The Red Mansions

Chapter 123 Lin Ruhai's Visit

Luo Zhijian left in despair.

Jia Yun gave him an order that after returning from Ningbo in a few days, the soldiers of the inspection department must be able to fight, otherwise the county government will first cut off the food and grass of the inspection department, disband and rebuild.

The standard is that there are more than [-] people in the inspection department, and they can defeat ten of their own guards.

In fact, Jia Yun didn't need to go to the inspection department to see that those soldiers were mobs.

But no matter how useless it is, it must be able to withstand a javelin and twist a machete, right?
Next, after Luo Zhijian left, people came to see Jia Yun one after another.

Jia Yun knew what they meant, so she received them kindly.

These people seemed to have discussed it, and they didn't stay for long. After briefly mentioning their names and errands, they took their leave and left.

Jia Yun didn't discuss things carefully with them either. Everyone just got to know each other now, and there will be plenty of time to talk about work in the future.

One after another, nearly twenty people came to visit, and Jia Yun also had a general understanding of the personnel structure of the county government.

Cixi has four major cultures: reclamation, immigration, celadon, and filial piety.

Cixi is one of the birthplaces of Chinese porcelain with beautiful scenery, where the natural landscape and cultural landscape complement each other. The firing time began in the Han Dynasty and ended in the Song Dynasty.

In the nearly two centuries from the late Tang Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, it has been prosperous and has become a veritable porcelain capital of the Tang and Song Dynasties.

Most of the early Cixi people lived along the mountains.

With the construction of the seawall gradually moving northward, the residents in the south of the mountain and along the mountain "moved northward and eastward", and a large number of villages appeared on both sides of Dagutang.

At the same time, people from neighboring areas and other provinces also gradually immigrated to Andong Salt Area to engage in salt production.

The earliest population records of Cixi began in the Song Dynasty. The county has a statistical population of more than 15, and now it has about 20 people. It is a veritable upper county, and the annual tax is extremely heavy.

At noon, led by Gong Chaoxu, all the officials who had won the title in the county government gathered in Gaosheng Building to greet Jia Yun.

Everyone ate a meal in high spirits, everyone drank red, and the atmosphere was harmonious.

In the evening, the gentry and wealthy households took the lead, and also set up a sumptuous banquet in Gaosheng Building to welcome Jia Yun.

Jia Yun and Guang Tongchen should eat and drink, and ask Jia Ming to keep a record of the gifts they give.

After eating and drinking, a squire said that he had newly acquired a few thin horses and had nowhere to put them, so he wanted to borrow Jia Yun's house for a few days.

Jia Yun was very stingy and said nothing. Why should someone else live in her own house? She refused.

In the dead of night, Jia Yun returned to her residence and entered the house twice.

Originally, the county government had arranged a place to live, but because Jia Yun brought a lot of people, Xue Pan was asked to rent a two-entry house.

The beauty waited on Jia Yun to take a bath and change clothes. After getting rid of the smell of alcohol, she felt much more relaxed.

In November, the weather was a bit cold, and Mei Ren lit several pots of charcoal fire in the room.

Going back to the room and sitting down, the charming man chirped and said: "Today, many female family members came to visit, some of them were from officials' families, most of them were from squires' families, and they brought a lot of gifts. It's in the warehouse."

"It's near the sea. It's quite hot at noon when the sun is shining, but it gets cold very quickly at night. I'm not used to it."

"Uncle Xue called two guards to go out, said that he would not come back tonight, and left a message. If the master has something to do with him, he will go to Chunfeng Building to look for him."

"..."

Jia Yun listened to her with a smile, the beauty made a pot of tea to sober him up, and the beauty turned on the lights in the room while talking.

After drinking the scented tea, Jia Yun said to Meiren and Liren, "We came from the north to the south. We must not be used to it at first. You have to be more patient. It will be fine after a while."

"In the next few days, if you have any discomfort in your body, don't hold on, for fear of being unacceptable, you should speak up quickly, so that you can find a way to treat it earlier."

Both women nodded yes, Jia Yun said again: "Tomorrow I will set off again, and I will go to Ningbo for business with the county lord. I don't know when I will come back. I think it will take a few days."

The beauty pursed her lips and asked, "Can't you take your servant?"

"I'm afraid I can't, this time the past officials didn't bring their wives with them." Jia Yun shook her head.

Meiren suddenly sighed, "I don't know what Sister Bao and Sister Xiren are doing now, but I miss them a little bit."

