The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 11 Opportunities for Promotion

"Run! What if you haven't eaten yet?" The sound of running came along with Wang Daniu's angry roar.

At the street corner, hundreds of soldiers from the South Camp ran over in two rows, swords slung across their shoulders.

Wang Daniu followed behind with an unhappy look on his face.

Li Hu, dressed in the uniform of a guerrilla general, was standing alone and quietly on the stone steps in front of the gate of the Nanying Yamen.

A whole month has passed since the farce, and on the surface everything seems so calm, as if nothing had happened.

Li Hu saw clearly that although the court of Dashun seemed calm, the situation was turbulent and treacherous. Above the emperor was an emperor who was unwilling to fail and was lying in wait for an opportunity.

The emperor also began to make plans. He began to support his confidants, and he both wooed and alienated the old ministers of the retired emperor.

However, because Emperor Yongchang had created a filial image for himself, he did not dare to carry out drastic reforms in the court. Without removing those old ministers who held important positions, the emperor could not run the Dashun court, let alone control the various forces in the Dashun court.

Li Hu went back and forth between the government office and his home every day, and occasionally went to Yuqing Palace to show his face and get some rewards.

Interestingly, he became friends with Wang Ziteng.

Commander Sun raised the eighty whips high up, but brought them down gently. Wang Li only had minor injuries and he pretended to recuperate for a few days.

Li Hu did not expect that Wang Ziteng could be so condescending as to personally bring Wang Li to apologize.

He had a feeling that Wang Ziteng would soon hand over his military power and use the title of Jiedushi of Beijing Camp in exchange for his own promotion!
I don’t know how the Jia family will react after being stabbed in the back by Wang Ziteng!
In addition, Li Hu also sorted out the timeline. The opening of Dream of Red Mansions is when Lin Daiyu came to Beijing. He had inquired and found out that Lin Ruhai was indeed serving as the inspector of salt in Yangzhou. His son had just died last year, and Jia Min was still alive and well. As for Lin Daiyu, he did not find out any news.

He got some news about Jia Baoyu from Wang Ziteng. Big-faced Bao is eleven years old this year, so Lin Daiyu is only ten years old. Ten years old, Li Hu is a full seven years older than her!

Li Hu calculated with his fingers and found that Xue Baochai was twelve years old, and Jia Yingchun, the oldest of the three sisters in the Jia family, was probably only about eleven or twelve years old, so she came too early.

As for the oldest Jia Yuanchun, don't even think about it. She is not a female historian or a female official. She is a serious low-level concubine who helps the queen arrange daily chores in the harem.

Li Hu can still remember Dai Quan's murderous eyes. It was really unique for him to inquire about the emperor's women from the emperor's personal eunuch.

By this calculation, he can't get any of the Twelve Beauties of Jinling. Jia Yuanchun is the emperor's woman, Wang Xifeng and Qin Keqing have just married, Li Wan has become a widow, and the rest are too young, just little girls.

Oh, by the way, there is another one that has not been born yet.

Of course, in this era, most girls started to get married at the age of 14, so he could wait. But he had no connections, and the emperor's attitude towards the lineage of the four princes and eight dukes was unclear.

Li Hu is still just a small shrimp and cannot withstand any storm.

However, his chance for promotion is coming soon.

"Sir." Zhang Cheng's voice sounded softly in his ear.

Li Hu came back to his senses: "Yeah." He turned and looked at him, "Any news?"

Zhang Cheng first glanced at Wang Daniu and others who were training, and then whispered: "The thing has been found, next to the Daxiangguo Temple."

Li Hu was surprised: "Are you sure?"

Zhang Cheng nodded.

Li Hu was silent. What Zhang Cheng was talking about were actually people, abducted children.

It all started with General Sun Qian. When Li Hu learned that he had a job at the Infantry Commander's Office, he took notice of him.

After Li Hu's tracking, observation, recording and analysis, he found that the grandson was not on duty at all, but was colluding with gangs under the guise of doing duty and engaging in the business of trafficking children.

