Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 439: The Great and Talented Emperor Chenghui

Emperor Chenghui's idea was to peacefully resolve the issue of Liaodong separatism and use this as a template to resolve the issues in the Western Regions.

For this reason, he did not hesitate to pardon the traitor.

Of course, it is just an idea now, but when he asked Jia Lian this question, it was not easy to answer.

Not an inch of the land left by our ancestors can be given up.

This is the logic that everyone has to say. Otherwise, even if nothing happens now, someone will make a big fuss about it in the future.

Just like a certain space, on the one hand, he is actually selling out his country, and on the other hand, he is shouting loudly about autumn leaf begonia.

As long as I stick to the map, it won’t be considered treason.

Emperor Chenghui also knew that Jia Lian would not be able to answer, so he said to himself: "I intend to set up the Mobei Protectorate. As long as Li Ni recognizes the state system, I can pardon him and allow him to be buried in the imperial mausoleum after his death."

Jia Lian understood. Once this decision was made, the pressure on Emperor Chenghui would be enormous. It was too shocking to pardon treason. The situation of Prince Zhongyi was better. They were uncle and nephew, and it was a blood dispute. The two kings of Dongping and Xining were kings of different surnames, which would be difficult to deal with. What if Prince Teng took over Annan and asked to be king?
It must be said that as an ancient man, Emperor Chenghui's idea was very bold. After all, the feudal system has been in existence for nearly two thousand years. Are we going to pick it up again now?

"From now on, if there are any capable ministers who can expand our territory, I will treat them as princes and dukes."

Hearing this, Jia Lian was really shocked. The emperor's idea could not be said to be too advanced. After all, for a long time, the main body of the country had been emphasizing great unification, and the surrounding countries had been under a tributary system and were nominally divided.

Emperor Chenghui's idea was to turn the nominal enfeoffment into an actual enfeoffment.

“If any prince wishes to go west or south to open the sea, the court will support him and follow this example.”

Jia Lian probably understood how Emperor Chenghui came up with this idea. It was because the two generations of crown princes did not have a good ending, and the second and third sons in front of him showed signs of fighting again.

In this case, it would be better to let the loser in the fight for the throne go out, or appoint a crown prince first, and tell the other princes that if they want to achieve something, they should go out and try on their own.

Deep down, Jia Lian agreed with this idea. After all, this was an era of competition for colonies all over the world, and the robbery and plundering played by Westerners could not be compared with this.

Unfortunately, as a minister, Jia Lian could only remain silent, because anything he said might leave hidden dangers.

Fortunately, Emperor Chenghui did not need Jia Lian's answer. He just wanted to find someone to confide his inner pressure to before making up his mind.

Emperor Chenghui began to walk back, still continuing: "If Wang Ziteng can pacify Annan and is willing to stay there, I can also make him a duke and promote him to the title of king in the future."

Jia Lian finally had to admit that the emperor before him might be a little inferior in terms of specific details, but when it comes to national policies, he is a man of great talent and vision.

The cabinet meeting did not continue with the quarrel, but everyone was silent. They just stared at each other and disliked each other. The Prime Minister Zhang Tingen was very calm and watched the confrontation between the two silently.

After Emperor Chenghui appeared, everyone stood up and saluted. Jia Lian hurriedly left the room and came back in after the ceremony was over to greet all the ministers one by one.

"Are you done arguing?" Emperor Chenghui asked with a smile. Everyone stood up, and Zhang Tingen took the lead: "It is our fault that we cannot share your worries."

Emperor Chenghui smiled and said, "Zhang Qing, you don't have to blame yourself. The Zhang family has more than 500 people and only 10,000 acres of land. If you divide it equally, each person is well-off. Forget it, let's not talk about it. Let's use the treasury to provide relief to Shaanxi and Gansu."

Emperor Chenghui's inner treasury actually had money, and everyone knew that it had money. Zhang Tingen had been slow to come forward to quell the dispute, hoping that he would use the inner treasury. After all, relief could not be delayed.

"Your Majesty is wise!" Zhang Tingen took the lead and spoke with his hands folded, and everyone followed in unison.

"As for relief, how to purchase food and how to transport it all require your hard work!" Emperor Chenghui's tone became serious. It was easy to allocate the treasury, but how to convert the money into food, how to transport it, and how to allocate it were the key issues. Otherwise, you could buy 100% of the food, but once it was transferred, it would become 70%, and once it was transferred, it would become 40%. After three or five transfers, the victims would only have leftovers.

Lin Ruhai stood up and said, "Since Your Majesty has released the treasury, you can order the Dragon Guard to supervise it. Anyone who damages Your Majesty's reputation will be executed!"

Zhang Ting'en stood up with a sense of responsibility: "That's what I meant!"

If he tampered with other things, he might have a chance to survive, but Zhang Tingen felt that tampering with the life-saving food of the disaster victims was an unforgivable crime.

"Jia Lian, do you have any suggestions?" Emperor Chenghui did not speak immediately, but pulled Jia Lian, who was trembling in the corner, out.

