Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 174 Bribery
When Dai Quan saw the Emperor's insistence, he felt helpless: Brother Jia Rui, it's not my brother that I won't help you. It's the Emperor who is urging me. If you go to jail in the future, don't worry, my brother will deliver food to you.

With this in mind, Dai Quan sent Jia Rui's memorial.

The Supreme Emperor took the memorial and opened it. His face was calm at first, but after a while he became serious.

Dai Quan, who was standing next to him, saw that it was over. He could no longer keep his little brother and political ally.

Based on Dai Quan's understanding of the Supreme Emperor, the next step should be for the Supreme Emperor to be furious and then issue an order to arrest Jia Rui.

But after half a stick of incense, the Emperor's anger did not come out, but fell silent.

After a long time, Dai Quan even saw tears in the eyes of the Supreme Emperor.

How is this going?

Just when Dai Quan was confused, the Supreme Emperor spoke.

"Jia Aiqing, you love me more than you love yourself."

After saying this, the Supreme Emperor was very emotional, and he continued to add:

"I have been in a state of confusion these past few days, but among the many ministers under my command, none of them have given me advice. However, Jia Rui, who is thousands of miles away, still thinks of me."

After finishing speaking, the Supreme Emperor put the memorial in his hand, caressed it for a long time, and then said to Dai Quan: "Withdraw the banquet and let these dancers go down too."

When Dai Quan heard this, he quickly asked the young eunuchs to remove the banquet, and then waved the dancers to leave.

The Supreme Emperor sat in the main hall and was stunned for a long time, and then said to Dai Quan: "We have not been in the south for a long time. We have seen everything we need to see. There is no need to wait until October. Let's go back in a few days."

Dai Quan glanced at the Supreme Emperor carefully, and seeing that he had no other instructions, he quickly nodded in agreement, and then went down to deliver the order.

Jia Rui didn't know yet that because of his memorial, the Supreme Emperor had come back early. He was now counting money at the infantry commander's office.

This Admiral of the Nine Sects is really too fat. Almost all the big merchants entering and leaving the capital have to give some face to the Admiral of the Nine Sects. They pay constant tribute during festivals and every month.

No, today is the day when the businessmen below and those doing gray business send filial piety money to Jia Rui.

Of course, people don't send money directly. Most of them give some "antiques, calligraphy and paintings" to them.

They are said to be antique calligraphy and paintings, but in fact they are all imitations, and the imitations are not good. They are all fake at first glance.

These people sent these fakes to Jia Rui. Aren't they afraid that Jia Rui would get angry and settle accounts with them?
People are really not afraid.

It turns out that there is a special kind of business in the capital, and that is to act as a middleman, connecting businessmen below and small officials entering the city.

If you want to give gifts to these high-ranking officials, of course you can't carry a lot of money there. In this case, you are not giving a gift, but you will not be happy with it.

So what to do?

People have a way.

Buy a "celebrity calligraphy and painting" and give it to officials, and these officials will naturally know that the calligraphy and painting are fake and not valuable.

In this way, the censor had no way to grasp the situation. After all, he couldn't be impeached because of a fake calligraphy and painting.

But after it's over, someone will come to buy the calligraphy and painting, and they will still buy it as genuine.

In this way, the bribery process is completed.

These are ordinary officials. If some big bosses don't let others interfere at all, they will only open an antique calligraphy and painting shop.

If you want to bribe these big bosses, you can only buy calligraphy and paintings in their shops and give them to the big bosses.

As for the big boss, after collecting the calligraphy and paintings, he would do things for others, and then the calligraphy and paintings would be resold and returned to his own shop, where he could continue to sell them.

And Jia Rui was now considered a small boss in the imperial court, so he followed suit and opened a calligraphy and painting shop of his own.

This kind of thing is actually an open secret, and everyone hides it from the emperor.

Jia Rui counted the calligraphy and painting he collected today and found that he could get about ten thousand taels of silver. This month's harvest was pretty good.

Jia Rui was very satisfied.

Although it is not as good as He Shen, who can earn more than ten or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in one fell swoop, it is not bad.

Just when Jia Rui was happy, a soldier came in hurriedly outside.

"Sir, someone from Shuntian Mansion is here."

Jia Rui put the fake calligraphy and paintings into the box next to him as if nothing had happened.

"What's the matter with them?"

To be honest, Jia Rui has been tired of Shuntian Mansion during this time.

Since the powers of the two yamen overlap somewhat, they often get into lawsuits over power issues.

Either Shuntian Mansion asked Admiral Jiumen to ask for the person, or Admiral Jiumen asked Shuntian Mansion to hand over the person.

"My lord, they didn't say anything."

"When the brothers below were patrolling the streets, did they have another conflict with the government officials from Shuntian Mansion?"

"Sir, our brothers have been honest during this period and have not had any conflicts with Shuntian Mansion. We even helped Shuntian Mansion take down a group of criminals a few days ago. We are still on good terms."

"Then what did they send people to do?"

