Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 548: Lantern Festival Riot Disposal
Faced with the chaos, the family guards decisively formed a human wall to protect the convoy. No one knew what was happening on the street, and Jia Lian was also worried that the situation would get out of control.

The chaos on the street lasted for more than an hour before order was gradually restored. As more and more yamen runners and soldiers appeared, the situation was brought under control.

The Lantern Festival was initiated by Emperor Chenghui, who was intended to publicize the prosperous times and share happiness with the people. However, the riots made the Lantern Festival a whimper. On the city wall behind the Jinshui Bridge, Emperor Chenghui, who was watching the lanterns with his concubines from the palace, was furious.

Jia Lian returned with his family, and luckily no one was lost.

As soon as he arrived at the door of his house, he was stopped by the eunuchs, who asked Jia Lian to enter the palace immediately.

Using Jia Lian at the critical moment is already an instinctive reaction of Emperor Chenghui. There is no other way, he is too easy to use.

It was already midnight. After Jia Lian entered the palace, he saw Emperor Chenghui standing with his hands behind his back, and the commander of the Nine Gates, the prefect of Shuntian, and the current foreman of the city inspectors kneeling on the ground.

The position of foreman of the city patrol censors was originally invented for Jia Lian, and it has been preserved to this day.

To be honest, who is responsible for today's events? Jia Lian thinks it has nothing to do with the command of the Nine Gates. His duty is to guard the gates. At the critical moment, once the city gates are closed, no matter how many rebels come, they will attack the city first.

Emperor Chenghui was in a very good mood and felt so humiliated after the huge gap in his expectations was ruined.

"I, your humble servant Jia Lian, am here to see Your Majesty!" Jia Lian's appearance made the three people kneeling on the ground feel a lot more relaxed, but they also felt jealous.

They will not be grateful to Jia Lian. They will only remember that because Jia Lian did too good in the past, they are like a group of clowns.

"Buqi is here!" Emperor Chenghui turned around, trying to control his expression, looking at the three people kneeling on the ground with disdain, and said in a slightly excited tone: "Such a good event was ruined by these rubbish."

Although he was not sure what was going on with the three people on the ground, Jia Lian still spoke from the perspective of taking care of the emperor's face and indirectly helped the three people out: "Your Majesty, there are many things to deal with when there are too many people. It is normal for such a grand event to go wrong. I think we should find out the cause and truth of the matter as soon as possible. It is not too late to mend the fold after the sheep have been lost."

"Gong Daode, you tell me." Emperor Chenghui pointed at the foreman of the imperial inspectors and spoke. When the foreman raised his head to speak, Jia Lian glanced at the emperor and raised his hands.

Emperor Chenghui then added: "Everyone, get up."

The three of them stood up after thanking him. Gong Daode stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, we caught a murderer at the scene who killed and injured a man and a woman with a sharp knife. After interrogation at the scene, it was found that the murderer was a snack vendor. His wife and daughter were too busy to help. Taking advantage of the crowd, the injured man and woman took the girl away. The murderer witnessed it with his own eyes and in a hurry, he chased after them with a knife and injured them, causing a riot."

Jia Lian, who was listening at the side, took over the conversation and said, "Your Majesty, the facts are very clear. The cause was the crime committed by a kidnapper. This is just a sudden case."

The reason for directly characterizing the matter is very simple. People are afraid that all kinds of rumors will spread on the streets tomorrow, and they are even more afraid that people with ulterior motives will take the opportunity to make a big fuss and achieve their shameful purposes.

"Well, no, the incident resulted in a stampede, 30 people died, and hundreds were injured. These are still temporary statistics."

Emperor Chenghui's words made Jia Lian's heart tremble slightly. Yes, why did he forget about trampling? Once there was a commotion in a crowded place, trampling was very normal.

The source of the emperor's anger must have come from this. A good event turned into a mess. Jia Lian couldn't help but feel sad for the three people in front of him. Someone had to take the blame, and the emperor couldn't be wrong. Just like gods can't bleed, bosses can't show their health bars.

