The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

The Second Master Zheng was unaware of these matters, but the others knew more or less about them.

In particular, Jia Qiang and Jia Rong, having cooperated quite well with Jia Huan in the Ning Mansion, were quite aware of Jia Huan's considerable influence outside the mansion.

Relying on the artificial waterway, Jia Huan's gang of thugs has grown to two or three hundred.

Don't underestimate these two or three hundred; they are all tough and ruthless fighters, a force to be reckoned with.

Without so many capable and courageous fighters, how could we possibly maintain a man-made waterway that stretches for nearly fifty miles? Are you kidding me?

Jia Huan alone receives a monthly bonus of over a thousand taels of silver.

With a large sum of money, the small martial arts school began to take on apprentices and teach martial arts. The apprentices were all from poor families, as well as some down-on-their-luck martial arts men gathered by his blood uncle, Zhao Guoji.

At this moment, he had no intention of dominating the martial arts world; instead, he focused on protecting his own interests first.

Not only does Jia Huan need to expand his influence, but he also needs the help of the small martial arts school to meet his own training needs.

As time passed, the progress bar for his breathing technique remained firmly stuck at 0.8%, yet his physical condition continued to improve.

During this period, the large energy requirements make it unsuitable to rely solely on chicken, duck, fish, and meat.

Or rather, simply eating meat is no longer enough to keep up with the body's huge nutritional needs.

Medicinal cuisine has been put on the table; this is the normal dietary standard for those who practice martial arts!

The two renowned doctors that Jia Huan had managed to get out of the Shuntian Prefecture prison by using his connections and money came in very handy at this time.

They naturally had suitable medicinal diet recipes, and if that didn't work, they could prepare temporary ones based on Jia Huan's physical condition; it wasn't a difficult task for them.

The key issue is that the real expense is in preparing the medicinal food ingredients!

Think about it, a pot of medicinal cuisine costs one or two taels of silver, or even more. How many families that are not well-off can afford to support that?

Not to mention, there were all sorts of training equipment, as well as weapons like knives and spears, all of which cost silver.

In order to improve his skills and skills in the future, Jia Huan had to pay attention to ways to make money and spare no effort to protect his own interests from being affected, which cost him a considerable amount of money.

Of course, offering advice and strategies to Master Zheng and the others would yield considerable rewards when the time came, something Jia Huan himself was quite looking forward to.

Chapter 131 Caught Off Guard (Please Subscribe)

No one expected the current emperor to act so swiftly.

Three days after the Ministry of Revenue accepted the 1.15 million taels of silver as repayment, the Emperor immediately issued a reward.

Jia Zheng, the Vice Minister of the Court of Imperial Stud, was transferred to the position of Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, becoming the head of the Court of State Ceremonies instead of one of the three deputy ministers of the Court of Imperial Stud.

Although his rank was only raised by half a grade, making him only a fourth-rank official, his status was now completely different, and he was able to attend small court assemblies.

It's not that Jia Zheng can't directly become a high-ranking official of the third rank, but the current government doesn't want him to rise too quickly and end up falling into an abyss of no return.

There's no way around it; the Second Master Zheng has left a very deep impression on the current emperor, namely, incompetence!

If it weren't for setting an example, and the fact that Jia Zheng, though incompetent, was a rare honest man, the current emperor would have reluctantly accepted it. He even gave it considerable thought, ultimately choosing the position of Minister of the Court of State Ceremonial.

Because the Great Qian Dynasty performed poorly in foreign wars, it did not have the grandeur of a celestial empire.

As a result, the Court of State Ceremonial became a rather leisurely government office, which was just right for the Second Master Zheng.

Jia Lian was promoted by one rank and became a senior official in the Yunnan Provincial Department of Revenue, in charge of the grain transport in Tianjin and Tongzhou. It could be said that he held a low-ranking but powerful position.

Of course, obtaining this official position was not easy. Jia Huan asked Jia Rong from the Ning Mansion to intervene, and with silver notes in hand, he went to find Dai Quan, who had left the palace. It took five thousand taels of silver to secure the position.

The silver notes were naturally provided by Jia Lian himself; Jia Huan had no obligation to pay for them.

Wang Xifeng gave repeated warnings about this matter, and was almost ready to turn on him on the spot.

As for how Dai Quan operated, Jia Huan didn't know and didn't want to find out.

Jia Rong's rank was directly promoted to Second-Class General, and he also became a squad leader in the Imperial Guard, which is roughly equivalent to a fourth-rank position. The emperor was quite generous, of course, because of the money.

Even Jia Qiang got his wish and obtained the title of Yunqiwei, which is equivalent to the seventh rank.

The two brothers have brought honor to their ancestors this time, and they have done much better than Jia Zhen did.

Regardless of whether he chooses to pursue a life as a palace guard or join the military, he has a very promising start.

Of course, the biggest beneficiaries were the two historians!

Whether it was intentional or for other reasons, the third son, Marquis Zhongjing, was promoted to the rank of fourth-grade city gate commander, a powerful military officer with hundreds of soldiers under his command, guarding one of the city gates of the capital!

As for the second son, Baolinghou, he became a third-rank military officer and was transferred to one of the twelve regiments of the Beijing Garrison as its commander, which can be described as a meteoric rise.

Indeed, when the news reached the Rong family, everyone from the old lady to the second master was stunned.

It should be noted that the Jia family of Beijing had been in charge of the Beijing Garrison for decades, so they were naturally very familiar with the ins and outs of the Garrison.

