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.
"The firearms in the past were not so sharp, so why couldn't theirs be shot down?"
No one was willing to attack forward, and the court became increasingly irritable.
Even an absolutely superior force cannot defeat the enemy.
They thought about digging a tunnel, but it was useless. This is a river bank, and water will appear after digging three meters.
Just when Prince Teng was in trouble, Jia Baoyu replied to him after receiving the letter home from him.
He told Wang Ziteng about a zigzag trench digging method.
That is to say, first dig a trench in the distance, and then keep approaching the city wall in a zigzag pattern.
After discussing with his staff, Wang Ziteng decided to use this method of warfare.
Use trenches to protect soldiers and engage the enemy at close range.
Of course, the opponent is condescending and has an advantage when approaching and shooting.
So movable wooden boards and thick floating soil were laid on the trench.
This was used in later generations to protect against artillery.
It can defend against howitzers, let alone cannons and muskets at this time.
Sure enough, the enemy's artillery, artillery and muskets could not hit the soldiers digging trenches.
In this way they gradually approached, all the way to the bottom of the city wall.
The enemy tried to hit him with stones, but it was ineffective.
There is a lot of wood nearby.
Wang Ziteng has enough offensive materials.
After arriving under the city wall, I was finally able to dodge the enemy's cannons and exchange fire with the enemy.
And once you engage in a shooting exchange with the enemy, the opponent is doomed.
The opponent's firearms are powerful, including flintlock guns.
But they also have muskets, and their bows and arrows are not bad either.
The key is that he has enough manpower, but if the other party dies, one of them will be missing. He can keep bringing people here.
The reason why I couldn't rush up before was because the opponent had cannons, which could destroy his siege tools such as building trucks.
Without siege tools, soldiers are exposed to the enemy's shooting range, and their morale will quickly decrease.
Not many soldiers are willing to do this and stand up to attack the city.
Now you can rush up by adding wooden planks to the ditch.
If he wanted to force the attack, everyone below might mutiny.
With the help of Jia Baoyu's tactics, the opponent's strength was reduced from more than 1,500 to more than 200.
At this time, the other side finally sent someone out to ask for surrender.
They persisted for five whole months, but they really couldn't hold on.
However, it seems like a failure, which also proves their success.
It's just that they have fewer people and have temporarily given up their ambition to continue colonizing here.
Because these 1,500 people are all gathered in a large area nearby.
As for Wang Ziteng's more than 10,000 people, as long as he still has money and food, he can summon several more 10,000 people.
After Wang Ziteng's victory, he prepared to return to the court and sent people 800 miles in advance to rush back the news of the victory.
The saint was overjoyed, and at that time the prince was granted the title of Marquis of Dingbei, and he was promoted to the cabinet as a bachelor.
But the Jia family was not very happy.
Because they didn't get any benefit from it.
Jia's mother didn't say much, but she didn't send anyone to congratulate her. She just mentioned that after Prince Teng came back, she would let Jia Baoyu go to visit his uncle alone.
It is inconvenient for other women to go out.
Then the imperial court issued an edict to inform the world and to offer sacrifices to the Ancestral Temple.
Everyone in the capital was rejoicing.
Only Zhao Han shook his head.
This means that Western military technology has surpassed that of the East.
That's why they were shocked.
…
It is said that on his way back to Beijing, Wang Ziteng received an imperial edict and was awarded the title of Bachelor of the Cabinet.
"The emperor attaches great importance to the prince, and I hope that the prince can meet you as soon as possible," the eunuch said.
"It's easy to say, I can hurry up and go to see the saint in advance." Although Wang Ziteng was tired from the long battle, he braced himself for the emperor's favor.
Then he left the army behind and hurried on in a carriage with the great eunuch.
There was also an imperial physician beside the great eunuch. It was said that the emperor valued the general's health, so he sent the imperial physician to diagnose and treat him along the way.
When we were only two hundred miles away from the capital, it rained heavily.
Overjoyed, Wang Ziteng traveled all night again. He was tired and suffered from the rain in the carriage.
As a last resort, I contracted the cold in a place called Shilitun that day.
So I could only stay nearby for the time being and wait until I was cured before going to see the saint.
There are no famous doctors nearby, but fortunately there is an imperial doctor in the car.
After a thorough diagnosis and treatment, the imperial doctor set up a house and asked people to get medicine.
That night, in a residence somewhere.
Under the dim light of candles.
A close guard whispered: "Commander, someone from the Jia family is here."
Wang Ziteng said quickly: "Quick, let people come in."
Two people walked into the house one after another.
The old man is in front and the young man is behind.
Young man carrying medicine box.
"This is a special wind-cold medicine from our Rong Pharmaceutical Company. It's called aspirin. It can treat the prince's wind-cold." The old man came in to make a diagnosis and took out a bottle of medicine.
Wang Ziteng was on the sickbed and said happily: "Are you sent by Baoyu?"
"Exactly."
"Okay, give me this medicine quickly."
However, the imperial doctor next to him said: "This is a strange medicine used by Westerners and should not be relied on. It is better to use the old prescription that we have used for more than two thousand years."
"This medicine can cure wind and cold, and there are countless people alive." The old man asked doubtfully, "Why do we need to divide things?"
"Our two thousand years old prescription has helped us pass it on to this day, which shows its effect." The imperial doctor insisted.
Wang Ziteng said angrily: "I don't care about you east or west, I only believe in Baoyu."
The imperial doctor immediately looked grim and walked out of the house.
The old man wondered: "This man is just an imperial doctor, how dare he be rude in front of the prince?"
Wang Ziteng was silent and just asked him to get the medicine quickly.
Then he took aspirin.
My headache disappeared and I slept peacefully.
Early the next morning, Wang Ziteng felt light-headed and light-sighted, his headaches were relieved, and his fever was gone. He had the strength to get out of bed and was able to take a few more mouthfuls in the morning.
When the imperial doctor saw this, he had nothing to say.
He looked ashamed and then left.
Wang Ziteng, a shrewd man, felt his heart sink.
Then the young man saw that no one was there, so he took out a letter and handed it to him.
Wang Ziteng opened it and took a look.
There is no word in the letter.
There were only some animal hairs, feathers, and a bow and arrow used by children to catch Zhou Zhou.
White and yellow.
White rabbit and yellow dog.
When Wang Ziteng saw this, his heart suddenly hurt.
He, an expert in officialdom, immediately understood Jia Baoyu's hint.
The rabbit is dead and the dog is cooked, and the bird is hidden with its bow.
Wang Ziteng immediately wrote a letter saying that he was seriously ill and could not go to Beijing immediately, and hoped that the emperor would choose someone else.
Of course, the emperor's gift cannot be rejected directly.
Although he just declined politely, the emperor also issued an order to comfort him.
He was ordered to take up his post after recovering from illness.
Wang Ziteng finally returned to Beijing.
Jia Baoyu comes to see you again.
At this time, the mood of the two of them was very different from half a year ago.
"Hey, I didn't expect that after all my hard work for the emperor, I would be harmed by a quack doctor."
"Uncle, when you lost the Jingying Jiedu and got promoted all the way, you lost your foundation." Jia Baoyu sighed.
"Alas, I feel sorry for you, Mr. Rong Ning, for this matter. Without the safety and military power of the capital, I am no more than a rootless duckweed. I will be rewarded like this."
