Old things in the Red Chamber

"Let me hear what you say."

"Loyal Prince said that Jia Xun is in the south of the Yangtze River, which is too annoying."

Shi Taijun pinched the handle of the chair and asked Jia Zheng tremblingly.

"He wants Jia Xuan's life."

Jia Zheng nodded.

Shi Taijun took a deep breath, and immediately calmed down, "Does he want our family to attack?"

"Old lady, when Qin Keqing lost her life, it was our family who killed her. The loyal prince said that our family did it without anyone noticing, as long as it is the same as before."

"If you say that the gods don't know it, how does he know?"

"I also know what the old lady is thinking. After all, Jia Huan is also from our family. Even if he didn't grow up in our family, he is the most promising person in their generation, but then again , is not on our family tree, nor is it considered a member of our family."

"Although I don't recognize them, I never thought of killing them."

"Old lady, you are kind. As long as you nod your head on this matter, other people will naturally do it, and you will pretend it never happened."

"My own grandson is gone, how can I pretend that it never happened."

Jia Zheng didn't speak, and the atmosphere in the hall became quiet for a while.

After a while, Shi Taijun seemed to be drained of all his strength, "Did you send someone south?"

"As you said, old lady, our family has no money, no people, and no military power. What should we use to seek refuge with the loyal prince. It is easy to do this."

Shi Taijun can figure out how to do it. People in the south of the Yangtze River now listen to a lot of Rongguo Mansion, and the ones who can make people feel at ease are the people brought by Jia Lian and Jia Cong.

As long as the two of them kill Jia Xun, Jia Gu and Jia She can turn against each other and get rid of Jia Xun.

It's really killing two birds with one stone.

Shi Taijun waved his hand and told Jia Zheng to go down, "Go back, don't come to me if you have nothing to do, it is your blessing to let my old woman live longer, if I die, you will want Ding You."

Jia Zheng quickly stood up and explained to Shi Taijun sincerely, "The son is looking forward to the old lady's long life, a long and long life."

Shi Taijun waved his hand weakly again.

After Jia Zheng left, Shi Taijun couldn't hold on any longer in the hall, and cried out, "Grandpa, what should I do?"

No matter how you plan for your future life, the debts that should be repaid must be repaid, and the Ministry of Household Affairs has finally begun a large-scale investigation of the debt owed.

In this investigation, wherever it went, the listeners were sad and the listeners shed tears. The servants and sergeants of the household department rushed into other people's mansions and searched them forcibly. .

If the owed silver could not be paid off, the whole family, old and young, would be kicked out of the mansion, and then their mansion and farm outside the city would be sold in the capital to pay off the owed silver.

After doing this on the first day, half of the people went to the gate of the palace to knock on the que to complain, and the other half acted quickly, preparing the ticket number and sending gold and silver to the household department overnight.

This matter also scared the entire Rongguo Mansion enough, Mrs. Wang hurriedly took out the ticket number and handed it to Jia Zheng, who rushed to the household department at dawn to write off the account.

However, there were people coming and going in the household department, and no one saw Jia Zheng. When Jia Zheng approached, he was rudely pushed away by the household department officials, but no one told him that the money owed by his family had long been paid. Cleared up.

But Jia Zheng did not give up. If the money is not out, he will be even more frightened.From morning to afternoon, I watched some officials of the household department yamen rush to the front with boxes of money to write off the account.

"Rongguo Mansion, the Jia family, right? Your brother Jia She has already paid off the money, so you can go back."

There were quite a few families who returned the money, and some people didn't have so much money for a while, and wanted to ask the Ministry of Households to give it a few days. Everyone crowded together, and amidst the noise, they all looked at Jia Zheng when they heard what the officials of the Ministry of Finance said.

"Brother Cun Zhou, if you don't need this money now, you might as well lend it to us for a while."

"The ancestors of our two families have known each other for a long time..."

"Cunzhou, we are all from Jinling, our ancestors have known each other for hundreds of years..."

"Master Jia, help me, our whole family is very grateful."

Good old Jia Cunzhou borrowed all the money in his hand. When he went home empty-handed and told Mrs. Shi Taijun about the matter, Mrs. Wang was so angry that she wanted to bite him to death.

When those people borrow money at this time, when will they be able to pay it back?It will be difficult to get the money back when it is lent out.Didn't you hear a word being said in the capital recently?The one who owes the debt is the grandfather, and the one who collects the debt is the grandson. If the loaned money can be recovered, can the court use this method to force everyone to pay back the money?

After lending nearly 20 taels of silver, Mrs. Wang fell ill for three days.

The imperial court was anxious to take back the money, because they wanted to use the money as military funds and escort it to the south.

Because of Jia Gu's assassination, a big mess of the military department was handed over to the two servants. The food and grass were not enough, and the military department in the capital was pushing back and forth. The news of Nan'an County King's defeat finally spread to the capital. .

After all, the money was not transported to the south, and it was all piled up in the treasury.The emperor deliberately found a time to inspect the treasury, seeing that the shelves were full of gold and silver, he was happy, and his mood was naturally good.

