Survive in the world of Red Mansions

When Zhen Yingjia was fighting for power with a group of cabinet members, the power struggle between the emperor and the Supreme Emperor and the conflict with the third prince gradually became fierce.

In the end, the position of inspector of salt and censor in the Lianghuai River was supported by the third prince, and Li Nan, the Prime Minister of Shuntian Mansion, took over. This Li Nan had been supported by the Zhen family in recent years, and Li Nan's second son married the daughter of the Zhen family.

When Lin Hai saw the final result of the battle between the Huaihuai patrol salt censors, he not only lamented that marriage is really the only magic weapon for political alliances, and it is the same in ancient and modern times.

This time, in the battle for the position of Salt Administration, the emperor forced the emperor to give in at last, which also increased the number of people gathered behind the third prince. These people should all think that no matter how long the emperor sits on the throne, As long as the emperor is around, the third prince is not hopeless.Their greatest hope now is probably that the emperor will be healthy and able to last for a while.

However, after Lin Hai carefully observed Fang Yu, who took over the position of Shuntian Mansion Prime Minister, he felt a little taste. Maybe the emperor Li Min couldn't say that he had completely failed in the battle for the salt and censor in the Huaihe River and Huaihe River.

Probably no one would have thought that there would be a relationship between Fang Yu and the Queen's natal family. Speaking of which, Fang Yu and Queen Sun are still cousins.This is the news that Lin Ran and the others got by accident. Fang Yu's father is the nephew of Empress Sun's grandmother's family.At that time, Mrs. Sun was treated poorly by her stepmother at her natal family, and she almost died once. It was thanks to Fang Yu's great-grandmother who rescued her, and finally she was able to marry into Sun's family safely with a part of her biological mother's dowry.

Everyone in the older generation in Beijing knew that Mrs. Sun was not close to her natal family, and they only thought that it was a contradiction between Mrs. Sun's stepmother marrying her, the eldest daughter of a third-rank official, to a Sun family who was very young at that time.However, Sun Fang's luck as a woman is really good. When Fang married into the Sun family, Empress Sun's grandfather was only ten years old, and obtained the fame of Jinshi from a small scholar. The Sun family also began to prosper gradually. It can't be compared to a big family with real power, but the reputation of the Sun family's scholarly family has begun to be passed down.

On the other hand, the Fang family has gradually declined over the past few decades. The Sun Fang family has basically no contact with the step-siblings of her natal family. He also began to forget the in-law relationship between the Sun family and the Fang family.It is precisely because of this that no one thought of the relationship between Fang Yu and the Sun family. Lin Ran also got the news by accident, and after in-depth investigation, he found out that Fang Yu had always been in contact with the Sun family. With the help of my family, I started as a county magistrate of the eighth grade, and in only a dozen years, I became a magistrate under the Henan Prefecture.

Now Chen Ruiyang, the governor of Shuntian Mansion, came from Qi Guogong’s mansion and was appointed by the Supreme Emperor. It seems that it was because of this that the emperor replaced the governor of Shuntian Mansion with his own. Lin Hai guessed that Chen Ruiyang’s governor of Shuntian Mansion probably It won't last long either.

Compared with Li Nan's succession from Shuntian Fucheng to the post of Lianghuai inspector censor, Fang Yu's arrival is a bit less conspicuous.

No matter how fierce the court battle is, the New Year still has to be passed, and what should be prepared for the New Year still needs to be prepared.Every year before the New Year, the most important preparation is to give New Year gifts.Relatives and friends, the same year, fellow countrymen, superiors and subordinates, local officials and Beijing officials, etc., will give gifts to each other.Daiyu has been taking care of the middle gifts of the Lin Mansion for the past few years, and she is also familiar with sending New Year's gifts. Those who should be sent out have been arranged early, and those sent to the door by others will be handled properly.

In the capital, no matter whether they are high-ranking officials or small officials, those with real power will be given gifts even on weekdays, and life will naturally be easier.But apart from these officials, there are still many poor Beijing officials. Most of them are Hanlin and Zhongshu from poor families. Their official ranks are not high and they have nothing to do.Many of their fellow countrymen worked in other places in the same year, and they probably would not forget to send some money gifts to the capital a few years ago. On the one hand, they maintained the relationship between the two parties. There is one of these people who work in the capital. Although their official ranks are not high, but because they are in the capital, they are much more informed about the officialdom than officials sent out. trends in .

Since the Lin family came to Beijing, they have received a lot of New Year gifts in the past few years, but definitely not as many as this year.Not long after Lin Hai was promoted to the Minister of the Household Department, he began to receive annual gifts from various places one after another.There are fellow villagers and relatives and friends of the same year, and many are subordinate officials at the local level.

The Minister of Household Affairs is somewhat similar to the Minister of Finance and Minister of the Interior of a modern state. The Minister of Household Affairs is mainly in charge of the entire country's economy, including household registration, taxation, agriculture, and business, as well as coordinating various national funds, etc. What about disaster relief? Allocating funds, building water conservancy, and preparing money and food before the army launches a war, etc., must be coordinated by the Ministry of Accounts. Therefore, the position of Minister of the Ministry of Accounts is definitely a heavy responsibility. Because of this, naturally more people gave gifts to Master Shangshu.

It’s almost the end of the year, in order not to leave the yamen’s affairs to the next year, Lin Hai’s period of time is no longer the same as some time ago, he was released from the yamen and returned to the mansion before Shen Shi, and now he can’t go back until Shen Hou Shi or even You Shi every day government.

