Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 384 Preparation

The governor of Fujian was very efficient this time, and the results of the negotiations were delivered to Jia Rui in less than a month.

Jia Rui took the memorial sent by the governor of Fujian and didn't know what to say.

This is not a negotiation treaty. This is clearly a surrender letter of defeat.

There are many treaties, the most important of which are three.

Article 1: The Celestial Kingdom opens up maritime trade, and other countries can do business at will in the Celestial Kingdom.

Article 2: Its country protects the maritime transportation lines of the Chinese Empire, so the Chinese Kingdom has to pay a tax of five million taels of silver every year.

Article 3: It is necessary for heaven to grant a daughter a marriage in order to achieve everlasting harmony between the two countries.

In addition to these, there are many other clauses. To sum up, if this treaty is really signed, the face of the whole country will be humiliated thousands of miles away.

Jia Rui didn't understand. Is the governor of Fujian stupid? How could such an agreement be signed?

Jia Rui walked around the ground several times with this memorial. Only now did he understand that things in the south were indeed not small.

At the same time, Jia Rui also understood why in the Dream of Red Mansions, the emperor began to carry out drastic reforms in the south after taking power, which affected the interests of almost all the southern dignitaries.

Jia Rui sighed. He originally thought that after he went to the south, he would just catch a few gentry to maintain military expenditure and destroy this small country. Now it seems that there will be a river of blood after going to the south.

Chen Guozi placed the memorial he had just finished correcting on the table next to him, and then asked Jia Rui with a smile.

"Is there a result of the negotiations on the Fujian side?"

Jia Rui said nothing and directly threw the memorial in his hand to Chen Guozi.

Several other cabinet ministers also stood up at this time and got behind Chen Guozi, watching together.

After a while, the expressions of several people changed.

They had no idea that the Fujian governor would be so weak.

"Let's go, let's go see the emperor together." Jia Rui stood up, straightened his court clothes, and then walked out.

Chen Guozi and others also held the memorial and followed Jia Rui silently.

The group of people soon arrived at the Yangxin Hall.

Soon they saw the emperor who was carefully correcting the memorial.

Although the emperor pretended to be very calm and collected on the surface, he was actually quite panicked, and the brush in his hand was trembling a little.

You know, it has never happened before that several cabinet ministers came to meet together.

After Jia Rui and others finished their salutes, they stood silently on both sides.

The emperor quickly threw the trembling brush on the table, then pretended to be calm and asked:

"My dear friends, why do you want to see me this time?"

At this time, Chen Guozi and others all looked at Jia Rui, which meant that Jia Rui should speak first.

As the chief minister of the cabinet, Jia Rui had no choice but to stand up and say, "Your Majesty, the negotiation between the governor of Fujian and the barbarians has ended, and the memorial has been sent to the cabinet."

As soon as Jia Rui finished speaking, Chen Guozi walked out of the class holding the memorial and holding it high.

Xia Shouzhong walked down the imperial steps and took the memorial from Chen Guozi's hand. He climbed up the imperial steps again and handed it to the emperor.

The emperor took a deep breath, then took the memorial and read it. Halfway through, the emperor was already trembling with anger. He threw the memorial to the ground, stepped on it a few times, and then roared: :

"The governor of Fujian neglected his duties and was dismissed from his post and sent to prison."

The emperor was completely angry.

You must know that since the emperor ascended the throne, he has deeply hated the treatment of Jinyiwei and has never used the power of Jinyiwei and prison.

But now the governor of Fujian is being sent to prison, which shows that he is extremely angry.

Several other cabinet ministers below had no objection to the emperor's decision, because they felt that the Fujian governor had gone too far this time.

But Jia Rui lowered his head and said: "Wei Chen believes that the emperor should temporarily agree to this agreement."

After hearing what Jia Rui said, the emperor's eyes were on fire. He stared at Jia Rui closely and said, "Tell me your reasons."

"Your Majesty, three feet of ice will not last in a day. We need time to rectify the south."

"But do you know that if this agreement is signed, there will be no secrets left in my empire."

"Your Majesty, we can agree to part of this agreement, and we can reject the other part directly. I think the other party is also interested in it and will not waste time on an agreement that cannot be reached. It should be agreed to soon."

After hearing this, the emperor took a long breath, then sat back on the throne, lowered his head and rubbed his forehead, thinking about it for a moment with a stick of incense, and finally said in a decadent voice: "Just as Jia Aiqing said."

After receiving the report, the emperor picked up the pen, scratched a few lines on the memorial, and then threw the memorial to Jia Rui again.

Jia Rui quickly picked it up and took a closer look. It turned out that the emperor had crossed out several clauses that were very unfavorable to the imperial army, while retaining the acceptable ones.

Among the two retained, one is the agreement to give a daughter a marriage, and the other is the agreement to give five million taels of silver every year.

After everyone returned to the cabinet, Jia Rui immediately sent the emperor's wishes to Fujian at an accelerated speed of 800 miles, asking the Fujian governor to renegotiate according to the emperor's wishes.

After finishing the work, Jia Rui no longer stayed in the cabinet, but hurried to the Ministry of Household Affairs. Jia Rui originally served as the Secretary of the Household Transfer Department, and the Household Department was half of Jia Rui's territory.