Jia Lian, who had been trying to hide, knew that he could not escape being named, and stood up helplessly: "Your Majesty, you can invite merchants to transport the grain to the local area and give them a certain profit margin. Considering that the road is not peaceful, you can strictly order officials in various places to ensure the safe arrival of relief grain. If there is a problem, the officials of the prefectures and counties along the way, above the eighth rank, will be held jointly responsible and severely punished."

When a place is hit by a disaster, naturally there will be heroes gathering in the mountains and forests. The phenomenon of bandits has never been eliminated since ancient times.

Jia Lian did not propose to let the government be responsible for transporting grain, naturally because he did not trust these officials.

This suggestion was not only embarrassing for the emperor, but also difficult for the cabinet members to back down. How much do you despise the official community?
"The Ministry of Revenue organized officials to purchase and transport grain. The Inspectorate and the Dragon Guards were responsible for supervision. Ning Qing was personally in charge of this matter. If there was a problem, he would like to retire. Lin Qing was in charge of supervision. The censor knew about it but did not report it. Lin Qing would like to retire. However, relief has always been a bad account. If I want to reform the government, I should start with this matter."

Emperor Chenghui still gave the official face, but his words were also very serious. Whether Ning Ke and Lin Ruhai would be implicated and convicted was up to the emperor. Especially Ning Ke, if he messed up the matter again, Emperor Chenghui would most likely not forgive him.

The disaster was severe. Once the money problem was solved, the state machinery was put into action.

There are two routes for purchasing grain, one is Huguang and the other is Henan. Both are major grain-producing provinces. After purchasing locally, transporting it to Guanzhong is much more convenient than buying grain in the capital.

In the era without railways, land transportation was very troublesome and expensive. Another way was to go by water along the Yellow River and land at Tongguan. But wasn't it because of drought in the upper reaches that the waterway was blocked? This way was equivalent to no way.

During the Tang Dynasty, because the population pressure in Chang'an was too great, Li Zhi and Wu Zetian insisted on going to Luoyang for food despite fierce opposition from the interior. This involved a complex political struggle. That's another story.

Jia Lian would never get involved in the relief work for Shaanxi and Gansu, as such matters could result in death.

Jia Lian was called here for no apparent reason, listened to the emperor's speech, and just played a supporting role, but he did not feel relaxed at all.

Emperor Chenghui's idea is good, but in order to realize it, it must be backed by a strong military force.

Jia Lian must make all preparations so that when the emperor needs him, he can mobilize an armed force that will force the surrounding separatist forces to obey him.

In the following days, the court was busy with relief work. Apart from attending classes at the military academy, Jia Lian spent the rest of his time focusing on the workshops under the R&D Department, putting inventions and creations aside for the time being.

Jia Lian set a goal for himself: by the end of the year, the three towns of the Beijing camp will basically complete the replacement of equipment, and next year, the Imperial Horse Administration and Jiumen Town will basically complete the replacement of equipment. The biggest difficulty is the production of artillery. The new artillery is bronze, and the raw materials are insufficient and cannot be supplied at all, so it can only be done slowly.

The relief work in Shaanxi and Gansu was proceeding step by step. At the next cabinet meeting, Emperor Chenghui formally proposed the idea of ​​pardoning the young Prince of Chinese Medicine and enfeoffing him as a fiefdom in Beihai.

When this proposal came out, the cabinet fell silent, and even Zhang Tingen did not dare to speak easily.

After a long silence, Zhang Tingen looked at the cabinet ministers and found that no one spoke. Then he stood up and said, "Your Majesty is the master of the matter, and we will obey you."

Zhang Tingen did a good job in maintaining consistency between the cabinet chief and the emperor, and he clearly supported any decision made by the emperor.

The Prime Minister came out to support, and the others, no matter how afraid they were, had to stand up and support. The cabinet approved this matter, announced it to the world, and selected envoys to go to various places and Mobei to read out this matter.

Wang Ziteng, who was preparing to conquer Annan, was immediately cheered up when he learned about this from the court gazette.

"The success or failure of my Wang family's foundation depends on this battle." Wang Ziteng said to Wang Yi beside him.

"What if the local gentry and people refuse to obey?" Wang Yi was not such a fool. He knew that a strong dragon could not defeat a local snake.

"I have killed millions in the Western Regions, can't I kill the Annan people? If they are unwilling to be obedient, what's the point of keeping them? Guangdong and Guangxi are mountainous and have little land, so there is no shortage of immigrants. If the Annan people are obedient, then fine. If they are not, then kill them."

Wang Ziteng was in high spirits and filled with murderous intent. He immediately wrote a letter and sent it to the capital.

The letter was addressed to Jia Lian. When he arrived in the capital, it was midsummer. The summer in the capital was too unbearable. After the death of the retired emperor, Emperor Chenghui left the Forbidden City for the first time and went to the Western Hills to escape the summer heat.

