Family Rise: Beginning with Grandfather

"I have a question for you!"

"What is the connection between your Lan family and Prince Qing's Mansion?"

Yang Zhengshan asked.

Lan Buqi trembled all over, and there was a wave of confusion in Lan Buqi's eyes.

"Why don't you want to explain?" Yang Zhengshan said.

Lan Buqi showed a bitter look, "General, our Lan family has no connection with Prince Qing!"

After hearing Yang Zhengshan's question, he understood why Yang Zhengshan came to Tenglong Guard!

Before, he was still wondering why Emperor Taiping ordered Yang Zhengshan to be the commander of Tenglong Guard, but now he finally understands!

For King Qing!

"No?" Yang Zhengshan was slightly surprised.

"My Lan family started its fortune forty years ago!" Lan Buqi said in a hoarse voice.

Yang Zhengshan suddenly realized.

Yes, the Lan family came to Qinghua Mansion a hundred years ago. After three generations of hard work, it began to rise rapidly almost forty years ago.

King Qing was made king thirty years ago, and King Qing was only five or six years old when he was made king.

By the time King Qing grew up, the Lan family had already dominated the Tenglong Guard.

"He must have tried to win over you?" Yang Zhengshan continued to ask.

"Yes, but we refused!" Lan Buqi said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly, "Then how much do you know about Prince Qing, or do you know some of Prince Qing's secrets! I think you should understand what I mean!"

Lan Buqi fell into silence, but Lan Buzheng said: "We know something, but what can we get?"

"You are not qualified to negotiate terms now!"

"Yes, we have what you want in our hands! This is what we can use to negotiate terms!" Lan Buzheng said calmly.

The corners of Yang Zhengshan's mouth curled up slightly, this guy is really smart.

But unfortunately this guy seems a little too confident!

"Did you forget something?"

"What's the matter?" Lan Buzheng asked.

Yang Zhengshan grinned, "This general has slaughtered tens of thousands of Hu people before. These Hu people were not only adult men, but also old people, women, children, and children!"

"Your little son is only seven years old this year!"

As he spoke, he stuck out his tongue and licked his lips, as if he was talking about something delicious.

Lan BuZheng froze completely and could no longer maintain his previous calmness.

His mind is definitely calm, and he can remain calm no matter what he faces. He is even better than Lan Buqi in this regard.

But facing Yang Zhengshan, looking at that smiling face and listening to those flat words, his calmness completely turned into a puff of smoke.

"You!" Lan Buzheng also had a look of anger on his face.

He can be ruthless to anyone, but he loves his children very much.

"Go on, tell me everything you know." Yang Zhengshan didn't care about his anger at all and just said in a calm tone.

Lan Buqi sighed helplessly, looked at Lan Buzheng, and finally said: "We don't know much. We only know that there are many sea ships in Prince Qing's Mansion."

"Sea ship!"

Yang Zhengshan raised his eyebrows, this information was somewhat useful.

Qinghua Mansion is close to the sea, and there are many fishermen in the coastal area. It is not difficult to accept that Qinghua Mansion has sea ships.

"What are his ships used for?" Yang Zhengshan asked.

"I don't know, our Lan family has never dealt with Prince Qing's Mansion!" Lan Buqi said in a deep voice.

For local officials and aristocratic families, the prince often represents trouble. Most people treat the prince at a respectful distance and do not deal with him if they can.

"Then where is their docking place for sea ships?" Yang Zhengshan continued to ask.

"In the Qingwang Guard Department, the Qingwang Guard Department is right on the seaside, and there are also some naval forces." Lan Buqi said.

Yang Zhengshan nodded slightly and then fell into deep thought.

King Qing's ships were of two types, one was a warship and the other was a merchant ship.

As for warships, since the Qingwang Guard Division has navy, there is no need to be secretive and they can go to sea openly.

But if it is a merchant ship, it may do some shady things.

Da Rong's maritime trade is not considered developed, but there are many maritime merchants, especially those with strong financial resources in the Jiangnan and Southeast regions.

As for the north, there are also some maritime merchants, but most of them are concentrated in the Tianjin and Sea areas. Although the Liaodong region has coastal areas, there are not many maritime merchants.

The reason for this is that the Liaodong region is poor and there are few wealthy merchants who have the ability to build sea-going ships, build fleets, and go out to sea for trade.

Prince Qing makes money from sea trade, which is nothing, but will he really do business honestly?

After pondering for a while, Yang Zhengshan recovered his thoughts.

Now is not the time to target Prince Qing. His top priority now is to build the framework of the Tenglong Guard and then train an elite army.

Standing up, Yang Zhengshan glanced at Lan Buqi and the others again, "You know best what you have done. Don't worry, I will do things in accordance with the laws of the imperial court!"

After that, he turned around and walked out of the room without waiting for the three brothers' reaction.

And just when Yang Zhengshan met the three brothers Lan Buqi, in the study of King Qing City, King Qing also received the news that the Lan family had been captured.

After listening to his subordinate's report, Prince Qing's lips curled up slightly, "This General Yang's methods are really fierce!"

"I thought he would be entangled with the Lan family for a long time, but I didn't expect that in just one day, he would take down the Lan family!"

The sturdy man standing in front of him frowned, "Your Majesty, I think it's better to get rid of Yang Zhengshan as soon as possible. If he really trains the Tenglong Guards, he may become your great enemy in the future!"