Therefore, throughout the morning, Jia Rui discussed some military matters with Zhao Deen, the current Minister of Household Affairs.

Of course, this mainly involves the allocation of food and grass needed for troops and military expenditures.

Zhao Deen did not give Jia Rui money and food for free. This required Jia Rui to use the money of the wealthy people in the south to replenish the holes in the household department after he calmed down the chaos in the south.

After that, Jia Rui went to the Ministry of War, counted the ordnance in stock, and asked the Minister of War to be ready to leave the warehouse at any time.

After all this busy work, Jia Rui entered the palace again and met with the Supreme Emperor.

The Supreme Emperor had actually known what happened in the court for a long time, so he was quite satisfied with Jia Rui's plan for a rainy day.

But then Jia Rui encountered a trouble, so he asked the Supreme Emperor for instructions.

"Your Majesty, the contract should promise that the other party will give you a daughter to marry. I don't know which princess to send."

The Supreme Emperor stared at him, pointed at Jia Rui and started to curse.

"You bastards, princesses have high status, how can they go to those places to marry barbarians?"

"Your Majesty, this is all temporary. When my soldiers attack, they will definitely bring the princess back."

"That's not okay, don't talk about it anymore." The Supreme Emperor was very tough.

The Supreme Emperor has been holding back a lot of anger. If it weren't for the fact that this time he wanted to wipe out all the traitorous nobles and rich people in the south, he would have lost his anger long ago.

"Then what do you think the Emperor should do?" Jia Rui spread his hands and threw the question back to the Emperor.

The Supreme Emperor closed his eyes and thought for a moment, and then said: "Since we want to redeem Prince Nan'an, let the female relatives of Prince Nan'an's family go and get married."

Jia Rui saw that the Emperor had already said this, what could he do? It can only be consent.

Finally, the Emperor's wishes were sent to the Nan'an County Prince's Mansion.

Jia Rui believed that the Nan'an County Prince's Palace would be in chaos after receiving the Emperor's order. After all, whose girl wanted to be sent to the barbarian country.

But this kind of thing has nothing to do with Jia Rui. He is still busy with sending troops.

On this day, Jia Rui dragged his tired body back to his house, sat down on the chair, and didn't want to move.

Jia Rui was really busy during this period. Various supplies for the Ministry of War had begun to be prepared, and Jia Rui needed to see everything in person.

The reason for this is because Jia Rui knew that in the early stage of going to the south, he could not count on the prosperity of the south. Only after opening up the situation can he make use of various materials in the south.

Xue Baochai brought a cup of tea to Jia Rui, and then looked at her husband distressedly.

"Uncle, no matter how busy you are with the court affairs, you can't tire yourself out. Otherwise, who can we, mother and son, expect?"

Jia Rui took Xue Baochai's hand and patted it gently, and then said: "There is no way, it is a troubled time now, and I, the chief minister of the cabinet, cannot shirk it."

Xue Baochai sighed, and then said: "Can't the matter in the south be solved soon? Why are you so busy?"

It turned out that everyone already knew about the contract signed between the imperial court and the South, so they did not think that this war would spread for a long time.

"How do you know? Are there any rumors outside?" Jia Rui asked boredly with his eyes closed.

Xue Baochai leaned closer to Jia Rui, and then said in a low voice: "The Concubine Nan'an is in Rongguo Mansion now. I heard that the old lady specially introduced Miss Tanchun to the Concubine Nan'an."

When Jia Rui heard this, he immediately became energetic.

There was a glint in his eyes.

Jia Rui could see through at a glance what Princess Nan'an had in mind. She was probably reluctant to let go of her own girl and wanted Tanchun to take her place.

Isn’t there a passage like this in Dream of Red Mansions? Tanchun was forced to marry away from another country, and finally redeemed the prince of Nan'an County.

I didn't expect that now that I was in a high position, Jia Mu and Princess Nan'an would still fight like this.

Jia Rui didn't understand. Is Jia's mother crazy or stupid? Isn't this a slap in the Jia family's face?

Jia Rui must not allow this to happen, otherwise his prestige as the chief minister of the dynasty will decline.

It seemed that he wanted to completely solve Jia Mu's problem this time, so as to prevent her from causing further trouble for him behind his back.

He stood up suddenly and said to Xue Baochai: "Follow me to the ancestral hall."

After saying this, he walked out alone. Xue Baochai was also startled and followed closely.

The two people quickly arrived at Jia's Ancestral Hall.

After Jia Rui went in, he first took a stick of incense, lit it, put it on and kowtowed respectfully.

Then I prayed silently in my heart, "Every ancestor of the Jia family, today's descendants will use all the gods just to save the face of the Jia family. If there is any offense, I ask all ancestors to be tolerant."

After saying these words, Jia Rui stepped forward and held up the tablets of Jia Yan, Gong of Ning Kingdom, and Jia Yuan, Gong of Rong Kingdom.

Afterwards, he hugged the two tablets, turned around and left the ancestral hall, heading towards Rongguo Mansion.

(End of this chapter)