One day.

Jia Mansion.

Prince Teng is here.

After greetings and meeting with his ancestors, Jia Baoyu personally received him in the study.

Wang Ziteng, who had been promoted all the way to the cabinet bachelor, was the real protector of the four major families, but Jia Yuanchun, the noble concubine, was not.

Zhao Han knows this very well.

"My dear nephew, there is unrest in the north and we are about to mobilize troops. However, the court is short of silver." Prince Teng said.

"Uncle, but the court needs to repay the favor?" Zhao Han asked directly.

"That's exactly what happened. Every time I went on an expedition before, I always asked the salt merchants to return some favors. This time we were in the north and had little to do with the salt merchants, so they offered very little help." Wang Ziteng shook his head and said.

"Then how many thousand taels does a noble family like ours need to repay?" Zhao Han asked again.

"Ten thousand taels? It seems that the rumors outside are good," Wang Ziteng said with a smile, "Since your virtuous nephew took charge of the family, your Jia family has become rich again."

"It's not bad, it's just barely enough." Zhao Han said modestly.

With Jia Rong and Jia Lian doing overseas trade, money is no longer a problem for her.

It's hard to get a million dollars at a time, but it's no problem to get a hundred thousand dollars as a turnover.

"Ten thousand taels is enough. Even the queen's father, the head of the dynasty, only donated 30,000 taels." Prince Teng gave him an amount.

Zhao Han shook his head in his heart.

In the past, Eunuch Xia used to pay one thousand or fifteen hundred every time he came to Jia's house to ask for money, and he basically came once a month.

Of course not anymore.

The imperial court needed military expenses, and each household only contributed a few thousand taels, or even tens of thousands of taels. This shows that the imperial court was not running smoothly.

"Is it already so difficult in the imperial court?" Zhao Han asked.

Although Wang Ziteng was low-key and scheming, he never imagined that his nephew was determined to rebel, and everyone knew about it.

"There are too many deficits in Taicang and the inner government. Many ministers borrowed money from the Ministry of Household Affairs and have not paid it back. This is especially true in various places. They are in deficit every year." Wang Ziteng shook his head and said.

"No wonder if something happens, everyone needs to report." Zhao Han felt it was time to cut down the tree.

But don't be too harsh, do it slowly.

Mainly occupying silk, tea, and porcelain production areas, and being able to achieve freedom of distribution with the West.

Specialties like tea were only learned by Westerners in modern times and successfully grown outside.

The same goes for porcelain.

They all came from behind.

Only silk, because it requires many technical links, has not yet become a famous industry for Westerners until modern times.

Because all kinds of embroidery are troublesome and require a sufficient population to operate.

Now these three items are important bulk materials for them to achieve trade balance. They are almost hard currency. They basically sell as much as they ship out.

Because the main consumer target is the Western aristocracy.

And these three things are basically in the southeast.

It is not easy to seize the southeastern land, which is the basis of taxation for the imperial court.

"Yes, the emperor is in a difficult situation, and ministers must be considerate. Our Wang family is also prepared to pay 20,000 taels." Wang Ziteng followed.

"If we go out too much, will the emperor think that we are too extravagant?" Zhao Han asked directly.

There are some things that a veteran official like Wang Ziteng understands.

"Ten thousand or twenty thousand is within the tolerance of the emperor, but a building like the Grand View Garden cannot be built again," Wang Ziteng said.

Zhao Han nodded.

The Jia family is too high-profile.

As for Wang Ziteng, he never celebrated when he was promoted.

However, even so, you can't escape the cold, just take the wrong medicine, and end up dying...

It must be the emperor's hands and feet, or it may be the fickleness of fate.

In short, it means that no matter how big your official position is, it is useless, it will still be in vain.

However, after Wang Ziteng's death, huge deficits were exposed in the area under his jurisdiction, and he was impeached by the censor.

This may have been left by his predecessor, or more likely, the prince used the money from the territory to compensate the emperor.

In short, with Wang Ziteng's low-key style, he cannot be too extravagant.

"I see, uncle, I wonder what benefits we will get after we serve you?"

"The good thing is that Jane is in the Emperor's heart, so your sister's status can be upgraded to another level."

"So that's it, then let's pay it forward." Zhao Han said, taking out a banknote and giving it to Wang Ziteng.

The top is 20,000 taels.

Ten thousand is for the emperor, and naturally ten thousand is for my uncle.

Now she has to rely on this uncle as a cover.

As long as Wang Ziteng survives, the decline will not begin.

And she was able to continue to be promoted because of Wang Ziteng's guidance and she knew a lot.

But it’s still the same sentence, no matter how high it is, it will eventually be reversed.

After all, Prince Tengdu, a bachelor in the cabinet, is still over.

Then Wang Ziteng left.

And Zhao Han began to organize the housework and collect the debts owed by the slaves.

Reduce extravagance.

Except for the old lady, everyone else must be frugal.

She went to Mrs. Wang's place and told her in person.

Jia Mu is also reasonable.

I know that the emperor will use troops recently, so I can't afford to be extravagant.

As a result, the food standards were lowered a lot, and the number of servants and girls outside was also reduced a lot.

For example, Grandma Liu said at the crab banquet: "The crabs are worth five cents per catty this year. Ten catties are five cents, five five two two five, three five fifteen, and with wine and food, the total is

There are more than twenty taels of silver. Amitabha! The money from this meal is enough for our villagers to live for a year."

In Jia’s mother’s love scene, Mrs. Wang had to rely on airs.

Only Jia Baoyu could convince the two of them to lower their arrogance.

It's hard for the emperor. You have so much luxury here, how can you still live a good life?

This time is a reflection of Yongzheng's pursuit of shortfalls and arrears.

…………

Six months later.

There's something going on in the north.

Wang Ziteng is leading the army. This time the enemy is the place where Jia Baoyu's rare golden fur was made.

They used muskets, built a strange kind of fortress, and cannons.

There are very few people, but they are very strong.

There were only about 1,500 people, but Wang Ziteng brought more than 10,000 troops, but they couldn't attack them.

Of course, the journey is long and supplies are inconvenient.

Among the more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, there are only just over 8,000 regular soldiers, but they are more than five times more than the defenders. Sun Tzu's art of war is to attack an enemy when it is ten, and surround it when it is twice as many.

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! This strange fortress is located at the intersection of two rivers. When they came here, they wanted to go southeast along the river.

But the southeast was an important town, so the court couldn't tolerate it.

Wang Ziteng finally accepted the advice of his staff and relied on his large number of troops to build two large camps on the north and south banks. He led troops to surround the fortress and built pontoons upstream and downstream to block traffic.

It has to be said that the combat effectiveness of these people is far better than that of the cavalry on the grassland.

Even though the opponent was at an absolute disadvantage in terms of manpower, Wang Ziteng was still in a dilemma.

The siege lasted three full months.

But the opponent's muskets and cannons made it impossible for Wang Ziteng's soldiers to attack.

It's not that it can't be attacked, but many people will die at one time. If you hit it, you will be injured, and if you are injured, you will die.
To be continued...