The more powerful Yang Zhengshan is, the greater the threat to King Qing.

King Qing naturally understands this truth, but he sighed faintly, "We can't do anything about him now!"

Yang Zhengshan can't be killed. Once Yang Zhengshan dies, Emperor Chengping will definitely be more worried about him, and may even directly imprison him or call him to Kyoto to watch, which will be more disadvantageous to him.

As for other methods, winning over? Coercion? Bribery?

It's not that King Qing hasn't thought about these, but he has analyzed Yang Zhengshan and he is definitely not that easy to deal with.

Thinking about Yang Zhengshan's past in his mind, King Qing felt that he was facing a hedgehog.

It's okay to have no place to start, but you have to be careful about being stabbed by him.

"Forget it, let's act according to our plan first. You just need to keep an eye on Tenglongwei!" King Qing finally gave up on dealing with Yang Zhengshan.

Although Yang Zhengshan may become an obstacle to him in the future, Yang Zhengshan cannot affect him at present.

He needs time to lay out his plan. Compared with dealing with Yang Zhengshan, the plan he is currently making is more important.

At this time, Yang Zhengshan did not know King Qing's thoughts. If he knew, he would probably feel a lot more relaxed.

After meeting the three brothers of the Lan family, Yang Zhengshan came to the study of the front yamen.

Zhou Ren and Lu Wenhua had already tidied up his study, and he could now work in the yamen.

"Sir, the assets of the Lan family have been sorted out. Please take a look!"

As soon as Yang Zhengshan sat down in the study, Zhou Ren came over with a document.

Zhou Ren's ability to do things is still very good. It took him only one day and one night to count the assets of the Lan family.

Yang Zhengshan took the document and read it.

There are quite a lot of things on it, including the Lan family's fertile fields, tenants, slaves, family servants, gold and silver, grain, real estate, etc.

Fertile fields, 108,600 acres.

Tenants, 2,320 households.

765 servants in the mansion, 368 family servants.

About 38,000 taels of gold.

About 220,000 silver.

About 34,000 copper coins.

Seven houses and 23 shops.

16 granaries!

Yang Zhengshan looked up in astonishment, "16 granaries?"

"Yes, sir, I just checked, and the granaries are full!" Zhou Ren said.

Yang Zhengshan's mouth twitched slightly.

He had seen the Lan family's grain and grass before. There were 16 granaries in the east of the Lan family's mansion. Each one was built with blue bricks. It didn't seem big from the ground, but Yang Zhengshan knew that it was an underground round granary, and the official granary of Darong was like that.

"If I remember correctly, one underground granary can store 10,000 shi of grain!" Yang Zhengshan said a little dryly.

Zhou Ren nodded repeatedly, "My Lord, I remember correctly, that is a granary that can store 10,000 shi of grain!"

Yang Zhengshan took a breath of cold air, sixteen granaries, wouldn't that mean 160,000 shi of grain?

How much grain is this?

But think about the Lan family's 100,000 acres of good land, each acre of good land produces about two to three shi of grain, minus the amount given to the tenants, then the remaining is really almost 160,000 shi.

And don't forget that the Lan family also controls the grain trade of Tenglongwei.

"Damn, this Lan family is really a piece of shit!"

Yang Zhengshan couldn't help but swear.

The richer the Lan family is, the more they plunder Tenglongwei.

The Lan family has so much grain, but the military households of Tenglongwei can't even eat enough.

Huh~~

Yang Zhengshan let out a heavy breath and said, "You give this to Xie Yuan and ask him to draft a document and submit it to the Central Military Governor's Office. Also, tell Song Dashan to arrange for someone to keep the gold, silver and grain for me."

The amount was too large, so Yang Zhengshan had to report it.

"Sir, report it truthfully?" Zhou Ren asked in surprise.

"Well, report it truthfully. Grain is easy to deal with, but we can't handle so much gold and silver by ourselves!" Yang Zhengshan nodded and said affirmatively.

It stands to reason that he, the commander of the Tenglong Guard, can deal with the Lan family within his authority, because the Lan family is a military household of the Tenglong Guard, and the highest official position of the Lan family in the Tenglong Guard is only a few thousand households.

He still has the power to deal with a few thousand households, and he only needs to report it to the Central Military Governor's Office and the Ministry of Justice in the end.

But when it comes to so much gold and silver, he has to be cautious.

Especially since he has just taken office, the old emperor may have arranged someone to keep an eye on him.

The old emperor probably won't monitor him, but he will definitely keep an eye on him.

It's better to be careful anyway.

The higher the official position and the greater the power, the more cautious one should be.

Now that he has caught the old emperor's eye, he should be more cautious in doing things.

The old emperor will kill people, Yang Zhengshan still has awe of the old emperor, and is also afraid that the old emperor will chop off his head.

"Yes, I will go to find Lord Xie and Lord Song right away!" Zhou Ren saw that Yang Zhengshan had made up his mind and said no more.

After he left the study, Yang Zhengshan thought about it and decided to write a memorial to the old emperor.

This is the second time he has written a memorial. The last time was after receiving the imperial edict, he wrote a memorial of thanks.

However, the memorial of thanks is a process, and it is estimated that the old emperor will not read it carefully.

But this memorial was different. He had to write in detail about the situation of Tenglong Guard, the situation of the Lan family, and the gold, silver and grain seized from the Lan family.

Having raised the banner of the old emperor, he had to give an explanation to the old emperor.