Chapter 128 The famous Qinhuai prostitute who gives people a headache
As the curfew was lifted, people throughout Nanjing relaxed, and soon it was discovered that a large number of restaurants, shops and casinos had been closed down.
Fully half of the brothels along the Qinhuai River are closed, and all the gangsters who used to roam the city have disappeared.
Instead, teams of soldiers from the Beijing camp were replaced, walking through the streets and alleys, responsible for maintaining law and order.
The 40,000 Beijing troops were all used by the Red Lady as the Five-City Military and Horse Division to guard the gates and walls, patrol and prevent theft. The former Military and Horse Division and Inspection Division were all abolished.
As a result, these people dare to be angry and dare not speak out, but they can only find another way out.
Fortunately, these people who were laid off have already made a lot of money.
The entire city of Nanjing has a completely new look.
Wei Guogong and other nobles are not just as simple as a dozen nobles, but represent the interests of one side of Jiangnan.
The largest interest group in the entire Jiangnan area must be the local gentry. On the surface, these people are engaged in farming, studying, and passing the imperial exams, and are serving as officials, but secretly they are doing business, and even operating maritime trade. There are countless small and large businessmen who also rely on them.
It has long been unclear whether they are officials or businessmen, and the Donglin Party is their representative voice in the court.
This is a very huge interest group, and at the same time it is very complicated and loose internally. Jie controls almost 80% of the world's wealth.
On the other side are the forces headed by nobles. For more than two hundred years, countless businessmen have also relied on them to survive.
Compared with the complexity and instability of the official and business groups, the Xungui Group is relatively simple and stable. The reason is naturally that the Xungui Group is hereditary.
The last party was the eunuch group, which was mainly composed of the eunuchs who guarded Nanjing. These eunuchs relied on the imperial power and, to put it bluntly, they came to make money for the emperor.
It's a pity that they took the big part themselves and handed over the small part to the emperor. Almost all walks of life wanted to get involved, and they were extremely greedy and did not follow the rules.
It is an existence hated by both nobles and the gentry group, and the eunuch group is also the most unstable.
It almost reached its peak during the Tianqi Dynasty. It fell to the bottom again in the early stage of the Chongzhen Dynasty, and then slowly recovered in the later period. After the intruders besieged the capital in March this year, the eunuch group was knocked to the bottom again.
After the rumors spread, they were completely wiped out by the government gentry group, leaving only the Nanjing garrison eunuch Lu Jiude and a group of eunuchs hiding in the palace to survive.
The main reason why the Jiangnan officials and gentry were making a fuss about establishing a new king and not recognizing Zhu Cixun's orthodox status was that they wanted to take advantage of the vacancy in imperial power to kill and expel the eunuchs from various places.
So now the Xungui Group has been eradicated by the Red Lady, and the government and business groups are celebrating behind the scenes, waiting to take over these Xungui's industries and power.
Indeed, as news spread that Xungui had been embezzled, businessmen who had previously relied on them began to look for new backers.
In the palace, as the properties of the nobles were gradually counted, countless shops in almost all parts of Nanjing and surrounding prefectures and counties were sealed every day.
Except for a few of the sealed shops, restaurants, brothels and casinos that are directly run by Xungui, most of them are owned by Xungui.
It can be said that Xungui is the backer and owner of the largest gray industry in Jiangnan.
This undoubtedly shocked the Red Lady and Zhang Yan beyond measure.
"Ying'er, those properties, manors, and mansions are all easy to deal with, but what about these shops, restaurants, brothels, casinos, etc.?"
"We can only sell them all. We can't run so many industries. Those who hold shares, I will spread the word and want to lift the blockade. They have to come to Nanjing to pay money to buy shares, directly operate the industries and then sell them!"
The red lady thought about it and said.
The manor and mansion must be sealed up, and she plans to distribute the land to the 20,000 brothers she brought with her in the future. Both of these are easy to deal with, but the ones that are difficult to deal with are the industries run by the nobles and the industries they have invested in.
As the red lady released the news, all the officials, gentry and businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River were so angry that they cursed.
Those industries directly managed by nobles can be sold by the red lady, but those who hold shares are not like that at all.
Almost all of them are businessmen's own business. They just verbally say that they will give away 10% to 20% of the dry shares, contribute some money every year, and keep themselves safe.
In everyone's opinion, since all the nobles and nobles were confiscated and alloted, naturally there is no such thing as a good share or a bad share.
But the fact is that now, as long as the shops and mines have a relationship with Xungui, they have been sealed.
Everyone can't figure out how the imperial concubine investigated so clearly?
Naturally, they didn't know that they had been screened. Every time a house was screened, the matchmaker would send a steward to lead the way, and then go to the local place to affix a seal.
The red lady's appearance was so ugly that it naturally aroused public outrage. For several days, the court was stirred up into a pot of porridge, but the red lady just bit her to death and refused to break the seal unless she paid the money.
In the end, the officials had no choice but to compromise. Fortunately, they didn't have much money, so there was nothing they could do. The seal stuck there was always a trouble, and it might be copied one day.
