Chapter 472 There are still people who want to assassinate you!
Wu Zhirong and others were thrown into the compound of the Salt Patrol Censor's Yamen, where the cold wind blew all night.
But no one dared to complain.
Seeing the officers and soldiers carrying boxes of belongings into the compound, Wu Zhirong and others didn't know that Jia Lian had ransacked the Zhao family's home!
Although the Zhao family is just a salt merchant, their background is much better than that of local officials like them.
If Jia Lian dared to raid the Zhao family, he would dare to strip off their clothes and raid their homes.
Suddenly hearing that Jia Lian was coming back, Wu Zhirong and others hurriedly greeted him, flattered Jia Lian, and politely asked when they would be released back to the Yamen, saying that they still had government affairs to deal with.
"Go back? Mr. Wu is afraid he won't be able to go back..."
The expressions of Wu Zhirong and others changed when they saw Jia Lian shouting: "Come here, arrest Wu Zhirong, the prefect, Wei Jitong, the magistrate, Yan Shixiang, the general judge, and the salt transport envoy from the salt transport department, and take them into custody for sentencing!"
"Yes." The officers and soldiers swarmed forward, held the four people tightly, and took them down regardless of their cries.
The faces of the remaining two or three people, as well as Gao Kui and others who came from the side courtyard, also changed continuously, looking at Jia Lian in a flattering yet wary manner.
Jia Lian smiled at them and said: "My lords, don't be nervous. Wu Zhirong and others colluded with salt merchants and embezzled salt taxes. The evidence is conclusive, so I took them down and waited for the court to deal with them. My lords are all good officials who are loyal to the emperor and patriotic. I am
Of course, the officials will not do anything to you."
After finishing speaking, he looked at the middle-aged civil servant aside: "I have been in Yangzhou for a few days. I heard that Mr. Zou is diligent and caring for the people. He has a good official reputation. He is a rare Qingtian master in Yangzhou City. For this reason, he was excluded by Wu Zhirong and others.
.
I admire the mighty and unyielding officials like Mr. Zou. Although I captured Wu Zhirong and others, I still have to continue to investigate the salt administration and have no time to care about the government office, so I did not send a new prefect to the court.
Before coming down, please ask Zou Fucheng to take care of the government affairs."
Yangzhou Tongzhi Zou Tong looked solemn. Seeing that Jia Lian was not joking, he quickly clasped his fists and saluted: "Your Majesty, your words are serious. This is a matter within the scope of the lower official. With your trust, from now on, if you have orders from your Excellency, I will be a lower official."
We will try our best to host it.”
Although Zou Tong was not used to Wu Zhirong's behavior, and he was indeed ostracized for it, he was able to stay peacefully until today and did not report Wu Zhirong and others to the court, so he was not completely free from involvement.
He knew that Jia Lian might have let him go because he had some official reputation, or that Jia Lian still needed someone to stabilize the government affairs, so he naturally felt grateful in his heart.
[Recommended, Yeguo Reading is really useful. Download it here. yeguoyuedu. You can try it soon.]
"Since Mr. Zou said so, I just have something to ask you for help.
I left Beijing in a hurry and did not bring much paperwork with me. There was a lot of real estate and property copied from the Zhao family. There are also many salt industry accounts of the Zhao family that need to be checked. It is really difficult for me to check it with my current manpower.
Please ask Mr. Zou to send a few more officials who are familiar with the literary work from the government office to assist me after he returns to the government office.
In addition, there is also a list of the Zhao family’s properties registered and sealed by the government. I will also copy it so that I can check it.”
The Zhao family has been entrenched in Yangzhou for decades, with deep roots and numerous industries.
This era is not like that of later generations, where all properties are registered with the government. Nowadays, sales, even land and real estate, can be concluded directly without going through the government, as long as both parties sign a contract, which is called a "white deed."
Although white deeds are difficult to obtain protection from the government, they can save a large amount of tax and avoid difficulties from officials. Therefore, most of the private properties in the Wei Dynasty are white deeds, which are all certified by family inheritance or deeds.
This is also the fundamental reason why in this era, it is easy for powerful bullies to invade other people's property.
Naturally, it is impossible for the Zhao family to register all their properties with the government, so it is easy to copy the deed, but it will be difficult to check if there is not.
But at least those registered by the government must be counted in large quantities.
Zou Tong naturally agreed to Jia Lian's request immediately, then said goodbye to Jia Lian, and left the Salt Patrol Censor's Yamen together with the other two officials.
