Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 470: Can't Refuse to Accept Filial Piety
"Killing is easy, but the trouble is dealing with the aftermath!" Zhang Tingen calmly interrupted the others' idea of ​​taking advantage of the situation, and at the same time helped the honest man Pan Jixun.

Lao Pan is a hard-working person, there is no reason for him to take the blame for initiating the murder.

Another point is, if he goes on a killing spree again, won’t Jia Lian end up like a butcher in the officialdom in the future?

When Cen Chunxuan was a butcher, he was only dismissed from office, not killed. If Jia Lian was to be labeled as a butcher in the officialdom (really killed), his future path to the cabinet would be doomed to be very difficult. Who wouldn't be afraid?

"The main culprit must be severely punished!" Lin Ruhai rushed to remedy the situation. Since it involved the emperor's treasury, it would be unjustifiable not to kill a few people.

"The three main culprits should be executed, and the rest should be exiled or dismissed. They should pay more silver to discuss their crimes." Zhang Tingen followed Lin Ruhai's words and set the tone, and then looked at Emperor Chenghui.

"You have discussed very well, and we will deal with it according to this charter. You must hurry up and deal with the aftermath without delay." Emperor Chenghui gave Zhang Tingen face and followed his words. Although the emperor could see that Zhang Tingen cared about his students, in fact, Emperor Chenghui also meant that he could not kill everyone wherever he went.

"The criminal will be escorted to Beijing and sentenced by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. The necessary procedures must be followed. After all, they are all officials!" Lin Ruhai added the final patch.

"The main culprit should be beheaded directly in Dengzhou, there is no need to send him to the capital." Emperor Chenghui really hated these officials who brought shame to him, and felt that it would be a waste to let them live a few more days.

"The Governor and Provincial Governor of Shandong are all jointly responsible. They should be transferred to the frontier areas, either Yunnan or Guangxi. Shandong is too close to the capital." Emperor Chenghui thought about it carefully, but was still angry, so he added another blow.

"In that case, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner is also responsible." Lin Ruhai quickly came out to express his opinion. After all, he was the Chief Justice. The Provincial Surveillance Commissioner was also his subordinate.

"Then transfer them all together, and the Ministry of Personnel should hurry up and handle it." Emperor Chenghui also agreed with this view. However, the three officials from the Ministry of Works seemed to have been forgotten.

It is impossible to forget. Before the meeting even ended, the man was arrested by Captain Long Jin and sent to the Ministry of Justice to be detained pending trial.

In Jia Lian's opinion, killing a few officials would not solve a big problem. The biggest problem of the court is at the grassroots level. The unspoken rule that the imperial power does not go to the countryside has saved more money than it has lost.

This is really a systemic problem. There is no cure for it. It can only rot away bit by bit.

Otherwise, why would Jia Lian go to such great lengths? Wasn't it to foster a new class to fight for the right to speak? However, it is estimated that the future of the Great Zhou Dynasty is not good.

The self-confidence of the Celestial Empire is such that it sees everyone else as a barbarian.

Jia Lian, who was waiting for the result in Dengzhou, was of course not idle. What was he doing? He was acting as the prefect of Dengzhou.

After Wu De and Lin Guang finished interrogating the case and handed in the case files, they took their leave and left, leaving Jia Lian to do whatever he wanted and let him vent his anger, so that he would not come back to take advantage of the situation and take them with him.

Jia Lian is not that mean. He has already received the money, so he will definitely not punish them this time. It is the local gentry who need to be punished.

It is difficult for others to become a gentry, but it is too easy for Jia Lian.

Just order people to beat drums and gongs everywhere, and announce that Lord Jia, the inspector of Zhilu, has come to Dengzhou. Everyone who has grievances can go to Dengzhou government to file a complaint.

There was another case that had to be dealt with immediately, which was a private shipyard that colluded with the navy. Jia Lian went to see it in person, and found that the owner of the shipyard had not been arrested. It was not that Jia Lian was soft-hearted.

Capitalists and landlords are not good people. But what can I say? They are just doing business and have not been involved in corruption, so we can't just arrest them.

When the owner of the shipyard learned that Jia Lian had arrived at the shipyard, his legs became so weak that he had to be supported by two servants to walk. When he saw Jia Lian, he knelt down immediately.

Jia Lian said sternly, "Who are you kneeling down and tell me your name?"

"I'm Niu Dali, a commoner. I'm here to pay my respects to the Inspector." The host answered tremblingly.

Jia Lian looked at him carefully. From the intelligence he had previously obtained, he knew that he was not a scholar, but originally a craftsman in the government-run shipyard. After the government-run shipyard fell into disrepair, he was noticed by the admiral of the navy because of his superb craftsmanship and was put in charge of repairing the navy ships. Later, this guy simply built his own shipyard. In terms of status, he is still a member of the government-run shipyard. It depends on whether Jia Lian will pursue the matter or not.

