The Red Mansions

Chapter 130

early morning.

As soon as Jia Yun finished washing and dressing under the service of the beauty, she heard that the guard who guarded the gate came to report.

"It is said that Master Lin sent someone to Gusu to find relatives for Xiangling." Charming smiled.

Jia Yun nodded and asked, "Have Xiangling's relatives been found?"

"Then I'll have to watch it by myself, and it's not good for servants to go out!" the charming man pursed his lips.

Jia Yun left the room and said to Jia Ming who was standing in the corridor, "Go and call the person sent by Lord Lin!"

Jia Ming responded, and trotted out of the Chuihua Gate.

After a while, two young adults and an old woman were brought into the living room.

After the three of them greeted each other, one of them, a young man, said, "My master sent two young men to lead a team to inquire around Shili Street outside Changmen Gate in Gusu, but they didn't find any news about Miss Xiangling's relatives."

"Fortunately, I remembered that the master reminded me that my lord left a message, and Miss Xiangling's grandfather's house is in Daruzhou."

"The young ones went there with the idea of ​​giving it a try. I didn't expect to find out about Miss Xiangling's mother in a village in the countryside of Daruzhou."

As he spoke, he pointed to the terrified old woman, and said, "This is Miss Xiangling's mother, Feng Shi."

"When I found her, she was still washing clothes in the creek in a snowy day. Although her natal family had some surplus money, she was not very popular and lived a miserable life."

"She didn't intend to go with us at first, but later she heard news of her daughter from the younger ones, and she was not afraid that we would be abductees, so she recklessly followed us. If you are a mother, you are strong, which is admirable!"

After Jia Yun found out about the situation, she asked Jia Ming to take two letters worth a hundred taels of silver, rewarded the two young men, and told them to go down to rest.

After the people left, Jia Yun told Feng Shi to sit down and talk, and looked at her silently.

Because Xiangling's father had a daughter in his mid-fifties, Feng's age was past sixty at this time.

It should be said that she was used to living a wealthy life before her daughter was lost, but since Xiangling was kidnapped by a kidnapper, her family has undergone great changes, and Feng's life is dark, like a walking dead.

At this time, Feng's head was full of silver hair, and his weather-beaten face was covered with deep wrinkles.

Her eyes were a bit cloudy, her palms were black and rough, each finger was too thick to be bent, and her skin was wrinkled, like dry bark.

Although Feng Shi was sitting, he was trembling, hesitating to speak, and he wanted to ask about Xiangling, but he was afraid of being abrupt and presumptuous.

Jia Yun sighed and said: "Don't worry, Xiangling, that is your daughter Zhen Yinglian, she is doing well now, she is in the capital, and after the spring of next year, I will send you to Beijing to reunite with her."

When Feng heard Zhun Xin'er, his whole body collapsed, and he buried his head in tears.

Jia Yun shook her head, she also felt sympathy for Xiangling and her mother, thanks to his God's perspective, otherwise he would not be able to find anyone if he turned Gusu around.

When Fengshi was almost crying, Jia Yun ordered Meiren and Liren to take her down to take a bath and change clothes, and bought some decent clothes for her.

Anyway, now Xiangling is also her maid.

If he was in the capital right now, that girl would warm the bed every night before going to bed in order to make him comfortable. She is so considerate, so I don't blame myself for always wanting to help her.

The matter of looking for relatives for Xiangling came to an end, and Jia Yun was about to go to the county government office, when Xue Pan ran in quickly and said that there was a team of Jinyi guards outside the door.

"Huh? Is there a result to that matter?" Jia Yun thought for a moment, and then went to the door to greet her with Xue Pan.

"The Commander of Jinyiwei, the Commander, knows Dongfang Yun, and has met Mr. Jia!"

Just as Jia Yun stepped out of the gate, a middle-aged man dressed in a flying fish suit, with an embroidered spring knife on his waist, with a resolute face, a tall and straight figure, and a capable style of work, bowed to him and declared himself his family.

"Don't dare to be, dare not be, Jia Yun, the magistrate of Cixi, has met Master Dongfang." Jia Yun bowed her hands in the same way.

Jin Yiwei Commander Commander Commander Tongzhi is a third-rank official, second only to the Commander. It seems that Dai Quan is very concerned about recovering the silver from Xue's business route.

But even if Jia Yun encounters such a good job, he will be very attentive. After all, in less than half a year, he can get nearly a million taels of silver. There is nothing faster than this.

