Red Mansion: Bastards rule the roost

Chapter 253 A Bad Battle of Words 1
  The next day, the situation was calm.

The people around the market were so frightened by the thrilling shouts of killing last night that they couldn't sleep all night. Fortunately, the noise soon stopped. When they opened the door in the morning, they were frightened by the piles of bones and blood all over the street.

The soldiers guarding the city drove horse-drawn carriages and ox-carts for a whole morning. They finally pulled the corpses of the dead outside the city and buried them together. They also fetched water and washed the streets. After working for a long time, they were finally clean, except for the air. A faint hint of blood floated in, and the area became clean again.

Jia Cong met with the tribal leaders who participated in the war in his mansion, distributed bounties on the spot, and hosted a banquet in honor of everyone. The guests and hosts enjoyed themselves.

After seeing off the leaders, all the generals and officials came to report back.

Wang Jin said: "Your Majesty, in the battle last night, more than 14000 people were killed, more than 350 horses were captured, and more than wounded were captured.

After interrogation, it was found that someone was secretly manipulating him to disguise himself as a mature urchin for the mutual trade and enter the country through Fushun Pass in Tielingwei. Because the Han army did not know the difference between a raw and mature urchin, they actually let him cross the sea and sneak under the Liaohai Guard City.

They heard that the Liaohai Guards were empty, very wealthy, and all kinds of goods were piled up like mountains. They planned to come and grab a ticket and leave. By the way... it would be detrimental to the adults. However, the prisoners are all small fish and shrimps, and no information can be obtained from them. "

Jia Cong sneered and said: "This is an obvious thing. Without internal thieves, you can't attract external enemies. If you can persuade ten or twenty thousand people, who is the person behind it? Do you need to find out who is behind it?"

Everyone was shocked and said in unison: "Your Excellency, you are saying..." In Liaodong, apart from General Yang Xiong, the only one with this kind of energy is the Prince of Liao's Palace.

Jia Cong nodded and said: "It seems that our Liao Haiwei has been regarded as a thorn in the side and a thorn in the flesh, and they are determined to get rid of me first."

Before Wang Jin and other generals had time to speak, Rong Liu and other civil servants reacted very quickly. They had already stood up and raised their hands and said: "We will follow you to the death to protect the safety of Liao Haiwei!"

Now under Jia Cong's rule, Liaohaiwei can collect 10 silver in monthly customs duties alone. The salaries and wages of officials at all levels of the yamen have soared by more than ten times, or even dozens of times, and gray income has also increased unabated. Whoever dares to touch Jia Cong is equivalent to digging their ancestral graves?

Jia Cong smiled and said: "I have always known about your desire to serve the imperial court. Now some people don't like us and think that we have robbed him of his food, so naturally he comes with open and covert attacks.

But as long as you all do your part and convince the people, no matter how much trouble outsiders make, they won't be able to cause trouble. You all tell me, what’s the next step? "

Wang Jin said: "I think that in the next step, we must strictly guard against the entry of raw people, and we must also be careful about mature people. After all, tens of thousands of people gather in the city, and if someone incites it, trouble will easily happen."

Hufang Jingcheng said: "The lower official thinks that we can agree with each tribe on the time for mutual trade, so that each tribe can disperse into the city to prevent the tribes from rushing in at once and gathering too many, which is difficult to manage."

"Yes." Jia Cong said.

Rong Liu said: "I believe that we must prevent other places from imitating our method and raising the purchase price to compete with me for the goods of the people. Although your Excellency has a good relationship with the Jurchens, the money is so attractive that we have to make early plans."

Everyone frowned and nodded, this is bound to happen, no one wants to look up to others.

Jia Cong deeply believed that burning money to compete for the market was not a sophisticated method. He had seen it many times in his previous life. Moreover, it was an upright conspiracy, and it all depended on who bets bigger.

You Jia said happily: "What Master Rong said is absolutely true. People are seeking profit. If someone bids higher than me, they will naturally be attracted."

If you want to make them stick around, you must use greater inducements to make them reluctant to leave. The final general thought that we should use the power of the General Military Office to retain the people with things that others could not provide. "

Jia Cong said: "You mean weapons?"

Youjia said happily: "My lord is wise."

Jia Cong pondered for a while and said: "I have this plan, but the arsenal in the defense is small, and I am still working hard to build it.

What you said makes sense. When writing a letter to the General Military Mansion, he said that our army wanted to implement the policy of using barbarians to control barbarians and open up the trade of iron and weapons to all people except Tatars in order to contain the Tatars. He asked the General Military Mansion for permission and to supply weapons.

