Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1474 If you don’t eat the toast, you will be punished with alcohol!
When Jia Gong came to Yijing, the Yijing newspaper industry was just emerging. Jia Gong was a poor scholar at the time and had no source of income. So he watched as he and his mother were living off their savings in Yijing. So he decided to give it a try and submitted an article to the Yijing Morning Post under the pen name Jia Xin!

Zhang Chengjie, the editor-in-chief of Yijing Morning News at that time, admired Jia Gong's article very much. He immediately published Jia Gong's article in Yijing Morning News and paid Jia Gong royalties. Because Jia Gong's article was meaningful and critical of current social ills, it quickly became popular once it was published. Many people bought Yijing Morning News just to read his articles!

In the two years that followed, Jia Gong continued to contribute to the Yijing Morning News under the pen name Jia Xin. It was with the help of this outstanding critic that the Yijing Morning News became the largest-circulation and most influential newspaper in Yijing before the advent of the Yijing Daily!
But when Jia Xin was at the height of his popularity and could earn more than ten taels of silver or even more for each article he wrote in Yijing Morning News, Jia Xin announced in Yijing Morning News that he would stop writing. Many readers were puzzled and felt sorry about this, but few people knew that the reason why Jia Gong, who used the pen name Jia Xin, chose to stop writing at the height of his glory was because he was recruited!
As the founder and promoter of Daqian’s newspaper industry, Ye Mingsheng also had the habit of reading newspapers. The Yijing Morning Post, to which Jia Gong had contributed articles before, was the largest newspaper in Yijing at the time, so Ye Mingsheng had purchased the Yijing Morning Post many times and read Jia Xin’s articles...
Because it was a critical period of reform, many people published their views and ideas about the reform in newspapers. Among them, some supported the reform and some opposed it. Jia Gong, whose pen name was Jia Xin at the time, clearly supported Ye Mingsheng's reform measures!

Jia Gong believes that Ye Mingsheng's measures of redeeming land, encouraging the development of industry and commerce, and attaching importance to education and science and technology are all very correct!

If it were just this, Ye Mingsheng would not pay attention to him. After all, under Ye Cheng's arrangement, many people were advocating reforms in newspapers and praising Ye Mingsheng, so Ye Mingsheng had no shortage of people praising him!
What really aroused Ye Mingsheng's interest was that although Jia Gong supported the reform, he implicitly criticized Ye Mingsheng in the article for his lack of courage, fear of conservatives, and some of his measures were full of compromise. Jia Gong hoped that Ye Mingsheng could be bolder and more ruthless and carry out the reform of Daqian to the end, especially in the G field.

These proposals of Jia Gong made Ye Mingsheng very interested in him, so during another incognito visit, Ye Mingsheng disguised himself and talked with Jia Gong. It was this conversation that made Ye Mingsheng think that although Jia Gong was a bit radical in his political views, he was not a boastful person.

So in the end Ye Mingsheng decided to give Jia Gong a chance and let him enter the G field and become a reader in the Daqian Hanlin Academy. Although the G position is not high, it can be regarded as entering Ye Mingsheng's staff team...
Although he became a reader in the Hanlin Academy, a job that guaranteed a stable income, but excluding rewards such as grain and cloth, the pure salary of a reader in the Hanlin Academy was not very high. It was only about ten taels of silver a year. Jia Gong also had an old mother who needed medicine all year round, so life could be said to be very tight!
Therefore, Jia Gong himself did not want to give up the opportunity to contribute articles to Yijing Morning News and earn royalties, but the law clearly stipulates that court officials are not allowed to have part-time jobs.

Therefore, Jia Gong, who was recruited, had to stop contributing articles to Yijing Morning News and gave up the income of dozens of taels of silver for each article!

Although he was somewhat reluctant to stop writing, Jia Gong, who became an official appointed by the court, still had strong moral integrity. In his work in the Hanlin Academy, he also refused some gray income and became an outlier among his colleagues. He was even ostracized, but he still went his own way and had no intention of going along with them!
Recently, Jia Gong, who is over 30 years old, got married and had children. Coupled with the rising cost of living in Yijing, Jia Gong's life pressure is gradually increasing.

