Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 303: Share your worries
Qiu Shian and Xia Shouzhong are not good at fighting, but they are absolutely first-rate at gathering information. When it comes to intelligence, these two are very sensitive. At this stage, there are not many people who have the courage to make trouble and have the confidence to go after Jia Lian. Of course, this is only one aspect of the analysis. There are many possibilities, but we will just pick the most likely one to investigate first.

It was not surprising that Xia Shouzhong could understand it. The struggle between the second prince and the third prince, although the conflict had intensified, was at least visible to everyone.

The Second Prince would not necessarily make enemies for no reason, especially Jia Lian, who was a dangerous person. But how should I put it? Among the princes, the Third Prince had a close relationship with Jia Lian.

You haven't seen Jia Lian interacting with other princes, and the third prince is not a very good person. If his uncle says he won't give him face, then he won't give it to him.

Jia Lian returned home and circled around his daughter again. The more he looked at her, the more he liked her. Even if he fell asleep, Jia Lian could still look at her all day. It's strange that there are no children in modern society, but there is no feeling like today.

I thought the world was in chaos, and Wang Xifeng's first child might be a son, but unexpectedly it was a girl. But Jia Lian was curious.

Her nickname is Qiaojie, which is the intention of Wang Xifeng. The word "qiao" (qiao) is in her name, so it is easier to beg for skills starting from July.

Jia Lian didn't object to this little thing. After all, any name with the surname Jia would sound bad.

Wang Xifeng, who was drinking chicken soup, watched Jia Lian circling around his daughter. She was really angry, happy, and a little worried. Not having a son really meant a low status in this era.

Fortunately, Guixiang and Ping'er were not very motivated and no matter how hard we tried, they still failed to get pregnant.

Jia Lian was thinking that maybe the trick was at work, forcing him to follow the original trajectory in some things.

A letter was delivered, and Jia Lian's good mood was broken. He had to go back to work tomorrow, which was really abominable. Can workers still be good? What about the labor law?

Jia Lian, who was in a bad mood, decided to sleep alone at night. After all, he couldn't be unhappy alone.

At breakfast the next day, Ping'er was so angry that she wanted to add a spoonful of salt to his bowl, but Guixiang made the water for washing his face hotter than usual.

Lin Ruhai acted quickly. Jian Renda received the new appointment early in the morning and took up his post with the seal in hand. There was a vacancy for the Xicheng Censor, so Lin Ruhai also filled one.

"The Five Cities Military Department is still under your charge. His Majesty is very satisfied with the work performance there, so you must not slack off." Lin Ruhai was also serious when talking about work.

After the work was finished, Lin Ruhai brought up the topic of entering the palace yesterday. Jia Lian sighed and said, "I am destined to be a hard worker."

Lin Ruhai was so angry that he chased him away: "Get lost! I don't want to see you. By the way, go home tonight. Your aunt misses you."

When Jia Min was mentioned, Jia Lian immediately put on a smiling face and said, "Aunt is about to give birth, right?"

Lin Ruhai nodded: "There are still two months left. Oh, it's the hottest time, so we can't run out of ice at home."

Jia Lian knew from his expression that he was very proud. He believed that it was thanks to Jia Min's training when he was young that he had a strong body.

As soon as he left the Inspectorate, he saw Ni Er waiting at the door. When he saw Jia Lian, he immediately went up to greet him, "Second Master, I have something to report."

Jia Lian stopped riding and looked back at him. Ni Er whispered, "Brother Yun opened a shop in the east of the city. He and the brother who was watching the shop saw the fake nun."

Where there is a lot of money, there are a lot of people. Where there are a lot of people, there must be a mix of good and bad people. Jia Yun is now also a big shopkeeper. He has wholesale shops in the east of the city and Tongzhou. The bookstore business is still going on, and the cigarette wholesale business is also going on. Ni Er took the opportunity to place a lot of brothers in the east of the city as spies. This is also one of the reasons why he can grasp the information of the east of the city in time and dare to grab the territory. Of course, the biggest confidence is Jia Lian.

If you want to make your gang bigger and stronger, you have to get involved in the east of the city. The structure of the capital is roughly as follows: the poor gather in the north of the city, the lowly industries gather in the south of the city, the rich merchants gather in the east of the city, and the powerful gather in the west of the city.

The purpose of forming a gang is to make money, and to make money, you have to go to the east of the city. In the east of the city, people from all walks of life have basically established themselves, and Ni Er can't do much. Jia Lian's requirements for him are not high, just to collect and organize various information. It seems useless at ordinary times, but it can be used whenever there is a little movement. Anyway, it doesn't cost much money, it's just a side job.

Isn't it the result? Wu Chen, the fake nun, actually dared to return to the capital. Did she really think that Master Jia was a vegetarian?
"Is that right?" Jia Lian asked cautiously. Ni Er said, "It should be right. That brother has been following that fake nun for quite some time."

