Enemies in the Red Chamber

Not to mention Jia Lian in Yangzhou's idea of ​​sharing a room with a group of concubines in the backyard when she heard that Sister Feng was pregnant, and Jia Amnesty's happy brows and Mrs. Wang's dismay when the news reached the capital.Brother Liu is now rushing home from the poetry meeting, no longer looking around with a smile on his face like before.An Kang'an and the two were so frightened that they dared not say a word.

It turned out that the King of Beijing invited the sons and daughters of the officials and eunuchs in Beijing to compose poems and enjoy the scenery on this day.At the poetry meeting, there was a person surnamed Ding who was like a fool like Xue, who was the natal cousin of a concubine of Lord Zhongshun.In the past, the family followed Prince Yizhong, and his own aunt was Prince Yizhong's side concubine. Later, Prince Yizhong did something bad, and his family was also implicated. In recent years, he tried every means to send a girl in the family to Prince Zhongshun's mansion. It was only when he got in touch with Prince Zhongshun that he improved slightly.Naturally, many princes at the poetry meeting looked down on him, and there were quite a few people who ridiculed him overtly and secretly.

Originally, there was nothing about Brother Liu, but when he saw Jia Baoyu, Brother Liu turned his head to say hello and didn't look at the road for a while, Mr. Ding was furious and kept his head buried in the road without looking at the road, and the two accidentally bumped into each other.Brother Liu immediately smiled, and saw that the wild geese were blooming well by the side of the road, and said: "I'm sorry, brother, the flowers in the backyard are blooming well, I'll watch it."

The three words "Hou Ting Hua" really stabbed Mr. Ding's heart.Just now, a group of people laughed at their Ding family for giving a good girl to a concubine who likes to play with rabbits. One of the sentences was, "With the flowers in the backyard, where can I see Miss Ding's delicate flower?"Their Ding family's fortunes are not good and they are in a trough, Mr. Ding dare not cause trouble, so he can only endure it.

Mr. Ding recognized Brother Liu as the grandson of the old lady of the Rongguo Mansion and the eldest son of Yanzheng Lin Ruhai, thinking that now a person who sees his family in danger would dare to tease him, so he couldn't bear it anymore, and taunted: "It should be Watch it, maybe Mr. Lin should sell his backyard flower at some point."

Brother Liu was stunned, but he didn't know that he had suffered an indiscriminate disaster.Yan Laihong is always a backyard flower when everyone calls, who would have provoked him if he knew.

Seeing Brother Liu's confused look, Mr. Ding thought he was just pretending, and wanted to humiliate himself again, and said: "What are you, can you please others? You don't have to be crazy, think how great you are, Just wait, it won't be long before you kneel down and beg for mercy!" After speaking, he flicked his sleeves and left.

When Brother Liu heard this, he immediately thought too much. He immediately took two steps and asked an acquaintance, "Which family was that son from just now? He spoke so strangely."

"Why did you talk to him? We people don't talk to him very much. That's the son of the Ding family. The family used to follow Prince Yizhong, but now they have changed to Prince Zhongshun. There is a cousin in the family who lives in Prince Zhongshun's mansion." I’m going to be a concubine. Tsk, it’s not a family with a decent family style, so it’s not appropriate to make friends.” It is well known in Beijing that Prince Zhongshun likes to play tricks. It is the most contemptible behavior for actors to send their daughters to Zhongshun Palace as a concubine.

Brother Liu heard that he had voted for Prince Zhongshun, and felt that something was wrong.The Rongguo Mansion has always been at odds with Prince Zhongshun, and even the family of Prince Zhongshun dislikes the Lin family, so what Ding said may not be groundless.It's just that the poetry meeting has just started now, so I have to leave face for Prince Beijing Jing.Besides, even if you go back and check it yourself, you may not be able to find out many important things. There are many young masters who are opposed to or independent from the Lin family, so you can make some remarks first.Therefore, in the second half of the whole poetry meeting, Liu Geer changed his old style of listening more and talking less, and kept making use of clichés.The result was pretty good. Although I didn't get much useful information, I'm sure that someone has been working hard against the Yangzhou Salt Administration recently, trying to bring down Lin Ruhai, a stumbling block.

When brother Liu arrived at the gate, he jumped down first, and ordered Ankang to "call housekeeper Lin to come to my study outside", and then ordered Anhe to "call someone to go in and tell the girl, I will go over later and have something to say", while walking in a hurry Go out to the study.

Steward Lin saw Ankang coming in a hurry, and listened to his rumors, he was confused, put down the work at hand, and went to Brother Liu's study outside, for fear of delaying something.

Brother Liu was pacing back and forth in the study, and when he saw Steward Lin, he said, "Go and tidy up, get me all the people you have on hand, and then go to Yangzhou by yourself, I have a few words for father, please If others are worried, the housekeeper must go there personally. If necessary, the mother may have to go to the capital, and you just happened to escort her along the way."

Lin Butler saw that his uncle was so cautious and knew that the matter was of great importance, so he didn't ask too many questions, and hurried to arrange the manpower and various things that could be dispatched.

Brother Liu then went into the inner courtyard to look for Daiyu. Daiyu was waiting for him. When they met, he asked directly, "What's the matter?" Brother Liu said, "There is something wrong. Did my sister hear anything when she went out recently?" ? Especially the wives and girls of the family who are at odds with Rongguo Mansion and our family, have you ever said anything about our family?"

