Chapter 67: Notes on Mountain Dwelling

There is one thing in this world that is the god of all the people, the soul of all the gods, and the ghosts are forced to grind to earn the supreme wonderful thing.

Fan family carriage on, can often see the Fan family crest, a party a circle, is the shape of such things. Fan old master doing the Ministry of households, in charge of the treasury, the little Fan adults will soon be going down to Jiangnan to take over the inner treasury, the wealth of the country of Qing are let this family in charge, and even the family crest is also so full of the smell of copper.

Money, that let people love and hate the money ah, that let people up to heaven into hell, in the mountain of knives giggle, in the sea of fire in the obsessive dance of the money ah!

Not only do the people love money, the court loves money even more, that’s why they set up a lot of taxes, hate to scrape off three layers of the ground. As for the Qing court, from the beginning of the country, began in the field outside the corvée, salt, iron and tea tax, and later due to the sudden rise and demise of the Ye family, the inner treasury has become the court’s largest silver to item, for the inner treasury produced glass products, spirits, playthings, ships, the court of course, levied a heavy tax, and the custody has always been extremely strict, by the Supervisory Yuan specializing in the responsibility.

So the Cui family smuggling, was investigated by the Supervisory Yuan, immediately shocked the world, until today, the people of the Qing dynasty only know, the original internal treasury actually out of such a big gap, the court even in the tariffs lost so much silver!

The Censor Yuan was silent, the officials who were bribed by Xinyang side were silent, but still some different factions or officials with righteousness in their hearts began to write letters, asking the court to investigate the matter thoroughly, although still no one dared to mention the Princess’s name on the petition, but the spearhead has been pointed straight to Xinyang.

In contrast, the young emperor of Northern Qi also took advantage of the opportunity to take advantage. The matter of the Supervisory Yuan’s Fan Tisi recuperating Cangshan was then intentionally or unintentionally left out, and although everyone knew that Fan Tisi was the mastermind behind this operation, facilitating him to take over the inner treasury in the coming year, no one dared to say anything about it.

On the contrary, the impulsive students in the Imperial College had already begun to prepare a petition to ask His Majesty to hand over the jurisdiction of the inner treasury, to young Lord Fan – Fan Xian’s reputation was, indeed, too much better than that of the Eldest Princess, which, naturally, was also credited to Ruixue’s words and paper back then.

And these days, in Kyoto’s tea stores and dining tables, some other gossip has begun to circulate, and I heard that the one in Xinyang has begun to send assassins to murder Little Lord Fan in a heartless manner!

The work efficiency of the eight divisions of the Supervisory Yuan is really high.

Not everyone could fully understand the conflict between Fan Xian and the Princess.

There were many puritanical scribes who had always wondered why the world was so enthusiastic about this kind of ahjusshi, and could even go so far as to throw their heads in the sand for it. Shi Yanli, for example, still didn’t understand this, even though he was now the toast of the entertainment industry in Kyoto, the grand master of the Moon Embracing House, and had transformed himself from a poor student into a rich merchant on one side.

Why had the Eldest Princess been unable to let go of the inner treasury? Even recently, she would use such ruthless means to deal with her son-in-law! What was she digging so much silver out of the inner treasury for by smuggling through the two Cui Ming families to the north to the eastern barbarians and even overseas? Where exactly did she spend the massive wealth she seized over the course of more than a decade?

“To raise soldiers.” Fan Xian looked at the only student by his side and explained, “The armies are all His Majesty’s, they are all the court’s, and although Yan Xiaoyi is nobly known as the Great Governor of Conquest of the North, if he wants to do anything in the future, I’m afraid that he can’t beat His Majesty’s imperial edict……. You’re also well aware that in this country of ours, and especially in the armies In our country, especially in the army, His Majesty’s prestige is as high as what kind of degree.”

“If one wants to fight against this prestige, there is only one thing in the world that can play a certain role.”

“That would be money.” Fan Xian said with a smile, “Lots of money. The monthly income of those officers under Yan Xiaoyi is so high that I’m afraid you’d be staggered to hear it, and it’s precisely because of this that Yan Xiaoyi is able to hold the troops in his hands as firmly as possible.”

Shi Yanli stopped his right hand that was scribbling notes and gave a bitter smile.

