There were dozens of people sitting downstairs, in small groups, separated by screens on the second and third floors. Especially on the third floor, the floor was polished with tung oil. It was noon, and a woman was singing softly.
"So, Magistrate Qi came back from the provincial capital in the morning and brought back money?" Su Ziji sat at the table in the corner seat, pushing a glass of wine over and asked at the same time.
"Thank you for the reward!" The chief drank the wine in one gulp and continued: "Exactly, in the early morning, he led several county soldiers on horseback and rode all night to the province to cry out to the governor."
"We don't know what it was like in the Governor's Mansion because we couldn't follow it, but when Magistrate Qi left the Governor's Mansion for the first time, he cried while walking, and then he was called back by people from the Governor's Mansion. When he came out again,
, I have brought out two boxes of silver."
Qi Hongxin's dark, thin and upright appearance flashed through Su Ziji's mind, and he really couldn't imagine what it would be like to cry while walking. In the eyes of many people, this person looked like a smelly and hard rock.
Just thinking about it, I subconsciously shuddered. It was obvious that this move was not in line with my own impression. It was no wonder that even Governor Zhao, who had a bad relationship with Qi Hongxin, was shocked to tears and finally gave him the money.
"I thought Qi Hongxin was decisive in killing, but I didn't expect that he could bend and bend."
"But seeing that he has been working as a prefect for more than ten years, it may be due to his background, but it may also be related to his character's inability or unwillingness to engage in business."
"Why is this person acting like this?"
Su Ziji sighed and couldn't help but feel speechless because of the complicated emotions he had felt for this person in the past few days.
"Just wait a little longer." Su Ziji said to himself.
"Master!" At this time, Cen Rubai came in from outside the wine shop, looked around, saw Su Ziji, walked over, nodded and smiled at Shi Chang, who was wearing casual clothes.
The ten soldiers who followed Su Ziji to Fucheng were working for Su Ziji almost during this period, but some could only be used for ordinary tasks, while others could be sent for surveillance.
This one is very useful, because when Su Ziji communicates with the wild Taoist people, he can use it more safely by letting the wild Taoist people control the caravan to help solve the family's livelihood problems.
"Keep staring at the prefect's Yamen and tell me if you can take any action." After letting Shichang leave, Su Ziji looked at Cen Rubai.
"Mr. Cen, sit down," Su Ziji said with a finger.
Cen Rubai was a little polite, then sat down, took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, lowered his voice, and reported to Su Ziji a piece of information he had obtained from his friends in the world.
"Sir, the minerals in Shun'an Prefecture are generally small and scattered. Of course, the majority are government mines. It is not cost-effective for the government to mine small mines, so most of them are converted into private mines. But I found that there are at least dozens of private mines, not those of the imperial court.
A licensed private mine is a black mine, and there is also a gold mine in it."
"Although the output of the gold mine is not high, only 500 taels of gold a year, it is quite a big deal."
It turned out that what Cen Rubai and the others discovered was actually a black mine.
This is a very important thing. There are actually many black mines in Shun'an Prefecture. Not only that, there are also gold mines in the black mines.
If this kind of thing is exposed, it will definitely shock the entire city, and even the province may be shocked.
But why has it not been exposed until now, and people still need to conduct secret investigations to find out? It can be seen from this that the water inside must be very deep.
When Su Ziji heard this, his expression changed immediately.
"I never expected that a small, seemingly ordinary Shun'an Mansion would actually have so many black mines and gold mines."
"This matter is beyond my expectation. To be able to hide this matter until now cannot be a private handiwork. There must be some government influence."
"Qi Hongxin has just taken office, and he has to go to the province to cry and beg in order to get the money. He must not know this."
"Before he arrived, he must have carefully checked the accounts and the minerals in the government. If he could hide this from this veteran official who has been the prefect for more than ten years, there must be more than one or two officials involved in this matter."
Su Ziji thought thoughtfully when he thought about being arrested along with several officials including the former prefect because of Shun'an Mansion's deficit of 700,000 taels.
"The former prefect must have something to do with these black mines. No, the former prefect alone may not be able to cover up the whole thing with one hand. I'm afraid there are other ways."
Even if he couldn't guess, Su Ziji still couldn't help but admire the boldness of these people to die for money.
"This dynasty allows private mining, but gold and silver are not among them. It is the exclusive domain of the imperial court. Private mining of gold mines carries extremely severe penalties, and the crime is no less than treason."
"After all, if private individuals, especially local officials, control gold mines, it is easy for them to privately raise troops and support themselves. This is something that the dynasty that has just founded the country more than 30 years ago cannot tolerate. Once caught, the worst case scenario may be execution without delay."
"However, the nature of gold mines is special. The 500 taels of gold per year are actually only 5,000 taels of silver. If you have the position of prefect, if you have no other ideas, why would you need to take such a desperate risk?"
"Unless..." Su Ziji's eyelids twitched slightly as he thought of a possibility.
When he looked up at Cen Rubai, the other party looked at him at the same time. The two met each other's eyes. Cen Rubai lowered his voice and said, "But the ownership of the mine owners is not concentrated. Except for a small number of gentry, it is monopolized by the three major gangs."
"They are the Longhu Gang, the Xinyi Gang, and the Jianghe Gang."
Cen Rubei said: "But after my investigation, I found that these three gangs seem to be controlled by someone."
"King of Qi or King of Shu?" Su Ziji asked his answer.
Cen Rubai looked at Su Ziji with surprise and shook his head: "It may be King Qi, but King Qi's people should be gentry, not the three major gangs directly."
The gang is actually the lowest level of society, and it is unlikely that the king of Qi will be the king of Shu.
"However, there should be deep connections with the government. The arrested prefect and several officials should also be involved, but they should only play a cover-up role in this matter. In fact, those who directly control the gold mine and the mine
, but a gang."
"So, even if a few officials are arrested, except for the fact that there may have been trouble at the beginning, but it soon calmed down, it will not have any real impact. Even because the mining is on the right track, it can go into the dark, and it will be even more hidden in the future.
.”
If they hadn't arrived at Shun'an Mansion at this juncture, and the young master had specially ordered the Jianghu people to investigate carefully, it would have been impossible to discover this matter.
Cen Rubai lowered his eyes and couldn't help but wonder, could this be the so-called will of God?
"That's right!" Cen Rubai added with a solemn expression: "I have personally been to the gold mine. Although I had the help of friends, I was almost discovered. I suspect that among these three major gangs, there are monsters hiding among them."
"Monster clan?" Su Zi paused with his hands and frowned slightly.
Cen Rubai nodded: "Yes, they almost found me. The friend who took me there that day was very powerful. Without his help, I wouldn't have been able to escape smoothly."
"Monster clan?" Su Ziji had a flash of inspiration, stood up, walked continuously, and suddenly stopped, thinking thoughtfully, this made sense.