Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 635 Changes in India
Li Yuan was smart enough that he wasn't too affected and wasn't in a hurry to deal with the matter.

After the meal, Li Yuancai picked up his pen and reviewed the impeachment document, writing: "The yamen (government office) is a place for handling affairs; personnel should be appointed based on ability, not place of origin. It is not surprising that there are many officials from a certain region. The claim of factionalism is far-fetched. This has now led to the impeachment; I intend for the Cabinet to handle it appropriately."

After the approval was sent back to the cabinet, Lin Ruhai and Fang Song were completely baffled. What did "discretionary handling" mean?
It is very flexible and can be understood from any perspective; the cabinet can handle it or not.

Ultimately, however, the cabinet has to bear the consequences. If you handle this even slightly poorly, it will become a handle against you in the future.

Through the Dragon Guard's connections, Li Yuan learned the general details of the matter. Had he formed a faction? Wasn't that obvious? Every cabinet minister in the court had his own faction; otherwise, who would run errands for him? The emperor might turn a blind eye, but you shouldn't delay important state affairs.

Several days have passed since the brawl in the main hall, and the cabinet is still trying to smooth things over by simply calling it a "mutual fight."

With his current cabinet's five-year term expiring after the new year, Li Yuan showed no sign of urgency. Jia Lian's views on the concept of state-owned enterprises had a profound influence on Li Yuan's governing philosophy.

Li Yuan even reached a clear understanding that anyone who wanted to prevent Jia Lian from entering the cabinet or even bring him down was doing so for the huge profits created by state-owned enterprises.

The existence of state-owned enterprises as the ballast of the national economy means that no matter what difficulties the country faces, the emperor always has a trump card to play.

With this premise in mind, a stereotype arose: as a benchmark figure who created and promoted the development of state-owned enterprises, Jia Lian absolutely could not fall, as long as he did not rebel.

Lin Ruhai and Fang Song sat opposite each other in the cabinet, having remained silent for a long time. The food on the table was barely touched; to put it bluntly, judging from the old man's face, he had no appetite at all.

"What's going on with those censors?" Lin Ruhai finally asked.

Fang Song wasn't intimidated at all and answered directly, "Ask your son-in-law!"

"You're in charge of the Inspectorate, who else should I question if not you?" Lin Ruhai was a little exasperated. This bastard really didn't give him any face at all.

Fang Song feigned surprise and said, "That's not right. Does the Inspectorate fall under my jurisdiction? How come I don't know about it?"

Lin Ruhai fell silent, staring intently at Fang Song. He knew the situation of the Censorate very well. It was Lin Ruhai's former territory, the current Chief Censor Liu Min was Lin Ruhai's former subordinate, and the Vice Censor-in-Chief was his brother-in-law Jia Zheng. Therefore, Fang Song truly had little control over the Censorate. If the subordinates were willing to cooperate, things would be fine; if not, there would be plenty of trouble.

This is why, when Jia Lian tried to send young officials to the Censorate, Fang Song not only didn't stop him, but also secretly helped him a lot.

Fang Song had long understood that Lin Ruhai, being from Suzhou, represented the Jiangnan gentry in the imperial court. Even if he had no conscious intention, the Jiangnan gentry had plenty of ways to make him comply.

Don't believe it? The Lin family of Suzhou has taken off like a rocket in recent years. Their family business is booming and their children are doing well in the imperial examinations. Did this just fall from the sky?
People these days have a strong sense of local identity. Even if you hold a high-ranking official position, you still want to return to your ancestral graves.

Yes, you, Lin Ruhai, are awesome, you're the Grand Secretary. But whether you get buried in the ancestral graveyard after you die is not up to you.

There are some things Lin Ruhai might not support, but he could also ignore them and pretend he didn't see them.

Who are the richest people in China? The Shanxi merchants who ventured westward, the Anhui salt merchants from Yangzhou, and the gentry of Suzhou and Songjiang.

Of these three groups, the salt merchants, having been hit hardest, were relatively well-behaved. The Shanxi merchants and the Suzhou-Songjiang merchants, however, were truly restless.

As the saying goes, seeing others make money is more painful than losing money yourself.

The key is that state-owned enterprises naturally have allies to align with them if they want to secure profits. To say nothing of distant examples, aren't the imperial relatives and nobles in Beijing the best targets for such alliances?
Therefore, as long as they can create a breach in the imperial court, these people are confident that they can break through the state-owned enterprise barriers set up by Jia Lian.

These people never considered one question: why were they initially involved in both the central bank and the research and development department, but later, when things progressed to the point where even the emperor preferred to use eunuchs rather than them at the central bank?

