The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Hearing that Jia Lian was spending a lot of money in the Rongguo Mansion, the servants of the two mansions were naturally happy.

Especially the Ningguo Mansion was even more inexplicably surprised.

For a long time, Rongguo Mansion had more masters and honorable people, so it gave out more rewards than Ningguo Mansion.

In the past, they could only be envious, but they never imagined that this time when Second Master Lian returned to Beijing, even they would be honored.

Second Master Lian really deserves to be a noble person with a broad mind.

From this point of view, if the second master Lian is useful to them in the future, they should serve them wholeheartedly and strive for someone who can become the second master Lian, that will be of great benefit.

As for the people in Rongguo Mansion, because they can get more money than the people in Ningguo Mansion, not only are they not dissatisfied, but they feel somewhat superior.

From the fact that Second Master Lian asked the servants of the Rongguo Mansion to take an extra share, it can be seen that Second Master Lian still favors his own people.

The servants are all happy, but the masters of the two houses have different opinions.

For example, Mrs. Xing, when she heard the news from her subordinates, her first reaction was doubt.

"Is there really that much money? Second master and second wife, are they willing to spend so much money as a reward?"

Mrs. Xing knew that each house had pooled money to build the provincial garden, but because she had no money, she couldn't get in the way.

But she had a calculation in her heart, and her eyes were always on the official treasury of Rongguo Mansion.

But she knew that Mrs. Wang and Wang Xifeng were becoming more and more stingy nowadays, and they used the tension among the officials as an excuse to deduct the treatment of each house.

"The eldest lady doesn't know, it's nothing to do with the master and the second wife, it's the second master Lian and the second grandma Lian who took out the rewards themselves, and didn't take any money from the officials at all?"

"They pay for it themselves? When did Feng girl become so generous? Also, didn't she say that she has no money?"

Mrs. Xing was even more puzzled and somewhat dissatisfied.

After Jia Amnesty's death, except for a small part of the treasures left behind by her, she hid them in advance, and the rest were all sold off by Jia Lian and his wife.

As for other small fixed assets, after the merger of the accounts of the two governments, Jia Lian put them into the official treasury of the Rongguo government.

Originally, she was going to share the inheritance with Jia Lian and his wife, but who knew that Jia Lian promised Jia Mu and others to save all the money from the sale for the budget of the garden behind...

She didn't pay a penny for the construction of the garden, so she was naturally too embarrassed to object at the time, so it was nothing.

But in her heart, she still felt that Jia Lian was too honest and didn't calculate, so he handed over the tens of thousands of silver so easily...

As for Wang Xifeng's claim that she had no money, it was because when Jia Lian left Beijing, she had been reminded that there might be unknown gaps in the construction of the garden, and she was asked to make a gesture of taking out all the money.

No matter what kind of person Wang Xifeng is, on this point, she naturally did it perfectly.As a result, not only did Mrs. Wang feel embarrassed to ask her for help when there was a gap in the garden budget, but even Mrs. Xing thought that Jia Lian and his wife really had no money.

After all, with regard to the garden behind, no matter Jia Mu, Mrs. Wang, or Jia Lian and his wife paid tens of thousands of silver, she knew this.

Seeing Mrs. Xing's innocence, her housewife sneered and said, "The eldest madam really believes in what Second Grandma said? If it was the case in previous years, then it is really possible.

But since the second master Lian became an official, how much money has been sent home, does your wife know? "

"How much?" Mrs. Xing said, really not sure.Wang Xifeng is too shrewd, so naturally he won't let her notice too many flaws when he deliberately hides it from her.

"Um, of course I don't know the exact number of slaves, but I heard from my family that the second master Lian must not be short of money anyway!
The eldest wife may also have guessed that it is very easy for those who are officials to get money.

What's more, our second master is still a seal official in Bingma Division, among other things, how many people below respect him on a daily basis?
Second Master Lian has changed his temper now. If his money is not in the care of Second Grandma Lian, who else?
I heard from a woman who worked in Lian's Second Grandma's house that the rooms behind Lian's Second Grandma's yard are locked all year round and people are not allowed to enter.

She had peeped in through the crack of the window, and it was full of valuables! "

"This……"

Mrs. Xing was shocked.

If the woman doesn't tell, she really doesn't know that there is such a thing.

"It makes sense. In the past two years, Lian'er has only received rewards from the palace, and I don't know how many there are. Not to mention, their son's family is an official outside, how many ways we women don't know how to get money , it is impossible for him to talk to people everywhere!"

