Red Mansion: After being expelled from the family, I was granted the title of Marquis of Mobei

Chapter 119 Prince Beijing’s Anger

At the same time, after the incident with the clay doll, Jia Jue became more careful. All the food, clothing, and other items of Zhang Guifen and Sheng Minglan had to go through multiple tests before being given to the two women to ensure that nothing went wrong.

After making the arrangements, Jia Jue temporarily handed the matter over to Zhang Han.

The next day, in Prince Beijing's mansion, Prince Beijing was in his study with a look of anxiety on his face.

Ever since the cabinet came up with the new policy on land tax collection, Prince Beijing and others have been completely paralyzed.

According to the latest policy, hundreds of thousands of acres of land under the name of Prince Beijing's Mansion must pay taxes according to the five taxes and one tax.

Add to that the fees paid to the tenants, the cost of farming, and the additional fees paid to replace corvee labor, and the income from these hundreds of thousands of acres of land basically went to the national treasury, and the income that fell into the hands of the royal palace was pitifully small.

This was really hard for Prince Beijing and others to accept.

Originally they thought that the tax rate of 1% in 20% was fine, so they gritted their teeth and accepted it.

This five-to-one tax is clearly an attempt to cut off the source of the problem.

This is not a matter of cutting flesh, it is a matter of directly cutting off the thigh.

Prince Beijing has already sent someone to convey the message to the other three princes, and they will discuss countermeasures in the near future.

Moreover, this time, not only the four princes and nobles, but also other civil servants from aristocratic families were in contact with the Prince of Beijing.

Prince Beijing was determined to win over the court officials and confront Emperor Yongping head-on.

Although he knew that he was playing with fire, Prince Beijing had no choice but to retreat.

After all, he was also in a difficult situation. As the leader of the founding fathers, if Prince Beijing could not stand up to protect the interests of the noble group at this time, once the people's hearts were scattered, he would have no way to lead the team.

Just when Prince Beijing was feeling annoyed, the servant came to the door of the study and knocked gently and said.

"Your Highness, the Champion Marquis comes to see you."

Prince Beijing was slightly surprised after hearing this.

This is rare. Why would the Champion Marquis come to me?

My relationship with Guanjun Hou is really not that good. I don’t know what he is up to.

Although Prince Beijing was confused, he did not refuse to meet Jia Jue.

After all, Jia Jue's position is here. Even if Prince Beijing is dissatisfied with Jia Jue, he would not be unwilling to do even this superficial work.

"Please invite Marquis Guanjun to the main hall for tea. I will be there shortly."

"I obey, little one."

Not long after, in the main hall of the palace, Prince Beijing hurried into the hall and spoke calmly to Jia Jue.

"My Lord, I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Jia Jue looked at Prince Beijing who had a forced smile on his face and said calmly.

"Your Highness, you are welcome. I just arrived as well."

Prince Beijing nodded slightly and said.

"My Lord Marquis, you're not on duty with the Imperial Guards, so why did you think of visiting me? Could it be that you're planning to make peace with me?"

Jia Jue waved his hand and said.

"Your Highness, that's too much. Our families have always been kind and helpful. We've never had any grudges against each other, let alone talk of making peace."

Prince Beijing couldn't help but feel a little resentful in his heart, my goodness, if you, Marquis Guanjun, were all kind-hearted people who helped others, I'm afraid there would be no bad people in the whole world.

Although he was secretly complaining in his heart, Prince Beijing still chuckled and said.

"Indeed, I wonder why the Marquis is here."

Jia Jue said calmly.

"I have come to trouble the prince today to retrieve my silver and jewels."

When Prince Beijing heard this, he was stunned and looked at Jia Jue in confusion.

"My Lord, how can you say that? How could there be your silver and jewelry in my palace? I'm afraid you've made a mistake."

Jia Jue said with a calm smile.

"Your Majesty, there is no mistake. This Marquis is not someone who shoots without purpose."

"The royal palace has been passed down for a hundred years and is extremely wealthy. They wouldn't embezzle this little bit of silver and jewelry from me, would they?"

Seeing Jia Jue's serious look, Prince Beijing began to wonder if this really happened? Why did he have no recollection of it at all?

After a brief thought, Prince Beijing looked at Jia Jue and said.

"My Lord, I really don't know what's going on. Can you tell me what's going on?"

"Look, we're not doing business together, and we haven't borrowed any money from each other. How could the palace have your silver and jewels?"

"You have to make your words clear anyway."

"I'm still confused and don't know what's going on."

"You came up here and asked me for money. Tell me, how can I give you this money?"

"I have to pay for it anyway. I can't just pay for nothing."

