Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 663 The Showdown and the Journey After the New Year
The backyard of the courtyard is a hidden gem. In the quiet courtyard, you walk along the blue brick path and enter the front hall.

Xia Gang, holding a teacup, saw Jia Lian enter and stood up with a smile, clasping his hands in greeting: "Brother Jia, I have not failed you!"

Jia Lian smiled and clasped his hands in response: "I am so grateful for Brother Xia's help this time! There's still a long way to go, so I won't say thank you."

Xia Gang laughed heartily. After the two sat down, Xia Gang said, "After my uncle passed away, my life became difficult. I voluntarily relinquished my position to a sinecure, which, in the eyes of outsiders, saved me from a disaster. Unfortunately, people in the palace lost their lives. Hu Min, that loyal dog, is meticulous in his actions and naturally wouldn't allow anyone who knew to live. It's common practice in the palace to silence those who do shameful things to keep secret."

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian sighed and said, "Leave your name here. If you have family members, I will definitely make arrangements to take good care of them."

Xia Gang whispered, "The confirmed news is that the Empress and the Emperor had a falling out and parted on bad terms. The Emperor considered deposing the Empress, but the Empress Dowager suppressed his thoughts."

Jia Lian remained silent for a while before saying, "Brother Xia, what are your plans for the future? Will you continue to waste your time in this sinecure, seek advancement, or perhaps change places?"

Xia Gang said, "I'm not going anywhere. The family fortune left by my uncle is enough for me to live on for the rest of my life. If my son and grandson can behave themselves, they will also have enough to live on. It's just that their future is uncertain..."

Jia Lian understood and immediately asked with a smile, "How are you doing with your studies?"

Xia Gang shook his head, and Jia Lian then said, "Military academies give priority to students from affiliated primary schools. Your two sons can attend primary school first. If they can get into the military academy based on their own abilities, even if they don't get in, they can still make some connections, which will be helpful in arranging jobs for them in the future."

Xia Gang smiled upon hearing this, stood up, and clasped his hands: "In that case, I'll leave it to you!"

Jia Lian saw Xia off with his arms clasped. Xia Gang's arrival and departure were both discreet, and no outsiders knew of it. Jia Lian, however, firmly accepted this favor.

For someone of Jia Lian's status and position, his words must be taken seriously and kept.

Chinese people have a tradition of keeping their word, and even in modern society, they are very careful with their words, both internally and externally.

From this perspective, the words of Western politicians are like farts; it's impossible to distinguish between truth and falsehood. They speak entirely on demand, and with Trump at that level, there's practically no credibility left.

The ancients said that a promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold, and Li Bai also wrote in his poem: "Three cups of wine and I utter a promise, the Five Sacred Mountains are as light as a feather."

This is about how the ancients valued keeping their promises!

The same applies in the imperial court. I can remain silent, or I can evade the issue and keep dodging the question, but once I make a promise, I must keep it.

Betrayal was a very serious charge in ancient times.

Therefore, despite modern people's various criticisms of Confucianism, in terms of building a moral society, people today are far inferior to those of the ancients.

At this point, there is absolutely no shame involved. False accusations cost almost nothing, yet the profits are enormous. What's despicable is that the false accuser has powerful backers who are desperately trying to protect her.

How much of the principles of propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame still remain in today's society?
A society where profit is the only motive is terrifying to even think about.

No matter what happened, the third year of the Qianzheng era still arrived.

At the first day of the Lunar New Year, Emperor Li Yuan emphasized for the first time that the country was unstable in the past, and his father, the Emperor Taizu, supported it by inheriting the glory of the Taizu Emperor. Since his ascension to the throne, he has wanted to rectify the situation and relies on all of you. Please do not slacken your efforts.

Judging from the opening of Li Yuan's New Year's Day poem, the emperor was not satisfied with many of the current problems in the court.

This strongly suggests the court's laziness and inaction in governance, serving as a clear warning to the cabinet and its various departments.

It is clear that Li Yuan believes the country's development is too slow and needs to be accelerated.

What does "slow" refer to? It naturally refers to the various new policies introduced during the reign of Emperor Chenghui.

The events of the year before last gave all officials the impression that they should not covet things they shouldn't, otherwise the emperor would not be lenient. So what if he was the emperor's brother-in-law? So what if he was the old Prince Zhongshun? They were all taken down, weren't they? Prince Zhongshun was also a long-lived man, over seventy years old, yet he was exiled to the far north. How tragic!

Fortunately, there is now a train that goes directly to Dongping Prefecture; otherwise, I would have suffered terribly. It can only be said that Li Yuan showed mercy, as the place of exile can be reached by train.

On the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the entire family of King Chungsun, along with two members of the royal family and several members of the royal clan who had previously worked at the central bank, were transported away over three days, with two trains each day.

Transporting goods there during this season would be a real ordeal. In Dongping Prefecture during this season, water freezes instantly, and people could freeze to death.

It is clear that Li Yuan's leniency had its limits.

