Wenzong watched this scene silently for a long time.

When the prince glanced over, he wanted to stand up immediately, but Chen Wenxiao pulled him back by the arm: "Brother, what are you doing? We are here to study, not to do hard labor. I have seen those officials distributing porridge, scooping thousands of spoonfuls of porridge, and their arms are swollen. Generally, the officials who are not welcomed in the government office are sent to do this kind of hard work in the cold weather."

Chen Wenzong looked solemn: "No need to say more, you and I have read the books of sages for more than ten years, how can we not be able to distinguish right from wrong? I didn't get off the car before because Chen Ji made a mistake, and the rest of us don't need to be implicated because of him. But now we are doing things for the people, how can you and I back down? Let go!"

He shook off Chen Wenxiao's hand, jumped off the ox cart and rolled up his sleeves: "Sir, I'll help too."

Chen Wenxiao sat alone on the cart. After hesitating for a while, he finally lowered his head and jumped off the cart to stand with Chen Wenzong.

Wang Daosheng lifted the lid of a pot and saw clouds of steam rising. When the white mist dissipated a little, everyone frowned: the rice soup was bland and one could see the rice grains at the bottom of the pot at a glance.

Chen Wenzong looked at the official with a serious expression: "Why is the porridge so watery? When I serve porridge to the iron law, I can stick chopsticks in it without it falling over. How dare you cook such watery porridge?"

The official turned pale with fear: "It's not us who want to cook such watery porridge, it's Master Zhang who ordered it."

"Master Zhang?"

"That's right," the official explained, "Master Zhang said that there is not enough food. If we want the people in the west and south of the city to survive the winter, we must not make thick porridge. If we really follow the court's rules to distribute porridge, the porridge stalls will run out of food in just fifteen days."

"Is there no more grain in Luocheng's granary?" Chen Wenzong wondered, "I remember the autumn grain was just delivered to Luocheng last month."

The official quickly replied, "Master Zhang said that the grain in the government warehouse cannot be moved. If the military orders to transfer grain and there is not enough grain in the granary, you will lose your head."

"Is there no other way? What about Master Zhang?"

"Master Zhang said he was going to find a solution..."

Zhang Xia asked curiously, "What about Lord Chen? I remember Lord Chen is a man of principle. He will definitely not sit idly by."

The officer hesitated.

Zhang Xia asked impatiently: "Why don't you say something?"

The official hesitated, "Mr. Zhang has found a group of lawyers and old bachelors to go to the government office to sue, and has detained Mr. Chen in the government office..."

Zhang Xia was stunned: "Ah this!"

Wang Daosheng raised his hand to stop the conversation: "Officials, go and register, we are here to distribute porridge."

Then he said to the victims: "Come forward to get the porridge, the elderly, the weak, women and children will be given priority."

I only heard the sound floating outward. It was not a loud sound, but it spread hundreds of meters away.

Chen Ji was shocked. He saw the victims slowly standing up and actually letting the elderly, the weak, women and children walk at the front of the team one by one!

He had seen free porridge in front of the West City Gate, and he knew what the victims were like. Everyone was starving to the point of being skin and bones, so who would care about respecting the elderly and loving the young?
But just one sentence from Mr. Wang worked!

Could it be that Mr. Wang is also an official?
Chen Ji silently looked at the prince and Bai Li: "Mr. Wang just now..." Bai Li whispered: "My father said that you are on the path of a sage, and you can teach people with the law of heaven. But he also said that there are still some things that you haven't figured out, so you can't be considered a true sage."

Chen Ji glanced at Mr. Wang, silently picked up a large wooden spoon, and scooped rice porridge for the victims in line one by one.

The wooden spoon was too heavy for the girl. Bai Li only swung it a few dozen times before her arms were so sore that she could hardly lift them. She could only grit her teeth and persist: "It would be great if Brother Maoer was here. He has endless strength."

Chen Ji suddenly discovered that when he scooped rice porridge to the victims one spoonful at a time... the color of the twenty-six fires in his body actually changed a little. Although it was very small and very slow, every change was real.

It is like the temperature of a downdraft kiln, at 600 degrees it is cherry red, at 900 degrees it is orange, and above 1,300 degrees it turns white.

When the twenty-six fires were first lit, they were cherry red. Now the red is fading away little by little, and what comes with it is an even more powerful vitality.

Chen Ji recalled that when he was in Qingshan’s dream, there was a moment when his entire body was burning in flames, and the fire at that time was white.

