nycdaug Chapter 896: Death of Jia Zhen
Chapter 896: Death of Jia Zhen
The night was slightly chilly, and Lu Cheng put down his pen, finally finishing the last chapter of "Three Heroes and Five Gallants".
Songhezhai did not print out all the chapters written by Lu Cheng at once, but divided them into 15 chapters per volume, and divided the whole book into 8 volumes for discussion. They also used hunger marketing, and would only release and sell the next volume after a certain period of time.
As the book became a best-seller in Kyoto, Songhezhai also sold it to other places through channels and earned more money.
Of course, every penny earned here belongs to Lu Cheng half.
After finishing the work at hand, seeing Xiangling and Qingwen still sorting out the manuscripts, Lu Cheng instructed: "Don't worry about these for now, just leave them here, you should rest early."
The two maids knew that Lu Cheng didn't need their service at night, so they quickly cleaned up and went to rest.
After these manuscripts were given to Songhezhai for copying, they had to be taken back. With Lu Cheng's future status, these manuscripts written by him would surely be priceless treasures in the future, and naturally would not be easily passed on.
After tidying up everything, Lu Cheng did not rest, but changed his clothes, got up and left the yard. With a leap, he was already in the alley outside the yard, and changed into a different look.
Afterwards, Lu Cheng turned a few streets and came to the gate of another courtyard. He knocked on the gate with a special rhythm, and the gate followed.
"Disciples of Xuanwu Hall, Lei Peng and Zhao Ming, greet the leader."
Lu Cheng nodded slightly and then stepped into the headquarters of Xuanwu Hall.
The current Flying Eagle Gang is divided into four inner halls: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise, and eight outer halls: Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Thunder, and Dark Hall.
The four inner halls are located in the four directions, with Xuanwu in the north, Qinglong in the east, Zhuque in the south and Baihu in the west, in charge of the four directions.
The Outer Eight Halls are responsible for many specific tasks including operation, development, attack, intelligence, assassination, infiltration, etc.
Today, many members of the Flying Eagle Gang are lurking in the city of Kyoto.
Lu Cheng came to the headquarters and took over some recent intelligence from the head of the Xuanwu Hall. He then casually asked, "How many of our people are there in the Jinyiwei now?"
"Reporting to the gang leader, due to the strict screening of the Jinyiwei in Kyoto City, only twelve inner hall disciples have sneaked into the Jinyiwei. Among them, one has become a deputy centurion, two have become general flag officers, three have become small flag officers, and the rest are all strongmen."
The upper echelons of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were basically hereditary, and it was indeed difficult for outsiders to get in.
It is also because we are now in the last years of the dynasty, the administration is in chaos, and the censorship system has been relaxed a bit. Even the official positions in the Jinyiwei can be bought with money, which gives the disciples of Xuanwu Hall the opportunity to sneak in.
Lu Cheng nodded, and then asked again: "How many inner hall disciples are participating in the martial arts examination this time?"
"This time, Xuanwu Hall sent 21 disciples to participate. Together with the disciples sent by the other three halls, there are a total of 71 inner hall disciples participating in this martial arts examination."
The military examination originated in the Wu Zhou period of Wu Zetian. After development and improvement in the Song and Ming dynasties, as well as several reforms in the past century, it has become a relatively complete assessment system.
However, the Ming Dynasty's military guard system and military household system had a long history, and most military positions were inherited through hereditary inheritance, and the military examination gradually became a formality. Many children of nobles and descendants of middle and high-level generals could inherit the official positions passed down by their ancestors by simply passing the military examination.
After Emperor Changtai ascended the throne, since most of the nobles were loyal to the emperor, he reformed the military examination system, hoping to select some promising talents from the common people to join the army and reorganize the army. However, the effect was not ideal.
As the saying goes, the poor are good at literature, but the rich are good at martial arts.
If a martial artist wants to achieve something, he needs enough nutrition from a young age. Sufficient food, meat, and even some medicinal herbs for regulating the body are all indispensable, and ordinary people simply cannot afford them.
Moreover, the military examination does not only examine personal bravery, but also examines riding and archery, archery on foot, long and short weapons, military tactics, and strategies, some of which are simply not accessible to ordinary people.
