Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 536 Inciting the People
Li Heng looked so embarrassment that Emperor Chenghui could not help but close his eyes. The third brother's meaning was very clear, we should not investigate further. If we investigate further, we really don't know what we will find out.

"Where's Xia Shouzhong?" Emperor Chenghui opened his eyes and asked. Xia Shouzhong rolled in, knelt down and touched the ground with his forehead: "I'm here!"

"Did you find anything wrong during your supervision?" Emperor Chenghui's tone was flat, seemingly without any emotion. Xia Shouzhong, who was familiar with the emperor's character, knew that the emperor was on the verge of anger.

"I failed to share the worries of the Saint, I deserve to die!" Xia Shouzhong's attitude was very clear. Xia Shouzhong was not responsible for the past, but he could not say anything, so he could only take the blame.

If I say that the things in the past were not my responsibility, I will be slapping the emperor in the face. Who was in charge in the past? First it was Prince Zhongshun, then it was Li Yuan. Who were these two people?
When facing ministers, Emperor Chenghui had no habit of putting his blame on them, but when facing his household slaves, Emperor Chenghui was not polite.

"You still know that you deserve to die? Why didn't you report it earlier?" This reason is quite sufficient, and it can be regarded as a point of emotional release.

"Your Majesty, calm down and do not hurt yourself because of my mistakes." After hearing Xia Shouzhong's words, Emperor Chenghui felt sad and waved his hand: "Forget it, all the loans are in compliance with the procedures, right?"

"There is no problem with the procedure!" Li Heng answered immediately. Emperor Chenghui frowned and asked, "What went wrong to cause these bad debts?"

Li Heng said: "Replying to the emperor, let's take the example of my three uncles who borrowed money. They bought 300,000 mu of land in Liaodong, and then used the land deeds as collateral to borrow 3 million."

Emperor Chenghui was confused for a moment. He asked in return: "Is the land in Liaodong so valuable? According to the regulations, shouldn't the mortgage loan only be discounted by 30%?"

Li Heng hesitated for a moment before saying, "Liaodong is vast and sparsely populated, so the land is worthless. The fertile fields that have been cultivated are worth at most two taels of silver per mu, and that's land near the city. When the loan was made, it was calculated based on the land price in the capital. Because they are royal relatives, they were not given a 30% discount. There are similar cases with Prince Zhongshun and the previous Grand Secretary. According to the contract, if they can't pay back the money, they can only take back the land."

Emperor Chenghui understood, but he was no longer angry. He was already numb. At least there was no problem with the procedure.

"If we continue investigating, what other problems can we find?" Emperor Chenghui was naturally unwilling to accept this, so he wanted to confirm it.

"Well..., your son..." Li Heng looked hesitant, and Emperor Chenghui instantly got angry. He grabbed a handful of memorials on the table and threw them at him: "Speak!"

The memorial was not supported and a short section flew out before scattering all over the ground. Li Heng shrank his neck and whispered, "The next step is to investigate the business license!"

Emperor Chenghui turned to Xia Shouzhong and said, "Xia Shouzhong, have you approved the permit?"

"I have never approved it."

“Why not approve it?”

During the question and answer, Xia Shouzhong was speechless and kept his head down.

"You dog slave, I'm asking you a question!" Emperor Chenghui was furious and shouted.

Xia Shouzhong prostrated himself and whispered, "In reply to Your Majesty, the market is very hot right now. A license can be sold for 50,000 taels. I think we should wait until the deadline and take some back to avoid a big mess." Anyone with a brain would know that something was wrong with this. The license of a private bank could actually be speculated among the people. Wasn't this a joke?
"Third brother. You speak." Emperor Chenghui knew that he could not force Xia Shouzhong any further. If he did, he would die.

"Father, when Prince Zhongshun was in office, he approved a total of four private bank licenses. Many private money houses before that lost their qualifications to absorb deposits, mortgages, and invoices. After my second brother took office, he approved some private licenses for each province. After Lord Xia took over, some things happened. Some private banks used high interest rates to absorb deposits, and then lent money at even higher interest rates. Several private banks went bankrupt due to poor management, and depositors could not withdraw their money. Some people made a fuss, but were suppressed by local officials. The reason was that the people were greedy for interest, and they had to accept their fate if they made losses or profits in business."

When Li Heng said this, Emperor Chenghui's chest rose and fell violently. He turned to Xia Shouzhong and said, "Go on. First, tell me where similar cases have occurred?"