Jia Yun took her hand and said with a smile: "If you think about them, write them a letter and tell them about the situation in Cixi, but now that the canal is frozen, even if you write a letter, I'm afraid it will be a while for them Can't get it."

The beauty then said: "That has to be written, and the slaves have to write a letter to my sister and send it back. If there is no news for a long time, they will be worried."

Jia Yun nodded and said, "Forget it, let's write it all down, and let someone send it away tomorrow. As for when they can receive it, it depends on God's will."

In ordinary years in ancient times, business travelers who entered Beijing by water and land from the south in winter arrived at Luoma Lake. If the river to the north froze, they had to settle down in Yaowan Town near Luoma Lake. Beijing.

Therefore, even if they wrote a letter to Xue Baochai and the others right now, they probably won't receive it until after the new year.

This is why the Southern Juzi went to Beijing to go to the test, and they would leave for the capital before the canal froze a year ago, just because they were afraid of getting stuck on the road.

The next day, Jia Yun came to the county government early in the morning.

The sun had just risen, and when Gong Chaoxu, the county magistrate, arrived, all other high-ranking officials also arrived.

There were not many high-quality officials in the county government office, and they all sat in sedan chairs, surrounded by a large group of slaves, and set off from the county government office to the Ningbo government office.

The county magistrate made a tour, and the scene was huge.

In front of the sedan chair, there was a gong shouting, seven gongs, the big gong, and the big copper horn blare, alternately, and all the attendants yelled at the same time.

The guard of honor is both civil and military, with both kindness and power, coupled with the entourage of the entourage, it is like a mobile government office.

In ancient times, officials had a certain honor guard when traveling. This is not only the requirement of etiquette in traditional culture, but also to reflect the prestige of officials and make the people more respectful.

It was nearly [-] kilometers from Cixi to Ningbo, and the group stopped and stopped until it was dark before arriving in Ningbo.

In Ningbo City, the Cixi County Government also has a guild hall, not only in Ningbo, but also in Hangzhou, which is convenient for officials to go to work.

As soon as they arrived at the guild hall, Gong Chaoxu and others went out mysteriously, and Jia Yun knew that they must have gone to visit Shangguan or a friend.

Jia Yun stayed in the room and didn't go anywhere.

The day before yesterday, when he went to the government office to report, in exchange for official documents, he heard that Lin Ruhai was living in the Ningbo government office these days, and Jia Yun didn't want to have any contact with him for the time being, so he avoided wandering there.

But if he didn't look for Lin Ruhai, it didn't mean that Lin Ruhai didn't come to him.

When the night lights first came on, the hall was extremely lively.

After Jia Yun took a shower and changed clothes, she ordered Jia Ming to go to the kitchen to bring some food and wine. Just as she was enjoying a leisurely drink, Jia Ming came in from the outside to say that Master Lin, the inspector of salt in Yangzhou, was visiting.

"Please hurry up!" Jia Yun looked confused, just got up, and said again: "No, I'll go to greet you in person!"

"Haha, there's no need to greet me, the old man is already here!" Lin Ruhai came in with a smile outside the door before anyone could be heard.

Jia Yun hurriedly stepped forward to salute: "Master Lin is here to visit, and the lower officials are too far away to greet you, it's too rude!"

Lin Ruhai saw the food and wine on the table, smiled, and said: "This old man is unintentionally being a bad guest today, I should be rude."

Jia Yun said with a smile: "Master Lin is a distinguished guest that the younger generation wants to invite but can't invite..."

Before he finished speaking, Lin Ruhai waved his hand and said, "This old man is here as a private person, so you don't need to be too cautious."

Jia Yun nodded and said, "Please forgive me for being rude, my lord, please sit down."

Jia Yun invited Lin Ruhai to sit down, and told Jia Ming to go to the kitchen to bring some good appetizers.

After sitting down, without waiting for Jia Yun to speak, I heard Lin Ruhai ask: "Actually, half a month ago, the old man received a letter from Uncle Zhuo, counting the schedule, Zizheng will arrive in just a few days, so I've been here all the time. Wait here."

"It was only yesterday that I found out that Zizheng went to take up the post after he reported it quietly. The old man originally wanted to chase after Cixi, but then he thought that you must be coming to participate in the ceremony of worshiping the gods, so he didn't go there."

"Master?" Jia Yun was a little surprised, and asked in confusion, "The relationship between your lord and master..."

