King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 397 Return to Jinling
"Fengtian Chengyun Emperor, Zhiyue..."

"Since ancient times, royal marriages have always wanted a harmonious family and a daughter with excellent talents, learning and conduct..."

"The daughter of the Xue family lost her father at a young age. She is definitely not a blessed person. How can she be selected into the royal family..."

"Therefore, she will be dismissed from her position as princess and will choose another good match at another time..."

After hearing the content of the imperial edict, Baochai no longer cared about the rules and looked up at the eunuch delivering the edict on the steps.

Baochai was immediately horrified when she saw this man's face glowing green and looking at him with a ferocious smile.

"Left and right, capture this charming and charming daughter and put her on death row..."

After the eunuch passed the order, the guards on the left and right immediately came forward to capture Baochai.

"No... I want to see the Thirteenth Master, I want to see the Thirteenth Master..." Baochai struggled to back away, his face full of panic.

However, the guards ignored her struggle and walked towards Baochai with long strides. The murderous aura frightened Baochai.

"Master Thirteen, save me..."

In the study, Baochai shouted out and immediately opened his eyes.

Raising his head slightly, Baochai looked around with his eyes and found that there were indeed no eunuchs and guards. Only then did Baochai confirm that it was just a nightmare.

That dream was too scary for her, because in the dream she would lose what she cared about most, and she would not be able to become Zhu Jinghong's wife.

"Girl, what's the matter with you?"

Ying'er walked in from outside the house, her eyes full of doubts, and said, "Master Thirteen is still on the way!"

Taking out her handkerchief, Baochai gently wiped the sweat from her forehead and asked, "What day is today?"

"Today is July [-]th!"

After answering, Ying'er made a cup of tea and handed it to Baochai: "Did the girl have a nightmare?"

Baochai Yun Danfeng said softly: "I dreamed about a ghost, it scared me so much!"

"Ah? I wonder what the girl dreamed about?" Ying'er suddenly became interested.

After pinching Ying'er's little face, Baochai smiled and said, "It's you, the naughty one!"

"Looking at it, Master Thirteen will be arriving in the next two days!"

Ying'er nodded and replied with a smile: "That's right... When the girl and Thirteenth Master return to Beijing and become princesses, our family will benefit even more!"

Standing up, Baochai said slowly: "It's just a little extra face from others, what else can it do?"

Following Baochai, Ying'er said happily: "The benefits will be many, our business will be better in the future, at least the government will not ask for cards..."

To show that she knew more, Ying'er went on to say: "I also heard from the young man below that this time Yingtian Mansion cleared the land, it underpaid our family thousands of acres of land..."

The other Baochai thought it was nothing, but when she learned that thousands of acres of land had been underreported, she immediately became uneasy.

Although the Xue family is wealthy, their focus is on business, so compared to other wealthy families, their family does not have much land.

Of course, this is not relative to the wealthy families in the province. In fact, the Xue family owns more than 6000 acres of land, and they are definitely unusually large landowners.

Six thousand acres of farmland was underreported by over a thousand acres. This proportion of false reporting is not small.

Originally this was nothing, but after all, Baochai had been in the palace for a long time and had heard a lot of gossip. He knew that clearing the land was the most important matter for the court.

His Majesty the Emperor attached great importance to this matter, so he used Yingtian Mansion as a pilot program to implement the clearing of the throne. If the Xue family cheated on this matter, it would be a disaster if it was found out.

Thinking of this, and then thinking of the scene in the dream just now, Baochai started sweating on his forehead.

"Immediately, go ask my mother and brother to see me!"

After being ordained, Baochai stayed in the boudoir, learning various royal etiquette systems, and was not allowed to go out before Zhu Jinghong personally welcomed her.

And she couldn't see anyone except her closest relatives.

At this moment, outside his boudoir, there are female officials from the Shangyi Bureau guarding him, and there are also Jin Yiwei and people from the Dongchang outside the courtyard, so there can be no fraud at all.