"Your Majesty, I think the most urgent task is to treat the wounded first, and then send people to control all the newspapers in the city. No matter how they publish articles tomorrow, the caliber of the reports must be unified. This is the riot caused by human traffickers. The topic should be directed to human traffickers. The most influential newspapers must focus on how evil human traffickers are and the government should take special measures to crack down on them. At the same time, it should be emphasized that the government responded urgently and controlled the further development of the situation in a short period of time, and did not cause the fire. Then let people write about the government's treatment of the wounded to reflect your majesty's benevolence to the people. Finally, I would like to emphasize that your majesty will use the treasury to provide a certain degree of financial assistance to the families of the victims."

Jia Lian's words really enlightened the three people except the emperor. Otherwise, how could he gain the emperor's favor? They learned something!
Emperor Chenghui's expression immediately relaxed a lot after hearing this. He smiled and said, "Okay, okay, let's do it. By the way, how should the murderer be dealt with?"

Jia Lian smiled and said, "Your Majesty, we should follow the public opinion at this time and print an opinion form in the newspaper. Readers can fill in their opinions and then submit it to the government to announce the statistical results, and finally adopt the opinions of the majority. However, this policy can only be used in emergencies and should not be abused. Otherwise, it will cause endless harm. Of course, I am just making a suggestion. It is up to Your Majesty whether to use it or not."

Well, the last sentence made Emperor Chenghui smile even more, this was the most satisfying thing about Jia Lian, he only provided solutions to the problems and it was up to the emperor to decide whether to adopt them.

"Okay, okay, I appreciate your words. Do you have any other suggestions?"

At this time, Jia Lian showed a sense of propriety, smiled and folded his hands: "I have said everything I should say!"

Emperor Chenghui nodded in satisfaction, then turned to look at the other three people and said, "Do you have anything to say? If you don't say it now, don't blame me for being rude later."

To be honest, these three people are also the emperor's confidants, otherwise they would not be sitting in such a sensitive position. It is precisely because they are confidants that the level of public security in the capital has declined, and Emperor Chenghui is willing to give them time to change, otherwise these three people would have lost their official hats long ago.

The Nine Gates garrison commander said: "I have nothing to say."

Shuntian prefect: "I don't have much to suggest."

Only the foreman of the city patrol censors said, "I suggest that we launch a targeted crackdown to let the people of the capital see the court's determination and actual actions to crack down on human kidnappers."

The expression on Emperor Chenghui's face changed obviously, his smile disappeared for a moment, and then returned.

"Go down and do your work first!" Emperor Chenghui waved his hand, and the three of them left together.

Seeing this, Jia Lian also took his leave. Emperor Chenghui hesitated for a moment, but still nodded: "My dear minister, you have worked hard! Go back and have a rest."

"Your Majesty, you should also go to bed early!" Jia Lian showed some concern before leaving.

It was already the middle of the night, and the streets were still filled with customs officers carrying torches or lanterns. Jia Lian was in the carriage, looking at the mess on the streets that had not yet been cleared up, and he couldn't help but sigh.

The next morning, when Jia Lian got up, washed, and had breakfast, he had newspapers from various households in his hands.

As expected, various newspapers have carried out intensive coverage of the casualties caused by last night's riots, with the main focus still on the kidnappers.

Well, according to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, once a kidnapper is caught, he can be beaten to death on the spot. The vendor last night was unlucky because he caused a riot.

Another major focus of the report was on the kindness of His Majesty. After hearing the news, His Majesty stayed up all night and ordered the use of the treasury to treat the wounded and provide financial assistance to the families of the victims.

The latest issue has not yet reported on how the murderer was dealt with in this way, so that will be a follow-up matter.

The power of a unified news report is enormous. Jia Lian deliberately went out in casual clothes and went to a teahouse to see what people in the market were talking about.

Sure enough, the public's attention was directed to human traffickers. Why human traffickers? Because a considerable part of human trafficking is legal.

For example, if parents could no longer support their children, they would sell their children, which was legal. Another example is that it was legal for masters to give slaves to each other.

Now we say that India has a caste system, but wasn’t there also a strict hierarchy in ancient times?

Without that vigorous social revolution which basically solved the class problem, there would be no nirvana and rebirth.

Don't believe it? Look at developed countries. Which one is not a variant of the caste system? Isn't it the United States? Isn't it Japan? Or South Korea?

There wasn't much noise in the capital, so Jia Lian felt relieved and could concentrate on preparing to leave the capital.

On the R&D department side, the reason why Jia Lian was willing to let Li Heng transfer funds was actually very simple. Both the emperor and Li Heng saw the huge benefits brought by the factory.