Dongfang Yun came to the door, not many people, only a dozen or so, Jia Yun ordered the guards to arrange, and Xue Pan and Xue Pan brought Dongfang Yun into the living room and sat down to talk.

After the beauty served the tea and stepped back, Dongfang Yun didn't make any fuss, just handed a wooden box to Jia Yun, and said:
"There are 200 taels of silver bills from the Tong Bank here. Today is the real end of the big errand that Mr. Dai gave us to Jinyiwei."

"At the same time, I would also like to thank Lord Jia for his good deeds, for being able to think about Jin Yiwei. If there is anything in the future that requires Jin Yiwei's efforts, he will take orders directly and never refuse!"

Jia Yun took the box, and in front of Dongfang Yun, took out the banknote and counted it three times.

200 million taels of silver is definitely a huge sum of money, so this matter must be explained clearly in person, and there must be no ambiguity.

After the number was correct, he took a closer look at the authenticity, and finally nodded and smiled at Dongfang Yun: "In the future, there will definitely be times when the brothers of Jinyiwei will need help!"

At this time, he found that there were five account books in the box, and he picked them up and looked through them. It turned out to be a roster.

Dongfang Yun reminded: "During the process of handling the case, Jin Yiwei found some problems and made some statistics. I also want Master Jia to know a thing or two."

"These people..." Jia Yun threw the roster into the box and looked at Dongfang Yun with doubts.

Dongfang Yun nodded and said: "After entering Jinyiwei's prison, the lowest ones were assigned to serve in frontier corvee, but in order to force their money out, most of them didn't go through the gate of the prison."

After a pause, he continued: "During the process of handling the case, we discovered that there were two other people who were also investigating the business route of Xue's family. The brothers did some rough testing and found that one was from the Green Forest, and the other was from the Nine side."

"Thank you, Lord Dongfang, for reminding me. I know what I'm doing." Jia Yun nodded and replied.

After the matter was finished, Dongfang Yun got up and said goodbye.

Before leaving, he introduced Qi Xiaowei, a thousand householder from Jinyiwei Zhejiang Qianhu Institute who came with him, to Jia Yun, and said that he could ask him for help on the ground in Zhejiang.

After sending Dongfang Yun away, Jia Yun invited Qi Xiaowei to inspect the patrolling camp, and wanted him to take the Jinyiwei people with him to teach the patrolling officers some special skills.

Qi Xiaowei didn't refuse, on the contrary, he was quite interested.

Xue Pan suddenly became smarter, and took a break to remind Jia Yun not to let Jin Yiwei infiltrate the patrol camp.

Jia Yun smiled and said nothing.

The patrol battalion will follow you in the future and will face countless enemies and opponents. Anti-infiltration and instigating rebellion are the first things to face.

So instead of being afraid of this, it is better to use Jin Yiwei to screen and clear the team from now on.

If someone has been instigated and discovered by his personal guards now, it would be better to deal with it as soon as possible. Anyway, the time we are together is still short now, and there is no relationship to talk about.

Practice three nines in winter and three days in summer!
In the snowy day, Xiong Jian's patrolmen were fighting each other. They practiced in full swing, sweating profusely, with thick white mist rising from their heads.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The training ground was full of murderous intent and morale was high, and everyone took the lead bravely for fear of falling behind.

After all, now that there is a lot of fish and meat, and there are still monthly cases to be taken, whether this stable job can last for a long time depends on how well the practice results are, and there must be no adulteration.

"Beep..."

A long whistle sounded, and the guards leading the team shouted: "Assemble!"

brush!brush!brush!
In less than ten breaths, the [-]-person team was lined up, forming a line horizontally and vertically, each with their chests upright, motionless in the wind and snow.

"Okay!" Qi Xiaowei gave a big praise, then turned to Jia Yun and said, "Master Jia, this soldier has trained hard enough!"

"Hehe, it's not enough, it's just a show, so Master Qi needs to lead the brothers to temper them hard." Jia Yun shook her head and laughed.

Qi Xiaowei shook his head and said: "Our Jinyiwei's little tricks, spying on the military situation, and serving as scouts can be regarded as making the best use of everything, but I'm afraid it won't work to defend the enemy with a majestic formation like the one in front of us."

