[Red Mansion] Adopted daughter and child

Lin Ruhai was taken aback when he heard that: "Make salt less valuable?"

Lin Liu explained: "The salt used by most common people today is still coarse salt boiled in seawater, or salt from wells dug inland."

"Because it takes time and effort to get finished products, and requires wealth support, if you want to get started and learn to sell salt, you must either accumulate wealth from selling private salt, or you can only stay outside this profitable industry and look greedy, so the salt government will In the hands of these officials and salt merchants."

"But I have a method that can make the process of making salt simple and efficient. In addition to requiring a large area of ​​tidal flats, even the consumption of manpower is less than before, and there is no need for a large amount of wood consumption. As long as the tidal flats are sufficient, the output can be For example, today's cooking method has improved a hundred times. Father, do you think the price of this salt can be lowered?"

Lin Ruhai looked at Lin Liu and nodded seriously: "Of course it can, and it will be greatly reduced."

but……

"How can you guarantee that the salt-making method you have come up with will definitely reduce costs?" Lin Ruhai sighed, "The most important thing is, how can you prove that the salt-making method you mentioned will definitely reduce costs?"

Lin Liu smiled: "I once saw a sentence in "Tiangong Kaiwu. Zuoxian Fifth" written by Song Yingxing, a scholar of the former dynasty, "Haifeng has someone who directs seawater into the pond to dry it. When it condenses , Sweeping food does not require manpower. It is the same as dissolving salt. But the time of salt formation is very different from not borrowing the south wind."

Jieyan is the salt produced in Yanchi, Shanxi, and it is the best quality tribute salt in China.

Lin Ruhai read a lot of books, only heard Lin Liu start, and silently recited the rest of the content in his heart.

But he didn't understand why his daughter would take this passage out on purpose.

Seeing the puzzlement in Lin Ruhai's eyes, Lin Liu explained: "Because the method of making salt in Haifeng is called the salt field method. What I want to present is the improved salt field method."

Lin Ruhai became interested: "Haifeng's salt is of high quality, but because the production method is strictly kept secret and the production is not much, many people think that the salt produced here is limited by the region and cannot increase the production, so the imperial court did not list this salt. For tribute salt. If you really know the secret of salt production in this place, and you can guarantee that it can be promoted on a large scale across the country..."

"Draw the bottom of the pot, it's doable!"

The imperial court saw those salt merchants accumulating tens of thousands of family property by selling salt, didn't they feel jealous, and never thought of taking full control of the salt production in the imperial court's hands?

It's just time-consuming and labor-intensive, and there are not so many officials in the DPRK——

The tens of millions of people across the country need to buy an astronomical amount of salt every year. If salt production and sales are all controlled by the imperial court, from salt production and sales to supervision and control, the number of officials required in these processes is also huge. numbers.

So in the end, we can only use Yanyin to control the salt merchants, so as to achieve the purpose of controlling the salt administration.

Lin Liu smiled and shook her head: "Where can it be widely promoted across the country? This salt pan method is only suitable for seaside, because the most important raw material is salty seawater."

It is difficult to explain the key points in dictation. Lin Liu walked to the desk, picked up a pen and paper while writing, explained the principle and purpose of the evaporation pool and the crystallization pool, and also talked about the role of temperature and wind on evaporation.

Lin Ruhai was confused by what he heard, and felt that many of the knowledge were beyond his knowledge.

He didn't think there was anything wrong with asking his daughter. After realizing that there were many things he didn't understand, he hurriedly pulled Lin Liu to ask her seriously.

Lin Liu had to explain the problem of saturation to Lin Ruhai first, and after explaining, he mentioned that different substances have different saturations... After solving one problem, a second problem appeared soon, and the two taught each other until dawn. Only then did I finally understand all the tricks and details of the Yantian method.

Lin Ruhai breathed a sigh of relief: "This way, when the emperor asks, I won't be able to shake my head and wonder if the emperor doubts whether the Yantian law is true or not."

Lin Liu rubbed his tired eyes, closed his eyes and slumped on the chair, and the joke came out of his head: "If the emperor doubts it, it will be good for our family. At that time, my father will directly issue a military order to the emperor, If the emperor transfers you to the seaside to personally be responsible for the development and excavation of the salt fields, and even the subsequent production of sun-dried salt, won’t our family get out of the muddy waters of Huaiyang?”

After hearing this, Lin Ruhai froze in place.

Lin Liu heard Lin Ruhai's voice for a while, and couldn't help opening her eyes, but saw his thoughtful face, as if she felt that what she just said was very feasible.