"Yes!"

Ying'er responded, then trotted out to deliver the message.

In the past, she was a daughter. No matter how smart she was, she did not have a strong voice and her ability to interfere in family affairs was extremely weak. She mainly relied on persuading her mother and elder brother to exert influence.

But since the Xue family was registered and Baochai received the royal appointment, her status in the family has become higher and higher. Now she can make the final decision on all major family affairs.

When Aunt Xue and Xue Pan arrived, Baochai was already in the flower hall looking carefully at the clothes. This was the dress that was delivered with her on the day of her acceptance.

The phoenix crown of Princess Chaopin is embroidered with various patterns of birds and animals, revealing her unparalleled nobility.

There are only two sets of this level of uniforms in the world, one is in Prince Rui's Mansion in the capital, and the other is right in front of Baochai.

"Baochai, why did you call us?"

As time goes by, even as a biological mother, Aunt Xue feels a sense of alienation and awe when facing Baochai.

There is no way, in front of her is not only her biological daughter, but also the future princess of the Ming Dynasty.

Turning around, Baochai asked calmly: "I heard... Yingtian Mansion is clearing land recently, but I don't know if the land at home has been cleared?"

"Why does my sister care about these little things?" Xue Pan asked with a smile.

But when Baochai stopped smiling, Xue Pan couldn't laugh anymore.

No matter how easy-going Baochai behaves, in this strict hierarchical feudal society, the change of status forcibly changed everything.

"I recently had an official mission to clear my father-in-law, and it was completed two days ago!"

Baochai then asked: "How much land does our family have according to the official registration?"

"Five thousand five hundred acres!" Xue Pan replied.

Hearing this, Baochai was immediately shocked. The false report was more than she imagined.

"Then how much land does our family really have?"

"A total of more than [-] acres..."

Hearing this, Baochai was even more shocked, so she immediately asked: "After the land was given to the tenants as rewards, I remember that there were still [-] acres left. Why were there so many more fields? When did the clan purchase additional land?" "

Xue Pan replied: "Because my sister was elected as the princess, some old friends in Jinling each donated some land to our family, so we have two thousand acres more!"

This was indeed a situation Baochai had not expected. For a moment, she froze on the spot and began to think about how to deal with this.

There are actually [-] acres of land, but [-] acres have been reported to the court. It is not an exaggeration to say that such a huge vacancy is a huge disaster.

"Brother, you immediately take the land deed to Yingtian Mansion and report our land truthfully!"

"Ah... sister, why is this? Do you know how much more food our family will pay if you report it truthfully?" Xue Pan immediately panicked.

Obviously he couldn't part with the money, so he wanted to remind his sister not to do such stupid things.

"Of course I know...but I know even better that hiding the land is going against the national policy. Do you know how big a sin this is?" Baochai said in a harsh tone.

Seeing her change of color, not to mention Xue Pan, even Aunt Xue felt uneasy.

"Sister... as long as you are here, our family will not be afraid of any sin!" Xue Pan replied bravely.

Baochai said with a serious expression: "Brother, have you forgotten that all our family has received is a royal engagement letter. I have not yet married into the royal family, let alone been canonized by the royal family!"

At this time, Baochai didn't want to talk nonsense and said immediately: "This matter cannot be delayed. The Thirteenth Master will arrive in two days. You must get the matter done before he comes, otherwise...he will never spare you." !”

When it comes to who is the strongest deterrent to Xue Pan, the answer is naturally Zhu Jinghong.

So after Baochai finished speaking, Xue Pan did not dare to say any more.

"Brother, what are you still doing?"

"I...I'll get it done right away!" Xue Pan saluted and turned around to leave.

Aunt Xue was the only one left in the house, with a very complicated look on her face. She could clearly feel that Baochai and the Xue family were no longer of the same mind.

Just like when she married into the Xue family and borrowed money from her natal brother, she always put the interests of her husband's family first.

At this time, Baochai solemnly said: "Mother, I am doing this all for the Xue family!"......

