Chapter 268: Each Has Their Own Tricks

Prince Beijing's Mansion.

Recently, everyone in the Prince's mansion knew that the Prince was in a very bad mood.

He stayed in his study all day, and no one knew what he was busy with. Yesterday, a maidservant serving tea to the Prince accidentally knocked over the lid of the teacup.

It actually provoked the Prince into a towering rage, and she was beaten with a staff until she was covered in blood, scaring all the servants in the mansion.

Such a thing had never happened in the mansion before; the gentle and scholarly Prince Beijing of the past seemed to have changed into a different person.

Ever since the "usurping poem" appeared at the Autumn Chrysanthemum Poetry Banquet hosted by the mansion, it had dealt a fatal blow to the reputation that Prince Beijing had painstakingly polished for years.

The once dashing, elegant, and humble noble had now become a sinister and scheming noble with ulterior motives.

The scholars and celebrities of the Love Shenjing had once considered it an honor to attend banquets and engage in refined conversation at Prince Beijing's mansion, but now, what celebrity would go to court such bad luck?

Consequently, Prince Beijing's mansion had recently become deserted, and his presence among the nobles in the capital had been continuously pushed below the baseline.

That usurping poem only provided the Emperor with an opportunity to act; without this poem, other reasons and excuses would have appeared anyway.

Among the noble group, he had also frequently offered advice and voiced his opinions.

For years, he had racked his brains to build his reputation, planning everything and using all his efforts, wanting to become the leader among the Four Kings and Eight Dukes, although in the end, it seemed he hadn't succeeded...

Thinking back to the days of the Retired Emperor, whose military prowess was unmatched, Shui Rong's father, under the shadow of the Retired Emperor's brilliance, had been unable to achieve anything and had spent his whole life as an idle prince.

They were bystanders who saw clearly; in the final analysis, Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao didn't consider Prince Beijing Shui Rong as anything at all.

Prince Beijing's behavior was nothing more than showing off before the Emperor; besides inviting more ridicule from the Emperor, it had no other meaning.

When the Ningguo title was stripped, it was a loss for all the Four Kings and Eight Dukes, and it was also he who forcefully argued to the Emperor, which led to the Emperor issuing the decree for the three-year suspension of the Ningguo title.

There was also one most important matter: the position of Regional Commander of the Nine Provinces, which he thought was within his grasp, had also become completely out of reach.

In his own view, his reputation in both civil and military circles was well-known, and his years of planning were about to come to fruition; people in both the Cabinet and among the nobles had recommended him as the Regional Commander of the Nine Provinces.

And those methods Prince Beijing used to invite fame were things the Emperor had seen too many of before he ascended the throne...

The Emperor's heart had long been decided; he was never going to give Shui Rong a chance to intervene in the Nine Garrisons.

Whether his descendants would still be able to inherit the princely title was hard to say.

And this competition for the position of Regional Commander of the Nine Provinces was the best opportunity for the Prince Beijing lineage to rise in the military.

According to Prince Beijing Shui Rong's own judgment, that damned usurping poem had completely ruined things. Afterward, he had investigated for a long time but couldn't find the culprit behind the poem.

He hadn't expected to fall short at the final hurdle.

If, by his generation, the Prince Beijing lineage still achieved nothing, then the "virtue of the gentleman will be cut off in five generations."

This was a heavy blow to Prince Beijing.

For these years, he had cultivated an aura of literary refinement and liked to engage in tricks like poetry banquets, all to get closer to the civil officials in the scholarly circles.

This made Prince Beijing, who had always liked the feeling of being surrounded by stars, feel very lost inside, very lost...

Unlike Prince Beijing's self-admiration, the Emperor's trusted ministers, such as Marquis Zhongjing Shi Ding and Minister of War Gu Yankui, had completely different thoughts.

Prince Beijing's study.

The mansion's Chief Steward Liu Yong entered with a letter and saw the Prince looking at a map on his desk.

Liu Yong just glanced at it and saw clearly that it was a map of the Nine Border Garrisons of the Great Zhou.

He sighed slightly in his heart; the position of Regional Commander of the Nine Provinces had already been decided, yet the Prince still couldn't let it go.

Perhaps it was because Liu Yong's footsteps entering the study were a bit loud, startling Shui Rong, who was leaning over the map.

He looked up at his Chief Steward, his gaze filled with gloom and sharpness.

Liu Yong's heart couldn't help but skip a beat; he knew that the Prince's temper had become somewhat irritable recently.

That usurping poem, and the position of Regional Commander of the Nine Provinces, had dealt the Prince setbacks he had never experienced before, and even his temperament had changed somewhat.

Liu Yong said cautiously: "Your Highness, a letter has arrived from General He from Liaodong, sent by fast horse!"

Shui Rong's spirits lifted slightly upon hearing this. This He Xiong was a protégé of his Prince Beijing mansion, and relying on the mansion's connections, he had become an Assistant Regional Commander of the Five Garrisons.

This time, due to the turmoil caused by that usurping poem, He Xiong and several other generals of the Prince Beijing lineage in the Five Garrisons were implicated and transferred out of the Love Shenjing.