She was taken aback: "Father, you don't really want to issue a military order, do you? If a military order is issued, our family will change from active to passive. If there is a slight mistake in the future, there will be big problems."

After all, Lin Liu only knew the principle of the Yantian method, and had not tried it himself, so even if he said it clearly and logically, he was actually a little uncertain in his heart——

It's not that I think this method is unreliable, but I'm worried that if I don't understand some details, the result will not match my expectations. Wouldn't it be that I lost my life in vain?

Lin Ruhai smiled and said: "When I report to the emperor, I will never honestly report the maximum output, or even the average output. To be on the safe side, the minimum output you mentioned has to be reported less. What about the salt output produced by decoction? , we just double it, this is safe, and the emperor will be happier when the production increases."

Facing a person like the emperor who holds the power over his own life and death, most of the time, telling the truth is what will force him to die.

Lin Ruhai is well versed in the way of being an official, so she would not make such low-level mistakes.

"The decoction method has a low yield of salt and consumes a lot," Lin Ruhai said with a smile. "The minimum yield of the salt field method can be several times higher than that of the decoction method. Can’t even double the yield of boiling legal salt?”

Lin Liu shook her head, such a huge sea, how could it not be twice as big?

Lin Ruhai laughed, and his eyes were full of determination: "Isn't that enough? I will report to the emperor with double the amount. With the emperor's temperament, he will definitely agree to transfer me to the coastal area to take charge of the implementation of the Yantian law. Then we can naturally Leave Huaiyang."

This place in Huaiyang is like a swamp. If you can't get out in time, you will sink in sooner or later and be suffocated by the surrounding mud.

Lin Ruhai cherished his life very much, and he didn't want to hand over the lives of his family to this place. Now that he has the opportunity to escape, he must firmly grasp it and never let it slip away from his hands.

As the censor of Huaiyang Salt Inspection, Lin Ruhai always has some privileges——

For example, originally only the emperor's confidants could have it, but he had it in advance when he was given the opportunity to give the emperor a secret book.

Even if he is not yet the emperor's confidant.

Lin Ruhai is now in high spirits and doesn't feel tired at all, so after driving Lin Liu back to his yard to sleep, he simply sat at the desk and began to describe the pros and cons of the Yantian method in detail, and imitated Lin Liu's previous description as he did when he described it. A large amount of data is mentioned above to increase your persuasiveness.

Of course, he did not forget to mention a sentence at the end. He just heard about this method by accident, and he didn't see it with his own eyes, let alone tried it himself.

After writing the secret book to the emperor, Lin Ruhai gained confidence, so when contacting the official salt merchants in Huaiyang, he became more comfortable again.

Frightened by Lin Ruhai's aura, the officials and wealthy businessmen who were still on the verge of making a move couldn't help but wonder if he had discovered something, or if there was something behind him, and for a moment they didn't dare to take action against the Lin family.

Lin Ruhai breathed a sigh of relief, and only then did he have the energy to pay attention to the results of Lin Da's interrogation.

As the first of Lin Ruhai's confidantes, Lin Da possessed abilities that ordinary people could hardly imagine.

The person who soaked the chopsticks of Jia Min's dowry in venom could not bear the punishment after persisting for less than a month, and confessed everything.

Surprisingly and not so surprisingly, the person who was picked out was Xinghu, who was second only to Xinghua in Jia Min's confidant.

Xinghu is a quiet and low-key person with a calm temperament. Although he is highly valued by Jia Min, he is not very eye-catching in Jia Min's room.But she never makes mistakes in doing things properly, and can often play a role in stabilizing people's hearts at critical times, so her status in Jia Min's room is also quite high.

Not to mention Lin Liu, even Jia Min was at a loss when he heard Xinghu's name.

Just wait another one or two years, and Jia Min will let the maids around her go out to get married.

And with Xinghu's status, even if she wanted to ask for Jia Min's grace to let her slavery go out and marry an ordinary commoner, Jia Min would definitely not refuse.

As for the gold and silver things, Jia Min kept his hands loose. Every year, he gave a huge sum of money to the maids around him. When they get married, they can take it out and live a prosperous life for the rest of their lives.

Jia Min couldn't figure out why Xinghu would betray him.

After General Lin's interrogation results were presented, Jia Min was angry and laughed after reading it, and felt that he had fed the dog with all his heart——

It turned out that Xinghu had been a nail placed by her side from the very beginning.

The person who placed Xinghu was Jia Min's old acquaintance, Qian Man.

