Jinghong Tower

In addition to wishing He Ran a happy new year, Zhou Cangyue's letter also contained two other things.

First, he would head southwest after the New Year. In the past two years in Shu, the Tiger Army had gradually adapted to the climate here. They heard that there was an invincible and brave King Baoxiang in Yunnan. The Tiger Army was united and wanted to meet this King Baoxiang.
Second, he only knew how to fight, and he only had fighters under him, not managers. Moreover, he did not understand those scholars and could not tell who was suitable to be an official. Just like in Tongcheng, he wanted to ask Sister Ran to send officials to help him manage those territories.

A warm feeling welled up in He Ran's heart. Was he really too lazy to cultivate? He could recommend the top scholar with his wisdom, so couldn't he pick out a few capable ones from among the many scholars?

He Ran thought of the little boy who followed the old man who collected scrap. The figure that had long disappeared in the depths of her memory gradually became clearer. She could even recall the little face with delicate features.

It was a face that was about 60% similar to Zhou Cangyue.

Perhaps, she had long forgotten the child, and she just subconsciously imprinted Zhou Cangyue's facial features on the child's face.

But not abrupt.

He Ran walked to the easel, picked up the pen and drew the cute little face.

She couldn't bear to put down her pen after finishing this one, so she simply drew another one.

The painting showed a grandfather and his grandson. The old man had a hunched back, but his eyes were curved when he smiled. The grandson was as thin as a bean sprout, but he had a pair of lively eyes.

He Ran was very satisfied with the painting, and after it was dry, she asked Xiao Li to frame it, put it on a valuable scroll, and put it in an exquisite box. She then gave it to the person in charge of delivering letters in the Beggar Gang together with her reply letter.

The first month of the year was over in the blink of an eye. After the first month of the year, she discussed with Nie Chen and selected seventy people from among the trainee officials from various places. Lu Zhen and Jiang Tao led their troops to escort them to the two lakes and Shu respectively.

A few days later, Zhong Yi brought accurate news that Concubine Qiao and her son had arrived in Fuzhou, hiding their identities and being taken into Jing Chongguang's backyard. Now Concubine Qiao was Jing Chongguang's concubine, and her son was Jing Chongguang's late-born son.

Emperor Yonghe also named the child the Crown Prince.

He Ran smiled: "At first I suspected that Lady Qiao's child was not the King of Qi's, but now it seems that it is indeed not the case."

If it was the King of Qi's flesh and blood, Jing Chongguang would only wipe out the roots instead of accepting him as his own.

The last child he adopted was the twin brother of Emperor Yonghe, whose biological mother was Jing Chongguang's white moonlight. For the sake of this pair of brothers, Jing Chongguang abandoned his wife and children, and even gave up his ancestors' foundation.

From this we can see that the biological father of Lady Qiao’s son is either someone Jing Chongguang cares about very much, or Jing Chongguang himself.

He Ran and Zhong Yi both agreed with the latter, that the child was born from the affair between Jing Chongguang and Concubine Qiao.

I never expected that Jing Chongguang not only seized the throne of King Qi, but also cuckolded King Qi.

The next day, He Ran asked Jinghong Tower to spread the story of Jing Chongguang and Lady Qiao's affair.

Jing Chongguang was born in the Mansion of Duke Dingguo, which was a first-class mansion both in the capital and in Jinling. After the death of Old Madam Meng, she was not buried in the Jing family's ancestral tomb and was not buried with Jing Dashan, which caused an uproar in the capital. This was almost equivalent to the divorce of Old Madam Meng and Jing Dashan.

Now that the news that Jing Chongguang had an affair with a woman in the King of Qi's harem and had a child was spread, the whole capital was in an uproar.

Before long, the news spread from the capital to all directions. Those old nobles who had a good relationship with Jing Chongguang, as well as those who were devoted to the Zhou Dynasty, were all angry.

Not only angry, but also disgusting!
Fortunately, that bastard has gone to Fuzhou, otherwise if he fell into the hands of certain people, he might be made the little emperor. If he is really the son of Prince Qi, his bloodline would be purer than that of Emperor Yonghe.

Although the King of Qi was a descendant of Zhou Wen, his surname was also Zhou. However, Emperor Yonghe was only the grandson of the former crown prince, and his father was unknown.

Comparing the two, the King of Qi and Taizu are more closely related, after all, they both have the surname Zhou.

As a result, many interesting stories were spread, such as an old man who cried to death in front of the tablet of Taizu Zhou Chi, and an old general who cursed Jing Chongguang for being shameless and then suffered a stroke while cursing.

Even the evening papers published several articles condemning Jing Chongguang for being disloyal, unfilial, unkind and unjust.