Just three months ago, after Ye Mingsheng learned that the prices in Yijing continued to rise, the salaries of some Yijing employees, especially the grassroots employees, began to be stretched to make ends meet. Some people were already complaining bitterly.

After discussing with the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Personnel, it was decided to give the grassroots employees a small salary increase, and Ye Mingsheng allowed the non-main employees below the seventh rank of Yijing to develop some side businesses within the legal field in principle to help them live a better life, but the premise is that these side businesses must be reported in advance...
Ye Mingsheng's order also gave Jia Gong hope. As a reader in the Hanlin Academy, he happened to be of the seventh rank and not a main official, so Jia Gong wanted to go back to his old job. So he found his old friend Zhang Chengjie, wanting to write articles for the Yijing Morning Post again to earn royalties!
At this time, Zhang Chengjie has already jumped from Yijing Morning News to Yijing Daily and has become a writer under An Miaoyi!

After learning about this, An Miaoyi asked Zhang Chengjie to make sure to sign Jia Gong. Even if she couldn't let him say many good things about her in front of the emperor, she absolutely couldn't let him continue to mention things like changing the crown prince in front of the emperor. As for Jia Gong's royalties, she would give him as much as he could.

Originally, An Miaoyi thought that with such favorable conditions, Jia Gong would never choose to refuse!

But now it seems that some people just refuse to accept a toast and then drink the wine for punishment!

Thinking of this, a cold light flashed in An Miaoyi's eyes. Since Jia Gong refused to cooperate, she must show him a lesson!
Although Jia Gong has always been known as a madman in the Hanlin Academy, An Miaoyi believes that no matter how mad this madman is, he can only bow down in front of her!
Do you think that you are invincible just because you are clean and have no evidence against you?
If you really think so, then you are too naive.
··················
··················
Just as An Miaoyi was thinking about how to plot, Ye Mingsheng finished his day's work and started jogging in the park accompanied by several guards.

Although it was only three quarters past three in the evening, the sun had already set in Yijing and the light had begun to dim. Against the backdrop of the setting sun, Ye Mingsheng was running while thinking about problems.

That morning, Ye Mingsheng received another letter from Robe Khan Ibugel. In the letter, Ibugel said that although it snowed on the Elunqin steppe in the past half month, the Cumans were still very active.

Small groups of Cuman cavalry, numbering dozens, a dozen or even a few people, kept invading the Robe tribe, robbing the Robe people of their cattle, sheep, women and other daily necessities.

If that were all, there would be nothing to worry about. After all, small-scale attacks like this were frequent, if not every year. And it wasn't just the Kipchaks who harassed the Robes. The Robes had also harassed the Kipchaks in previous years!

But it is worth noting that many of these small invading groups of Cuman cavalry had muskets in their hands, so in the battles with the Robes, they were often able to inflict casualties on the Robes at a distance where bows and arrows had no effect!
Because it is only a small-scale battle at present, even if the Robe people suffered a little loss, the total casualties are not large, only a few hundred people. However, Ibugel believes that this is a very bad trend, so he asks Ye Mingsheng to give the Robe people firearms and send more soldiers to the grassland... Ye Mingsheng also attaches great importance to Ibugel's request. After all, the Golden Horde is like a hungry wolf on the grassland. When next spring comes, they are likely to launch a large-scale attack. This is not only a major test for the Robe people who are currently facing internal and external troubles and are not united!

It is also a great test for the Daqian grassland strategy!

If possible, Ye Mingsheng would also like to prepare as soon as possible, but unfortunately, Daqian’s previous strategy was to develop southwards, so some resources were tilted towards the south. Now if the strategy is to be changed, it will take some time!

Secondly, Daqian currently has no budget for going to war on the grassland. At yesterday's cabinet meeting, Cui Shao, the Minister of Revenue, also made things clear to Ye Mingsheng. After a year of hard work, the Ministry of Revenue still has 195,000 taels of silver in its account!
Logically speaking, this money is in the Ministry of Revenue's warehouse, and it can be used for war preparations as long as Ye Mingsheng gives the order, but Ye Mingsheng cannot do that!

