The eldest son of the red mansion

Chapter 138
Jia Ke and He Tong came to the flower hall, Jia Ke asked He Tong to sit up, He Tong gave way several times, but Jia Ke insisted on asking him to sit up.He Tong delayed but then made the premier, and Jia Ke accompanied him as the next prime minister.

After three rounds of wine and five tastes of food, the two continued to chat about the matter of being an official.

He Tong said drunkenly to Jia Ke: "Is there any general in Xuanfu Town who doesn't take empty pay now? If he doesn't take empty pay, how can he live on the salary given by the imperial court?"

After all, Jia Ke was born in the family of the Duke and came from time travel. Although he was never rich, he never worried about money.Qianhu, who has been working in Kaiping Town for this period of time, doesn't know much about his salary, and Lan Xiang is in charge of these.

So he asked curiously: "Is the salary given by the court not enough to support the family? This is unlikely."

He Tong glanced at him contemptuously, "General Jia, you are still young, and you were born in a duke's family, so you don't know much about the world. Now I'm a third-rank official. Do you know how much my annual salary adds up to?" ?"

Before Jia Ke could answer, he said angrily again: "My annual salary is only more than 300 taels. How can I live if I don't eat empty pay? With this little money, I can only get eight floors. Others All households have pumped water."

He Tong seemed to be very angry, and continued: "I have to manage the money up and down, and I have to raise some soldiers. Our customs here are not like the mainland. Those civil servants can still make a fuss about fire consumption. They are just one The county magistrate can earn a few thousand taels a year. We poor soldiers, what can we do if we don’t get paid?”

Jia Ke was taken aback when he heard his words, and never thought that the current government has become so corrupt.

Jia Ke hurriedly asked again: "Brother He, but I am in Kaiping Town, and there is no such thing as arrears of payment. What's going on?"

"What else can happen? Some of the officials and gentlemen of the household department are still sober. All the officers and soldiers on the front line of the Nine Borders Town are fully paid, and they are also afraid of the Tatars. I won't give you enough to eat. How can you work hard for them to guard the front line. You, Kaiping Town, are the front line facing the Tatars, so you can pay them in full." He Tong said drunkenly.

"Is this situation just in our Xuanfu Town, or in the Nine Sides?"

"How can it be different? From my estimation, our Xuanfu Town said that there are 8 soldiers, but [-] is actually not bad. Ours is not bad. When we reach Yulin, Shaanxi, the actual number of soldiers we have is probably [-]. Only half of the book."

Jia Ke was really frightened this time. He never expected that the number of soldiers would be so large. No wonder Wang Tao didn't dare to come to support last time. According to this situation, even if Wang Tao brought all the soldiers and horses, it would be useless .

He Tong said to him mysteriously again: "Do you know why those leading generals are so active in drawing out soldiers for you this time?"

"why?"

He Tong squinted his eyes and looked at him and said: "This time I have sent you soldiers, the imperial court will definitely let them recruit again. It will be good if they can recruit half of the soldiers. At that time, there will be a lot of vacancies. With military pay every year, even food and equipment plus weapon maintenance cost at least 20 taels of silver, how could they not be jealous."

After hearing what he said, Jia Ke couldn't help but fell silent, thinking that in the future the current emperor will sit under the new emperor, and after the death of the supreme emperor, the new emperor will vigorously rectify the administration of officials. It seems that it is not unreasonable. If it is empty, once a war breaks out, I am afraid there will be no soldiers to fight.

Jia Ke and He Tong both had their own concerns, and they both got drunk before they knew it.

When Jia Ke woke up the next day, she found that she was already lying on the bed, and all the clothes on her body had been changed.

Jia Ke pressed her temples, and the headache after a hangover made him frown.

At this moment, Lan Xiang came in from the outside and saw Jia Ke woke up.Quickly poured a bowl of tea from the side and handed it to Jia Ke.

Then he helped Jia Ke up and leaned against him, and gently massaged his head with both hands.Jia Ke was holding the tea bowl, leaning on the warm jade and the fragrance behind her, getting up in a state of mind.And Lan Xiang hugged Jia Ke from behind and gave him a massage, as if she didn't know that there were men and women at all.

When the two were flirting, Qiaolian came in from outside with a food box.It was obvious at a glance that something was wrong between the two of them.Qiao Lian is also a smart person, knowing that Jia Ke cannot be blamed, so she smiled and said to Jia Ke as if she hadn't seen it: "Master, it's time to eat. I drank so much wine yesterday. If I don't eat anything in the morning, be careful of my stomach." uncomfortable."

Seeing Qiaolian come in, Jia Ke was a little embarrassed, and said awkwardly: "I'm going to get up now, where did you put my clothes?"

Lan Xiang hurriedly said: "Yesterday, uncle was drunk and vomited all over the place. We changed clothes for uncle." As he spoke, he took out new clothes from the closet next to him and put them beside him.

Jia Ke hurriedly took it over and dressed neatly.Lan Xiang walked while helping Jia Ke to tidy up his clothes, and at the same time helping him button his buttons, busy up and down.

Qiaolian wanted to go up to help but couldn't intervene, seeing how angry they were, her eyes were burning.

At this time, Jia Ke also completely let go, and didn't care about Lan Xiang's performance at all, and let him work on her.

As soon as Jia Ke got dressed, Chuncao came in with hot water, put the hot water on the rack, and prepared wet towels for Jia Ke to wash.

After Jia Ke washed her face, she sat at the table and prepared to have breakfast.Qiao Lian hurried up to open the food box and put out the food one by one. What she ate this morning was "water noodles".The side dishes are ten-spiced melon eggplant, five-spice tempeh, sugared garlic, fresh peppers soaked in soy sauce, garlic juice, a large bowl of pork stew, and three or four delicate stir-fries.

Jia Ke personally took out the marinade, poured garlic vinegar on it, and only ate it three times and swallowed it, it was just one bowl. Jia Ke was really hungry yesterday, so he ate two or three more bowls before giving up.

While Jia Ke was eating, the three women in the room had a fierce confrontation with their eyes.First, Qiaolian gestured to Chuncao with her eyes, then she nuzzled at Lanxiang, and then glanced at Lanxiang.

When Chuncao saw Qiaolian's eyes, she understood what it meant. She was angry, but her face didn't show. She just gave Lanxiang a contemptuous look, as if she saw something dirty.

And Lan Xiang looked at them with disdain, not only did not get angry, but proudly puffed out her chest.With a smile on the corner of his mouth, he didn't even look at them.

After Jia Ke finished eating, he felt that the atmosphere in the room was a bit strange, and he knew that it might be caused by what he did in the morning, but he didn't know how to resolve the war between women, and besides, he didn't take it to heart Now, let them go as long as they don't cause trouble.

So he made an excuse and said to them: "Let me go and see if Commander He is awake?" After speaking, he walked out of the house.

After Jia Ke left, Lan Xiang called the little girl outside to come in and clean up Jia Ke's leftovers.Chuncao and Qiaolian did not go out to take care of their own affairs as usual.

After the little girl went out, Qiaolian couldn't help it first, and said mockingly: "In our room, some people pretend to be dignified and generous. In fact, they are more flirtatious than anyone else. It's still Miss Qianjin, I'm sorry."

Lan Xiang didn't seem to take her words seriously, with a smile on her face that never disappeared, and said softly: "You are not young anymore, why are you still so childish? We are born to serve My lord, if my lord wants it, why don't you take the initiative to lean on it? You don't have the skills, so don't blame her for getting ahead of you."

Qiaolian is usually eloquent, but she was blocked by her soft words and couldn't speak a word.

(End of this chapter)