King Xiang of the Red Chamber

Chapter 748 The situation has changed
"Wang Yicheng, there are so many people in my family. If I rashly go looking for a place to live...how can I find a place to stay in time?"

"That's your business!" Wang Yichen said calmly.

At this time, Jia Lian interrupted and said, "Did we offend you, which is why you are forcing us like this?"

Wang Yicheng had a blank expression on his face and replied calmly, "There is no grudge between you and me, so why would you force me to do anything?"

"Then why is this happening?" Jia Zheng was already angry.

"Master Jia, I have my own reasons. Please don't make things difficult for me!" Wang Yichen showed a trace of difficulty.

From his words, Jia Zheng finally realized that there was someone behind this matter.

Jia Zheng then said, "Wang Yicheng, although my family has fallen into decline, we still have a crown princess!"

The reason why Jia Zheng and his entire family were able to move in was because of the face of Crown Princess Yuanchun, and now he could only point this out again.

"We can bear the injustice, but if we damage the Crown Princess's reputation, you will be in big trouble!"

Hearing these threats, fear flashed in Wang Yichen's eyes.

He was not clear about the structure of the capital city. He only heard the chat of the postman yesterday and learned that the prince had fallen ill after the Mid-Autumn Festival and was now recuperating at home.

As a result, all kinds of rumors spread in the capital. Some said that the prince was imprisoned for treason, some said that Prince Rui got drunk and scolded the prince until he fell sick, and some said that Prince Xiang beat the prince.

The most outrageous thing is that some people say that the prince has died, but the death is being kept secret.

Anyway, all the rumors have brought shame to the royal family, and there is nothing that can be done about it.

In the future, historical books will certainly record the Mid-Autumn Festival in the 17th year of Zhengtong vaguely, or simply delete it.

It is foreseeable that the rumors about this night will be even wilder than the parties involved expected.

To Wang Yicheng, the struggles among the bigwigs in the capital were incomprehensible to him, but the threat from the commander of Chenzhouwei next door was very close and scary.

"Lord Jia, why do you have to make things difficult for me? It is indeed against the rules for so many of you to move in!" Wang Yicheng could only defend himself.

Jia Zheng didn't want to talk any more, so he approached Wang Yicheng and whispered, "We can go, but you have to tell me... who is harming us?"

Seeing that Wang Yicheng didn't dare to say anything, Jia Zheng said, "You have to understand that you can't afford to offend our family!"

The Jia family is like a lean camel that is bigger than a horse, and the small postmaster is not up to the standard, so the latter certainly cannot be offended.

"Master Jia, there may be some misunderstanding between you and General Zhao, the commander of Chenzhou Guards!"

Wang Yicheng could only say this much. He did not dare to betray Commander Zhao directly, but in fact he had already said everything.

The reason why Commander Zhao targeted the Jia family was that he used to serve in the imperial guards and had a promising future, but he was impeached by the Eastern Palace and the Prince Rui's Mansion. Like Zhou Shoujun and Shen Jinxun, he was disbanded and exiled to various places by the emperor.

Now that the Eastern Palace has lost its power and is bullying the impoverished Jia family, Commander Zhao feels very relieved.

"Master Jia, please leave now. It will be embarrassing for everyone if the man you sent comes!"

Sometimes it just so happened that when the two were in a stalemate, the person sent by Yuanchun to deliver the letter arrived.

This was Yuanchun's final arrangement for the Jia family before the Eastern Palace closed its doors to receive the imperial edict.

Jia Lian took the letter and asked about things in the Eastern Palace.

The person who delivered the letter only knew that something happened in the Eastern Palace, but he had no idea what exactly happened, especially since the various statements were very confusing.

However, Jia Lian also learned the key information that something was happening in the Eastern Palace.

So it was easy for him to think that perhaps what happened today was related to the turmoil in the Eastern Palace.

Coming to Jia Zheng's side, Jia Lian lowered his voice and said, "Uncle, a letter from the Crown Princess!"

Jia Zheng was about to ask a few more questions, but when he heard Jia Lian's reminder, he was stunned for a moment, then he took the letter and walked aside.

When he opened the letter, Jia Lian also came over.

The first part of the letter was the routine greetings for family members, and after that, the conversation got down to business.

In the letter, Yuanchun only said that the Eastern Palace had suffered a great change, and hoped that everyone in the Jia family would return home as soon as possible and not cause trouble again, otherwise they would be exterminated.

At the end of the letter, Yuanchun also warned that the letter paper should be burned after reading and that no evidence should be left behind.

The so-called "great change" in the letter was unclear, which made Jia Zheng extremely worried. He wanted to return to Beijing to get the truth.

But reason told him that it would be best for him to return home as the letter said, otherwise it would only bring trouble to himself and his family.

Thinking about what Wang Yicheng had done today and the commander Zhao behind the scenes, Jia Zheng's sense of crisis became more serious.

