Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 223 Expanding the Territory
A boss who can't make money with everyone is not a good boss.

The Wucheng Bingmasi were just a small fry in the past. No department in the capital city looked up to them. If they were not afraid of the inspectors, no one would bother to attack them.

It's such a rotten place, but now it's shaking.

The chests of the low-level soldiers would be straightened out, just like those low-level laborers like Daiying who are not human beings.

For many of the sons of noble families and illegitimate children who mingled in the Five Cities Military Department, taverns and teahouses were their main battlefields.

He took the funds every day and boasted for Lord Jia in taverns and teahouses.

Since I was forced to be a cow or a horse, I would rather be a well-known cow or a horse. It is inevitable that I will be the target of public criticism. It was the emperor's intention to push someone to the front and make all kinds of trouble. As for this person, Jia Lian is surnamed He and married to Zheng - just right!
The combination of newspapers, rumors, and propaganda, within three days, the whole capital knew about the health campaign. The reasoning was all in plain language, nothing fancy, in short, if you breathe in too much sick air, you will get sick. The poor already have no food to eat, and if they get sick again, it's over!

It doesn’t matter whether ordinary people accept this truth or not. What is important is that through this incident, the Five Cities Military Department created a kind of power, just like Jia Lian, the head censor, was also created.

The various groups of people didn't know how to deal with the situation at the moment, so they chose to wait and see. No one took the lead, so Jia Lian's affairs went smoothly. First the market, then the dock. What, the dock is in Tongzhou? No matter what, as long as it is under the jurisdiction of Shuntian Prefecture, they will reach out to it. Streets, alleys, teahouses, and wine shops, hygiene inspections are carried out everywhere.

If you are poor and the hygiene is not good, it doesn't matter, you will clean the place and get food. If you perform well, you can be employed for a long time. If you are rich, sorry, you will have to pay the sanitation fee and the fine.

When there is money to be made, people's subjective initiative will be infinitely magnified.

The sanitation campaign lasted for a month and yielded initial results. The sanitation of the capital was greatly improved, more than 500 new public toilets were added, and the public toilets were contracted out to so-called fecal tyrants, which was another source of income.

As for those who had grudges against Jia Lian, they observed him privately for a long time before they determined that this guy was either here to buy at a low price or to carry out his hygiene campaign. If that was the case, if he wanted to achieve political achievements, he should not create new hatred as the old grudges had not yet been resolved.

Jia Lian's classes are charged, which makes many people upset. They say that this grandson is reaching out from the coffin - he is asking for money. He can do such a shameless thing. There is nothing to say. We are all the same. You go your way, I go mine. I won't make trouble for you, and you don't make trouble for me.

The changes in life are felt personally. Officials in the capital suddenly discovered that the environment has improved, which is worthy of praise.

As the leader, Lord Meng rushed to the front and sang praises for Jia Lian.

It's not that he has a change of heart. When Jia Lian is in trouble, he has the leadership responsibility, and when Jia Lian makes political achievements, he also has a share.

Haven't you seen that the articles in newspapers all start like this? Under the wise leadership of your Majesty and the correct guidance of the inspectors, the Wucheng Bingmasi has achieved some insignificant results. Thank you for the encouragement from the street...

The owner of a warehouse in Northeast China felt the location of his dentures and read the contents of the newspaper, and he felt sick.

Encouragement, who encouraged you? Where is the civilized law enforcement you promised?
At the summary meeting, Jia Lian said shamelessly: "Civilized law enforcement is our purpose. What is civilized law enforcement? If he is not civilized, we will help him to be civilized. In short, as long as I am in office, I will never allow anyone to speak loudly to the people of the Five Cities Military Department."

There was applause from the audience. The more junior the officials were, the more they felt that there was hope in following this superior.

The Wucheng Bingma Division had an additional income of 13,000 taels per year, 30% of which was turned over to the government, 30% was shared by the censors, and the rest was shared by the people below. The leaders above were very satisfied with this, the censors were very satisfied, and the people below were very satisfied.

When Emperor Chenghui found out, he was very angry and said, "Send someone to find Jia Lian and have him hand over his share of the silver."

After that, he said unhappily, "Empress Lian Yuan gets one thousand taels every month. You really took care of everything except me."

Jia Lian was also confused about this matter, but he quickly reacted and said to Xia Shouzhong who came to collect the debt: "Why bother coming in person? Just send someone to run errands."

Xia Shouzhong's eyes turned red with jealousy: "We follow the Saint all day long, and the Saint never asks us for money. You, on the other hand, always cause trouble for the Saint, and you still have this honor."

