The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 567 Truth and Lies
"Your Majesty, the Hanlin editor Jia Huan is here!" A guard entered the imperial tent to report.

Emperor Qiansheng said coldly with a sullen face: "Let him in."

Jia Huan walked into the imperial tent cautiously, and quickly glanced at the fat boy Xu Wenhou. Seeing the latter's apologetic face, he vaguely guessed what was going on. He walked to the imperial desk without looking away, knelt down and saluted, saying: "Your Highness, Jia Huan, kowtows to the emperor!"

Emperor Qiansheng slammed the imperial desk and shouted, "Jia Huan, do you admit your guilt?"

The fat boy shrank his neck in fear, and Jia Huan bowed his head in fear and trepidation and said, "I really don't know what crime I have committed."

Emperor Qiansheng glanced at Xu Wenhou with disappointment. The Seventh Brother was still so timid and had not made any progress. However, this Jia Huan seemed to be terrified, but in fact he was fearless. How would the Seventh Brother be able to control such a person in the future? I had to think about it for him.

Emperor Qiansheng thought about it and asked sternly, "I want to ask you, but it was you who instigated King Min to give me advice?"

Jia Huan replied: "Your Majesty has a keen eye, and I dare not deny it."

Emperor Qiansheng was stunned for a moment, and Xu Wenhou was even more dumbfounded. He stammered, "Brother Jia... When did Jia Hanlin instigate me? It was clearly me who took the initiative to offer advice to the emperor. What does Jia Hanlin have to do with it?"

Jia Huan said frankly: "The reason why I discussed this strategy with His Royal Highness Prince Min was because I knew that His Royal Highness would not be able to restrain himself and make suggestions to the Emperor, so it can be regarded as instigation."

Xu Wenhou's chubby face turned red, not because he blamed Jia Huan for taking advantage of him, but because he felt embarrassed, because the "discussion" that Jia Huan mentioned was actually Jia Huan talking and he was responsible for listening. To put it bluntly, Jia Huan told him the strategy, and after listening to it, he could not help himself, and driven by vanity, he ran to offer advice to his father.

Emperor Qiansheng originally planned to have Jia Huan deny it outright, then expose his tricks and give him a severe reprimand. However, Jia Huan did not play by the rules and directly admitted to instigating King Min. This made it difficult for him to get angry for a moment, so he had to say with a sullen face: "Since you have a good plan, why don't you just give me your advice? Instead, you are trying to be clever and use King Min? I hate this kind of deception the most. If you can't come up with a legitimate reason, I will punish you severely!"

Jia Huan said cautiously: "I have just entered the officialdom, my words are not taken seriously, I am speaking through the mouth of His Royal Highness Prince Min, just to attract Your Majesty's attention."

"That's all?" Emperor Qiansheng said jokingly, his eyes piercing through people's hearts like a needle.

Jia Huan felt an invisible pressure rushing towards him, like a thorn in his back, and a layer of cold sweat oozed out of his forehead. He said in panic: "I am on good terms with His Majesty Prince Min, and I also want His Majesty to value His Majesty Prince Min."

Xu Wenhou's face changed slightly, and he lowered his head without daring to breathe. He thought that Emperor Qiansheng would be furious, but the emperor smiled and said calmly: "You are a newcomer to the officialdom, and you have a lot of things to worry about. Considering that it is your first offense and you admit your mistakes frankly, I will forgive you this time, and it will not happen again. If you have something to say in the future, you should speak directly. If you dare to play tricks in front of me again, I will kill you without mercy. All of you, leave!"

Jia Huan and Xu Wenhou both breathed a sigh of relief, bowed, and left the imperial tent.

Xu Wenhou looked at Jia Huan with complicated eyes and asked in a low voice: "Brother Jia...was what you said in front of the emperor just now true?"

Jia Huan shook his head calmly and said, "Of course it's a lie."

Xu Wenhou was stunned again, and it took him a while to recover from his stunned state. He said with a smile: "Wait, Brother Jia, you really confused me. You admitted in front of the emperor that you instigated me, but now you say it was a lie. So did you instigate me?"

Jia Huan laughed and said, "If I didn't say that, how could I get past the Emperor? The Emperor has already preconceived that I instigated you, Your Highness Prince Min. If I deny it outright, it would be adding insult to injury. It would be better for me to admit it."

Xu Wenhou pondered for a moment, nodded and said, "So that's how it is. I understand. Once you admit it, the emperor will be in trouble. Naturally, he will think that he has seen through your tricks. He will be pleased and let you go. Tsk tsk, you are really cunning. You have tricked the emperor again. This is a crime of deceiving the emperor."

Jia Huan coughed lightly and said seriously, "Your Highness Prince Min, you can eat whatever you want, but you can't say anything you want."

Xu Wenhou gave Jia Huan a disdainful look and asked, "Then, brother Jia, tell me what the real purpose of that plan is?"

Jia Huan returned Xu Wenhou's contemptuous look and said, "Nonsense, of course I want to win this battle. If I lose, I will die. If I speak directly, the emperor may not listen to me, but if I speak through the mouth of Prince Min, the effect will naturally be different."

Xu Wenhou chuckled and said, "That's right... No, then can it be said that I was used by you this time?"

"Well, this is a benign use!" Jia Huan corrected with a light cough.

Xu Wenhou rolled his eyes and said, "Even so, I still feel unhappy. I feel like I'm being played around with. Brother Jia should at least treat me to a meal and a drink to apologize."

