Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 361 Flattery

On this day, Jia Rui came out of the cabinet and went to Longshou Palace as usual. When he went in, he saw that the Emperor was in a good mood today, as if he had gotten out of the haze of Concubine Zhen's death.

Jia Rui breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the Supreme Emperor could live one more day, he would be able to relax one more day.

Let's be honest, although Jia Rui is ambitious, years of prosperity and happiness have gradually made him inert.

Therefore, Jia Rui still hopes that the Supreme Emperor is alive and supporting him from above, so that he can live a relaxed and happy life.

"Your Majesty, Jia Rui, bows to the Supreme Emperor." Jia Rui smiled and bowed to the Supreme Emperor. Without waiting for the Supreme Emperor to ask him to get up, Jia Rui stood up and slipped to the side of the Supreme Emperor.

The Supreme Emperor had nothing to do with Jia Rui's rogueness. He just smiled and then didn't care.

"Jia Rui, how are things going in Tianjin? Why haven't you sent me any memorials for so long?"

Jia Rui opened his mouth. He really didn't know much about things in Tianjin.

So Jia Rui cast his eyes to the side for help.

Zhao Jin caught Jia Rui's look and immediately said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the Prince of Nan'an County has been working hard to build warships during this period, and now there are more than a dozen more warships."

After hearing this, the Supreme Emperor shook his head dissatisfied and said: "It's too slow. I invested so much money and only got a few dozen ships? How can I explain it to the world?"

The Supreme Emperor was very dissatisfied with the progress of Prince Nan'an.

In fact, the Supreme Emperor also felt sorry for his inner treasure.

Although Jia Rui's internal treasury was very abundant after he took charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it could not keep up with the wealth of Prince Nan'an.

The Emperor's dissatisfaction with Prince Nan'an has now reached a certain level.

He lay on the bed and thought for a while, then sat up suddenly and said to Jia Rui: "I seemed to have told you to go to Tianjin a few days ago. How are you preparing?"

"Reporting to the Supreme Emperor, I can leave at any time."

The Supreme Emperor nodded, and then said: "In that case, you can leave the capital tomorrow and go to Tianjin to see why Prince Nan'an moves so slowly?"

Jia Rui could tell from the Emperor's tone that his patience with Prince Nan'an had reached its limit.

"Don't worry, Your Majesty. I will go to Tianjin immediately to urge Prince Nan'an to ensure that the Emperor's affairs are not missed."

The Emperor sighed.

If he were in his prime, the Supreme Emperor would not be so impatient. In fact, the Supreme Emperor has already felt that his body functions are declining rapidly.

The Supreme Emperor wanted to make proper arrangements for matters both inside and outside the court and for future generations before his death.

He also didn't want any fratricide to happen after his death.

Besides, Jia Rui left Beijing the next day after hearing the Emperor's words.

Since this time he was just going to Tianjin for inspection, Jia Rui did not bring the Shangfang Sword given by the Supreme Emperor. He only took more than 200 soldiers and a dozen boys and hurried away on horseback.

Tianjin is not far away, so Jia Rui's people arrived in Tianjin two days later.

The prefect of Tianjin brought his officials. Welcome Jia Rui at Shili Changting.

Jia Rui was very polite when he saw these civil servants. He immediately dismounted his horse and walked a few steps to greet the Tianjin magistrate.

The prefect of Tianjin also respected Jia Rui, the chief minister of the dynasty, so much that he had to kneel down and serve as a horse stool for Jia Rui.

Both parties wanted to get close to each other, so the relationship between the two people quickly heated up. Before they even arrived at the Tianjin Yamen, they were almost brothers.

The name of this Tianjin magistrate was Xie Zhao, who was a Jinshi when the Supreme Emperor first ascended the throne.

However, he has always been relatively honest and does not know how to specialize. Therefore, he is already very old and his beard has turned gray, and he has only reached the position of Tianjin magistrate.

Under normal circumstances, at such an old age, one should have no desires and desires, but Xie Zhao is just the opposite.

Precisely because there was no great potential in my life, I became unbalanced when I got old and started to specialize.

But he has been honest all his life and has not offended anyone, but he has not been close to any boss, so he has never been able to find a way out.

This time Jia Rui came to Tianjin for inspection, and Xie Zhao thought it was a God-given opportunity.

That's why he desperately curry favor with Jia Rui.

At the same time, in order to make Jia Rui live comfortably in Tianjin, he directly vacated his house and let his wife, children and grandchildren find a small yard to stay temporarily.

Jia Rui was quite satisfied with the other party's filial piety, so he smiled and gave the other party a few promises. The old man was immediately so happy that he couldn't close his mouth.

After Jia Rui sent old man Xie Zhao away, the smile on his face immediately disappeared.

It is not a secret mission for me to come to Tianjin. I am afraid that when I leave Beijing, there will be news in Tianjin.

