The Soldier of the Red Mansion

Chapter 297 How can one govern the world if one cannot even sweep one's own room?
Zhuozhou.

This place is the gateway to the capital region and the main passage into the capital. In history, during the Jingnan Campaign, Prince Yan Zhuo Di only gained the strategic advantage and reversed the previous passive situation after capturing Zhuozhou.

Among the inns.

"Ouch."

Feeling embarrassed to go to the post station, Chen Song quietly found a nice inn to stay in.

His men hired a doctor and got medicine. Every morning, noon, and night, the dressing had to be changed and the wound cleaned. The wound was torn open, bleeding profusely. Every time Chen Song changed the dressing, it was like a pig being slaughtered.

Some of the inn's guests found it amusing, while others found it noisy, and went to the innkeeper to complain.

Knowing the other person's identity, the shopkeeper could only complain in private, not daring to explain the reason, and could only try his best to appease the customer.

"Go easy on me, you son of a bitch."

Chen Song lay on the bed, not forgetting to turn around and berate his subordinates.

His subordinate looked helpless.

"Boss, we've been very careful. Changing the dressing on this wound will hurt no matter what, so just bear with it."

Hearing his subordinate's words, Chen Song had no choice.

Just endure it.

The tearing pain was unbearable, each scream louder than the last, and the whole inn could hear the wail. No one knew who had beaten the officer.

"Where's the hot water?"

"I asked you to deliver hot water, but no one has shown up for ages. Is this how you do business?"

The door opens.

His subordinate shouted towards the door.

The waiter put down what he was doing and hurriedly went to prepare hot water for them.

"Damn it, if this guy falls into my hands, I'll make him pay."

The dressing change is finally complete.

Chen Song was covered in sweat. Thinking about the suffering he had endured these past few days, and the suffering he would continue to endure in the future, Chen Song felt extremely resentful.

Moreover, he was publicly beaten with a wooden board, but instead of a wooden board, a knife sheath was used.

Thinking of the humiliation he had suffered, Chen Song wished nothing more than for Wang Xin, the military officer, to die.

But there was nothing they could do about him.

The other side has more people than us, and they are all highly skilled.

Now, all they can do is hope that the people in the capital will avenge them.

Although my trip to the capital was a private matter, I was using the guise of official business. This person had no right to assault me, so I still had a chance.

He sent someone to the capital to tell the other party what had happened to him.

This is not a slap in the face.

It's a slap in the face to the military commander and the Prince of Nan'an.

"head."

A person entered through the door.

"You're back so soon? What did the Prince of Beijing say?" Chen Song asked quickly upon seeing the newcomer.

The man's face was grim.

Chen Song was startled, already having a bad feeling.

"The Prince of Beijing said that Wang Xin is a well-known rising star in the capital, a favorite of Zhang Jifu, the second-ranking official in the cabinet, and has also caught the eye of the retired emperor. In the Beijing garrison, he is also protected by Zhu Wei, the commander of the Eastern Army."

Chen Song gasped.

It turns out that he has a great background.

Knowing that the person who dared to do this was definitely not simple, Chen Song's face also turned ugly. It seems that he had taken the beating for nothing.

The man hadn't finished speaking.

"He's from one of the four great families. He lived in the Rongguo Duke's mansion for several years. The Prince of Beijing said that after you recover from your injuries, you should go and apologize in person." The man finally finished speaking.

There was silence in the room.

Everyone looked at Chen Song, whose face turned pale and then red.

He used to be the one bullying others; I never thought I'd end up like this myself. I was just so confused about why I was beaten up.

Chen Song still didn't understand why Wang Xin's men were attacking him.

Even if it was to stand up for his subordinates, as long as his subordinates didn't suffer any losses, wouldn't it be enough for him to just bow his head and admit his mistake?
Sighed.

"Call me a horse-drawn carriage; we'll set off first thing tomorrow morning."

"Boss, your butt injury hasn't healed yet."

His subordinates were worried.

Chen Song shook his head, speechless. "The Prince of Beijing said I should go and apologize in person, so I must go and apologize in person. What if that person leaves the capital? Where am I supposed to find him?"

