The Red Mansions Across the Four Seas

Chapter 481 Will Another Crown Prince Be Established?
The cooperation between Concubine Zhou and the Prince can be traced back to two years ago.

However, at that time, there was no in-depth cooperation.At most, it is to provide the prince with information about the palace.She rarely touched information about the emperor.

Substantive cooperation began a few months ago.

In the first month of this year, Concubine Zhou came home to visit relatives, and only then did she know the current situation at home.

In order to build the provincial hospital, the family now owes a large debt, and life is very difficult at present.

Although there is a big house there on the surface, it can neither be used for food nor clothing.

There are only a dozen or so left by the servants, and the daily food and clothing expenses are all calculated and calculated.The creditors often came to ask for debts, which made my father often go out to hide the debts.

Although he claimed to be favored in the palace, it was just a false name.With the family living like this, others thought they were pretending to be poor on purpose, trying to rely on their status in the palace to renege on their debts and refuse to pay back the money.

Concubine Wu's family also spent a lot of money to Xie Gai's provincial hospital.It was hard for the family too.

However, there are several officials in Concubine Wu's family, who often play tricks on each other, collude with internal and external parties, and sell officials and nobles, so the Wu family quickly recovered.

Concubine Jia's family was already rich, and their business was booming. This time they repaired and built the Provincial Court, not only did they not owe foreign debts, but they also made money.

Now Jia's shops, theaters, etc., are getting money every day.Not only is the provincial hospital not idle, but it has also become a profitable industry.

Zhou Guozhang has a straightforward temper and never likes to engage in crooked ways. Some people come to ask him to do things with money, but he refuses them all.

Although the family has some fields and two shops, they have too many debts to make ends meet.

At first, Concubine Zhou Guifei was very happy about the emperor's order for each family to build a relative's house.He is almost grateful to the emperor.

Now she realizes that what she thought was too naive.This is the emperor's secret trick to take this opportunity to weaken the financial resources of each concubine's family.

It turned out that the emperor asked the major families to train the soldiers, but later it was suspected that it was a scheme by the emperor to weaken the major families.

Although there is no evidence, it is a fact that the major families have suffered great losses in manpower and financial resources through the battle of North Wendura.

Seeing this, Concubine Zhou was completely disappointed in the emperor.

Now that the emperor's dragon body is not in good shape, with good times and bad times, it's time to plan for his own future.

At present, the emperor never mentions the matter of becoming a queen.The imperial concubine's health has not been good in recent years.

Concubine Wu seems to have fallen out of favor, only Concubine Jia is still in favor.

With the financial power and power of the Jia family, they will be her strongest opponent in the future.

Concubine Zhou valued the seat of the future empress and concubine.The realization of this goal will depend on the prince in the future.

"No matter what Xia Bingzhong does, King Jin has always been in the northwest, so it must be related to King Jin."

Concubine Zhou's judgment was correct. The emperor's sending Xia Bingzhong to the northwest was indeed related to King Jin.

"Even if there is something to do, you shouldn't stay there for so long. Could it be that the father asked him to observe something there?"

"Prince, do you feel that since you came back from North Wendu, the emperor has treated you a little colder?"

"It's rare for the emperor to summon me, but I don't think there is any obvious indifference?"

"The emperor asked you to go to North Wendura last time, just to train you and let you accumulate prestige. If this is the case, after you come back, you should also ask you to do other things, make some preparations for taking over the throne in the future, and accumulate your prestige. Experience and experience, but in the past two years since you came back, what important things have you done?"

With this said, the prince's thoughts became a little cheerful.It seems that in the past two years, the emperor really didn't ask him to do anything important.

In the past, when his father was reviewing memorials and dealing with some government affairs, he would often ask him to be by his side, and sometimes he would talk about why a certain matter was handled in this way.In the past two years, such a thing has indeed not happened many times.

Could it be that the father is disappointed in me and wants to establish another prince?

Thinking of this, the prince couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Mother and concubine, do you mean that the father intends to establish another prince?"

"I didn't say that, but the emperor often praised you before, but in the past two years, I rarely heard him praise you."

"The king of Jin is in the northwest, and Xia Bingzhong went to the northwest. The king of Chu is in Zhili, did Qiu Shi'an go to Zhili? If he went to Zhili, maybe he was secretly investigating the king of Chu."

The prince seems to have found his way.

"You mean, the emperor asked them to secretly observe the performance of King Jin and King Chu to see how capable they are?"

The prince didn't answer directly, but he already had the answer in his heart.

"Don't speculate too much. Abolishing the crown prince is related to the great unification. If you are not careful, it will cause turmoil in the court and the palace, and shake the foundation of the country. Even the emperor will not act rashly. He will definitely be cautious. I think , you should work harder on the big families."

The San Francisco side is now on my side, and the other major families will probably be optimistic about their success.

"Actually, these families are not so concerned about who will inherit the throne in the future. As long as they don't harm their interests after becoming the throne in the future, that's fine."

"This matter, the prince's thinking is a bit simple. Some families will stand by and watch, but some families may not."