As long as they see it, they will not interrupt the factory's self-growth process, nor will they interrupt the development of the industry due to other noises.

Assuming that Emperor Chenghui can live to 60, that means 20 years later, Jia Lian will be in his early 40s, in the prime of life. As long as Li Heng succeeds to the throne, Jia Lian presiding over the cabinet is almost unstoppable.

By then, Jia Lian is confident that he will be able to lead the country's development direction and may even trigger a social change.

Of course, these are all things of the future, Jia Lian still has to do the things in the present well. That is to promote the industrial development of the two places before leaving Guangdong.

Why not Guangdong and Guangxi? The reason is very simple. Not to mention the acting governor, even if he is a real governor, his power is not that great. As the governor, Jia Lian can promote the industrial development of Guangdong, but he cannot control Guangxi. The governor himself does not have direct military command power. In principle, he can only command the governor's guards. The direct command of the troops stationed in each province is in the hands of the governor.

Wang Ziteng was able to command the army because he brought many of his own people with him, and was able to bypass the governor and the general. The most important thing was the tacit approval of the court, otherwise Wang Ziteng would have been overthrown long ago.

Just before Jia Lian left Beijing, Li Heng did something upright. He sent someone to the Jia Mansion to send an invitation, inviting Jia Lian, the founder of the research and development department, to revisit the place and provide guidance on the work.

The current leader invited the former leader to guide the work, and there is really nothing wrong with it in the officialdom, because the R&D Department is so special.

Jia Lian's revisit to the R&D Hall triggered a wave of warm welcome. Accompanied by Li Heng, the officials and craftsmen below expressed their deep gratitude to Jia Lian.

Jia Lian saw uneasiness in these people's eyes. They were worried about the changes in the post-Jia Lian era. All the treatment that everyone can enjoy now was created by Jia Lian.

So, will things change in the future? If you were in my shoes, you would also be worried.

In front of Li Heng, Jia Lian told everyone that although the R&D Department had a new leader, the established development path would not change. The treatment of the staff would not change either, so everyone could rest assured.

Jia Lian said this without any pressure. At least as long as he was alive, he would not accept anyone changing everything. As for what would happen after his death, who could know?
Jia Lian made a special trip to the technical school, appeared in front of the teachers and students, and gave a speech about how industrial development is the future trend of the world.

In fact, in recent years, the elites in the capital, including the emperor, have realized the power of industry.

With the widespread use of steam engines, the output of steel and coal has doubled rapidly. The situation in which southern Sugang previously dominated the national market has been replaced by a north-south division.

As some workshop owners in the south joined the ranks of using steam engines, everything was quietly changing.

Just ten years ago, craftsmen were at the bottom of society and were a group of poor people. Now, it can be said that the fate of the craftsmen under the R&D Department has undergone a radical change.

In other words, the fate of any industrial or agricultural worker who has anything to do with Jia Lian will develop in a good direction.

This is what the basic plate is.

He had arsenals, tens of thousands of young and middle-aged workers, a large number of trainees, and a large amount of funds in the account.

What does this mean? Those who often rebel know it very well.

Jia Lian certainly would not rebel, because he was afraid of difficulties. As a representative of the vested interests, why would he rebel against himself?
Well, at least the emperor, Li Heng, and the Beijing official system all viewed Jia Lian in this way. No one would think that Jia Lian would rebel, because no one would believe it if they told others.

Li Heng, who was still in a dormant development stage, did not feel that Jia Lian had taken away all the limelight from him. Instead, he was secretly delighted because the recognition of Li Heng by the R&D department increased.

On the way back from the technical school, Jia Lian learned the latest news.

Gong Daode, the prefect of Shuntian, was transferred to Jinling and became the prefect of Jinling. Jia Yucun was transferred back to the capital and became the prefect of Shuntian.

There is no doubt that Shuntian prefect Gong Daode was transferred away to take the blame for the riots, so why was Jia Yucun transferred back?
The alarm bells in Jia Lian's mind started ringing. It was not until he returned home that he learned the real reason through Xia Gang.

At the cabinet meeting, Emperor Chenghui proposed to give an explanation to the people, and the Shuntian prefect and the foreman of the city inspectors were both brought up for discussion.