Lin Ruhai pinched his beard and explained with a smile: "At the beginning, the master who took part in the test was a brother of Master Zhuo."

Jia Yun suddenly said, "So that's how it is."

Even so, he didn't call Lin Ruhai senior brother, after all, there is a layer of separation between the seat master and the real master.

Soon, Jia Ming came over with a lot of appetizers from the kitchen, set them up, and backed out.

After Jia Yun poured wine for Lin Ruhai, she toasted him first, and then asked directly, "Is there something you need, sir?"

He has a low official status now, and he has no conflict of interest with Lin Ruhai, so he doesn't have to worry too much.

Lin Ruhai nodded and said: "The old man came to see you, one is to follow Master Zhuo's order to meet you, and the other is to ask you about my daughter's recent situation."

Based on his understanding of Jia's family, Jia Yun passed the Juren examination at such a young age, and Jia's family must support him a little bit, so he believed that Jia Yun knew something about Lin Daiyu.

It's just that he doesn't know that now Jia Yun and Jia's family have conflicts, and they are almost tearing their skins apart.

Jia Yun knew that the purpose of Lin Ruhai's visit was to ask him about Lin Daiyu's recent situation, so she didn't hide anything, and replied truthfully, "This junior has met Miss Lin a few times."

"Oh?" Lin Ruhai's eyes flickered, and he asked doubtfully, "She's in Jia's mansion, can she meet a foreigner casually?"

Jia Yun shook her head and said: "That's not true, it's just that when the younger generation won the first case in the county examination, the second aunt Lian brought the girls to my house, and another time the younger generation went to visit the second aunt Lian's yard. Miss Lin is also there."

Lin Ruhai breathed a sigh of relief, and said, "That's good, Zizheng knows whether my little girl's old illness still recurs frequently?"

"I do know that." Jia Yun nodded and said, "I heard that since last year, Miss Lin has rarely suffered from illness. According to Second Aunt and the others, she has gained a lot of weight in the past year than before."

Lin Ruhai was overjoyed, and said happily: "It's good, it's good if you don't get sick, and it's good if you gain weight!"

Jia Yun said with a smile: "The maids Xiren and Charm of Jia's mansion were taken as concubines by the younger generation. The maid Zijuan who served by Miss Lin was very close to them. She often came to the younger generation's house and heard Zijuan say that Miss Lin thing."

"I heard that in the second half of the year, Miss Lin went to ask the old lady to move out of the original Bisha kitchen and own a small courtyard alone. This should be true."

Lin Ruhai was even happier when he heard the words, and while eating and chatting with Jia Yun, he told him a lot of secrets about the officialdom.

While drinking, Jia Yun asked for advice: "My lord, there is something I don't understand about this junior. It is said that this ceremony of worshiping the gods is unreliable at first glance, so there is no impeachment by the imperial censor?"

"Didn't Zizheng hear that worshiping gods is also the first thing officials do after taking office? The prefect of Ningbo worships gods for the people. Regardless of whether the method is right or not, the starting point is good!" Lin Ruhai smiled.

Jia Yun spread her hands, frowned and said, "But isn't the matter of the pirates still unresolved? If the pirates come to rob and kill again, the common people will still be in bad luck?"

Lin Ruhai restrained his smile, and said in a low voice: "It's fine for the son to talk about this matter with the old man, but please don't yell around."

After a pause, Lin Ruhai looked at Jia Yun and asked, "Does Zizheng know who these pirates are?"

"Japanese?" Jia Yun tentatively asked.

Lin Ruhai shook his head and said, "Right or wrong, Zizheng's thinking can be broadened."

Jia Yun pondered for a moment, glanced at Lin Ruhai, and thought that he was a member of the new emperor, and it would be beneficial and harmless to reveal some talents in private.

So he said: "Then this junior is making a fool of himself. As far as this junior knows, most of these pirates should come from coastal people. The reason why they become pirates is because of the word sea ban..."

"Seven mountains, one water and two fields", Zhejiang's topography is doomed to fail to become a traditional agricultural province, but must follow a development model based on maritime trade.

However, the imperial court not only imposed heavy taxes on the two provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but also strictly enforced the sea ban policy of "no pieces can go to sea".

This immediately plunged the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, who had always made a living from foreign trade and commerce, into poverty.

With the passage of time and the development of the commodity economy, the demand for this kind of foreign trade has further expanded.

