"Husband! I always feel that the Queen Mother and the Supreme Emperor are too kind to me..."
On the carriage leaving the palace, Qin Keqing leaned against Jia Per, looked at Jia Per with her beautiful eyes and said softly.
The enthusiasm of the Queen Mother and the Supreme Emperor towards her today really shocked her. She felt very frightened and uneasy. As the Queen Mother continued to comfort her, she slowly relaxed.
"You are their granddaughter who has been missing for many years. They have been looking for you for many years. Now that they have finally met, how can they not want to be nice to you?" Japer thought to himself.
He stroked his wife's hair with his hand and said with a smile: "Then Ke'er thinks the Queen Mother and the others are good to you. Do you like it?"
He tapped the jade head gently, moved his delicate body slightly in Japer's arms and said softly: "I like it! I don't know why I always feel that the Queen Mother and the others are very kind!"
Hearing what Qin Keqing said, Jiapo felt relieved. He was also afraid that the two old men would be too enthusiastic about Qin Keqing, which would put pressure on Qin Keqing. In that case, the two old men would probably feel very uncomfortable.
Before understanding everything, what he was most afraid of was the royal family's attitude towards Qin Keqing. Now that the emperor had told him everything, he sincerely hoped that the two old people could enjoy the happiness of their family. After all, this royal family was not ruthless.
"Then Ke'er can treat the Queen Mother and the others as her elders from now on?" Japer said softly.
Although she didn’t know why her husband said this, she still nodded lightly out of trust in her husband: “Okay! I will do it!”
Three days have passed since I entered the palace to express my gratitude.
The back garden of the palace
"Rouer, I will be very sad if you do this, you can't let me!" Japer looked at the chess pieces on the board with a bitter face. He had lost more than ten games in a row and was almost autistic.
"Giggle! Rou'er gave in. It's my husband, but your chess skills are too bad..." Qin Keqing looked at Japer with a sad look on his face and chuckled.
"That's right! Brother Yubai, after playing for so long, your chess skills haven't improved at all and are still so bad!" Lin Daiyu made up for Jia Po's chess skills with a serious look on her face.
Japer rolled his eyes after hearing this: "It can only be said that I have no talent. Unlike my Ke'er and Rou'er, who are not only beautiful and beautiful, but also talented and intelligent."
"Sigh! Brother Yubai is so shameless. I'm not from your family yet." Lin Daiyu's pretty face turned red and she spat after hearing Jiapo say that she was from his family.
"Giggle! What do you mean, sister, from now on?" Qin Keqing giggled.
"Oh! How could my sister bully me like this? I won't obey." She said with a pretty face and rushed towards Qin Keqing to start a fight.
Looking at the two girls fighting, Japer only felt satisfied. The two girls got along well with each other and were as close as sisters. The palace was full of laughter and laughter every day.
"Prince Liu Yang has received a letter. Master Lin has been assassinated." While watching the two women chasing each other, Zhang Qianyun, the leader of the palace's female guards, walked in.
This female guard was formed by Japo after he returned to Beijing. He selected innocent women. There are three hundred people in total. Although their strength cannot be compared with his personal guards, the three or five big men are no match for them. They are used to guard the inner courtyard of the palace. Couldn't be more appropriate.
Japer's eyes flashed with murderous intent and he said, "Is there something wrong with me? Can we find out who did it?"
"My lord, Mr. Lin is fine. Jinyi Mansion found out that it was Jiangnan salt merchants and major local officials who did it." Perhaps feeling Jiapo's murderous intention, Zhang Qianqian said quickly with cold sweat on her forehead.
"Be prepared to enter the palace later."
"Don't let Rou'er know about this matter, Gu will handle it."
Knowing that Lin Ruhai was not injured, Japer felt relieved.
Yongdeokgung Palace
At this time, Emperor Longchang was sitting on the dragon chair, looking at the memorial in his hand, with anger rising in his heart.
"Have you found out who ordered it?" Emperor Longchang looked at Zhao Quan and asked, suppressing the anger in his heart.
"Return to your majesty! It was the Wang family and the Zhen family who gave instructions. The ones who took action were the Jiangnan Salt Gang and the local officials." Zhao Quan clearly felt the strong anger of Emperor Longchang, and he did not dare to hide anything and quickly told what he knew. .
Emperor Longchang snorted coldly: "Humph! You really don't want to give up! Do you think I won't take action against them as long as Concubine Zhen is here?"
Since the establishment of the Commerce Department, 60% of the world's merchants have defected to the imperial court, but there has been no movement from the four major families. This has made the emperor very unhappy, because the most important 40% of the merchants have all defected to the four major families. , and these 40% of businessmen are the richest businessmen in Jiangnan.
According to statistics from the Department of Commerce, the 40% of merchants in Jiangnan alone have a circulation of 600 million taels of silver, and a net profit of more than 140. If calculated according to the 100 tax of the Department of Commerce, it would be 720. Don’t think that the 80 million taels in the national treasury is a lot of business tax. It is half of the family property income of 762 business officials. On average, each family only pays 110,000 taels of silver. These are just one-time transactions.
