Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 534 Things are coming
"When Jia Lian entered the Yangtze River from the Wusongkou Pass, there was no military equipment along the way, and the government at all levels did not respond at all. This serious dereliction of duty has been noted down by this imperial envoy. The impeachment memorials against you have been sent to the capital. You should go back and wait for the court's decision." Jia Lian's words were like a thunderclap. Some officials on the scene showed fear, while others were angry.

"In that case, Pang will go back and wait!" Pang Zijun was the most angry one. Jia Lian's behavior was totally inconsistent with the rules of officialdom. How could you do this?

How can we ignore the principle of mutual protection among officials? After meeting, we should have a good discussion to make big things small and small things disappear. If we really can't get over it, we can find a scapegoat.

Pang Zijun hurriedly folded his hands, turned around and walked away, walking faster and faster. He had to find a way to save himself quickly, otherwise, let alone temporarily acting as the governor, he would lose his position as the governor.

The other officials did not leave. Because their positions were low, they did not dare to leave for fear of angering Jia Lian.

There is a well-known fact in the officialdom of the Great Zhou Dynasty: as long as Jia Lian is an imperial envoy, he must be given the right to act at his own discretion.

The value of this sentence is that those below the third rank will be executed first and reported later.

There are no secrets in the officialdom. When Jia Lian went to Shandong, he did not kill people indiscriminately. He just made things difficult for the local gentry in Dengzhou. Officials are still willing to abide by the rules.

But who can guarantee that he can still abide by the rules this time? After all, the first thing he did when he arrived in Nanjing was to impeach the civil and military officials along the way. The memorials were sent out before he even arrived.

The civil officials were better off, but the military commanders were in a tough spot. The commanders of the garrisons at Wusongkou and Jiangyin were doomed. The civil officials in Songjiang and Zhenjiang were also implicated.

These officials did not dare to leave, so Jia Lian simply ignored them and found a shed to stand under and rest.

One thousand elite soldiers landed one after another, wearing uniforms and quickly forming a line. At the same time, the warships on the river took a fighting stance, with their guns pointed at the shore, ready to fire at the slightest movement.

Jinling is a prosperous place, how could the officials here have seen this? Half of Jia Lian's elite thousand men followed him to Southeast Asia. There was murderous intent in the eyes of these officers and soldiers. When they were swept by their sharp eyes, ordinary people would be weak in the knees.

"Report to the lord, our troops have been assembled. Please give us your instructions." Zhuzi's identity is very flexible. He can be the captain of Jia Lian's personal guard, or he can be the commander of this elite force.

"Let's go, our destination is the Governor-General's headquarters in Jiangning." Jia Lian issued the order, and soon the vanguard troops started moving, with the adjutant Fan Ping leading the horses.

Under normal circumstances, Jia Lian would not travel on horseback, at least in Guangzhou, because he had too many enemies. But in Jinling, he did not have to worry about this, and at the same time, he had to send the strongest signal.

The soldiers that the people of Jinling usually saw were all filthy rags, and the officers relied on a small number of servants to fight in battles anyway. This was the first time they saw a large number of elite soldiers, with uniform uniforms, uniform equipment, and in step, and dragging four field guns, appearing in Jinling City.

All the people along the way were so oppressed by the aura emanating from the new army officers and soldiers that they dared not breathe a word. They all held their breath and watched the team cross the street.

When the team had gone far away and could no longer be seen, the locals dared to exclaim, "Oh my God, this guy is going to kill me."

Jinling has many scholars, and the message that Jia Lian raised soon spread throughout the city. The imperial envoy, the inspector Jia Lian, came to Jinling City with a number of soldiers who could defeat ten of their opponents.

There were still people in the teahouse and tavern who were not convinced and expressed disdain for the claim that one could defeat ten. Immediately, a scholar with more knowledge stepped up to challenge the doubters. He told the doubters that Jia Lian had achieved such military achievements since he took office. He would not kill unknown ghosts with his sword, and would not accept useless people under his command. Moreover, this army was obviously a fierce army that had returned from the Nanyang Sea to recover Borneo and won a victory.

To be honest, Jia Lian actually doesn't like this kind of high-profile armed parade. The main target this time is not the Jinling officialdom, but the two prefectures of Suzhou and Songjiang. These two places have developed economies and strong private capital. In the past, they have a long history of resisting taxes and donations. The gentry below are very rampant. To what extent? Tax evasion and tax arrears are relatively normal operations. Privately opening mines and violently resisting the court's tax collection are not new. There are many records in history books of inciting citizens to besiege government offices and attack tax collectors who come to collect mining taxes.