"Eating?" Hu Min appeared at the door, startling the two cabinet ministers who stood up and bowed: "Eunuch Hu!"

"The Emperor's reply is above; I'm just here to run an errand." Hu Min smiled and put down the reply before taking her leave. The two men didn't rush to read it and escorted her to the door.

After turning back to pick up the memorial and reading the reply, Lin Ruhai felt as if a phlegm was stuck in his throat, unable to go down or come out, and his face turned green with discomfort.

Seeing this, Fang Song curiously took it and looked at it, and couldn't help but laugh, though his smile looked rather complicated.

This emperor is truly slippery. Upon further reflection, Fang Song's smile vanished, replaced by a somber expression.

"Let's go back first, and discuss it again tomorrow." Lin Ruhai was a straightforward man; there was no use worrying now that things had come to this.

As they walked out side by side, Fang Song, as if trying to rub salt in the wound, asked, "Did your wife go back to her parents' home last night?"

Lin Ruhai stopped and turned to stare at Fang Song. Fang Song smiled but remained silent. Lin Ruhai then turned and left.

After Fang Song boarded the carriage, he sneered to himself, "He brought this on himself!"

There was one thing Fang Song knew the details of. After the cotton mills under the R&D department promoted and introduced new cotton varieties in Shandong, their output and quality far exceeded those of local varieties. The cotton produced by the new varieties was much more efficient in the spinning process than local cotton, and the use of ginning machines greatly reduced labor costs.

This led to the state-run cotton mills dominating the northern market in terms of price compared to cotton produced in Suzhou and Songjiang. Over the years, the northern market was almost completely swallowed up, and the cotton markets in neighboring Japan and Korea were also dominated by state-run factories. The current problem is simply that due to a shortage of raw materials, Suzhou and Songjiang cotton cloth can still retain some market share, but it no longer dominates the entire country as it once did.

The emergence of trains played a crucial role in this, significantly reducing transportation costs and saving time.

Suzhou-Songjiang cotton cloth, once a flagship product, is now no match for state-owned products; it simply cannot compete.

The gentry of Jiangnan, who had suffered huge losses, could no longer hold back and had to take action. They found a perfect match in Shanxi, and the two sides joined forces.

What's the situation in Shanxi? It's simple: business is getting harder. Especially after the Beijing-Zhangjiakou railway opened, it's become even more difficult to sustain.

The traditional Liaodong market was brought directly to the bottom of the Heilongjiang River by the opening of the Tianjin-Heilongjiang Railway.

What products did Shanxi merchants rely on to make money in the past? Two main categories: ironware and grain.

Ironware, products from the Royal Steel Works and the Zunhua Ironworks, were transported by rail all the way to the Northeast, where they were sold at exorbitant prices. Grain, from Southeast Asia, landed directly in Tianjin; the cost advantage of rail transport was too great. Crucially, grain from Southeast Asia was genuinely cheap; much of it didn't even cost money, just a small shipping fee. As everyone knows, sea freight is the cheapest option.

The most crucial point is that the railway bureau controlled the construction and operation of railways, thus leaving a loophole for the stock market to operate outside.

Stocks can be profitable, provided you can actually buy them. For any railway company, only a small percentage of shares are publicly traded. Take the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway as an example: a share that started at one yuan has risen to twenty yuan. Just imagine how envious the Shanxi merchants would be of the railway bureau that controlled 60% of the shares!
They don't care about your purpose in holding the stock; they just see that your stock is valuable. If you need money, you can use it as collateral at the bank, and you won't need to raise capital from the public in the future.

The railway bureau is an official institution, meaning that the emperor, who controls both the central bank and the railway bureau, has already largely escaped the financial crisis that would plague him for the next decade, relying solely on the railway bureau.

With the emperor's wealth, what could the gentry use to check imperial power? With his wealth, could the emperor simply stand by and watch his power remain confined to the countryside? With his wealth, would the emperor, like the founding emperor, casually kill a few gentry members for amusement? They were afraid, genuinely afraid. The emperor, wielding the military, was only willing to reason with the gentry because of the high cost of military action, not because of any benevolence on his part.

Lin Ruhai didn't ride in a sedan chair; he should have taken a horse-drawn carriage. At that moment, Lin Ruhai, who was in the carriage, had an unbearable headache and subconsciously raised his hand to grab his hair.

The attendant beside him quickly came over and reached out to help massage.

"Master, can't you talk to your son-in-law about this properly?"

