In the following four days, Tyrion, with ample funds, quickly cleaned up large swathes of King's Landing, significantly changing the previously resentful populace's perception of Joffrey.
And Lu Bu was even faster than Joffrey imagined. After taking Janos's bisected corpse to the Gold Cloaks' camp, he quickly killed a batch, suppressed a batch, and won over a batch with his dimension-crushing martial prowess.
He renamed the Gold Cloaks the Kingsguard, divided them into four camps, and re-established the rules.Subsequently, Joffrey recruited 2,000 healthy commoners to form a city guard enforcement team, under the jurisdiction of the Kingsguard, responsible for maintaining law and order.
As for why not nobles, it's of course because once commoners taste the power, they will become Joffrey's loyal supporters.
Now every street in King's Landing has city guards responsible, and now spitting, defecating, and other behaviors are subject to fines and forced labor upon discovery.
Today, the south of the city is crowded with poor people because yesterday the city guard enforcement team told them that the King had ordered the construction of soup kitchens in the south of the city, where they could receive a loaf of coarse bread and vegetable soup every two days.Although yesterday everyone expressed disbelief that the tyrannical king would care about them, the poor, today they still came to the south of the city with hope, because they had no other way to survive.
In Westeros, the difference between the poor and the commoners is that the commoners can barely fill their stomachs, while the poor can barely survive, but because of the War of the Five Kings, even the commoners are on the verge of starvation.
At this moment, everyone looked expectantly towards the King's Road, hoping that the soup kitchen team would arrive soon.
To the surprise of all the poor, a group of people soon headed towards the south of the city, led by a knight riding a crimson warhorse.Lü Bu was put in charge of this porridge distribution task because it was Joffrey's way of winning over the people. He could only trust Lü Bu to do it. Assisting him was Keating, the head of the law enforcement team, a man recently promoted by Joffrey.
Once the makeshift shacks were set up, Lü Bu immediately ordered people to start cooking. Before long, the aroma of vegetable soup filled the air. If it weren't for the 200 Royal Guards maintaining order, these poor people would have rushed forward to grab it long ago.
As a member of the slum, Atos's attention was entirely on Lü Bu's Red Hare horse. In ancient times, horses were like cars today, and Red Hare was clearly a top-of-the-line sports car.Many nobles, after meeting Lu Bu, tried to buy Red Hare from Joffrey at exorbitant prices, believing that a commoner like Lu Bu could not possibly possess such a fine steed.
Lu Bu naturally noticed this young upstart, but only glanced at him casually.
"Sir Knight, I wonder when we'll be able to have some vegetable soup?" a bold commoner asked Lu Bu, driven to the brink of despair by hunger.The surrounding poor people immediately moved away from the man. When he distributed food was entirely up to his mood, and it was not for a pauper to question him. The old man who had asked the question also came to his senses, inwardly cried out that he was done for, and immediately knelt down.
"Your Excellency, spare me! I was just too hungry and my hunger clouded my judgment. Your Excellency, spare me!"
Thinking of the methods Joffrey had taught him, Lu Bu smiled inwardly. Hadn't this "plant" delivered himself right to his door?Lu Bu immediately strode over to the old man, who was now terrified. He hadn't expected that just when he thought he could get a hot meal, he would die here for talking nonsense. His heart was filled with sorrow.
But then Lu Bu immediately bent down and helped him up, "Old man, there's no need to be like this. Once the pot is ready, it will be distributed immediately, and it will be given to the elderly and children first."
Then Lu Bu looked at the bewildered crowd and said, "Everyone, rest assured, each person will receive seven taels of coarse bread and a bowl of vegetable soup, distributed according to the number of people. After this, food will be distributed here every two days until the end of the war."His Majesty Joffrey expresses his deepest apologies for only being able to provide coarse grain bread and vegetable soup every other day, but the rebels are about to besiege the city.
His Majesty truly has no choice, and here, His Majesty has me apologize to all the citizens of the kingdom."
Then, Lu Bu immediately bowed deeply, which terrified the poor people, as they could not possibly bear the King's apology.
However, the Embroidered Uniform Guards, who had long been disguised and mixed among the poor, immediately knelt down and shouted, starting to set the tone.
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving the people like your own children! May Your Majesty eliminate the rebels and unify the Seven Kingdoms!"Subsequently, more and more commoners were brought to their knees, chanting:
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving your people like your own children! We hope Your Majesty will eliminate the rebels and unify the Seven Kingdoms!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving your people like your own children! We hope Your Majesty will eliminate the rebels and unify the Seven Kingdoms!"
"Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving your people like your own children! We hope Your Majesty will eliminate the rebels and unify the Seven Kingdoms!"
At this moment, Joffrey, standing at the top of the Red Keep, watched this scene with satisfaction. Having been infused with a perfect Homelander serum, his five senses had been astonishingly enhanced.Coarse bread was made from the husks and bran that nobles didn't want, and wild vegetables were what nobles used to feed their livestock. Faced with Joffrey personally coming to ask for them, no noble would dare say no, especially since these were just insignificant scraps for feeding poultry.
But Joffrey, as a well-rounded student who had thoroughly studied the history of the Great Celestial Dynasty, naturally understood the importance of the people's hearts. As long as the methods were right, his enemies would face the terror of a vast ocean of people.
However, no king in Westeros valued the role of the common people, because due to the feudal system, powerful nobles were the key to maintaining the king's rule.At this moment, Lu Bu had already begun distributing bread and vegetable soup. After the elderly and children were given priority to receive the soup, they were surprised to discover that it actually contained bones and shredded meat. This could be said to be the only expense Geoffrey incurred besides labor costs.
This brought tears to the eyes of the elderly, and allowed the emaciated children to taste meat for the first time.
Each time the soldiers finished serving a person the vegetable soup with meat, they would say, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving the people like your own children," and the poor people would respectfully reply, "Thank you, Your Majesty, for loving the people like your own children."However, there are selfish people everywhere, and many take advantage of their physical strength to snatch bread and soup from the elderly, the young, and women. Lü Bu naturally showed no mercy towards this, giving them a severe beating and confiscating their bread.
Overall, this plan to win hearts and minds was very successful, but Joffrey couldn't keep supporting them forever; he still needed to find something for them to do.After distributing the bread and soup, Lu Bu continued, "His Majesty has ten thousand acres of fertile land lying uncultivated, so he has decided to distribute it to you. You are allowed to cultivate it for three years, and no taxes will be collected during those three years. However, each of you must cultivate 10 acres of wasteland for His Majesty on the Blackwater River Plain. Then, you will also be allowed to cultivate the newly reclaimed land for three years, after which the newly reclaimed land will belong to you!"
In reality, the good land on the Blackwater River Plain had already been cultivated by the nobles, leaving only some barren land. But even so, for these tens of thousands of propertyless poor people, farming was much better than digging wild vegetables and eating tree bark.Amidst the cheers of the crowd, Lu Bu left a hundred men to guard the shantytown and returned to Red Fort to report for duty.