To explain it in simple terms, the gentry illegally mined the mines, and the court sent eunuchs to ask you to pay taxes, not to close your mines. You were unwilling to do so, so you incited the miners and told them that the court was going to close the mines, and everyone would have no place to work and earn money to support their families. Originally, the court did not care about these things, and it was all because of a certain eunuch who deceived His Majesty that such a thing happened. On the other hand, the eunuchs sent down were not good people themselves. After arriving at the place, they recruited a group of land hooligans as helpers. These people went out to collect taxes, which not only made the place chaotic, but also the money collected was kept by the emperor in a small amount, and most of it was pocketed by the eunuchs.

The incited miners angrily besieged the tax collector and killed the eunuch's men. When the incident became a big deal, the emperor wanted to punish severely, but the officials in the court tried to smooth things over. The local officials put forward a few people to take the blame. After everyone had a reasonable explanation, the matter was finally dropped. It was impossible for the emperor to collect mining taxes again.

This routine can be applied to many events. For example, the imperial court wanted to impose a commercial tax, targeting the weaving industry. The weavers must be the ones who came out to cause trouble. The government colluded with the gentry, and the two sides took advantage of the information gap.

Cheating superiors and lying to subordinates is not a new thing in any era.

The news that Jia Lian led his troops into the city became more and more outrageous. The situation was better in the officialdom. Based on past battle records, Lord Jia was still a person willing to abide by the rules.

The rumors among the people were a bit outrageous. Some people even dared to say things like boasting after drinking and bloodbathing the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River.

Jia Lian went straight to the Jiangning Governor's Office. None of the local officials followed him. They all went back to find ways to save themselves. Only the Jiangning Weaving Factory followed him.

The Jiangning Weaving Factory was not a local official, but rather a royal enterprise that made tributes to the emperor. This position was not under the jurisdiction of the local government.

The previous Jiangning Weaving Supervisor was a member of the Zhen family, and the current one is a maternal relative, a member of Emperor Chenghui’s maternal family.

I won't go into details about how rich the Jiangning Weaving Bureau was. Simply put, even if he was an honest official, he could easily make 300,000 taels a year in this position, which is nearly 400,000 silver dollars.

Jia Lian was relatively polite to his relative Zheng Yanghao. After all, no matter how the officials in the Jiangnan region settled accounts, it would not be his fault.

When they arrived at the governor's residence, they were stopped by the guards at the door. Zhuzi went forward to ask and found out that the people guarding here in charge of defense were not the governor's guards, but the standard-bearers under Pang Zijun.

Zhuzi didn't dare to act recklessly and came to ask for instructions. Jia Lian was furious when he heard it: "Useless, are the troops you brought with you just for show? Let them go, and anyone who dares to stop them will be shot on the spot. Pang Zijun is so bold that he dared to put Prime Minister Sun under house arrest. I will file another report to impeach this thief."

Zhuzi hurried back, and Wei Da on the side coughed and said, "The Governor's Guard is currently under investigation by the Dragon Guard for dereliction of duty."

Jia Lian was speechless after hearing this and turned his head to stare at Wei Da and said, "Mr. Wei, you are confused! Even if you arrange for Long Jinwei to be in charge of defense, you shouldn't give it to the governor's standard bearer."

Wei Da's eyes were evasive. He was in such a hurry to leave that he didn't bother to lift the review of the Governor's Guard. Mainly because he knew that the water here was too deep, Wei Da, who lacked ambition and courage, chose to leave.

Let’s put it this way, not everyone can be like Jia Lian, bringing elite soldiers to Jinling and preparing to kill people.

Zhuzi came to the gate and conveyed Jia Lian's instructions to the governor's standard-bearer: "Everyone, I have been ordered to take over the defense of the headquarters. Please cooperate!"

The governor's standard-bearer was not angry at all. The lieutenant-general in charge personally accompanied Zhuzi and took over the defense of the headquarters.

Jia Lian, Wei Da and Zheng Yanghao went straight in to visit Sun Huazhen who was recuperating.

After a period of treatment, Sun Huazhen was able to sit up. When someone outside informed him that Jia Lian had arrived, Sun Huazhen immediately asked the maid to help him sit up.

The housekeeper led Jia Lian inside. The first thing Jia Lian saw was Sun Huazhen sitting on the couch. Her mouth was slightly crooked, her eyes were cloudy, and her expression was slightly excited.

"I am Jia Lian, your humble servant, and I am honored to meet Prime Minister Sun." Jia Lian stepped forward to greet him. Sun Huazhen waved his hand and said vaguely, "I am useless and have not been able to fulfill your majesty's wishes. This has led to my inability to achieve success and establish a career. This is my fault."