He had entered the mountain this time because he had been commissioned by the Imperial Academy to do a biography of Fan Xian, the current generation of literary ministers in Qing Kingdom. Ever since Fan Xian had released the Half-Idle Zhai Book Talks, his position in the poetry world of Qing had been firmly established, and even traveling to Northern Qi had extended his influence even further by pulling back the wagonload of books by Zhuang Zuazhou. The Imperial College, of course, was proud of this young Lord Fan, who had gone from the middleman of the Imperial College to the middleman, and had now become the head of the College, and refused to miss out on this kind of resource, so it decided to set up a biography of Fan Xian, which would then be published by Tanya Books, and distributed all over the world, with the aim of securing a few more students from the north and the city of Dongyi in the coming year, and of pulling in a few more talented people to participate in the Spring Exam in the State of Qing.

But Fan Xian was injured and hid in the Cangshan Mountain, did not go to the Imperial College for a long time, even Shu University scholar could not find him, had to find through the relationship between the seven turns, found now in the capital Lord Fan’s only disciple, Shi Hengli.

Shi Yanli also think this thing is very promising, coupled with the Imperial College is personally invited, more and more feel than in the holding the moon when the brothel boss to be a lot of glory, they run into the Cangshan. Also counted his luck, did not see those dead people in the snow.

Where did he expect things to turn out differently than he imagined.

Although the door master was his own bitter begging to stay in the study, but …… the door master is not talking about his own life governance and poetry, but always talking about the secrets of the imperial court, such as how the Supervisory Yuan is the whole of the second prince, why the Princess refused to let go of the inner treasury!

These things, Shi Hanyan Li which have the courage to copy on paper, even if he dared to copy, to the Imperial College side of the 800 head, they do not dare to print out the issue!

He looked at the door division, with a cold breath said: “Teacher, these things …… always can not enter the biography.”

For the biography of this thing, Fan Xian itself feels very ridiculous, thinking that he is young, is it that those readers in the Imperial College are ready to give themselves a conclusion? Looking at Shi Yanli’s difficult appearance, he laughed and scolded, “Into a fart biography!”

He said a dirty word and then said: “The Imperial College is not idle nothing? When will they be able to organize the books of the Zhuang family? The Tanya Bookstore is waiting to start printing, and His Majesty is also pressing hard. You are not unaware that His Majesty wants me to finish sorting out …… these white-collar eaters within three years, only knowing how to pat me on the back, but also not knowing how to do some serious work.”

Shi Yanli explained for the Taixue side: “The books of the Zhuang family have already started to be printed batch by batch.”

Fan Xian shook his head and continued, “Let’s talk about the ridiculous matter of writing my biography. Although I have written a few poems in my life, sung a few tunes, and had two conversations with everyone in Zhuang, aren’t you aware that my most honorable, truly honorable career …… actually remains these unseemly obscenities.”

This is a true statement, even a little close to Rousseau’s self-analysis, just without a hint of repentance.

“What I’m most proud of, is these killings and poisonings, not those flings, you can write, you dare to write?” Fan Xian stared at Shi Yanli’s eyes, “If you want to create a biography of me, wait for a future day when I die, or when everyone in this era dies, and if you’re still struggling to stay alive, then it’s not too late to discuss it.”

Shi Yanli let out a sigh of lamentation, knowing that the work on the notes was not going to be done, and that the door master’s mind was already made up, and it would be difficult for him to persuade him any further. But he had already been aroused by those court secrets Fan Xian had said earlier, and said on the topic of Men Shi’s earlier words, “Regarding the matter in the north, I think that great general Yan Xiaoyi, who is bent on using money to buy loyalty …… even if he wants to rebel, I don’t see much use for it.”

Under the inculcation of the door division in this half year, Shi Hanyanli, like Si Si who came from Tanya State, has become much bolder and his speech has become much more pungent.

“His Majesty has a tight grip on the army.” Fan Xian raised an eyebrow and said, “The Eldest Princess doesn’t have any loopholes to exploit, and only has a beloved one like Yan Xiaoyi, so of course she has to spill a large amount of silver, and if she can earn a point of loyalty, that’s a point.”

“Storing generals and raising soldiers is extremely costly …… but that is the inner treasury ah. Ten years, is it just enough time to do this?”

