The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Chapter 39 Lin Daiyu Enters Beijing

An autumn wind blew, and the withered yellow leaves fell one after another.

In a pavilion surrounded by water, the elegant Prince Beijing Shui Rong was standing by the water feeding the fish.

The old butler stood beside him, holding a stack of intelligence and reading out, "On September 17th, the third year of Yongchang, at 3:00 pm, 3,000 Mongolian cavalrymen robbed a granary of Wang Ziteng, took away 3,000 dan of grain, and burned more than 10,000 dan."

At this point, he smiled and said, "This is the third granary that Wang Ziteng has been robbed. If this continues, Wang Ziteng will have no choice but to retreat back to the interior of the country in disgrace."

Shui Rong smiled.

The old butler said: "The Mongols only gained some advantages on Wang Ziteng's side. They were suppressed in other battlefields and were completely defeated."

Shui Rong nodded.

The old butler read out the second piece of intelligence, "The Second Prince defeated the starving people and recaptured Yan'an Prefecture."

Shui Rong snorted and threw the fish food in his hand into the water.

The old butler smiled and said, "This is a good thing. The Crown Prince was already dissatisfied with the Second Prince because of the border troops in Yulin Town. The Second Prince also confirmed Li Hu's crime of killing prisoners. The two of them have completely torn their faces apart. The greater the Second Prince's merits, the deeper the Crown Prince's hatred for him."

Shui Rong's face looked better, and he suddenly remembered: "There should be news from Shandong, right?"

The old housekeeper thought for a moment and said, "It should be within one or two days."

Shui Rong paused: "Do you think they can do it?"

"It won't work. The White Lotus Sect can't defeat the government army not only because of weapons, the biggest gap between the two sides is people!" said the old butler affirmatively.

There was a look of disappointment in Shui Rong's eyes.

The old housekeeper said: "Ants in large numbers can kill elephants. With these thousands of swords and a hundred sets of cloth armor, we can definitely bite off a large piece of meat from Li Hu. It can be regarded as revenge for Yangzhou."

Shui Rong's eyes turned red when he heard this, and he said hatefully: "Millions of property, so many people, and decades of results, all gone in an instant! All because of his letter, I wish I could kill him myself!"

The old butler sighed inwardly. This time their losses were very heavy. Two out of the three families that were wiped out were their people.

At this time, his eyes fell on the information in his hand, his eyes flashed, and then he said: "Young Master, the Second Prince wants to fight for the throne and raise troops, which requires a huge amount of money. We can let our people join him and let him take the lead, and we will reap the benefits."

Shui Rong was stunned.

The old butler said: "Don't worry, those people dare not turn against us."

Shui Rong nodded.

The old butler dug out another piece of information and his expression changed at first glance.

Shui Rong: “What’s wrong?”

The old housekeeper said: "Yes, it was sent from Ningguo Mansion."

Shui Rong: "What's going on? It can't be that Jia Zhen is cheating on me, right?"

The old housekeeper: "Qin. Qin is very likely the daughter of the deposed crown prince."

Shui Rong was also startled, and the fish food box in his hand fell into the water, attracting countless fish to scramble for it.

Shui Rong grabbed the intelligence and took a quick look at it, then said to the old butler, "Check and get the evidence."

The old housekeeper: "Yes."

Shui Rong stared at the intelligence for a while, and suddenly sneered: "There will be a time when this old guy comes to beg me."

From a distance, a steward came hurriedly holding an envelope.

The old butler walked over.

Walking back to the pavilion, the old butler said, "An urgent letter from Shandong." Then he handed the letter up.

Shui Rong took the letter, opened the seal and read it. After reading a few lines, his face turned gloomy.

The old butler asked tentatively: "Young Master?"

"Inverted!"

Shui Rong slammed the railing and said, "How dare those White Lotus idiots take the money but not do the job. They took the money and weapons but didn't attack Li Hu. Instead, they ran away overnight."

The old butler was stunned.

Shui Rong was so angry that he was shaking all over: "I'm going to kill these bugs!"

The old housekeeper said: "Young Master, there will be many more places where we will need the White Lotus Sect in the future."

Shui Rong closed his eyes and stood there trying to calm himself down. After a while, he slowly opened his eyes and looked at the old butler: "We can't just let it go like this." The old butler: "Let the White Lotus Sect leader handle it."

With a humph, Shui Rong asked: "What about Li Hu?"

The old butler was silent for a moment, then said, "Wait. Wait until the Crown Prince and the Second Prince start fighting, and then use the Second Prince to get rid of him."

Shui Rong gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Let him live a few more days." He walked out with a grim face.