"Which one is the concubine mother talking about?"

"It's not which family, but which family. For example, the Jia family. The Jia family is not a matter of one family. In addition to the Rongning Second House, the Wang family, the Shi family, the Feng family, the Chen family, the Wei family, I heard that the Niu family, the Chen family, The Liu family and the Ma family are very close to them now."

At the beginning of the establishment of the Dade Empire, it was the four kings and eight princes who set up the basic support of the imperial power. These twelve families were called the Twelve Pillars Kingdom at the beginning.

Except for King Bei Jing who has no close relationship with him at present, the other three kings have already expressed their support for him through Song Kuan, Li Gan and Han Qi.

Among the remaining Hachikos, there are only six that can be regarded as having some influence at present.Both Rongguo Mansion, Ningguo Mansion, Zhenguo Mansion, Liguo Mansion, Qi State Mansion and Zhiguo Mansion.

Among these six families, Rongguo Mansion and Ningguo Mansion are the most prosperous, and among the two mansions, Rongguo Mansion is the most prosperous.

"What the mother and concubine said is very true. The Jia family does have some power now."

"It's not just some influence? Now Rongning and Ningfu's business is booming, they are making money every day, and they have strong financial resources. Jia Yuanchun is favored in the palace, and Wang Ziteng is reused outside. Rongguo Mansion is currently at its peak of talents, and there are a group of talents such as Jia Min, Jia Lian, Jia Qiang, and Jia Yun."

"Not counting these, Feng Ziying, Chen Yejun, and Wei Ruolan's outstanding children are all Jia Min's former subordinates. Niu Jizong, Liu Fang, Chen Ruiwen, and Ma Shangde all accepted Jia Min's favor in Wendula. It is said that they are all people who only follow Jia Min's lead."

"And the most important point, I wonder if the crown prince found out?"

"What is it?"

"Drilling the Army Corps, everyone suffered heavy losses, both people and property. Only Jia's House and Feng's House, etc., not only made great military exploits, but also gained a group of talents. The construction of the Provincial House, other people's families were seriously injured Vitality, only the Jia family made good use of the situation and got a blessing through misfortune, not only was it not weakened, but its financial resources became even stronger."

"What does the concubine mean?"

Concubine Zhou not only sighed secretly.

This idiot, for the sake of saying everything, still doesn't understand?Is it any wonder that the emperor and He are disappointed in him?

"Here, there is a very key person."

"Concubine Mu, you mean Jia Min?"

Finally got a little bit of an idea.

"Yes, it's Jia Min. If Jia Min is on your side, it means that all these families are on your side, otherwise..."

Will Jia Min stand by me?

The prince not only remembered the scene under the red stone lazi when he evacuated from Wendula Mountain.

At that time, after he left Chang'an Duan, Jia Min looked down on him.

Every time he thought of this scene, the prince felt as if he was sitting on pins and needles, like a thorn in his throat.

"Well, Jia Min and I have always been estranged. In fact, I only met him once. I don't have a deep friendship. If I ask him to stand by my side, I'm afraid..."

"Jia Min and Chang'an seem to be getting closer, don't they?"

"Chang'an's military training came from Jia Min's sect. Jia Min saved her life and gave her the military exploits of recovering South Wendura. Chang'an is very grateful to Jia Min."

"Now, I think the prince should think carefully about Jia Min."

"Now Jia Min has no official or job, and he has gone far away. There is no news. Even his family members don't know where he is."

The crown prince actually knew as much about Jia Min and even Jia's family than Concubine Zhou, and it was actually at his behest to track down Qin Keqing.

Grabbing the handle of the Jia family is something he has long wanted to do and is already doing.

This idea actually came from Song Kuan and Luo Qihua.

Although the prince didn't know if there was any communication between the two of them, it was true that the two of them gave him this idea by coincidence.

"Although Jia Min has no official position, if the emperor wants to, Jinkou opened his mouth and gave him an official position. Wouldn't it be easy to give him an official position? At the beginning Jia Min was so embarrassing to the emperor, did the emperor finally appoint him as the deputy head of the clan mansion? "

"The emperor loves Chang'an very much. If Chang'an goes to ask the emperor again, wouldn't it be a matter of one word to appoint Jia Min?"

"My concubine is right."

"If Jia Min is used by you, it's the best policy. If it can't be used by you or others, it's also the best policy. If it's used by others, then..."

"Hmph, what can he do? Those who follow me will prosper and those who oppose me will perish. After all, he is just a bastard from a noble family. How much trouble can he cause?"

"At the beginning, he even dared to publicly oppose the emperor's war. What else would he not dare to do?"

"Hmph, since you can't use it for me, don't blame me for being rude. Although Jia Min is not here now, his big family is in our hands. We are not afraid that he will not be obedient when the time comes."

"It's good that the prince can think like this. In the future, it is my greatest wish for the prince to ascend to the throne."

"Mother, don't worry, I will definitely not treat my mother badly in the future."

(End of this chapter)