"Once the city is broken, ten meals won't be a problem!" Jia Huan said generously. "You said it yourself, brother Jia, you can't go back on your word." Xu Wenhou smiled and walked forward, hooking his arm around Jia Huan's shoulder.

Ever since they escaped death in Tiewang Mountain last time, the friendship between the two has obviously deepened, and the fat boy has become more trusting and respectful of Jia Huan.

…………

Inside the imperial tent, Emperor Qiansheng summoned a group of ministers to discuss the strategy proposed by Jia Huan. Of course, the strategy was discussed in the name of Min Wang Xu Wenhou.

In fact, the ministers were not unable to think of such a divisive strategy as "only killing the core members of the rebels and pardoning the lower-level officers and soldiers", but they did not dare to mention it.

Because both sides were blood-thirsty and the hatred was deep, Emperor Qiansheng was also filled with rage and wished to kill all the rebels in the city. The ministers tried to guess the emperor's intention and naturally did not dare to propose a divisive strategy of pardoning the rebels. Moreover, among the ministers accompanying the emperor, many of their families had been brutally murdered and their bodies were hung on the city walls. They also wished to kill all the rebels in the city.

It is precisely because of these reasons that no one had proposed such an effective differentiation strategy. Now that it was "initiated" by His Royal Highness King Min, everyone praised it and it soon gained the support of the vast majority of ministers.

In addition, Jia Huan's proposal to open maritime trading ports, conduct free trade, and encourage foreign merchants to import grain was relatively novel, and there were a mixed crowd of people who agreed and opposed it.

In fact, the ministers who held opposing opinions still held the mentality of the Celestial Empire. They thought that China was a great country with abundant resources and could be completely self-sufficient. There was no need to engage in free trade with foreigners. Opening up tribute trade was already a great gift to the barbarian countries. If free trade was completely liberalized, all those messy things from the Westerners would surely flood into the Jin Dynasty, such as the proliferation of firearms. By then, the small profits earned would probably not be enough to cover the management costs.

However, there was indeed a shortage of food in the country at the moment, so after some debate, the ministers reached a compromise, setting up the Shibo Tijiu Si in Tianjin Wei, but only accepting grain trade. Foreign merchants no longer needed to produce tribute documents to trade, and were not subject to quota restrictions. They only needed to use grain to exchange for tea, raw silk, porcelain and other popular commodities.

Da Jin was a wealthy country in the East, and tea, silk, porcelain, etc. were very popular in Western countries. The profit could be several times or even dozens of times after a single sale, so Westerners were willing to travel across the ocean to do business in the East. However, Da Jin was self-sufficient and had no interest in doing business with foreigners. It only gave limited tribute trade quotas, forcing Westerners to obtain goods through smuggling or even plundering.

Now that the Great Jin Dynasty has opened a trading port in Tianjin, goods can be obtained by transporting grain instead of silver. Once this news was announced to the world, Western merchants cruising along the coast of the Great Jin Dynasty were overjoyed and flocked to it like flies smelling a scent. The first to benefit from this were naturally the foreign merchants active in the Shandong coast, Japan and Korea.

At this time, the red-haired Dutch who had established a base in the Penghu area of ​​Taiwan also heard the news and moved. Immediately, merchant ships loaded with various food set sail for the Bohai Bay.

…………

Before we knew it, it was already the Mid-Autumn Festival in the eighth year of Qiansheng's reign. Outside, there was a turmoil and the price of grain on the market was changing every day. Even wealthy families like the Jia family were beginning to run out of food. In order to save food, the servants could only eat one meal a day. Naturally, it was impossible to entertain guests with operas and hold banquets like in previous years. In fact, Jia's mother's birthday was on the third day of August, and the birthday banquet was also cancelled.

One day, Jia Lian returned home from outside, carried back by servants. He was hit on the head with a club, and his head was bleeding on the spot.

It turned out that Jia Lian went out to buy grain today and took the route of an acquaintance. He finally managed to get three stone of grain at a high price. However, on his way back, he was robbed by a group of masked men. This was done in broad daylight, which showed how chaotic the security in the city had become.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon was high in the sky. In a small, dilapidated courtyard in a remote dark alley in Yujifang, a dozen men in black were wolfing down freshly-cooked noodles.

This group of thieves was the same one who had robbed Jia Lian during the day. The leader was a fierce-looking man named Ni Er, nicknamed the Drunken King Kong.

Ni Er was originally a street scoundrel who made a living by lending money at high interest rates. Now that the city gates were surrounded, the people inside could not get out and the food outside could not come in. Prices soared sharply, and even people like Ni Er could not afford to eat, so he gathered a group of people to do a no-cost business.

At this time, a thief handed a flyer to Ni Er and said, "Brother Ni, I found it on the street today. I don't know what it says."

Ni Er could read a few words. When he saw the contents of the leaflet, he immediately became excited and licked his lips and said, "This should have been thrown in from outside the city. Killing a rebel soldier will reward you two taels of silver, killing a small flag will reward you ten taels of silver, killing a general flag will reward you fifty taels, killing a centurion will reward you one hundred taels, and killing a thousand will reward you one thousand taels!"

"Is this true?" All the thieves' eyes lit up and they asked one after another, "Who should I go to get the money from?"

Ni Erhei laughed and said, "Of course I'll look for the emperor outside the city, but this business is not easy to do, and if you're not careful you'll lose your head."

All the thieves burst into laughter: "Will we not lose our heads if we don't do this business? We would have starved to death long ago, damn it!"

(End of this chapter)