Red House Shoufu

Chapter 27 Secret Discussion
The night was very quiet, and Jia Lian's wailing suddenly came from the guest courtyard.Wang Xifeng is still the same Wang Xifeng, no one can stop her from being jealous.

"You woman, why do you pick the most painful place to twist!"

Wang Xifeng rubbed Jia Lian to relieve her anger and distress, and said unforgivingly: "Is the woman in the family not beautiful enough? Is it not enough with me? At worst, I will make Ping'er your concubine."

"It's not about this problem. In the officialdom, it's essential to socialize in places where there are occasional dramas. Forget it, you won't understand even if I tell you."

Jia Lian turned over and pressed Wang Xifeng under her body, and whispered in her ear: "You just need to remember that you are my wife, Jia Lian, and will always be!"

……

Early the next morning, after a simple breakfast, Lin Shu invited Jia Lian to go out.

The two set off from the south gate of Suzhou City in a carriage and came to an inconspicuous Zhuangzi in the south of the city.

"Uncle Lin, you are here. Who is this?"

As soon as he entered Zhuangzi, a middle-aged man with a scar on his face came over and asked Lin Shu.

"Monk, this is my cousin, the envoy of Longjianwei Township, the Second Master Lian of Rongguo Mansion."

Lin Shu introduced Jia Lian's identity to the monk, and when he heard that he was the envoy of Xiuyiwei Town, the monk immediately bowed and saluted: "Wei Xiongjin, one of the hundreds of households in the Qianhu Office of Xiuyiwei in Suzhou, sees the envoy of the town. !"

"Cousin Lian, this Wei Baihu is Geng Qianhu's confidant. He was transferred to the Qianhu Office in Suzhou to facilitate the communication between the north and the south and protect me. Because he used to be a monk in Lingyin Temple for a few days, everyone called him that. him."

Hearing Lin Shu's introduction, Jia Lian kindly helped Wei Xiongjin up and patted him on the shoulder: "Good man, you have worked hard to protect my brother these past few years."

Wei Xiongjin hurriedly cupped his hands and said he didn't dare: "Master of the town government, Mr. Lin, Mr. Qianhu is already waiting for you in Zhuangzi. Because I was afraid of being seen by others, I couldn't come to welcome you. Please forgive me."

Jia Lian waved his hands indifferently, and said, "Be careful, take me to see Geng Qianhu."

……

I haven't seen him for more than two years. Geng Xiangnan's skin is darker, but his eyes are sharper.

The three of them greeted each other and arranged for Wei Xiongjin to guard the gate, then sat in the room to discuss important matters.

Jia Lian cupped his hands to the north, and said solemnly: "Geng Qianhu, His Majesty's oral order..."

"I respectfully listen to the oracle!" Geng Xiangnan immediately knelt down and bowed respectfully to the north.

"Your Majesty said that you have done a good job in Qiongzhou Prefecture. I wanted to transfer you back to Beijing, but the Jiangnan Salt Field will open, and I cannot do without you. Of course, meritorious ministers must be rewarded. Xiuyi Wei Qiongzhou Prefecture Qianhu Office Qianhu Geng Xiangnan, Jinxiu Yiwei commanded and directed the affairs, led the Qianhu offices of the southern Zhili prefectures, and assisted the imperial order Jiangnan to inspect the salt censor and take charge of the salt affairs."

Geng Xiangnan was overjoyed and bowed down: "Minister Geng Xiangnan thanked the emperor for his grace, long live my emperor, long live, long live, long live!"

Jia Lian helped Geng Xiangnan up, and cupped his hands to congratulate: "Congratulations to Geng Qian, who has been promoted to two ranks in a row. His Majesty's imperial decree will go to Jinling with the imperial envoy. It is estimated that the fleet has already arrived in Shandong."

From rank five, thousand households, to being a fourth rank commander, Geng Xiangnan has been promoted two ranks in just over two years, which really made him overjoyed.

Not forgetting the well digger when drinking water, Geng Xiangnan bowed his hands to Jia Lian and Lin Shu to express his gratitude: "Thank you Jia Zhenfu for traveling a long way, and thank you Lin Jieyuan for giving me this opportunity."