Then, he started to curse Jing Chongguang and then Emperor Yonghe. The bloodline of Emperor Yonghe was unknown, and his twin brother was Jing Chongguang's third son. In all likelihood, Emperor Yonghe was actually the son of Jing Chongguang and the princess, so he was Jing Chongguang's son.

Although Jing Chongguang's eldest son and daughter-in-law have returned to Jinling, the last time they carried the coffin to Beijing, Li Jinxiu took the lead in inviting the elders of the Jing family. Jing Chongguang was expelled from the family, and the eldest son was adopted by an elder who died before getting married. In this way, the eldest son of Jing is still a member of the Jing family, but he is no longer the son of Jing Chongguang.

The other children born to Jing Chongguang and his original wife changed their names and fled after he rebelled, and have since disappeared among the vast crowd.

The news also reached Fuzhou. During the morning court session, Jing Chongguang discovered that the officials looked at him with something strange in their eyes. He knew what these guys were thinking. They didn't care whether he slept with Prince Qi's woman or not. What they cared about were the rumors about Emperor Yonghe's life experience.

The father of Emperor Yonghe is unknown, which is different from the fact that Emperor Yonghe is the son of Jing Chongguang.

Since the father is unknown, it can be equated that her father married into the family, so it makes sense for the royal princess to leave the father and keep the son.

But if it is confirmed that he is the son of Jing Chongguang, then he is a descendant of the Jing family and is not eligible to enjoy the treatment of the Zhou royal family.

Jing Chongguang's face was as gloomy as water. He wanted to see who would be the first to step forward today.

The officials just had different expressions, but in the end no one took the lead.

But from this day on, both Jing Chongguang and Emperor Yonghe could clearly feel that the atmosphere was different.

This difference is not only reflected in the attitudes of these officials, but also in the families that support them.

Especially those from aristocratic families, several tutors who originally accompanied Emperor Yonghe asked for leave one after another for various reasons, and they have not returned for a long time.

The Empress and Imperial Concubine of Emperor Yonghe were both noble ladies from Fujian. Originally, he wanted to select a few more women from the noble families in Fujian to fill his harem, but now he had to put it on hold temporarily. It was not that Emperor Yonghe did not want to, but almost overnight, all the noble ladies who were slightly pretty were engaged.

Emperor Yonghe did not believe in such coincidences. It was simply that the noble families who had originally supported him had begun to doubt his background. They no longer considered him a descendant of the Zhou family, but believed that he was the son of Jing Chongguang.

Emperor Yonghe was in a depressed mood and wanted to sit with the Empress, but the Empress did not let him stay overnight on the grounds that the Crown Prince was not feeling well and she had to take care of him personally.

Emperor Yonghe had no choice but to go to the Imperial Concubine's palace, but the Imperial Concubine told him that her day had come and she had called a palace maid to accompany him.

The maid's face showed no joy of being favored, but rather a determination to face death, which made Emperor Yonghe feel like an executioner. He lost all interest and left in anger.

Returning to his own palace, Emperor Yonghe became angrier and angrier the more he thought about it. What's with taking care of the prince? What's with the good old days? These two women were clearly just like those girls from aristocratic families. They despised him!
Yes, the empress and the imperial concubine were both from great aristocratic families in Fujian. They were the legitimate daughters of the aristocratic families and had been conceited since childhood. Even after becoming the empress and the imperial concubine, they were still ungrateful. Now, just after hearing some rumors from hearsay, they became cold and evasive towards him, with no respect or love for him at all.

From that day on, a thorn was planted in the heart of Emperor Yonghe, and he no longer had the same affection for the infant prince as before. At this time, Jing Chongguang actually accepted a large sum of money and stuffed several merchant girls into Emperor Yonghe's harem.

Upon learning that these women were from merchant families, Emperor Yonghe felt insulted, but these people were given to him by Jing Chongguang, so he gritted his teeth and forced himself to confer titles on these women.

When favoring one of them, Emperor Yonghe used both soft and hard tactics, and the woman finally told the truth.

In order to let her enter the palace, her father gave Jing Chongguang 100,000 taels of silver.

As to whether the 100,000 taels were turned over to the national treasury or kept by Jing Chongguang alone, it is unknown.

Emperor Yonghe remained calm. In the next few days, he favored all the other women. He also knew that these women had paid to enter the palace.

The minimum was 50,000 and the maximum was 200,000. From these women alone, Jing Chongguang received 500,000!

Emperor Yonghe was not a prince who grew up in the deep palace. Although he was protected by Jing Chongguang, he grew up in the world. He was not an ignorant boy who was ignorant of the world. His brother Jing Laosan was a like that, but he was not.

In his opinion, he was betrayed by Jing Chongguang, and it was sold for nothing without any dividend.

What’s the difference between this and those prostitutes who are exploited by brothels’ madams?
It’s just that his price is more expensive!

