serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 415 State affairs are difficult
The sun is still very high in the afternoon of the seventh lunar month, and the light reflected on the towering tower of Guang'anmen is still dazzling.

Under the city gate, many people were coming and going, waiting to enter the city.

Outside the city gate stood a group of soldiers armed with guns and knives, and an official sat lazily at a wooden table.

There was a big bucket on the table. Merchants entering the city had to pay customs duties. A middle-aged man who looked like a businessman threw a piece of broken silver into the bucket.

As soon as the businessman left, the official stuffed the broken silver into his arms.

At this time, a rapid sound of horse hooves came over, and the officials looked at it.

A postman was galloping towards this side, whipping his horse, and the three small red flags behind him were so dazzling.

Hurry up six hundred miles!
The official was shocked and stood up suddenly: "Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

The people in front of the city gate immediately moved to both sides, clearing the way into the city.

As they galloped closer and closer, suddenly, the fast horse under the postmaster's legs neighed, foamed at the mouth, gave way to its front hooves, and collapsed forward.

The postman was directly thrown away and hit the ground hard. A clear sound of broken bones resounded outside Guang'an Gate, and blood immediately stained the ground red.

A dead silence!
At this moment, the Guang'an gatekeeper hurriedly walked out of the city gate. When he saw it, his face changed immediately. He quickly stepped forward and took off the baggage behind the postman, and pulled out the blood-stained official document and its cowhide envelope. There were three feathers stuck on it, and under the feathers it was written: Six hundred miles urgent!
The guard of Guang'an Gate did not dare to delay and shouted loudly: "Quick, bring my horse!" As he said this, he galloped towards the city.
At the same time, in the side hall of the Daming Palace in the opposite direction of Guang'an Gate, the old concubine fell on the couch and counted the rosary with her eyes slightly closed. The string of nanmu rosary beads in her hand was spinning faster and faster.

Sitting on five huanghuali wooden armchairs next to the west wall were Wang Hetang, Zhao Zixun, Li Shouzhong and Shi Guangzhu. In addition to Jia She, several cabinet bachelors in Beijing were here.

Wang Hetang's eyes were full of anger and pain.

Finally, the rosary slowed down, and the old lady slowly opened her eyes.

After a moment of silence, the old concubine spoke first: "The head of the Wu family has been promoted to the title of Ninghai County Prince, with the title of Crown Prince and Tutor."

Wang Hetang suddenly stood up and said very excitedly: "This is raising a tiger's risk! We should issue an order to deprive the head of the Wu family of all official positions and take back the military power of the Guangdong Navy. In addition, the new naval force of Nanwang was mobilized to go south to Guangdong. If the Wu family refuses to hand over power, they will be destroyed immediately!"

Zhao Zixun, Li Shouzhong and Shi Guangzhu looked at each other and said nothing.

The old lady sighed: "Neither the new naval force nor the Yangtze River Navy can necessarily defeat the Guangdong Navy. If we don't fight, we can deter the Guangdong Navy. As for starting a war, it will be better if we win, but if we lose."

Wang Hetang became even more anxious: "Once the Jin Dynasty makes the head of the Wu family the king of Ninghai, others will definitely follow suit and coerce the court to give them titles! Greed can never be fed."

Shi Guangzhu answered and sighed: "There is no other way. We can only wait until the court calms down."

At this time, Dai Quan came in, hurriedly asked the old concubine, then walked over, presented the official document with both hands, and whispered: "Mr. Jia Ge sent someone to send it. It has been raining for days and the Yellow River has surged. Henan , Many river embankments burst in Shandong, flooding countless fields and houses.”

Hearing this, the old concubine trembled, then closed her eyes, as if trying to hide the shock and pain in her heart: "Take it over and show it to the chief assistant and the others."

Dai Quan: "Yes." He said holding the official document and walked towards Wang Hetang and others.

Wang Hetang strode over, grabbed the official document, and hurriedly opened it, then he clenched the document and pressed it on his chest, coughing violently.

Li Shouzhong, Zhao Zixun, and Shi Guangzhu quickly gathered around and asked: "Is the disaster serious?"

Wang Hetang calmed down, looked up, and murmured: "The Yellow River has opened more than a dozen gaps. In the third year of Jianwu, the Yellow River changed its course. The court spent tens of millions of taels of silver to build new embankments, but they couldn't block it. Live in a flood! Millions of victims. Millions of victims."

Zhao Zixun snatched the official document, and Li Shouzhong and Shi Guangzhu both put their heads over it.

The old concubine suddenly opened her eyes and said to Dai Quan: "Draw up the decree. The head of the Wu family will be promoted to Ninghai County Prince. After receiving the decree, he will immediately lead the Guangdong Navy south to attack Annan!"