The Flying Eagle Gang selected this group of disciples who were preparing to take part in the martial arts examination, and they had their identities arranged in advance to ensure that they could withstand the investigation of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
Lu Cheng learned some other information and made some adjustments to the future development of Xuanwu Hall.
Just as Lu Cheng was about to leave, another leader of the Flying Eagle Gang returned from outside.
"Xu Feng, the leader of the Dark Hall, greets the gang leader."
Lu Cheng nodded slightly: "Xu Feng, you came here in a hurry, but what happened?"
"My Lord, this afternoon, one of my disciples was accompanying his sister to the market when he happened to be met by Jia Zhen of Ningguo Mansion. Jia Zhen saw that my disciple's sister was beautiful and had evil intentions, and wanted to force her to buy her. My disciple refused, and hurriedly injured several servants around Jia Zhen, fled with his sister, and asked me to help him.
The leader has been asking us to send people to keep an eye on the Rong and Ning mansions. Now that this is about Jia Zhen from the Ningguo mansion, I dare not make a rash decision, so I came here to report. Please make the decision, leader."
Hearing this, Lu Cheng just chuckled and said, "It's just Jia Zhen, why be so timid? Just arrange an accident for him and don't leave any traces. As for your disciple and his family, send them somewhere else."
"Yes, I will make arrangements now."
Lu Cheng naturally had no good feelings towards Jia Zhen, the shameless and greedy guy in Ningguo Mansion. Since he had run into the gun of the Flying Eagle Gang, he was eliminated.
But this guy was, after all, the master of Ningguo Mansion, the patriarch of the Jia clan, and he also inherited the title of General Weilie, a third-rank official. If he died suddenly, the higher-ups would still investigate.
It would be most appropriate to let the Dark Hall, a professional assassination agency, handle it.
The next morning, the leader of the Dark Hall arranged for his disciples to take their families and seek refuge southward.
Jia Zhen finally sent someone to find out about the young lady he had seen yesterday. Just when he was about to send someone to forcibly bring her back, he didn't expect that the other party had escaped in advance. He was immediately furious.
That night, Jia Zhen, who had nowhere to vent his anger, drank alone and was about to go look for the concubine he had just bought last month. When he passed a rockery on the way, his eyes suddenly went dark and his consciousness fell into darkness.
In the early morning of the third day, the servants of Ningguo Mansion found Jia Zhen's body in the pond in the backyard. When it was fished out, it was already cold.
The servants of Ningguo Mansion immediately reported to Jia Jing, who was still practicing Taoism in the Taoist temple, as well as Jia Zheng, Jia She and others of Rongguo Mansion.
Afterwards, after some investigation, no suspicious traces were found in Ningguo Mansion, which ruled out the possibility that Jia Zhen was murdered. The only thing to be determined was that Jia Zhen lost his mind after drinking and slipped into the pond and drowned.
Perhaps the Ningguo Mansion felt ashamed about this matter, so they refused the coroner sent by the government to perform an autopsy and began to prepare for Jia Zhen's funeral.
If we were to say who would be the happiest person after Jia Zhen's death, it would definitely be his eldest son Jia Rong.
When Jia Zhen was alive, he often beat and scolded his son, and sometimes even let his servants insult his son, such as letting the servants spit on his son in front of everyone.
It can be said that Jia Rong not only did not enjoy any fatherly love in front of his father, but also had to endure stick education and verbal insults. He was obviously the eldest grandson of Ningguo Mansion, but he lived such a humble life.
After Jia Zhen's death and Jia Jing's absence, Jia Rong naturally inherited the Ningguo Mansion's family business. He could play however he wanted in the future and was naturally very happy.
Of course, after his father died, Jia Rong did not dare to show his happiness, and had to pretend to be heartbroken.
Jia Zhen's death had no impact on Lu Cheng.
After the great success of "Three Heroes and Five Gallants", Lu Cheng directly asked the Flying Eagle Gang Xuanwu Hall to send people to open a new study in Kyoto City, looking for a group of suitable writers and painters with a certain foundation in painting, specializing in the creation, printing and sale of vernacular novels with a large number of illustrations. This can not only increase income, but also serve as a new base.