The Second Master of the Red Chamber

Xue Pan's case was heard as scheduled.

The outcome of the trial was nothing unexpected.

The main culprit, Sun Shaozu, sentenced Qiu Hou to be executed, but he probably would not survive Qiu Hou.That day, he was stabbed in the back by Xie Jun, almost killing him for most of his life. Since he did not receive effective treatment, he was expected to die in the prison of the Ministry of Punishments in a short time.

The remaining accomplices, including Xue Pan, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from half a year to several years.Among them, Xue Pan, whose circumstances were more serious, should have been detained for five years in accordance with the law, but because of his good attitude in pleading guilty and voluntarily paying the victim's family 1 taels of silver for burial expenses, he was given a lighter sentence and was sentenced to only one year of detention.

When the news came back, Aunt Xue, who was waiting at Xue's house and was scratching her head, finally took reassurance.

She sat back down heavily on the chair and said Amitabha, Bodhisattva bless her.

Baochai was by her side. When he saw this, he comforted her and said, "Mom should have been relieved. Brother Lian never does things without aim. Since he has assured mom that his brother is fine, there will be no mistakes."

Aunt Xue was in a daze, but after hearing this, she still looked at her daughter and echoed: "You are right, your second brother Lian has always been the safest in handling things, so I have no reason not to worry.

only……"

As she said that, Aunt Xue sighed slightly: "Now your brother's life has been saved, but our family's relationship in the palace may be completely severed."

Hearing Aunt Xue talk about this, Baochai was also a little silent.

She knew what Aunt Xue meant.

In addition to following the ancestors of Emperor Taizu's generation and being extremely popular ministers, the Xue family's power has plummeted since then.

By her grandfather's generation, they were already halfway out of the scholar-official class.

The reason why I say semi-detached is because although her grandfather never entered the officialdom, he relied on the legacy of his ancestors to become one of the top imperial merchants at that time.

The so-called imperial merchants are merchants who serve the royal family.

The merchants who served the royal family directly were of course very different from ordinary merchants.The most noteworthy thing is that there are many merchants who serve the royal family, but those who dare to call themselves imperial merchants must at least be named or hold titles in the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Imperial Household Department.

In Grandpa Baochai's generation, the Xue family was the leading imperial businessman with titles in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.At that time, although the Xue family did not serve as officials in the court, they were still famous and their wealth was at its peak.

Most of the Xue family's current millions of assets were accumulated during that period.

Although today's Xue family has long lost its reputation, as the head of the family, Xue Pan has also left his name in the household department and held a false title.

Although his position is not high, the Xue family's share in the palace has been squeezed out by other royal merchants over the years.But as long as the Xue family has this name, it will still be a distinguished imperial merchant, different from ordinary giant merchants.

However, now that Xue Pan has committed a crime, he will even be detained for one year.It is conceivable that the other imperial merchants will not watch helplessly as the Xue family still occupies the same share as before. With a little effort, the Ministry of Household Affairs will naturally remove the Xue family.

The ladies in the palace will no longer need a family that has committed murders to serve them. In their eyes, Xue Pan himself has no sympathy.

This is also impossible.

According to Jia Lian, if this case is not brought to light, there is still a way for the Xue family to keep its name.

But since he has reached Tianting, all he can do is to save Xue Pan's life.

"The matter has come to this, and this is already the best result. As for anything else, I don't dare to have any delusions.

Mom, don’t be too discouraged. Our family has long stopped living on the palace share. "

In the end, Baochai comforted Aunt Xue.

Aunt Xue could only sigh quietly.Having been in charge of the Xue family for so many years, she has a deep understanding of why the ancients often said that it is easier to conquer a country than to defend it.

With the current situation of the Xue family, let alone the glory of the family, it is obvious that even the name left by the ancestors cannot be preserved.

Not to mention others.

Unable to think too much about this issue, Aunt Xue focused her eyes on her daughter again, and quietly lowered her voice and said: "Let's not talk about your brother for now. You can come with me to see him in the afternoon.