This man is wearing cloth and calluses can be seen on his hands, indicating that he often does the work himself.

"Your Majesty has asked us to imitate English warships. How far has your factory progressed?" Jia Lian turned to ask about technical issues first. As long as this guy has the technical skills, he would keep him and use him for his own purposes.

"To reply to the Inspector, I brought seven or eight apprentices to Tianjin and learned on-site, and have basically mastered how to build that kind of ship. It is now being built at the shipyard. In my humble opinion, the ship is not difficult to build, but the difficult part is the Western operation and the Western cannons. A single ship is not worth much money, and it can be bought with 70,000 or 80,000 silver dollars." When talking about shipbuilding, Niu Dali suddenly spoke fluently and logically.

When Jia Lian heard what he said, he immediately became interested: "Get up and take me to see the boat you built."

Niu Dali was really scared at first, and thought that Jia Lian was coming to arrest him and behead him. But when Jia Lian asked about shipbuilding, he was no longer afraid.

He climbed up nimbly, with Niu Dali leading the way. He was not tall, less than 1.7 meters, with dark skin and a strong build. It was impossible to tell his exact age.

We walked all the way in and came to the dock by the sea. There was indeed a ship under construction on a large dock, but there was not many people there. It was probably because Niu Dali didn't know whether he was alive or dead, so he sent everyone away.

"Western ships have pointed bottoms and soft sails, which have obvious advantages and disadvantages. If they are on the nearby sea, the local hard sailing ships can run much faster than Western ships. I heard from my master that in the early years, when Western ships attacked, they were burned by local small fireboats. But when they are farther out at sea, Western ships can withstand wind and waves better and can run with or without wind."

Niu Dali's analysis is from a technical perspective. He is not a navigator and has never been on a long voyage, but the fact that he can explain all this shows that he has superb skills.

Jia Lian listened quietly, then went up to the slipway and took a close look at the ship being built.

"How long did it take you to master the manufacture of this kind of boat?" Jia Lian asked meaningfully.

"It took almost two months to figure out how to build this kind of ship. The Westerners have a way of doing it. In the early days, they could build large ships with a capacity of 10,000 tons. If they encountered Western warships at sea, it would be very difficult to fight them because they had too few guns. Western warships have running positions on both sides. A ship has nearly a hundred guns. Once they get within three to five hundred meters, the local large ships will become targets. They are not as good as small boats with good fire resistance."

Hearing him say this, Jia Lian began to suspect that his master was a pirate. This kind of fighting style was too much like Zheng Zhilong. Of course, Zheng Zhilong was fighting the Dutch. The ships at that time were still far inferior to the current third-class battleships. Moreover, the Dutch were all armed merchant ships, not battleships.

The British were the ones who came up with some new tricks with battleships.

"How long will it take to build this ship?" Jia Lian asked him again. Niu Dali looked at the ship in front of him, whose keel had not yet been laid, and thought for a while while stroking his chin. "The initial estimate is eight months. With sufficient manpower and wood for shipbuilding, it can be faster, at least half a year. The key is that what we have built here is just a ship, without cannons or people to operate it. It will be difficult for the people in the navy to operate such a ship!"

"Just keep building it, don't worry about the rest. Is the silver dollar the shipyard gave enough?" Jia Lian tried to find out. They had made it very clear over there that one hundred thousand silver dollars would be enough to build a ship, and they would strive to build the best. After all, they were working for the emperor, and the people in the shipyard were not stupid. It was just that they were really unlucky this time, and the emperor paid attention to the matter of going to sea, so he sent people to check. Otherwise, the probability of being able to fool around would be 70% to 80%.

"Whether it is enough or not depends on the price of the raw materials, right?" Niu Dali was caught off guard and seemed to have revealed something again.

"Why, the wood you use to build your ship is going to be controlled by others?" Jia Lian asked.

"The wood for shipbuilding all comes from Huanglong Island. They get the wood from Goryeo. All shipbuilding in this area depends on their wood." Niu Dali answered truthfully.

"What is the origin of Huanglong Island?" Jia Lian asked this question, and Niu Dali realized that he had said too much. He was stunned for a moment before saying, "It's a sea merchant!"

Jia Lian snorted twice: "Not honest, I think he is a pirate!"

Niu Dali knelt down with a plop: "Please spare my life, sir. I really can't afford to offend them."

"Stand up and tell me slowly what they are doing." Jia Lian was not angry. After all, as long as there is profit to be made, there will always be some hands fiddling around.

Niu Dali stood up tremblingly, "It happened almost ten years ago. A garrison commander of the Dengzhou Navy had a falling out with his superiors, and he took a boat and his brothers out to sea. My shipyard had been open for two years at that time. One night, they sneaked into the factory and asked me to help repair the boat. They also threatened me that if I needed wood in the future, I had to buy it from them, otherwise they would kill my whole family."

There is a fishing tyrant on the dock, this is a wooden tyrant.