Since the early Ming Dynasty, child trafficking has gradually evolved into "caisheng zhege", that is, actively maiming children to win the sympathy of the people and beg for money. According to the Ming Dynasty Law, anyone who mutilates a person will be executed by slow slicing, and the property will be handed over to the family of the deceased. Those who traffic in people will be beaten with 100 sticks and exiled 3,000 miles.

After the establishment of the Dashun Dynasty, the laws were basically copied from the previous Ming Dynasty. Later, when they found that the situation was becoming more and more serious, they formulated more rigorous and strict laws.

According to the Dashun Code, anyone who abducts women or children, regardless of whether you sell them for money, sell them to others as wives or sons, or even abduct them but don't have time to sell them, will be hanged. If you know about the abductor and don't report it, no matter what the reason, you will be exiled 3,000 miles away and will not be allowed to return for the rest of your life.

Even during the reign of Emperor Taishang, the "law of collective responsibility" was added, whereby if one person committed a crime, the entire family would suffer.

Moreover, if the local authorities are aware of the situation but do not deal with it, or fail to effectively investigate and hunt down the traffickers, they will also be punished.

Unfortunately, although the imperial court had strict criminal laws against child trafficking, it was never able to stop this evil from happening. The root cause was still the word "profit".

These people acted as gangs and set up fixed black dens. Their behavior is outrageous.

Those with good looks were sold far away, while those that were stupid or difficult to sell were killed directly, because "picking and dismembering alive" would easily attract the attention of the government.

According to Zhang Cheng, good-looking girls are usually sold to the south.

The Dashun Dynasty was established for only a hundred years, but corruption among officials had become the norm, even exposed. Everyone knew where the vast majority of women in brothels across the country came from, but no one cared.

Li Hu never dreamed that these abducted children were hidden next to the Daxiangguo Temple, which is right under the nose of the Buddha!
Under the commander of the infantry, there are one general on the left wing and one general on the right wing, who work in the same office with the commander of the infantry. This general on the right wing is the backer of Sun Qianzong's backer, and he is also an old minister of the lineage of the retired emperor.

As long as we follow the clues and destroy all these black dens, we can not only save the abducted children, but also eradicate all the cancer in the five patrol camps. In addition, Emperor Yongchang can also take the opportunity to eradicate the power of the emperor in the infantry commander's office.

This is tremendous wealth!

Li Hu looked at the soldiers who were training and asked Zhang Cheng, "Is the person you are looking for okay?"

Zhang Cheng: "Don't worry, sir. Although these people roam the streets and don't look like decent people, they have a sense of justice in their hearts and are known as chivalrous outside."

Li Hu nodded: "Tell them that I will ask the court for credit for them."

Zhang Cheng: “Yes.”

At this time, a burst of hurried horse hoof sounds came over, and Li Hu looked over.

A horseman gradually approached and stopped in front of the door. The man on the horse was obviously familiar with Li Hu. He jumped off the horse, took out a letter from his arms, and said to Li Hu: "General Li, this is a letter from our ancestors."

Li Hu took the letter, opened it and read it. His face changed. He then clutched the letter and said to the messenger, "Go back and tell the minister to rest assured."

The man said, "Yes!" He jumped on his horse and galloped towards another road.

Zhang Cheng: "Sir."

Li Hu: "Several ships from the Ministry of Internal Affairs carrying fresh fruits, fish, shrimp and other seasonal products will arrive at the Dongbianmen Wharf tomorrow."

Zhang Cheng was shocked: "This..."

Li Hu took a deep breath. For so many children, traveling by land would be time-consuming, laborious, and unsafe, so they could only travel by water.

Since the construction of Tonghui River in the Yuan Dynasty, the terminus of the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou has been from Tongzhou to Shichahai in the capital. In the third year of Zhengtong in the Ming Dynasty, Datong Gate Bridge was built at Dongbianmen, and Dongbianmen became the largest distribution terminal for goods from all over the country to the capital.

It was winter and it could snow at any time. In order to transport grain and silver as well as supply tribute to the palace, many ships coming from the south were forced to unload cargo at Zhangjiawan Wharf in Tongzhou. Only official ships could enter the Tonghui River and reach the Dongbianmen Wharf, so he paid a lot of money to buy the information from Dai Quan.

He thought of countless possibilities, but he never thought it would be the Imperial Household Department.

(End of this chapter)