However, Jiangnan was able to continuously provide the court with a steady stream of 7.2 million taels of commercial tax every year. At its peak, Daxing's tax revenue was only 5 million taels. With this, it had to support the national army, provide disaster relief, etc., and in the end the national treasury was left with 3 million taels. One hundred thousand taels is not bad, but the commercial tax of one place in Jiangnan can feed the whole country. How can this not make Emperor Longchang jealous?
"Li Aiqing, how do you think we should handle the Jiangnan matter?" The emperor looked at Li Shoufu and asked
Li Shoufu saw the emperor looking at him and did not hesitate: "The most difficult thing about your Majesty's affairs in Jiangnan is actually Zhou Quan, the governor of Suzhou and Hangzhou. The Zhou family's occupation of Suzhou and Hangzhou is a guard of honor for the Wang family and the Zhen family in Jiangnan. If you want to completely To deal with these people in Jiangnan, we must first deal with Zhou Quan, the governor of Suzhou and Hangzhou. Over the years, the Zhou family has completely disobeyed the court's orders. The other seven military governors have also been making constant moves over the years. The old minister thought that he could use this incident together with The Zhou family will solve it together.
Xia Shouzhong, Zhao Quan, the Minister of War Liu Zongning, the Minister of Personnel Zhang Chenchun, the Minister of Household Sun and others looked at Li Shoufu with surprised expressions. They knew that Li Shoufu usually liked to pretend to be confused, so why did he suddenly change his behavior today.
After listening to Li Shoufu's words, Emperor Longchang nodded. This was what he wanted to hear. He turned to look at Liu Zongning, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhang Chenchun, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel: "Liu Aiqing, Zhang Aiqing, what do you think?"
The two ministers looked at each other and knew that the emperor was interested. Liu Shangshu said: "Your Majesty's Jiedushi Zhouquan has occupied the land of Suzhou and Hangzhou for more than 40 years, and his armored troops are no less than 300,000. In addition, There is support from various forces behind the scenes. If we want to completely annihilate the Zhou family, we will need to use 400,000 soldiers and horses. Now that the court has generals that can fight, I recommend Niu Jizong, the Marquis of Zhenguo, as the commander-in-chief, and the powerful uncle Feng Tang as the deputy commander-in-chief."
The emperor frowned when he heard this. The emperor felt that it was inappropriate to have an army of 400,000. Once such an army entered Jiangnan, it would definitely cause great harm to Jiangnan. This was not what he wanted to see.
Just when the emperor was hesitating to agree, Japer's voice came from outside the palace.
"Why do you need an army of 400,000? Your Majesty, please give me 10,000 cavalry. I will capture the Zhou family and present it to Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty! Japer pays homage to Your Majesty." Japer bowed and saluted.
After waving Japer's hand, Emperor Longchang looked at Japer and said, "How sure are you that ten thousand cavalry will capture the Zhou family alive?"
Japer said without any nonsense: "Although the Zhou family has 300,000 troops and is very ambitious, I don't believe that those 300,000 troops will be completely willing to rebel. Most of them are just well-coupled. As long as your majesty gives me a The imperial minister is confident that the entire Zhou family will be brought back to the capital at the minimum cost."
"How do you bring back the entire Zhou family? Do you have a plan?" Seeing Jiapo's confidence, Emperor Longchang asked curiously.
"Your Majesty, I recommend that Marquis Shenwu Ma Ziqing lead 10,000 cavalry to the south of the Yangtze River. However, these 10,000 cavalry are only on the surface. I will secretly go to Suzhou and Hangzhou with my personal soldiers through the power of the Commerce Department in Jiangnan, and create opportunities to sneak into the military camp. , and these 10,000 iron cavalry are just bait to lure Zhou Pan’s gaze.”
Emperor Longchang frowned and asked worriedly: "Is ten thousand cavalry too few?"
Jiapo naturally understood Emperor Longchang's worries, and immediately said: "Your Majesty! All the soldiers and horses under Ma Ziqing's command are cavalry, and they move very fast, and most of them are composed of soldiers from the battlefield in northern Xinjiang. With their Even if they are surrounded by Zhou Quan's army, they can break out of the siege with their combat power, not to mention their mission is to attract Zhou Quan's attention, ten thousand cavalry is enough."
Emperor Longchang understood what Jiapo meant and was very confused. This matter was too dangerous. He didn't trust Jiapo to go. If something happened, he wouldn't be able to face his niece, but this was the best way. He couldn't make up his mind, so he He looked at the several ministers and said, "What do you think of Yubai's plan?"
The ministers looked at each other and agreed that Jia Po's plan was feasible, and said in unison: "I think Prince Zhongping's plan is feasible. Please make your decision."