Strange, why did the fire change? Was it because I was helping the victims? But didn’t I help the victims when I was at the West Gate before?

and many more.

The only difference between this time and that time is that I was wearing a mask.

Before Chen Ji could figure it out, the sound of wooden wheels creaking was heard at the city gate.

I saw dozens of carts pulling bags of grain out of the city, followed by an official sedan chair. The grain was piled up like small hills on the carts, and even the official sedan chair was made a little inconspicuous.

The next moment, the bearer put the sedan chair on the ground, and Zhang Zhuo, dressed in a red official robe, stepped out of the sedan chair with a proud look on his face.

He looked at the people under the porridge shed and asked in surprise, "Hey, why are you here?"

Zhang Xia rushed forward like a gust of wind and hugged his arm: "Dad, where did you find so much food?"

Zhang Zhuo stroked his beard cheerfully and said, "Your father used magic to transform this thing! Isn't it amazing?"

Zhang Xia gave a thumbs up: "Great!"

Wang Daosheng walked to the side of the cart, squeezed the sack and knew what was going on: "It's fresher than the government grain. This is the autumn grain that merchants just stockpiled this year. They are willing to donate it to you... No, you bought it."

Zhang Zhuo was amused: "How many years have you led the army? You can actually tell whether the grain is fresh through the sacks? I thought you had become a nerd through all the reading!"

Wang Daosheng could not laugh. He frowned and looked at Zhang Zhuo: "When you were in Yangzhou, you did something out of line because of this. After you left office, memorials impeaching you flew into the capital like snowflakes. If it weren't for Lord Xu suppressing your selling of official positions and titles, you would probably have been thrown into prison. But if you keep doing this, sooner or later something will happen. When the censor finds out, he only needs to report you in front of the emperor, and you will fail."

Zhang Zhuo looked arrogant and said, "As long as Lord Xu is still the chief minister of the cabinet, no censor will dare to report me."

Wang Daosheng sighed: "What if Lord Xu is not the Prime Minister of the Cabinet?"

Zhang Zhuo said proudly: "At that time, I will be the Prime Minister of the Cabinet!"

Wang Daosheng shook his head slightly and said again: "Even if he is a minister, it is difficult for him to cover the sky with one hand. Dong Shi wrote to me and said that he has been promoted to the position of Regent and Imperial Censor, and is about to inspect your work in Yangzhou. He has been at odds with the Xu family for a long time. If he..."

Zhang Zhuo waved his sleeves impatiently. Seeing that there were no officials or disaster victims around, he said angrily, "You are only a few years older than me, so don't keep lecturing me. I use the corrupt officials' money to help the people. What's wrong with that? If I don't do this, what will these disaster victims eat and drink? Waiting for money from the court? How long will it take? The disaster victims would have starved to death long ago!"

When Chen Ji heard this, he suddenly remembered the rumors about Zhang Zhuo and the account book of Manager Yuan, and finally realized where this batch of grain came from.

Zhang Zhuo continued to say to Wang Daosheng: "If you don't like me, you can report me to Dong Shi. Let me ask you, do you want these disaster victims to survive this winter?"

Zhang Zhuo and Wang Daosheng stood facing each other. One of them was wearing a bright red official robe with a lifelike white pheasant on the chest patch, and the other was wearing a blue Confucian shirt that was faded from starching.

It was as if people who were not supposed to walk on the same path met by chance and confronted each other.

Everyone held their breath, as if they were facing two huge mountains pressing down on them, not daring to even breathe.

Finally, Wang Daosheng said softly, "I am familiar with Dong Shi. I will write him a letter after I come back from my study trip in a few days, asking him not to investigate the affairs of Yangzhou."

Zhang Zhuo laughed and patted Wang Daosheng on the shoulder: "I knew that after so many years, you are still different from those corrupt scholars. Dong Shi admires your knowledge and treats you as his disciple. If you are willing to ask, he will definitely stop. When you return from your study, I will go to find you for a drink."

Wang Daosheng casually slapped Zhang Zhu's hand away and said, "Sooner or later, you will fall into trouble because of this matter."

Zhang Zhuo's expression changed: "Don't talk nonsense with your mouth, hurry up and spit."

Wang Daosheng didn't bother to pay attention to him. He turned around and walked to the porridge stall and continued to scoop porridge for the victims: "Don't worry, I'm not that powerful."

(End of this chapter)