Mrs. Xing nodded suddenly, her eyes lit up.

After all, Jia Lian is her son!

Ever since the two sides merged their accounts, they have encountered a major event in preparing to build a garden.Especially after knowing that Mrs. Wang had personally opened the mouth and borrowed tens of thousands of silver from You Shizhi, she was worried that the official treasury of the Rongguo Mansion would be exhausted, and the whole family would have a hard life in the future, so she started planning early and gave more money to her house. Draw silver for emergencies.

For so many years, she has been digging around everywhere, being diligent and thrifty, and she has accumulated thousands of taels of silver in total!
Originally, she thought it was pretty good, much more than their old Xing family's ancestral property, but it also depends on who it is compared with.

For example, Jia Lian, I heard from this woman that the silver and copper coins that Jia Lian asked to put in the front yard add up to at least five thousand silver...

Simply incomparable.

The housewife saw Mrs. Xing's thoughts, and said with a smile: "Madam can rest assured now, with Second Master Lian's ability, he will only become richer and richer in the future. Madam, you are the only aunt of Second Master Lian. If the Lord doesn't honor you, who can he honor?"

Mrs. Xing was elated when she heard this, and said with a smile: "That's natural..."

Regarding this point, Mrs. Xing was not worried at all. After Jia She's death, her relationship with Jia Lian has eased a lot.

Before Jia Lian left Beijing, she even asked her to take care of her younger brother Jia Cong.

The richer Jia Lian was, the happier she was.

It would have been better without Wang Xifeng. She felt that if Wang Xifeng hadn't been a hindrance, Jia Lian would have been more filial to her. Maybe all of Jia Lian's money might be entrusted to her for safekeeping.

Thinking about it this way, even the money that Jia Lian had given away now, she began to feel distressed.

"Don't stick around here, all of you, go to Lian'er to get the reward, call everyone in our yard and Cong'er's yard, and don't ask those irrelevant people to get all the money... ..."

Hearing Mrs. Xing's instructions, although the wives obeyed, they were not too worried.They have already found out clearly that everyone has a share.

In Ningguo Mansion, Youshi didn't react much after hearing the servant's report, but just smiled and told Yindie: "Go and tell the person who came to Sheng's family, and let her go to the accountant to pay [-] guan to everyone in the mansion. One point can be regarded as congratulations to Lian Er Ye."

Youshi, I don't want the servants below to think that she is not interesting as a mistress.

As for whether three hundred pennies would be too little...

Originally, the population of Ningguo Mansion was much smaller than that of Rongguo Mansion, especially after the incident of Jia Zhen and Jia Rong, she sent out a lot.

So three hundred guan is enough to give everyone meaning.

……

Inside the Rongguo Mansion compound, there was still plenty of excitement.

"Lin Zhixiao, the family has a total of fourteen shares. The other second master rewarded Lin Zhixiao with five taels of grain silver, five taels of grain silver from Lin Zhixiao's family, and one tael of Lin Hongyu grain silver, totaling 11 taels of grain silver and seven guan coins."

Following Lin Zhixiao's family and his two sons to kowtow to accept the reward, Lin Zhixiao, who stood beside Jia Lian and read out, also put down the roster, and kowtowed fiercely towards Jia Lian.

Jia Lian waved him to get up, and looked at Lai Da who had been standing aside for a long time.

"Director Lai..."

Lai Da went to the middle, knelt down and replied: "The guy in the slave's family is serving in front of the old lady now, so he can't come to receive the reward, but the slave can only collect it on his behalf. Please forgive me."

Jia Lian glanced at him, waved his hands casually, expressing that he didn't mind, but asked curiously:

"I heard that Mr. Lai has three sons?"

"Second Master, the servant has three sons..."

"I heard that your eldest son, Shang Rong, has already been selected as a scholar, and he is studying hard to prepare for the provincial examination?"

"Yes……"

"Oh, then I would like to congratulate him in advance. If he is really promising, being able to pass the provincial examination will be considered a credit to my Jia family."

Lai Dayi was very happy to hear that, and quickly laughed: "Second Master is flattering him, he was originally just a slave, if it wasn't for the master's grace, he was let out from birth, he wouldn't have the life to study.

Now it is his good luck to have this opportunity to go to the Gongyuan to experience it. We never thought that he would get it. "

Jia Lian smiled, "You don't have to be modest, there are many people who have the opportunity to study, but not everyone can grasp it.