The men fell silent and one of them left to find a carriage.

Early the next morning.

The innkeeper breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't help but smile when he saw the troublesome guests leave.

After returning to the capital, Wang Xin went to his new courtyard. He originally thought that with Wang Xifeng there, the new courtyard had already been settled, and he could just wait to move in after returning to the capital.

Unexpectedly, Wang Xifeng's life was so difficult; she was so ill that she was almost bedridden.

However, Zeng Zhi took the initiative to take over the matter.

Zeng Zhi was from a wealthy family in Liaodong, and his residence was decorated in a style reminiscent of Liaodong.

The gatehouse is not tall, with blue bricks and gray tiles, and a pair of simple wooden doors.

This was exactly what Wang Xin wanted.

"this is not bad."

Wang Xin glanced at it from the doorway and finally praised it.

Zeng Zhi laughed and said, "The general has always been low-key, which is why I arranged things this way."

“Simplicity is good. If the storefront is too luxurious, you can’t stop spending money. Money in your hands is money; money spent is not money at all,” Wang Xin said with a smile.

Any storefront that is luxurious and extravagant.

He must be a corrupt official.

This is inevitable.

The threshold of the gate was made of ordinary stone slabs, neither too high nor too low. Wang Xin led the group inside.

A screen wall comes into view, and after passing the screen wall, the front yard comes into view.

The courtyard was small and square, with irregularly shaped bluestone slabs on the ground, and the weeds in the gaps had been cleared away.

Near the main gate are several side rooms, also known as annex rooms.

"This room can be used as a gatehouse or a resting place for servants."

Zeng Zhi explained.

Wang Xin glanced around; the room wasn't large, but it had many windows, and the door was always open, offering a view of the street.

“The other room will be used as a storage room, and a shed will be built over there to serve as a stable, and it can also be used to store sedan chairs.” Zeng pointed to the empty space in the corner and laughed, “Anyway, where we live, we put some large vats in these places to pickle vegetables and the like.”

Wang Xin understood perfectly.

The front yard is mainly where we work.

The kitchen, stables, and even a well in the corridor, with a small house next to it used as a kitchen.

Not counting the eight or nine hundred taels of silver he had, his annual salary was two hundred and forty taels.

Hire a cook and two farmhands to be responsible for buying groceries, cooking, feeding the horses, and doing odd jobs. Also hire two maids to help with laundry, sweeping, and so on. About five or six people should be enough.

Under normal circumstances, a wage of twenty or thirty taels of silver per year is more than enough, and usually it is only a dozen or so taels.

If you hire a long-term worker, it would only cost a little over two taels of silver per year.

If the farmhand has a wife and children.

So, a farmhand who lived and ate at his master's house would only earn a little over two taels of silver, enough to keep his wife and children from starving. Unless his wife had some work to do, the family of three wouldn't be able to eat their fill.

Forget about buying new clothes; you'll be lucky if you can find clothes that the owner doesn't want anymore, take them home, and cut them up yourself.

Prices are higher in the Jiangnan region.

However, regardless of whether it is in the north or south, the biggest fear is being impacted by disaster victims.

In ordinary years, young girls who were sold into servitude and couldn't do much work would usually be paid three to five taels of silver, while older girls would be paid seven or eight taels, and prettier girls would be paid ten or twenty taels.

After being bought by the owner, they became of low social status and never had any more rights.

They could either redeem themselves or have their master issue a "release certificate" and report to the government in order to be released from their status.

Indenture contracts are divided into fixed contracts and flexible contracts.

However, there are very few flexible contracts, and once they expire, almost no one can afford to redeem themselves.

Therefore, when there is no disaster, things are alright.

Although the farmhands were poor and could only fill their stomachs, they at least had a place to stay. Unless absolutely necessary, no one would choose to sell themselves.

Selling oneself into servitude is not just a personal matter, but a consequence of generations being relegated to a lowly status.

In ordinary years, it is mostly only the poor who suffer losses, or those who have caused losses to others, such as working for their employers and causing them losses, and who cannot afford to compensate, who can only use their children to pay off the debts.

