Red Mansion and Crimson Pearl

Chapter 147 Money Money Money Money Money

Lai Wang died when he was carried back.

Lai Wang's family cried bitterly and wanted to hold a funeral for Lai Wang; but Lai Xi's family reminded them not to make it public at this time and buried him quietly in a thin-skin coffin.

Three days later, Lai Wang, Lai Xi, Wu Xing and Zheng Hua, Wang's four maids, suddenly disappeared together.

Almost the next moment their house was empty, Jia went to Jingzhao Prefecture to report the escaped slave, and also smuggled the master's property.

Jia Lian was so angry that he drew a line at Jingzhao Prefecture: "If I catch this kind of slave, I will break his legs and sell him to Shanxi to dig coal!"

Jingzhao Prefecture understood what was going on, and within three days they reported back to Jia Lian: "The carriage overturned on the road, and the elderly fell off the cliff and disappeared. The valuables were also on the carriage.

"The young ones are in good health, and some of them only broke their arms and legs. What do you think we should do with them? Will we send them back to you?"

Jia Lian waved his hand and said, "Just let me see the body. Sell all those children!"

Jingzhao Prefecture invited him to the backyard. As expected, he was dead, but the most serious injury was not from a fall, but from a knife.

As for the children, the one from Lai Wang's family was seriously injured, breathing but not out. The other three families had a mix of sons, daughters-in-law, wives, sons-in-law, and about ten people in total. Jia Lian looked at the youngest, who was also fifteen years old, and looked at him with hatred.

Jia Lian couldn't help it, so he went up and slapped him in the face, and then kicked him hard: "You eat and drink from my family, wear gold and silver, silk and satin! Has my family ever treated you unfairly?

"It's fine if you don't obey, but you actually want to harm the master! If you have the guts, just run away! Your second master will go and turn against your second mistress, and he will never be bullied by you dogs and slaves again!"

Jingzhao Prefecture persuaded Jia Lian with a smile, and then took them all away: "It has been agreed that the border troops in the northeast are short of laborers. No one is willing to go, so these few people can go. Women can also cook."

After saying this, he even took out more than 200 silver coins and gave them to Jia Lian: "The money for selling the person."

The wealth of these three families is more than a few thousand silver coins? Now they only give me two hundred silver coins to send me off, and they still say it so nicely!

Jia Lian secretly hated it in his heart, but he declined it generously: "This money makes me angry just looking at it. My brothers have come a long way and worked hard, so let's divide it up!"

Jingzhao Prefecture accepted the gift with a bow. Jia Lian said goodbye.

The Jia family lost a group of servants.

As soon as Jia Lian left, Jiang Yong came out from the backyard, with eight people behind him, two of them carrying four boxes.

Jiang Yong casually opened a box, exclaimed in admiration, grabbed a handful of jewelry inside, took a look, and threw it away. Suddenly, he took out a small golden Buddha from inside, held it in his palm, and laughed:

"This bunch of slaves are courting death! Look, sir, this little Buddha has the seal of the Imperial Treasure Department under him! This is the seal given to Old Madam Jia by the palace! How dare they smuggle this in! How bold they are!"

Jingzhaofu was sweating profusely: "Master Jiang, do you think this is stolen goods or lost property?"

"Of course it's considered lost property." Jiang Yong closed the lid of the box and said with a smile, "You can sift through it. If it doesn't meet the rules, pick a date to put it into the warehouse and say that someone found it and handed it in!"

"No, no, no! The rules are too complicated! You'd better take them all!" Jingzhao Fu was so scared that his voice trembled.

Jiang Yong laughed: "Mingfu is indeed very thoughtful. Then I will take everything away?"

“Please, please, please!” Jingzhao Prefecture just wanted to send this plague god away quickly, “Those dozen people have been sent directly to the farm outside the capital as you ordered.

"I'd like to ask you to say a few kind words to me in front of Supervisor Tao. It sounds good to be an official in Beijing, but it's actually very difficult to do this! It's already not easy to keep the market stable..."