Seeing this familiar yet unfamiliar name, Jia Min was really furious: "Is Qian Man crazy? My grievances with her have been going on for many years, and she is here After so many years, are you still willing to put in so much effort to put a nail in my side?"

The key is to know from Xinghu's testimony that Xinghu is definitely not the first person to be placed next to Jia Min.

When Jia Min saw the name Qian Man, she was so angry that she didn't want to look down.

Seeing this, Lin Liu simply took the testimony from Jia Min, but after reading all the testimony at a glance, she finally figured out the whole story: "Mother, I think it is necessary for us to invite Mr. Sheng over. .”

Jia Min looked at Lin Liu suspiciously: "What are you asking Sheng Man to do? This is our family business and has nothing to do with Sheng Man, so it's useless to invite her here?"

Lin Liu handed the testimony to Jia Min, and said with a smile, "I just suddenly remembered that when Mr. Sheng first arrived at our house, he unintentionally mentioned, 'Qian Man's life will be difficult in the future', but?"

Jia Min thought about it for a long time, and nodded hesitantly: "It seems that you did mention something?"

Lin Liu nodded: "Mother, take a serious look. Although Xinghu is Qian Manan's nail in your side, its original function is to convey your usual 'miserable' life, so that she can see the joke. Madam Qian does not I didn't intend to let these nails do other things. The one who really attacked our family should be Mrs. Qian's husband, General Fengguo Tu Jin."

"So I want to know, what did Mr. Sheng discover when he was a Mr. Qian's family, so that he could say such things."

There was no entanglement between Sheng Man and Qian Man, and she had a noble temperament, so naturally she would not say anything aimless.

She said that there must be a reason for Qian Man's difficult life in the future.

But these years, all they heard was "Although Mrs. Qian's offspring is difficult, General Fengguo treats her as always, the husband and wife are loving, and others are envious of her".

Therefore, there must be some secrets that they do not know.

Just like why Xinghu did something to help General Fengguo, she didn't say it clearly, even if she was tortured, she would bite her to death without opening her mouth.

This testimony is missing a link.

Although it is enough for the Lin family to know who their enemy is, and the missing link is not that important, Lin Liu is still very curious, and she is keenly aware that this missing link may hide The best way to retaliate against Tujin.

Jia Min was taken aback for a moment, and immediately picked up the testimony and looked at it at a glance.

After a moment of hesitation, she still asked Sheng Man to come over.

Sheng Man hesitated and refused to speak: "This matter is a secret of General Fengguo's family. I know it is thanks to my previous experience in General Fengguo's family. Telling you this is really against my principles of life. "

Lin Liu walked up to Sheng Man, knelt down and made a big salute: "Sir, if it hadn't been discovered this time that Feng Guo General Tu Jin wanted to kill my family, my mother and I wouldn't have forced you to reveal other people's secrets. It's just that Tu Jin now They have already reached out to my house, we must take revenge back. If you know anything related to Tu Jin, please tell the students. Please!"

Sheng Man was stunned, and his mind fell into the battle between heaven and man.

After a while, she suddenly sighed: "Forget it, I was only invited by Qian Man to enter Fengguo General's Mansion to teach her daughter. If what you want to do will not endanger Qian Man, I will not." Nothing can be said."

Lin Liu was somewhat hesitant: "They are a husband and wife, revenge on Tu Jin will inevitably implicate Madam Qian."

Sheng Man smiled and shook her head: "You forgot that Qian Man's father, Marquis Ding'an, is still alive."

Lin Liu looked at Jia Min, saw her nodding, and then agreed: "If Qian Man's family hadn't been involved, we would definitely not implicate innocent people."

Sheng Man nodded, and then she just talked about the first meeting: "When I first entered Qian's house, I saw the relationship between Qian Man and Tu Jin, and I felt a little awkward. Maybe it's clear to the onlookers. Although the atmosphere between them is sticky, there is always a sense of falsehood."

"But I'm not a troublesome person. Although I had doubts, I didn't mention it in front of Qian Man. Instead, I taught the students to clear it up."

"It's just that after I received a letter from Jia Min inviting me to be your wife at Lin's house, I felt a little bit tangled up because I felt that resigning for no reason would be bad." Sheng Man smiled, "I taught well in Tu's house, There is always a reason to give Qian Man a sudden resignation. It was just noisy during the day, so I went out for a walk alone at night, trying to think of a suitable reason."

Lin Liu blinked, night is a time when accidents happen frequently.