The tenth year of Orthodoxy, July [-]th.

Ten miles east of the west gate of Yingtian Mansion, Jia Yucun, the prefect, stood under a pergola, staring blankly at the end of the official road in the distance.

Today is the day when Zhu Jinghong arrives in Yingtian. All the local officials from Jinling are here to greet him. At this moment, there are hundreds of officials under the pergola.

Everyone else was talking and laughing, but Jia Yucun was frowning attentively, which seemed out of tune with the atmosphere of the scene.

Others only thought that he was worried about his husband, but that was not the case at all.

The matter must have started more than a month ago, when the imperial court's envoys arrived and went to the Xue family to announce the imperial edict. Jia Yucun also went to listen.

It was then that he learned that the daughter of the Xue family whom Zhu Jinghong was going to marry was named Baochai.

The hairpin was waiting to fly in the bed... Thinking of these words of praise that he had recited for more than ten years, Jia Yucun felt extremely frightened at this moment.

Why was Jia Hua Jia Shifei so unlucky that his words of praise were so taboo?

"Coming, coming... Sirs!"

When they heard someone coming to deliver a message, everyone's conversations ended one after another and they all looked towards the end of the official road.

Sure enough, a large number of ceremonial flags appeared in the distance, indicating that Zhu Jinghong's team had arrived.

"Stand still, stand still..." someone shouted.

They had rehearsed the welcoming scene several times, so it didn't look messy at the moment.

The officials stood up one after another. The ones at the front were Chief Envoy Zheng Xianlin, Inspector He Gujin, Inspector Zhao Xuyan, Commander Wang Quanyi, and Li Shunchang, who had been in office for more than half a year.

At the other end of the team, Zhu Jinghong was sitting alone in a sedan chair, playing with a delicate knife.

Many officials gave him gifts along the way. He was not very interested in gold, silver, treasures and other items, but he couldn't put it down except the knife.

"It's perfect for cutting barbecue and other things..."

As the soul of the new century, for Zhu Jinghong, he must have a career but not let go of enjoyment, so he was determined to marry Baochai.

If you can't even marry the person you like, then there's no point in struggling. In his opinion, compromise is an excuse for the weak. He, Zhu Jinghong, wants his career and marriage to be successful.

"Your Majesty, the Jinling magistrate is waiting in front and is about to speak!" Yu Hai's voice came from outside the sedan.

"Ok!"

When Zhu Jinghong's honor guard arrived, together with his guards and entourage, as well as Jinling officials and others, there were at least 4000 to [-] people around the pergola.

When Zhu Jinghong got off the sedan chair, led by several senior officials, all the local officials in Jinling knelt down to pay homage.

"I see you, Your Highness!"

Civil and military officials knelt down to pay homage. This was a special treatment only available to princes. If they were princes, they would just bow their hands, and there wouldn't be so many people coming.

"Excuse me!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile as he stepped out of the sedan chair.

I saw Zheng Xianlin coming up to him, and said respectfully: "Your Majesty has traveled all the way, and I think he is very tired. I have specially prepared some tea today, and I also asked Your Majesty to sit down for a while to relieve his fatigue..."

Stepping forward, Zhu Jinghong said with a smile: "We are all acquaintances, there is no need to get so acquainted, you all should be more casual..."

Everyone spontaneously moved to both sides so that Zhu Jinghong could smoothly pass into the pergola.

As he walked towards the pergola, the officials on both sides bowed and saluted, with smiles on their faces.

Zhu Jinghong didn't know any of these people, but he responded with a smile. It's so-called not to hit the smiling person, not to mention that he was here to get married.

"I've seen Lord Thirteen!"

"Oh...Zhifu Jia!"

Facing Jia Yucun's greeting, Zhu Jinghong only responded and then continued to walk forward. Only Zheng Xianlin and the others followed him.

Only then did Jia Yucun confirm that Zhu Jinghong had no intention of accusing him.

