The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 129 Internal Strife Arrives Before External Enemies Arrive
Just as Tu Chengyu led his men to arrest the salt smugglers, chaos was raging in Yangzhou.

The chaos that engulfed the entire city of Yangzhou was inextricably linked to what Tu Chengyu and his group were about to do today.

So, how did the people in Yangzhou discover what Tu Chengyu was up to?

The cause lies with the Lu family.

Because the Lu family was going to be trading with smuggled salt dealers these past few days, they had been keeping an eye on the Lin residence.

Although Tu Chengyu deliberately traveled around these past few days, it made the Lu family feel much more relaxed.

However, since the current prince was staying in Yangzhou, the Lu family had been keeping watch on the docks to ensure the safety of the guards remaining there.

So when Tu Chengyu led his men onto the ship, the Lu family servants guarding the dock immediately noticed the situation.

However, the servant was not sure at the time whether Tu Chengyu was going to go sightseeing or something else.

Instead of immediately reporting back to the head of the family, he hired a boat and followed Tu Chengyu's fleet at a distance.

He followed them all the way, and when he finally discovered that Tu Chengyu's fleet had stopped at the mouth of the tributary where the Lu family traded smuggled salt, the servant realized that something was wrong.

Only then did he turn back to inform the Lu family.

The Lu family, salt merchants, were one of the twelve salt merchants designated by the imperial court.

They were a prominent family in Yangzhou, and countless people came to their door every day seeking an audience.

Normally, Lu Yinghui, the head of the Lu family, would either be receiving people who wanted to see him or socializing elsewhere.

Today was the day of the private salt handover, so Lu Yinghui did not meet with anyone and stayed at home alone to wait for news.

This was a habit he had developed ever since the Lu family started selling smuggled salt.

On this day, he did nothing else but wait for news of the deal.

He would only leave the mansion to attend to other matters after his servants brought news of a successful transaction.

On days when transactions were usually conducted, he only needed to wait at his residence for half a day.

However, before he could receive any news from the servants that the transaction had gone smoothly, he heard them calling him from outside the door.

"Sir, Chang Bao, who was keeping watch at the dock, has returned. He says he has something important to report."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yinghui snorted coldly and said, "Didn't I already say that we should put everything else aside until we get news about the deal? Didn't you hear what I said?"

Upon hearing this, the servant outside the door was so frightened that he wanted to retreat on the spot, but thinking of what Chang Bao had reported, he dared not delay and had to muster his courage to speak again:

"Master, Chang Bao said that what he reported is related to our family's transaction today."

Upon hearing that it was related to the smuggling of salt, Lu Yinghui no longer insisted on his own rules and said:

"In that case, let Chang Bao in to give his reply."

Not long after Lu Yinghui finished speaking, the door was pushed open and a man who looked like a middle-aged butler walked in, followed by a young man in his twenties.

The steward was the servant who had just questioned them at the gate, and the young man was naturally Chang Bao, who was keeping watch.

As soon as the two of them came in, Lu Yinghui asked, "Tell me, how did you get involved in this transaction again?"

Upon hearing this, Chang Bao replied, "Reporting to Master, I was sent by you to the dock to keep an eye on Prince Su's fleet. This morning, I saw Prince Su lead his men and set sail on the river."

"At first, I thought that Prince Su was going on a boat trip on the river, just like a few days ago, so I took a small boat and followed him."

"But when we went down to investigate, we found that Prince Su's boat had stopped at the mouth of the Xiaobai River, and many armed men had disembarked from the boat."

Xiaobai River is the river where the Lu family trades smuggled salt. It's a place the Lu family has been using for years, so when Lu Yinghui heard that Prince Su's fleet was stopped there, he knew something was wrong.

So before Chang Bao could finish speaking, Lu Yinghui was so shocked by the news that he stood up and asked incredulously, "Did you see that clearly?"

Chang Bao dared not lie about such a big matter. He said, "I followed along the whole time and saw everything clearly."

Lu Yinghui then asked, "Did you see how many people Prince Su brought?"

Chang Bao replied, "In order not to be discovered, I followed quite far away and didn't see how many people there were, but I vaguely saw that there were at least one or two hundred people."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yinghui frowned deeply, his face darkening as he looked at the situation, unsure of what to do.

