The Red Mansion Big Liar.

Chapter 187 Seeking good luck and avoiding bad luck
The end of the year is the time for families to interact with each other.

The same goes for Prince Ning's Mansion.

However, among the people who come to the door, many have sad faces, come to complain about their poverty, and ask for money.

The Ministry of Works corruption case implicated most of the officials from Prince Ning's faction.

In the past, when they had this floating wealth, they squandered it extravagantly and were used to spending it lavishly. Now that they have returned the dirty silver, even their family assets have been emptied.

The difficulty comes at the end of the year, especially for those generals serving in the army.

If these people want to gain a foothold in the army, in addition to interpersonal relationships, they must also cultivate a group of personal soldiers under their command.

The treatment of these personal soldiers is often much better than that of ordinary soldiers in the army, and the extra expenses are all based on their abilities.

Although these generals would also receive some empty salaries to subsidize this part of the expenses.

But now that the dirty silver has just been returned, it is a time of shortage of money, so they have to ask King Ning for help.

Besides his status as a prince, wasn't it because of the money-making method of the Ministry of Works that Prince Ning was able to win over this group of people?
Today, what we have gained in these years has been in vain, and people at the bottom have changed their minds and are full of complaints.

Although he could provide temporary subsidies and solve their urgent needs, it was not a long-term solution. These people had their financial resources cut off, and so had he.

The prince’s family doesn’t have any surplus food!
In order to win over this group of people, he was eager to find a stable way to make money so that he could reassure them.

It was no longer possible for him to get help from the Ministry of Industry, which was why he was eager to win over Zhang Yun逸.

Although the sales of Tiangongyuan were in the hands of King Zhongshun, he did not want to offend him rashly, but the purchase of raw materials was a matter that Zhang Yunyi had the final say.

In the past, when I asked the Ministry of Industry for help, I often went through the procurement route, and now I am familiar with it.

However, Jia Zheng was slow in doing things, and it has been almost half a year, and there is still no news.

He finally couldn't help but summon Jia Zheng to ask about the progress.

"Although the prince is eager to seek talents, Brother Yi is an old relative of the family. This is a matter of course. Why should the prince be so humble?"

Things went wrong twice during the banquet for Zhang Yun逸, and Jia Zheng couldn't help but wonder whether it was a backlash against him.

He had been an official for many years, but had not learned much about governing, but he had still not lost his ability to shirk responsibility and argue.

The same few sentences were repeated over and over again. Prince Ning was too embarrassed to state his intentions. Besides, what Jia Zheng said made sense, so he turned to ask about the progress of the villa where the bride was to be married.

"This..." Jia Zheng had never cared about this, so he could only turn a blind eye again, "Your Majesty also knows that the heavy snow this year has delayed the construction period a little. It is difficult to say now. I will report back after I go back and find out clearly."

After a few questions, Prince Ning realized that Jia Zheng was basically a fool, and he couldn't help but have an opinion of Yuanchun.

If it weren't for Zhang Yunyi, he would have even planned to break off the engagement. Even so, he was too lazy to waste time with him.

After sending Jia Zheng away, he thought of Jia Jing again.

Although what Jia Zheng said made sense, after marrying Jia Yuanchun, he would be considered a relative of Zhang Yun逸.

But it is better to do it sooner rather than later, and since Jia Zheng mentioned that the progress of the villa was delayed, he couldn't help but worry and kept putting it off.

He summoned Jia Jing privately again, and this time he did not hide his difficulties.

However, such frankness failed to convince Jia Jing. Instead, it reminded him not to act impulsively, lest Zhang Yun逸 suspect the cause of Zhang Changqing's death and end up making things worse.

After meeting with Prince Ning, Jia Jing returned to Xuanzhen Temple, but he was still worried. The corruption case of the Ministry of Works was exposed, and the emperor only confined Prince Ning for three months, which was a minor punishment but a major warning.

However, Jia Jing had been practicing Taoism with the emperor for a long time, and he had a general idea of ​​Emperor Zhengqing's character.

Originally, one could hope for a turnaround by Prince Ning ascending the throne, but now that hope is slim.

On the one hand, the rejection of Prince Ning's proposal was out of caution, and on the other hand, it was also a deliberate attempt to alienate Prince Ning.

