Chapter 802: Borrowing a knife to kill? (Thanks to the book friend 54270 for the reward!)

November 10, Jiangnan, Lin'an

In a room in the Governor's Mansion, Lu Jianchao, the current Governor of Jiangnan, looked at the civil and military officials in front of him who bowed their heads and kept silent. He couldn't help but feel a nameless anger rising in his heart and asked in a stern voice:

“Can anyone of you explain to me what’s going on between Xu Zhaojie and Jing Chu now?”

Feeling Lu Jianchao's anger, these civil and military officials who had been silent to begin with became even more frightened. They all shut their mouths and lowered their heads cautiously, fearing that they would offend Lu Jianchao and become the first to be shot!
Seeing that no one was willing to stand up, Lu Jianchao also turned his attention to a tall and elegant official beside him and asked coldly:
"Liu Changqing, you have been in charge of contacting Xu Zhaojie. Now that things have come to this, you should give me an explanation, right?"

As soon as these words came out, Liu Changqing, who felt the biting cold, froze in his face. Although he secretly complained in his heart, he had no choice but to stand up and say after being named by Lu Jianchao:

"Sir, Xu Zhaojie is a cunning and treacherous man. He fooled me!"

Hearing Liu Changqing say this, Lu Jianchao snorted coldly and said angrily:

"You were fooled by him and I spent one million taels of silver. This is one million taels of silver!"

“What did you tell me at the beginning? Didn’t you say that Xu Zhaojie is now a toothless tiger? As long as we spend this one million taels of silver, we can let Sun Liangyu send troops to repel the Fengwu Army and make Xu Zhaojie our watchdog…”

"Why is it like this now? Why is Xu Zhaojie attacking Jingchu now?"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Changqing was so frightened that he fell to his knees, kowtowed to Lu Jianchao and said:
"Governor, I am guilty of this. I was deceived by Xu Zhaojie and his men!"

Looking at Liu Changqing who kowtowed repeatedly, a hint of murderous intent flashed in Lu Jianchao's eyes. He was initially unwilling to spend money on Xu Zhaojie. After all, Xu Zhaojie had always been eyeing Huainan, and the atmosphere between the two sides was even very tense at the beginning of the year.

If Lu Jianchao had not been severely beaten by the Fengwu Army in the Battle of Hebei and Henan, not only would he have lost Anqing and tens of thousands of elite veterans of the Zhennan Army, but the Zhennan Army under Xu Zhaojie might have already fled to the south of the Yangtze River. Therefore, Lu Jianchao was very reluctant to spend money on a potential enemy like Xu Zhaojie.

What's more, the money spent on Xu Zhaojie this time was not a small amount, but a full one million taels of silver!
Although Jiangnan is the richest place in the world, with annual fiscal revenue of nearly 10 million taels of silver through prosperous overseas trade, there are many places to spend money while earning a lot of money. Moreover, after Lu Jianchao decided to prepare the military, Jiangnan had to invest two to three million taels of silver in the army every year, so the landlords did not have much surplus food!

So deep down, Lu Jianchao was unwilling to pay Xu Zhaojie one million taels of silver all at once to ask Sun Liangyu for reinforcements to help him repel the Fengwu Army.

In his opinion, Xu Zhaojie and Ye Mingsheng are birds of a feather, both are bastards with wolfish ambitions who have always been eyeing Jiangnan. Now these two are fighting each other, and he absolutely does not want to get involved. It would be better if one of them were killed...
However, a group of staff and officials represented by Liu Changqing all advised Lu Jianchao against his simple idea.

They warned Lu Jianchao that Xu Zhaojie was just a jackal, while Ye Mingsheng was a tiger with great ambition. If they allowed Ye Mingsheng to reach out to the south, then with Ye Mingsheng's methods and the size of the Fengwu Army, the south would fall into Ye Mingsheng's clutches step by step!
Therefore, the best way now is to cut off Ye Mingsheng's claws reaching to the south, give Ye Mingsheng a profound lesson, and make him dare not have any covetous thoughts about Jiangnan!
Under these people's constant persuasion, Lu Jianchao was gradually moved, but he also had some concerns about fighting against the Fengwu Army. After all, he had spent millions of taels of silver to build the firearms factory. Although it has been established now, it still needs the technical support of the Fengwu Army, and some key parts have to be purchased from the Fengwu Army!
Therefore, if they break with the Fengwu Army now, the firearms factory will most likely be paralyzed. Lu Jianchao is still counting on this factory to continue producing firearms to equip his Jiangnan Army!