"Okay, keep a close eye on her and see where she settles." Jia Lian felt it necessary to carry out a law enforcement action to establish his prestige as the leader of the Five Cities Army.

Ni Er agreed and went there on his own accord. His positioning was very precise, that is, to run errands for the Second Master and do some private work on the side. However, the scale of this private work was a little out of control. The Black Tiger Gang had five or six hundred people, and that didn't even include the families of the brothers in the Shenji Camp. These families made a living by doing business in the south of the city, and no one dared to bully them. Even if they met someone who was blind, as long as they reported the name of the Shenji Camp and were hanging out with Second Master Lian, no one would dare to provoke them. So, even though Jia Lian didn't go to the Shenji Camp, the group of people who followed him to fight in the past all recognized this old superior. Even their families were proud of this.

When facing Jia Lian, the Ministry of Works dared to be angry but could not speak out. There was nothing they could do. Their bottoms were too dirty. If Jia Lian was unhappy and flipped the table, everyone would be in trouble. The problem was that Jia Lian didn't care about it. It was just a dismissal. At most, he could go home and live off his savings. Maybe after lying down for two years, he could make a comeback. Others didn't have that kind of capital.

Pan Jixun happened to be in the Ministry of Works. When he learned that Jia Lian had gone to the Yuhengsi again, he quickly sent someone to tell him to come over. He also sent someone to call Jia Zheng, but he didn't tell the servant that Jia Zheng had gone to the workshop.

Pan Jixun was silent for a long time. Jia Zheng, you have been working in the Ministry of Works for many years and haven't left the workshop. Is it such a coincidence today?

Just when he was feeling melancholy, Jia Lian came in and greeted the elder with a rather good attitude. Pan Jixun waved his hand, "No need to be polite, please stop making trouble at the Yuheng Division, thank you."

Jia Lian immediately looked aggrieved: "Who is spreading rumors? How can you slander someone's innocence out of thin air?"

Seeing that he was still acting, Pan Jixun smiled helplessly and shook his head: "I know you don't like them, but there are so many people, right? They all need to eat and have families to support, so just stop it."

"Hey, Lord Pan is a good man!" Jia Lian sighed after leaving the office. That's what he said, but in fact it's just talk. Can a good man become a cabinet minister? It's funny!
It was simply that the current situation in the Ministry of Works had accumulated problems for a long time and was difficult to change. He had only been the Minister of State for one term and would surely offend people if he made any changes. He could not hold Jia Lian back, so he could only try to smooth things over.

Actually, Jia Lian didn't do anything. He just picked up the roster and started calling out names of people. Well, the number he wanted was a bit too many, more than 3,000 craftsmen. That was fine, he also wanted two workshops.

In simple terms, Jia Lian used the name of the R&D Department to rob two workshops of the Ministry of Works, along with three thousand skilled craftsmen.

You are an official of the Ministry of Industry, do you want to explode? But Jia Lian did it, in the name of borrowing, everyone knows that he is famous for borrowing and not returning. Jia Lian's recent work focus is not on developing new weapons, but on making transparent glass. The R&D Department has solved the production process of soda ash. Although Jia Lian does not understand this, he can really make it.

After two days of hard work, Jia Lian finally completed the tasks he had taken over. He had Arang and Li Daoxing working together happily on technology and had solved the production process. The next step was to recruit people.

For half a month, Jia Lian stayed in the R&D workshop every day. After watching the first batch of transparent glass being produced, he went directly to the palace to report the good news.

Emperor Chenghui praised him and purchased a batch of glass at one time to install doors and windows, which improved the indoor lighting effect.

With the royal certification, and a little bit of hype in the Minsheng newspaper, transparent glass was in short supply, and money was flowing into the warehouse like water. The Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were very upset, but no one dared to have any bad thoughts. The palace has given money, and you still want to get it for free? Hard means are definitely not going to work, so let's try soft means. Putting on eye drops in front of the emperor and finding a way to get people into the R&D department is the first step.

Now, Prince Zhongshun was nominated as the representative of the royal family to discuss the R&D workshop with Emperor Chenghui.

He met the emperor smoothly. As soon as Prince Zhongshun mentioned that the transparent glass business of the R&D company was booming recently, Emperor Chenghui knew why he came.

"I knew you would be jealous. You were the ones who stuffed people into the R&D department and ate empty salaries. You were the ones who complained about the layoffs. Now that they are doing a good business, you want to take advantage of them again. Although we are all royal family members, we are a family. You should act like a family and share my worries. You can't always ask me for this and that, and hide behind me when it comes to doing things, right?"

Although Emperor Chenghui's words were harsh, they were all true. Prince Zhongshun lowered his head and said nothing, unable to continue. What should he do? Jia Lian wouldn't take any soft or hard words, so he had to find a soft spot to attack.