This incident led most of the officials to realize that the current emperor was far more ruthless than the previous one. Although he still didn't easily kill officials and powerful figures, he could make them wish they were dead.

The Prince of Dongping didn't accept these exiles for nothing; he requested a considerable amount of supplies from the imperial court as compensation. The Far East was rich in resources, but severely lacked processed industrial goods.

Sure enough, while people were still being loaded onto the truck, on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Li Yuan, who was enjoying a good New Year, summoned all the cabinet ministers.

After everyone had arrived, Li Yuan presented a memorial for everyone to read. Once everyone had read it, he asked, "Everyone understands the meaning of the Prince of Dongping's memorial. Due to frequent frictions with Tsarist Russia, the consumption of military supplies has been considerable, and replenishment is needed. Dongping Prefecture is unable to produce its own military supplies, especially rifled guns and cannons. I would like to hear your opinions on whether we should grant his request."

Jia Lian belonged to the low-key faction in the cabinet and did not like to speak, so he sat quietly and watched what everyone had to say.

Lin Ruhai said to Yue Qi, "Minister Yue is knowledgeable in military affairs, so you speak first."

Yue Qi had no choice but to accept, and reluctantly said, "Dongping Prefecture does not have the capacity for large-scale production of military supplies, and the supply of munitions is indeed difficult. In the past two years, according to various battle reports, there have indeed been frequent small-scale conflicts between the northern desert and the territories of the two kings of Dongping and Tsarist Russia. How many of these conflicts are true or false, and the details are unknown. In the past, when the late emperor was in power, the focus of foreign relations was on the sea route. I believe that a small amount of munitions is not a problem."

Fang Song couldn't help but say, "That's hard to say. Over the years, the Prince of Dongping has conscripted many men from Korea and Japan, and the local natives are fierce and are the best source of soldiers. If a rebellion really breaks out, it's not difficult to raise 50,000 troops within three to five months. Within a year, as long as the people's resources are spared, at least 100,000 troops can be raised. We can be more lenient with the Prince of Dongping, but we cannot let our guard down."

Yue Qi wasn't angry at being rebuked; he mainly felt that Fang Song didn't understand military affairs and wouldn't be able to inflict much damage. He even patiently explained, "Lord Fang, you may not know this, but with Shanhaiguan Pass in place, it won't be easy for the Prince of Dongping to enter. Moreover, there are two important towns outside the pass: Liaoyang and Shenyang. The current Prince of Dongping's residence is heavily reliant on supplies from within the pass, so there's absolutely no reason for them to rebel. In my opinion, this batch of weapons should not only be given, but it should be done under the guise of aid. After all, the late Emperor provided substantial assistance to the Prince of Xining in the past."

Lin Ruhai and Li Qing nodded in agreement. While Fang Song remained silent, Li Yuan said, "In that case, providing aid makes sense." Seeing that everyone was about to agree, Jia Lian immediately spoke up, "Wait!"

The crowd was taken aback when their rhythm was disrupted, and they immediately focused their attention on him. Li Yuan said, "Minister Jia, please speak freely."

Jia Lian said, "When the Prince of Xining voluntarily ceded the lands of Hexi and even the new province, it was not out of his own free will, but rather due to the immense military pressure from the court and his unwillingness to relinquish his autonomy. The late emperor was lenient and, to avoid a direct confrontation, allowed him to go west, providing substantial assistance. However, this did not change the fact that the Prince of Xining was essentially in a state of obeying orders but not summons. As the saying goes, times have changed. The late emperor's assistance to the Prince of Xining was based on his voluntary cession of territory; at that time, he also provided considerable assistance to the Prince of Dongping and the Prince of Mobei. Now the situation has changed, and we cannot follow the old ways."

Yue Qi was quite displeased after being refuted, but unfortunately, the person in front of him was Jia Lian. He thought to himself that Jia Lian, an amateur, shouldn't talk nonsense, as this was too embarrassing. So he could only sit down sullenly.

Seeing this, Li Qing said, "The late emperor treated all the kings with leniency and benevolence, even letting go of the rebellious Li in the northern desert who was willing to submit. That's why many wars in the north were quelled and the country is at peace."

Jia Lian gave Li Qing a cold look and said, "Without the imperial soldiers fighting bloody battles to defeat the various tribes of the grasslands in the battles of Zhangjiakou and Datong, do you think they would willingly submit and become vassals? Using the current peace as evidence is putting the cart before the horse. Nomadic peoples are good at singing and dancing because they have been beaten and are afraid of being beaten. It's not because it's their nature."

Without mentioning the name Jia once, everyone knew that this was one of Jia Lian's brilliant military achievements. With real and solid results in hand, his words carried weight.

Li Qing was speechless after being rebuked, so he could only sit down and remain silent.

Lin Ruhai said helplessly, "What do you think?"

Jia Lian said calmly, "Aid is fine, but it has to be in exchange for something. The Prince of Dongping still owes money for the railway construction and still wants to get something from the court for free. He's dreaming."