"Your Majesty, the first province to have a similar case was Fujian, and similar cases followed in several other provinces. Currently, there are a total of ten similar cases in eight provinces. In view of this, I stopped issuing permits and sent letters to the provincial governors and the three departments to ask them to pay attention to this matter. Later, someone sold permits on the market. The number was small, but there were many people in demand, so the price was driven up."

Instead of opening a bank with the license, he actually sold it. This operation blinded Emperor Chenghui.

Emperor Chenghui stopped talking. To sum up, we can draw a clue of one level. First, during Li Yuan's tenure, he approved some licenses. Then, some people in the private sector used the licenses endorsed by the Royal Bank to set up banks in the private sector, but they failed to manage well. Well, whether it was due to poor management or not is questionable.

"Before I came here, I had already found someone making fake licenses for sale, and I busted the gang. After interrogation, according to the criminals' confession, the counterfeiting gang was related to the White Lotus Sect."

Emperor Chenghui felt so overwhelmed that he almost couldn't breathe smoothly. He coughed violently. Qiu Shian, who had always seemed to have no presence, stepped forward to help him breathe.

"It's getting late, Saint, you should take a rest first. There is no rush." ​​Qiu Shian began to persuade.

After Emperor Chenghui recovered from his anger, he was still upset. He grabbed the table in front of him with both hands, but he couldn't overturn it because it weighed several hundred kilograms. Emperor Chenghui, who had nowhere to vent his anger, slammed his hands across the table, and memorials, inkstones, and writing brushes and ink fell to the ground, making quite a noise.

"I established the Royal Bank to improve the court's finances, but these termites are treating my bank as their own safe. Qiu Shian, summon the cabinet ministers to the palace immediately."

Qiu Shian tried hard to persuade him: "Saint, the elders are all old, ..."

Emperor Chenghui stared at him fiercely, and Qiu Shian quickly lowered his head: "I obey your order!"

When Qiu Shian retreated to the door, Emperor Chenghui raised his hand and said, "Stop, let's talk about it tomorrow."

"I obey your command!" Qiu Shian turned around and stood behind the emperor again.

The things were thrown all over the floor. Emperor Chenghui vented some of his emotions and said in a slightly calmer tone, "Old Third, Xia Shouzhong, you two should work hard to sort out the materials. They will be used for the cabinet meeting tomorrow."

Li Heng and Xia Shouzhong solemnly agreed. Li Heng asked, "Father, what about those people outside?"

"Let them go back. I am in no mood to see them. If they refuse to leave, then they can continue to kneel and die at the palace gate." Emperor Chenghui seemed to understand something. This group of people might have known for a long time that the Royal Bank had been badly damaged. Even if they were judged guilty, they would not be ranked at the front. That's why they dared to come kneeling and beg for an audience to play the sympathy card.

The two were about to leave, but Emperor Chenghui raised his hand and said, "Xia Shouzhong, have the Dragon Guard arrest those who are waiting to sell their licenses, and find out who is behind them."

Xia Shouzhong: "I obey your order! However, I am no longer the Dragon Guard, and I don't have enough manpower to use."

Emperor Chenghui hummed and said, "Qiu Shian is responsible for arresting people!"

The two men left, and Emperor Chenghui stood up and walked out the door, pacing in the yard. The stuffiness in his chest eased a little.

When he turned around, he saw that the desk was clean. He walked over quickly and sat down. He picked up the pen to write something but stopped and said to himself, "I can't rely on Jia Lian for everything! Jiangnan's affairs are also very important."

Qiu Shian whispered, "Saint, there is no harm in writing a letter to ask."

"That makes sense!" Emperor Chenghui picked up the pen again, thought for a moment, and began to write the letter.

Jia Lian, who was in Suzhou, had no idea what was happening in the capital, and even if he knew, he wouldn't be able to care.

Jia Lian was woken up early in the morning. As he had rarely had a good night's sleep recently, he was a little grumpy when he woke up.

"what happened?"

Adjutant Fan Ping whispered, "Many people have come to the outside of the government office."

Jia Lian came to his senses instantly, took his clothes and put them on. There was no maid with him, and the people who fetched water were clumsy guards.

"Okay, I'll do it myself." Jia Lian was anxious. The guard said, "The hot water hasn't been added yet."

Jia Lian took the kettle, added hot water himself, quickly washed up, threw down the towel and walked out.

