Chapter 171 I didn’t eat

An autumn wind blew, and the withered yellow leaves fell one after another.

Emperor Yongchang was walking on the stone path in the Imperial Garden in casual clothes with his hands behind his back.

Dai Quan followed behind him.

Emperor Yongchang said as he walked: “Those who are not of our race must have different hearts. All foreign races have wolfish ambitions. Although the war has ceased, we must not relax our intelligence gathering on the Jurchens. We must not allow the incident with the Plain White Banner to happen again!”

Dai Quan: “Yes.”

Emperor Yongchang: “Also, we must use the caravan as a cover to conduct multi-faceted reconnaissance of Liaodong, redraw the map, and prepare for the next war.”

Dai Quan: “Yes.”

Emperor Yongchang was walking when he suddenly stopped and asked, “Tell me, how did Li Hu know this?”

Dai Quan thought for a moment and replied, “In the battle of Yulin, we captured many wounded soldiers from the Plain White Banner. The Plain White Banner belongs to the upper three banners, so it is normal for them to know some secrets of the Aisin-Gioro family.”

Emperor Yongchang raised his hand and said, “I am talking about the means of corruption, such as taking kickbacks from projects, intercepting funds from disaster relief, seeking benefits from diplomatic exchanges, squeezing incense money from folk beliefs, and using the power of the Ministry of User Affairs to manipulate the gold and silver exchange rate and commercial taxes, engage in monopoly operations, make huge profits, win over cronies, share risks, and become too big to fail. There are also ways to hide money.” At this point, he smiled and said, “He Shen is right. Although Li Hu is young, his words are not young!”

Dai Quan was startled and glanced cautiously at Emperor Yongchang, observing his reaction.

Emperor Yongchang said calmly: “What do you think?”

Dai Quan paused and asked: “Maybe he read it from a book?”

“What books? Although I haven’t read ten thousand books, I have read thousands of them.”

Emperor Yongchang snorted, and then said: “Fortunately this kid is a military commander, otherwise he would definitely be the most corrupt official in the world!”

Dai Quan was stunned at first, then he laughed.

Emperor Yongchang also laughed.

After laughing, Emperor Yongchang said: “According to what Li Hu said, we should investigate all officials in Beijing, especially the officials in the Ministry of Revenue. We should record the methods used by them to hide their money, so that they can be used for future confiscations.”

Dai Quan suppressed his laughter and replied, “I obey your order.”

Emperor Yongchang paced back and said as he walked, “This kid is quite filial. He asked Heshen about some of the internal situations of the Jurchens for me. Qian Xiaosi also has a lot of troubles!”

Dai Quan smiled and said, Qian Xiaosi, the name Li Hu gave to the Tartar emperor is quite catchy.

Emperor Yongchang stopped again and sighed deeply: “My good sons! Now even the virtuous concubine has some little thoughts.”

Dai Quan felt sad: “Your Majesty.”

Emperor Yongchang changed the subject: “Could the White Lotus Sect’s headquarters be hidden in Yanzhou Prefecture? That is the hometown of the saints and a holy place in the minds of scholars!”

Dai Quan: “Maybe around Yanzhou Prefecture.”

Emperor Yongchang was stunned for a moment, glanced at the setting sun that was struggling to stay set on the distant corner of the wall and said: “Let’s go to Fengzao Palace.” Then he turned and walked out of the imperial garden.

Dai Quan hurriedly followed.

The waning moon rose, shining obliquely on the west city.

At this time, the sound of horse hooves and the creaking of wheels could be heard from deep in the night street. More than thirty riders were escorting a luxurious carriage.

Wang Daniu took the lead, leading ten personal soldiers and walking in front, looking back and forth from time to time.

In the carriage, Li Hu sat upright with his eyes closed, his body swaying slightly as the wheels rolled.

On the low table in front of him, a few sheets of ink paper were weighed down by a jade paperweight.

Suddenly, there was a “dong, dong, dong” sound from the front of the carriage, followed by the voice of a personal soldier: “General, we are almost home.”

“understood.”

Li Hu slowly opened his eyes and his gaze fell on the ink papers. He had just come out of the palace.

After the banquet, Li Hu did not leave Huitong Hall immediately, but took Jia Yucun to accompany Heshen to drink tea for some time.