…
"grown ups."
In Jia Lian's temporary office, Jia Yu walked in and was a little surprised to see that there were only a few people in the hall, and they were all leaders.
"Everyone is here?"
Jia Lian raised his head and smiled at Jia Yu and others. Without talking nonsense, he took out four yellow seals from the drawer and handed them to Jia Yu, Yang Xun, Zhao Cheng and the Forbidden Army Colonel Wu Jin respectively.
"Everyone worked hard with me last night. Here is some hard-earned money. Please accept it."
Yang Xun, Zhao Cheng and the captain of the imperial guard were not too surprised. They had already seen that Jia Lian was a kind-hearted person. Last night, they confiscated a rich and unkind businessman like the Zhao family. It was strange that Jia Lian had no expression for them.
On the other hand, Jia Yu, a veteran warrior in the military camp, had never experienced such a thing, and was a little confused for a moment. After all, judging from the few times he had contact with Jia Lian, he thought that Jia Lian was a selfless and upright person, so he
Will be reused by the emperor.
I never thought I would do something like this.
When Jia Lian saw Jia Yu's expression, he didn't want to explain.
"However, this is not just for you, it also includes the hard work of your brothers under you. The investigation of the salt administration is far from over. I still need you and the people under you to work for the court and for me.
Work hard. As long as things are done well, I will not hesitate to share some reasonable benefits with you. At the same time, I don’t like you being short-sighted...
I hope that all the brothers who are working this time, regardless of their positions, will receive at least ten taels of benefits. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand that I will live up to your high expectations. Don't worry, sir, you treat me so sincerely, and we will not be so short-sighted as to deprive you of the benefits of our brothers."
Zhao Cheng, a member of the Jin Yiwei family, was the first to reply with a smile. He and Yang Xun had received a lot of benefits on the day they arrived in Yangzhou, and they thought that they would not have a share this time. Unexpectedly, Jia Lian still prepared preparations for the two of them.
Already.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! As for giving at least ten taels of silver to each brother below... Although they think it is too much, after all, except for Yang Xun, they have many brothers below.
. But then he thought, since Jia Lian said so, he thought that the amount of money in Huang Feng was indispensable, so he became happy again.
Jia Yu secretly took a breath. He has a total of eight hundred officers and soldiers, each of whom has at least ten taels. Doesn't that mean that he has at least eight thousand taels of silver in his yellow seal?
So after returning to my home, I couldn't wait to open the yellow seal and found that there was indeed a stack of silver notes inside, and there were also a few gold leaves!
After a little counting, his hands began to shake a little.
Eighteen thousand taels!
This... even if according to Jia Lian's explanation, the lowest brother is divided into ten taels, and those with higher grades have more, he can still keep ten thousand taels for himself?!
Ever since he became President Qian and had a fifth-rank official position, he felt that his salary and remuneration were quite good. He received two hundred taels of silver every year! It was enough for his family to live a prosperous life in Jinling City.
It was only at this moment that he truly understood why the civil servants in Jinling City called them Kuhaha warriors!
Damn it, just following Jia Lian on an errand is worth his decades of hard work.
I don't know if other people's hands were so rich, or if Jia Lian took special care of him for the sake of his own clan.
But it doesn't matter anymore. He knows that from today on, his vision needs to change.
There is no future in staying in the Xishan Camp of Jinling City. You have to find an opportunity to fill a good position. It is best to be promoted to Jia Lian's side.
Working with this powerful cousin is 10,000 times better than working alone in Jinling. I even started to thank Governor Liao Jihong in my heart. If he hadn't made it possible, he really didn't know what to do with his great future and backing.
How to fight for it!
Jia Lian could probably guess what Jia Yu and others were thinking, but he didn't care.
The little benefit given to them is nothing compared to the wealth of the Zhao family. The real money and silver taken from the Zhao family last night alone was nearly three million taels. Including the money that has not been counted yet
Various industries have finally been transformed. I dare not say that there are too many, but around four million can definitely be obtained!
I'm afraid the emperor would be shocked if he received this amount.
Besides, this is not over yet...
Jia Lian always felt that the Wang and Bai families, in terms of the number of official salt dealers and the degree of rampantness, were only much more than the Zhao family. It would be unfair to the Zhao family to let them go like this.
If they deliberately confiscated both of their families, wouldn't they be able to return to Beijing with a fortune of more than 10 million taels?
In that case, I'm afraid the emperor would jump up with joy.
