The sky is foggy, and the Grand Canal dock outside Yangzhou City.
The sailboats were fluttering and there were many officers and soldiers.
Jia Lian stood on the deck of the official ship in the middle, clasped his fists at Jia Yu and Yang Xun and said, "This is a huge responsibility to deposit money into Beijing. I hope you two will work together carefully to avoid making mistakes."
"I will definitely live up to your great trust."
Jia Yu and Jia Yu looked solemn and in high spirits, just because the official ship behind them contained a total of more than five million taels of silver!
The stakes were so high that if anything went wrong during this trip, it would be enough to kill both of them.
Fortunately, Jia Lian sent thousands of officers and soldiers to accompany them, so they had no worries about the safety of their trip.
As for why five million taels of silver had to be transported back to the capital in advance, Jia Lian gave two explanations. One was that the court was pressing hard, and the other was that the silver should be transported back to the capital as soon as possible so that he could feel at ease.
Otherwise, so much money piled up in the Salt Patrol Yamen would be too eye-catching.
As for why he was chosen, Yang Xun needless to say. As Jia Lian's deputy, if the troops were to be divided into two groups on the trip back to Beijing, he would naturally lead one group. In this way, he could also return to Beijing first and report his duties to the court.
Of course, he had also doubted whether Jia Lian had deliberately transferred him away so that he could do other operations. But even if he had doubts, he would not be foolish enough to speculate on his own.
On this trip, he followed Jia Lian to the south of the Yangtze River. He basically got the benefits he deserved just by sitting down. Moreover, he had established a relationship with Jia Lian. He would be an official in the capital in the future. What else could he be dissatisfied about? Why not listen to Jia Lian's orders?
The reason?
After all, even if there are other benefits, they are not something he is qualified to get involved in. Therefore, if he can safely return this five million taels of silver to the capital and transfer it to the national treasury, his mission can be considered a complete success.
The rest is all Jia Lian's business.
As for Jia Yu, it was purely because he wanted to go to Beijing to develop, and Jia Lian also wanted to transfer him to work in Beijing, so he was given an escort job so that he could go to Beijing and get familiar with it.
Watching dozens of official ships disappearing in the distance, Jia Lian felt very calm.
Although five million taels of silver sounds like a huge amount, even the ministers of the imperial court would probably be shocked if they knew it, but compared to the assets he confiscated from his house this time, it was not even half of it.
However, many other assets have not yet been discounted and liquidated.
This is also the main reason for him to stay.
But in fact, even if there is no such reason, Jia Lian will still find reasons to stay in Jiangnan, because he still has some private matters to deal with.
"Second Master, are you going back to the Yamen?"
"Well, Zhang Yong will go back first, prepare his itinerary, and set off back to Suzhou early tomorrow morning."
Jia Lian gave the order and immediately led other troops to the Zhou family manor.
"It's rare for you to come here. It just so happens that the slave sisters rehearsed two dances today, one is Tang dance and the other is Song dance. I wonder which one you want to reward first?"
In the flower hall that had long been decorated gorgeously and suitable for dancing, Shen Pan'er invited Jia Lian to sit on the soft couch in the middle, then sat next to him and asked with a smile.
Seeing Jia Lian pondering, she introduced: "Song dance is graceful and Tang dance is unrestrained. Sister Tsing Yi and I are the lead dancers respectively. If you want to see the Nu family lead the dance, you can order Tang dance. If you want to see Sister Tsing Yi, you can order Song dance."
"
"Then let's come to the Song Dynasty first."
Jia Lian thought that it was not good to be unrestrained from the beginning, as it would easily lead to misfires, so it would be better to add some clear and refined embellishments first.
After her reminder, Jia Lian still didn't choose Tang dance. Shen Pan'er pouted slightly and seemed unhappy. However, after Jia Lian slapped her on the hip, she still smiled and followed the other sisters down to change.
Went to put on clothes and make-up.
The geishas all have outstanding looks and superb skills. After taking turns to perform their performances, some beautiful things will inevitably happen.
Just like being on a boat on the Xiao Qinhuai River that night.
The difference is that when we first met that night, they were quite reserved with each other. Even if the scenery behind them was mainly due to the numbness of alcohol. Today, the girls have become more familiar with Jia Lian, and they know the distance.
Jia Lian's departure from Yangzhou was approaching, and his desire to win Jia Lian's favor became more and more urgent.
Therefore, it is normal to wink at Jia Lian during a performance. It is not surprising at all to deliberately dance to Jia Lian's side, pretend to fall into Jia Lian's arms, and then lie there unable to get up.