The fact is exactly the same, Sheng Man seldom went out at night, and directly bumped into——

"When I passed by the rockery, I heard Tu Jin and Qian Man's confidant doing that kind of thing." Sheng Man sneered, "That confidant used to be Qian Man's dowry maid, and she was supposed to be Tu Jin's concubine. It's just that Qian Man is jealous, and Tu Jin is also a dignified person, not to mention taking advantage of others, and married him to his confidant servant."

"That's why that confidant can continue to stay by Qian Man's side."

"But I have seen that woman, and I have no intention of seeing the two so-called children of her and the servant who were so well hidden." Sheng Man laughed sarcastically, "I didn't think so before, but after I ran into this, I realized It suddenly dawned on me that the two children were five points similar to Tu Jin. No wonder they wanted to hide the children, otherwise if Qian Man saw them, wouldn't the adultery between the two be discovered immediately?"

It was also because of this incident that Sheng Man left Tu's house so soon.

Sheng Man rolled her eyes and said with a smile: "I think Tu Jin is very courageous, he even dares to touch the people around his wife, he is also a sweet talker and good at coaxing people's hearts, many maids in Qian Man's room saw him They all blush, I'm afraid there are many people raised outside."

really……

Lin Liu glanced at the testimony again, and she said, if Xinghu and Tu Jin had nothing to do with each other, it would be completely unreasonable to suddenly help Tu Jin, or to do something that harms the whole family, and is likely to be executed by Ling Chi after being discovered .

"Mother, I remember how many nuns from the palace have been raised in the house?" Lin Liu suppressed the emotions in her eyes and said calmly, "Why don't they check whether Xinghu is still perfect or not?"

If not, the relationship between Xinghu and Tu Jin would be clear.

Both Jia Min and Sheng Man were taken aback for a moment, and then their eyes widened in disbelief.

Jia Min clutched her chest, feeling unbearable chest tightness, and a feeling of nausea lingering in her heart: "You mean, Xinghu has already had an affair with that Tu Jin, so she will help Tu Jin with his work?"

Lin Liu smiled: "Maybe?"

From Sheng Man's words, Lin Liu couldn't tell what kind of real skills this Tu Jin had. Instead, he felt that he was quite good at dealing with women.

Otherwise, with Qian Man's jealousy, how dare the maid beside her have any unreasonable thoughts about Tu Jin?

Don't you see, Wang Xifeng's jealousy is much weaker than hers when she grows up, doesn't Ping'er always avoid suspicion when facing Jia Lian, and is worried that making Wang Xifeng jealous will affect her future?

Jia Min clutched her chest and panted heavily, thinking that Xinghu would be with...

She closed her eyes, raised her hand to have the medicine brought up, and finished it in one gulp.After taking the medicine and resting for a while, Jia Min slowly adjusted his mood.

It's just that she no longer has any soft-heartedness towards Xinghu.

Sheng Man was in a daze, she never expected that she would hear the secret of Tu Jin attacking the people around Jia Min.

Seeing that Sheng Man misunderstood, Lin Liu quickly explained: "Sir, Xinghu has been Qian Man's eyeliner arranged by Qian Man's side from the beginning. If you really want to talk about betrayal, Xinghu betrayed not her mother, but Madam Qian."

She even wondered how many of Qian Man's staff in Fengguo General's Mansion were painted and uncontaminated.

Thinking about it, it's also a little disgusting.

She also thought that in order to be able to have a son, Qian Man, who was so arrogant and arrogant, could put down her body and apologize to her arch enemy Jia Min to show weakness...

"Tsk!" Sheng Man sneered, "Men are really not good things."

Now that the matter has been investigated to this point, Jia Min will naturally not stop Mammy from checking Xinghu's body.

But when the nanny told the story that Xinghu was no longer perfect, Jia Min's eyes were still darkened.He also thought that Xinghu was originally arranged by Qian Man's side to check her eyeliner in her daily life, and these things might have been sent to Tu Jin...

Jia Min couldn't hold back and vomited it out on the spot.

Fortunately, after Lin Da interrogated him again, he knew that he had been stripped to pieces. Xinghu, who was about to be charged with adultery, dared not hide it anymore. How many times did he even pass on the news? What was the content, and I told Lin Da verbatim.

General Lin sent the testimony to Jia Min. Seeing that the number of times she was mentioned in it was not too many, and most of them were just some innocuous and depressing things in life, the feeling of nausea in her heart finally dissipated.

But after that, Jia Min let go of the matter and had no intention of touching it again——

Tu Jin is too disgusting, if he finds out about something, Jia Min can't guarantee that he won't be affected.For the sake of his own health, Jia Min, who was still recovering from his illness, decided that it was better not to worry about this matter.

