After staggering for nearly a month, we finally arrived in the capital.
With the support of officials, chariots and horses sent by the imperial court, Jia Lian returned to the capital with great fanfare with a large amount of silver and property.
After clearly communicating with the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, Jia Lian went directly to the south study room of Daming Palace to repeat the order.
"Jia Lian, a humble minister, wishes to greet your Majesty, long live my emperor."
"Get flat."
Emperor Ning Kang still looked lean and majestic. He looked at Jia Lian, who had been separated for three months, nodded with satisfaction, and then said: "This time to investigate the salt administration and punish corruption, my dear, thank you for your hard work."
"It is a great honor for a humble minister to be loyal to His Majesty."
After a brief conversation, Emperor Ning Kang picked up the memorials he had prepared and asked Dai Quan to hand them to Jia Lian.
Jia Lian seemed puzzled. He picked up two books one after another. After reading them for a while, his expression changed slightly. Then he immediately knelt down and said: "Your Majesty, these people are just slander. I have been keeping this in mind since I went to Jiangnan with the order." I have considered your Majesty's instructions with great care, and I am deeply afraid that I will disappoint Your Majesty.
These ministers relied on these baseless things to accuse the ministers for no reason. They had ulterior motives and were extremely abominable!
I also ask Your Majesty to be clear-minded and never listen to the words of these villains.
They don't know how vicious and difficult those salt merchants and salt officials are! If he had known this, His Majesty should have sent these people to Yangzhou in the first place, so that they could experience what it was like to rack their brains every day to compete with salt merchants and local officials, and to be on guard against being assassinated at any time. Until then, let’s see if they can still make sarcastic remarks and maliciously accuse others! "
Jia Lian said with a hateful face, as if if the person who wrote these memorials were here, he would step forward and give him a fist.
Just as Jia Yucun expected, many ministers in the court had already begun to impeach him before he returned to Beijing. Some of these memorials were written even before he left Yangzhou. The content was mostly nothing more than a protest and impeachment against his "arrogant formality" and "disrespect of laws" in Yangzhou.
There are also those who doubt that he took advantage of the opportunity to make money and line his own pockets, but these are just conjectures and not worth mentioning.
Emperor Ningkang looked at Jia Lian's expression carefully. After Jia Lian vented his emotions, he said calmly: "I have read every memorial you sent back to the capital. I know your difficulties, so naturally I will not listen to them. These people are making wild assumptions about you.
The reason why I show these to you is just to let you know what are the shortcomings and inappropriateness of your actions. You should try your best to avoid them when you serve the imperial court in the future.
In addition, although I believe you, I cannot completely ignore the opinions of the courtiers. You go back to rest today, and you will come to the morning court tomorrow. If there are still ministers who are in trouble with you, just tell them in person and clear your name.
Get up. "
"I obey your order, thank you for your majesty's trust and love..."
"As for your reward, I will have it delivered to your house after the court meeting."
"Thank you, my emperor, for your grace..."
"Do you have anything else?"
Seeing Jia Lian still standing there after thanking him, Emperor Ning Kang seemed a little puzzled and asked.
"Well, I do have something to report to Your Majesty..."
Jia Lian said and glanced at the few young eunuchs in the hall.
Dai Quan understood and glanced at Emperor Ning Kang. When he noticed that Emperor Ning Kang raised his eyebrows, he waved to the young eunuchs to retreat.
"Say it." Emperor Ning Kang's tone was a little angry, because few ministers dared to ask him to stand aside.
But Jia Lian was so sharp-eyed that he could easily detect the look of expectation in Emperor Ning Kang's eyes.
So he took out a brocade box that had been prepared for a long time from his sleeve. Without letting Dai Quan turn it over, he bent forward and presented it directly to Emperor Ningkang's throne. He said with a smile: "Your Majesty, this is the city of Yangzhou." The salt merchants asked the ministers to pass it on to His Majesty.
They said that they had lived up to the high hopes of the imperial court and the trust of His Majesty, so in addition to voluntarily donating four million taels of silver to the imperial court to atone for their sins, they also took the initiative to donate three million taels of silver to His Majesty on a special trip to thank His Majesty for not killing him. Grace.
Inside, there are a total of one million taels of silver notes from major banks, and the other two million taels are cash silver. Weichen has ordered people to purchase money from various mansions in the south of the Yangtze River for His Majesty and the ladies in the palace. The local specialties were escorted to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. "
Even though he was well prepared, Emperor Ning Kang was also moved by the number three million taels.
Even for him, this number is not small.
Excluding the expenses incurred by the Supreme Emperor, the amount of money his internal funds draw from the treasury every year will not exceed this amount. Of course, the palace's expenses are not entirely dependent on the supply from the treasury, but also the income from the various royal estates below.
He is the emperor, and every year he has to reward his ministers, hold state banquets, maintain the expenses of the palace, etc., which costs a lot of money.
Emperor Ning Kang was still very satisfied with Jia Lian's move.