Hubu Shangshu followed, watching his face, and various thoughts in his heart were staged in turn.

Do you want to say that the treasury is short of money?No shortage.Is there a shortage of food in the big warehouse? There is no shortage of anything, but the emperor said that there is no money in the treasury, and there is no food and grass in the big warehouse. up.

The most important thing is that the Ministry of War is just pretending to urge food and grass. Except for the last time Jia Hou came with a big knife, the Ministry of Households never came to urge food and grass again. Win this battle.

"This is the family property that I have accumulated for nearly ten years. When the Supreme Emperor handed over the country to me, there was no such a large amount of money in the household department."

"What you said is that God blesses the weather in the past few years, and there is no need for disaster relief everywhere..."

"Hey, Aiqing, don't say that. There are some words that cannot be heard by the heavens. Once you hear them, they will be fulfilled."

"Yes, yes, the minister deserves to die."

"You're right. God favors me, so it can only favor these common people even more. In this way, more blessings will fall on me. How much money is still not recovered from the household department?"

"Nearly 200."

"This is not a small sum. I think the account of coming to the capital has been cleaned up."

"Yes, the two million taels are owed by the Jiangnan Zhen family."

"Zhen's family, Jia's family. When the truth is false, the truth is also false, and when the false is true, the false is also true. I know this matter, at least two or three months, as long as half a year, and the money owed in Jiangnan will be shipped."

Hubu Shangshu had known for a long time that the emperor belonged to Pixiu, and he only ate it, and he never vomited it out.The same is true of silver, he will let others spit out to him whatever is owed to him, and the trouble is that he owes others, and this master has never thought of paying back the money.

Not only did he not repay the money, but what made the Minister of the Household Department admire the emperor most was that he could find a place to get the money.I heard that the emperor's private treasury is also full, but I don't know how the emperor made the Zhen family spit out the money.As long as I don’t let myself urge the money, everything is easy to say. After urging the debt for half a month, the eight generations of my ancestors have been scolded countless times by others. A bitter tear.

The Minister of the Household Department always felt that the emperor did not spend money, but after a few days, it was the emperor's turn to spend money.

The queen put a list in front of him, "There are too many boys in the family, that's not good, it costs money to marry a wife."

The emperor jokingly said, "When I think about how I have raised more than a dozen sons, I suddenly feel like I have become a pauper again."

I took a look at the list that the queen brought over, "Isn't this list worth more than 3 taels of silver?"

"Almost, it's not just the boys spending money, the girls also have to prepare dowry for them. Although the treasury will provide a sum, but after all, the girls who are raised by their own family don't want them to be wronged. They can give a little bit."

"You are reminding me that when the seventh child gets married, the treasury should also pay a sum of money."

"How much money can be spent in the treasury? If you want to make the children's marriage decent, you have to spend money in your pocket."

"I spent money as a father, shouldn't Concubine Xian and her mother also express it?"

The queen couldn't bear the emperor's stingy look, "She only has so much money, and her life is miserable."

"You can't say that, Lao Qi's maternal ancestral family has a lot of things for their mothers to find."

"I mean Lao Qi is an elder brother. He started the game. His younger brothers have to follow his example. What about Lao Jiu? What about Lao Ten? Lao Jiu is a child who has lost his mother. His mother is not necessarily richer than others. They are all your own sons, so don't favor one over another in this matter."

"You don't understand. Some people have too much money, but disasters will happen instead. Let them spend the money, and the disaster will be avoided after spending the money. It's a good thing. It's settled like that. You put it away tomorrow Concubine Xian came here and explained the matter to him clearly, if he wants his son's wedding to be beautiful, then let him spend money on it himself."

Jia Gu lay on the hospital bed for three days, and woke up three days later.After Mrs. Tong found out, she lay on him and cried loudly. She relaxed a lot, and the whole mansion began to laugh.

Gu Yun brought his wife and children to Zhongwuhou's mansion again.

"Until now, the Shuntian Mansion has no clues. I have also asked the people who followed you at that time. I just want to ask you again. Are they a real mother and son?"

Jia Gu recalled the day when he was assassinated, "I came back from outside the city that day, about ten miles away from the city gate, there was an old elm tree over there, and I happened to meet a mother and child. Now that I think about it, maybe it might be the teacher. It’s just that the woman was really pale and thin, she looked like a disaster victim, both of them were carrying packages, and their backs were bulging, and they said they came to seek refuge with relatives, and gave them our dry food at that time, they knelt down, I I only saw a black thing jumping out from their backs, subconsciously blocked it with a horsewhip, and then fell into a coma."

"That's a diaper, they carry it on their backs..."

"I remembered one thing, probably not many people know about it, that woman should be Bow Dancer, I heard about this name when I was in the North, and I heard it from the veterans. My young At that time, when I had just joined the army to have a meal, the veterans talked about the past and casually mentioned that in the early years, some foreigners climbed the Yanmen Pass, and after being repelled, they sent more than ten women to the pass. These women are all dancers. When they closed the dance, they deliberately knelt down in front of the generals at the end of the Huxuan dance. When they kowtowed, they triggered the cockroaches on their backs and shot sharp knives to assassinate the generals. They really It succeeded, but the person who was shot at that time screamed, attracting an army, and chopped these women into flesh on the spot. That's why they are called bow dancers."