“Of course it’s more than that.” Fan Xian explained like a teacher, “The second prince wants to buy off the capital officials, which requires money. To grasp public opinion, that takes money. Xinyang wants to make friends with the local officials, the lords on one side, which also requires money. Officials word two mouth, we Qing Guo these officials body and all healthy no way, mouth open great, want to feed these people …… is really spend great.”

Shi Yanli frowned, “This is tantamount to a rebellion.”

“As you said earlier,” Fan Xian smiled, “Right now it’s still only the step of seizing the throne. If His Second Highness really succeeds, in the future, with imperial power in his hands, it will be simple as pie for him and his own little aunt to give away all this silver and get it back again.”

Fan Xian suddenly thought of Wei Xiaobao planting Wu Sangui’s bridge in The Deer Tripods, and laughed bitterly, “Of course, after being the emperor, where would he need to care about these small sums of money, and the entire world would be his.”

Shi Yanli sucked in a mouthful of cool air, “Teacher you want to take over the inner treasury, and set off the Cui family in advance, this is not to cut off the other side of the silver money to come, to the Second Highness to seize the throne of the matter to cause great damage …… No wonder the Xinyang side of the this time is so annoyed, than last time in the fiasco in Kyoto, the reaction is too much stronger. ”

Fan Xian sneered, “Reaction? That mother-in-law of mine started reacting five or six years ago.”

His mind flashed back to five or six years ago, to the small building in Tanyuzhou that had been burned to charred wood, and it was in that building that he had killed for the first time in his life. After entering the capital, with the power of the Supervisory Court, Fan Xian had investigated the matter clearly, and the reason why Liu had tried to poison herself that year was precisely the arrangement of those two women in the palace.

It was in that year that His Majesty first raised the matter of the marriage of the Fan and Lin families, which was also tantamount to raising the issue of transferring the jurisdiction of the inner treasury in the future. Although the marriage did not succeed for the time being due to Chen Pingping’s strong opposition, it still made the Princess wary, and of course she was not willing to easily let go of this huge wealth that she had firmly in her grasp, which was why she arranged for someone to kill Fan Xian.

But who would have thought that four years later, taking advantage of Chen Pingping’s return to her hometown to pay homage to her ancestors, Fan Jian proposed this again, and finally got His Majesty’s permission, and only then did Fan Jian let Fuji Zijing travel thousands of miles to hastily and incomparably bring Fan Xian from Tanyu to Kyoto.

When I think of the twelve year old himself, when he was in a state of confusion, his shoulders had already picked up such a heavy burden, and he had already gotten into so much trouble, and now he has long been in a position of great power, Fan Xian, he still feels a little afraid.

Then, it is the matter of cattle pen street, the second prince set up a banquet invitation, the eldest princess secretly instigated the second son of the phase house to organize a murder of the bureau.

Counting up, this mother-in-law had already tried to kill herself three or four times, but just didn’t succeed. Fan Xian smiled bitterly as he thought, the dangers he had faced in his life seemed to have all been cast by the Elder Princess who was so beautiful that people forgot her age, and this Elder Princess hadn’t even personally moved her hand yet, but only used some conspiratorial tactics to get someone else’s hands dirty–this woman, this woman with a cleansing fetish, this time, she would even use the manpower of the Xinyang side to To assassinate herself, it seemed that she was also really angry and really panicked.

Fan Xian’s lips floated with a confident smile, as long as you’re angry, if you’re still as calm as you were before, you’ll still be at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed.

He was deeply convinced of that Princess Xinyang’s ability to strategize, just from the Oxford Street incident turned into a wonderful hand in plotting to seize the land of Northern Qi, as well as selling Yan Bingyun, in return for the chaotic situation of the Qing Dynasty, these two things, you can see the ability of the eldest princess to plan conspiracies–but he wasn’t afraid of this, because what the Supervisory Board was best at was also conspiracy, and the youngest Yan Gongzi was also a genius figure, and there was still a deep and unsolvable feud with the Elder Princess. The most crucial thing was that the Supervisory Academy had power in addition to intrigue, and this – was exactly what Xin Yang’s side lacked the most.

Against conspirators, simple swords, blood and fire were the most effective means.

