King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 609 The role of ten thousand taels of gold

After a brief lesson, Yang Qingyin asked about North Korea. She actually also likes to hear new things.

Zhu Jinghong knew everything, but hid the dangerous situation. The story was so dangerous and novel that even Yuanchun and Yuan Chun were attracted.

Zhu Jinghong talked about what he saw outside, and then lunch time came, and he stopped by to eat at Kunning Palace.

During the dinner, Baochai was very considerate to him, serving tea, picking up vegetables, and serving rice. Yuan Chun and Chen Zhi felt very uncomfortable, and secretly wondered why this girl had no temper.

Here we were eating and chatting, while in the polo field inside Donghua Gate, Zhang Lin was bragging with the guards.

This trip to the north was really rich and colorful, and everyone present listened attentively, with yearning on their faces.

"Look...that shot hit here. I almost lost my life at that time. I'm scared to think about it now!"

Like Zhu Jinghong, Zhang Lin also took off his shirt at this moment, showing off his scars with great interest.

Blocking Zhu Jinghong's gun is what he is most proud of. It can be predicted that for a long time to come, this guy will find ways to show off to the outside world.

"What a great thing!"

Even though Baochai and Daiyu were on good terms, she was so hurt that she turned away with a cold face.

Instead of pulling each other down, compliment each other.

Baochai struggled twice more, and seeing that she really couldn't break free, she rested peacefully in Zhu Jinghong's arms.

"Brother Lu, I really learned a lot from my trip to North Korea this time. Do you know..."

"Zhang Baihu... was surrounded outside Jinling City. I braved the arrows of the White Lotus Sect alone to bring reinforcements for the Thirteenth Master. I'm afraid I'm not as safe as you in Yanshan!" Lu Yuxinfeng said calmly.

This sentence almost made Baochai angry to death. After all, this guy didn't even care about her when he came back, let alone ask about the child. He actually asked about an outsider first...

"Lao Liu is coming back too?" Zhu Jinghong was slightly surprised.

So when he saw Zhang and Lu, Zhu Jinghong only encouraged Lu Yuxin a few words, and then led Baochai out of the palace.

The two chatted with each other for a while, and then Baochai said, "Your girl Lin, I'm afraid she won't be able to come back for a while!"

Objectively speaking, Zhu Jingyuan is undoubtedly much more capable than the good old prince.

Zhang Lin had no way to refute what Lu Yuxin said, because he really stood out that time.

"Why?"

"Princess, why are you so angry..."

Zhang Lin pulled Lu Yuxin to start a conversation. The relationship between them had always been very good, and it was even a life-long friendship.

She has been waiting for this day for more than half a year. During this time, only she knows how much longing, worry and sadness she has felt.

Baochai nodded and replied: "I think it's only been a few days, and it is said that I came back with one million silver!"

When the two of them walked to Donghua Gate, they happened to meet Zhu Jinghong and Baochai who were about to leave the palace, so they quickened their pace and went forward to say hello.

The old man is only fifty-two this year, and he is afraid that he will be able to live for another ten years. For Zhu Jinghong, there is still a long time to come, and it may not be a good thing to be too outstanding now.

On the way, he and his wife didn't say a word until they got into the carriage together.

Zhu Jinghong hugged Baochai tighter, and then said with a smile: "How dare you disrespect such a sensible princess!"

In fact, his performance has been too outstanding. If we really want to talk about who is stronger in head-to-head combat, his two brothers combined cannot match him.

When they got to the car, the two of them did talk, but because they were worried that there were ears and eyes outside the car, they only talked about things in North Korea and recent events in the palace.

Yuan Chun and Chen Zhi were right, the wives of the Zhu family did have tempers.

A rough estimate shows that this guy spent a year in Jinling this year and earned at least 7 to 8 million yuan back. He showed his face harshly in front of the emperor.

At this moment, Zhu Jinghong also realized that he had made a mistake, so he immediately stepped forward and hugged Baochai. Although the latter struggled, he was still taken into his arms.

"Uh... this... hahaha... us brothers, why are we comparing ourselves to each other? We are all doing our jobs faithfully!"

But when he followed the sound, he realized that Lu Yuxin was here, so he smiled again.

"Maybe one day you'll get angry and slap me to death, and I won't have anyone to complain to!"

It's just that Zhu Jinghong didn't pay much attention to it.

"Begging for forgiveness on the back of a thorn tree? Humph... You are the prestigious Prince Xiang. How dare you, this little girl, ask you to apologize on the back of a thorn tree!"

In layman's terms, if the orthodox emperor died suddenly one day, it would not be difficult for him, Zhu Jinghong, to succeed to the throne.

