The Red Mansion: From a Small Pawn to a Leader

Emperor Yongchang walked in from the warm room of the Yangxin Palace and asked Dai Quan, who had been waiting there, "Has Huang Jinzhong's secret memorial arrived?"

Dai Quan: "Your Majesty, I just arrived." He pointed with his hand.

A locked box was placed on the imperial desk. Emperor Yongchang walked to the cabinet in the corner, took the key from his waist, opened the cabinet door, took out a key from inside, walked to the imperial desk, and opened the box.

Emperor Yongchang took out the secret memorial and read it.

After reading the secret memorial, Emperor Yongchang gently closed it, his eyes flashed: "Li Hu must have made a lot of money!"

Dai Quan smiled secretly. Li Hu was getting bolder and bolder. He first sent the embezzled property from the Chahar royal court to Beijing with great fanfare, and then used the imperial post station to send food and toys to the daughter of the Lin family. The last person to do this was Li Longji. The Maoming'an and Urad tribes had not experienced war for more than a hundred years. They must have accumulated a lot of property. If it was divided according to the Chahar royal court, Li Hu estimated that he had intercepted nearly one million in property. Excluding the people under him, he had embezzled at least three or four hundred thousand.

Thinking of this, Dai Quan made up his mind that this year the Li family's annual gift must be 50% more than last year, no, double it!
Emperor Yongchang threw the secret letter away, walked to the window, looked at the dead leaves falling outside, and sighed: "Forget it, as long as he can deal with the Mongols, no matter how greedy he is, I will accept it." As he spoke, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a pot of hibiscus flowers planted in a jade basin under the window, lit by Xuan stone. He was slightly stunned: "It's almost the end of October, why are these hibiscus flowers still in full bloom?"

Dai Quan thought for a moment and replied, "This flower should have withered in early October. This year the solar term is late and it is warm in the greenhouse, so it is not surprising that it has bloomed for ten more days or half a month."

After a pause, he said, "These flowers were just delivered this morning. If Your Majesty doesn't like them, I will ask them to change them."

Emperor Yongchang waved his hand and said, "This flower is nice. Have someone give it to Yuanchun." Out of the corner of his eye he saw a red-robed eunuch from the Imperial Household Department peeking outside the door and making gestures to Dai Quan.

Emperor Yongchang frowned: "What's the matter?"

The eunuch hurried in and knelt down at the door. "Your Majesty, the news from Rongguo Mansion is that Wang Ziteng told Madam Wang about Shui Rong and Madam Wang went to the Zhen family to cancel the engagement."

Dai Quan added: "This is also human nature."

"I don't like this kind of common situation." Emperor Yongchang walked back and forth a few steps, then stopped. "Move forward when there are benefits, and step back when encountering problems." When he said this, he was slightly stunned. The Jia family was not very willing to this marriage from the beginning.

Thinking about it, he snorted coldly, "Send this pot of flowers to Concubine Wu."

Dai Quan smiled bitterly, then walked to the door, called two eunuchs, and asked them to deliver the pot of flowers to Concubine Wu.

The eunuch then retreated.

Dai Quan suddenly remembered: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince..."

Emperor Yongchang raised his hand and said, "I am not well yet. Let him work hard for a while."

Dai Quan gritted his teeth and said, "I heard from Zhao Tong that the Crown Prince has been coughing badly recently. He coughed several times last night and only slept well for four or one watch."

Emperor Yongchang was silent for a moment, then said, "Wait until I'm done with the imperial examination."

After hearing what Emperor Yongchang said, Dai Quan had no choice but to answer, "Yes."

Emperor Yongchang: "Let's go to the old concubine's palace and pay our respects to the emperor."

Kunning Palace was as quiet as usual. The queen was sitting on the couch in the warm room, embroidering the robe that had not yet been finished.

There was a sound of footsteps, and then a palace maid came in.
The palace maid said softly, "Your Majesty, the Emperor sent a pot of flowers to Concubine Wu."

The queen was still embroidering her robe: "What flowers?"

The palace maid: "Hibiscus flower."

The queen paused and continued to embroider the robe.

The palace maid bowed and retreated.

The warm room fell into silence again.

After an unknown amount of time, the queen finally stood up, walked to the window, looked into the distance, and said to herself: "Perhaps this is God's will."

At this time, footsteps were heard outside again, and the eunuch in charge came in and reported: "Your Majesty, there is news from Prince Beijing's Mansion that Princess Beijing has passed away."

"What did you say? Who died?" The queen seemed not to hear clearly, or she did not think about it.

The eunuch in charge said: "Princess Beijing."

The queen was startled, and slowly turned around and looked at the eunuch in charge: "How did she die?" The eunuch in charge: "After returning from the Zhen family, Princess Beijing locked herself in the room. When the maid noticed something was wrong, she opened the door and saw Princess Beijing hanging from the beam."

"Zhen family? What happened to the Zhen family?"

"I didn't hear anything happened."

"Where is the emperor now?"

"I heard that she went to the old concubine's palace."

Queen: "Let's go to the old concubine's palace!"

The news soon reached the Li family.

Lin Daiyu smiled bitterly. This time, the Jia family had really offended the Zhen family.

Suddenly a beam of light shone in and the door curtain was lifted.

Nanny Wang came in holding a box wrapped in cloth and said to Lin Daiyu, "Miss, this was sent by your uncle himself. He said it came from Shaanxi."

Lin Daiyu took the bundle, put it on the desk, and untied the bundle.

It was a locked box.

Lin Daiyu got up and went into the inner room, walked straight into the step-out bed, and then brought out a rosewood box.

She took out a key from the box, opened the box, took out the letter inside, tore it open and saw that it was a line of numbers.

Lin Daiyu took out a collection of poems from the rosewood box and quickly translated the contents of the letter.

Looking at the translated text, Lin Daiyu's eyes flickered. She's made a fortune!
Nanny Wang saw Lin Daiyu was stunned and asked tentatively, "Miss."

Lin Daiyu came back to her senses and smiled sheepishly. Then she took out a locked box from the rosewood box and said, "Give it to Uncle San and ask him to send his soldiers to deliver it to the commander-in-chief of Yulin within five days."

Nanny Wang took the box and said, "Yes." She turned and walked out.

Lin Daiyu looked at the ink paper again, then counted on her fingers. Apart from what Li Hu promised to the general of Yulin, and what she gave to the fat man, she also had to deduct the unexpected losses, and then the people below would share some. Oh, it was so annoying. How could she calculate without the bill!
Forget it, forget it, as long as you know that you have made a fortune!

Thinking of this, Lin Daiyu began to think about what properties she should acquire next.

The door curtain was lifted, and Zijuan came in, smiling and saying, "Miss, what are you so happy about?"

Lin Daiyu smiled and said, "I won't tell you." Then she put all the things into the rosewood box and locked it.

Zijuan smiled and shook her head.

"How about we open a money shop?" Lin Daiyu suddenly asked.

Zijuan was stunned: "This, how can I understand this?"

Lin Daiyu: "Read more books when you have nothing to do."

Zijuan was amused: "I have to serve the girl during the day and sleep with her at night, where can I have free time!"

Lin Daiyu smiled: "Isn't this my fault?"

Zijuan smiled and said, "Of course it's the girl's fault."

Lin Daiyu deliberately frowned and said, "If you keep talking nonsense, watch out for your skin!"

"The girl is reluctant to do so." Zijuan wrinkled her nose and smiled.

Lin Daiyu smiled, spread out a blank piece of letter paper, and wrote a letter to Li Hu, telling him what happened in the capital. (End of this chapter)