It was OK, he spoke fluently, which made Jia Lian feel relieved. It was much easier to communicate information when many things were said in person.

The housekeeper brought chairs, and Jia Lian and Wei Da sat down. Sun Huazhen signaled the rest to leave.

Jia Lian asked in a low voice: "What instructions does Prime Minister Sun have?"

Sun Huazhen coughed repeatedly until tears came out. After a long while, he finally calmed down and said, "I regret now that I was too soft-hearted at the beginning. Don't continue to investigate my case. It's a waste of energy. Those people would rather not continue to investigate this case. Speaking of which, when I was in office, I just forced them to pay the taxes they owed, and the people were so angry."

Hearing this, Jia Lian could not help but frown and said, "People are full of resentment? Those people? People who don't pay taxes are worthy of calling themselves people? People who evade taxes, owe taxes, and resist taxes dare to call themselves people? Prime Minister Sun, I say that every official in Jiangnan Province should be thoroughly investigated."

Sun Huazhen was slightly stunned when he heard this, and his cloudy eyes suddenly brightened up: "I don't know what you mean?" Jia Lian said: "I said in the memorial I submitted to Your Majesty that the problem in Jiangnan is first of all the problem of official administration. If this problem is not solved, other problems cannot be solved. If you want to solve the official administration problem in Jiangnan, the previous means will not be effective, and you must use ruthless means. For this reason, I not only brought a thousand elite troops, but also asked for an order to transfer the Shenji Town to the south. Calculating the date, the Shenji Town should be in Xuzhou."

Wei Da was surprised and asked, "Why was there no news beforehand when Shenji Town marched south in large numbers?"

Jia Lian said: "The pretext of going south to Shenji Town to eliminate the banditry along the river, the Weishan Lake bandits, and the Taishan bandits are all ready-made excuses."

Bandits are a special group that has existed tenaciously for thousands of years. Except for the new China, bandits have been impossible to deal with in any other period.

The reason is very simple. As long as people can’t survive, some people will go to the mountains and become bandits, taking risks just to survive. This is really a system problem.

There were indeed several bandit incidents at the beginning of the year, and this incident was related to the rumor of dismissing the Governor of the Grand Canal.

Since the grain transport by sea, the cost of transporting grain between the north and the south has been lower, and the importance of grain transport to the court has declined significantly. So some officials suggested whether to dismiss the governor of the grain transport route.
Some officials even directly impeached the governor's office for incompetence. The canal had been silted up for many years and had not been properly cleared. If there was a lack of rain, the canal would be cut off. There were tens of thousands of troops, but it was of no use at all.

Some people advocated for abolition, while others opposed it. The excuse was naturally that the livelihood of millions of canal workers depended on them.

The incident happened in the second half of last year. As a result, at the end of last year, various places along the river reported serious banditry. At the same time, the grain transport governors attacked everywhere to quell the banditry. The problem is that the banditry has not been solved. Reports are made every now and then. At the beginning of the year, there was still a debate about whether to send elite troops to eliminate the banditry along the river. The cause of the incident, the topic of whether to dismiss the governor of the grain transport, was not mentioned.

In the secret report submitted by Jia Lian, he simply said that this was a way of nurturing the enemy for the sake of self-protection. Emperor Chenghui did not make a statement for a long time, and the cabinet did not take any action.

Who could have thought that something bad would happen to Sun Huazhen? This completely angered Emperor Chenghui.

At this time, Emperor Chenghui looked around and realized that no matter whether it was the issue of the Governor of the Grain Transport Administration or the case of Sun Huazhen, he was not at ease no matter who he sent.

Emperor Chenghui secretly regretted it, thinking that he was too impatient and used the Li Ni case to integrate the internal affairs, but soon there were problems on a large scale. In the final analysis, it was still the corruption of officials.

The gentlemen in the court had no place to stay, and even ministers like Jia Lian were driven out of the capital.

Looking at those people who gossiped about Jia Lian at the beginning, Emperor Chenghui felt that every one of them was a bastard, the five vermin mentioned by Han Feizi.

Emperor Chenghui, who was furious, finally figured out a problem. If he didn't rectify the administration of officials, all his reforms would probably not be able to be implemented.

Therefore, in Sun Huazhen's case, Emperor Chenghui did not select anyone from the capital to go there, but only sent Wei Da to understand the situation. At the same time, he issued an order to temporarily transfer Jia Lian back.