Now I want to talk about you.What, what do you think about what your mother said to you before? "

Baochai was still thinking rationally about the future of her family, but suddenly she became embarrassed when she heard Aunt Xue's words.

I also understand why Aunt Xue asked this question.Just because Aunt Xue asked her before, she kept silent on the grounds that her brother's affairs were undecided and she had no time to take care of her.

Unexpectedly, my brother's matter had just been settled, and my mother couldn't wait to ask more questions.

Quickly recalling the scene of being alone with Jia Lian last night, Baochai couldn't help but squat down and throw herself on Aunt Xue's lap, saying coquettishly: "Mom, how can you be so anxious to marry off your daughter.

Even though Brother Lian is very nice, my daughter still wants to spend more time with you at home, so let’s not talk about that right now..."

"Hehehe, okay, okay, I won't say it anymore. Look at you, you're so embarrassed."

Aunt Xue held Baochai's neck and laughed happily.Her daughter's demeanor and words allowed her to see through her daughter's thoughts. At the same time, she couldn't help but sigh at Jia Lian's charm and deep methods.

With just one meeting last night, he won the heart of his precious daughter who is considerate, calm and rational?
Since things are already moving in the direction envisioned, it should be done sooner rather than later.

My daughter has girlish thoughts and is too shy to talk about them.But as someone who has been there, she understands that now that she has made a decision, she must make plans early so that she can gain a firm foothold in the mansion over there in the future.

After all, there are quite a few women around Jia Lian.Although a daughter is excellent, it will ultimately be bad if she lags behind others in every action.

So Aunt Xue smiled and said: "Let's put this matter aside. This time something happened to your brother, your second brother Lian was busy and spent so much energy on it.

Now that the matter has settled, we have no expression at all.

I'm going to prepare a family dinner tonight and make a special trip to thank him. What do you think? "

Baochai stood up and nodded: "What mother said is that we should thank Brother Lian properly. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that Brother Lian's matter was not glorious and inconvenient to publicize, we should have invited everyone from both houses to thank him one by one. That's right. After all, since my brother's incident happened, both Aunt and Sister Feng have put in a lot of effort."

"That's what you said. Then find another opportunity in the future and hold a banquet to reward your aunt and the old lady."

Aunt Xue was good-natured, "But I've been so busy with your brother's affairs these days that I haven't even had time to take a good rest. So, I'm afraid you have to take care of things tonight."

"This is……"

Facing her mother's smiling eyes, Baochai felt that she had ulterior motives, but he could not refuse her request and could only agree obediently.She was thinking about what preparations she should make tonight so that she could be both safe and compromising.

……

However, Jia Lian did not pay much attention to Xue Pan's affairs today, nor did he go to the Ministry of Justice to watch the trial process.

After all, it's a sure thing, how much could go wrong?
Even so, he still sent Feng Ziying to pay attention in advance, just to send back the message as soon as possible.

He went to the Military and Horse Department and the Firearms Camp early in the morning, then returned home, picked up Sister Feng, and went to the newly built military camp of the Firearms Camp outside the city.

It is said to be a military camp, but in fact it is more appropriate to call it a school ground.

After all, it is mainly a place used for training troops and testing weapons.Not even many barracks were built, and all that were used were military tents.

The campus occupies a very large area and the scenery is very beautiful, with mountains, water and woods surrounding it.

As a new member of the imperial court, Jia Lian would not deliberately be polite or show any integrity.There are quite a lot of good places in the Gyeonggi region. Why not take them if you can get them?
As long as it is taken down for business, it will be beneficial to the country and the people.

Sister Feng doesn't know how to ride a horse.

She always traveled by carriage.

But after all, the school ground was newly built, and many roads were not smooth, and Jia Lian wanted to take her around to see the mountains and water.

It can be regarded as a rare sweet time for husband and wife.

Therefore, Jia Lian carried Sister Feng onto his horse and walked slowly and leisurely in the school grounds under the protection of several guards.

