Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 733 To Be an Official or a Scholar

Every time there was a holiday, Jia Yin would leave the school gate first and then take the bus home.

His classmate and good friend Zhang Xing always laughed at him, saying, "Everyone else has the surname Jia, and you have the surname Jia too. Everyone else goes out in a private car, or at the very least, by bicycle, but you take the bus."

The reason for saying this is simply that Jia Yin has hidden himself very well; no one knows that he is the grandson of the former chief minister and the son of the current chief minister.

The reason for his low profile was simply that all of Jia Lian's sons had joined the army, but Jia Yin was the only one who wanted to study. Therefore, Jia Lian required him to keep a low profile and not reveal his identity.

Jia Yin thus continued to pretend to be an ordinary child, from elementary school to university, and even as he was about to graduate with his master's degree, he still looked like an ordinary person.

At first, Jia Yin thought his father had a problem with him, but he gradually realized that only when you are an ordinary person will others be less wary of you and speak the truth.

After understanding his father's good intentions, Jia Yin's resentment disappeared, and he noticed that there were always several people following him when he went out.

These people have been following him since junior high school, for over ten years. As long as Jia Yin is alright, they definitely won't come up and say anything.

Daiyu's son was naturally extremely intelligent, and Jia Yin did not expose the existence of these people.

Zhang Xing got off the train first at his stop, and Jia Yin finally breathed a sigh of relief. This friend of his was such a chatterbox. Even if you ignored him, he could talk the whole way. The best thing about him was that he didn't have any bad intentions.

When Zhang Xing returned home, he saw his younger sister Zhang Qing looking around anxiously at the door and teased her, "What, weren't you here to wait for your brother?"

The sixteen-year-old girl rolled her eyes at her brother: "Why did you come back alone? What are you doing back here all by yourself?"

Zhang Xing was furious: "What a good sister of mine! She won't even let me go home. Let me tell you, Jia Yin has gone home. He has a pampered girl waiting for him at home. Don't wait for him."

"My parents don't care about me, so why should you? So what if I like him? I'll just be his concubine!"

The atmosphere in the capital was much more open than before, and girls from ordinary families were less bound by rules. The Zhang family were merchants, wealthy but not of high status, and therefore did not have strict requirements for their daughter.

"I don't care about you, I'll get my mother to break your legs later!"

Jia Yin was unaware of the siblings' bickering. As usual, he entered the Rongguo Mansion through the west side gate and returned to his room. His wife, Yujie, came to take his outer robe, and the maidservants helped him wash and change.

Outside, Jia Yin was a poor man; at home, he was a wealthy young master. This duality of life added a lot of fun to his life.

Jia Yin was a top student, and most of the people around him were also top students, so no one paid attention to the details of his life, and therefore no one could tell his family's wealth. Crucially, Jia Yin didn't wear any valuable jewelry; at most, he carried a sachet. It was made by his wife herself and wasn't particularly valuable. However, someone knowledgeable would be able to smell the precious ingredients in the sachet.

After resting at one house, Jia Yin, accompanied by his wife, came to pay their respects to Daiyu. Upon entering, they discovered that Jia Lian was also there, and the couple went forward to greet him.

"Did you pass your thesis?" Jia Lian asked casually. Jia Yin replied, "Yes, I passed. I'll get my diploma the day after tomorrow."

"Is your next step to take the imperial examination or pursue scholarship?" Jia Lian asked curiously, after all, his son had always been strong-willed. He couldn't interfere too much.

"I want to be an official!" Jia Yin answered truthfully. Jia Lian became even more curious, as this boy had never mentioned wanting to be an official before.

"Tell me, why do you want to become an official? I thought you wanted to pursue scholarship." Upon hearing this, Daiyu became displeased and retorted sarcastically, "What, are you worried that your son's official career will tarnish your reputation?"

Civil officials and military officers are different. Jia Shi and Jia Quan, one in the army and the other in the navy, are pursuing two paths. If Jia Yin were to become a civil official, Jia Lian's political capital would be far too strong.

Previously, no children from the Jia family pursued a career in civil service; now that they have, it's a completely different story.

Although Jia Lian is nearly sixty years old, he still looks very young. People would believe he is forty. Only when he is out and about does Jia Lian have to pretend to be old.

In comparison, Daiyu is seven or eight years younger than Jia Lian, and the two look about the same age. The main reason is that Daiyu doesn't worry about worldly affairs and insists on exercising regularly, so she looks much younger than her fifties.

"Tch, have I ever cared what others think? After all these years, don't you understand me?" The couple bickered, and Jia Yin listened obediently from the side. His wife, on the other hand, was quite envious of the good relationship between the two elders.