Dai Quan: "Yes." He bowed and backed out.

The old concubine looked at Zhao Zixun again: "You are also in charge of the household department. What do you think we should do?"

Zhao Zixun: "When I return to the concubine, my top priority is nothing more than money and food. Just..."

Old lady: "Say."

Zhao Zixun: "Yes. Food is easy to talk about. The granaries outside the city are full of grains and rice from Nanyang. The grains and rice can be immediately transported to the disaster areas. The key is to allocate funds to repair river embankments, but the Ministry of Revenue has no funds to allocate." The old lady The concubine looked at him: "How much do you need?"

Zhao Zixun looked at the official document: "Mr. Jia Ge made an annotation, estimating 300 million taels of silver!"

The old concubine pondered for a while and said: "This money has been released from the internal treasury." Then she looked at Wang Hetang and asked, "When will the next batch of Japanese silver ships arrive?"

Wang Hetang thought for a while and replied: "It should be around the Mid-Autumn Festival. The gold and silver mined by the Beiting Protectorate will not be able to enter Beijing until early September."

The old concubine thought for a moment: "In this way, we will allocate another 100 million from the internal treasury to the Ministry of Household Affairs."

After a pause, "There is not much money left in the inner treasury."

All four were silent.

The money and food from Henan, Shaanxi and Sichuan were to support the northwest front, while the money and food from Hunan, Yunnan and Guizhou and other places were all transferred to the Liaodong Army. The deficit of the imperial court was getting bigger and bigger. If it were not for the gold and silver mines of the Japanese and Beiting Protectorate, The little money in the inner treasury has long been exhausted.

In addition, the corruption of court officials is becoming more and more serious now, and the taxes and money paid to the national treasury by the provinces are also much less, all of which have been corrupted by those people.

The old concubine: "As for who to send as the imperial envoy, you go back and discuss it carefully."

Zhao Zixun: "This matter is not a trivial matter. It definitely requires officials like the Minister of the Sixth Ministry. But now the officials of the Jia family will push it aside when they can. If they can't push it away, they will just complain. The royalists and officials from those families are all They are the ones who plucking the feathers of the geese. Regardless of whether the river embankment can be repaired, they will definitely rip off the skin of the victims."

At this point, he suddenly became excited: "Now the imperial court has become the domain of Jingnan County Prince, Nan'an County Prince and Lin'an Marquis Mansion. In their eyes, there is no imperial court. Several censors from the Metropolitan Procuratorate jointly impeached them. , they dared to intercept and beat the censor halfway, and tore up the impeachment memorial. At that time, the county king also dared to beat Zhao Xi, who was deliberately provocative, because of his drunkenness! "

Silence, there was no sound in the side hall.

The look on the old concubine's face was very complicated. In more than a year, earth-shaking changes had taken place in the court. The civil service group was severely hacked by the Jia family, and now it was suppressed by the noble military family. The Jia family, which was the only one that could compete with those families, was unable to raise its head. It was even the case that Jia She had not set foot in the Daming Palace for almost a year.

The relationship between the Zhen family and the two families only consisted of courtesy exchanges.

The Jia family was unwilling to come forward, and those families formed a group and continued to encroach on the court. The power of the royal family was in danger.

At this time, Li Shouzhong spoke: "You can appoint Lin Ruhai as the imperial minister. He is a gentleman and will not watch the people being displaced."

Zhao Zixun loudly answered: "Yes! Lin Ruhai is the most suitable candidate."

Li Shouzhong suddenly remembered: "Today is the day when the county prince's twins capture Zhou. I will go to the county prince's mansion now."

The old concubine's eyes lit up: "I have troubled Li Ge so much. Tell Lin Ruhai and Jia Hu that Lin Ruhai can go on errands as a cabinet bachelor."

Li Shouzhong: "Yes." He answered, bowed and left.

The old lady waved her hand: "You all go back."

Wang Hetang, Li Shouzhong, and Shi Guangzhu: "Yes." After answering, they walked out of the palace door.

"The chief assistant is staying." The old lady added.

Wang Hetang stopped.

After a while, the old lady seemed to have made up her mind: "I can't wait any longer."

Wang Hetang was stunned and looked at the old concubine.

The old lady stared at him closely: "It will be too late when the border troops in the north also have other ideas!"

Wang Hetang pondered for a while and said: "Then use the conflict between the Infantry Yamen and the Military and Horse Division to eliminate them."

After a pause, "We also need to make sure that the Jia family will not interfere in this matter!"

The old lady nodded.

(End of this chapter)