On the way, Fan Ping followed closely and said, "I have arranged for someone to blend in with the crowd." Jia Lian frowned slightly, "The accent is wrong!"

"Just keep quiet! I don't trust the local Dragon Guards." Fan Ping added an explanation.

"Yeah, it's been too long staying in this world of pleasure! The temperaments of my brothers are not right either, they are a bunch of killers, they don't look like good people." Jia Lian couldn't help but complain, mainly because Captain Long Jin was not strong enough.

Since Emperor Chenghui's reform, Xia Shouzhong has used the imperial treasury to rebuild the Dragon Guards in various places, but he has only barely restored intelligence collection. It is hard to say how useful it is. Jia Lian has suffered from the Dragon Guards' poor intelligence.

There was a commotion outside. Jia Lian could not understand the dialect, but he could hear the brothers from Shenji Town shouting, "Don't cross the line! Back off! I'll say it again, back off! Get ready!"

Jia Lian quickened his pace after hearing this, fearing that the officers and soldiers outside would lose their patience and shoot. Even if he didn't shoot at people, if there were too many people, it would cause a riot and cause people to be trampled, which would be troublesome.

"Don't shoot!" Jia Lian shouted before he arrived. Then he rushed forward a few steps and stepped over the high threshold.

When he went out, he saw that the people outside had already rushed to the gate 20 steps away. The more than 100 guards who were leaning against the gate raised their guns and pointed them at the people outside. The officer leading the team even held a revolver in his hand.

Jia Lian's appearance made the people outside pause subconsciously and quiet down a little. Seeing so many people rushing in, Jia Lian's heart skipped a beat. There were at least 500 people, and there would be more coming later. Jia Lian made a prompt decision and shouted loudly: "Everyone listen to my command! Stand at attention!"

All the soldiers reacted subconsciously, put away their guns, and there was a bang!
"Line up! Count!" Jia Lian continued to shout the command, and the soldiers immediately lined up and counted, "1/2/3...13."

The people outside were stunned. They had never seen such a scene before. These soldiers were so powerful that it seemed as if there was an invisible force pushing everyone back.

"What is the mission of the Shenjiying?" Jia Lian asked loudly, and the team officers and soldiers on the scene roared in unison: "Defend His Majesty, defend our country!"

"Okay, I haven't forgotten. Defending the country, whose home are you defending?"

"The home of the people of the world!" the officers and soldiers answered in unison again.

"You are facing the people. Behind every citizen is a family. To protect the country, you cannot point your guns at the people. Now listen to my command and make way!"

The officers and soldiers immediately made way for a passage, and Jia Lian walked through it and stood in front of the crowd.

"My fellow elders and brothers and sisters of Suzhou, my name is Jia Lian. I was ordered to inspect Jiangnan. My purpose of coming to Suzhou is to check the government accounts. I don't know why you are here, but I want to tell you that I came to Suzhou not for the people, but for the corrupt officials. Now my people are checking the accounts of the three government offices and the Suzhou prefectural government office. It is not yet certain whether the three government officials and the prefect have committed any crime. You are blocking the door. Don't you want me to investigate the corrupt officials?"

At this time, someone in the crowd shouted, "You are not wearing the right clothes. You are not the inspector. Don't be fooled by him."

The originally quiet crowd suddenly became agitated again. People were arguing in the local dialect, which Jia Lian could not understand.

Fan Ping brought a loudspeaker over, and Jia Lian took it and shouted to the crowd, "Silence, listen to me."

The crowd quieted down, and Jia Lian continued: "Is there anyone among you who knows Mandarin? Come out and do the translation. Don't make it so that no one can understand what is being said."

The crowd was in an uproar again, but no one stood up.

Seeing this, Jia Lian could not help but sneer: "What? Are all the scholars in Suzhou dead? Seeing so many people here, accidentally trampling and causing death and injury, but you are unwilling to come out to help and explain it? Or do the scholars in Suzhou not care about the people of Suzhou at all?"

As soon as he finished speaking, someone in the crowd shouted, "Master Jia, please don't talk nonsense. Shen Yan, a scholar from Suzhou, is here!"

A young man in a scholar's robe came out. He looked to be under 20 years old. Jia Lian looked at him calmly as he walked up to him and said with a smile, "Please translate what you just said for everyone."

Shen Yan hesitated for a moment, and Jia Lian directly handed the loudspeaker to him. When the people saw that it was a scholar from Bendu who had come out, many of them recognized him. For a while, they were whispering to each other, talking about who Shen Yan was.