After a long while, he finally raised his head and asked Steward Chao, "Which steward from the manor went to the preliminary transaction today?"

The butler replied, "Master, it was the head butler who went today."

Upon hearing that it was the head butler, Lu Yinghui's face darkened even further.

If it were someone else in charge, after something went wrong, they could pretend not to know and pass the buck.

However, this time it's the head housekeeper, so it's a bit tricky to try and shirk responsibility.

After all, everyone knows that the head butler of the Lu family is Lu Yinghui's confidant, and what the head butler does is equivalent to what Lu Yinghui does.

However, what's done is done, and Lu Yinghui isn't one to complain or blame others.

He was also thinking of immediately sending someone to bring back the head steward's family, so that the head steward would have no worries and he could try his best to exonerate himself.

Just as he raised his head to give orders to his servants, he saw the steward in front of him looking hesitant to speak.

Lu Yinghui looked at him and said, "What is it now?"

The steward said, "Master, besides the head steward, the second master also went to inspect the transaction today."

"What?" This news was even more shocking than the previous one; Lu Yinghui almost jumped up when he heard it.

He looked at the butler and said, "Why did the second son go there?"

Seeing Lu Yinghui's murderous look, the butler said tremblingly, "Master, it was Second Master who wanted to go."

"Oh dear, what a rebellious son!" Upon hearing this, Lu Yinghui slumped weakly into his chair, propping his head up with his hand and sighing repeatedly.

He's completely confused and doesn't know what to do.

If it were just the head butler, he only needed to take care of the head butler's family as previously agreed, and the head butler would naturally bear the blame.

At most, the Lu family will be accused of lax discipline, but it won't be a serious problem.

But now that my own second child is involved, there's no way I can get away with it.

Of course, under normal circumstances, such an incident wouldn't be a big deal.

With a little navigating of connections and smoothing things over, anything can be resolved.

But this time the situation is a bit more complicated.

The official who came out to arrest people was neither an official from Yangzhou nor Lin Ruhai, who was in charge of salt affairs, but the Prince Su, who was said to be causing trouble everywhere.

Since leaving the capital, this Prince Su has caused a lot of trouble wherever he goes.

Moreover, it is said that this Prince Su was like a simpleton, and liked to do things for the benefit of the people.

Encountering such an unpredictable person, Lu Yinghui had no idea whether his arrests were for the sake of the people or to help Lin Ruhai. Unable to grasp the other's intentions, Lu Yinghui had no clue where to begin, even if he wanted to find someone to mediate.

And then there's this smuggled salt trade, which involves so many shady dealings.

If Prince Su discovers what's going on here, the Lu family will be bankrupt, and that would be considered a good outcome.

The more Lu Yinghui thought about it, the more terrifying it became. He felt that if his family didn't do something quickly, they would really end up with their family destroyed and their lives ruined.

Thinking of this, Lu Yinghui forced himself to calm down.

He thought through the whole story and then asked the two people in front of him a few questions.

Finally, he came up with a way to salvage the situation.

At this moment, Lu Yinghui had gradually calmed down.

He stood up and first said to Chang Bao:

"Go and inform Donglai Pavilion now that I'm hosting a dinner there later. Also, when you leave, have the gatekeeper prepare a carriage immediately."

Chang Bao responded and immediately ran out to take care of the matter.

After he left, Lu Yinghui said to the steward in front of him:
"Send someone to the other eleven houses immediately and tell them that I have urgent business and ask them to come to Donglai Pavilion to discuss it."

After giving his instructions, the butler hurriedly went out to carry out his duties.

After they left, Lu Yinghui didn't rest either.

He returned to his bedroom, changed his clothes, and immediately went out, boarded the carriage that had been prepared, and headed straight for Donglai Pavilion.

Speaking of Donglai Pavilion, it's not just a simple place to eat and drink.

This is a restaurant built with funds from salt merchants. It was completed at the beginning of the dynasty and has been used as a fixed place for salt merchants to discuss important matters ever since.

Therefore, Lu Yinghui sent someone to inform the other salt merchants that they wanted to discuss an urgent matter here.

Upon hearing this, the other eleven salt merchants naturally knew that something very important had happened, and they would certainly put down their work and rush over to help.

This was a tacit understanding among the salt merchants, and also their way of dealing with external dangers.