Some programs do not require all the members to appear together, which means that as time goes by, on the couch where Jia Lian is sitting, there are more and more beauties. The fragrant fragrance of the beauties, plus the slight smell of the beauties' sweat, is really good for men.
My heart is so excited.
Naturally, Jia Lian would not be polite to the beauty who voluntarily allowed him to take advantage of her, because he was here to seek pleasure.
Suddenly he frowned, and the beauty who was already panting in her arms happened to catch a glimpse of her. She suddenly woke up, and her face changed color with fear.
Not caring about anything, he immediately turned over and knelt on the ground, shivering.
Her actions not only made the other beauties on the couch confused, but even the other beauties who were still dancing in front of them quietly stopped and looked at each other.
Seeing the beauties getting up and sitting down one by one, looking at him at a loss, Jia Lian rubbed his fingers, wondering if he had accidentally detected a fake? Feeling speechless, Jia Lian said coldly: "Get up.
say."
When the beauty heard Jia Lian's unkind tone, she even shed tears.
Shen Pan'er vaguely guessed something, took a closer look at Jia Lian's expression, and then boldly stepped forward to pull the beauty up, and whispered in a low voice: "Your Excellency is kind-hearted by nature, not a harsh person. What's going on?
As long as you tell the truth, the adults won't criticize you too harshly."
After hearing this, the beauty still looked panicked, but at least she felt relieved. She knelt down again and cried, "Please forgive me, sir. I didn't mean to deceive you. I am not innocent..."
As soon as these words came out, the expressions of all the beauties changed.
In order to please Jia Lian, the salt merchants, whether they were under the name of their own brothels or specially invited them, were all famous courtesans from all over the south of the Yangtze River.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Moreover, those salt merchants probably promised this to Jia Lian.
This incident happened this time. If Jia Lian was angry because of this and punished the salt merchant family behind him, wouldn't it cause another turmoil in Yangzhou City, which had just settled down?
The stakes and risks involved are not something that these little oiran ladies can bear.
Although they are in the land of romance, they can understand each other. But at this moment, if something like this happens, it will inevitably reduce the weight of all of them in Jia Lian's mind.
If Jia Lian misunderstands all of them, wouldn't all their efforts during this period have been in vain?
Therefore, many people couldn't help but look at her with anger and contempt, which made the beauty even more ashamed of herself.
"Not innocent? So you have had other men before?"
Jia Lian asked expressionlessly, no one could tell what he was thinking.
The pear blossoms of the beauty are covered with rain, and their pitiful appearance is very heart-wrenching.
At this moment, she could only place her hope in Jia Lian's mercy, so she replied: "This slave has no shame and has given her body to others without telling the people in the building. Therefore, if your lord is angry, you can punish me alone, but you will not tell the people in the building."
It has nothing to do with it, nor does it have anything to do with the person who invited the slaves to perform..."
At this time, a beautiful woman couldn't bear it and couldn't help but stand up and said: "My sister's body must have been given to Mr. He back then."
The beauty trembled but did not deny it.
Seeing that there were melons to eat, the girls hurriedly asked.
The man then told her what she knew.
It turned out that this beauty belonged to Songjiang Prefecture. Two or three years ago, there was a talented man in Songjiang. His surname was He Ziyi. He was originally from a poor family. He met this beauty and admired each other. Later, the talented man went to Beijing to retake the exam with the silver taels sponsored by the beauty.
, actually ranked among the top two in high school. Just listening to the stories circulated between the two, it is a typical story of a talented man and a beautiful woman.
It's just the ending, it's obvious.
"Back then, when I heard people talking about Mr. He's high school, I was very happy for my sister, thinking that my sister had a sharp eye for pearls. Who knew, but there was no news about Mr. He, and my sister was still the oiran of Yixiang House.
Lady.
It can be seen that there are many rogues in the world, but there are few people who are affectionate and intentional."
Listening to the others sighing and telling her story, the beauty could no longer hold back and burst into tears.
When other people saw this, they all lost their expressions and looked at her sympathetically.
It is common for courtesans to make friends with talented people. But they will not hand over their bodies easily.
Unless, you have identified the other party and decided to block it.
Obviously, the outcome of losing the bet would not only be a waste of innocence, but it would also be difficult to become the oiran woman sought after by thousands of people again.
In a situation like hers, it would be okay if she honestly informed the building of the situation, but at worst she would get a beating. Because with their looks, even if they are not sluts, they can still bring great value to the building.