Things are different when disaster strikes. Especially in disaster areas, you can buy a person for the market price of one or two taels of silver, but this mainly applies to brokers.

Local wealthy merchants wouldn't buy too many people for no reason, because if they bought too many, they would have to spend money on food. So usually, it was brokers from other places who would buy people and then sell them to other places to make a fortune.

This is human nature.

Hiring a farmhand costs only three or four taels of silver a year, and even after ten years it wouldn't cost forty taels. But if you could get a pretty maid for five or six taels, seven or eight taels, or at most ten or twenty taels, who wouldn't want to buy her?

Buying a maid and having the indenture in your own hands is much more reassuring than hiring a farmhand.

Therefore, at times like these, the already unstable market will be completely destroyed.

Many free labor unions went bankrupt and eventually became slaves, creating a vicious cycle where people sold themselves for increasingly lower prices, causing the industry's economy to die out completely and resulting in even greater economic losses.

Although Wang Xin understood this economic theory, he was powerless to stop this trend.

As natural disasters spread and persisted, countless people sold their children along the way.

There is only one solution.

Those who sell their children should not be allowed to disrupt the economic market of free citizens. For example, a checkpoint should be set up to prevent them from passing through, thus ensuring the stability of the free citizens' economy.

Wang Xin had met him.

It was cruel, but it was effective.

Just like the Qing Dynasty's policy of killing all the people without food and then killing all the wealthy, although cruel, it was also a solution that physically eliminated unstable factors.

These are things that Wang Xin cannot do and is unwilling to do.

Even the Ming Dynasty couldn't do that.

The handling of a refugee from northern Shaanxi was a subject of debate within the Ming court for many years, leading to the emergence of the "vital energy theory," which argued that killing too many people would damage the vital energy of the people. No one from top to bottom was willing to take responsibility for the massacre of the refugees.

The Qing Dynasty did not have the concept of vital energy.

Kill them all.

Therefore, whether or not someone is brutal has nothing to do with whether or not they are victorious.

But such a world is wrong.

Knowing that many things were wrong, yet unable to solve the problems himself, Wang Xin looked at his house, and from his home to the world, he couldn't help but drift into a daze.

No wonder the ancients said.

How can one govern the world if one cannot even sweep one's own room?

If you don't even have a direction to solve the problems you see, you certainly can't govern the world. Unless you have a clear direction for the things you encounter, then governing the world will no longer be a mystery.

Wang Xin looked at Zeng Zhi and instructed him, "Spend forty taels of silver to hire five or six farmhands, and in the end, they will all be one family."

Zeng was stunned for a moment, "Isn't that too much money?"

Wang Xin did not explain, but instructed: "That's about it, one family, or two families."

A family of three, with the child being a burden rather than a source of income, would not be invited by anyone. However, Wang Xin did not mind; with two families, one or two more people would not be a problem.

As for money, of course I won't spend it recklessly.

At least enough to provide for the family's basic needs, and at least enough to buy a new set of clothes for holidays and festivals.

"The general truly cares for the people."

Zeng Zhi sighed with emotion.

He had already heard from his guards that a guerrilla general from Yunnan had been caught beating civilians without cause and had been given thirty lashes by the general.

The guerrilla general was clearly someone of considerable importance.

Who would offend their colleagues for the sake of the people?
Only a general could do that.

“It’s good that I care about the people,” Wang Xin said with a smile.

Zeng Zhi looked completely bewildered.

I don't know what Wang Xin meant.

Wang Xin did not hide anything and explained, "An army that wins battles must be more powerful than an ordinary army, but everyone has two eyes and one nose, so how can it be more powerful than others?"

Zeng Zhi replied without hesitation: "Military equipment and military pay."

"Military equipment and pay are indeed very important, but how big can the gap be in ordinary armies?"

Morale.

Zeng Zhi then raised another point.

Wang Xin nodded. "Then how do we boost morale?"

Zeng frowned.

There are many sources of morale, which can be traced back to military equipment and pay, etc.

However, the general's question must not be so simple. Could it be related to what the general just said about caring for the people?
"It's easy to be a bad person, but hard to be a good person."