Despite being the head of the Beijing Garrison, the Military Governor of the Capital Garrison was only a third-rank official, on par with a military officer in charge of a battalion.

If the commander of a regiment and the military governor are at odds, he can simply ignore them, and the military governor can't do anything about it.

Unless it's wartime, and the military governor has to have the courage to execute his generals, there's really not much he can do against the battalion commander, who can be considered a core general of the capital garrison.

In addition, the commander of the regiment has a great chance of being promoted to the military governor of the capital garrison. It can be said that the Marquis of Baoling has become incredibly powerful this time. Who knows, he might even become the head of one of the four great families of Jinling in the future.

Just like Wang Ziteng before him, but his foundation in the military is much stronger than Wang Ziteng's.

Now it was the old lady's turn to sit on the wax.

That's why they say old people are wiser and more experienced; old ginger is spicier!

The old lady seemed oblivious to the awkwardness and continued as before.

When the two Marquises Shi came to visit, they specially invited him to Rongqing Hall for a warm welcome, and also asked them to give Master Zheng a good talking-to, and if there was an opportunity, to take care of Jia Baoyu, this phoenix egg.

Such a performance left the two Marquises somewhat overwhelmed.

Fortunately, they didn't get carried away and knew how they got their positions.

Even though his current status was a notch above the combined official ranks of the male members of the Jia family in the capital, he showed no sign of arrogance or haughtiness.

It's estimated that the years of being sidelined have taken a toll on the brothers.

Furthermore, because they actively repaid the national treasury's debts, they were isolated by the nobility. Instead of banding together for mutual support, they are causing conflict over their status. Wouldn't that be courting their own destruction?

Even so, the changes in status and power still have some impact.

The Shi family's strength has reached the traditional level of second place among the four major families of Jinling, and there is even a trend of them sitting in second place and looking towards first.

The Wang family's foundation was insufficient. With only one founding earl, the family lacked capable successors to support them, and their decline was far more dramatic than that of the Ning and Rong families.

In particular, the Wang family lost control of the Maritime Trade Office, which was the most fundamental aspect of their power, leaving them like a tree without roots in the capital.

If it weren't for the Jia family's support, they probably wouldn't have survived until Prince Teng rose to prominence, and their family would have completely fallen into ruin.

Even with the strong support of the Rong family, Wang Ziteng became the military governor of the capital. Not only was his family background weak, but he was also considered to be at the bottom among the top nobles in the capital.

Was there any ulterior motive involved by the Jia family?

It's likely that they did. If the Jia family produced an outstanding son of a military officer, it would be easy for him to rise rapidly through the connections of Prince Teng, and eventually replace him once he reached a certain position.

Unfortunately, the sons of the Ning and Rong mansions were not ambitious, and the old lady strongly suppressed the collateral branches, preventing them from easily making a name for themselves in the army, which caused the Jia family's prestige in the capital to decline rapidly.

There's a popular saying these days: the more you lack something, the more you show how much you value it.

Judging from the extreme greed of both Madam Wang and Wang Xifeng for silver, it is estimated that the Wang family, which was said to be "lacking a jade bed in the East Sea, the Dragon King came to the King of Jinling," was extremely short of silver for a period of time.

Many fanfictions of Dream of the Red Chamber mention that during the time when Lady Wang was in charge of the Rong Mansion, she desperately plundered her family to make ends meet.

Based on Jia Huan's observations and deductions, this is highly unlikely.

Did they really think that the old lady had completely let go of herself and relinquished all control over the Rong family?

Jia Huan hadn't expected the current emperor to be so decisive. Despite immense pressure from the court, he forcefully appointed the Ning and Rong mansions as heads, and even promoted the Shi family, who had voluntarily repaid the national treasury's debts.

According to the court's past practices, wouldn't it take several days of wrangling to get these things done?

Not to mention, those officials who owed money and were provoked were all red-eyed, and their desire to kill the Second Master Zheng and his associates was very obvious.

In this situation, being able to make a quick decision is quite impressive.

Putting aside other matters, in the period that followed, one after another, officials in the capital took the initiative to go to the Ministry of Revenue to repay the silver, which was a good response to the current swift and efficient actions.

Unfortunately, most of the officials who voluntarily repaid the debts were mid- to low-ranking officials in the capital.

The amount of silver they borrowed was not much; even if all one hundred people combined, it wouldn't equal the 150,000 taels that the Shi family repaid.

There were no rewards in terms of official rank, so it was as bland as water.

Of course, those who truly understand the situation know that these Beijing officials who proactively and actively repaid their debts have secured their future prospects, and the government will certainly not forget them.

It can be said that at this point, actively repaying the debt is entirely a matter of attitude.

Nowadays, one can easily screen out officials willing to curry favor by repaying loans, and then quickly promote them when the opportunity arises. It's safe to say their future prospects won't be too bad.

These are merely side effects of the so-called imperial strategies. What is truly needed now is to quickly raise a large amount of silver to resolve the court's temporary financial difficulties.

However, what troubled Jia Huan was that the current emperor's swift reward of the heads of the Ning and Rong mansions had created a huge loophole in his original plan.

Originally, his idea was to use the immense pressure from the court to force the Second Master Zheng to seek outside help, and then find a way to transfer Lin Ruhai to the capital to assist.

Now, things are much better; the initial vision has almost been realized in one step.

Whether the Second Master Zheng will still feel immense pressure and ultimately have to seek outside help is hard to say.

At this point, there wasn't much Jia Huan could really do.