No, even Xie Zhao, the prefect of Tianjin, knew that he would be picked up outside Shili Changting, but the Prince of Nan'an County did not show up?     This is too disrespectful to oneself.

Jia Rui squinted his eyes and became cruel. He remembered what happened this time and waited for Prince Nan'an to come to him in the future.

Of course, the general matter must be over. After all, the Supreme Emperor is already rich. As long as the Nan'an County King can build a good navy, the rest will not matter.

Not to mention that Jia Rui was being cruel here, and Xie Zhao, the prefect of Tianjin, returned to the newly rented small courtyard with a smile.

The first thing I saw when I entered the door were two children running over like a gust of wind.

"Grandpa, I fell off the bed last night when I was sleeping."

"Yes, yes, it was Xiao Shiwu who kicked him down."

These two children came to complain. Xie Zhao glanced and saw only a child standing under the porch, and turned his head away with guilt.

Although Xie Zhao was not very good at official work, he was very strong and strong, so he was full of children and grandchildren.

He has seven sons and more than thirty grandchildren in total.

And Xie Zhao is also a paternalist. As long as he is alive, his son will never live separately, so his son and grandchildren all live together.

Xie Zhao smiled and comforted the two children, and then promised to reward the wronged child with an egg during lunch.

With the reward, the two children quickly forgot about their grievances, and then held hands and jumped to play elsewhere.

After sending away the two naughty guys, Xie Zhao came to the central hall with his hands behind his back.

As soon as he sat down, a white-haired mother-in-law came over holding a teacup and handed the teacup in her hand to Xie Zhao.

"Old man, nothing went wrong today, right?" The old woman was a little worried.

Xie Zhao said with a smile: "Master Jia is very harmonious and we had a good chat."

After hearing this, the old lady breathed a sigh of relief, and then sat next to Xie Zhao, "You said you are so old, why are you bothering?"

"A woman's opinion." Xie Zhao said unhappily, pouting his beard.

At this time, another voice came in from outside, "Mom, please stop holding my father back. I think my father has not been promoted. The big reason is that you are always holding him back."

Following the sound, a forty-year-old middle-aged man walked in casually.

When the old woman saw him coming in, she curled her lips unhappily, "I think you'd better find a regular business owner quickly and stop wandering around the house every day."

It was Xie Zhao's eldest son who came. Since Xie Zhao and his wife had been married for many years before they had their first son, they doted on this eldest son when they were young.

After they gave birth to other sons one after another, they couldn't change their doting on their eldest son. Therefore, their family's habit of doting on their younger sons was different from other families'. These two couples gave away most of their love to them. To this eldest son.

However, precisely because he grew up with pampering, the eldest son became careless and unfit for childbirth. He wandered around the house every day and did not work.

If an ordinary family raised such a waste, the family would have been unwilling to do so, but Xie Zhao was an official after all and had some extra money, so the family did not say anything to him, an idler.

However, the eldest son is arrogant and thinks that he has no future because he has no springboard. As long as there is a step for him to climb, he can go straight to the top.

The old man Xie Zhao only started to change camps at such an old age. It was under the constant encouragement of his eldest son that he changed his mind.

This guy came to his father's side with a step of disowning him. He didn't even salute, and sat down on the chair. Then he asked: "How is it? Have you seen Mr. Jia? Is Mr. Jia satisfied with our arrangement?" ?”

Xie Zhao stroked his beard and said with a smile on his face: "Master Jia is very kind and had a good chat with me. As for whether he is satisfied with our arrangement, he didn't show it. I think he should be satisfied, right?"

Xie Xuan (the old man's eldest son's name) immediately shouted, "How can you show this to Mr. Jia? Those of us below should figure out Mr. Jia's thoughts."

Old man Xie Zhao didn't say anything.

After all, he really doesn't understand these accident-related matters, otherwise he would be retiring soon and be in the position of Tianjin prefect.

Although he seems to be a prefect now, let's be honest, before the opening of the sea, Tianjin was not a prosperous place. Even though it was next to the capital, it didn't get any glory at all.

Rich people simply don't live here permanently and move directly to the capital. Only ordinary people with no money have nowhere to go, so they stay here.

If it weren't for the fact that this place was safer than other places in Gansu, I'm afraid his fortune wouldn't be as good as those of other prefects in Gansu.

Xie Xuan stood up anxiously and walked up and down the hall. Suddenly he stopped and said, "Master Jia came to Tianjin this time. Did he not bring a maid to serve him?"

Xie Zhao said: "Master Jia has official business, how can he take a girl with him?"

"Isn't this good? Isn't our Xiu'e old enough? Let's just let him work as a maid to Mr. Jia. If Mr. Jia takes him as a concubine on a whim, our family will be considered to be in the capital."

Xie Zhao's face looked a little ugly when he heard this. After all, he was from the imperial examination, how could he do such a devaluation?

(End of this chapter)