"When an army can care for the people and has such a mindset, such an army must have high morale. Ordinary setbacks cannot defeat such an army, and it can often exert incredible fighting power."

Wang Xin made no attempt to hide anything.

The more people who understand this principle, the better.

If listening to my advice could lead to the formation of more armies that benefit the people of the Great Zhou, then I would have made a worthwhile investment.

Zeng Zhi was studying at the Imperial Academy, and Liaodong was originally a strategically important military location.

After a while.

He once gave a bitter smile.

He began to understand the general's thoughts.

pity.

How many people can be like the general, spending his own money to hire farmhands at "high prices"?

Knowing the face but not the heart.

The general's greatest skill was his ability to judge people accurately.

The people he promoted were all sorts of people, but they all had one thing in common, which is what the general said: at least no one dared to bully the common people.

"Is this why the general is invincible?"

Zeng Zhi suddenly thought of something.

After inspecting his own residence, Wang Xin returned to the Jia family mansion.

He needed to discuss some news from the imperial court, as well as his need to see Zhang Jifu and when Zhang Jifu would be able to see him, with Jia Zheng.

Although Jia Zheng was only a fifth-rank official, his social circle and status determined his importance. Moreover, Jia Zheng held the title of "Chief Clerk," not an ordinary official.

After Lin Ruhai's death.

Jia Zheng was appointed as an educational commissioner in a remote area, which means he was promoted to the fifth rank.

The education commissioner is responsible for cultivating talent, and he is also an official; this is not the same as an ordinary education bureau director.

Later, he was recommended by Governor Wu and promoted to the position of Assistant Minister of Works.

A year later, the Ministry of Works ranked Jia Zhengbao as a first-class official.

He was then promoted to Grain Commissioner of Jiangxi, which is a fourth-rank official.

From Lin Ruhai's death to his promotion to Grain Commissioner, Jia Zheng was promoted three times in five years.

He rose from a fifth-rank civil official to a fourth-rank civil official, and he was always in charge of administrative affairs, not as a deputy or assistant official.

Jia Yucun was dismissed from his official post once and had to make a living by teaching.

Ultimately, it was through Lin Ruhai's connections that Jia Yucun was able to return to officialdom. Lin Ruhai introduced him to Jia Zheng, which essentially meant leveraging the connections of the four great families.

of course.

By the time the grain transport route was reached, the emperor should have assumed personal rule.

For some unknown reason, perhaps because he was implicated, Jia Zheng suffered a setback in his position as the grain transport official.

Less than a year after taking office, he was impeached and sent back to the capital on the grounds of "being unfamiliar with officialdom and being deceived by his subordinates" in the first month of the lunar calendar. Not long after returning to the capital, the Jia family was convicted and their property was confiscated on the Lantern Festival.

The main branches of the Ningguo and Rongguo mansions were raided and the families were exiled, while the second branch, namely Jia Zheng's branch, was released. The confiscated items were also returned to Jia Zheng's branch, indicating that the main target was the main branches of the Ningguo and Rongguo mansions.

The emperor could not tolerate Jia Zhen and Jia She.

I don't know how these two offended the emperor.

So the fact that the emperor has taken personal control of the government means that the emperor has still won. Putting everything else aside, I am now too close to Zhang Jifu and I also need Zhang Jifu's support. How can I salvage this situation?
They gained the emperor's trust through their connections with Lin Ruhai or Jia Zheng.

As long as the emperor can't hold you accountable in the future.

Or perhaps help Zhang Jifu?

However, he had no idea what Zhang Jifu was planning. He was not one of Zhang Jifu's confidants; Zhang Jifu only valued his abilities.

unconsciously.

I'm getting more and more involved.

Wang Xin frowned.

Sudden.

A sound came from the doorway.

"Are you still bothered by what happened before?"

Jia Zheng returned and, knowing that Wang Xin was waiting for him in the living room, walked in and saw Wang Xin frowning. He assumed it was about the matter of hitting the Yunnan guerrilla with a board and laughed, "I have met with the Prince of Beijing, and the Prince of Beijing praised you for doing a good job."

(End of this chapter)