The ink paper records what Li Hu learned from Heshen about the Russians and Koreans.

Today’s North Korea is the food production base of the Jurchens. It is very weak and can be ignored.

Heshen didn’t know much about the Russians, and Li Hu sensed a hint of fear in his tone. It seemed that the Jurchens did not gain any advantage in their fight with the Russians.

The history in Europe was not changed. The little girl Yekanana and her mistress killed her husband and successfully ascended the throne in a coup.

Judging from the time, that little girl Yeka is busy expanding southwards.

The main force of the Rakshasa people is not here, but they can still pose a considerable threat to the Jurchens, which shows that their weapons and equipment are very sophisticated.

After leaving Huitong Hall, Li Hu went to Qianmen Street to buy some candied haws and came back. Just as he was about to step into the house with his food box, the chief eunuch of the Silijian arrived and the emperor summoned him to the palace.

This was Li Hu’s second time in the harem and his first time in Fengzao Palace. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to see Jia Yuanchun. The emperor first praised him for the golden statue of the God of Wealth, but as always, he was stingy and didn’t give him any substantial reward. Then he gossiped like an ordinary citizen, asked some strange questions, and finally asked Li Hu what he thought of the Jurchens.

At this time, the carriage slowly stopped.

Then, Wang Daniu’s voice came from outside the carriage: “General, we’re home.”

Li Hu folded the pieces of ink paper, stuffed them into his sleeve, stood up, opened the door of the carriage, and walked out.

A gust of night wind blew, and Li Hu tightened his cloak.

Li San came out to greet him.

Walking up to him, Li San said softly, “Second Master, Ni Er is here and is waiting in the front hall.”

Li Hu nodded and strode in.

Seeing Li Hu coming in from the moon gate of the courtyard, Ni Er hurried over to greet him.

Walking closer, Ni Er bowed and lowered his voice: “General, Officer Qi has finally made a discovery.”

Li Hu looked at him.

Ni Er: “After dusk, Qi Guan went out and met someone. I don’t know what they said, but Qi Guan left angrily. Our people followed him all the way and were almost thrown off several times. In the end, we saw him enter the small door in the back garden of Prince Beijing’s mansion.”

Li Hu: “Well, this is a good job. In addition to the merit, each person will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver!”

Ni Er: “Thank you, General!”

Li Hu thought for a moment and said, “Let’s have a few people keep an eye on Qi Guan. I’ll find a chance for me to get to know him.”

Ni Er replied in a low voice: “Yes.”

“It’s getting late. Let Wang Daniu take someone to take you back.”

Li Hu paused for a moment, then said, “I’ll ask Zhang Cheng to pick a few scouts to serve as your guards.”

Ni Er was overjoyed: “Thank you, General!” and bowed deeply.

Li Hu smiled and said, “Let’s go back.”

Ni Er: “Yes.”

Li Hu blew a breath into his palm, and the smell of alcohol faded a lot. He turned and walked towards Lin Daiyu’s yard.

The light was still on in Lin Daiyu’s room.

Lin Daiyu had obviously just finished taking a bath. She was wearing a white round-necked inner jacket and sitting at the desk under the window, reading a book.

There was a white agate plate with silk wrapped around it on the desk, which made the candied haws on the plate look very beautiful.

Zijuan came over and asked, “Miss, do you still want to eat?”

“Eat.”

Lin Daiyu put down the book in her hand, picked up a fruit and took a small bite.

At this moment, Qingwen’s voice came from the living room: “Second Master is back.”

Lin Daiyu hurriedly put down the candied haws in her hand and was about to speak.

The door curtain was lifted and Li Hu walked in, smelling a little drunk.

“Hey, are you eating?”

“I didn’t eat.”

“Why is there a grain on the plate?”

“That’s what Zijuan eats.”

Li Hu looked at her with a smile and said, “I smell of alcohol, so I won’t sit here with you.”

Lin Daiyu waved her hand and said, “Go ahead.”

“It’s time to go to bed, so don’t eat.” Li Hu didn’t waste any words and left after saying that.

Lin Daiyu shouted at the door curtain: “I didn’t eat!”

Zijuan suppressed her laughter and said, “Girl, there are still some sugar residues from the candied haws on your lips.”

Lin Daiyu’s face suddenly turned red.

(End of this chapter)