Moreover, the more this is the case, the more Zhang Yun逸 cannot afford to cause any trouble.

Otherwise, once he found out that I was the culprit who caused his family to be destroyed, I would be lucky not to stab him, let alone guarantee him in front of the emperor.

He immediately sent someone to summon Jia Zhen, and warned him, "If Prince Ning asks you to win over Yun Yi, you must not agree."

"Son, save yourself!" Jia Zhen asked in confusion, "Wasn't this agreed upon beforehand? Let the West Mansion take the lead to avoid Yun Yi's suspicion. Why did the master specially summon his son to come?"

Jia Jing frowned and said thoughtfully, "I also saw that Prince Ning was a little anxious, and I was worried that he would not listen to my advice. Now we don't ask for overwhelming wealth, but only for peace and stability. If Yun Yi makes a mistake again, our family will be doomed."

He told Jia Zhen about his speculation about the succession, and sighed, "Now that the West Mansion has emerged, I, your father, have also lost favor with the emperor. Prince Ning no longer has any need to win us over. This is a good opportunity to distance myself from him, so as to avoid being resented by Prince Qin in the future."

"This……"

After hearing what Jia Jing said, Jia Zhen's face suddenly fell.

He had always been counting on Prince Ning to ascend the throne and restore the former glory, but now even his last hope is gone.

But compared to wealth and glory, life is more important. He hurriedly said, "Should we remind Yun Yi? Otherwise, he will get too close to Prince Ning and implicate us in the future."

Jia Jing pondered for a long while, then sighed: "This is also what worries my father. Now the family is counting on him for the emperor's favor, but this is also a double-edged sword. If you often walk by the river, how can you not get your feet wet? The death of your uncle is always a thorn in your side. What if he finds out one day..."

At this point, a hint of ruthlessness flashed across his face, and he said in a deep voice: "If he really makes friends with Prince Ning, our family will take this opportunity to find a reason to completely cut off ties with him and the West Mansion, and then return the mansion to the court, leaving him and the West Mansion to do whatever they want, so as not to be conspicuous in front of Prince Qin."

Jia Zhen's face changed drastically, and he said anxiously: "But...but the whole family depends on him for survival. If we fall out with him, won't it be..."

Seeing that he looked unhappy, Jia Jing felt the same way.

However, since this matter concerns the survival of the family, he immediately interrupted and said, "As long as the mountains are green, there will be no shortage of firewood. Don't aim too high. As long as your father's reputation is still there, you can be exempted from those heavy taxes. With the eight or nine farms in the family, although it cannot guarantee that you will be rich, you can return the mansion built by the emperor, reduce those unnecessary expenses, and move back to Jinling. It should not be a problem to become a rich man."

When he heard that he would have to move away from the capital, Jia Zhen was even more unwilling.

"Our lives are at stake. Regardless of whether Yun Yi knows the cause of his father's death, we are planning for Prince Ning to slander Prince Qin for using celestial phenomena to defame the emperor. If this is leaked, we will be doomed. Now we have no choice but to stay away from the capital and hide as far away as possible. It would be best if Prince Qin forgets about us, so that we have a chance to protect ourselves."

"What if Yun Yi had never made friends with Prince Ning?"

Jia Jing looked at him deeply, sighed and said, "With his means of making money, as long as he doesn't make friends with King Ning, he will naturally be promoted to a high position with generous salary. However, we can only leave it to fate and hope that the plot to murder them will never be leaked!"

He twirled his long beard and commented, "In the West Mansion, the eldest master is greedy for pleasure, and the second master is ambitious but incompetent. The hen crows at dawn, which is the only thing that matters to the family. The whole mansion is left to the children of the family to make decisions. Not only have the brothers been raised, but they also know very little about the important affairs of the court and are not worthy of being consulted. Do you understand what your father means?"

Jia Zheng looked down on his good fortune of accompanying the emperor in practicing Taoism, so how could he look up to Jia Zheng?

However, when he was commenting on the Rong Mansion, he forgot that he was not much better. He was only concerned with accompanying the emperor in practicing Taoism and had no time to take care of his son.

Jia Zhen hurriedly bowed his head and said obediently: "Don't worry, father, I won't worry about it!"

……

(End of this chapter)