“The Eldest Princess is a remarkable woman.” Fan Xian snapped out of his contemplation and sighed, “Truly remarkable. At first, the entire dynasty thought that she was a booster for the Eastern Palace, and how could anyone ever have thought about her agreement with the Second Highness. People in the court who loathe her, such as my father-in-law who has already left the court, will subconsciously favor His Second Highness, and the people she controls on behalf of the Eastern Palace can always be thrown out to be the villains. This eliminates one and increases the other, thick and thin, if this situation continues to be maintained for seven or eight years, when His Majesty grows older, perhaps the Second Highness might actually be able to enter the Eastern Palace.”

“It’s a pity that I met teacher.” Shi Yanli said.

Fan Xian was not modest and said, “I’m just a bit more lucky, and do you think that His Majesty and President Chen really don’t know about this?”

Shi Yanli was slightly startled.

Fan Xian smiled bitterly and said, “Even if the eldest princess is a marvelous woman, after all, she is still not a match for this group of old fellows back then, and I am merely the hand that was pushed to the foreground, and your majesty …… probably just doesn’t want the empress dowager to get angry.”

He suddenly slightly inclined his head, looking at the white mountains outside the glass window, said with a slight perplexity: “But in these powerful characters, I actually appreciate …… the most instead of my father-in-law who has long left Kyoto.”

Shi Yanli didn’t understand, he had thought that the Gate Master would say that the one he admired most was Fan Shangshu.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “My father-in-law is known as a treacherous prime minister, but in fact, he is a rare and capable minister, the previous years of the State of Qing is really known as the country’s prosperity and people’s peace, although there is a small inconsistency, ultimately, does not hinder the overall situation, he made a great deal of effort. And I admire my father-in-law the most is that he is extremely capable of stoicism, extremely decisive, when …… because of the Princess’s sake, the four Gu sword killed my second uncle, father-in-law immediately agreed to my marriage with Wan Er, without hesitation to stand on the side of the Supervisory Yuan and father. Don’t forget, he has been fighting with President Chen and father in the court for I don’t know how many years, such a major decision, immediately set the plan, really very human.”

He then sighed: “And father-in-law adults holding the power of the chancellor, but not fond of, once found that his majesty has the side of the idea, immediately resigned from doing, although lost the hands of the power, but after all, fell a body and family peace, family peace.”

Fan Xian’s father-in-law, Chancellor Lin Ruofu after the old man, has been in Wuzhou pension, do a rich man, from time to time with some of the Kyoto letters to and from Kyoto, I heard that the recent life is quite good, body and bones than in Kyoto, but also some good.

“It is easy to understand people, but difficult to understand oneself.” Fan Xian sighed and said, “My father-in-law recognizes people, recognizes himself, recognizes the time, recognizes the situation, and there is really too much for me to learn.”

Shi Yanli’s heart was slightly moved, thinking of the fact that the cabinet was still empty in the capital, and only a few adults under the door of the Central Committee were assisting with political affairs, and said in a low voice, “Teacher, you’re going to end up becoming a dynasty chancellor in the future.”

Fan Xian let out a bitter laugh and scolded, “Don’t test me, I don’t have that interest, nor do I have that ability. Governing a country is not as simple as cooking a small fish. I’m interested in running the Supervisory Court in the future, and handling the inner treasury is His Majesty’s will, but I won’t do anything else.”

Shi Yanli laughed: “Teacher this is interesting, but mentioning these two places alone, is also enough to envy others.”

“I’ll tell you one piece of news, so you’ll know that His Majesty was not prepared to re-establish the position of prime minister at all after his father-in-law sued for old age.”

Fan Xian stood up, leaned on his crutches, moved to the window, pushed the window and sniffed the breeze coming up from the snow, and said quietly, “Mr. Hu, the clerical cabinet lord who sued for his old age, has already risen by imperial decree and is coming to Kyoto.”

Shi Yanli was shocked: “Which Mr. Hu?”

“How many others?” Fan Xian did not turn back and said faintly, “The Mr. Hu who pushed for literary improvement when you and I were still urchins. His Majesty passed him into the capital to re as a university scholar, the future of the door under the middle book, I think there is no position of the Ministry of the official Yan Xingshu, Qin Heng is also going to go to do his Kyoto guard, the door under the middle book …… is a few university scholar led, the post of prime minister no longer re-establish the possibility of.”

Shi Yanli was silent. After a long time before sighing softly: “In the past, only know that reading to serve the court, only now know, the original court things, really complicated, not outsiders can speculate.”