Jia Jue pretended to be surprised after hearing this.

"Why, Your Highness, do you really not know, or are you pretending to be ignorant in front of me?"

Prince Beijing spread his hands and said.

"What do you think, Mr. Hou?"

Seeing this, Jia Jue was not vague. He briefly told Prince Beijing about how he had captured Xue Pan, and then said calmly.

"The orphan and widowed mother of the Xue family came to me and said they had sent 300,000 taels of silver and jewels to the Rongguo Mansion, which was then handed over to the prince. They asked the prince to ask for a favor and pass it on to me, hoping that I can release Xue Pan."

"Firstly, I trust the prince's credibility, and secondly, I don't want to make things difficult for an orphan girl and her widowed mother, so I let her go. However, I didn't see any silver or jewelry."

"Your Majesty, from what you say, you really don't know anything, right?"

"So, it seems that the people in Rongguo Mansion are using the prince and me as a cover to deceive people."

"If that's the case, don't worry, Your Highness. I'm not done with the Rongguo Mansion. I'll take two teams of personal soldiers to the Rongguo Mansion to ask for an explanation."

Prince Beijing was extremely annoyed when he heard this. It turned out that BYD Rongguo Mansion was causing trouble.

He did not doubt Jia Jue's words. This kind of thing could be easily found out, so there was no need to lie.

Needless to say, the Rongguo Mansion must have wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to extort a large sum of money from the Xue family. As a result, the Xue family could not bear the loss any more, so they went straight to the Marquis of Guanjun and implicated themselves.

Prince Beijing was very angry about the short-sighted behavior of the Rongguo Mansion and really didn't want to get involved in this matter.

But looking at Jia Jue's momentum, as long as he said that he knew nothing about it, it would be the Rongguo Mansion that was causing trouble. With Jia Jue's personality, he would probably bring people to destroy the Rongguo Mansion.

By the time things get out of hand, it will be difficult for me to intervene.

After all, Jia Jue had informed him beforehand. He was not only speaking up for him, but also helping the Prince of Beijing's Mansion punish the Rongguo Mansion. Naturally, the Prince of Beijing had no reason to care about this matter anymore.

Although he was very disgusted with the Rongguo Mansion's actions, he knew that he had to protect the Rongguo Mansion because of the friendship between the two families over the years. He couldn't just watch Jia Jue completely trample the Rongguo Mansion under his feet. After thinking for a while, the Beijing County Prince pretended to be enlightened and said.

"Oh, I have some impression of what the Marquis said."

"It seems that Rongguo Mansion did mention it before."

"It's just that I think that the eldest son of the Xue family is too dandy. Moreover, he has offended the Marquis and offended the imperial envoy."

"So I wanted the Xue family to prepare another generous gift and then contact the Marquis. I didn't expect the Xue family to be so anxious."

"This is indeed the case, but the silver and jewelry should still be in Rongguo Mansion and have not been sent to this palace."

"Since the Xue family has reached a settlement with the Marquis, how about this? I will send someone to the Rongguo Mansion later and have them deliver the silver and jewelry directly to the Marquis' Mansion. What do you think, Marquis?"

Jia Jue nodded slightly and said.

"Your Majesty's words are as good as gold, how could I not believe them? In that case, I will wait for your good news. I hope you won't make me wait too long."

"No problem, no problem. Someone, come and see the Marquis off."

"Stay."

After Jia Jue left in a leisurely manner, Prince Beijing's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot. He smashed everything that could be smashed in the main hall with an angry look on his face.

Things in Rongguo Mansion are getting more and more outrageous. First, the news that Jia Baoyu was playing poker with someone in the vegetable market spread like wildfire in the capital and became known to everyone.

Now there is the incident of Rongguo Mansion blackmailing the Xue family.

Go ahead and blackmail me, but at least give yourself a heads up.

Your Rongguo Mansion extorted so much from the Xue family, but didn't give yourselves a penny. Why do you have to take the biggest blame when it comes time to do so?

And from this incident, it can be seen that the Rongguo Mansion has really declined so badly that even a vassal family like the Xue family cannot control it.

The fact that the Xue family skipped the Rongguo Mansion and went directly to find Jia Jue was in itself a sign of their dissatisfaction and disregard for the Rongguo Mansion.

Needless to say, it was certain that the Rongguo Mansion took the money but did not do the job, and planned to take this opportunity to squeeze the Xue family dry, which directly aroused the dissatisfaction of the Xue family and caused the negotiations to fall through.

When he thought of this, Prince Beijing was a little discouraged. Why were all the founding fathers such greedy and shameless people? If this continued, would it be wise for him to lead a group of pig teammates to fight against His Majesty?