"Second uncle, what's wrong?" Jia Lian couldn't help but ask.

Jia Zheng said nothing more and handed the letter to Jia Lian, who also felt heavy-hearted after reading it.

"Burn it!" Jia Zheng ordered.

"Yes!"

After dealing with this matter, Jia Zheng walked towards Wang Yicheng and told him that his family was willing to leave.

Now that this matter had been decided, even though the Jia family members complained, they had no choice but to pack up and set off.

Fortunately, the next journey will be by water, and the boat has been rented, so there will be no more bumpy rides.

On Jia Lian's side, he was chatting with Wang Xifeng, while Ping'er was directing the maids to clean up.

"what happened?"

Wang Xifeng asked curiously. She was holding a half-year-old child in her arms. This was the daughter she gave birth to Jia Lian.

"I guess the Eastern Palace is finished!" Jia Lian sighed.

"End?"

"Yes... it's over. The prince asked us to return home as soon as possible and told us to be careful after returning to Jinling. If we are not careful, we may cause disaster to the genocide of our clan!"

"The disaster of genocide?" Wang Xifeng was shocked when she heard this.

Who could have imagined that the Jia family, a family with two dukes, could be exterminated.

"No matter how many crises there were before, there has never been such a statement... So I say, the Eastern Palace is probably finished!"

"Then let's..."

Wang Xifeng fell silent, and then she thought of many things.

Glancing at the child in her arms, Wang Xifeng said in a panic, "Most of these people in the mansion are thieves and play tricks on others. I'm afraid there will be trouble in the future!"

"They are courting death, and it would be fine if we were to suffer as a result. But I feel sorry for this child!"

Jia Lian himself also thought about these things, which made him feel heavy-hearted.

But fortunately, he is different from others, and relatively speaking he still has a way out.

"No matter what, you are the cousin of Princess Xiang after all. When you go to Jinling, you should spend more time with the Xue family. With them taking care of you... you may be able to rest easy in the future!"

"In my opinion, it is 100% certain that King Xiang will take that position!"

Jia Lian had expressed this opinion to Wang Xifeng several times, but this time he was very serious about it.

Jia Lian opened her mind, and Wang Xifeng also thought of an old story, saying, "A few days ago, I heard the envoy mention that she met the second girl in the Prince Xiang's mansion!" "The second girl is living well in the mansion, and she is your biological sister. If we are really in trouble in the future, she can help us to intercede!"

Hearing this, Jia Lian sighed and said, "It's all because I didn't care enough about Sister Yingchun back then. I'm afraid there's not much affection left between us siblings!"

This is of course true. Because he is not very familiar with Yingchun, Jia Lian doesn't think he can rely on her.

Wang Xifeng smiled and then said, "So most of you men are stupid. You seem to be very busy outside, but in fact you are completely useless and worthless!"

"This family still depends on me!"

"What do you mean?" Jia Lian was not in the mood to joke and asked this question very seriously.

"I care about my second sister. I don't care about her food, clothing and other expenses when she is in the mansion. Even if she doesn't remember you as her brother...she should at least remember some kindness towards me!"

"Besides, there is Sister Lin. When she was in our house, I also cared for her very much. Now that she is a concubine, I am afraid she will call me 'Sister Feng' in the future!"

Hearing this, Jia Lian smiled for the first time, which shows how happy he was.

On the other side, Grandmother Jia looked at her son in front of her, frowned and asked what happened.

Beside Lady Jia were Tanchun and Xichun, and all the other maids had been sent away.

"Mother, there are officials staying here. It's really against the rules for us to have so many people staying here..."

"Our mansion was just reprimanded by His Majesty, and my son thought it would be better to be cautious, so he asked someone to make room!"

After nodding slightly, Grandmother Jia didn't ask any more questions.

She is already very old and can't do many things. As the wife of a duke, the best protection for the Jia family is for her to live hard.

After some more consolation, Jia Zheng left the room.

Before leaving, he also instructed Tanchun and Xichun to take good care of the old lady.

It took the Jia family an hour to pack up their things and leave the post station, heading for the dock more than ten miles away.

There were over a hundred people in their group, and they hired five large ships, which were mostly enough to accommodate them all.

Time flies, and winter comes in a blink of an eye. The first snow falls in the capital.

During this period, another major event occurred in the court.

The emperor issued an edict to implement land surveying in Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Hunan. The scope of this edict was very wide, and it undoubtedly caused an uproar in the court.

Opposition voices arose one after another, and impeachment edicts from various provinces continued to emerge, directly targeting the Prime Minister Zhao Yushan and his followers.

The impeachment of these people is not just from a moral perspective, many of the evidence of their crimes are irrefutable.

There is no way. Under the current system of bureaucratic selection and appointment, it is normal for corruption and fraud to occur. People like Wang Pei'an are, after all, a minority.

So at this time, we can only talk about political struggles without considering objective right and wrong.