"I invite Lord Qi to come here today, and I want them to follow Jin Yiwei and learn the superb methods of spying on the military situation. This will be extremely useful for them when they go to the battlefield in the future." Jia Yun said solemnly.

Qi Xiaowei nodded and said: "Since Mr. Jia has said so, we can teach as many skills as we have, and we will never hide them. But how much they can learn depends on themselves."

So from this day on, Qi Xiaowei dispatched an elite small flag from the Qianhu Office, and let a leader of a hundred households enter the patrolling camp.

Specializes in defense and protection, reconnaissance and camouflage, stalking and anti-tracking, intelligence analysis, arrest, interrogation, the use of poison and explosives, etc.

This is why Jia Yun let Jin Yiwei take advantage of it before, otherwise these skills would not be easy to learn.

The reason why Qi Xiaowei didn't refuse Jia Yun's request was also because he knew that even if he didn't teach, Jia Yun could still learn from Dongfang Yun, so he was more generous.

At the end of the year, Jia Yun was busy with affairs, but she stopped staring at the patrolling camp.

If the patrol battalion wants to become an army, it will have to practice for another half a year next year.

This is considered to be a smooth situation. If it is not smooth, for example, if some pirates directly attack Cixi, they are not good at learning at that time, so they can only fight with their lives.

Officials are very busy at the end of the year and the beginning of the year, as well as when collecting taxes.

As a magistrate, his responsibilities are extremely complex.

The county magistrate governs a county, decides lawsuits, persuades farmers to relieve the poor, punishes fraud and eliminates adultery, and establishes education.All tributes, reading methods, old-age care, worshiping gods, and extravagance are not comprehensive.

To put it bluntly, everything must be taken care of.

For example, important matters such as educating the people, listening to judgments and sentencing prisons, persuading the people to farm and mulberry, collecting taxes and paying money, engineering repairs, disaster relief, and promoting academic examinations are all top-notch events that cannot be relaxed at any time.

In the county government office, Jia Yun asked the kitchen to set up a few tables of good noodles for a group of gentry.

At the end of the year, Jia Yun, as the magistrate of the county, will also start raising office funds for next year. Although part of the tax revenue belongs to the county government, who would dislike the amount of money in the small treasury?

If it is said that he himself is not short of money, but the public is public and the private is private, it is impossible for him to use his own money to supplement the public.

A group of squires who came here knew what Jia Yun meant by inviting them to dinner.

Jia Yun was also polite to them, and the country gentry were also sensible. After a while, Master Huang secretly compared Jia Yun with a horoscope.

As a result, Jia Yun knew what was in her mind, and she was more enthusiastic when toasting the squires.

8000 taels of silver is very sufficient for a county government whose annual daily expenses are only more than [-] taels.

After eating and drinking enough and sending the squire away, Jia Yun asked Master Miao to take the money into the account.

Before Master Miao left, he mysteriously handed him a stack of bank notes, and Jia Yun rolled them up into his sleeves without a trace.

After returning home, Jia Yun took it out and took a look, tsk tsk, this is the big head, there are more than 3 taels in total.

"No wonder everyone wants to be an official!" Charming put the banknotes away and put them in the secret box, and said with a pout.

Jia Yun laughed and said: "This is just a small head. In the next few days, there will be ice charcoal and silver sent by small officials, businessmen, big and small, and big households outside the officials. That is the real big head. This amount is indispensable."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and shook the five fingertips together.

Mei Ren worried: "Is there going to be any problem?"

"What can go wrong? This is a festival fee, so don't worry about accepting it." Jia Yun shook her head and smiled.

If others give money, if you really don't accept it, it will make people feel uneasy.

They would think, could the new county magistrate be dissatisfied with them and hold back something bad in his heart?
There is no way, the general environment is like this, Jia Yun will not be unconventional, and the money that should be collected still has to be collected.

Charming breathed a sigh of relief when she heard the words, and then asked: "Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, how will our family spend?"

"I guess I'm going to live outside. My schedule is full these days. I'll come back to accompany you at night at most." Jia Yun thought for a while and said.

Meiren's complexion collapsed in an instant, and she was very displeased. She stepped forward and sat down on Jia Yun's lap, and whispered:

"I remember you promised Sister Bao that you are not allowed to be greedy outside. If you want it, I and the beauty will serve you, and you can do whatever you want."

Jia Yun pinched her nose, and said with a smile: "I didn't expect Baochai to put an eyeliner beside me, don't worry, there are two beauties at home reading, how can some vulgar fans get into me eye?"