He greeted Lu Yuxin and said with a smile: "I said Lu Baihu is nothing special. It is our duty to protect the Thirteenth Master!"

Along the way, there were so many guards saluting Zhu Jinghong that he was now numb.

A noise came out, causing Zhang Lin to be extremely dissatisfied.

"If I have done something wrong, just say it and I will apologize to you when I go back. How about that?"

Everyone chatted for a while and then left to have lunch. Only Zhang and Lu continued to argue.

In addition, with the convenience of holding great power, Zhu Jingyuan also won over many people, and now his power is approaching the prince Zhu Jingyuan.

"Daiyu hasn't come back yet?" Zhu Jinghong suddenly changed the subject.

Lao Liu was in charge of several shipping companies, and he really regarded combating smuggling as his top priority. Anyone who didn't get on his ship was beaten to death by him.

"I have to say, his method of getting money is really... really skillful!" Zhu Jinghong praised.

Baochai replied: "Her father is seriously ill, and I'm afraid he won't have much time left. Now he has to wait at the bedside!"

Baochai experienced the pain of losing her father when she was young. She still had her mother and brothers at that time, but Daiyu has nothing now, so she knows very well how difficult it is for Daiyu.

"Yeah!" Zhu Jinghong looked calm, but felt worried in his heart.

During the rest of the journey, Zhu Jinghong also asked about some trivial matters in the house, mainly about his children.

The son is Zhu Muzhen by Baochai, and the daughter is by Yinglian. As for the name, it has not been decided yet, and the emperor has left some control over it to him.

After returning to the palace, Zhu Jinghong and Baochai went to Tongxin Hall. Several women from the palace were waiting there after receiving the news.

As soon as they entered the room, everyone came forward to salute, especially Qi Qi, who was the most enthusiastic, simply because she was the worst born among the women in the palace.

After saying a few words to the women, Zhu Jinghong walked into the back room, where Yinglian accompanied his two children.

When he came to the cradle, Zhu Jinghong felt a little excited when he saw the two children with their eyes open and waving wildly.

This is my child...

He wanted to pick up his son first, but he couldn't find the right way for a while. Baochai stepped forward to pick him up and carefully handed it to Zhu Jinghong's hands.

It's a pity that the child didn't give him any face. He started crying as soon as he got into Zhu Jinghong's arms, which made him very embarrassed.

"Look at you...if you haven't come back for so long, your children won't even recognize you!" Baochai said with a sullen look on his face.

"This kid..."

In order to cover up his embarrassment, Zhu Jinghong hugged his son back again. This time Zhu Muzhen was quieter and looked at the person in front of him curiously with his eyes open.

"I said...don't just hold your son. Your daughter doesn't have a name yet, so hurry up and give her one!" As he spoke, Baochai had already picked up the baby girl.

As the aunt, she fully demonstrated her magnanimity and said this sentence for Yinglian.

"A girl's family needs to be gentle and virtuous, so let's call her...Xianrou!"

After saying this, Zhu Jinghong ordered: "Get the pen and ink!"

He was afraid that everyone would not know which words they were, so he wrote them down himself. "Not bad!" Baochai commented.

"Zhu Xianrou..." Yinglian read out softly, feeling extremely happy.

Now that the child was only a few months old, he fell asleep after a while. Zhu Jinghong could only put it back in the cradle, and then went to the main hall to continue talking to the women.

An hour passed in the blink of an eye. Baochai said that he had something to discuss with Zhu Jinghong, and everyone realized what was going on and left.

After everyone left, the couple walked out of the main hall and strolled towards the back garden of the palace.

On the way, Baochai talked about trivial matters about the palace. Zhu Jinghong just listened attentively and responded with a sentence or two from time to time.

After walking in the garden for a while, Baochai asked the eunuchs and maids not to accompany them, and then they had some time alone and walked along the corridor of the garden.

"Looking at your intention in Kunning Palace today, do you want people to think that we don't get along?"

Walking forward with his hands behind his back, Zhu Jinghong replied: "I have this idea. If others see that we are unhappy, we will always feel better!"

"To be honest, if you really act like this...if you want to do something in the future, you won't be able to use me to cover it up!"

"What do you mean?" Zhu Jinghong stopped and turned around to ask.

Baochai explained: "For the decisions you made in the past, others thought I was helping you make the decisions. If you and I break up... if you do anything wise and wise in the future, people will know that you were just faking it in the past!"

"So...the gain outweighs the loss!"

"Yes!"

After thinking for a while, Zhu Jinghong smiled and replied: "Then from now on... I'll just listen to you!"

The two continued to walk forward, and Baochai followed closely and said, "There is something else I want to tell you!"

"Ok!"