Looking at Shui Rong's back, the old housekeeper sighed and thought: He was too impetuous. If he had listened to me and not taken action in Yangzhou, there wouldn't be so many troubles.

As the intersection of the Grand Canal and the Yangtze River, Yangzhou Wharf is naturally congested. However, at this time, the huge wharf was empty, with only a large official ship docked at the dock. Two flags were flying on the front and rear masts of the ship. The front flag was embroidered with three large characters "Imperial Household Department", and the back flag was embroidered with two large characters "Beijing Camp".

There are two passenger ships nearby.

On the dock, there were many soldiers in helmets and armor standing down the stone steps. They were not soldiers from Yangzhou.

As a result, people on other ships looked at this ship and the officers and soldiers, wondering what important person had come to Yangzhou City.

Finally, two sedan chairs and several carriages came from the city gate.

The sedan chair stopped, the carriage stopped too, and the curtains of the two sedan chairs were opened almost simultaneously.

The first person to walk out of the sedan chair was Lin Ruhai. In just half a year, Lin Ruhai had completely turned into a different person. His black hair had turned half white, he had lost a lot of weight, and his cheeks and eye sockets had become sunken.

The second sedan chair carried a middle-aged man with a round waist and thick back, a broad face and square mouth, sword-like eyebrows, star-like eyes, a straight nose and a powerful cheek, which made people feel good about him. He was Jia Yucun.

Jia Yucun, whose surname is Jia, given name is Hua, courtesy name is Biao Shifei and nickname is Yucun, is an official who was dismissed from his post. He was hired as a teacher in Lin Ruhai's home. Because of his talent, he was appreciated and trusted by Lin Ruhai, who not only asked him to escort his daughter to Beijing, but also wrote a letter of recommendation for him, asking him to go to Beijing to ask Jia Zheng for help in introduction.

The officialdom in Shaanxi and Jiangsu was purged successively, and at that time there were not so many officials with experience in local governance to fill the vacancies. As a last resort, the emperor issued an order to reinstate the old officials.

The curtain of the second carriage was also lifted, and an old maid got out. She walked towards the first carriage and said softly, "Xueyan, help the young lady get off the carriage." As she spoke, she moved a bench and placed it next to the handlebars.

The curtain of the carriage was lifted, and a little girl wearing a veiled hat walked out. It was Xueyan.

Then, Lin Daiyu appeared from the sedan chair, wearing a half-length white veil hat with gauze hanging to her waist, covering her face and body, adding a sense of mystery and haziness.

Xueyan helped Lin Daiyu get off the carriage on a low stool.

Lin Ruhai and Jia Yucun came over.

Lin Ruhai looked at the old nanny and said, "Nanny Wang, when you arrive in the capital, you must pay attention to the change of your identity. Don't think that just because you are a member of the Lin family, you can't abide by the rules of the Li family."

Nanny Wang: “Yes.”

Lin Ruhai looked at Xueyan again: "Take good care of your girls."

Xueyan: “Yes.”

At this time, Nanny Wang placed a kneeling mat in front of Lin Daiyu.

Lin Daiyu: "Father." She knelt down towards Lin Ruhai with a choked voice.

Lin Ruhai also looked at his daughter: "Don't worry about me, go."

Lin Daiyu: "My daughter will accompany my father for a while." Her throat suddenly choked when she said this.

Lin Ruhai quickly turned his head to look at the official ship, his eyes already wet.

This ship is an official ship of the Imperial Household Department.

Li Hu was worried that the Jia family's reputation could not suppress his and Lin Ruhai's enemies, so he wrote a letter to the prince overnight, and no one dared to attack the official ships of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Lin Ruhai adjusted his mood, slowly turned his head, and said with a smile: "In two years at most, my father will go to Beijing to take up a post. You must take care of yourself. You must remember what I say."

Lin Daiyu hummed and lowered her head.

Lin Ruhai looked at Jia Yucun again and said, "Thank you for your concern, sir." Then he bowed to Jia Yucun.

Jia Yucun turned sideways and bowed to Lin Ruhai.

Lin Ruhai said to Nanny Wang: "Let's get on board."

Nanny Wang: "Yes." She answered and helped Lin Daiyu up and walked towards the official ship.

Seeing Lin Daiyu looking back every few steps, Lin Ruhai became ruthless and turned away.

Finally, the boatman's voice came from behind: "Let's get going!"

Lin Ruhai turned around suddenly, hoisted the sail, and rowed the oars, and the boat slowly left the dock. Then, the boats of Rongguo Mansion and Jia Yucun also left the dock.

(End of this chapter)