Jiang Yong smiled and asked someone to carry the box and leave first. He then walked a few steps hand in hand with Jingzhao Prefecture, said a few perfunctory words to her, and then said goodbye and left.

Jingzhao Prefecture opened his palm and saw a folded silver note, which he unfolded: one thousand taels.

The lawyer next to him came over, squinted his eyes to see clearly, and whispered in a hoarse voice: "It's not that my work was in vain..." He was glared away.

The yamen runners looked on eagerly. Jingzhao Prefecture took the silver package of more than 200 taels that he had just been pushing and pulling with Jia Lian, and threw it to the lawyer: "Divide it."

These four boxes, along with the five large boxes that Wang Xifeng had sent earlier, were sealed and quietly carried into Tao Jian's mansion under the cover of night.

"Third Miss doesn't want those five big boxes?" Aunt Meng was curious.

Lin Daiyu smiled: "She is different from the one from the Wang family. She thinks some things belong to her, and if they are not given to her, she will risk her life to fight for them.

“But there are some things that she feels are not hers, or are given out of pity, and she would rather die of hunger than take them.

"Lady Jia from the palace should have given her a purse the other day. I guess it contained about one or two thousand silver coins to save her life. It was given to her by her own sister. It was a token of affection, so she kept it."

"What about the things that those wicked servants of the Wang family embezzled? Why doesn't the young lady want to give them back to the Jia family?" Aunt Meng asked again.

Lin Daiyu lowered her eyes: "The poorer the Jia family is, the safer it is."

Aunt Meng couldn't figure it out, so she simply gave up thinking about it. She knocked on the table and said, "It's a lot of money. It will just gather dust in the hands of Prison Tao. It's better for the girl to use it to run a business and earn some interest."

Lin Daiyu laughed, "Aunt, I guess you haven't heard about it. There's been a lot of rain in the south this year, and more than one dike has burst. The court needs money, and these boxes of mine won't get dusty if they go there, and they'll be used in no time!"

Aunt Meng, Zijuan, Qingwen, Xueyan, Xiaohong: ???

Ideological and Political Hall.

Emperor Zhaoming slumped on the throne, staring at the pile of memorials on the table with an expressionless face.

Tao Xingjian brought in a bowl of mung bean soup, placed it next to him, and gently advised: "Your Majesty, don't be angry. Don't you always say that governing a big country is like cooking a small fish? You can't be impatient."

"This is different." Emperor Zhaoming said in a deep voice, "Although the majesty of heaven is hard to violate, many people were displaced and had no food to eat during the disaster. This is still the first move.

"After a great disaster, there will be a great epidemic. Next up is a hot summer, and the epidemic will only spread faster! Disaster relief, flood control, epidemic prevention, as well as rectification of official administration and comfort of refugees, this is not only a major matter, but also an urgent matter!"

Tao Xingjian frowned as he listened, and sighed while holding his whisk: "How much will this cost?"

When mentioning this, Emperor Zhaoming couldn't help but rub his temples:

"Two years ago, the man surnamed Song who was supposed to pick up Ru Hai was caught before he even entered Yangzhou. I had no choice but to send Old Wei again.

"Old Wei was a reckless man, quick with a knife and few words. He took down two families at once, and the rest became obedient. So the salt tax in those two years was one third higher than in previous years.

"But when I moved Old Wei to Sichuan, the salt tax in Liangjiang dropped again. Not to mention Old Wei, for example, the scholar Hai's tax was reduced by one third.

"The court needs money now. I asked the Ministry of Revenue to report a number today, but they couldn't. They just said they would know the answer after they went back to calculate it."

Tao Xingjian also sighed and whispered, "I'm afraid there isn't much silver in the storehouse. When you ascended the throne, the storehouse had less than three million taels of silver.

"I have saved for the past three years. I have not used weapons, nor have I gone on tours. I have not spent much. I estimate that I have about 10 million yuan.

“Where did this just go?!

"Especially, there is the Taishang's birthday celebration in July! This year is his 70th birthday, how can you not celebrate it?"

The king and his minister sighed to each other.

"Has Zhitong been found?"

"Not yet."

"Find him quickly. I want to use him!"

"Yes."