The cabinet's unanimous opinion was to dismiss the two men, but Emperor Chenghui said that dismissal was too harsh and not merciful enough, so he changed it to transferring one and fining the other's salary for three years.

As for the new prefect, the cabinet proposed several names on the spot, but the emperor was not satisfied with any of them. In the end, the emperor personally selected Jia Yucun.

In view of the special status of the Shuntian prefect, the cabinet tacitly acknowledged that the emperor had the prerogative to appoint the candidate, so the matter was settled.

As for the fact that Jia Lian knew about it in advance even though the official bulletin had not been sent out yet, this is not surprising at all.

Of course, Jia Lian's prior knowledge of the news is not outrageous. What the King of Understanding does in the stock market is enough to break the waist of the whole world.

When it comes to stock trading, I only admire the wise guy.

The follow-up impact of this incident was naturally on Jia Yucun, who had just asked his old leader for a transfer back to the capital before the New Year, and he was actually transferred back after the New Year. The effect was immediate!

Later, before Jia Yucun returned to Beijing, he sent someone to deliver a cart of gifts to the Jia family, but that is a story for later.

As for Jia Yucun himself, in some private occasions, he often complacently regarded himself as a disciple of the Jia family, enjoying the envious looks of other colleagues and feeling very happy.

On this day, Jia Lian said goodbye to all his relatives and informed them that he would leave Beijing on the 20th of the first lunar month.

After walking around, I came back and found a maid waiting at the door. It turned out that it was the old lady calling me.

When Jia Lian went to Grandmother Jia's place, he saw from afar Grandmother Jia scolding Jia She, saying that he was disrespectful to his elders and brought shame to his beloved grandson.

To be honest, Jia Lian was really a little confused. It was really admirable that Grandmother Jia was willing to scold Jia She.

Jia She was scolded but did not say anything. He lowered his head and looked unhappy, but he did not talk back. After all, filial piety is more important than anything else. If Jia She fell out with Lady Jia, he would be the one who suffered.

Jia Lian came forward to greet her and persuaded her mother to calm down.

Grandmother Jia turned to Jia Lian and complained to him about the ridiculous things Jia She had done in recent years.

Stealing treasures, borrowing high-interest loans, and being fined by Long Jinwei for whoring, all these messes were settled with the help of Rong Ge'er. As a result, the West Mansion also lost some dividends.

Especially the matter of stealing other people's treasures. If Ni Er had not informed Jia Rong in time, the person might have been forced to death in prison.

Well, some things that were supposed to happen in the book did happen. Jia She, who loved fans, stole someone's precious fan.

The reason why Jia She was scolded today was not for anything else but because of Yuanyang who was standing beside Lady Jia with her head down and keeping silent.

In Jia's mother's words, there is only one useful person around me, but he also covets her. There are so many maids in the East Cross Courtyard, and they are not enough for him to cause trouble.

It's hard for Jia Lian to say anything about this matter. His so-called coveting of Yuanyang might have other reasons.

Jia Lian was reluctant to say anything to Jia She, so after comforting Lady Jia, he asked Jia She to leave quickly.

After Jia She slipped away, Jia Lian stayed with him and talked for a while before getting up to say goodbye, but was stopped by Jia Mu, who said, "Yuan Yang has been with Grandmother for many years. She can't die without a good end. If you take her away, there will be someone to take care of her on the way."

Jia Lian was a little dumbfounded. No, I don’t have any thoughts about Yuanyang.

Just as he was about to refuse, Grandmother Jia forced Jia Lian to agree, saying that it was a gift from an elder and could not be refused, and then she let him go.

On the way back, Jia She was waiting for him halfway. When they met, he said, "Until now, your father still lives in the east wing, and you live in the northwest wing. Why?"

Jia Lian sighed and said, "If father makes trouble again, I will tell Rong'er to stop caring about your affairs. I will also tell Feng'er to stop paying tribute to father."

When Jia She heard this, he immediately turned around and left without any argument.

There was one thing that made Jia She's spine go cold whenever he thought of it, and that was the death of Jia Jing next door. All along, Jia She thought it was Jia Lian's doing.

Before Yuanyang came to report, at the door of the house, Mrs. Xing was holding a girl and standing at the door, talking to Wang Xifeng with a smile.

Jia Lian heard Wang Xifeng say again: "This is your relative, how can you ask her to be a servant?"

(End of this chapter)