Although Jia Rui was curious, he still ordered people to bring in the people from Shuntian Mansion.

After a while, people from Shuntian Mansion came in. Jia Rui was a little stunned when he saw it. This time, the person coming from Shuntian Mansion was not a yamen servant or a supervisor, but a person who looked like a master.You must know that these masters are all fox-like characters. They are usually the personal staff of the chief official of the yamen.

Their every move represents the chief officer's intention.

"I've met Master Jia."

Jia Rui waved his hand and asked him to stand up, "What's the matter with your master asking you to come over?"

"Sir, something happened to your brother-in-law."

When Jia Rui heard this, he immediately stood up from his seat and stared at him closely.

"What's wrong."

"Your brother-in-law was in Yufang Pavilion and forcibly favored a poor man. He has been reported to the Yamen."

What else does Jia Rui care about?It turned out to be this.

Where is Yufang Pavilion?As soon as I heard this name, I knew what would happen if I favored a poor man there?The most you can do is spend some money, so you don't need to litigate.

And Jia Rui knows that Xue Pan is not short of money now.

He has fields in Shandong and Gansu, plus the money he earned from visiting his relatives' villa some time ago, as well as errands for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he has an income of at least 8 taels of silver a year.

"Don't the family just want money? Tell me, how much do they want? I agreed on Xue Pan's behalf."

"Sir, you don't know. I was a shepherd and I didn't sell it to Yufang Pavilion. I just sold it there to make a living. Now something like this has happened. My little girl is looking for a job, and my family members don't do it either." , and sued it to our master."

Jia Rui frowned after hearing this.

"Then what does she want? Does she still want Xue Pan to die?"

The master raised his eyes and glanced at Jia Rui secretly, then gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, "Sir, that family wants Mr. Xue to marry the matchmaker. If he doesn't, he will ring the Jingyang Bell."

Jia Rui was a little stunned after hearing this. Whose family is so fierce?
But when he heard that the other party wanted to ring the Jingyang Bell, Jia Rui became a little afraid.

If the Supreme Emperor is here, Jia Rui won't be afraid not only of ringing the Jingyang Bell, but also of having a lawsuit with the Emperor.

But the Supreme Emperor is currently in Jiangnan. Now the emperor has the final say in the court. If the trouble is too ugly, I'm afraid it will cause a lot of trouble.

"Let your master put this case down for a few days and then talk about it in a few days."

After hearing this, the master agreed and left.

After the people left, Jia Rui sat there with a frown on his face, feeling a little strange.

It has been said since ancient times that the people do not fight with the officials, not to mention that the person standing behind Xue Pan is himself. There are probably not many people in the whole court who dare to fight with him.

How dare a small commoner dare to flirt with Xue Pan? How brave does she have to be?
That's right, Jia Rui now thinks that the other party is trying to make trouble.

Jia Rui thought for a while and shouted outside: "Wangcai, get in here."

Wangcai, who was waiting outside, ran in quickly when Jia Rui called him.

"What are your orders, sir?"

"You go to Long Jinwei and ask them to check what happened to Xue Pan today to see if there is anything fishy in it."

"Young man, let's go right away." After Wangcai said that, he turned around and ran out.

Jia Rui, who was in the lobby, had no intention of staying at the infantry commander's office now.

He packed up his things casually, then left the Yamen and went home with the boy.

Jia Rui is also holding a fire in his heart now. This Xue Pan is looking for trouble for himself every day.

So when I entered the house and saw Xue Baochai, my tone finally came out.

"What's the matter with your brother? Can't you just eat, drink and have fun? He's just looking for trouble."

After saying this, Jia Rui kicked an embroidered pier next to him.

Xue Baochai was also startled by Jia Rui, but she soon calmed down and went forward to change Jia Rui's clothes as before.

Although Jia Rui was not holding his anger in his heart, when he saw the attentive Xue Baochai, he could not express his anger and could only stand there and let Xue Baochai torment him.

After Xue Baochai changed Jia Rui's clothes, he helped him sit on a chair, then took his own fragrant tea and gave it to Jia Rui.

"What happened to my brother today? He made you so unhappy."

"This guy who has failed to achieve anything but fails to do anything, forcibly took a poor man into custody in Yufang Pavilion."

Xue Baochai breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this, "Isn't it just a matter of a few taels of silver? Why is the uncle so angry?"

"If it's a matter of a few taels of silver, why should I be so angry? Let me tell you, they don't want any money at all. They want your brother's head, or let him get married to a matchmaker!"

Xue Baochai was stunned for a moment after hearing this, and then said in disbelief: "A prostitute dares to let our famous matchmaker marry her, is she crazy?"

"How do I know? But I have asked Wangcai to inquire, and the news should come back soon."

After saying this, Jia Rui said to Xue Baochai: "Take advantage of this time to send someone to find your brother quickly. I will ask him face to face what happened."

After hearing this, Xue Baochai nodded repeatedly, and then ordered Ying'er to send someone to find Xue Pan.

(End of this chapter)