The Second Master of the Red Chamber

But he said that when Jia Lian came down to the boat, the personal guards and the officers and soldiers stationed last night had already closed up.

"Did your lord rest well last night?"

Zhao'er, Zhao Sheng and other generals, seeing Jia Lian coming, came forward and asked with a smile.

Looking at their expressions, how could Jia Lian not know what they were thinking, so put on airs, nodded slightly and said: "It's not very good, I've been listening to the music all night, and I feel a little boring."

All the soldiers and other young generals laughed.

Although they had never been on the second floor of the building last night, and did not know the specific scene above, the sound of singing, dancing and music never stopped almost overnight, and it only stopped for a short while before dawn.

This made them admire Jia Lian's physique while envious of the blessings of their adults.

Good guy, your lord won't really be flirting all night, right?
Zhao'er was the closest to Jia Lian, seeing Aqi and Aqin go to tidy up the carriage, he leaned forward and said flatteringly: "Second Master listened to the music all night, but he still felt bored, we played on the river all night last night the cool breeze."

Hearing this, Jia Lian looked at the soldiers. Although everyone could see that everyone was tired after staying up all night, everyone had a playful and sincere smile on their faces, and no one had any complaints. .

Even though as a military leader, it is common for his own enjoyment and subordinates to suffer, Jia Lian still felt a little embarrassed.

So with a wave of his arms, "Everyone has worked hard. In this way, all the brothers who were on duty last night will be rewarded with two months' monthly salary and monthly money, and this Marquis will pay for it himself.

In addition, starting today, the salt merchants will probably be a lot more honest, and we will be a lot more relaxed.

So, for the next three days, you all give the brothers below a day off in turn, so that they also have time to take a good stroll in this bustling Jiangnan water town. "

As soon as Jia Lian said this, the people around him, whether they were generals or soldiers, showed joy.

It's fine to reward them with money, but you also specially give them a day off?
We are all men, so we all understand Jia Lian's good intentions.What is Yangzhou City famous for?It's not the ten-mile Yangzhou Road, and it's not the rich salt merchants, but the famous "skinny horse".

Let’s forget about it before, but now all of them have a lot of money in their hands, enough for each of them to go to a higher-end brothel, so chic!

Sure enough, it is good to hang out with such adults, not only to give money, but also to take care of their physical and mental health. Knowing that they have been greedy all night, I immediately give them the opportunity to find wild food by themselves...

Not to mention, following such an officer, it is worth working hard for him.

"However, you have to confess that you are only allowed to wear plain clothes when you go out, and you are not allowed to cause trouble. If anyone makes trouble and comes to this Marquis, then Ben Marquis will only treat you as the boss!"

"My lord, don't worry, my lord is so considerate of the brothers below, whoever dares to go out and cause trouble for my lord, the humble officer will cut his mother's dog skin off!"

Jia Lian just smiled and asked because he didn't see Liu Xianglian.

Zhao'er smiled and said, "Second Brother Liu was worried that Xingyuan's manpower would be insufficient, so after my lord boarded the boat, he brought some people back."

Jia Lian nodded after hearing this, and Liu Xianglian really became more and more attentive in her work.

Now in the Xingyuan, there are mountains of belongings that are still being counted and packaged day and night. It is better to be more careful.

After all, the contents of any box are of great value.

So he said with a smile: "When you go out, if you want to eat flower wine and can't find the way, you can call Liu Erlang. That kid, at first glance, is a regular customer of the brothel, and he knows the doorway inside very well. Pull him up. You don’t suffer easily.”

In this regard, all the soldiers naturally laughed.

……

In the following days, the city gate of Yangzhou was indeed quiet.

And Jia Lian, after monitoring that the salt merchants were relatively peaceful and active in raising and mobilizing money, did not pay much attention to them, and made a special trip to deal with possible troubles from above.

Before coming down from the capital, Jia Lian had roughly made up his mind to break the law with force, which is why he won the right to life and death in front of the emperor.

However, it is easy to use force to deal with the people below, but it is different to deal with those above.

It is conceivable that the news that he ransacked and beheaded the Zhao family, Wang family and others almost spread to the capital.

The people behind them, or those who are not used to their own way of doing things, will not sit still and will find ways to make trouble for him.

However, he was not unprepared.

Prince's Mansion in Beijing.

"What are you talking about, he really ransacked the Wang family's house, and even beheaded Wang Shanxiang in public!"

The prince was a little angry when he heard the staff's reply.

A royal family is nothing, what he cared about was that he had clearly greeted Jia Lian in advance, even if Jia Lian didn't look at the monk's face to see the Buddha's face, he shouldn't have done so.

"Besides the Wang family, what else did he copy?"

"There is also a small salt merchant in the Zhao family, and the prefect of Yangzhou, the salt transport envoy of Yangzhou Salt Transport Department, etc., were also taken down by him..."

The prince was even angrier when he heard this, and actually copied two or three houses, including the Wang family!