Emperor Chenghui was very determined this time and was determined to achieve some results in Jiangnan. After Jia Lian established his authority in Jiangnan, the next step was to rectify the administration of officials in the capital.

When it comes to rectifying the administration of civil servants, we used to look at work performance, but this time it is different, and the focus is on combating corruption.

After chatting for a while, Sun Huazhen was exhausted and Jia Lian said goodbye and left.

After Jia Lian arrived in Jinling by surprise, the officialdom in the south of the Yangtze River was shaken, and the gentry among the people were in a state of panic.

It is known that Jia Lian submitted a memorial to impeach a series of officials including the Governor of Jiangnan, the Three Officials, and the General. It is unknown what subsequent actions will be taken.

When everyone was on tenterhooks, Jia Lian chose to wait quietly. There was no movement for two days. Just when people in Jiangnan were worried, a more terrible news came to Jiangnan. Shenji Town suddenly appeared in Xuzhou. They also forcibly requisitioned a large number of ships and quickly went south along the canal. They should have reached Huaiyin now.

It can only be said that the people in the south of the Yangtze River still underestimated the marching speed of Shenji Town. When the news of Shenji Town spread widely in Jinling, a battalion of cavalry in the vanguard had already reached Yangzhou by land and began to requisition boats for the entire army to cross the river.

At the same time, a rumor spread wildly throughout Jiangnan: "A minister reported to your majesty that someone in Jiangnan was secretly plotting treason, so you sent troops south."

This rumor was too destructive. Officials were better off. No matter how you spread the news that was not in the official gazette, the innocent would be innocent. But it was different for the common people. Ordinary people didn't care, but the gentry were really afraid.

So they went out to seek confirmation from officials at all levels. The problem was that no matter how the officials explained, the gentry did not dare to believe them.

The reason is very simple. Jia Lian arrived and Shenji Town went south.

These gentry were very bold in tax evasion, smuggling and tax resistance, but they would never dare to rebel.

The Shenji Battalion, known as the most elite troops in the world, is about to cross the river. We must find out who they are targeting.

The governor's office was blocked by the gentry, who came to Pang Zijun to ask for accurate information. Pang Zijun simply closed the door and refused to see anyone, claiming that he had been impeached and was awaiting punishment.

Suzhou directly blocked the door of the three offices, and the chief officials of the three offices said, "I don't know. There is really no movement at all." Officials at all levels have talked a lot, but the gentry are still skeptical.

So, officials from all walks of life came to the governor's office and asked to see Jia Lian. Aren't you here to inspect? At least go out and inspect for a while, so that everyone can have a chance to talk and express their feelings.

In just a few days, the governor's office received many visitors, and the list of gifts sent out could fill two baskets.

Jia Lian had already instructed that he would not meet with anyone, regardless of whether they were officials or gentry, and would not accept any gifts they sent.

The powerful officials and gentry found Zheng Yanghao, and he simply hid away. For a while, the situation in Jiangnan was unpredictable, and everyone was uneasy. It was because they didn't know what Jia Lian was going to do.

As a large number of Shenji Town officers and soldiers arrived at the Yangzhou ferry and began to board the ship, the high pressure over the south of the Yangtze River reached a critical point, and it seemed that any movement would result in violent storms.

Under such high pressure, all the gentry became quiet and stopped colluding with each other. However, at the government level, officials at all levels came to Jinling one after another, waiting for the verdict of their fate.

Of course, this is just what they do in public. There is no way of knowing what they do in private.

What arrived in Jinling first was not Shenji Town, but the imperial edict that was delivered urgently over a distance of 800 miles.

Jia Lian, who had been hiding in the governor's headquarters, finally took action and asked Wei Da to send Long Jinwei to summon Governor Pang Zijun, the Three Envoys, and the General of Jiangnan.

All high-ranking provincial officials were summoned to the governor's headquarters and waited in the lobby for the decision of their fate.

No one was in the mood to whisper. When Pang Zijun, the leader, found that there were not even any seats and they were asked to stand, he gave up struggling, stood with his eyes closed, and remained silent.

"The imperial envoy has arrived!" A loud shout came from outside the inner door, and everyone was shocked and looked towards the door.

The first person to come out was not Jia Lian, but was carried out by four strong men sitting upright on the couch. Then came Jia Lian, and then Wei Da.

Everyone saw Jia Lian holding a yellow silk in his hand, walking quickly to the middle, and speaking loudly: "There is an imperial decree!"

All the officials stood in awe with their hands lowered, and Pang Zijun took the lead: "We respectfully welcome the emperor's will!"

When the time came, these officials could only pray secretly that they could escape this disaster.

(End of this chapter)