Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 108
Just after returning to the mansion, before Jia Rui could catch his breath, Xue Baochai sent Ying'er to send a message to Jia Rui.

Jia Rui could only rush to the small courtyard where Xue Baochai lived.

After entering the door, Xue Baochai quickly put down her sewing and came over to serve Jia Rui.

How could Jia Rui let a pregnant woman serve him? He quickly helped Xue Baochai to sit on the bed again.

"You are already pregnant, so you don't have to do these things, just let the little maids do it."

"My month is not too old, it's not a big deal. I can do these things as soon as I can. The little maids are actually very busy."

Jia Rui curled his lips after hearing this, don't think he doesn't know.

In the past, Jia Rui's family only had a few servants, and the maids were busy at that time. Jia Rui believes that, but now that Jia Rui has become rich, there are more servants and maids in the family, and the tempers of these maids have also gotten worse. .

Now these maids bowed their heads in front of him, but when they went outside, there were five of them and six of them.

For example, some time ago, when Brother Ying went to Rongguo Mansion to deliver something to Wang Xifeng, he quarreled with one of her maids.

I heard that Brother Ying was very majestic at that time and made the two little maids speechless and embarrassed.

This was the last time Ping'er came out to settle the matter. Otherwise, the little maid who offended her would have been scolded.

"Master, haven't you had dinner yet?"

"You can say, don't talk about dinner, I haven't even eaten lunch yet!"

Things were so busy today that Jia Rui had no time to have lunch.

But this is also because he has just taken over, and there are many things in the household department, and he is not familiar with them, so he is busy, and it should be easier after a while.

"Ying'er, quickly let the kitchen cook some dishes for the uncle, and bring them to the room."

"Got it, grandma."

The clear voice of the warbler sounded, and soon the footsteps disappeared.

The current cook of Jia Rui's family was brought in by Xue Baochai. This person's cooking skills are indeed good, and he is also very quick. Three or four dishes were served without the effort of using a stick of incense.

Jia Rui sat at the table, eating and drinking, and smiled at Xue Baochai.

Xue Baochai was embarrassed by his look, and turned her head to the bed.

After a while, when Jia Rui had almost finished eating, Xue Baochai sat on the bed and said, "Today Ningguo Mansion sent someone to let you have time to visit the mansion tomorrow, saying that there is something important to discuss."

"What are you discussing?"

"They didn't say anything, but the people below heard some rumors."

Jia Rui became interested, put the wine glass in his hand on the table and asked, "Is there something new? Is there something going on in these two houses?"

"What did you say, sir! This time is a good thing."

Xue Baochai put down her sewing, walked to Jia Rui's table, poured him a glass of wine, and sat beside her.

"Didn't you say a few days ago that the emperor is going to let the concubine go home to visit relatives?"

"Oh, has the emperor issued an edict?"

"I made a decree today, but I really let you say it. If the concubine wants to go home to visit relatives, she must have a second courtyard at home."

When he said this, the smile on Xue Baochai's face could no longer stop.

It turned out that after Jia Rui reminded Xue Pan that day, although Xue Pan still had doubts in his heart, he honestly implemented Jia Rui's plan.

Now he rented a piece of land outside the city and bought a lot of building materials such as wood and rockery from various places.

And in order to make a fortune, Xue Pan also went all out, almost giving away half of his family fortune.

Originally, there had been no news from the outside for more than ten days, but Xue Pan was already anxious. Yesterday, he came to the house to ask Xue Baochai when the Supreme Emperor and the Emperor would issue the decree.

As a result, today, the good news came.

Jia Rui sat there and thought for a moment, then said, "It seems we are going to bleed this time."

When he said this, Jia Rui felt a little helpless.

Jia Yuanchun has already been made a concubine, and this time he must be in the ranks of visiting relatives, so the Rongguo Mansion must build a grand view garden this time, but it cannot be done with the financial resources of the Rongguo Mansion.

Then, in the end, the whole family will have to contribute, and he, the biggest official of the Jia family, may also have to pay some blood.

After thinking about this, Jia Rui was also a little confused. If he hadn't traveled through time, what financial resources did Rongguo Mansion have to build the Grand View Garden?
"Okay, then I will take a day off tomorrow and go to Rongguo Mansion to see how they arrange it."

The reason why Jia Rui didn't go to Ningguo Mansion to find Jia Zhen was because he knew that even though Jia Zhen was a clan leader, he couldn't make much of a decision regarding the entire Jia clan. The real decision maker was the old lady in Rongguo Mansion.

After eating, Jia Rui stayed in Xue Baochai's room all the time, which meant that he didn't want to leave.

When Xue Baochai looked at Jia Rui's eyes, she felt soft and wanted to agree. However, Mrs. Wang next to her knew about it somehow and sent a maid to invite Jia Rui out directly.

In response, Xue Baochai could only give Jia Rui an apologetic look.

The next morning, after Jia Rui got up, she dressed displeasedly under Brother Ying's service.

While serving Jia Rui, Brother Ying kept rubbing on Jia Rui.