Lin Ruhai took a long time to recover before shaking his head weakly and saying, "You don't understand. That kid wants to uproot the gentry. How easy is that? This world has always belonged to the gentry. Which official isn't a member of the gentry?"

Lin Ruhai had a very clear understanding of the issues, which is why he repeatedly tried to persuade Jia Lian. After his persuasion failed, he acquiesced to the actions of those people, thinking that as long as he was there, he could ensure the safety of the Jia family.

Given the current situation, it's really hard to tell who's protecting whom.

We might not be able to get through this hurdle.

The world is indeed dominated by the gentry, but as Lin Ruhai has also seen, not all gentry are the same.

For some gentry, their greatest interests have already shifted away from traditional land rent.

The beneficiaries surrounding the state-owned enterprises were also local gentry, natural allies of Jia Lian. Otherwise, who would they sell their cotton to?

When Jia Lian returned home, Ying'er was waiting at the door.

"My uncle has arrived. He said he has important business to discuss. Madam has instructed the servant to wait here and inform him."

Upon alighting from the carriage, Jia Lian heard these words. Naturally, he gave Baochai ample face and said with a smile, "Let's go, I'll go take a look."

Ying'er lagged behind and followed Jia Lian for a while until they were alone before whispering, "Master hasn't been to Madam's place for a while. Second Master Yi has already started his studies."

Baochai's son was named Jia Yi, and he was the second among her sons. Privately, the servants called him Second Master Yi. In total, Jia Lian only had three sons: Jia Quan, Jia Yi, and Jia Zhi.

It's far from the saying "many children, many blessings" at this point, mainly because the two children in the East Mansion can't be counted under Jia Lian's name. Especially Qin Keqing's son, who is of a different generation.

Baochai, in her early twenties, was in the prime of her life and wanted to have another child, but unfortunately, she had not been able to conceive.

After Daiyu entered the household, Jia Lian was indeed somewhat biased. On the days when Jia Lian was supposed to rest, he would choose to go to Daiyu's place.

Jia Lian turned to look at Ying'er and saw that her cheeks were flushed. He smiled and said, "You're all alone. You got those blisters on your feet all by yourself."

Ying'er whispered, "It's much better than being paired with a servant."

Jia Lian fell silent; a woman's mind is hard to fathom.

Xue Pan's fear of Jia Lian, or rather, his respect for him, ran deep in his bones.

Even though Jia Lian hadn't arrived yet, he had been standing at the door waiting for half an hour.

Upon seeing them from afar, they would approach them and speak to them, their faces beaming with joy.

"Brother Lian, I greet you."

"Is there some good news for you?" Jia Lian stopped and greeted him with a smile. Xue Pan turned around and gestured, "Let's go inside and talk!"

Baochai stood in the courtyard and bowed respectfully: "Greetings to Master!"

Jia Lian shook his head speechlessly and said, "Alright, we're at home, so let's skip the formalities. Why haven't I seen Yi'er?"

"After class at the clan school, shouldn't we pay our respects to the First Madam? And we should also pay our respects to the Old Madam morning and evening."

Upon hearing Baochai's words, Jia Lian stammered, "I've been so busy these past few days that I'm completely out of my mind!"

One good thing about Jia Lian is that he takes care of the children who were born to him, and he didn't force Wang Xifeng to raise the children.

After changing his clothes and applying a hot towel, he felt a little refreshed. After sitting down, Jia Lian asked Xue Pan, "How have you been lately?"

"The situation in Southeast Asia is not bad, and immigration is much smoother than before. There is something I want to ask you about: should we give India a boost?"

Upon hearing Xue Pan's words, Jia Lian paused slightly: "India? What happened?"

Xue Pan said, "There are quite a few local kings who are not very convinced by the British, especially those kings in Baotou. Some people have spread the word that as long as the Emperor of Zhou approves their investiture, the kings are willing to serve His Majesty as their lord. Recently, there was a large-scale conflict between the British company and several kings, resulting in many deaths. The British also suffered considerable losses and are now trapped in Mumbai, barely surviving with the help of the fleet."

Jia Lian knew a little about the East India Company's struggles in India, but he didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

Upon closer examination, it makes sense. While the Xue family trading company didn't sell cannons, they certainly smuggled tens of thousands of smoothbore muskets to India. This effectively negated much of the East India Company's advantage.

"What did the British say?" Jia Lian was quickly calculating in his mind; he couldn't let the British fall.

"The British mean to ask us for help, but of course, we won't help for nothing." When Xue Pan said this with a smile, Jia Lian couldn't help but feel dazed again.

(End of this chapter)