Let's say that Zhu Jinghong came to the center of the pergola. It was indeed cooler here because it was shaded.

After sitting down, Zhu Jinghong motioned to everyone: "I have already said that we are all acquaintances, so there is no need to be too restrained... Everyone, sit down, everyone, sit down!"

"Thank you, Your Highness!"

Everyone sat down according to their rank, and those who could sit in the front at this moment were naturally Zheng Xianlin and a few others. Jia Yucun could only sit in the second row.

Then I heard Zheng Xianlin say: "Your Highness, please have some tea!"

Taking the tea cup from Yu Hai, Zhu Jinghong smiled and said: "Everyone...please!"

After everyone drank tea together, they each put down their teacups and looked at Zhu Jinghong.

Looking at everyone, Zhu Jinghong asked with a smile: "It's been a year since I returned to my old place...how are you guys doing lately?"

"Thanks to Your Highness Hongfu, everything will be fine for me!" Zheng Xianlin replied.

It was at this moment that I heard Zhu Jinghong say: "At about this time last year, everyone here was frowning, and your hair was turning gray because of the imperial errands!"

"Yeah yeah……"

Someone below echoed, and these words brought back their not-so-good memories.

Zhu Jinghong's expression became more and more modest, and he said slowly: "The deficits in various prefectures and counties have scared you all to the point of losing your wits. I said that day...with my face, I will definitely be able to protect you. How about now?"

In order to provide money and food for the showdown that day, all prefectures and counties were required to truthfully report their deficits, which really made these local officials very uneasy.

Normally, being in a deficit, being demoted or dismissed from office are all minor punishments. A slightly more serious punishment could be exile. But now that so many people are safe and sound, it is incredible for everyone to think about it.

This is true as Zhu Jinghong said. It was indeed his face that was big enough to persuade the emperor not to pursue the matter.

Everyone at the scene was wondering whether the prince's contribution was attributable to this.

At this time, the inspector He Gujin said: "Your Highness has protected the people, and I am so grateful that I can't help but shed tears!"

"Yeah yeah……"

Although he takes the route of a military commander, if he can win some people's hearts, Zhu Jinghong will not give up in vain.

But then he said: "What you said is a big mistake!"

When everyone was curious, they heard Zhu Jinghong continue to say: "This is not my protection. This is the Holy Spirit's love and protection for you..."

The emperor's informants were everywhere in the team. At this time, flattering the emperor to please the old man was Zhu Jinghong's more important purpose.

"If Your Majesty doesn't sympathize with your difficulties, even if you're beaten to death, let alone for my sake... I won't be able to protect you all!"

This statement couldn't be more correct. Everyone was a veteran in officialdom. Immediately afterwards, they were grateful for the emperor's grace, and everyone looked extremely emotional.

"Everyone...Everyone..."

After raising his voice, everyone became quiet one after another and glanced at Zhu Jinghong again.

"I have always listened to His Majesty's teachings: I should treat the meritorious officials of the imperial court kindly, and I should also cherish the capable ministers who are sincere and dedicated!"

At present, Yingtian Mansion is sorting out the land of Zhang Zang. At this moment, Zhu Jinghong said such a sentence, and it is easy to think that he meant something.

So everyone speculated that his words might have been instructed by the emperor, just to knock some people present.

In fact, when the same words are heard in different people's ears, they will have different thoughts and perceptions.

For example, in Jia Yucun's ears, he only felt endless encouragement and only thought about completing the emperor's mission.

As for those who were causing trouble behind the scenes, they were feeling a little jealous at the moment. The fate of those like Chief Secretary and Councilor Qian Ruiming last year was not as miserable as usual.

"Everyone...drink tea, drink tea!" Zhu Jinghong picked up the teacup again.

Initially, everyone was very happy, but after hearing Zhu Jinghong's next words, the atmosphere became a little heavy.

But Zhu Jinghong doesn't care about that, as long as he flatters him enough.

(End of this chapter)