After getting along with her for more than half a month, everyone already knew the red lady's temper and could definitely do such a thing.
There were also huge sales of beauties in restaurants, shops, casinos and brothels everywhere. For a time, the officials and gentry businessmen in Jiangnan almost broke their heads.
The red lady is no longer interested in money, she just wants to end these messes as soon as possible.
However, under Chen Yuanyuan's persuasion, the dozens of brothels and hundreds of flower boats along the Qinhuai River were not sold for the time being. These were industries directly managed by Xungui.
"My dear, it's such a pity that those brothel and painting studios are sold like this. They can earn at least several million taels of silver every year."
"Yuanyuan, tell me the truth, what is your real purpose in persuading me not to sell those brothel boats?"
The red lady stared at her curiously.
She really doesn't care about the millions of taels of silver now. The amount of money in the palace is almost too much to put down.
I'm afraid I won't be able to count them all within a month as to how many there are.
"Ms. Mingjian, those dozens of brothels are the top brothels along the Qinhuai River. There are more than two thousand miserable women in them. Although their prostitution contracts were in the hands of nobles in the past, according to tradition, ordinary women
You can redeem yourself.
And those famous prostitutes can redeem themselves at any time, and there are no restrictions on weekdays. They can accept customers according to their own wishes. I am worried that once the empress sells the brothel, the new owner will not abide by the rules."
Chen Yuanyuan said in a low voice that except for Sister Liu, the bonds of the other six sisters were all in the hands of Xungui.
"Oh? If they are so free, then why don't they redeem themselves and become good friends? Are they still staying by the Qinhuai River every day?"
The matchmaker looked surprised, obviously not understanding what the brothel industry in Jiangnan was all about.
"Alas! I don't know something. As famous as a slave, once you become famous, no one can force you to do so. The contract of betrayal is just a formality. The reason why you don't do good is because you can't find a suitable person to entrust you to.
Lifelong, so it is better to stay under the name of a noble brothel."
Chen Yuanyuan explained somewhat depressedly.
"It's too complicated. However, before I sell her, I can burn all their deeds of betrayal and let them all rehabilitate themselves." The red lady waved her hand.
"Empress, it's not a matter of selling yourself out, it's just that you haven't found someone to trust you with for the rest of your life. Even if you become a good person, it will still not end well in the end. The greater your fame, the worse your end will be." Chen Yuanyuan quickly waved her hand and explained.
"Then what do you mean?" The red lady frowned slightly.
"Your Majesty, these brothels are so profitable. Why don't you find someone to manage them and run them yourself?"
"What, you want to run these brothel painting studios?"
The red lady finally understood what she meant.
"If the empress trusts the slave, the slave will naturally be willing to help the empress manage it." Chen Yuanyuan said quickly.
"Yuanyuan, it's not that I don't trust you, but what your Majesty said, I have a close relationship with you. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before I favor you. You have to think clearly, are you really willing to run a brothel?"
Sure enough, hearing what the Red Lady said, Chen Yuanyuan hesitated again, but for the sake of those sisters, who would have a good home in the future and not be like her, she finally gritted her teeth and nodded.
She knew that the empress would definitely not care whether she made money or not. As long as the empress let her run it, it meant that those sisters were protected by the empress.
In the future, not only will you not be forced to sell it, your situation will be better than before. Once you find someone you can trust for life, you can redeem yourself at any time and become a good person.
"No, no, I am a noble concubine after all. Going to open a brothel will have a bad influence. Your Majesty will probably be unhappy if he finds out."
The red lady thought about it and waved her hand.
In fact, she really wanted to close down all the brothels in Jiangnan, but she knew that this would definitely cause turmoil in the entire Jiangnan. Now that she was not short of money and food, there was no need to create extraneous problems. These matters should be dealt with when His Majesty comes.
"Your Majesty, you don't really need to do anything. You just need to wait to receive the money. Your Majesty can put all these brothels in the names of your slaves."
Chen Yuanyuan gritted her teeth and said, but she said in her heart that the news about you eating the King of Fortune has spread all over the south of the Yangtze River, and she is afraid of the negative impact. Even for a strange man like your Majesty, any emperor would probably die if he didn't directly kill him.
Used and locked up in the cold palace.
"That's feasible. Well, I've sold these brothels and boats to you, and I've given you the deeds to sell myself. I don't want you to earn millions of taels of silver every year. As long as you can support them, I won't let you."
Just stick it upside down!"
The red lady's eyes lit up and she nodded.
After all, I have given them the opportunity to be good, but they are unwilling to do so. Who can blame them?
Is it possible that they still need to find someone to entrust them with for life?
So she planned to leave all these troublesome brothel prostitutes to Chen Yuanyuan to deal with. She could deal with them however she wanted, as long as she didn't ask for money.
"Thank you, ma'am!"
Chen Yuanyuan was immediately excited and quickly knelt down to thank her.
Obviously, he also heard what the red lady meant, so that the sisters at the bottom will not even have to pick up guests in the future.
As long as a famous person drinks with you occasionally, you can support everyone, and then slowly find a home and become a good person.