serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 397
The winter in Beijing in the fifth year of Jianwu was really a year of heavy snow. After the early snow five days before the winter solstice, there were several more heavy snows in succession.

In the blink of an eye, it’s the 22nd day of the twelfth lunar month, and tomorrow is the Little New Year in the North, a day when people send gifts to the Kitchen God.

It is worth mentioning that the weather in Beijing has been almost always good since the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month. Taking advantage of God's open eyes, many noble families held weddings while the emperor was marrying his daughter. Jia Hu was busy attending weddings and drinking every day, and Yang Dayong Jia Hu and Yingchun were married at the same time. Jia Hu was both the man's head and the girl's mother's family. Not only did she make a lot of money, but she was also exhausted to death.

After finishing Yang Dayong's wedding, Jia Hu was either having a drink or on his way to a drink. At the busiest time, he had to attend three weddings in one afternoon.

Every day she came back smelling of alcohol, not to mention being disliked by Lin Daiyu. If she came back too late, she could only sleep on the bed in the Bisha cupboard.

In the Bisha cupboard, Jia Hu was lying on the bed with his head covered with a quilt.

"Second Master." A voice whispered in his ear. Jia Hu lifted the quilt and pointed to the bedroom: "Are you awake?"

Xue Yan smiled: "The girl is washing up."

Jia Hu lifted up the quilt and sat up. He smelled of alcohol and immediately said to Xue Yan: "Prepare hot water."

Xue Yan: "Everything is ready."

Jia Hu waved his hand.

Xue Yan understood and asked the maid to bring in a huge bath bucket, and then poured water into the bath bucket one bucket at a time.

After taking off his clothes, Jia Hu stepped into the bathtub on the step stool.

As the hot water soaked his whole body, Jia Hu suddenly felt refreshed and leaned against the wall of the barrel with his eyes slightly closed.

The door curtain was lifted, and Zicuckoo walked in with clean clothes in her hands. She saw Jia Hu's face was sweating. She put the clothes away, took out a towel from the basin, and stepped forward to dry the sweat on his face.

"Give me a shoulder squeeze." Jia Hu closed his eyes.

"Ah."

Zijuan put down the scarf, folded the sleeves, dipped her hands into the water, and massaged his shoulders.

Jia Hu: "Did you go to Xue's house yesterday?"

Zicuckoo smiled and said, "Second Master, have you seen me?"

Jia Hu: "If you don't take good care of me at home, why are you just joining in the fun?"

Zijuan replied: "I'm not just joining in the fun, I'm here to take a look at the girl from the 'Osmanthus Xia Family'."

Jia Hu opened his eyes: "Can you see the bride?"

Zijuan: "Yes. I saw her during the wedding."

Jia Hu froze for a moment.

Zijuan smiled: "Who dares to come to the wedding ceremony when the second master and the girl are getting married?"

After hearing this, Jia Hu also smiled and asked, "What do you think of this girl from the Xia family?"

Zicuckoo thought for a while: "I can't tell."

Jia Hu: "How do you say it?"

Zijuan: "He looks quite handsome, but he doesn't look like a person who is easy to get along with."

After hearing her words, Jia Hu smiled. Yesterday, Xue Pan married Xia Jingui, the "Osmanthus Xia Family" in the original work.

Jia Hu has been busy these days. When he found out about this, the Xue family had already paid a betrothal gift.

Of course, even if he knew about it in advance, Jia Hu would not care about it. As the old saying goes, "It is better to demolish a temple than ruin a marriage." It is unnecessary.

Besides, now the Xue family is stronger than the Xia family, and Xia Jingui is a high-married woman. She has jumped from a merchant's daughter to an imperial wife, a sixth-grade Anren, and she can fly up a branch and become a phoenix.

I don’t know what Xue Pan and Xia Jingui will be like in the future.

Shaking his head, Jia Hu stood up from the bathtub, picked up a towel and wiped the water drops on his body, and walked out of the bathtub.

Although she had long been used to taking Jia Hu to bathe, Zijuan still blushed and did not dare to delay in the cold weather. She quickly stepped forward to help Jia Hu dry his body and then helped him put on his clothes.
Breakfast was set on the ebony round table in the dining room next to the large living room, and Lin Daiyu was already sitting there waiting.

Jia Hu walked over quickly and said to Lin Daiyu: "How many times have I told you not to wait for me." As he said that, he sat down next to her.

Lin Daiyu took the chopsticks from Amber's hand and handed them to him: "Let's eat."

Jia Hu gave her a small steamed bun: "I didn't wake you up last night, did I?" Lin Daiyu shook her head.

Jia Hu took a sip of the porridge and asked, "Has there been a letter from our father?"

Lin Daiyu swallowed the bun in her mouth: "What's wrong?"