After all, the annual revenue of the entire treasury is only tens of millions of taels a year, and most of it has a fixed destination. The rest is the share that the two monarchs and the Manchu civil and military forces compete for.
Moreover, most of them will be divided up by the Supreme Emperor.
So Jia Lian knew that Emperor Ningkang was actually very poor. This was also the reason why Emperor Ningkang secretly told him that he must give these greedy salt merchants a look, and even tacitly agreed to kill him if he refused.
Under such circumstances, if Emperor Ningkang brought an extra 10 million taels of silver back, I wonder if he would directly make himself a prince...
After all, this is the benefit that I use my reputation to gain for him! It is conceivable that if he really ransacks the homes of these salt merchants, the elite celebrities in the court will definitely criticize him verbally and label him as "greedy and cruel"
"Skin-picking" and other reputations.
But after thinking about it, let it go. If Emperor Ning Kang really wants to make him the Duke of the country now, then he really has to be careful whether Emperor Ning Kang intends to play the tricks cooked by cunning rabbits and dead lackeys. After all, there is no seal, right?
For a minister, this is definitely not a good thing.
That's all, considering those two families are lucky, the big deal is that they just need to put more blood than other salt merchants in the future, so they won't have to raid their homes.
So Wu Zhirong was brought out and asked about the whereabouts of An Siyuan's son. He didn't ask before, so as not to alert the enemy. Now that he was captured, naturally he wanted to help Xu find his son.
Wu Zhirong naturally refused to admit it at first, but under Jia Lian's questioning, he still said: "This, if the lower official said it, might your Excellency put down the official and leave?"
Wu Zhirong deeply regretted that he had underestimated Jia Lian and had no room for resistance without making any preparations.
Jia Lian looked at him and said with a half-smile, "What do you think?"
Wu Zhirong became sad.
"Does Mr. Wu think that I have some friendship with An Siyuan? If you are willing to hand over his son, I can remember that you are repentant and can report your crimes truthfully without malicious slander.
If you don't cooperate, that's fine, it's just that one more crime is added to your charge of murdering a colleague's younger heir. This way, your Wu family's sins will be further deepened, but this officer will not suffer any loss."
Wu Zhirong knew that it was not a wise choice to offend Jia Lian now, so he has not given up completely. After serving as the prefect of Yangzhou for so many years, he, like the salt merchants, also used money to pave the way and find backers for himself. He also placed hope that behind his back
Someone can save him.
In this way, it is even more difficult to offend Jia Lian too harshly and let Jia Lian get into trouble, so he said: "I dare not deceive you in my humble position. Whether it is An Siyuan's incident or the kidnapping of his son, it was all done by the salt merchants. I really don't know about it."
.However, after the lower official knew that Mr. An’s son had been kidnapped, he also investigated and found out that An Siyuan’s son was in the hands of the salt merchant Wang family. If you want to save people, you might as well start with the Wang family.”
Unable to protect himself, Wu Zhirong would certainly no longer be the protective umbrella of salt merchants and would betray him without hesitation.
"Seriously? Do you know the consequences of cheating on me?"
"I don't dare, my lord. I can just investigate and you will know whether it is true or false."
Seeing what Wu Zhirong said was true, Jia Lian didn't do anything difficult for him. He asked someone to escort him back, then got up and went to the inner courtyard.
Originally I just wanted to find Mrs. Xu to check the news, but when I didn't want to see Mrs. Xu, she actually looked like she was lost.
But when she saw Jia Lian, she seemed to want to hide it.
"What's wrong?
"No, it's nothing... You must be tired, sir. Please relax your shoulders for me..."
Mrs. Xu helped Jia Lian sit down and then rubbed Jia Lian's shoulders as usual.
Jia Lian frowned slightly, pulled her into his arms and sat down, but no longer asked, instead he raised his chin and smiled: "You said that your son is in Wu Zhirong's hands. I have already taken him for interrogation. He
But he said that your son is not in his hands, but in the salt merchant Wang's family.
I don't think he is lying. I dare you to guess wrong? Don't worry, no matter whether your son is really in the Wang family or not, as long as he is still alive, I will be absolutely sure to rescue him. You can wait with peace of mind.
How many days will it take?"
Mrs. Xu raised her head and looked at Jia Lian blankly. She suddenly broke away, turned over and knelt down in front of Jia Lian, crying: "How can I be so virtuous as to make you worry about me! I have important news to tell you."
Your Excellency..."
"What?"
"There are still people who want to assassinate you!"