Sister Feng was very embarrassed and unwilling to do this at first.

She is a young mistress of the government who never leaves the house and never steps out. She sits in the inner house and gives orders every day. What does it matter if she rides on a horse in public, but sits in the arms of a man?
Although this man was her husband, it was enough to make her feel ashamed.Fortunately, there were not too many people in the school at this time, and Jia Lian seemed to know her thoughts and did not go where there were people. Only then did her anxious mood slowly settle down, and she began to enjoy this kind of time with her husband. of good times.

"Hey, what are those?"

When the horse crossed a hillside, Sister Feng, who was sitting in Jia Lian's arms, suddenly raised her delicate body, pointed to the distance and asked curiously.

Sister Feng herself is not a rule-abiding person, and she even has some vague attributes of a queen, but Jia Lian is currently strong enough to suppress her.

And once the beauty's coquettishness is suppressed, it can also turn into softness around the fingers.

At this moment, Jia Lian felt that his beloved wife was particularly attractive.

Holding her slender waist and following her gaze, he saw a long and narrow brick wall built on the edge of a school ground with yellowing ground in the distance, stretching for two or three miles.

In front of the brick wall, hundreds of human-shaped wooden signs are neatly placed.From a distance, it looks like hundreds of imposing soldiers.

"That's a musket training target."

"Target?"

Sister Feng knew that targets were needed for archery practice, but she was surprised to see so many targets arranged in such an imposing manner.

"With so many targets, how many people do we need to train these muskets? By the way, I haven't asked you yet, how many soldiers are there in your firearms camp?"

"Well, it's not much. There are three thousand musketeers, and there are about [-] artillery soldiers."

"What are the artillery troops like? Do they have such a training ground?"

"Of course there is. It's in the other direction. Do you want to take a look?"

After asking Jia Lian many questions in succession, Sister Feng herself felt that she seemed quite inferior.As a general's wife, she doesn't know much about some basic things in the military.

Fortunately, Jia Lian didn't seem to be impatient. Whenever she asked something, he explained it to her one by one, no matter whether it was brief or not.

This made her feel very useful and pampered.

But she did not forget the purpose of coming here today, which was not to observe the military base.Therefore, Jia Lian was not asked to take her to see the artillery camp, and she still walked along the road ahead, taking her time.

After a long time, when Sister Feng couldn't help asking several times if they had been let off by the princess, she finally saw one of Jia Lian's personal guards flying from behind.

"Master Hou, Miss Wei is here."

Miss Wei?
Sister Feng heard this title in her ears and immediately realized who it was.

Yes, come to think of it, considering the other party's status as a princess and being unmarried, secretly interacting with a man of her own family is not something glorious and worthy of publicity.

Therefore, it seems reasonable that these personal guards under his own men should be called "Miss Wei".

Jia Lian originally wanted to explain something to Sister Feng, but when he lowered his head and saw her expression, knowing what she meant, he didn't say anything more and just smiled and said: "Okay, let's go back."

After saying that, he turned his horse's head and headed back.

But before he had gone far, Jia Lian slowly reined in his horse and stopped.

Sister Feng was confused, but did not ask questions because she also heard the sound of horse hooves coming from a distance.As he looked around, he saw dozens of fast horses driving out of the woods in the distance.

As the distance got closer, Sister Feng was surprised to find that the people on horseback were not generals and soldiers, but a group of women in beautiful clothes.

Although she is a woman, her riding posture is no less impressive than that of a man.Moreover, their figures are so agile that they all look heroic.

Before she had time to think about it, she realized that Jia Lian had turned over and dismounted, and stretched out her hand to her. Sister Feng quickly held her hand and jumped down.

"Woo~"

A woman's beautiful voice reached her ears, and Sister Feng, who was about to stand firm on the ground, looked up and saw several women standing on their horses more than ten steps in front.

As they stopped, the women who were following behind them came up from both sides and lined up with them.

Only then could Sister Feng see clearly that these women, who looked quite imposing to her from a distance, were actually first-class in appearance!
At a glance, there was no one with bad looks or graceful figure.