"The wife of North Korea's Mingchuan Lord Li Hui has sent me three letters recently. They want to ask for your help... to help him find the position of king!"

When Zhu Jinghong was in North Korea, Li Hui clearly expressed his thoughts and seriously expressed his loyalty.

But Zhu Jinghong didn't want to get involved in this matter at all. Firstly, it didn't matter who would be the king, and secondly, he was in the whirlpool at this stage and it was not easy to get involved in these matters.

Seeing that Zhu Jinghong didn't speak, Baochai then said: "Hey... you should say something about how to deal with it!"

"This matter... I still can't get involved!"

Baochai laughed and said: "At least I gave you ten beauties..."

"What a beauty..."

Seeing Zhu Jinghong's embarrassment, Baochai stopped teasing him and said, "Since it's inconvenient for you to interfere, I'd better return the heavy gifts he sent to him!"

"A heavy gift?"

"I won't mention anything else. I just gave away 10,000 taels of gold today!"

"What?" These words really shocked Zhu Jinghong.

Ten thousand taels of gold is definitely not a small amount, even for him as a prince.

Baochai continued: "I also said that I would like to measure North Korea's material resources to express my gratitude to you, King Xiang!"

Now that she is talking so much, it is obvious that she has been bribed by these ten thousand taels of gold, and she also wants to get more benefits from North Korea.

It can be said that Cui Xiuqing figured out Baochai's pulse and induced her to say these words more, which played a very important role.

For example, at this time, Zhu Jinghong was also slightly tempted.

There was no way, Li Hui was too generous, which forced him to no longer be firm.

"What do you think?" Zhu Jinghong asked calmly.

Baochai thought about this matter seriously, so he replied: "The house needs this money, and it also needs the money they send in the future!"

"The house is short of money?" Zhu Jinghong was surprised.

"Do you think it's easy to exchange favors? How about that without spending money?" Baochai said angrily.

Zhu Jinghong never cared about these matters, and she had to rely on her to handle them all.

"This year, just for these, we have spent 130,000 taels. In addition to the rewards given to everyone in the house, plus the birthday celebrations for the concubines and concubines in the palace, a total of 160,000 to 70,000 taels have been spent!"

"Now there is only more than 70,000 silver left in the palace's account!"

"Didn't they give it to us?" Zhu Jinghong asked.

Baochai replied: "In short, we can't make ends meet. Our house is just like Prince Rui's house, there are too many people coming and going!"

In order to win over people's hearts and show that they value others, rewards must be more generous, otherwise the friendship between gentlemen will be as watery as water.

Of course, it can also be said that this is to save face, but it is also something that cannot be done on one's own initiative.

"If it's really difficult... then let's forget it!"

Zhu Jinghong said calmly: "Only one hundred thousand taels of silver is not enough to buy the position of king!"

Baochai replied: "Everyone has said that North Korea's material resources will be more than one hundred thousand silver by then!"

Zhu Jinghong asked: "But how can we guarantee that he will inherit the position of king and not regret it?"

Baochai was speechless for a moment, because this kind of thing was very likely to happen, and it would be difficult for them to counterattack if someone went back on their word.

"Unless...we can always control him!" Zhu Jinghong's eyes were deep.

"How to control it?" Baochai couldn't think of a way in a short time. After all, she was just a housewife.

"Korea Observer Gao Zhiwen wants to show his kindness to me!"

"Are you going to rely on him?"

"Not only do we rely on him, but we also need to rely on the garrison in Seoul if we want to really be able to suppress North Korea!"

"Can the garrison generals be relied on?"

The man in charge of the garrison was Qi Yanze. Although Zhu Jinghong got along well with him, he did not feel that he could be fully trusted.

In other words, he had to replace Qi Yanze and then put his own man on top.

It is easy to replace Qi Yanze. He was originally the commander of the Andong Xingdu Division, so it makes sense to return to his original position.

The question is who to replace!
Zhu Jinghong went through his circle of friends and found a very suitable person easily.

"It's unreliable, just change it to someone else!" Zhu Jinghong said with a smile.

Although he was joking, he was already seriously considering the feasibility.

This time, he decided to be a little braver and proactive, and practice nepotism for once.

Baochai became more and more surprised: "Do you want to replace the leading general of the North Korean garrison?"

The position of a monarch has already crossed the line, and it must be "matched" by another general to command the army. This is indeed "excessive" in Baochai's view.

Of course, Baochai also had to lament that her men were really strong, intervening in such great events.

Compared with the prince handling general affairs and the sixth son going out to make some money, Zhu Jinghong is much better.

Seeing Zhu Jinghong nodding, confirming that he really had such a bold idea, Baochai couldn't help but ask: "Who will go instead?"

(End of this chapter)