"You mean those people from back then have revived?"

"I mean, how did things outside the pass get into the pass?"

"How many people still know about the Bow Dancer?"

"I don't know much. Send someone to check around Yanmen Pass. Presumably there are still some old people who remember what happened back then."

"Rest well, I'll follow this clue first."

Gu Yun left his wife and children in Zhongwuhou's mansion, and hurried back to Shuntian mansion.

Jia Shecai ran over from the study, "Old brother, I found what you asked me to check."

Jia Amnesty happily held up a book, "Actually, the women you mentioned are not from outside the customs, but from inside the customs. You can see in this book that I remember it in detail. It says that as long as someone gives them money, they will be willing." Come out to do things, it looks like a group of assassins."

"It's a group of killers. Assassins have always fought alone, and of course killers sometimes fight alone. But assassins are moral. When they assassinate a person, they are not for money, but for other things. Killers are for money."

"Did someone buy your life with money? Who have you offended recently? Let me think about it, you haven't offended anyone recently, and you haven't offended anyone before..."

"Why didn't I offend anyone? I offended your second child. My wife just made your old lady unable to come down from the stage a few days ago. After all, no matter how you look at it, does Jia's second child hate me to the bone?"

"I still know about him. I don't have the guts. Besides, where did he know about this killer as a foolish reader?"

"Students are the scariest, but warriors are not worth guarding against."

Just like that guy Wang Ziteng, didn't he die in the end?I, who thought I was a hero, almost died at the hands of the killer.

Even if you know in advance that someone is going to deal with you, there are endless ways to assassinate others, and it is impossible to guard against. Only by finding out the person who wants to put yourself to death can you rest easy.

But don't tell the old brother these words.

After Jia Gu woke up, Jia She finally felt relieved and went back to his home.

Not long after entering the house, Yuanyang, Shi Taijun's number one confidant, brought someone to invite Jia Amnesty to Shi Taijun's yard.

Jia She could figure out what Shi Taijun asked him to do.

So as soon as he entered the door, he honestly confessed what he knew with reservations, "The old brother is already awake, and the nephew and son-in-law went to visit him today, and when he came back just now, he had already left."

"Amitabha, I feel relieved when he wakes up. It's just that he's getting old, and now I don't have anyone around to take care of me, and I'm worried."

Jia Amnesty aimed his eyes at Yuanyang, he thought that his old lady wanted to give the people around him to his brother.

Shi Taijun knew what he was thinking just by looking at his expression, but Shi Taijun was by no means an old lady in the backyard in the ordinary sense. She never took the initiative to give her son the maids around her. It can be said that in the past ten years, he has not He took the initiative to give the maid to his son.

"What the old lady means is to ask Jia Xun to send Nan'er back, otherwise your brother will look a bit miserable in his later years."

Jia Amnesty didn't take it seriously, "How can it be that the evening scene is bleak? This word sounds a bit unlucky. Don't worry, when Xun'er's daughter-in-law gives birth to a boy, Nan'er will be sent back. I heard that the housekeeper in their mansion Said, a letter came from Jiangnan a few days ago, and I heard that my nephew and daughter-in-law had it again. This time, some gynecologists in Jiangnan personally asserted that there was a boy in her belly. For the old brother, this is also a part of their family. A great event."

Shi Taijun nodded, "Many children and grandchildren are a blessing. Your brother doesn't know this truth until now. He is too indulgent to Mrs. Tong. He has never thought about it. Even if he has two sons, he will never...not to mention the future." Let’s just say now, can you also serve soup and medicine in front of him?”

Jia She said this and nodded frequently. He couldn't say some things in front of Jia Gu, but he didn't deny the significance of the existence of some truths. Jia She also felt that his brother had too few children, not to mention that his son didn't even have a girl. At this moment, even if there is no son to serve him soup and medicine, even if there is a girl who comes back to serve him, it will be better than lying in front of the couch alone now, looking at the faces of the servants.

"You're right. I've said that too, but now that my grandson is so old, it's meaningless to talk about it. It'll be fine when Nan'er comes back."

Shi Taijun waved his hand, "I know you are tired these days, go back, I have nothing to use you here, you also think about your age now, call Jia Lian back from Jiangnan earlier, There is something that can let him run errands for you."

This speech was very rare and full of warmth. Jia Amnesty stood up emotionally and thanked his mother for her concern. Looking at Shi Taijun's white hair and wrinkles on his face, he thanked his mother sincerely, stood up and retreated. up.

Shi Taijun watched Jia She's back disappear from the room, picked up the teacup with trembling hands and took a sip.

At this time, it was also a blessing to hear that Jia Xuan still had a son. Shi Taijun said silently in his heart, "Good grandson, don't blame grandma for being cruel. It's really that the lives of the whole family can't help but grandma is not cruel."