The reason is that it is almost the end of the year!

New Year's Eve is coming soon, and every household needs to celebrate the New Year. Although Daqian does not owe any salary, according to convention, at the end of the year, the court needs to give everyone a reward on top of the usual salary so that everyone can have a good year!
If it were normal times, Ye Mingsheng might have given out less money to fool people, but this year was different. Because of Ye Mingsheng's layoffs, governments at all levels were forced to turn the knife inward and lay off many people, causing many people at the central and local levels to complain.

As the saying goes, if you hit someone with a stick, you should give him a sweet date. Now that the New Year is coming soon, Ye Mingsheng needs to give everyone red envelopes to appease everyone's mood.
If this money is not distributed or is distributed in small amounts, it will undoubtedly lead to greater resentment in everyone's hearts, and some more extreme situations may occur.

Therefore, for the long-term stability of Daqian, this money absolutely cannot be saved. So although Ye Mingsheng is willing to do more preparatory work, he has no money to support it. The only thing Ye Mingsheng can do now is to transfer a batch of muskets to Ibugele and arrange dozens of instructors to help him deal with it.

Anyway, no matter how ambitious the new Khan of the Golden Horde, Habib, is, he cannot mobilize a large number of troops in this cold winter. He will have to wait until the beginning of spring in March next year at the earliest to make any big moves!

By that time, the tax silver from Jiangnan would have already arrived in Yijing, and the central government's finances would be much more abundant, enough to support the war with the Golden Horde!

This time, Ye Mingsheng really wanted to kill the Golden Horde. Ye Mingsheng thought that the previous battles had completely destroyed the Golden Horde's vitality, making them unable to do anything in the next ten years. But now, in just a few years, with the help of the Romans, the Golden Horde has fought back!
Therefore, Ye Mingsheng also wanted to take more ruthless measures. Otherwise, when the trouble is solved this time and Daqian's strategy turns south again, these Cuman bastards will come out to cause trouble. Will they turn back again?
Such a strategic shift would consume a lot of Daqian's national strength, so Ye Mingsheng had to ensure that such a thing would only happen once...

In addition to external affairs, Ye Mingsheng was more troubled by the internal affairs of Daqian. Although the internal security had not found any solid evidence, based on some clues currently at hand, Ye Mingsheng was certain that Wang Xuecheng's death was not a simple murder of passion!

The reason why Zhao Zibo, who was cuckolded by Wang Xuecheng, was able to avoid Wang Xuecheng's schemes and return to Yijing was entirely because someone was helping him behind the scenes. This person used Zhao Zibo to kill Wang Xuecheng, making the incident look like a murder of love!

Although the internal security failed to find evidence to prove all this, Ye Mingsheng was almost certain that this person was one of his important officials!
Ever since the Fengwu Army period, Ye Mingsheng's rule has never been united, and open and covert struggles have never ceased. On the one hand, this situation arose because of internal conflicts of interest, and on the other hand, it was also due to Ye Mingsheng's deliberate connivance!

After all, if all the ministers under his rule were so friendly and harmonious with each other, Ye Mingsheng might not be able to sleep!

Although Ye Mingsheng somewhat condoned the open and covert fighting among ministers, he also hoped that everyone could fight without breaking up, not to trip each other up, and certainly not to directly take actions that crossed the red line. But this time some people crossed the red line!
After realizing that the matter was related to this person, Ye Mingsheng felt heartbroken. He didn't understand why he did this!
Ye Mingsheng really wanted to call him over and ask him why he killed Wang Xuecheng, but based on Ye Mingsheng's understanding of this person, he knew that when he saw that he had no solid evidence, he would definitely deny that he did it. Even if Ye Mingsheng put a knife on his neck, he would say no!

So Ye Mingsheng is a little hesitant in his heart now, although through some clues and inferences, Ye Mingsheng can be sure that this person did it!

However, because there is no solid evidence, Ye Mingsheng still has some concerns in his heart. After all, he is not a god. What if his inference is wrong? It would be like killing a loyal person by mistake, destroying his own Great Wall and making his relatives sad and his enemies happy...