As for the smuggling of contraband in other places, please ask the General Military Office to strictly investigate to avoid disrupting the deployment. "

Everyone laughed and said, "With your relationship with General Yang, we will definitely get a concession. In this way, we will get the arms sales concession, and the General Military Office will get the benefits of the arms trade. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone."

Jia Cong smiled and said: "In addition, if some tribes have different intentions, they will be warned privately that if they trade with other families, Liaohaiwei will no longer trade with them and let them make their own decisions. This is called choosing between two! At the same time, Sell ​​weapons to their rival tribes.”

Rong Liu said with a smile: "My lord, this is a clever plan. The Han people are eager to get the weapons of the Han army. We should calculate the time when the weapons are worn out and sell them in small quantities many times. We must not feed them all at once and make them switch to others." Jia Cong laughed: "What the Chief Secretary said deeply resonates with me. All in all, we must control the people intentionally or unintentionally. We can neither be too harsh nor let them run free. You can control it yourself."

The crowd answered in unison.

Jingcheng of the ceremony room cupped his hands and said: "Sir, why don't I send officials to each tribe as envoys? Firstly, communication and exchanges are convenient, and they can educate the people about righteousness. Secondly, they can also keep track of the movements of the people at any time and dissuade them. Third, if the situation is not good, you can be the first to arrive and receive the goods on the spot. The first to get the moon is the one closest to the water."

Jia Cong nodded: "It's very good. You should immediately arrange for capable personnel to be stationed in each tribe and rotate them every six months. Please ask Madam to assign two Jurchens to each of them who can speak Chinese."

"Yes."

Everyone nodded in approval.

Yu Hong suddenly said: "Sir, there is one more thing that I feel I have to guard against."

"What's the matter?"

"If someone in the dark sees that I and the people are getting along well, and cannot be coerced or induced, how can they give up? They will use all means to sow discord and disrupt trade.

Either send people to lurk inside and outside the guard city to pick out the enemy civilians, or directly send people to pretend to be our soldiers and wait for the enemy civilians to intercept and kill them when they come and go. In this way, the reputation of our guard will be gone in a few attacks. . "Yu Hong said in a deep voice.

Everyone was shocked. This was very likely to happen. The people behind it were so bold that even the Liaohai Guards dared to attack, let alone a mere civilian?

Jia Cong frowned and said: "It's really not possible. Wang Fei, please disperse all the horse exploration camps to me, monitor the exit conditions of the troops at various passes in Liaodong, and report them in time."

"Yes."

Jia Cong especially felt that it was insufficient. The manpower of the Tanma camp was limited, and Liaodong was vast. If the mastermind wanted to sneak out of the border, he might not be able to detect it, so he said: "Please come with two ladies."

After a while, Sister Wanyan arrived.

"The lower official (the last general) has seen the two ladies!" All the generals stood up in a hurry to greet them.

Wanyanshan waved her hands grandly: "My lords, there is no need to be polite."

Wanyanwei smiled and said, "Brother Jia, what do you want us to do?"

Jia Cong asked the two of them to sit down and said, "Weier, I remember you said that Jurchens often use falcons to send messages?"

The two girls nodded, and Wan Yanshan said: "Nowadays, the clan elders use Haidongqing to report clan affairs to me every day, which is much safer than carrier pigeons."

Jia Cong felt reassured and said with a smile: "I have just discussed with you all, some people are jealous of the harmonious trade between Liaohaiwei and Fanmin, and they must find ways to destroy it. This sneak attack on Sheng Jurchen is an example.

Therefore, in order to protect the safety of the people of all tribes, I would like to ask you to send tribesmen to build sentry towers at key places where tribes outside the country must pass through, and monitor the surroundings. If there is any unknown movement of a large group of people, immediately send an eagle message. The required expenses will be borne by the garrison yamen. "

Wanyanshan smiled and said: "It's just a trivial matter, what does it matter? I'll just arrange it. It will be completed within half a month."

Jia Cong said: "Thank you."

Wanyanshan rolled her eyes at him and said, "Why are you being so polite to me?"

Jia Cong smiled and said: "Of course there is no need to be polite in the boudoir, but this is official business, not private."

Everyone laughed.

Wanyanshan blushed, glared at him, and pulled her sister into the back hall. After a while, Hai Dongqing, who had always been snow-white, rose into the sky with the patriarch's order and disappeared in the sky in an instant.

(End of this chapter)