Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 268 Each Has His Own Tricks

Beijing Palace.

Everyone in the palace knows that the prince is in a very bad mood recently.

He stays in the study all day, and no one knows what he is busy with. Yesterday, a maidservant was serving tea to the prince and accidentally knocked over the teacup.

This actually made the prince furious, and he was beaten with a stick until he was covered in blood, which scared all the servants in the prince's mansion.

This kind of thing had never happened in the palace before. The gentle and elegant Prince Beijing seemed to have changed.

Ever since the presumptuous poem appeared at the Autumn Chrysanthemum Poetry Banquet held in the royal palace, it dealt a fatal blow to the reputation that Prince Beijing had worked so hard to polish over the years.

The originally elegant prince, who was suave, courteous and humble, has now turned into a sinister noble with ulterior motives and ill intentions.

The scholars and celebrities in Shenjing City used to be proud to go to Prince Beijing's mansion for banquets and conversations, but now which celebrity would go to such an unlucky place?

As a result, the Beijing Prince's mansion has been deserted recently, and the Beijing Prince's presence in the group of nobles in the capital has continued to be pulled below the bottom line.

This made Prince Beijing, who always liked the feeling of being the center of attention, feel very disappointed. Extremely disappointed...

And one more most important thing is that the position of controlling nine provinces, which he thought he was determined to obtain, was now completely out of his reach.

This was a heavy blow to Prince Beijing.

Back then, the retired emperor was a man of unrivaled military strategy. Shui Rong's father was overshadowed by the retired emperor and was suppressed and unable to do anything, and he spent his entire life as an idle prince.

If by his generation the lineage of Prince Beijing was still ineffective, the grace of a gentleman would be cut off after five generations.

It is hard to say whether his descendants can still inherit the title of king.

Over the years, he has tried his best to build up his reputation, planning everything and putting in all his efforts, hoping to become the leading figure among the four kings and eight dukes. Of course, it seems that he did not succeed in the end...

This competition for the position of commander of nine provinces is the best opportunity for Prince Beijing's faction to rise in the military.

In recent years, he has been cultivating a literary and artistic spirit and organizing literary gatherings and poetry banquets in order to get closer to the literati and civil servants.

He also made many suggestions and voiced his opinions among the nobles.

When Ningguo was stripped of his title, it was a loss to all the four kings and eight dukes. It was because of his strong appeal to the emperor that the emperor issued an edict to strip Ningguo of his title and keep his title for three years.

In his own opinion, he was famous in both civil and military fields, and his years of planning would soon come to fruition. Some people in the cabinet and among the nobles recommended him to be the governor of nine provinces.

Unexpectedly, I still failed.

According to Prince Beijing Shui Rong's own judgment, it was that damn presumptuous poem that ruined everything. Afterwards, he searched for a long time but could not find the author of the poem.

Unlike Prince Beijing's self-admiration, the emperor's trusted ministers such as Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding and Minister of War Gu Yankui had completely different ideas.

They were bystanders who saw things clearly. After all, Emperor Jiazhao did not take Prince Beijing Shui Rong seriously at all.

Shengxin had already made up his mind and would not give Shui Rong the opportunity to interfere in Jiubian.

That presumptuous poem only provided the emperor with an opportunity to explode. Even without this presumptuous poem, other reasons and excuses would have emerged.

As for Prince Beijing's methods of inviting fame, His Majesty had seen too many of them before he ascended the throne...

Prince Beijing's behavior is nothing but a show of expertise in front of His Majesty. It has no other meaning except to attract His Majesty's ridicule.

……

Prince Beijing’s study.

Liu Yong, the chief secretary of the palace, came in with a letter and saw the prince looking at a map on the desk.

Liu Yong only took a quick glance and saw clearly that it was a map of the nine important border towns of Zhang Dazhou.

He sighed slightly in his heart. Although the position of commander of nine provinces had been confirmed, the prince still couldn't let it go.

Perhaps it was the loud footsteps of Liu Yong entering the study that startled Shui Rong who was looking at a picture at his desk.

He raised his head and glanced at his chief historian, his eyes gloomy and sharp.

Liu Yong's heart couldn't help but skip a beat. He knew that the prince had become a little irritable recently.

That presumptuous poem and the position of commander of nine provinces made the prince suffer unprecedented setbacks, and even his temperament changed a little.

Liu Yong said cautiously, "Your Highness, General He has sent a letter from Liaodong, and it was sent by express horse from Liaodong!"

Shui Rong was slightly cheered up after hearing this. This He Xiong was his disciple at the Prince of Beijing's Mansion. Relying on the connections at the Prince of Beijing's Mansion, he became the Lieutenant General of the Fifth Army Battalion.

This time, because of the disturbance caused by the presumptuous poem, He Xiong and several other generals from the Beijing King's faction of the Five Military Camps were implicated and transferred out of the capital.