In response to Lu Jianchao's concern, Liu Changqing gave him a good idea which could be said to kill two birds with one stone at the time. This good idea was that Jiangnan gave money to Sun Liangyu and asked Sun Liangyu to send troops to help Xu Zhaojie. In this way, he would not directly confront the Fengwu Army, and secondly, it would help Xu Zhaojie to keep Huainan...
Faced with such a good idea, Lu Jianchao still felt that it was a bit too much. Liu Changqing and others advised him that if he helped Xu Zhaojie this time, he would be grateful to you, sir, and would not covet Jiangnan in the future.

For this reason, Xu Zhaojie also wrote an extremely sincere handwritten letter to Lu Jianchao. In the letter, Xu Zhaojie humbly stated that he was young and frivolous in the past and was wrong. He hoped that Lu Jianchao would give him a chance to reform. As long as Lu Jianchao helped him this time, he would follow Lu Jianchao's lead in the future and would not have any covetous heart for Jiangnan!
After receiving the letter from Xu Zhaojie and seeing that Xu Zhaojie, who had always been arrogant, was so humble in the letter, Lu Jianchao felt very comfortable. So he was bewitched and agreed to the plan and transferred one million taels of silver to Sun Liangyu.

After paying the money to Sun Liangyu, Lu Jianchao was waiting with great joy for the coalition forces of Xu Zhaojie and Sun Liangyu to defeat the Fengwu Army!
However, the reality was contrary to expectations. The Fengwu Army attacked from two directions in less than a month and captured half of Huainan including Kangyin!

To be honest, this really scared Lu Jianchao. He was on pins and needles and immediately found Liu Changqing to inquire about the details. The answer he got was that Xu Zhaojie was luring the enemy deep into the territory, and then the coalition forces of Xu Zhaojie and Sun Liangyu would make a big move to annihilate the invading Fengwu Army in one fell swoop...
Hearing such an answer, Lu Jianchao was a little skeptical, but since he had already given out one million taels of silver, he could only wait for the final outcome of the matter!
And now he has finally waited for the big move, but this big move is not the big move to annihilate the invading Fengwu Army as Liu Changqing said, but the big move of Xu Zhaojie rushing to Jingchu to fight for territory!
Lu Jianchao was so miserable that he wanted to cry but had no tears. He knew that Xu Zhaojie was a despicable man, and the letter he wrote to him was just a lie!
When Lu Jianchao thought of this, he became even more furious when looking at Liu Changqing. In his opinion, if it weren't for Liu Changqing and his ilk who encouraged Xu Zhaojie in his ears, how could he have been fooled by him and defrauded of one million taels of silver for nothing!
Wouldn't it be nice to use this one million taels of silver to train a few more soldiers, or to build a few more muskets and tiger-shaped cannons?
Now all this has been wasted!
If Xu Zhaojie really takes over Jingchu, it would mean that this bastard is brought back to life, and he will definitely target Jiangnan!
Thinking of this, Lu Jianchao, who was filled with anger, immediately ignored Liu Changqing's pleading and said angrily:

"Someone, dismiss Liu Changqing from his post and investigate him! See if this bastard can take Xu Zhaojie's money!"

"yes···················"

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Yijing, Ye Mansion

I have trained myself to look like a crane. There are two boxes of scriptures under a thousand pines. I came to ask for the way. Wu Yu said, "The clouds are in the blue sky and the water is in the bottle." I chose a secluded place to live in the wild, and there is no one to see me off or welcome me all year round. Sometimes I go straight to the top of a lonely peak and whistle under the moon.

Murong Qingwu looked at the poem in her hand and recited it softly subconsciously, with a hint of longing and yearning emerging in her eyes······························
Once upon a time, she also lived such a life that was detached from the world. However, unlike Zen Master Yaoshan Weiyan, Murong Qingwu knew very well that the reason she was able to live so freely and untroubled by the mundane world was entirely because of the protection of her family.