Even though they are constantly embroiled in internal conflicts, they will still unite when faced with external enemies.

Otherwise, how could these Huizhou merchants have controlled the salt trade in Yangzhou for so long?

Having worked together for so many years, Lu Yinghui believed that this time, everyone would unite as before to overcome the difficulties.

Sure enough, Lu Yinghui waited at Donglai Pavilion for a short while before the other eleven people who could make decisions arrived one after another.

After everyone arrived, they sat around the large round table. Then, the guests left and closed the doors and windows.

Han Bocai, the president of the Salt Merchants' Guild, who was seated at the head of the table, asked:
"Old Lu, why did you call everyone here in such a hurry? What happened?"

Lu Yinghui said, "This concerns the future of us salt merchants, so I have no choice but to urgently call everyone here to discuss this."

Upon hearing that it concerned everyone's future, everyone sat up straight and became serious.

Han Bocai asked, "What happened? Tell us quickly so everyone can hear it."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yinghui recounted the events of the day to everyone.

Of course, Lu Yinghui wasn't an honest man either, and he wouldn't tell the whole story exactly as it was told.

In his narration, he downplayed his own family's role and emphasized the interests of others.

After he finished speaking, everyone knew that there was something fishy about what Lu Yinghui said.

However, when they heard that Prince Su was personally cracking down on smuggled salt transactions, many people were still a little nervous.

Because they couldn't tell whether Prince Su was only targeting the Lu family or wanted to crack down on all private salt trade.

If it's the former, then there's nothing to fear; but if it's the latter, then everyone's interests will be at stake.

Seeing that everyone looked worried and anxious after what he had said, Lu Yinghui finally felt a little relieved.

He invited everyone over because he wanted to drag everyone down with him, using the combined power of the Yangzhou salt merchants to deal with Prince Su's harassment.

He believed that as long as all the salt merchants stood on his side, even Prince Su would not dare to make any rash moves against his family.

His plan was very clever, but there are no fools among the salt merchants.

Immediately, someone came forward to question what he said.

The person who stepped forward was none other than Wei Yuncai, a salt merchant who had a good relationship with Lin Ruhai.

Wei Yuncai then said, "Brother Lu, you say that Prince Su is targeting everyone this time, do you have any evidence?"

Hearing Wei Yuncai's words, Lu Yinghui was so angry he wanted to bite his teeth, but he still had to answer.

He said, "Brother Wei, today's events are proof. If Prince Su wasn't targeting everyone, why would he do this?"

"You should know that the smuggled salt business is not just done by my family. Today, my Lu family has been arrested, which means that any of your families may not be arrested tomorrow."

Lu Yinghui said these words, half explaining and half threatening.

Others might worry that if the Lu family is arrested, they might be implicated.

Wei Yuncai, however, was not worried about this at all, and continued to question:

"Brother Lu, don't scare everyone. In my opinion, Prince Su is not here for you all, he may just want to deal with your Lu family."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yinghui angrily retorted, "Has my Lu family offended Prince Su? Why is he targeting our family specifically?"

Wei Yuncai stared at Lu Yinghui and said, "Do you dare say you haven't offended Prince Su?"

Lu Yinghui said, "I haven't even seen Prince Su's face yet, how could I have offended him?"

Seeing this, Wei Yuncai snorted and said, "Brother Lu, you really have a bad memory. Of course Prince Su is entering Yangzhou City. Have you forgotten about being bumped by a horse?"

Upon hearing Wei Yuncai's words, Lu Yinghui's expression became somewhat unnatural, but he still immediately replied:
“It was your son who offended Prince Su. How can you say that my Lu family has offended Prince Su?”

Wei Yuncai said, "If it weren't for your second son's instigation, how could my son have ridden a horse that day and how could he have bumped into Prince Su?"

Lu Yinghui: "What a joke! Your son did something wrong, but now he wants to blame it on someone else. That's just being unreasonable."

Wei Yuncai: "Whether I'm being unreasonable or not, you know in your heart."

The two argued back and forth, getting into a heated argument. They looked ready to fight at the slightest provocation.

Everyone is here to discuss matters, not to watch the two of them argue.

Seeing everyone's impatient expressions, Han Bocai, as the president, quickly stepped in to stop them:

"What's the point of saying all this now? Let's focus on dealing with the immediate situation first."

(End of this chapter)