Is this about money?
Jia Lian didn't mind having a loss of income.

The key is that at the recent grand court meeting, Lord Meng was the first to jump out and sing praises, praising Your Majesty for his wisdom and ability to identify people and put the right people in the right positions. The sanitary environment in the capital has improved greatly recently, and this is all due to Your Majesty's correct leadership.

It is a very flowery speech with 2800 words, of which words are praising Emperor Chenghui.

This made Emperor Chenghui, who was sitting on the throne, blush a little, and he felt a little guilty for taking Jia Lian's money.

This is a good young man!
Jian Renda is here to report on his work again.

"Sir, should we stop the study class?"

Recently, Jian Renda has passively become the head teacher of a study class. He explains the hygiene regulations to students every day, and they can memorize what he says.

"Keep it, don't limit it to hygiene classes, there are other areas to be developed."

Jian Renda was confused after hearing this: "Are there other fields?"

Jia Lian was full of anger: "Nonsense, the Wucheng Bingmasi can hold a class within their scope of responsibility. Especially those second-generations who don't study hard every day, drink and fight in groups. In the future, if you encounter such a thing, arrest them and send them to a class. Find a job for them during the day, and teach them the importance of abiding by the law at night. After arresting someone, you have to collect a fee from his family. During the class period, you will be given a few steamed buns for each meal. If anyone refuses to obey, he will be fined! And the study time will be extended."

"Sir, what kind of work?" Jian Renda really didn't know what he could ask these people to do.
"Idiot, clean up the garbage station. Remember, don't hit or scold me. Anyone who disobeys the rules will be fined! Put in a small dark room!"

After taking a deep breath, Jian Renda whispered, "Sir, please give me an example!"

As he was talking, there was a commotion outside. Jia Lian looked unhappy: "Who is it? Don't you even look at the place?"

Jian Renda went out immediately and came back soon: "My lord, what a coincidence, isn't it? Two groups of people were fighting and smashed someone's opera troupe. It happened that Old Gu from South City passed by and brought the victim back. Isn't he complaining now?"

Nancheng Censor Gu Bingzhang was overwhelmed. He didn't know until he asked, and was shocked when he asked.

The two groups of people who fought in the theater today, the leaders are not good people. Not only did they fight, but they also ran away and smashed the theater troupe without paying compensation. There is no choice but to bring the people back and see if Lord Jia can deal with it. Anyway, he can't afford to offend.

The moment Jia Lian came out, the scene immediately became quiet. Seeing Ni Er in the crowd, Jia Lian was slightly surprised. Why was there still something for him? So he said with a haughty attitude: "What are you arguing about? Don't you see where you are? Pick two people to talk to."

Two people came out of the crowd, a man and a woman. The man was about forty years old, and the woman was in her prime.

The matter was not complicated. People on both sides were watching the play, which was a new play. Halfway through the performance, someone in the audience became unhappy, booed, and asked the troupe to sing "Meeting the True Ones".

Coincidentally, this is a Kunqu opera troupe, and the stage is full of female characters. They have come to the capital from thousands of miles away to make a living, mainly because the local competition pressure is too great.

The other group was not good people either. The leader had taken a fancy to the female lead. He said several times that he wanted to take her back to be his concubine. The owner of the troupe said that this was not possible because the troupe had an owner, it had been bought by someone, and everyone in the troupe was the other person's people.

The result is that on one hand, people booed, while on the other hand, they were thinking about being a hero and saving the beauty, and maybe they could bring her back for free.

So they came out to curse each other, and when the curses got heated, they started fighting. When the fight was in chaos, the leader of another group took advantage of the chaos to kidnap the heroine. Look, the woman who played the male role was crying and saying that her sister was kidnapped and hoped that the government would take charge.

Jia Lian understood. It turned out that this opera troupe was his. Wasn't this just making things difficult for him?

But this matter cannot be publicized. After all, it was done secretly and the song was sung from the script I wrote myself.

"Do you know who is on both sides?" Jia Lian asked Gu Bingzhang calmly.

This man, who is close to his 50 years, just lives his life from day to day and is a real slacker.

"After asking clearly, it was the third son of Zuo Zongzheng's family from the clan affairs office who booed, and the fourth son of the Prince of Nan'an's family who robbed the person."

Wow, the third and fourth brothers.

The boos were understandable, after all, if you didn't charge for performing that kind of play, it would cause a lot of trouble. But what about the fourth child of the Nan'an County Prince's family? We need to find out.

"The fourth son of Prince Nan'an? He's quite courageous." Jia Lian said to himself.