Shen Yan, who was holding a loudspeaker, helplessly repeated loudly what Jia Lian had said. The general meaning was that Jia Lian was here to investigate whether there was corruption among officials.

"Okay, let me tell you, if you have any demands, you can go to the government office and file a petition, or you can nominate a few people to talk to me. As long as the demands are reasonable, I will definitely handle them fairly."

Shen Yan conveyed it very straightforwardly this time, and someone in the crowd shouted again: "The government has a deficit. If it is found out, the people of Suzhou will make up for it. It doesn't matter whether the corrupt officials are investigated or not. They all have to pay this money."

"If you want to speak, you can stand up and speak in front of everyone. Aren't you ashamed to hide in the crowd?" Jia Lian roared. Shen Yan was scared and hurried to translate.

Because Jia Lian spoke in time, the people were not stupid. Yes, if you have something to say, just say it in front of everyone. What's the point of hiding in the crowd?
These soldiers are full of murderous intent. If something goes wrong, everyone will suffer.

Because of Jia Lian's words, the crowd began to slowly retreat three or five steps before stopping.

"Since no one wants to say anything, then Brother Shen, you come and speak for the people of Suzhou. Go and ask everyone why they are blocking the gate of the government office?" Jia Lian turned around and spoke loudly to Shen Yan.

The young man really fell for it, and immediately stepped forward and said to everyone: "My name is Shen Yan, I just passed by to watch the fun. If you have anything to say, tell me, and I will ask Lord Jia for everyone."

Soon, people in the crowd began to express their opinions one by one. The general meaning was that yesterday, the soldiers entered the gate, sealed the government office, and guarded the city gate. There were rumors that the governor of Jiangnan and the three officials had embezzled money from the government treasury, and the court sent soldiers to arrest them. It would be a great pleasure to arrest them, but the money that was lost must also be taken back from the people of Suzhou.

Jia Lian had roughly guessed it before, and now that Shen Yan had translated it, he completely understood it. It was clear what kind of people the local officials and gentry in Suzhou were.

"I understand. Tell everyone that when the imperial court investigates the accounts of officials, if they are corrupt officials, they will naturally settle accounts with the corrupt officials, and it has nothing to do with the people of Suzhou. The money lost can be confiscated from the corrupt officials' homes, and it will never be blamed on the people of Suzhou."

After Shen Yan translated with the loudspeaker, he felt that what Jia Lian said made sense, so he added: "Are you guys crazy? Isn't it a good thing for the court to investigate corrupt officials? Are you going to support corrupt officials? Are you stupid? Where does the money that corrupt officials embezzle come from? Isn't it all from everyone? Disperse quickly, your family is waiting for you to work and earn money to eat."

These words were very down-to-earth, and many people heard them clearly and immediately turned around and left. In just about three minutes, more than half of the crowd had dispersed. The remaining one hundred or so people seemed unwilling to leave. Under the stern eyes of the officers and soldiers, these people reluctantly dispersed.

Shen Yan waited for these people to disperse, then suddenly he cried out "ouch" and sat down on the ground.

Jia Lian quickly reached out to help him up, and asked with a half-smile: "What's wrong? Are you scared?"

Shen Yan said: "Master Jia, those people left at the end were not good people, they were the ones who fought. What happened just now was not simple."

"How is it not simple?" Jia Lian smiled even more. He helped Shen Yan turn around and sat down on the steps at the door.

"Your Excellency, you may not know that the thugs are rampant in the market, and they often beat people up, causing bloodshed and broken hands. Just now, Shen was impulsive and acted as the first to stand up. I am afraid that they will settle the score with me later."

Jia Lian directly exposed him: "You knew that they took money from others and instigated the people to cause trouble for me. After you came out to help translate, you were afraid that your family would be affected, right?"

Shen Yan was silent for a while, and then he said, "Students from humble backgrounds really don't deserve their revenge."

Jia Lian raised his hand to call Fan Ping over. Jia Lian said, "Just tell him where the Daxing is. I guess the Daxing people won't be able to take revenge on you. I will arrange for someone to protect your family. If you are still worried, I will take you and your family with me when I leave and settle down in another place."

"Adults shouldn't talk nonsense. Students have school records."

Fan Ping laughed and said, "Mr. Shen, Mr. Jia is the acting governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, the governor of Guangdong, and the imperial envoy for inspection. Do you think this is a big deal?"

(End of this chapter)