After a while, he was happy again, although today listen to these things are not able to enter the biography, for the advertisement of the cause of the Imperial College is not the slightest help, but these secrets have never been passed on to the second ear, today, since the door teacher told himself, in the future after decades, if he has the opportunity to be compiled into the history of the country, or out of the “half-idle Zhai master mountain notes”, will undoubtedly let himself in the history of the name.

Of course, the Gate Master must be the victor of history.

Thinking of this matter, he had some vague excitement in his heart, but then he heard the Gate Master look out the window for some reason and laugh, “Do you know that President Chen’s true age is a bit younger than His Majesty?”

Shi Yanli’s joyful heart was withdrawn, greatly surprised, he had once seen Chen Pingping from afar for a glance, and knew that the dean was old, and his eyes looked like they were going to the yellow earth, could it be that he was even younger than His Majesty who was in the prime of his life?

“One month younger.” Fan Xian said with a wry smile, “The imperial government is too complicated, worrying too much, naturally it becomes like this, I doubt if I will age before I grow old in the future as well.”

Outside the window, the snowy ground is clear, at the end of the corridor comes the laughter of the girls playing mahjong, Roujia that girl came again, Ye Ling’er, this thief is bold and nervous guy also rushed back from Dingzhou, Fan’s villa in Cangshan Mountain is always so lively in winter, compared with last year, it seems that there is only one little fat guy who is far away from Beiqi is missing.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes against the cold wind that came against his face, silent in complete contrast to the joyous mood at home. Working for the emperor in this shit court, just like Chen Pingping, was really a traumatizing job. Everyone seemed to have several faces at the same time, and everyone’s hands didn’t know what kind of cards they were holding, Fan Xian wasn’t sure what other people’s undercards were, so he also always held his undercards firmly in his hands, and would never play them out easily.

With the sound of rustling, Deng Ziyue came to the front of the house clad in a black snow jacket, and was about to knock on the door when he realized that the window was open, and that Fan Tisi was there beckoning, he walked over with a slight blink and said in a hushed voice, “The followers from the Xinyang side have already retreated, and the dean of the house dispatched Zong to chase them over, and followed them.”

Fan Xian nodded his head, the official called Zong Chou was known as the Twin Wings alongside Wang Qinian, and was best at tracking, he did not worry about this person’s safety, and looked at the paper bag Deng Ziyue held in his hand, and naturally stretched out his hand.

The paper bag was filled with intelligence analysis drawn up by the three divisions, as well as incoming and outgoing letters.

Deng Ziyue’s face, however, became a bit strange, and said with a hefty smile, “There’s one that came from the north.”

Fan Xian froze, immediately understood, and scolded with a smile, “A big old man, don’t learn from those women with long mouths and long tongues.”

Deng Ziyue handed him the paper bag, covered his mouth, and turned his back to walk away.

Looking at this subordinate’s comical appearance, Fan Xian couldn’t help but laugh again.

Under the pretext of Kyoto to be watched by someone, Shi Yanli drove out the door, only then did he break open the first fire paint outside the large paper bag, and drew out a stack of letters from inside, he slightly flipped through it, and unsurprisingly found a letter from Hai Tang, earlier Deng Ziyue was so eccentric, naturally for the sake of this letter.

The fire paint of the Supervisory Board uses rosin with silver vermilion, not using lamp coal, the safety factor is higher, and the envelope is also unique seamless style, do not have to worry about someone deftly opening it on the way.

Firstly, he read the news from the Kyoto Qi Nian group, and then he read the information from the three departments, Fan Xian nodded his head with satisfaction, the progress in all the departments was smooth, Yan Bingyun was extremely fast, the Cui family was in trouble, the wind had spread to the Jiangnan area, and even Cui family’s in-laws, the Ming family, started to transfer their belongings, and this move of hitting the mountain and shaking the tiger, was starting to work.

Finally glancing the courtyard newspaper over, he then picked up the letter sent by Haitang, this is the principle he has always had, doing things should be public before private. But after he finished reading Haitang’s seemingly unusual letter, he regretted that he had read it a little late, even if it was only for such a short while.

Because what was written on the letter was too shocking! Fan Xian’s slender fingers pinched the thin letter paper and couldn’t help but actually shake, his face a gloomy color.