It's just no longer worth the expense of packaging.
Although she can continue to enjoy the glory for the time being if she hides it like this, the risk is that once she is spotted by a real big shot one day and finds out that she is no longer innocent, then not many noble people will feel that they have been deceived.
Not only is his own future uncertain and his life or death uncertain, he can also easily implicate the brothel behind him.
This is why she is scared at the moment and why everyone sympathizes with her.
Jia Lian felt a little helpless when he saw that the flower hall, which was originally bright and lively in spring, suddenly turned into such a miserable state.
He just wants to enjoy dancing, listening to music, looking at beauties, and doesn’t want to gossip and eat melons. Is he wrong?
"Why are you crying? Do you want me to help you and capture your heartless lover to vent your anger?"
Hearing Jia Lian's question, the beauty was stunned and quickly shook her head.
"Then why are you kneeling on the ground, looking like I feel pity for you? Why don't you get up?"
Seeing Jia Lian's face turn warm, the beauty couldn't believe it. She looked at Jia Lian carefully for a few times before she dared to stand up.
Shen Pan'er was afraid that Jia Lian would be angry, so she sat next to Jia Lian again and said with a smile: "She deceived my lord, isn't your lord angry?"
Jia Lian raised her chin with his hand: "She is not my woman, why should I be angry? Or did you lie to me too?"
"Keke, I don't dare to deceive you. If you don't believe me, come and test my body. If you find that I have deceived you, I will let you do whatever you want..."
Seeing Shen Paner smiling brightly and looking confident, Jia Lian shook his head and looked at the others: "Who among you is like her? Tell me now and I will not hold you accountable for what you have concealed."
matter.
But if I don’t tell you now, I won’t be as easy to talk to as I am now after I am brought to the capital.”
The expressions of the other beauties changed and they looked at each other. Finally, a timid beauty stepped forward and said, "Please forgive me, sir. The slave family is not the same...the slave family is also the same as Sister Mengyun..."
"Oh, you also devoted yourself to a certain great talent?"
"No, it's not..."
Perhaps seeing that Jia Lian really had no intention of punishing him, or perhaps he did not dare to deceive Jia Lian, the man finally blushed and said with a hateful expression: "The slave family was forced by the young master's family, but the young master's family was afraid that his father would find out, so they threatened to prevent the slave family from telling anyone."
Go out and wait until he takes charge of the family in the future before bringing the Nu family back to the house. Therefore, the Nu family definitely did not deliberately deceive you."
Although it was reasonable for such things to happen to these women, it made Jia Lian feel a little uninterested.
Without saying anything, he asked them to leave, leaving only Shen Pan'er and Gu Qingyi.
Seeing Jia Lian looking at the two of them, Shen Pan'er smiled angrily and threw herself into Jia Lian's arms, while Gu Qingyi had an indifferent expression and sat behind the guqin next to her, playing as if no one else was around.
"Sir, are you really not angry with them?"
Shen Pan'er took a piece of snack and fed it to Jia Lian's mouth. She smiled coquettishly in Jia Lian's arms, as if she wanted to use her delicate body to completely eliminate Jia Lian's unhappiness.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Jia Lian has no interest in raising this issue again. He is not so hypocritical. He wants to enjoy the various charms of prostitutes and also requires them to be pure and pure. In fact, this
It's a paradox.
However, this did make him make up his mind.
"I see that each of you has a maid to serve you?"
"Yes, even though we are slaves, our food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all given to us according to your lady's wishes.
Take the slave family as an example. Not counting those who take care of the arrangements during performances, but also those who serve closely at ordinary times, there are two maids.
But this is nothing to me, Sister Qingyi is even more powerful. Not only are there four personal maids to serve her, but the guqin, pipa and other things used in her room are all of the highest quality.
Sir, please take a look. The guqin in front of her was made by a former qin master. It is called the "Crane Moon". It is said that the original Qianjin Yixiaolou spent a lot of money to find it for her.
And that day when you were on the boat and saw Sister Qingyi for the first time, the jade flute in her hand was called "Shock", and it was also a hard-to-find item with a lot of money... Wow, the more I talk about it, the more envious I become.
In the future, if you get something similar, please remember to buy it for Pan'er."
Jia Lian felt strange after hearing this: "Oh, I see you have a good reputation in Jiangnan. Don't you have one or two treasures with you?"
Shen Pan'er said with some embarrassment: "Jiaofangsi is no better than other brothels. If there are really good things, they can't be found in other brothels. Therefore, what I have in my hands now are ordinary items."