Hearing the footsteps coming from outside the door, she couldn't help but put down the scroll of poetry in her hand. Then she saw Ying'er walking in holding Xiao Kexin.

Holding Xiao Kexin to Murong Qingwu's side, Ying'er whispered:

"I just had milk from my wet nurse and now I've finally fallen asleep!"

Seeing Xiao Kexin sleeping with her eyes closed, Murong Qingwu's eyes showed some maternal love, and her delicate hand subconsciously wanted to touch Xiao Kexin's face. However, when she was about to touch Xiao Kexin's face, Murong Qingwu hesitated, stopped and withdrew her hand.

Although Xiao Kexin is a girl, she loves crying and making trouble. She cries when she drinks milk, cries when she poops, and cries non-stop at night. Now she finally falls asleep. Murong Qingwu, who is still frightened, decides not to disturb this little girl.
Putting the little girl beside her, Murong Qingwu just watched her sleeping quietly. However, the good times didn't last long. After about an incense stick of time, Xiao Kexin woke up again and cried and made a fuss. Seeing this, Ying'er immediately judged:
"Madam, the young lady must be feeling poopy again. I'll go get the wet nurse and the nanny..."

Hearing Ying'er's words, Murong Qingwu nodded and agreed. As a new mother, she had a sudden impulse at first and planned to take care of her daughter Xiao Kexin personally. However, for a girl from a wealthy family who had never done any housework since childhood, it was no problem for her to be proficient in everything from playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting.

But when it comes to things like taking care of a child, there is simply no way to do it. Murong Qingwu only tried it once, but she was so flustered that she didn't know what to do. In the end, she could only hand the child over to a special wet nurse to take care of him.

About an incense stick later, Ying Er returned to the house and reported to Murong Qingwu:
"Madam, Aunt Zhao has cleaned up the young lady and is playing with her now!"

After hearing this, Murong Qingwu nodded with some relief. She had just finished her confinement and now she felt a little nervous when she heard her daughter crying.

After talking about the little princess's situation, Ying'er seemed to have thought of something and reported to Murong Qingwu:
"Madam, yesterday Pei Zhixiu asked Madam Wang for the account book of the mansion's expenses last month!"

Upon hearing this, a complex look flashed across Murong Qingwu's eyes. In her plan, the power to assist in managing the affairs of the mansion should have belonged to her, but An Miaoyi, who had planned it in advance, took the initiative to give this power to the selfless Pei Zhixiu!

Seeing that Murong Qingwu didn't speak, Ying'er hesitated for a moment and whispered:
"Madam, do you think we should reveal some information to Pei Zhixiu?"

“Qiqige, Nanny Wang and others around An Miaoyi have been drawing salaries without doing anything. Besides, they also make some small moves in purchasing. Every month, they make at least one hundred taels of silver…”

Murong Qingwu hesitated for a moment, but finally shook her head and said:
"Don't act rashly! Pei Zhixiu is not as simple as you think! She should be able to find some tricks in the account book!"

Ying Er was a little puzzled about Murong Qingwu's instructions and said:
"Bae Ji-soo is just a female doctor in the palace. She was just lucky enough to be favored by the master. I don't know what the master saw in her that made him love her so much!"

"It seems that this account book of Nanny Wang was made by the accountant of the Ministry of Finance. It is said that it is very flawless. Not to mention ordinary people, even an accountant with more than ten years of experience can find the problems!"

"Ever since Master Jingren took Master Gu as his teacher under Master's arrangement, Qiqige has started to show off again. Now if we can catch her committing corruption, given Master's hatred of corruption, she will definitely be in big trouble!"

"Qiqige is An Miaoyi's confidant. If we can capture her, we will cut off An Miaoyi's right-hand man. We may even be able to dig out An Miaoyi's secrets through her. The income of the mansion has always been in the hands of An Miaoyi. I don't believe she is clean!"

Ying Er became more and more excited as she spoke, and Murong Qingwu also understood that she wanted to use Pei Zhixiu to kill someone with a borrowed knife, and immediately shook her head and said:

"Pei Zhixiu is very smart. She wanted to stay out of it from the beginning. She probably checked the accounts this time because she was dissatisfied with An Miaoyi for involving her. If she thinks that we are using her, things will backfire and end badly..."

(End of this chapter)