The two princes, Li Yuan and Li Heng, accompanied the emperor. Xishan was not far from the capital, and they could travel back and forth on fast horses every day without delaying the handling of state affairs.

The King of Chahar finally surrendered. In the middle of summer, he came to the capital, went to the imperial farm in the Western Hills, knelt down and paid homage to the king. He even brought his eldest son and two daughters with him.

The King of Chahar had to come. At present, of the two forces in the south of the desert, the Khorchin tribe had received a trade transfusion from Liaodong and gradually stabilized the situation. Looking to the west, there was a lot of friction between the two sides.

As for the idea of ​​the various grassland tribes uniting to attack the Central Plains again, they really didn't dare to have it at all. In the battle of Zhangjiakou, the grassland warriors were broken in front of the firearms of the Shenji Camp and had no courage to fight again. The Chahar King, who was worried about the loss of his own foundation, could not hold on after pretending, so he had to kneel down and beg for mercy.

The grasslands are like this, the strong are the kings. The kingly teachings of the Central Plains have not yet been able to influence the grasslands.

All I can say is that geography determines many things, and the 400 mm precipitation line determines the influence of civilization.

During the Han and Tang dynasties, the world was warm and rainfall was abundant. The dynasties established by agricultural civilization opened up the Western Regions, opened up the Silk Road, and established hegemony.

After the global cooling, precipitation decreased and agricultural civilization declined.

Geographical conditions determined the development limits of agricultural civilization until the advent of the industrial age.

In this sense, Qianlong did a good job to some extent and he deserves credit.

Jia Lian did not go to Western Hills, but stayed in the capital to spend the difficult summer. Due to the heavy production tasks, he did not slack off, but often went to the workshop to supervise the logistics staff to prepare for the summer heat.

The workshop was always hot, and Jia Lian had ordered that workers should rest after 10 a.m. and return to work after 3 p.m. Although production could not be stopped, they could not risk human lives.

Jia Lian did not put the money earned by the R&D department into his pocket. With the arrival of summer, he purchased a large number of summer supplies without any scruples.

Although they are both workshops, the situation at the Ministry of Industry is much worse. The bidding for the ironworks in Zunhua is still in progress, and the officials who stayed behind have no intention of caring about the lives of the craftsmen.

Naturally, the craftsmen of the R&D department have become popular in the eyes of ordinary people. As long as a young man has a job in the R&D department, he will feel more confident when talking about marriage.

The dog days of summer finally arrived, and Jia Lian simply ordered a holiday and resumed work after the dog days.

After the holiday, Jia Lian stopped going to work and stayed at home to rest. Anyway, the emperor was in the Western Hills and no one would compete with him.

Jia Lian, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, was hiding at home enjoying the cool breeze brought by the ice jar when Xue Baochai came to deliver a letter.

"The letter came from my uncle, and it seems to be for my second brother Lian. I haven't had a proper reason to come to see my sisters for a while, so I took the initiative to do this job." When facing Jia Lian, Xue Baochai was still generous and generous, and still found a reason to come. After all, she was a lady from a wealthy family, and she had to have a reasonable reason to come to see Jia Lian.

"Don't be polite. You can come and visit anytime you want." Jia Lian took the letter, but did not rush to read it. Instead, he chatted with Baochai.

"I take what Second Brother Lian said seriously." Baochai seemed to be joking, but she was actually a little nervous. It was just a guess before, but now it was certain.

"Is Xue Pan still selling opium?" Jia Lian suddenly asked, and Xue Baochai immediately realized the crux of the problem. From the beginning to the end, Brother Lian didn't like his brother and didn't work for the Wang family because of the opium.

"It's gone in the capital, and I don't know about other places." Xue Baochai told the truth instinctively, not daring to be clever.

Jia Lian nodded and said, "Go back and tell Xue Pan that the opium business is too unscrupulous and illegal. There are many ways to make money in the world, why do this?"

Baochai suddenly felt a little ashamed. After all, she was a member of the Xue family, and Jia Lian's words "lack of conscience" were very serious.

"I will definitely try to persuade my brother when I get back." Baochai could only say this; saying anything else would be inappropriate.

Jia Lian nodded in satisfaction. Having an attitude is enough. Whether it works or not is another matter. After all, the smuggling of opium is difficult to stop unless the court strictly prohibits it. Even if it is strictly prohibited, it cannot be stopped. With huge profits, many people take risks.

Baochai did not stay long. After she had solved her problem, she said goodbye and left. Only then did Jia Lian open the envelope.

The main point of Wang Ziteng's letter was that you advised me to withdraw from the capital and seek self-protection in the border areas. After reading the official report today, I realized how far-reaching your plan was...

Of course, Jia Lian would not take these polite words seriously. Wang Ziteng even used the term "Your Excellency", which showed that he now had something to ask of others and did not mention the younger generation of the Jia family.

Wang Ziteng's real purpose was to get equipment. There was still time before the dry season, so he could send a batch of equipment south as soon as possible. As for the payment, Xue Pan would take care of it.

(End of this chapter)