After exchanging a few words, Daiyu said, "Son, it's fine for you to become an official, but don't go too far away."

Daiyu only had one son, so naturally she doted on him. Jia Lian wasn't in a hurry either. He reached out and held his granddaughter in his arms, playing with the three-year-old. The old and the young laughed together happily.

"I want to serve as an official in the south, or at the very least, Shandong, as long as it's a coastal province," Jia Yin said, revealing his true thoughts. As for whether he could pass the imperial examination, that was a joke.

"Alright then, you can go to Southeast Asia to be an official!" Jia Lian joked with a smile. Daiyu got anxious, grabbed his hand and bit it lightly, but not hard.

“If you’re going to the South, go to Jiangnan to be an official. Your maternal grandfather still has some connections there,” Daiyu said in a fit of pique. Jia Lian chuckled and patted Daiyu’s hand, handing his granddaughter to a maid before speaking seriously, “If you govern the coastal provinces well, your abilities won’t stand out. I suggest you go to Henan; Xuchang is a good option. Think about it. You have a master’s degree, and after passing the imperial examination, you can start as a seventh-rank county magistrate.”

"Father, can you explain why?" Jia Yin didn't argue; he was past the age of rebellion. Over the years, he had seen too many officials in school who couldn't get promoted and were forced to pursue master's degrees.

Daiyu glared angrily at Jia Lian, then turned to her son with a smile and said, "Don't mind your father; he's just someone who doesn't know how to speak properly. After the New Year, your uncle will take office as the governor of Henan, and you will go to Xuchang as the county magistrate. This will be a good opportunity to cooperate with his policies on promoting the development of cash crop cultivation. In recent years, the economies of inland provinces have been performing poorly. Henan is a major agricultural province, and agriculture is the cornerstone of national food security. How to improve the lives of farmers will be an important criterion for evaluating inland officials in the future."

Jia Lian then smiled and said, "This is His Majesty's intention. In recent years, the promotion speed of officials in coastal provinces has been faster. His Majesty's intention is that inland provinces should not be neglected. Grain is of great importance in Henan. The evaluation criteria for local officials are mainly based on grain output and economic growth. The gentry in Henan have been purged several times, and the problem of land annexation has been greatly alleviated. It will be good for you to make a difference if you go there."

Jia Yin then realized how convenient it was to have such a father for becoming an official.

It can only be said that the gentry of Henan were truly unlucky. From Emperor Chenghui to Emperor Qianzheng, two emperors tirelessly rectified Henan and cracked down on land annexation for decades. The root of the problem lay in food security. Henan's grain was crucial to the food security of the north. Don't say that sea freight was cheaper for grain from the south; that only became possible after the court provided subsidies. In reality, agriculture wasn't profitable, but it was the ballast of the nation, and successive emperors attached great importance to it. During Jia Lian's reign, it was even more so. The gentry of Henan were terrified of being exploited. Even building a railway could lead to such exploitation; you can imagine what it was like.

"With the railway, grain transportation has become much easier, and there's never too much grain. The imperial court has set a clear minimum purchase price for grain, precisely to prevent farmers from being harmed by low grain prices. However, farming alone cannot bring wealth. Your Majesty has abolished corvée labor and exempted the poll tax, and industry and commerce are thriving. It's time to give back to agriculture and let farmers breathe a sigh of relief. I hope that one day the imperial court can exempt the land tax, but unfortunately, I won't live to see it. This year, the most important task for the Censorate is to keep an eye on the officials below, to see if they have colluded with the gentry to enrich themselves while the imperial court has clearly exempted the poll tax and abolished corvée labor."

Jia Yin was not short of money and would not engage in corruption. Jia Lian said these things to tell Jia Yin about the court's major policies.

Topographically, the north has more arable land and is primarily agricultural. The south, with its scattered arable land, and apart from Hubei and Hunan provinces, couldn't sustain the nation's food needs during the agricultural era. The saying "When Hubei and Hunan are prosperous, the whole country is well-fed" is an exaggeration; taking it literally would be foolish. Keep in mind that the national population is now close to 400 million and is still rapidly increasing.

Even so, this was under the premise that the imperial court insisted on a large-scale immigration policy.

During Jia Lian's reign, five million people immigrated to Donghua, and fifteen million immigrated to Southeast Asia and other places. These immigrants were all young and middle-aged men. If it weren't for the immigrants, the country would have had twenty million more young and middle-aged men, and these people didn't even have land to cultivate. What a terrifying number that would be.

This is just the number of officially registered immigrants. Many immigrants in the three southwestern provinces were not registered by the government because they did not register as immigrants and simply traveled overland to South Asia.