"How many boats do they have, and how many people are there?" Jia Lian asked again. Niu Dali shook his head and said, "I really don't know. I heard there are five or six hundred people. As for boats, I have seen three or four of them, and none of them are worth more than a thousand tons."

After understanding the basic situation, Jia Lian did not ask any further questions because there was no need.

"Tell the people on Huanglong Island a message, saying that I said so, and ask them to send someone who can make the decision to meet me at the government office. I will give them ten days, and no one will be allowed after that."

After saying this, Jia Lian turned and left. This trip was fruitful, which showed that the craftsmen in Dengzhou were capable of replicating British warships. The difficult part was the training of personnel and the cannons.

Jia Lian can solve the problem of cannons, and can even make better cannons. The problem still lies in the personnel, the personnel needed by the navy.

If you fall behind, learn from others. If you can’t catch up in one day, then it will take a year. If you can’t catch up in one year, then it will take ten years. As long as you keep working hard, you will catch up.

In this regard, Jia Lian's mentality is really good. Didn't you see that in just twenty years, Dugu Qiubai's lighthouse navy has also become a ghost?
The only problem is that the investment is too huge. I don't know if the imperial court can persist and not turn it into the Beiyang Fleet, which, after it reaches a certain scale, will not introduce warships and will not even have enough artillery shells.

Ultimately, you have to be able to make it yourself.

The reaction of Huanglong Island was much faster than Jia Lian had expected. The next morning, as soon as Jia Lian got up, someone came to report that someone had visited as promised.

Jia Lian was not in a hurry. He washed and dressed slowly before coming out to meet people.

The man who came also had dark skin and was a little over 1.8 meters tall, which was considered tall in that era.

This person was alone, without even an escort. He just stood in the yard, waiting patiently to be called.

Jia Lian stood on the steps in front of the hall, looked at the newcomer and said with a smile: "I am Jia Lian, who are you?"

The visitor was surprised to see Jia Lian come out like this without any fanfare. He came to investigate, and according to the rules, he was not allowed to set up a mountain of swords.

Sir, are you so casual?
"I'm Li Da'ge, a commoner. Nice to meet you, His Excellency the Inspector." The man bowed solemnly.

Jia Lian clasped his hands in return, went down the steps, and stood in front of him to talk.

"I'm here to tell you one thing. As long as the wood business you're doing is a legitimate business, you can do it with peace of mind. The court will not destroy you. But there is one thing. You have to rent a shop in Dengzhou and pay taxes according to the law. If you can't do these two things, I will personally lead people to destroy you." Jia Lian's attitude was very clear. No matter whether you are pirates or merchants, you have to pay taxes. He was not from the Lighthouse Tax Bureau, so he couldn't do the same as selling blood and paying taxes, but you are in the wood business, and you have to pay taxes. You can't just make money without giving back to society.

"This...!" Li Da was stunned. Just this? According to the rules, you should take a few hundred taels as protection fee first?

"Why, you can't do it?" Jia Lian asked with a smile, walking back slowly, and the big guy Li quickly followed.

"Of course I can do it, but I don't understand why you don't accept a tribute first, but instead ask me to open a shop in Dengzhou?" Big Li was deceived by Jia Lian's turtle fist and revealed his true identity unconsciously. He was the leader of Huanglong Island, and Big Li should be a fake name.

"Why do I need your filial piety? If you come to Dengzhou to open a store, you will definitely have to hire people in Dengzhou, pay taxes, and make consumption. It may seem like a small matter, but in fact it contributes to the prosperity of Dengzhou. I am not short of money. If you want to talk about making money, you can go to the capital to ask around, who is Jia Lian and how good is his ability to make money?" Speaking of this, Jia Lian was still very proud.

The more Li Dagui listened, the more confused he became. How could an official like you be like this? If we don't take the money, how can we go ashore and do business with peace of mind?
"No, you have to accept the gift. If not, we dare not go ashore." Big guy Li still has his own logic in his actions.

"Okay, I'll take it! But I have the final say on how to spend the money. So, every month, you set up a stall for three days and cook 100 kilograms of rice porridge every day. Just consider it as doing good deeds for me."

"This... okay, at least there should be a name, I can't just give out porridge while you get the benefits." Big Li became more and more confused. Why didn't this man look like an official at all?

"As for the name, let's call it Jia Sheng Congee. Remember, once you stick the chopsticks in it, they can't fall over. That's it. I'll be in Dengzhou for a while. Send someone to the government office to handle the formalities and operate legally. If someone tries to trip you up or cause trouble for you, you can use Jia Lian's name. If you bully others, and you still use Jia Lian's name, don't blame me for sending troops to destroy you. Then, send someone to the capital to find out who Jia Lian is and what he can do?" Jia Lian said it confidently, but Big Li was a little confused. Jia Sheng? He looks so familiar. Is he the one in the opera?

(End of this chapter)