Emperor Yonghe asked Jing Chongguang tentatively, and Jing Chongguang told him that there was indeed such a sum of money, and all of it was used to build warships.

Emperor Yonghe found it unbelievable, but he did not dare to ask further.

That’s not a small amount, it’s five hundred thousand taels. Does it take so much money to build a warship?

Jing Chongguang actually did not lie to him. He used all the 500,000 taels of silver to build ships.

He received news that He Ran and the Cao Gang had opened a shipyard together. Although the spies he sent out did not get exact information, Jing Chongguang could be sure that the ships built by this shipyard were definitely not ordinary cargo ships or fishing boats, but warships!

If they want to attack Fujian, they can only rely on a naval battle, and He Ran is preparing for the naval battle.

So he had to defend.

In addition to recruiting soldiers, he also had to build warships.

Jing Chongguang had led troops for many years, but it was only when he arrived in Fuzhou that he realized what it meant to be stretched to the limit.

In the past, if you needed armor, weapons, war horses, food, or military expenses, you only had to submit a petition to the court asking for money. If the court didn't give you money, you could submit another petition or go to the Ministry of War and make a big fuss. Even if they couldn't give you as much as you asked for, you could at least get half of it.

They all had experience. If there was a shortfall of 50,000 taels, they would write 100,000 taels on the memorial. If there was a shortfall of 100,000 taels, they would ask for 200,000 taels. In short, even if they could only get half of it, it would still be useful.

But now he is needed to take charge, and Jing Chongguang realizes how difficult it is to raise military funds.

He even admired He Ran a little.

Then a young woman could not only support an army, but also support more and more of them.

Where does He Ran get her money from?

He could guess a thing or two.

First, He Ran destroyed the King of Jin and the King of Kaizhou and made two fortunes; second, after He Ran entered the capital, he sold the private property of the King of Qi and the Qian family, which brought in another large sum of money; third, He Ran took the money from those merchants.

Jing Chongguang wanted to learn from He Ran, but unfortunately he didn't have wealthy families like the King of Jin and the King of Kaizhou to rob, nor did he have the King of Qi and the Qian family. All he could learn now was to make money from merchants.

The two largest merchants in Fuzhou had already been exploited once when the small court was first established. It was impossible to fleece one sheep at a time, so Jing Chongguang set his sights on the long-term.

There were many big merchants in Fujian, but unfortunately they were not interested in anything without profit. And the small Later Zhou court was just established, so it could offer very little. Jing Chongguang had no choice but to reach out to the harem of Emperor Yonghe.

It is normal to have hundreds of women in the harem. As for titles, they can all be bought with silver.

There are ten thousand beauties, twenty thousand talented ladies, fifty thousand noble ladies, one hundred thousand concubines, and two hundred thousand imperial consorts.

So the first batch of 500,000 taels of silver was obtained.

For the sake of Emperor Yonghe, Jing Chongguang was willing to abandon the entire Jing family and make enemies with everyone in the world. So how could he be reluctant to part with the 500,000 taels of silver? He did not keep a single tael of the silver and used it all for shipbuilding.

However, a warship cannot be built in a day or two. He told Emperor Yonghe that the silver had been used to build the ship, but Emperor Yonghe only knew that the silver was gone, but he did not see the warship built with the silver.

He found an excuse and asked Jing Chongguang to take him to the shipyard. When he arrived at the shipyard, he only saw a group of craftsmen hammering and pounding things, and there was wood and pig iron everywhere. No matter how he looked at it, these junk did not seem to be worth half a million taels.

Emperor Yonghe said nothing, but he secretly kept it in mind.

Soon, a typhoon hit and many people suffered. Even several houses in this temporarily rebuilt palace collapsed.

Emperor Yonghe wanted to renovate the imperial palace, but he did not have enough money. He wanted to take the opportunity to ask Jing Chongguang for money, but Jing Chongguang told him that he could not use the money in the national treasury because he had to recruit new soldiers soon and he would not be able to do it without money.

This was the first time that Emperor Yonghe showed disrespect in front of Jing Chongguang.

After returning to his bedroom, Emperor Yonghe dismissed the eunuchs and palace maids around him, and gritted his teeth as he looked at the words "Three Reflections on Myself" written by Jing Chongguang on the wall.

"How dare this old bastard Jing Chongguang bully me!"

"One day, I will tear him into pieces!"

But now, he still can't touch Jing Chongguang. Jing Chongguang holds great power, and both military and financial power are in his hands.

Even at the daily court meetings, Jing Chongguang sat below him. Whenever a court official had something to say, Jing Chongguang would speak before him before he had a chance to say anything.

"I am already a father, not an ignorant child any longer, but he refuses to hand over the government to me. He deserves to die!" (End of this chapter)