Therefore, residents along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang began to take risks to smuggle out to sea, and this is how pirates came into being.

Coastal residents become bandits in order to make a living, and if they want to make a living, they must open the sea ban.

Many insightful people have clearly realized this point, and naturally some people have offered advice and suggestions.

However, due to the obstruction of conservative forces and the inertia of abiding by the ancestral system, coupled with the political instability of the Da Zhou court in recent years, the policy of opening up the sea ban has not been implemented.

Over the years, it is not that the imperial court has not sent troops to wipe out the pirates, but they are all powerless.

Today's court hangs in the sky for two days, two emperors are in charge of the house, political corruption, and the plunder of wealth by the royal family, nobles and bureaucratic landlords are becoming more and more serious.

The government is becoming increasingly corrupt, the military is weak, the coastal defenses are abolished, and the imperial forces have been severely damaged.

With the vicious development of land annexation, the army's farmland was embezzled, the guards were occupied by powerful families, and the sergeants fled one after another unbearable abuse.

The army is seriously short of personnel, the combat quality is extremely poor, the equipment is broken, the food and grass are in short supply, and the ships are damaged, which facilitates the pirates' aggression. Coupled with policy mistakes, the coastal defense facilities lose their due functions.

Under this background, the stricter the sea ban, the more people will take risks. The maritime smuggling groups are becoming more and more rampant.

After listening to Jia Yun's analysis, Lin Ruhai opened his eyes wider and wider, and said in surprise: "I didn't expect Zizheng to be so young, but his knowledge is very extraordinary. This makes me lament that I have lived so many years in vain!"

Jia Yun said modestly: "Your Excellency, the younger generation is just talking nonsense after drinking, and there is no insight."

"Zizheng doesn't need to be modest." Lin Ruhai waved his hand and said, "Since we've come to this point, what would you do if Zizheng were to manage pirates?"

After pondering for a while, Jia Yun said, "If you want to completely eradicate pirates, you must open the sea."

"But those pirates who should be wiped out must also be wiped out. Those who dare to go to sea to have their heads killed will not have a clean one in their hands. We cannot let them go unpunished!"

He remembered that in the history of the original time and space, there was a pirate named Wang Zhi, who not only took the pirates to harass the coastal residents for profit, robbed the coastal residents of their property, and even brutally killed them because of their resistance.

In addition, he also engaged in sea smuggling business, selling weapons such as iron cannons, that is, selling arms.

At that time, the Wa Kingdom was still in the Warring States period, and it was still very backward. It was because Wang Zhi, a bastard, sold weapons to the Wa Kingdom, and even customized relevant drawings according to their requirements.

This move not only indirectly taught Wa to master the technology of making iron cannons, but also opened the door to a new world for Wa in terms of military research.

Later, the Japanese made more advanced weapons through their research on iron cannons, and soon ended the civil war. After the end of the civil war, Japan set its sights on other countries.

As his ambitions gradually grew, he was naturally not satisfied with such a small territory as his own country, and began to think of invading surrounding countries, which planted many hidden dangers for China's security.

Wang Zhi's final outcome was to be executed.

However, even after a hundred years, when people mention Wang Zhi, they are still full of hatred for this person.

I hate him for losing his conscience, he only sees interests in his eyes, he doesn't care about the lives of other people, he even colludes with foreigners and leads them to harm his compatriots, and he doesn't realize what he has done.

He is no longer fit to be human.

Therefore, if Jia Yun is allowed to manage pirates, he must strive for the imperial court's policy of opening the sea.

But those pirates counted as one, and they couldn't let them go. Although those people were forced to go to sea to become pirates, none of them were innocent.

Lin Ruhai clapped his palms and praised: "Young people are awesome, Zizheng is charming, talented, and enterprising. I hope this momentum can be maintained forever. In the future, Zizheng will definitely have a place in the court."

Next, the two of them opened up the topic and talked about many things.

Naturally, Jia Yun revealed a little bit about his relationship with Jia's family, in order to test Lin Ruhai's attitude.

Lin Ruhai laughed and said that the Jia family was too petty, and supporting the clansmen was not like that.

After getting along with her for a short time, Jia Yun felt that Lin Ruhai was loyal and humble, not only courteous and corporal, but also very thoughtful. He was worthy of being an official for many years.

After a night of drinking, Jia Yun left Lin Ruhai to live in the Cixi Guild Hall, and Lin Ruhai didn't refuse.

(End of this chapter)