During this period of time, because Lin Hai's dinner was often delivered directly to the yamen, except for the occasional Lin Rui returning home from vacation, the members of the Lin family ate separately.It was still early for Lin Hai to come back from the yamen today. After he came back, he took the time to exercise for nearly half an hour. After washing up, he had dinner.After eating, after the little maid took away the dishes, just as tea was served, Daiyu came in with a stack of gift slips and a small box.

"Father, are you not busy now?"

Lin Hai saw the gift list in Daiyu's hand, and asked, "I'm not busy, what's the matter, is there anything special about the gifts I received these days?"

Daiyu shook her head and said: "The list of gifts is fine, most of the gifts are also very ordinary, most of them are some food, wine, tea, some dry goods and furs, brocade fabrics, jade jewelry, and even some money, etc. It shouldn't be too much." Daiyu handed the gift list to Lin Hai and continued, "However, I think there is something wrong with one copy, that is, the top one. It is not clearly stated on the gift list, only a It’s just the box, that’s the box, I opened it and looked at the 2 taels of silver bills inside, Dad, should I be asking for such a heavy gift? What should I do now, do I need to arrange for someone to return it?”

Lin Hai took the gift list from Daiyu and sneered when he saw the name of the person who gave the gift. The governor of Shandong Hedao really knew how to plan ahead. money? !

When I first took over the position of Minister of the Ministry of Households, the emperor had just approved the money for the Yellow River governance this year. I felt that the money for river management was not used in real terms every year, and many of them were corrupted by layers of officials. At the same time, he made a booklet and asked the emperor to personally send someone to supervise, and the required silver taels were allocated to the subordinates in batches, and the household department would also send people to check the use of each sum of money. This is somewhat similar to the modern auditing department responsible for The affairs were approved by the emperor at that time.

It’s not long since the allocated money has reached the bottom, and part of the river management work should have been completed. If he dares to give himself a gift like this now, he probably doesn’t know that he is the one who proposes to send someone to supervise and the Ministry of Households will check it out. ?

Lin Hai couldn't help cursing inwardly, this stupid guy is really going to make trouble for him!Regardless of whether his work is done well or not, I dare not accept this money, and I am not short of it. I will find an opportunity to transfer it to the emperor in the next few days. This one seems to be short of money. !

"Daiyu, put this box with me, and I will deal with it. You handled it very well this time. The saying 'better than others, you must ask for something' is true at all times, and no one will give it away for no reason. Such a generous gift."

Lin Hai took the small box that Daiyu had brought, and told the daughter again that the Lin family was not short of money, so there was no need to cause trouble for him because of this little money. The position of Xunyan Yushi is the same. After the gift is received, it is directly handed over to the emperor for handling.

Daiyu picked up some important things that happened in the mansion in the past few days and told Lin Hai again. After talking about these things, Daiyu sat with Lin Hai for a while before returning to her yard.

The preparations for the New Year in the Lin Mansion are proceeding in an orderly manner. With years of experience as a housekeeper and director, Lin Daiyu is not as busy as she was in the first few years when she took over, and now she can do it with ease.In fact, the Lin family only has three masters, four aunts, plus the borrowed guests, sir, master, foster mother, etc., all of which add up to only a dozen people. This family is really not well managed Disaster.But it's not surprising, the Lin family has few children, and Lin Daiyu's housekeeper has never worried about money, so there is really no need to worry too much.

On the Lin family's side, Lin Daiyu's butler took care of it very easily, while on the Jia's side, the housekeeper of Lian's second grandmother took care of it quite miserable.Ping'er looked at Sister Feng who was lying on the bed with a sallow face and a kerchief on her forehead, shed tears from time to time, so she could only carefully persuade, "Second Grandma, you are Xiaoyue now, you can't shed tears like this. , it's not good for the eyes."

From time to time, Ping'er wiped Wang Xifeng's eyes with a handkerchief, and continued, "Second Grandma, this time, I must take this opportunity to take good care of my body, and in a few days, I will completely resign to the old lady! If It's not so tiring this time, and I won't lose a good brother, Second Mistress can't do this again in the future!"

Originally, Ping'er would not say these words much on weekdays, but now his master has been married for more than ten years, and there is only one sister. Is there a reason to mess around outside? I dared to secretly marry the second wife outside before. Who knows if it will happen in the future?

"Ping'er, what did you say about me, the butler and the housekeeper?" Wang Xifeng said hoarsely, and said slowly, "I have been married to this mansion for so many years, and I have listened to my good aunt for everything. Most of the dowry was lost. This time, a good brother lost his life, and my aunt actually said that it was because of my competitive nature that I ended up in this situation. I was competitive because of something, and it was not because of this house. Now I Lying on the bed, I immediately let the Xue family’s cousin, sister-in-law and third girl take care of things, the elder sister-in-law and the third younger sister are fine, but now they let an outsider come in as the housekeeper, so I can’t wait for Xue Baochai to marry in as the housekeeper!"

"Second Grandma, don't think about it so much now. Whoever wants to take care of these things can take care of them. The remaining dowry in Second Grandma's hands must be taken care of. Don't worry about other things. Take good care of your body." It's serious!"

Ping'er also knew that the second wife did a little too much, because there were many things a year ago, and the master was too tired, and she didn't even know she was pregnant. The wife immediately took back the matter in the master's hands, mercilessly, and gave Miss Xue an outsider to take care of it.No matter how many and opinions I have, so what can I do, I am just a servant, no matter how decent I am, it is only because of the face of the master, now I can only persuade the second mistress to take good care of her body, and strive to have a brother in the future Son is serious.

Oh, what a great year!