I'm not flattering him, just ask the whole world, which servant's family can have a scholar in charge?
Not to mention Mr. Juren.

If he really wins, it will really add face to my Jia family, and then I will have my own reward.

I'm afraid... Mr. Lai is used to being rich, so he doesn't look down on my few coins..."

Lai Da's complexion changed slightly, and he hurriedly said: "What did the second master say, the servant's family can have what it is today, all thanks to the grace of the master from generation to generation.

As for my son Shangrong, don’t say he hasn’t graduated from high school yet, if he really got in the middle school one day, if he dares to be ungrateful and betray his master, this old slave will be the first to break his legs! "

Lai Da was shocked by Jia Lian's words.

Although he has always been certain that with the achievements of the Lai family serving the Jia family for several lifetimes and the dignity of the old mother in front of Jia's mother, even Jia Lian can't do anything to his family.

However, that doesn't mean he dared to offend Jia Lian.

This is still Jia Lian back then.Today's Jia Lian is even more expensive as a Marquis. If he is shameless, even Jia's mother may not be able to keep their Lai family!

He was naturally cautious in front of Jia Lian.

Second, about his son Shang Rong...

Not to mention that the son has not yet won the exam, but if one day he really wins the exam and is qualified to be an official, he will have to rely on the support of the Jia family.

As the chief manager of the Duke's Mansion, he served Jia Zheng all the year round. Lai Da was also very clear about official affairs.

Based on the foundation of their family, even if their son is elected, he can only be assigned an official position by relying on the power of the Jia family...

As for Zhongjinshi, they didn't expect it, and they didn't even dare to expect it.

You know, all Jinshi have to go through the palace examination, that is, they may have to meet the emperor!

In case the emperor asked about his son's family background, what should the son say?
Both father and grandfather are servants of the Rongguo Mansion?
If that was the case, he could even imagine how ugly the emperor's face would be.

Although the imperial examinations in this dynasty are not as harsh as those in previous dynasties, everyone, regardless of whether they are scholars, farmers, businessmen, or businessmen, can participate in the scientific examinations.

But this must not include slaves!

Although his son, Shang Rong, was set free by Jia's family since he was born, and he belonged to a commoner, the emperor didn't necessarily think so.

All Jinshi must be able to be court officials.

The so-called relationship between monarch and minister is actually equivalent to the relationship between master and slave.

The parents of the imperial court official are actually slaves of other people's family?What does this make the emperor think?
Thunder is not necessarily furious, unhappy is certain.

To make the emperor unhappy, the end of the Lai family is doomed.

Therefore, the Lai family never planned to allow Lai Shangrong to take the Jinshi examination, but only hoped to be able to be selected as a juren, and then rely on the relationship of the Jia family to secretly get a part-time job. From then on, the Lai family jumped from the slave class to the scholar class.

As long as he doesn't fall into the eyes of the emperor, no one will chase him and stay at home.

It can be said that Lai Shangrong is the only chance for the Lai family to stand up. They have been carefully cultivated since they were young, and they value it more than anything else.

How dare Lai Da make Jia Lian feel dissatisfied, if his son's future is ruined, then the entire Lai family will never recover.

Facing Lai Da's humble expression and words, Jia Lian didn't feel any disturbance in his heart.

To be honest, if he hadn't just returned to Beijing and there were a lot of things going on at home, he really wanted to take this opportunity to uproot the Lai family.

It's not that the Lai family is so important to him, he just doesn't want a family that is not loyal enough to keep clinging to the Jia family.

As for why the Lai family is not loyal enough...

In fact, many facts have been explained.

The biggest point is that the Lai family trained Lai Shangrong to study and take scientific examinations!
When Mother Jia was still in charge of the family, she released her eldest grandson into slavery for the sake of the old sister Lai Nanny, which was a show of grace.

At least, Mother Jia at that time must have never thought about letting the Lai family cultivate an official master!

May I ask, besides the Tian family, which other family is qualified to be his master?

For another example, after the Lai family was promoted to the two brothers by Lai Dalai, they never let their children go to the two houses to do hard work...

In this regard, there is a world of difference compared to Lin Zhixiao who arranged his sons and daughters into the mansion early and started as a third-class slave.

Therefore, many things are not invisible, but Jia Mu, Jia Zheng and others can't see them.