Jia Hu picked up another side dish for her with chopsticks: "I figured, there should be a letter for me."

Lin Daiyu suddenly remembered: "A message came from my uncle, saying that if there is nothing particularly important, you should not go out for the next two days. The emperor's deadline will be within these two days."

Jia Hu nodded.

Lin Daiyu hesitated for a moment: "Why hasn't the emperor summoned you to the palace yet?"

Jia Hu picked up a chopstick and put the dish into his mouth, and said while eating: "Why did he call me into the palace? He asked Li Chengyang and Mei Changwen into the cabinet just to balance the forces of all parties and guard against me. Besides, now Even if he wants to see me, I don’t dare to see him! To put it bluntly, even if the Jingyang Bell rings, I will be the last one to enter the palace. "

After a pause, "He is a dying person, I can't afford to bet on him!"

Lin Daiyu took a sip of porridge, gave Jia Hu a stuffed bun with plain stuffing, and then stuffed a bun with meat stuffing for herself: "Hey, Xiuyan came to talk to me yesterday. I heard her say that due to the intervention of the military, the imperial court and The French negotiations have reached a deadlock, saying it is because of the issue of the ownership of the Southeast Asian territories, is this true?"

Jia Hu looked at her: "What's wrong?"

Lin Daiyu: "How did you discuss it?"

Jia Hu drank the porridge in the bowl in one gulp and handed the empty bowl to Hu Hu: "Half a bowl." Then he said to Lin Daiyu: "What is there to discuss? How can you spit out the meat in your mouth! Besides, where is it?" This is our place.”

After hearing this, Lin Daiyu was stunned.

Jia Hu cleared his throat: "Everywhere the sun and moon shine, and wherever rivers reach, are Han lands."

"."

Lin Daiyu rolled her eyes at him and said, "Speak nicely."

Jia Hu: "As early as the late Western Han Dynasty, a group of Han people went south. Many Han people also went to Nanyang during the Tang, Song and Yuan Dynasties. By the early Ming Dynasty, a large number of Han people had settled in Nanyang and established city-states there. Even before the Ming Dynasty, the Han people were We have lived there for three to four hundred years, so it is our place of course. The Westerners are invaders, we are just taking back our homeland."

After a pause, "The navy is now driving Shui Rong to the west. When the Nanyang region is completely stabilized, the navy will follow him to regain his homeland. This is the value of his life."

Hiss!
Lin Daiyu was dumbfounded. Seeing that he didn't seem to be joking, she immediately took a breath of cold air.
There was heavy snow all over the sky, and there was a vast expanse of white everywhere.

At this moment, all the officials from the six departments gathered in the cabinet duty room. Together with the six cabinet ministers in Beijing, the small duty room was full of people.

The door to the duty room was covered by a thick cotton curtain, and two large fire pots were burning in the middle of the room. Headed by Chief Assistant Wang Hetang, the papers of more than a dozen ministers including Zhao Zixun, Li Shouzhong, Shi Guangzhu, and Jia She surrounded the fire. While it was roasting, everyone’s desks were filled with account books.

It was snowing and cold outside, and everyone inside had sweat dripping from their faces.

Since the marriage of Princess Anle, the emperor's condition has worsened, and the world has collapsed in an instant. They have begun to prepare for the funeral and the new emperor's enthronement.

Today, Liubutang officials were summoned here to hold an annual financial meeting to calculate the accounts for the five years of Jianwu and prepare for the new dynasty.

At this time, Wang Hetang pulled out a bill from the case file: "The existing treasury silver in the national treasury is 4305 taels. Excluding the 500 million taels of silver that cannot be used and the 210 million taels of various silver funds that the court urgently needs to spend, this is the only amount left by the court. Some money."

Everyone raised their heads and looked at Wang Hetang, waiting for what he would say next.

Wang Hetang: "I roughly calculated that after the funeral, the treasury silver will not be able to support the tax money coming to Beijing."

As soon as this remark came out, there was a lot of discussion among the people.

Wang Hetang seemed to suddenly sense something and raised his hand.

The room quickly became quiet.

Suddenly, a bell sounded from outside the house!
Everyone stood up suddenly!
The Jingyang bell sounded desolately!

"Your Majesty!" Zhao Zixun was the first to run out.

Then everyone swarmed towards the door.
Jingyang bells echoed over the imperial city.

In the Dragon Head Palace, the Supreme Emperor was sitting cross-legged on the couch, counting beads in his hand and reciting Buddhist scriptures silently.
Ning'an Hall Backyard

In the distance, Jingyang bells sounded from the howling north wind!

The door curtain was lifted, and Jia Hu walked out of the room, turning his head to look in the direction where the bell was coming from.
(End of this chapter)