Lin Ruhai laughed and said, "I heard that the Prince of Dongping has been using soybean oil and soybean meal to pay off his debts, but he hasn't finished yet?"

Jia Lian looked coldly at Li Qing and said indifferently, "How much is a ship full of soybean oil and soybean meal worth? A single steel rail costs two hundred silver dollars! You want shares, you want debts, you want aid, you're just thinking about all sorts of good things."

The reason he was looking at Li Qing was simple: the heir of the Prince of Dongping had bribed this fellow quite a bit to speak on his behalf in court during his previous visit to the capital. In fact, all the cabinet ministers had received favors from the Prince of Dongping.

Li Yuan understood that the so-called assistance from the late emperor to the princes of the border regions was due to special circumstances at the time.

Jia Lian stepped forward to explain the situation, simply because he didn't want the Prince of Dongping to benefit from the imperial court for nothing. In reality, Jia Lian had a deeper purpose, but it's unnecessary to discuss it here.

The aid of military supplies is conducted through barter, the biggest advantage of which is that it can promote production on both sides.

When the railway was built to Dongping Prefecture, the Prince of Dongping didn't pay a single penny in cash, only providing a large quantity of railway sleepers, laborers, and rations. Even so, a substantial debt remained. Jia Lian didn't press him for repayment, allowing him to repay the debt little by little with supplies, without even charging him interest—a truly generous gesture.

The key point is that Jia Lian still wanted to force the Prince of Dongping to actively expand outwards, squeezing out Russia's territory in the Far East. The reason was the same for Li Ni, the Prince of Mobei: he could demand supplies and weapons in exchange. Conflict with Russia was irrelevant; the court would certainly support him. The Far East in modern times was truly abundant in resources. Siberia even had vast oil fields.

Tsarist Russia's current focus is on the west. If it doesn't seize this opportunity to expand, it will lack any initiative. So why should you ask for aid?

In short, the three princes of the Northwest and East, go and seize territory!

The most difficult situation was actually in Xining, a region in Central Asia, where transportation was extremely difficult due to the Pamir Plateau. Acquiring supplies was incredibly difficult, with only a very small amount transported throughout the year.

Even if there were a railway now, it couldn't be built all the way to Yumen Pass; at most, it could only be built up to Yumen Pass.

Jia Lian knew what Li Yuan was thinking. So what if there were two imperial brothers-in-law on the list of those to be exiled? He didn't want to lose face too much, so he asked the Prince of Dongping to take care of him a little.

It wouldn't look good if the two imperial brothers-in-law and Prince Zhongshun actually froze to death in the Far East.

At this point in the meeting, Li Yuan understood that giving it away for free wouldn't necessarily earn him gratitude; he would only be seen as a fool. After all, the Prince of Dongping was nominally a subject of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

"In this way, half will be a gift from the court, and the other half will be exchanged for supplies. The half of the gift will be paid from my own treasury." Li Yuan still cared about his reputation, so he decided to grant him half.

You can tell just by looking at the list. The Prince of Dongping asked for quite a lot this time. There were 10,000 muzzle-loading rifled flintlock muskets alone, along with 50 cannons, cotton cloth, tea, and silk, and the quantities were not small.

Li Qing immediately seized the opportunity and said, "It is not appropriate to use all the funds from the imperial treasury; the Ministry of Revenue should bear half of the cost."

Jia Lian remained silent this time, simply keeping a record of the transactions. He would then add 10% to the price when the Prince of Dongping went to Tianjin to buy warships.

You take the opportunity to ask for favors when a few people are exiled there; you've become so spoiled.

Upon hearing the news, the Crown Prince of Dongping was overjoyed. He had originally intended to negotiate, but to his surprise, the Emperor agreed readily, giving half of the gift and exchanging the other half for goods.

I rushed to handle the formalities myself, and after a few busy days, I felt something was off amidst my joy.

When his men returned from Tianjin, they realized what was wrong. The Tianjin shipyard had raised its prices, and by a factor of 100,000 silver dollars.

The heir of the Prince of Dongping finally understood that with that damned Jia Lian in the cabinet, nothing good could come of it.

Just after the first month of the lunar calendar, Li Heng set off. He first went to the capital to express his gratitude and bid farewell, and then transferred to Tianjin to begin his journey of thousands of miles.

Li Yuan naturally couldn't stop her and had to give her a warm welcome, since Empress Dowager Zhou had been looking forward to the arrival of her youngest son.

After Li Heng entered the palace, he first paid his respects to Li Yuan. The meeting was extremely subdued, as it was impossible to know how much affection remained between the two brothers.

When Li Heng paid his respects to Empress Zhou, the process was very touching. He hugged his mother's legs and cried loudly.

Empress Dowager Zhou granted Li Heng permission to stay in the capital for ten days. He was required to enter the palace every day to accompany the Empress Dowager, which was considered the last time the mother and son would spend together.

This request could not be refused. In fact, Li Yuan even wanted to grant Li Heng ten more warships and fifty armed merchant ships, as requested by Empress Dowager Zhou.

(End of this chapter)