Jia Lian had been close friends with Liu Xianglian since childhood, so he also trained in martial arts with him.
Later, when Wang Xifeng came to Rongguo Mansion, she also learned horseback riding and archery. She and Jia Lian were like a pair of bickering lovers, always competing to see who was better.
Her competitive spirit drove the pampered Jia Lian to grit his teeth and endure the hardship, and he kept up his training.
Afterward, Jia Lian joined Liu Xianglian in taking the military examinations.
Although he did not pass the military jinshi examination, he did pass the military provincial examination and was registered with the army.
For this southern campaign, Jia Lian was egged on by Liu Xianglian, Feng Ziying, and a few other friends, and signed up to join them.
Though Wang Xifeng was worried, she cheerfully packed Jia Lian's things, hoping he would win her an official title.
She accompanied Xue Baoqin to see Jia Lian and Liu Xianglian off.
Xue Baoqin was already pregnant, though still in the early months. Mother Liu took her health very seriously and sent along her most capable personal nanny to look after her.
Jia Hu and Liu Zhong stood atop the city wall, watching the army set out.
One of them now worked in the Ministry of War, the other in the Ministry of Revenue, and they were in charge of provisions for the army.
It was an extremely important task, for provisions affected the morale and health of the soldiers on the front lines.
If the supplies failed to arrive, how could hungry soldiers fight the enemy?
The emperor took this war very seriously and entrusted its most crucial element to Jia Hu and Liu Zhong, showing just how much he trusted them.
The two did not let the emperor down. They had already caught wind of certain rats' movements.
Some people were truly bold, daring to tamper with the army's provisions.
They had already identified those involved and sent people to keep them under surveillance, planning to use them to catch the people behind them.
They had set a trap and were waiting for those people to walk right into it.
Jia Hu asked, "Who do you think is behind this?"
Liu Zhong chuckled. "You already have a guess, don't you? Why ask me?"
Jia Hu sighed. "Jia Zhen is arrogant, foolish, and yet thinks himself clever. Fortunately, Commandery Prince Yizhong's side doesn't think much of him either, so they never involved him in anything important. Otherwise, he'd have lost his head over this army-provisions affair, and Rong'er and Xichun would have been dragged down with him."
Liu Zhong said, "If you don't want innocent people to be caught up in it, you'd better deal with him sooner rather than later."
Jia Hu frowned at that.
He agreed with Liu Zhong's advice, but Jia Zhen was still his relative. Jia Zhen had treated him well when they were children, and Jia Hu couldn't bring himself to act against him.
Liu Zhong said, "Hesitate when you should act, and you'll only invite trouble. Just look how decisively Zhao Yiniang handled things."
Jia Hu had not kept Zhao Yiniang's affair from Liu Zhong.
He sighed. "I understand."
Liu Zhong offered him a suggestion. "You could have someone talk to You Shi."
Several days later, Jia Yuanchun received word from Ningguo Mansion: Jia Zhen had died of a sudden stroke.
Jia Rong and Jia Qiang hurried back to the capital again. They escorted Jia Zhen's coffin and took You Shi away from the capital, returning to Jinling.
Jia Rong did not inherit the title of Ningguo Mansion, which the emperor reclaimed.
That brought one of the Four Kings and Eight Dukes to an end.
Meanwhile, the capital was swept by a storm of blood and violence.
Everyone who had tampered with the army's provisions was arrested by the Jinyiwei.
The emperor showed no mercy. He had them all executed, and their families were exiled a thousand li away to the borderlands.
Those unlucky enough were immediately recruited into the border army and sent to the battlefield.
Whether they survived was entirely up to luck.
The emperor uncovered the mastermind: Commandery Prince Yizhong, son of the deposed Crown Prince.
The young man believed the throne belonged to his family and wanted to rebel. He had gathered many of the deposed Crown Prince's former followers, including several families among the Four Kings and Eight Dukes.
The emperor gave Commandery Prince Yizhong a cup of poisoned wine, but spared his wife and children.
As for those who had followed Commandery Prince Yizhong, the emperor showed them no mercy at all.
The Niu Family, the Ma Family, and the Chen Family were all confiscated.
The Niu Family was the family of Commandery Prince Yizhong's consort and had been the most deeply involved, so its fate was the worst.
All the adult men in the family were killed, the women were sent to the Bureau of Music, and the underage boys were made eunuchs.
A consort from the Chen Family pleaded for mercy, so no one was killed. The entire family was merely exiled to the southern barbarian lands.
Not long after the Chen Family left the capital, their consort passed away.
The emperor also dispatched another army to Ping'an Prefecture.
Ping'an Prefecture was the territory of Commandery Prince Xiping, the maternal uncle of Commandery Prince Yizhong.
It was because Commandery Prince Xining was there that Commandery Prince Yizhong had the confidence to rebel.
Commandery Prince Xining had spent over a decade making preparations in Ping'an Prefecture, recruiting soldiers and building up his forces, believing he could take the capital in one decisive strike.
He had not expected that the emperor had also been laying plans for a long time.
Many of the officers in Ping'an Prefecture were former subordinates of the Jia family.
Commandery Prince Xining had managed to buy off some of Jia Daihua's former subordinates through Jia Zhen's connections.
But Jia Daihua's other former subordinates, along with Jia Daihua's men unknown to Jia Zhen and Jia Daishan's former subordinates, had been won over by the emperor through Jia Hu and Jia She.
When Commandery Prince Xining raised his banner in rebellion, the emperor's men struck back and stabbed them in the back.
The rebellion was quickly put down, and the Commandery Prince Xining's estate vanished from the world.
This move frightened the remaining dukes and marquises. They all went into hiding, behaving themselves and daring not to cause trouble.
But did they think the emperor would spare them just because they kept their heads down?
The emperor had long possessed evidence of all the crimes committed by those families. When the time came, he began to deal with them.
Grandmother Jia hid in Rongqing Hall, listening as Yuanyang told her which family had been confiscated today and which would be confiscated tomorrow. She was so frightened she did not dare get up.
The only thing she could be grateful for was that Jia Zhen was dead. The emperor probably wouldn't discover that she had once conspired with Jia Zhen to bet on Commandery Prince Yizhong and punish her for it.
Grandmother Jia was in a constant state of anxiety.
After Jia Zheng passed away, her already poor health continued to worsen. Three months later, Grandmother Jia died.
Jia Hu was supposed to observe mourning for Grandmother Jia, but the emperor invoked the rule of mourning by imperial command and ordered him to continue working.
As Grandmother Jia's granddaughter-in-law, Liu Zhong did not need to observe mourning for her.
However, his work was extremely demanding.
After so many parasites in court had been dealt with, there was a severe shortage of personnel. Liu Zhong and Jia Hu both had to do the work of several people, and even slept on the floor at the government office at night.
Jia Hu took only seven days off for Grandmother Jia's funeral before he had to return and resume working overtime.
Grandmother Jia's funeral was somewhat desolate. It wasn't that Rongguo Mansion didn't care about her funeral; on the contrary, they gave her the highest honors.
It was just that most of Rongguo Mansion's old friends and long-time acquaintances had been dealt with by the emperor. The ducal and marquis families were all gone, and their descendants had left the capital. Who would come to attend Grandmother Jia's funeral?
The funeral was quiet and sparsely attended. After forty-nine days, Jia She escorted the coffin, taking the coffins of Grandmother Jia, Jia Zheng, and Wang back to their ancestral home in Jinling, where the three were buried in the family tomb.
After that, Jia She and Zhang never returned to the capital. They lived in Jinling until they both passed away.
Jia Huan, Jia Cong, and Xichun returned to Jinling with them.
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