So the final result was that Zhao Yushan and his disciples were generally safe and sound, with only a few of them being dismissed from office by the emperor and sent back to their hometowns because their crimes were too serious.

Compared with the means of suppressing officials, the emperor has shown his attitude through practical actions, that is, he will continue to firmly support Zhao Yushan.

However, the consequence of doing so was that hundreds of officials retired in a short period of time, causing great damage to the political situation in the court.

This was what Zhu Xianming wanted to avoid, but now it has turned out like this.

It cannot be said that the emperor was incompetent, but once the contradictions accumulated to a certain extent, they would inevitably erupt like a flood breaking through a dam.

What an emperor should do is to try his best to avoid causing a dam breach, or to actively cause a dam breach in a controllable manner, and at the same time be prepared to cover the water with earth.

When officials retired one after another, Zhu Xianming agreed decisively at first, and then promoted some alternate officials to take over.

However, this momentum was not stopped. People from all over the country and the court continued to resign, and the emperor had no choice but to continue selecting replacements from the Imperial College.

However, with the current level of transportation, the frequent changes of officials in the court and at the local level have led to a series of problems.

Problems began to arise in the collection, storage, transportation and allocation of money and grain, and even the situation became disconnected and out of control.

In other words, this time it really affected the political stability!
These matters were all handled by the emperor and the cabinet. Zhu Jinghong himself was not involved in this matter. In addition to being responsible for the research and development of guns and artillery, he was also in charge of the military reinforcements.

The eighth day of November is the day when the new recruits’ training ends, and Zhu Jinghong will be there to review it in person.

In the past, the army would recruit soldiers by themselves through surplus troops, and each garrison would train itself. However, this year, under the leadership of Zhu Jinghong, this model was adjusted.

From now on, the Imperial Guards and the Beijing Camp will be recruited and trained uniformly, and the Five Military Commandery will be directly responsible for this matter, with a special commander-in-chief to manage it.

Due to the great war in the northwest last year, the imperial guards lost a lot of men, so this time the training force is nearly 20,000, which is indeed a very large number.

Zhu Xianming had always thought that after the Northwest War was over, the court's financial situation would improve greatly, but the reality was not the case.

Maintaining the situation in the northwest, providing pensions to soldiers killed in battle, rewarding meritorious officers and soldiers, expanding the navy's armaments, stabilizing the situation in the southwest, and maintaining military deployment in all directions all cost a huge amount.

It is true that the Ming Dynasty is now powerful and that the court's annual revenue has increased dramatically, but overall expenditure has also indeed increased.

These things still had nothing to do with Zhu Jinghong. At this moment, he had arrived at the parade ground, accompanied by the Vice Governor-General and the Assistant Governor-General (who also served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Beijing Camp) of the Five Military Governors' Office.

In addition, the imperial guards who were about to receive the soldiers and the commanders of the various guards in the Beijing camp were also accompanying them on the periphery.

More than 20,000 new recruits were temporarily divided into five guards, and were now all lined up on the parade ground.

Zhu Jinghong, wearing a red round-necked dragon robe and a black gauze winged hat on his head, walked into the parade ground and, accompanied by his generals, came to the high platform in front of the army.

The people who actually managed the training were a deputy general of the Beijing camp and two commanders of the imperial guards.

At this moment, the deputy general came to the stage, drew his sword and saluted Zhu Jinghong, and then said in a serious tone: "Your Highness, the new soldiers in Shanglinyuan have lined up, please review them!"

Nodding, Zhu Jinghong said calmly: "Begin!"

"Yes!"

The north wind was howling, and the cold wind blew Zhu Jinghong's robe. His expression did not change at all, and he quietly looked at the various formations on the parade ground.

On his left and right at this moment were two deputy governors, Wang Ziteng and Shi Qian, both of whom were promoted to a higher level after the war.

Among them, Wang Ziteng, the deputy governor, is mainly in charge of the training of new recruits, so he is the one who will introduce the matter now, and Shi Qian on the side will interject a few words from time to time.

While listening to Wang Ziteng's introduction, Zhu Jinghong kept his eyes looking forward. After all, what you see with your eyes can tell you more than what you hear.

As the army moved, soldiers began to pass in front of Zhu Jinghong one after another. The sound of their orderly footsteps was inspiring.

"The Ming Dynasty will last forever!"

"Long live His Majesty the Emperor!"

Zhu Jinghong came here today under imperial order, so it is not an act of presumption for the army to shout these two sentences while marching.

"Very good...very well done!" Zhu Jinghong finally commented.

Technically, Wang Ziteng is Zhu Jinghong's uncle, but as an uncle, he is extremely cautious and careful when facing his nephew.

Hearing Zhu Jinghong's affirmative evaluation, Wang Ziteng finally put his mind at ease.

There were nearly thirty square formations in this review, and it took nearly twenty minutes for all of them to pass and re-form.

"Let's go... let's go down and take a look!" Zhu Jinghong ordered his subordinates.

(End of this chapter)