Although he is the emperor, the difference is not particularly big whether the money flows into the treasury or into his internal funds. After all, the money in these two places is his money.
However, he has to discuss the money in the treasury with the courtiers, and he will be restricted. If he uses too much, he will be accused of wasting state assets by the courtiers.
In contrast, the money from internal funds is much more casual. He can use it however he wants, and no one can control it.
After flipping through the brand new banknote, Ning Kangdi looked at Jia Lian with increasing satisfaction.
Regardless of whether the money was really paid tribute by the salt merchants or Jia Lian withheld it from the treasury, in short, Jia Lian could fully understand what he meant at the beginning and solve his dilemma of lack of money. He was someone who could relieve the king's worries. A capable minister!
Well, things are done very securely. Although no one dared to intercept and check the money even if it was transported directly to his Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jia Lian was able to think of a way to pay tribute to local specialties and transport it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for him, which even avoided the suspicion of the courtiers. .
However, even though he was happy, Emperor Ning Kang frowned and asked Jia Lian: "Those salt merchants, are they really so rich? Are they able to spend millions of taels of silver just casually?"
After all, Emperor Ningkang was a peaceful emperor. After ascending the throne, he never left the vicinity of the capital.
In his opinion, the amount that Jia Lian had submitted to the Ministry of Household Affairs was already quite large. Including various rare antiques, calligraphy and paintings, the value of the money was between seven and eight million.
If we add these three million taels, wouldn't it be more than ten million taels!
Even he couldn't help but be stunned by this amount. After all, Jia Lian had only been in Yangzhou for three months, and he had only really stayed in Yangzhou for more than a month. Regardless of whether his methods were cruel or brutal, the fact that he was able to collect more than 10 million taels of wealth from Yangzhou in one month was still impressive to Emperor Ningkang. I feel incredible.
Jia Lian immediately replied: "It's more than just wealth. Your Majesty doesn't know that although Yangzhou is a state capital of Jinling Province, in terms of prosperity, it is not far behind Jinling City.
Not to mention those big salt merchants, which one doesn’t have seven or eight luxurious manors? Take the Zhao family and the Wang family who dared to assassinate Wei Chen. Their money was so piled up that when Wei Chen and others went in to check, they were almost shocked! "
Emperor Ning Kang frowned upon hearing this, but then he relaxed.
Firstly, he hasn't focused too much on the salt policy yet, and secondly, the profits of the salt bank are there. Even if this group of people are killed and a new group is replaced, it may not be better than the current group.
So Emperor Ningkang looked at Jia Lian and said with a pointed smile: "Oh, since these salt merchants are so wealthy, why don't they show any respect to you, the imperial envoy?"
When Jia Lian heard this, he seemed unhurried and glanced at Dai Quan.
Dai Quan immediately turned to Emperor Ningkang and said, "Your Majesty, forgive me. When Marquis Zhenyuan entered the palace just now, he said that he wanted to give some treasures to the Emperor. I thought that since it was Marquis Zhenyuan's wish, I must give them to him. His Majesty’s surprise was not reported to the Emperor first.”
Emperor Ningkang glanced at him and said noncommittally: "In that case, I won't let anyone present it."
After a while, the little eunuchs filed in and unfolded a total of four calligraphy and paintings.
As soon as Emperor Ningkang saw it, he knew that Jia Lian was in his favour, but he did not pretend to be reserved. He walked out from behind the dragon's eucalyptus and began to observe and review them one by one.
Although Emperor Ningkang was not as fond of playing with utensils in his old age as the Supreme Emperor, he was more interested in calligraphy and painting because he was good at calligraphy.
Emperor Ning Kang looked at the first few paintings and just nodded slightly, thinking they were pretty good. No wonder Jia Lian dared to present them to him in such a mysterious way.
It wasn't until he glanced at the fourth picture that Ning Kangdi's eyes quietly froze, and he immediately took two steps closer and started to caress it carefully.
Dai Quan, who was standing next to him, saw him and quietly gave Jia Lian a thumbs up.
As someone close to the emperor, Dai Quan certainly knew that in serving the emperor, sometimes offering something that the emperor liked was more useful than performing many great contributions to the court!
Looking at Emperor Ning Kang's performance, we know that Jia Lian succeeded.
Emperor Ningkang bent over and stared for a long time before he raised his head. Then he seemed to feel that his performance lacked the emperor's majesty, so he coughed lightly and asked Jia Lian in a low voice: "Is this an authentic work?"
"Replying to Your Majesty, Wei Chen doesn't know much about calligraphy and painting, so he can't answer your Majesty accurately. However, this was indeed donated to Wei Chen when Wei Chen was in Yangzhou.
I also asked people to identify it, and most people said it should be authentic.