He Xiong was one of the more unlucky ones. His superiors found fault with him and kicked him out of the Fifth Army Camp without mercy. Now he was transferred to Yafu Pass in Liaodong as a guerrilla general, and his military rank was demoted by one level.

But Shui Rong felt that it was not a bad thing for He Xiong to be transferred to the frontier.

Because Yafu Pass is an important pass in Liaodong Town and the only way for Liaodong and Jurchen to communicate, its strategic location is very important.

With such a general in the line of Prince Beijing, serving as the second-in-command at Yafu Pass, Shui Rong knew the battle situation in Liaodong Town like the back of his hand.

Based on this consideration, Shui Rong personally hosted a farewell banquet for He Xiong when he left Beijing to take up his post in Liaodong.

He also gave He Xiong a lot of money and property in order to appease his resentment about being demoted, hoping that he would be content to be his eyes and ears in Liaodong.

Shui Rong opened the letter and read it, but he did not see the war news about Liaodong that he was hoping for.

He couldn't help but frown and said, "This He Xiong is too impatient!"

Chief Clerk Liu Yong asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, there is something wrong with General He."

Shui Rong said: "This He Xiong was a bit domineering when he was in the Fifth Army Camp. Now that he has been transferred to Yafu Pass for a short time, he has returned to his old ways.

He had friction with the chief officer of Yafu Pass, and in the letter he said that he was often excluded by the chief officer, and asked me to find a way to transfer him away from Yafu Pass.

But now the palace is weak, and he has only been transferred to Liaodong for a few months. How can he be transferred from this pass? This person is too impetuous and shallow, and he is really incapable of accomplishing anything!"

Shui Rong impatiently threw the letter on the desk and walked around the study anxiously.

"Liu Changshi, please write a letter for me and comfort He Xiong. You must keep him stable!"

"The military situation in Liaodong is critical right now. With him in Liaodong, he can be considered as an eye and ear..."

……

Just two streets away from Beijing Wang, a fur shop with three doors is doing a booming business.

The shop was filled with all kinds of precious northern furs, including tiger, bear, leopard and other furs. Behind the shop were three locked warehouses, and no one knew what was inside.

In a room on the second floor of the store, a man who looked like a shopkeeper was standing respectfully and talking humbly to a middle-aged man in his forties.

The middle-aged man was dressed in luxurious clothes and had a pale face, revealing an air of arrogance and domineering. He was Jia She, the first-class general of Rongguo Mansion.

Jia She has run this fur shop for more than a year, but it is a private business he bought outside, and no one in Rongguo Mansion knows about it.

Even his son Jia Lian didn't know the existence of this fur shop.

Although he lived in the East Courtyard to the east of Rongguo Mansion, he was still considered to have not separated from the mansion, and the East Courtyard still received money from the Rongguo Duke every year.

Logically speaking, he is not allowed to own any property outside.

But last year he found a way to make money easily. If he hadn't opened this shop, he might not have been able to make that money.

In fact, the clan leader Jia Zhen accidentally found out about his opening of this fur shop, and he eventually gave Jia Zhen some profit to shut him up.

Later, Ningguo was stripped of his title and his property was confiscated, Jia Zhen died suddenly, Jia Rong was exiled to Qiongzhou, and Jia She became the patriarch of the Jia family. He no longer had any scruples.

Now that he is the patriarch of the clan, even if people knew that he opened a shop outside, no one would dare to say a word against it.

Ever since the Ningguo Mansion was confiscated, this has become the time when Jia She was most proud and satisfied.

I could have been having a good time, but I didn't expect to get so angry yesterday.

I originally asked Jia Lian to help Jia Qiang get a job in the firearms workshop, but I didn't expect that Jia Lian, this useless guy, couldn't even do such a small thing.

The beast refused the matter outright, and Jia She himself was too embarrassed to go and say it in person.

He was so angry that if the firearms shop didn't involve a large sum of money, he wouldn't bother to have anything to do with that beast.

Besides, the beast is now a sixth-rank official of the imperial court. He cannot control him casually. He can only blame himself for his bad luck.

"Master, the latest batch of goods includes two hundred pieces of top-quality furs, twenty kilograms of top-quality wild ginseng, and a lot of Fugu, bear gall, deer antler and other medicinal materials."

"Now is the end of the year, and the rich and powerful in Shenjing City will buy these things at this time. This batch of goods will definitely sell for a good price..."

Jia She stroked his beard and smiled, "Well done, it's done well. When the account is settled at the end of the year, I, the master, will not treat you unfairly."

"How are our preparations going?"

"Reporting to the master, the fifty loads of tea and one hundred bags of sea salt have all been collected and are piled up in the warehouse. The other things need to be handled with caution, so they will take a few days to arrive."

"Okay! You keep an eye on them for the next few days. When people come from Ping'an Prefecture, have them take them away as soon as possible..."

(End of this chapter)