Jia Rui knew exactly what this little girl was thinking, but this little girl was still young, if she took over the house now, she would become a beast.Therefore, Jia Rui was like Liu Xiahui, as if he didn't notice Brother Ying's harassment, and let Brother Ying do a lot of useless work for a long time.

After having breakfast and bidding farewell to Jia Dairu and Mrs. Wang, Jia Rui brought a few servants to the nearby Rongguo Mansion.

For Jia Rui's arrival, Jia Lian greeted him personally, and then brought Jia Rui to the study outside.

After a while, Jia Zheng came first, and Jia Zhen and Jia She hurried over soon after.

So far, the main speakers of the Jia clan in the capital have all arrived.

After the maids served fragrant tea, Jia Zheng drove out all the other people. Only Jia Zheng, Jia She, Jia Zhen, Jia Rui and Jia Lian were left in the study.

"Brother Rui, do you know what the emperor ordered yesterday?"

Jia Rui still respected Jia Zheng very much, so he stood up when he heard his question, and said to Jia Zheng:

"Return to uncle, I already know."

Jia Zheng waved his hand and asked Jia Rui to sit down again, and then said:
"This matter is not a matter of our Rongguo family, but the glory of the Jia family."

Speaking of this, Jia Zheng felt a little ashamed. He stood up, bowed his hands to the people in the room and said:

"The internal treasury of the Rongguo Mansion has not been sufficient these years. If we build a family-friendly villa, I am afraid that the family will not be able to make ends meet, so I have a thick face and ask the patriarch and brother Rui for help."

Seeing Jia Zheng salute themselves, Jia Zhen and Jia Rui quickly stood up and hid aside, and then returned the salute.

"Uncle is overwhelmed, I will naturally try my best to help."

After hearing this, Jia Zheng also had a smile on his face. He stood up, took a drawing from a table next to him, and spread it out in front of everyone.

Several people walked to the drawing and watched it carefully.

When Jia Rui looked at this drawing, his scalp felt numb.

If you really want to build a provincial villa according to this drawing, the money you will spend will be huge.

Where does this silver come from?
After thinking of this, Jia Rui couldn't help but think of Lin Daiyu's dowry that Jia Lian brought back from Yangzhou.

But Jia Rui quickly denied it.

Many readers of Dream of Red Mansions believe that Lin Daiyu brought back millions of furniture from Yangzhou, and then the Jia family squandered the money to build the Grand View Garden.

But after Jia Rui came to the world of Dream of Red Mansions, he realized that this was impossible to happen.

Even though Lin Daiyu was Lin Ruhai's only daughter, her daughter had a foreign surname in ancient times. It was almost impossible for her to inherit Lin Ruhai's property.

Even Jia Lian relied on the power of the Jia family in the capital to suppress the Lin family's clan, but he didn't dare to go too far.

There was a rule in ancient times that if a person died without a son to inherit the property, the family property would be divided among the clan members.

This has been the rule since ancient times, and Jia Lian dared not make an exception.

Therefore, what Jia Lian could fight for Lin Daiyu was the dowry brought by Jia Min back then, and a small portion of Lin Ruhai's property as Lin Daiyu's living expenses.

The total of these two parts of property is at most 10,000+ taels of silver.

As for Lin Ruhai having millions of furniture, it is impossible to even think about it.

What was the concept of a million taels of silver in ancient times?
In the Ming Dynasty, the tax silver for a year was several million taels of silver.

As for people saying that when the Ming Dynasty was first founded, the annual tax of the Ming Dynasty was more than 2000 million taels. This is actually adding up the grain tax. If it is just silver, it is not so much.

In the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the tax system was like this.

Can you imagine?The wealth of an official is actually a fraction of the annual treasury income?

What's more, Lin Ruhai was also from Qingliu. If he dared to be so greedy, even if the emperor protected him, he would not be able to serve as an imperial envoy for such a long time.

Although the official position of inspecting salt imperial envoy is a huge vacancy, the person who serves as inspecting salt imperial envoy generally cannot work for two years, and the result is self-evident.

What's more, there was the Supreme Emperor watching Lin Ruhai from the side, and he didn't have the courage.

Therefore, money to build a villa for relatives is a big problem now.

At this time, Jia Zheng was looking at the drawing with great enthusiasm and ambition.

Jia Zhen on the side looked at the drawing, her eyes twitching.

Because according to the style of this drawing, the back garden of his Ningguo Mansion was also framed.

It's a bit too much to say, because when Ningguo Mansion was in the ancestors, it was stronger than Duke Rong in terms of status and status.

And now, in order to build the provincial villa, Rongguo Mansion actually wants to occupy the back garden of Ningguo Mansion. It would be a lie to say that he is not angry.

But after a final thought, the Jia family now has two pillars, one is naturally Jia Rui, and the other is the imperial concubine in the palace.

Jia Rui is the favorite minister in front of the Supreme Emperor, and the imperial concubine is the current emperor's favorite concubine.

Of these two people, one ensures the current prosperity and wealth of the Jia family, and the other ensures that the Jia family can continue to exist after the death of the Supreme Emperor.

When she thought of this, Jia Zhen could only hold her nose and admit it.

(End of this chapter)