Because this post is so famous, even the ministers dare not be arbitrary. I also remembered that I had the honor to witness His Majesty's superb calligraphy skills during my previous visit, so I specially present it to Your Majesty for your appreciation today. "
Jia Lian said with a smile. In fact, this copy of Wang Xizhi's "Peace Note" was copied from the Zhao family. But, since it was said to be copied, he withheld the donation and presented it to the emperor. Naturally, he was suspected of borrowing flowers to offer to the Buddha. It would be better for someone else to give them to him, and his "loyalty" to present them again is commendable.
Emperor Ning Kang nodded, feeling that what Jia Lian said was pertinent. After all, even he, a fan of Wang Xizhi, dared not confirm at a glance whether it was an authentic work, because there were too many imitations of this famous post.
Many high imitations are worth a lot of money.
But the picture in front of him, he felt, was probably true!
If that were the case, it would be considered a treasure to him.
Emperor Ning Kang, who asked Dai Quan to accept the four calligraphy and paintings and sat back on the throne, looked at Jia Lian with a look that he no longer knew how to describe.
"Wei Chen dare not hide it from Your Majesty. After everything was settled in Yangzhou, the salt merchants did give Wei Chen a lot of benefits in order to let him speak good words for them in the court and in front of His Majesty.
Among them, there are one hundred thousand taels of silver and more than ten pieces of various antiques.
Wei Chen thought that if he didn't accept it, the salt merchants would be uneasy and prone to trouble, so he accepted it.
However, Wei Chen did not dare to take these things for himself. In addition to the four calligraphy and paintings just presented to His Majesty, the others included one hundred thousand silver and various treasures. Wei Chen put them all into the two million taels of silver and gave them to him. Arrive at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. "
Emperor Ningkang smiled when he heard this and said, "Oh, if that's the case, didn't you go all the way in vain and get no benefit at all?"
"Your Majesty, please stop teasing me. I am serving your Majesty and serving the court. As long as the job is done, there is no such thing as running away in vain.
Furthermore, I know that as long as I serve His Majesty with all my heart, Your Majesty will definitely not treat us meritorious ministers badly!
If some petty gains blind one's mind and one does something that hurts His Majesty's trust, that would be a real loss outweighing the gain.
Wei Chen still understands this account. "
As Jia Lian spoke, he actually looked like he thought he was very smart.
When Emperor Ningkang saw this, he couldn't help but cursed: "Pedantic!"
Although he was scolded, the look on Emperor Ning Kang's face showed that he was satisfied with Jia Lian's awakening.
So he raised his hand and handed Dai Quan the brocade box presented by Jia Lian just now, and said, "Give him one hundred thousand taels."
Emperor Ning Kang's words were very generous.
Jia Lian said quickly: "Your Majesty, this is impossible. Your Majesty is connected with the country and the country, and there are many places where money is needed.
Wei Chen doesn’t dare to accept it. Besides, how can Wei Chen use so much money..."
Emperor Ningkang snorted: "You can take it if I tell you to. This is not completely given to you. I heard that your family almost emptied the treasury to build a garden for the imperial concubine. This can be regarded as my special trip to make up for you." House's."
Dai Quan also promptly counted out one hundred thousand taels of silver notes and stuffed them into Jia Lian's hands, and said with a smile: "Master Zhenyuan, just take it when the emperor tells you to take it. Haha, this old slave has been following the emperor for so many years, but this is the first time. I see that the Emperor has given such a heavy reward to a minister alone, and the Marquis of Zhenyuan is the first person to do so."
Therefore, Jia Lian "reluctantly" accepted the banknote and thanked Emperor Ningkang.
But it was very clear in my heart.
Even if Emperor Ningkang scolded him for being pedantic, if he really openly admitted that he had profited from helping him, even if Emperor Ningkang wouldn't blame him, he would still be upset.
As the old saying goes, the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers. Therefore, most of the ministers below would take the opportunity to make some money when doing things. How could the emperor not know this?
Even this is a matter of tacit approval.
However, it is one thing to acquiesce, and another thing to know that you are sneaky and greedy!
After all, everything in the world belongs to the king. What the emperor rewards you is yours. If you take it yourself, that is called disloyalty.
He could legitimately hold these one hundred thousand taels, because it contained the emperor's reward for his loyalty.
As for whether a reward of one hundred thousand taels to a minister would be too much...
It must be too much. In other circumstances, Emperor Ning Kang would only reward his ministers with so much cash unless he was crazy!
But it’s easier to understand if you put it another way.
The younger brother helped the boss get more than three million in "stolen money" and gave it to the younger brother who will use it again in the future. One hundred thousand, isn't that too much?
Even seemed a little stingy.
After Jia Lian received the banknote, Emperor Ning Kang's attitude was obviously much warmer than before, and he even personally cared about some of the things mentioned in Jia Lian's memorial. Especially when it came to mentioning that someone dared to assassinate Jia Lian one after another, Emperor Ning Kang also expressed his concern. Anger.
However, because the culprit had already been confiscated and executed by Jia Lian, Emperor Ning Kang expressed concern and then asked him to step down.