After hearing this, Jia Lian felt a little enlightened.
Well, I can only say that there are benefits within the system. Big factories outside also have benefits.
For example, the material treatment of Shen Pan'er, the courtesan in the brothel, is obviously much worse than that of Gu Qingyi, who comes from a brothel supported by the Zhou family.
So Shen Pan'er laughed and said: "Are you still envious? Didn't I give you this garden worth far more than one hundred thousand taels of silver?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Pan'er suddenly became excited: "Really for the slave family?"
Seeing Jia Lian nodding, Shen Pan'er couldn't help but look back at Gu Qingyi, then turned back and said with a smile: "It just so happens that everyone dreams of having a garden of their own. If you say this, then I think you are sincere.
In this case, people think the name ‘Zhou Family Courtyard’ is not pleasant and want to change it to another name, that’s fine.”
"as you like."
Jia Lian naturally didn't care. As long as it wasn't changed to "Jia Lian's Farewell", it would have no impact. It was expected that the Zhou family would not dare to say anything about it.
"Hehe, what do you think of 'Shen Yuan'?"
"Shen Yuan?"
Jia Lian felt it sounded a bit familiar.
But she saw that Shen Pan'er had already stood up, and started dancing on the spot with the dancer's costume that she had never taken off before.
While dancing, she lightly opened her red lips and sang a love song:
"Red crisp hands, yellow vine wine, the city is full of spring scenery and willows on the palace walls~"
"The east wind is evil and happiness is weak... Even though the alliance is here, it is difficult to trust the brocade book. Mo, mo, mo~"
"The world is weak and human beings are evil. When the rain comes and the evening comes, the flowers will fall easily..."
Poems can be sung, especially these Tang and Song terms. In the land of brothels, countless versions of tunes were compiled, and it is not surprising that dance music was also composed.
While Shen Pan'er was dancing, Gu Qingyi beside her was also strumming the strings to harmonize with her singing.
After the dance, Shen Pan'er fell into Jia Lian's arms and said with a smile: "These are two pieces of "The Hairpin-headed Phoenix" by Lu You and Tang Wan. The Nu family likes them very much. It happens that their surname is Shen, so they call it Shen Yuan. People call it Shen Yuan.
If you name it after your own surname, you won't be angry, right?"
Even if a beauty is acting coquettishly, it's hard for a man to express his anger.
What's more, Jia Lian didn't care at all. After all, he could even put the garden in Shen Pan'er's name, which shows how wealthy he was at this time.
"I just asked you, maids, and I just want to tell you two things. One is that I have some personal matters and need to go to Suzhou. When I get back, I will probably start back to Beijing, so you should make preparations early.
The other thing is that you should send your maids back as soon as possible. When you get to the capital, I will provide you with people to serve you.
If it is really hard to separate, you are only allowed to bring one person with you at most, is there a problem?"
"no problem."
When Shen Pan'er heard this, she knew that Jia Lian was mainly speaking to Gu Qingyi. After all, Gu Qingyi had four maids by his side.
Gu Qingyi seemed to frown, but she nodded immediately when Jia Lian and his two men looked at her. At the same time, she felt relieved, Jia Lian had made a public statement that he would take her back to Beijing.
"Hey, do you want to tell others about your instructions? Or, among the ten of us, you only decided to take Nujia and Sister Qingyi back to the capital? If so, there is no need to tell them, lest they be envious.
"
The two people who had previously revealed that they were not innocent have been automatically excluded from the ranks of sisters by Shen Pan'er. She knew that unless Jia Lian was prepared to take them all away, there would be no chance for those two people. Also, just don't blame them.
Yes, you still need to show me grace?
Jia Lian's original intention was to decide the matter after he came back, but considering that he was going to Suzhou during this trip, there was no point in keeping these beauties here.
"Just tell them that I have left Yangzhou and don't know when I will come back. If they want to go back, let them leave."
With that said, Jia Lian took out a small stack of banknotes from his sleeve and said, "They stayed with me for ten days in Yangzhou, and I had to express my gratitude. When they left, they would make up for it according to their usual standards of performing performances.
Ten times the reward, you have to arrange this matter."
"How can I ask you to reward me with more money? We already took the money before we came to Yangzhou..."
Shen Pan'er said subconsciously. Seeing that Jia Lian's expression was unquestionable, she nodded the amount in her hand and said with a smile, "Even if it's ten times, it won't cost so much money."
"If there's more, you can keep it."
"Keke, my lord is so kind to the slave family, aren't you afraid that Sister Qingyi will be jealous?"