Lin Liu and Lin Ruhai agreed with this very much, and together they blocked all news related to this matter before reaching Jia Min, and did not let her hear any more news.

Even the father and daughter finally made up their plan and decided to give Qian Man the information of all the lovers that Tu Jin had investigated. They didn't tell Jia Min that they wanted to borrow a knife to kill someone. They just wanted to let her recover from her illness with peace of mind. .

——Although she drank the medicine for a month, there was still some remnants of Guanchouhai in Jia Min's body, so she was still more agitated and prone to negative emotions than before.

Qian Man is not only jealous, but also has a father who loves her to the bone.The key point is that she is not stupid. She was only deceived by the illusion of conjugal love created by Tu Jin in the past. Once she wakes up, with her connections and ruthless methods, Tu Jin will definitely not be able to please her.

Sure enough, not long after, news came from the capital, saying that Qian Man killed his relatives righteously and reported directly to his concubine and aunt.

The first prince is a thorn in the heart of the Supreme Emperor, whoever mentions it will seek death.

After some investigation, it was found that Tu Jin had also advised the former prince, and even Tu Jin was responsible for the former prince's forced palace. After that, the Supreme Emperor was furious, and directly sent the whole family of General Fengguo to prison. Exiled into the army.

Only Qian Man was successful in reporting and was able to bring her daughter back to her natal home ahead of schedule.

It is said that after Tu Jin's family was escorted out of the capital, Qian Man brought several women and children to the exile team, and bluntly said that those people were all Tu Jin's women and children, and they should also be exiled with him.

Tu Jin almost went mad with anger, and started fighting with Qian Man on the spot.

It's a pity that Qian Man practiced martial arts since he was a child, and even after he got married, he never fell behind. As soon as Tu Jin made a move, Qian Man pressed him on the ground and beat him until his nose was bruised and his face was swollen.

The officers and soldiers who were in charge of the escort had a close relationship with the Ding'anhou family, and when they saw this happening, they acted as if they hadn't seen anything until Tu Jin was almost beaten to death by Qian Man. Feed saved.

When this matter came out, many wives felt very happy.

Qian Man himself fell silent after this incident. He heard that before her natal family changed her domineering posture, she locked herself in the yard all day long, even ignoring her daughter.

After Lin Liu heard this, she couldn't do anything except sigh, so she simply let go.

On the contrary, Lin Ruhai broke out in a cold sweat when he heard that Tu Jin had participated in the forced palace of the former crown prince. When he saw Lin Liu, he couldn't help but rejoice: "Fortunately, you asked Ji Song to dress up as a woman, otherwise if this matter was discovered by Xinghu , passed it to Tu Jin, I am afraid that Ji Song and our Lin family will not escape death."

Marquis Ding'an has always been neutral, General Fengguo is his son-in-law, even the official positions are obtained by relying on him, the position should be the same as Marquis Ding'an.

Who would have thought that Tu Jin had already taken refuge in the former prince?

Lin Liu smiled: "We asked Ji Song to dress up as a woman in order to deceive others? Xinghu has not found it so far, obviously we have done it very successfully."

Lin Ruhai thought for a while and nodded: "Indeed."

So he simply let go and began to seriously wait for the imperial decree from the capital——

After Lin Ruhai told the emperor about the Yantian Law with a secret letter, the emperor wrote to ask some related questions.

According to his own plan, Lin Ruhai lowered the output of the Yantian method, and kept evading it, saying that there are many key points in it, and if it is handed over to others, it may not be able to guarantee success.Instead, he took over by himself, and he could issue a military order to ensure the amount of salt produced by the Yantian Law.

Since then, there has been no letter from the emperor.

Lin Ruhai roughly guessed that the emperor probably couldn't give up the benefits that he would bring to the treasury by placing himself in the position of inspector of salt and censor.

But according to the emperor's temperament, it will only be a matter of time before he issues an imperial decree to transfer himself to the coastal area——

After all, the amount of 100 million taels of silver per year is more important than the doubled salt tax in the future. The emperor must know how to choose.

Sure enough, on the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the person sent by the imperial court to deliver the decree finally arrived.

And the content of the imperial decree, just as Lin Ruhai expected, was to transfer him to the coastal area.However, whether the Yantian law can be implemented is still unknown, and Lin Ruhaiming's official position naturally has nothing to do with salt.

But for the Lin family, as long as they can leave Huaiyang, it is enough.