"It's no use bowing your head. I know what you are thinking. You are more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything. I am talking about people like you. Why, you are still not convinced, right? Are you thinking about making trouble for others?"

Prince Zhongshun was immediately horrified by these words, and quickly raised his head and waved his hands: "I dare not!"

"Don't I know whether they dare or not? Forget it, you go back first and make them behave themselves." Emperor Chenghui waved his hand to signal Prince Zhongshun to get out.

Emperor Chenghui, who was sitting on the chair, rubbed his forehead with his hand. There was nothing he could do. They were all royal family members, relatives within the fifth degree of mourning. No matter how bad these people were, he couldn't just ignore them.

The problem of the royal family has existed for a long time, and both Taizu and the emperor were troubled. They tried to use the capable ones, but there were too many useless ones, so they could only spend some money to support them.

After thinking it over again and again, Emperor Chenghui asked someone to call Jia Lian over.

When Jia Lian received the call for recruitment, he knew that something was going to happen. This was inevitable. There was just a group of people like this in the capital. They had no other skills, but they would go wherever there was money to be made.

This group of people is also divided into different types, some are poor and arrogant, and they have to give, while others are just looking for something to do to support their families. The latter are the majority, and it is not good or bad.

This group is the royal family. It was okay when there were only a few people in the beginning, but later as the number grew, there were limited positions in the capital where people could work and get paid.

When meeting the emperor, Jia Lian was smiling, as if he didn't notice anything.

Emperor Chenghui had a calm expression on his face. He congratulated Jia Lian on his prosperous business seemingly unintentionally, and mentioned that Minister Pan had been a little angry recently.

Jia Lian understood what he heard, but he could only play dumb and stood there with a silly smile. Emperor Chenghui was angry and said directly: "Arrange a hundred people for me, no less."

I thought Jia Lian was going to bargain for the price, but he agreed straightforwardly: "No problem, one hundred people, five taels of silver per month. Just one thing, don't come to work, don't make trouble for me."

Emperor Chenghui was speechless after hearing this: "No, how can you do that? It's like feeding useless people without any work. You have to give them something to do, let them walk the right path, and get their salary with peace of mind."

Unexpectedly, the emperor gave such a difficult question. Jia Lian was really troubled and patiently explained, "Your Majesty, it's not that I don't want to help, I really have no choice. The R&D Department is now short of people in two places, one is for workers in the workshop, and the other is for R&D technology. Just tell me, what can these people do? Let them manage? They can't even manage themselves, and they are lucky to be able to get to get off work on time. It's really not that I am shirking my responsibility. You have to find something I can do, right?"

Emperor Chenghui felt a headache after hearing this, so he simply said, "I don't care. Anyway, you have to arrange the 100 people with me. To tell you the truth, there are 500 to 600 people in the royal family who don't have proper jobs. You can just do me a favor." After hearing this, Jia Lian nodded helplessly, "Okay, I'll think of a way! How about this, I'll go and discuss it with Prince Zhongshun?"

When Emperor Chenghui heard this, he thought it was okay: "Okay, go ahead. Just remember, don't come back to bother me."

After Prince Zhongshun lost his job at the bank, he now only had jobs at the Clan Court and the Imperial Household Department. Jia Lian first went to the Clan Court, caught someone on the roadside and asked him a question, and then found Prince Zhongshun's office.

Upon learning that Jia Lian had come to visit, King Zhongshun felt as if he were facing a formidable enemy. There was nothing he could do. Even if his office was torn down, the most His Majesty could do was to punish him.

It is said that Prince Zhongshun had a difficult life, mainly because the affairs of the Ministry of Clan Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were difficult to handle, especially the Ministry of Clan Affairs.

"It is a rare honor for Lord Jia to come here!" Prince Zhongshun said in a somewhat sarcastic tone, but not too much. He was mainly guilty, so he said something bad in front of the emperor.

Other members of the royal family dared to say anything in front of Prince Zhongshun, but they really didn't dare to say anything in front of Jia Lian. This guy really hit him. He got beaten up, paid some medical expenses, and lost all his face. It was not worth it.

"Your Majesty asked me to arrange some work for the royal family members who are of appropriate age. Your Majesty also knows that not everyone wants to work in the R&D department. I came here this time to discuss it. It depends on whether you are willing to do the work." Jia Lian said to him right away that those who work will be hired, and those who don't will be kicked out. There are still many people in the royal family who are willing to work and get paid, but they are afraid of having no work.

King Zhongshun was cunning and of course he would not give in easily. He agreed, but the royal family members did not agree, so he was the one who was scolded.

"Tell me first what kind of work you want."

"After the transparent glass is sold, some people need to install it. I plan to set up a glass installation team. Anyone who buys glass in Beijing will have to use our people to install it."

(End of this chapter)