He Xiong was one of the unluckier ones; his superior had found fault with him and kicked him out of the Five Garrisons without mercy.

Now he had been transferred to the Yafu Pass of the Liaodong Garrison to serve as a Mobile Corps Commander, and his military rank had been demoted by one level.

But Shui Rong felt that He Xiong's transfer to the border was not necessarily a bad thing.

Because Yafu Pass was an important pass of the Liaodong Garrison and the only way for Liaodong to communicate with the Jurchens; its strategic position was extremely important.

With a general of the Prince Beijing lineage serving as a secondary officer at Yafu Pass, Shui Rong would have a clear understanding of the war situation in the Liaodong Garrison.

Based on this consideration, when He Xiong left the capital to take up his post in Liaodong, Shui Rong had personally hosted a banquet to see him off.

He had even gifted He Xiong quite a bit of wealth, just to soothe his resentment over being demoted, hoping he would settle down in Liaodong and act as his eyes and ears.

Shui Rong opened the letter and read it, but did not see the war news related to Liaodong that he had hoped for.

He couldn't help but frown and say: "This He Xiong is too impatient!"

Chief Steward Liu Yong asked cautiously: "Your Highness, has something gone wrong with General He?"

Shui Rong said: "This He Xiong was already somewhat arrogant when he was in the Five Garrisons. Now that he's been transferred to Yafu Pass, he hasn't been there long before his old habits have returned."

"He has had friction with the main officer at Yafu Pass. In the letter, he says he is often squeezed out by his superior and begs me to find a way to transfer him away from Yafu Pass."

"But now the mansion is in a weak position, and he has only been in Liaodong for a few months. How can he be transferred from this pass? This man is too impetuous and shallow; he really is incapable of accomplishing anything!"

Shui Rong impatiently threw the letter on the desk and paced anxiously in the study a few times.

"Chief Steward Liu, you write a letter on my behalf, add more soothing words, and make sure to stabilize He Xiong!"

"The military situation in Liaodong is at a critical point now. With him in Liaodong, he can at least count as eyes and ears..."

Just two streets away from Prince Beijing's mansion, a three-bay fur shop was doing a booming business.

The shop was filled with all kinds of precious furs from the north, such as tiger, bear, and leopard, and behind the shop were three locked warehouses, though no one knew what was stored inside.

In a room on the second floor of the shop, a man looking like a shopkeeper stood respectfully, speaking humbly to a middle-aged man in his forties.

The middle-aged man was dressed in luxurious clothing, his face somewhat pale, exuding an arrogant and overbearing aura; he was none other than the First-Class General of the Rongguo Mansion, Jia She.

Jia She had opened this fur shop for more than a year, but it was a private property he had set up outside, and no one in the Rongguo Mansion knew about it.

Even his son, Jia Lian, did not know of the existence of this fur shop.

Although he lived in the East Courtyard of the Rongguo Mansion, he was still considered not to have separated from the mansion, and the East Courtyard still drew silver from the Rongguo Duke's estate every year.

By rights, he should not be setting up private properties outside.

But last year, he stumbled upon an easy way to make silver; if he didn't open this shop, he might not be able to net the silver that came his way.

In fact, when he opened this fur shop, it was accidentally discovered by the clan leader Jia Zhen at the time. In the end, it was only by sharing some silver that he managed to plug Jia Zhen's mouth.

Later, when Ningguo was stripped of its title and raided, Jia Zhen died suddenly, and Jia Rong was exiled to Qiongzhou, Jia She became the clan leader of the Jia family, and he had no more scruples.

Now that he was the dignified clan leader, even if people knew he had set up a shop outside, who would dare to say a word of objection?

Ever since the Ningguo Prefecture was raided, it had instead become the time when Jia She was most satisfied and proud.

He could have enjoyed himself, but he hadn't expected to be angered yesterday.

He had originally asked Jia Lian to act as a go-between to help Jia Qiang seek a position in the firearms workshop, but he hadn't expected Jia Lian, that useless thing, to be unable to handle even this small matter.

That beast had refused the matter point-blank, and Jia She himself didn't have the face to go and speak personally.

He was bursting with suppressed anger; if not for the fact that the firearms workshop could involve a massive sum of silver, he wouldn't have bothered to get involved with that animal.

Besides, that beast was now a Grade 6 imperial official, not someone he could easily manipulate, so he could only admit his bad luck.

"Old Master, the latest batch of goods includes two hundred pieces of top-quality fur, twenty catties of top-grade wild ginseng, and quite a few medicinal materials like Fugu and bear gall, deer antler, etc."

"Now that it is the year-end, the wealthy families in the Love Shenjing will all be purchasing these things at this time. This batch of goods will definitely sell for a good price..."

Jia She stroked his beard and smiled: "Good, well done. When the accounts for the end of the year are settled, I won't treat you poorly."

"How are our things prepared?"

"Reporting to the Old Master, fifty piculs of tea and one hundred bags of sea salt are all ready and piled in the warehouse. Other things need to be handled carefully, so they will arrive in a few days."

"Good! Keep an eye on things these few days. After the people from Ping'an Prefecture arrive, have them transport them away as soon as possible..."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 269 =====