In recent years, after jade was designated as a tribute to the imperial court, its price skyrocketed. At least a million young men from the three southwestern provinces fled there illegally. The problem is, where do the local jade mines find so much labor? Wouldn't it be better to recruit local natives to mine? Why risk using immigrants, only to be discovered by the government and face military action? Now, the chieftains of the southwest, guarding their jade mines, are both happy and worried.

I'm happy because I can make money, but I'm worried because what if the local officials are inhumane?

Fortunately, the area has many mineral deposits, including copper in addition to jade, and oil has also been discovered. It is said that Myanmar is going to cede Yenangyaung to Myanmar.

Those immigrants outside are all incredibly wild; the local natives simply can't handle them.

I heard that a railway is to be built in the southwest. It will be very difficult, but once it is completed, it will be a huge success. From then on, the southwest will no longer be too difficult to manage. The emperor is too far away, and if you cause trouble, the court can send troops to destroy you at any time.

Even now, a marine corps unit is still stationed in Yangon. Despite the initial agreement not to intervene in the Indian Ocean, the navy still maintains a permanent presence there, all under the pretext of being provided by the British.

The British, managing their colony in India, experienced a bittersweet mix of joy and worry. They were pleased that the Indians were genuinely subservient, truly willing to kneel and serve like slaves. Their worry stemmed from neighboring Burma, which could invade at any moment. Fortunately, most people weren't interested in Indians; they might buy a few white women, but wouldn't accept any Black women. Truly, their demands were high.

This trend among the common people arose sometime during a period of time, and it didn't happen overnight. From the very beginning of the exploration of Southeast Asia, there was a disdain for the dark skin of the indigenous women, preferring to buy white women from the British, East Asian women from Japan and Korea, and Southern European women from the Ottomans. Black women, who were highly sought after by Americans, were disliked in the Eastern Hua Kingdom and the Central Empire. As for Kunlun slaves, they had already been seen in the Tang Dynasty; they were nothing new.

This trend was undoubtedly the result of deliberate manipulation, with Silla maids being the most expensive category. Then came the Sogdian women, who were carefully selected; they had to be Sogdians as recorded in historical texts from the Tang Dynasty.

There are differences compared to the prosperous Tang Dynasty. At least now, foreigners are not qualified to serve as officials in the mainland, although they can serve as officials in Anxi. You have to be a tribal chief, and only those officials appointed by the imperial court are considered officials.

Back in Henan, during Jia Lian's reign, millions of young men were deliberately relocated from the province, making it difficult for landlords to hire laborers and causing labor costs to rise significantly. However, speaking of Henan, it was now difficult to even find a landlord to work with, as the court had purged them multiple times under various pretexts. The same situation existed in Hebei. Hebei landlords fared even worse, as they were closer to the capital. Even members of the imperial family were forced to relinquish their land during Jia Lian's rule, or they would be barred from certain highly profitable industries. Through this exchange of favors, powerful landlords in Hebei were essentially wiped out.

The key issue is that when the emperor conferred titles upon his clansmen, he no longer granted them nearby land. Even for princes, the land they were given was in the Northeast and Southeast Asia, and it was all wasteland, requiring them to organize people to reclaim it themselves.

After Li Wan ascended the throne, he planned to bestow some land near the capital upon his father-in-law's family. Before Jia Lian could even act, Shen Lei, Fei Yun, and others stopped him.

Don't be fooled by the Shen clan's land grabbing in the countryside. The scholar-official class truly operates on the principle of "the magistrate is allowed to set fires, but the emperor is forbidden to light lamps." In short, no powerful landowners are allowed to emerge in the lands surrounding the capital. Every single one must be removed and exchanged for land in Northeast China and Southeast Asia. If you think that's too far, you can exchange it for even more distant provinces like Xinjiang and Anxi.

The powerful and wealthy these days are focused entirely on factories, mines, banks, and the stock market—these are where you can make money quickly. However, the imperial court keeps a tight rein on the stock market; at least as long as Jia Lian is in power, that will remain the case.

Therefore, countless powerful and influential people hoped that Jia Lian would step down as soon as possible after becoming the Grand Secretary.

Unfortunately, Jia Lian just wouldn't step down. Even after Li Wan became emperor, he was surprised to find, just like the previous two emperors, that many things simply couldn't be done without Jia Lian.

It's not that Jia Lian is particularly good at something, but rather that he can come up with better solutions to many problems.

Most importantly, Jia Lian's integrity is far superior to others. Li Wan saw this clearly; Shen Lei was only the second-in-command, yet the Shen clan had already caused him a mess involving tens of millions.

The ten million silver dollars borrowed from the central bank are irrecoverable.

(End of this chapter)