Daiyu knew Brother Liu's true identity, so naturally she wouldn't think that he was causing trouble for nothing, she wrung her fingers and thought carefully about where she went, who she met, and what each said.Suddenly remembered something, and said: "I don't remember anything related to our family, but there are a few words related to the Rongguo Duke's Mansion. I can't remember what I said, I heard it when I passed by inadvertently, It probably means that the Rongguo Mansion doesn’t know who dared to accept the belongings of the Zhen family. It seems that the Zhen family is already a grasshopper after autumn, and they dare to get close if they are far away. There are two families named Zhen in Beijing. There are several places outside, but I don't know which Zhen's family it is."

Brother Liu frowned and babbled about "Zhen's family, Rongguo Mansion, Rongguo Mansion, Zhen's family", suddenly blessed to his heart, could it be that the Zhen's family had served as an inspector in the south of the Yangtze River four times?That's right, I heard that the two families had a close relationship with the Zhen family when the Wang family was in charge of the foreign ship goods and the Jia family supervised the construction of sea boats. Now the second wife who is in charge of the Rongguo Mansion is an aunt from the Wang family, it should be him.

But what does the Lin family have to do with the Zhen family's bad deeds?Why did the kid from the Ding family say that?

Daiyu noticed something was wrong and asked him: "But what is it about our family?" If it only involved the Rongguo Mansion, according to Zou Xu's nature, he would not be too concerned, and he must have somehow got involved with the Lin family.

Brother Liu said: "Sister, rest assured, I'm here." He hurried out to check.

For two consecutive months, Liu Ge'er could not sleep peacefully every day.He mobilized beggars, hooligans, actors, prostitutes, and waitresses in the city, and bribed some unremarkable servants from various houses, such as buyers, porters, and washing women, and even tortured several staff members in other houses. , to collect useful information from various complicated news.It was concluded that someone really wanted to secretly destroy Lin Ruhai and take away the salt administration.

Lin Ruhai's position as inspector of salt and censor was appointed by the Supreme Emperor because he saw him marry a daughter of the Jia family when he was in power.Now that the national treasury is empty, the emperor thought of ways to raise money, even thinking of using silver to redeem people. Those who owed a large amount of silver to the treasury were naturally flustered.Such a lucrative position as the patrol salt censor has been targeted.Even though Lin Ruhai has best friends of the same year, there is a limit to how much he can stand out when something really happens to his close relatives, so he doesn't need to take it too seriously.The Lin family's foundation is not solid, the wife's family is weak and the mother's family has nothing, and they have no Sacred Heart. They are really good candidates to attack.

Also, when Lin Ruhai was in office, the previous inspector of the Yan family was the eldest master of the Zhen family. Everyone knew that the Zhen family was seriously corrupt, and the eldest master Zhen must have suffered a lot of losses in his tenure.However, Lin Ruhai didn't report the deficit at all after taking office, or it was reported using secret codes that others didn't even know about.Others don't care whether it was ordered by the Supreme Emperor or not. In the final analysis, these are Lin Ruhai's dereliction of duty.Coincidentally, the emperor has repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with the Zhen family at the court meeting.A lot of people waited for the Zhen family to seize Lin Ruhai after they ransacked the house.

What's more, the Lin family has accumulated for several generations and has not divided the family. Those who don't know how to count can calculate that there must be a lot of savings. When the time comes to return to the treasury, they can sell it well in front of the emperor.

Brother Liu also found out that even the Zhongshun Wang family had forged Lin Ruhai's various crimes of tyranny, corruption, and excessive sale of salt, and so on. It is estimated that not many people will doubt it.

Let's talk about the Lin family in Yangzhou. Steward Lin rushed overland to Yangzhou to inform Lin Hailiu about his arrival.Lin Hai was frightened, and after all kinds of calculations and plans, he didn't expect to reach this point. No wonder many big salt merchants below made another move. He thought it was all because of the Zhen family, but he didn't expect his own family to be involved.Fortunately, the eldest son of Jingli sent the news in early, and there is still room for reversal.

Now that time is the most precious thing, Lin Hai convened his staff to discuss countermeasures overnight.As for the matter of the Zhen family, if it is easy to handle, it is to follow the original will of the Supreme Emperor, as long as the Supreme Emperor expresses his attitude, no one can do anything to him.As for the other crimes, they are just fictions. Except for the three festivals and two longevity that Lin Hai should have confiscated, even if they were confiscated, they were all filled in secret documents and sent to Beijing.If it is difficult, it is really difficult. The reason why it is called secret is that not many people know that the Lin family is not the direct line of the two saints. There was a tear.

If it's just the things in Yangzhou that are easy to handle, the Lin family's ancestral home in Gusu always has a certain foundation, and the things in Beijing are really troublesome.No matter how powerful Brother Liu is, there will always be some people who can't trust him. It's impossible for the Lin family to speak well in the capital.In the end, it was Lin Hai's staff who agreed with Liu Ge'er's idea and wanted Jia Min to go to Beijing, "Mr. Lin wants to sit in Yangzhou, so why not let his wife go to the capital instead? Everyone has seen it in these years. There are gullies, and many salt merchants still rely on their wives' ability to rectify them. If there are some unsightly words, Yangzhou will soon become a big quagmire. Those people's methods have always been cruel, and it is not convenient for the young master and the young lady to be there. .”

Those salt merchants have always been good at sending skinny horses to other people's backyards or buying people's hearts or stirring up troubles. It may be because this method was used well that it gradually became a bad habit in Yangzhou's officialdom, and later it developed into a rivalry. Spies were placed in the house, and the men in front dealt with the women and children in the backyard if they couldn't solve it. The despicable methods were outrageous.