Someone expressed his feelings on behalf of the prince: "This Jia Lian is too arrogant and domineering. There are so many salt merchants who don't deal with it, but they use the Wang family as a raft. The Wang family pays filial piety to the Prince's residence every year, although they are not His Royal Highness's disciples. , but somehow there is a bit of incense.

Jia Lian actually killed someone just like that, obviously because he didn't take His Royal Highness seriously. "

"Could it be that Jia Lian didn't know that the Prince's Mansion was behind the Wang family?"

"If you were that Wang Shanxiang, someone was going to kill you, and you would still hide your cards?"

"Uh……"

The direction was right, and all the aides of the prince's mansion immediately aimed their guns at Jia Lian, verbally criticizing Jia Lian, with every sentence demanding that Jia Lian pay the price for his arrogance.

The prince did not express his opinion, because he always felt that Jia Lian was a smart person, so he should not do anything to deliberately provoke him.

Especially after talking with Jia Lian in front of the Daming Palace that day, he felt that even if Jia Lian was difficult to subdue, he would not become a stumbling block for him.

Of course, in fact, he felt in his heart that if Jia Lian was put on the hostile list because of such a trivial matter, it would be a weakening and a waste of his strength.Because Jia Lian is not the little guy he was when we first met, he can be cleaned up casually.

Today's Jia Lian is loved and trusted by his father, so touching him at this time will easily arouse his suspicion or even hostility.

For a royal family of salt merchants, whether it is worth it is a question.

"His Royal Highness, the Princess's Mansion has sent a letter."

"Well, why did the imperial sister send me a letter?"

The prince felt a little strange, he and Princess Zhaoyang had a pretty good relationship since they were young, and Princess Zhaoyang had a distasteful personality, if she had something to ask him, most of them would come to his house directly on horseback.

The order came in, and when I opened the letter, only the first few sentences were wrong, not like Princess Zhaoyang's tone at all.

But slowly, his frown unconsciously opened, and a smile even appeared on his face.

"Why is Your Highness so happy?"

"Happy, do I have one?"

The prince lit the letter casually, and the eunuch brought a brazier and took it.

The others laughed too.

No matter what the reason is, if the master is happy, that is a good thing.

"Okay, let's stop here about Jia Lian's matter, and don't mention it again."

Hearing the prince say this, he was finally quite surprised, and hurriedly asked why.

"Hmph, a little salt merchant not only assassinated the imperial envoy of the court, but also smeared the reputation of my prince's mansion everywhere, it's really not a pity to die!
Next, you should think carefully about how to deal with Qingliu's attacks when the evidence of the salt merchants' crimes is presented.

Hehe, my third brother is not easy to deal with. "

The prince said, a coldness flashed in his eyes.

He is already a prince, and he is clearly orthodox. If someone wants to compete with him, no matter who he is, he will hate him.

But thinking of something, he suddenly asked the eunuch beside him curiously: "You know a lot about the news in the palace, but do you know how the eldest princess treats Jia Lian after the empress dowager bestowed her marriage?"

"This servant is not very clear about this. However, there are rumors in the palace that the eldest princess got married last year, and the post of Jia Lian's send-off envoy was personally requested by the eldest princess from His Majesty."

"Hahaha, as expected, I'm afraid that my imperial sister has no more love for Jia Lian...uh."

Halfway through the speech, the prince stopped talking when he felt something was wrong, but he still felt strange in his heart.

Regarding his royal sister, he thinks he is very clear about what a proud and arrogant person, after being rejected by others, he still doesn't give up, and now he is still delivering a letter for someone, really...

It has to be said that since ancient times, beauty has been saddened by heroes, and he has been a little envious of Jia Lian.

The letter just now was indeed sent to him by Jia Lian through Princess Zhaoyang, and there was not much content in it, but after Jia Lian copied the Wang family, he heard that the Wang family seemed to have contacts with people in the Prince's residence, so he was "frightened" , hurriedly sent a letter to ask for instructions and plead guilty, and focused on how Wang Shanxiang's temperament was publicized, and he actually publicized his relationship with the Prince's Mansion everywhere.

Therefore, in order not to let such villains wantonly tarnish the reputation of the Prince's Mansion, Jia Lian had no choice but to sentence him to be executed as an example to others.

No matter how true or false what Jia Lian said in his letter, the prince who didn't want to embarrass Jia Lian because of a small salt merchant, immediately let go of it.

What he cared about was not the Wang family, but whether Jia Lian had any intention of opposing him.

Now that Jia Lian has made a special trip to Beijing to explain to him, he is naturally happy to let go of this.

After all, a small salt merchant can only honor him with tens of thousands of taels of silver every year!In fact, there are not many, just because the Wang family did not approach him directly, so there are only so many in his hands.

Although tens of thousands of taels of silver is not a lot, allowing him to cultivate many confidantes, but at the same time he also took a big risk!
Now that the third prince is using him as a handle to cause trouble for him, he can't wait to give up on it.