Jian Renda, who was standing next to him, immediately started to explain: "Your Excellency may not know that this person was born to the most favored concubine of the King of Nan'an."

Jia Lian nodded and said, "Okay, gather the troops and go to visit the Prince of Nan'an's mansion first. Remember, enforce the law in a civilized manner."

Hearing that there was work to do, he decided to go to the Nan'an County Prince's Mansion. Several censors backed off. Jian Renda also wanted to back off, but there was no way back. Who made him the censor of Xicheng? He was in charge of the division.

Jia Lian pretended not to notice the performance of these imperial censors and directly called out their names: "Master Gu, the incident happened in your territory. You need to go and explain the situation. Master Jian, gather the troops and lead the way."

The distance between the Prince of Nan'an's Mansion and the Jia Mansion is not far, about ten minutes on horseback and fifteen minutes by car.

Xicheng District is like this, full of big houses. If your ancestors are not marquises, you are not qualified to build a big house in this area.

Before leaving, Jia Lian told the person in charge: "It's almost time to get off work, please record the overtime pay."

"Okay, don't worry, it's correct."

Jia Lian did not bring many people with him, just a team of horses. A hundred people were walking on the street, surrounding Jia Lian on horseback. Jia Lian, who was born as a civil servant, could actually ride in a sedan chair. Isn't this for convenience? Besides, riding a horse in the capital is a very cool thing.

In theory, the King of Nannan should stay in his territory, but the actual situation is that he is too old, so he lets the Crown Prince take charge of Lingnan on his behalf.

The prince is old and is at home, so it is not appropriate to use force.

After Jia Lian dismounted, he stepped forward to speak in person.

The doorman was quite arrogant at first, but when he saw who was coming, he immediately bent his waist.

"Second Master Lian, what wind has blown you?" The doorman's voice was shaking. Everyone knew that he had forced the second steward of King Zhongshun to death. The statement to the public was that the second steward committed suicide out of guilt, but who would believe it? A mere doorman was not enough for him to do anything.

"Haha, your fourth son's Yin Feng, hurry up and inform him. I won't go in. Let your fourth son come out and surrender. Otherwise, it will be difficult for everyone."

The doorman hurried in to report, and soon the butler came out, very politely: "Young Master, the prince wants to see you."

Jia Lian waved his hand and said, "I am busy with official business. It is inconvenient. So, please tell them that I will take the people back. I promise to take as much as I can and send them back. If there is a penny missing, I will compensate you with a thigh."

This was said in front of everyone with assurance. After all, if one breaks his word, it would be difficult for him to gain a foothold in the capital.

"Please wait a moment!" The housekeeper was relieved. Jia Lian still took into consideration the traditional friendship between the four kings and eight dukes.

This is like, if Jia Zhen goes to Liaodong, he will definitely be fine, but the business may be ruined, and he will have to pay the compensation. In short, the scale is well grasped, and everything will be fine if the Jia family does not touch the business in Liaodong.

The Prince of Nan'an was in the study, with his favorite concubine beside him, crying and saying that the fourth son was always well-behaved, so how could he get into trouble? It must be Jia Lian who was looking for trouble and bullying the prince's old age. The prince would definitely scold him and make him lose face.

The Prince of Nan'an listened to what was said and let it go in one ear and out the other, not taking a single word to heart.

Just kidding, if Jia Lian had done those things when the emperor was on the throne, he would have been thrown into the Southern Courtyard Prison and eating nothing.

How many people impeached Jia Lian, but did he lose a single hair?
When someone arrives at the door of Prince Nan'an, he can ask someone to inform him, which is giving the prince enough face.

The butler came in and relayed the truth. The Prince of Nan'an nodded and said, "Take someone to send that beast out, and return the person who was robbed."

The old prince is old, but he is not confused and his mind is clear. Jia Lian, who can see the emperor anytime and anywhere, cannot be treated as an ordinary minister. This fully shows that he is closer to the core of power than all the princes.

The concubine was a smart person. After the prince spoke, she immediately shut up and stopped crying.

Prince Nan'an looked at her and sighed, "What a pity! I should have married my daughter to Jia Lian. But the Wang family got there first."

At the door, Jia Lian glanced at the fourth son of the palace, who was bowing his head, and asked with a smile, "Did he touch anyone?"

This bastard is so arrogant: "So what if I touched you?"

Jia Lian smiled sinisterly: "No big deal, I'll just give you some medicine every day so that you will only like to be fucked by men in the future."

The fourth son of the palace was so frightened that he sat on the ground: "No, I didn't touch her, really, I didn't have time."

(End of this chapter)