Of course, with the tact of Lai's brothers and Nanny Lai, it's not surprising that Mother Jia and others couldn't see clearly.After all, they were in the middle of the game, and they even felt that the Lai family was extremely loyal, and many important matters were left to them to handle, so they said it was easy to worry about.

From this point of view, the Lai family is very successful.

If it wasn't for the lowly birth, it would be possible for the Lai family to develop into a big family or even a family with the abilities of these generations.

Jia Lian is still very sure about the abilities of the Lai family.

It's just that, who said that when he gave Lai a big chance, he couldn't grasp it?
Since there was no surrender at that time, it was doomed to perish.

From the funeral of Jia Amnesty and others last year to the construction of this huge family-senting garden, although the Lai family was cautious enough, under his deliberate surveillance, he had already grasped enough evidence of their corruption.

As long as he wanted, he could get rid of the Lai family at any time.

Just not in a hurry.

In today's Lai family, even Lai Shangrong has not yet been elected as an official, and it is impossible for him to dare to betray the Jia family.

"That's all for Lai Shangrong, what about your other two sons? It's rare for me to see them a few times throughout the year."

Jia Lian asked casually again.

Lai Da's heart twitched slightly, could it be because of this that the second master was offended?
"Second Lord, forgive me, a few years ago, because they were too young, the servants didn't arrange errands for them in the mansion.

In the past few years, there has been no change in personnel in the mansion, so I let the two of them follow me to run errands by the master's side.

Since the second master asked about them, how about I beg the master to let them work under the second master's door? "

"That's not necessary, since they follow the master, let them follow me all the time, there is no shortage of people around me.

Well, you go to get the money. "

After dismissing Lai Da, the whole reward link is over.

It looks huge, but in fact all the minions added up did not cost 1000 taels.

There used to be more than 600 people in Ningrong Second Mansion, but now there are a little less, and there are more than 500 people.

On average, each person is only one or two taels of silver, and this still includes all the housekeepers and housekeepers' wives.In fact, most people only get about a certain amount of money.

He waved his hand to let Lin Zhixiao go down, and then gave Zhao Sheng and others beside him a look.

Zhao Sheng waited to understand, and immediately led a group of people from a corner of the hall over.

Most of these people are women and children, and everyone wears a filial belt on their foreheads.

When Jia Lian saw them, his expression became serious.

Before these people kowtowed to him, he had already stood up and faced the servants who had not dispersed.

"Many of you must have heard that this time I was ordered to leave Beijing and experienced many life and death crises.

So, I was able to come back today, it is completely a fluke to save my life!

However, I came back alive, but many people who followed me to Wala failed to come back.

It can also be said that my life was saved by those who did not come back alive!
People can't be resurrected after death. Although my heart hurts, it is irreparable.

But I can guarantee one thing, that is to replace them and take good care of their wives and children!Don't let their blood flow in vain, and don't let them feel chilling under the nine springs.

Therefore, I have summoned you here today, besides giving you a little reward along the way, more importantly, I want to tell you a little bit.

These people, their sons, husbands, or fathers, died for me, Jia Lian.

Therefore, I don't hope that one day in the future, I will hear someone say that any of them has been bullied by others.

I don't even want one of them to point at Jia Lian's nose and call me an ungrateful person.

Wait, understand? "

Although Jia Lian's words were spoken calmly, the meaning made everyone in the compound look strange.

Those kneeling people showed sadness and gratitude one by one, and couldn't help crying again.

They all knew that with Jia Lian's words, no one would dare to bully them in Jia's house in the future!

They are grateful, they are excited.

"Second Lord~ I can't afford to be worthy of Second Master's words, Sanba is him, Sanba can die for Second Master, he deserves to die!"

An old, but energetic old man raised his head and shouted loudly.

"That's right, the pillar of my family is the same, let's wait, thank the second master for his great kindness..."

A voice like this made Jia Lian feel a little uncomfortable when he heard it.

It was clear that their closest relative had died, but now they turned around and kowtowed to him in gratitude.

After speaking loudly to calm them down, Jia Lian said, "There is not much I can do, but treat the family members of loyal people generously.

Well, everyone who goes out with me this time will be rewarded with 50 taels of silver.

Among them, those who were seriously injured and disabled received 120 taels of pension.

For the dead in battle, 180 taels will be paid.

Wang Teng has been with me for many years, and this battle was the most heroic, and he rewarded me with an extra 300 taels of silver.

In this way, each of you send two people up to get the silver. "