The three exchanged pleasantries for a while, then sat down again.

Lin Shu asked: "Geng Qianhu... No, it's Geng Qian's business now. I don't know how the salt production in Qiongzhou Mansion is going this year? Why is there no news about Qiongzhou Mansion in the monthly mansion newspaper?"

Geng Xiangnan replied: "This matter still has to start three months ago..."

It turns out that since Qiongzhou sent salt from the south to the north two years ago, the well salt and lake salt in Jiangnan, Jinzhong, and Sichuan and Shu areas were caught off guard.

A large amount of cheap and high-quality Qiongzhou sea salt hits the high salt price, causing heavy losses to those salt merchants who rely on salt to make a fortune.

They couldn't beat Qiongzhou official salt in terms of price, so they started to make other ideas.

Qiongzhou and the Central Plains are separated by a strait, and land transportation is inconvenient. Usually, they are connected by sea ships and go northward along the coastline to Jinling.

After two years, Jiangnan salt merchants took the lead in hooking up the Japanese pirates entrenched in Ryukyu. Three months ago, at the beginning of May of the seventh year of Zhide, the four delivery ships were directly robbed by Japanese pirates.

Not only was Haiyan robbed, but even the two hundred people on board were killed except two people who escaped by chance.When the Fujian Navy arrived at the scene of the incident, there were no traces of the boat except for scattered corpses.

Although Qiongzhou still had a lot of ships, but because the Japanese pirates were powerful and there were spies in the dark, Geng Xiangnan secretly reported to the emperor and temporarily delivered goods from Guangzhou to the north by land.

After all, the land route is not as fast and convenient as the sea route, and the expansion of Qiongzhou Haiyan has lost the ferocious momentum of the past.

Jia Lian slapped the table violently: "Shameless traitors, dare to collude with Japanese pirates. No wonder Your Majesty was upset and angry in those days. These thieves are really daring! Haiyan is related to my Dachu's plan to rectify the salt administration. They did this and let Your Majesty go. Where? Where are the people who are waiting for cheap salt?"

Nowadays, His Majesty likes to be bored in his heart. After receiving Geng Xiangnan's secret report, he closed the door and smashed a lot of rough and worthless pottery.

Jia Lian knew that this was a sign of the emperor's extreme anger. He once asked the emperor out of curiosity, how could such rough pottery be used in the palace?

At that time, the emperor's answer made him deeply surprised and admired - I am poor, these pottery are worthless, if I smashed the precious porcelain, wouldn't the victims of the flood of the Yellow River lose a lot of food for disaster relief? .

Jia Lian sincerely admires this rumored mean, ungrateful and stingy emperor.It is true that I am stingy, I have been on the job for more than two years, and I have never given other rewards except two ordinary jade pendants.

But he is also very generous. He was promoted from a fifth-rank acquaintance to a fourth-rank town mansion envoy in two years, and he bestowed a seal, so that Wang Xifeng had the imperial order of a fourth-rank respectful person.

Diligent in government and loving the people, he can't tolerate sand in his eyes, and treats his courtiers a little differently.Treat loyal ministers and good generals with kindness and trust, and treat corrupt officials like a storm.

This made Jia Lian more and more loyal. Now that he finally knew the reason for the emperor's anger and worry, how could he not be resentful?

Lin Shu looked at Jia Lian with some surprise. How could his cheap cousin be so worried about the country and the people?
Geng Xiangnan was also taken aback by Jia Lian's sudden anger. Although Jia Lian was only a fourth-rank envoy of the Dragon Guard Town, he was the emperor's confidant, and he dared not offend.

"Jia Zhenfu, don't be angry with those scumbags. This time I came to Jiangnan secretly to find out about the Japanese pirates."

Geng Xiangnan poured a cup of tea for Jia Lian, and explained: "The Fujian navy has embroidered clothes and guards, and they have sent the two surviving sailors to Qiongzhou. After our investigation, among the salt merchants linked to the Japanese pirates, Cheng from the Yangzhou government Home is one of them!"

(End of this chapter)