Prince Beijing felt a pang of gloom in his heart, and became increasingly confused about the future of the founding fathers.

After expressing his feelings for a while, Prince Beijing calmed down. Although there were numerous difficulties and dangers, he still had to face them.

It is better to deal with the Xue family's affairs as soon as possible, so as to prevent the Marquis of Guanjun from causing trouble again, which would be bad.

Prince Beijing immediately arranged for his confidants to go to Rongguo Mansion.

At this time, in Rongguo Mansion, Mrs. Jia and Mrs. Wang had a worried look on their faces.

After the last incident with Jia Baoyu at Caishikou, Old Lady Jia hurriedly sent someone to deliver a valuable gift to Prince Zhongshun's mansion, and at the same time, tested the waters.

However, the people from Rongguo Mansion were driven out by the people from Prince Zhongshun's Mansion before they even entered the door.

Now both Old Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang understood. Needless to say, Jia Baoyu's affair was the work of the royal palace. The news of Qi Guan's death must have been known to Prince Zhongshun.

Prince Zhongshun felt that the Rongguo Mansion was so bold that they dared to fool him, but he couldn't confront them head-on because of an actor, so he secretly arranged the matter of Jia Baoyu in order to take revenge on the Rongguo Mansion.

Moreover, the palace refused to accept the gifts afterwards, which meant that the revenge would never stop easily.

As expected, the next day after the incident, Jia Zheng was invited to have tea by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple. The charge against him was that he used his power to monopolize projects of the Ministry of Works and make huge profits.

In fact, to be fair, Jia Zheng is qualified to be the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Works. He is not like other officials in the Ministry of Works who are corrupt and indulge in corruption.

But as a human being, everyone has relatives and friends. If someone greets him and he can go along with something, Jia Zheng naturally won't be stubborn and resist.

So now that Prince Zhongshun wants to deal with Jia Zheng, the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple naturally dare not be vague and will definitely be able to dig up evidence.

In order to protect Jia Zheng, Rongguo Mansion has been making arrangements from top to bottom these days, and money is being spent like water.

However, despite this, it can only ensure that Jia Zheng can live comfortably in there. It would be extremely difficult for him to escape the crime.

Old Lady Jia and Mrs. Wang also knew that the root of the matter lay with Jia Baoyu.

If Jia Zheng doesn't appease Prince Zhongshun, he will never be able to get rid of his anger in his lifetime.

Even if the Prince of Beijing were to be asked, it would be useless. The Prince of Beijing's face might be useful in front of others, but in front of Prince Zhongshun, it was almost like a shoe insole.

Just when Old Lady Jia and Madam Wang were worried, Yuanyang, the maidservant beside Old Lady Jia, walked in with a lingering fear on her face.

Seeing this, Mrs. Jia hurriedly asked.

"Yuanyang, what's wrong with you?"

Yuanyang said with a hint of helplessness.

"Old lady, the master is here and he wants to see you."

When she heard it was Jia She, Mrs. Jia's face immediately darkened.

Old Mrs. Jia also understood why Yuanyang looked so frightened. Needless to say, it must be her eldest son harassing Yuanyang again.

Although Jia She is over fifty years old, he is young at heart. He is very lustful and has often set up affairs with other women.

Yuanyang looked down on Jia She at all and refused to be his concubine no matter what.

Old Lady Jia was also very dissatisfied with Jia She's intentions towards the people around her, and she often scolded Jia She for this matter.

Seeing that Jia She dared to do this, Old Lady Jia said angrily.

"Call that bastard in. I want to see what he wants to do."

The maid agreed and went outside.

Not long after, Jia She came to the side hall.

Jia She bowed and said.

"The child has seen his mother."

Old Mrs. Jia snorted coldly.

"You still remember that I am your mother. I think you are becoming more and more unruly."

After hearing this, Jia She glared at Yuanyang, then looked at Old Lady Jia with a smile and said.

"What are you talking about, mother? My son was just teasing Yuanyang for a few words, there was nothing else to it."

Old Lady Jia looked at Jia She coldly and said.

"You're over fifty, and you haven't made any progress. If you dare to come here and cause trouble again, I'll show you how I'll deal with you."

"What brings you here today?"

When Jia She heard this, he felt very uncomfortable.

Good man, I was just flirting with a maid in the mansion, and I already caused trouble.

Why didn't you teach Jia Baoyu a lesson when he was playing multiplayer in front of so many people at Caishikou?

So your rules are aimed at me alone, right? Are you saying that I was raised by a stepmother?

(End of this chapter)