Charming smiled, suddenly remembered something, and said quickly: "By the way, Uncle Xue brought back four servant girls today. I heard that they bought a thin horse from Yangzhou. He hasn't come out since he came back! "

Jia Yun nodded, and pondered: "Eating and drinking, men and women, people have great desires. Brother Xue is in his early 20s. It's good to have a few maids to accompany him, so as not to go out to hang out often."

"Those skinny horses are really thin, but their waists are soft, and their appearance is not bad." Charming said meaningfully.

Jia Yun glanced at her sideways, and said angrily, "You've been with me for so long, don't you know my hobbies?"

The charming man giggled and said: "I know, you like plump and plump ones, and you don't like thin ones. It's strange to say that the female family members in the family seem to be really coincidental, and they are all the type you like."

"Well, it may have something to do with your growing environment. For example, you and Xiren, although they are maidservants, have not lacked food and clothing since they were young. Not to mention the maidservants such as Baochai and Ying'er, they have lived a sweet life since they were young. Days." Jia Yun analyzed.

Charming said playfully, "What about Grandma Rong and Grandma Zhu?"

Jia Yun rolled her eyes and said, "It's getting farther and farther away. If these people can marry into a noble family, the first one must be satisfied and be able to bear children. If they are in poor health, they may not even be able to pass the test of a matchmaker."

Charming thought about it: "That's true, it seems that the girls in Jia's mansion are also able to bear children, but Miss Lin is a little thin, and I'm afraid it will be some trouble in the future."

Jia Yun was overwhelmed by the tempting thoughts, but still said: "Miss Lin is sick. If the disease can be cured, she can gain weight. Her skeleton is there."

Charming's eyes lit up, she stared at Jia Yun, and asked seriously, "Why do you react so strongly when you mention Miss Lin?"

"What reaction?" Jia Yun pretended to be confused.

The charming man giggled, stretched out his hand to grab it, and said with a smile: "How dare you deny it, this is evidence!"

Jia Yun took a deep breath, buried her head in her arms, smelled the strong feminine fragrance, and said, "Stop messing around, I did this because I smelled you."

"I don't believe it!" Meiren hugged Jia Yun's head, pursed her lips and said, then frowned, as if she was stimulated by Jia Yun's actions.

After a pause, she continued: "However, Master, you have to be more cautious. Miss Lin is such a pure and pure person, you are a generation behind her, we can say it in private, but we can't come to the truth?"

She knew Jia Yun's charm so well, she really wanted to move her mind, even with Lin Daiyu's cleverness, she probably couldn't bear it.

Jia Yun kept moving her hands, and said angrily, "What's the difference? I'm far away from Jia's house, okay?"

"But as long as you and Miss Lin are put together, others will definitely think of Jia's mansion first, and they will rank with them." Meiren gritted her teeth, holding Jia Yun's head tightly and said.

Jia Yun raised her head suddenly, and answered an irrelevant question, "Are you okay? It's right here, or go inside?"

The charming bit her lip, and whispered: "It's just right now, master..."

Jia Yun nodded, and after rustling for a while, she saw the charming man let out a long breath, with a look of comfort and contentment on his face.

Then, she shook her body and asked again: "Xiangling's mother, when will you send her away? I'll prepare some Jiangnan specialties in advance and bring them back to the capital."

"Look, if it's quick, we can send it away after the Lantern Festival, if it's slow, it'll probably be February." Jia Yun replied casually.

The charming person tapped his head lightly, and said softly: "Oh, be gentle, you will know that the monkey is in a hurry..."

Jia Yun didn't care about her, she shook her skirt from time to time, and said, "Don't bring too many presents, for fear of being damaged on the way, try to bring dry goods, which are easy to store."

"I know... um..." Meiren closed her eyes, raised her head, stretched out her hand and gently pulled off the hairpin, thousands of black strands hung down, full of feminine charm.

She pulled a handful of hair back to her shoulders, showed her delicate face, and asked with her lips pursed, "Do you want to buy a maid or two to serve Xiangling's mother?"

"It's been a long time on the way to Beijing. She's a woman, and she's alone. I'm afraid it's inconvenient."

Jia Yun straightened up abruptly, and said loudly: "That's no use, give her a servant girl, she may have trouble sleeping and eating!"

(End of this chapter)