Moreover, there are so many of them lined up in a row, and the yellow and brown horses of the same color have their heads forward, which is quite powerful in itself.Not to mention, the dozen or so pairs of eyes that looked down at her just as they stopped made Sister Feng's heart instinctively tremble.

Just when Sister Feng was feeling fearful and making some assumptions, she suddenly felt her left hand being held by someone.

Looking up, Jia Lian had already walked up to her, covered most of her body, and led her forward.

Perhaps when she saw Jia Lian's actions, among the women standing on the horse, Sister Feng, who had noticed a difference in demeanor and appearance before, smiled slightly, then very dexterously turned over and dismounted, and strode towards them.

She has a beautiful face and a clear complexion. Although she has a first-class personality, there is nothing feminine about her face.

Although she was wearing light-colored corset clothes like the other women behind her, and even her other decorations were not much different, she seemed to be naturally different from the other women.

There is a gorgeous temperament naturally lingering around him when he walks, making him look so noble and elegant.Sister Feng's eyes were focused on her from the beginning.

Similarly, the other party's eyes seemed to be on her from beginning to end. Even when Jia Lian greeted her, she just nodded casually.

Sister Feng's spirit suddenly became tense.Rao had already done a lot of psychological construction in her heart, but at this moment, when she faced this famous and beloved jewel of the Tian family, the eldest princess, Sister Feng still found that her heart was beating unsatisfactorily.

This kind of nervousness that she had never experienced in her life prevented her from meeting Jia Lian immediately.

But no one urged her, neither Jia Lian nor the woman in front of her.

Sister Feng knew that Jia Lian couldn't help her much at this time and could only rely on herself. Therefore, under the smiling eyes of the woman in front of her, Sister Feng took a deep breath and bowed solemnly:

"I am Wang, and I would like to pay my respects to Her Royal Highness the eldest princess."

Although the other party is the princess of the dynasty, even though the other party's status is much nobler than hers, it is proper etiquette to meet and pay homage.

But for some reason, after bowing down, Sister Feng still felt inexplicably aggrieved and sad, as if something belonging to her had been invisibly taken away.

Sister Feng bowed her head and bowed, but naturally she did not see that the woman opposite her suddenly had a charming smile on her face the moment she saluted.

She seemed to glance to the side, then stepped forward, held Sister Feng's hands in her hands as she bowed down, and said, "Sister, don't be too polite, please get up quickly."

elder sister?

For a moment, Sister Feng thought she had heard wrong.

The clear and beautiful voice of the other party echoed in her mind, and Sister Feng was surprised to find that not only could she not find a trace of fierce and targeted emotions, but she also felt a little kind.

It seemed that the other party was really his long-lost sister.

This ridiculous feeling made Sister Feng couldn't help but raise her head and look at Princess Zhaoyang in front of her in surprise.

Princess Zhaoyang seemed to be unable to see her anxiety and surprise. She still held her hands and said with a smile: "I have heard people say that my sister is a rare and stunning beauty. When I saw her today, I realized that the rumors were true. .”

"This, sister, uh no... the princess is ridiculous. Her Royal Highness is the real beauty of the country. My body and wealth are not worth anything..."

Unfortunately, Wang Xifeng, who heard her voice first, stuttered before anyone could see her.This made Sister Feng feel so embarrassed when she noticed it, and her cheeks turned a little red.

When she came to meet her love rival today, Sister Feng naturally dressed up well.

Her original appearance was like that of a fairy concubine, but now she was half shy, and she was naturally one of the most beautiful in the world. A strange color flashed in the eyes of the intuitive Princess Zhaoyang opposite her.

Unlike Sister Feng, Princess Zhaoyang has actually met Sister Feng.

It's just that through the screen, I couldn't see it clearly.Only then did we know why the lover dared to disobey the Queen Mother's decree for the sake of the other party.

This kind of appearance is really rare in the world. If I were a man, I would not be willing to give it up. (End of chapter)