Li Laosi looked at Fan Yongdou and shouted: "Which one is between the walls?"
Fan Yongdou said with a sad face: "The wall between the main room in the middle of the third entrance of Liangziyuan is full of silver bricks."
Li Laosi looked at the officer beside him. The officer quickly led people to demolish the wall.
After waiting for half an hour, Li Laosi went to take a look, and sure enough he saw the soldiers and officers in the yard beaming with joy - the dismantled wall was covered with blue bricks on both sides, and there was a layer of silver bricks in the middle. There were many
It's jaw-dropping.
The silver bricks were stacked together, layer upon layer, like a hill. Each of those silver bricks was nine inches long, four and a half inches wide, and three inches thick. It was unknown how many years it had been hidden in the wall, and the silver bricks were slightly thicker.
It turned black. Li Laosi picked up a piece and looked at it. He felt that the silver brick was very heavy. It was as heavy as half of the person.
After the house was completely demolished, they found a total of more than 1,200 silver bricks. The officers found a scale in Fan's shop and weighed them, and determined that the total of these silver bricks was more than 1.6 million taels of silver.
Li Laosi thought for a moment and then walked back to Fan Yongdou.
"Fan Yongdou, you are so courageous. You only tell me this small amount to get rid of me? Do you know the consequences of hiding money?"
Fan Yongdou's face turned pale, and he looked at Li Laosi's face with surprise and uncertainty.
Li Laosi waved his hand and said: "Shoot Fan Kecheng, the eldest son of Fan Yongdou, who is in charge of the Fan family."
"No! No! No!"
Before Li Laosi finished speaking, a middle-aged man next to him made a begging sound like killing a pig. When Fan Yongdou's eldest son heard that Li Laosi was about to chop off his head, he kowtowed as if pounding garlic.
"General, have mercy on me! General, have mercy on me!"
Fan Yongdou's expression changed, and he opened his mouth and said, "General, wait, I'll say it! I'll say it!"
However, Li Laosi did not give Fan Yongdou a chance to save him, and waved his hand again. A soldier from the Huben Division armed with a rifle walked up, pointed at the trembling Fan Kecheng, and shot the collaborator to death with a snap.
The Fan family members, who were kneeling on the ground, witnessed this scene. Their faces were pale and they were trembling. They all looked at the head of the family, Fan Yongdou. The Fan family members were afraid that the head of the family, Fan Yongdou, would speak harshly again, and that Li Laosi would kill the Fan family members again.
Looking at the body of his eldest son, Fan Yongdou burst into tears for a while. His body was trembling and he was no longer as calm as before. But after he lost his son, he was frightened by Li Laosi, but he did not dare to challenge Li Laosi again.
, pointing to the yard to the north and said: "In the back garden, there is a silver cellar dug two feet under the rockery. There are a hundred silver winter melons in it."
"Under the foundation of the main house in the first courtyard of Tianziyuan, there are 400,000 Yongle Tongbao buried."
"The third step into the courtyard of Xinziyuan was to enter the well. Send people with torches into the well. You can see a round wall made of red bricks about a foot above the water. Break the brick wall and you will find a silver cellar inside.
There are more than five hundred thousand taels of grained silver."
Fan Yongdou burst into tears and his forehead bled: "There are really no others!"
Li Laosi looked at Fan Yongdou and thought for a while.
After thinking for a while, Li Laosi said: "Let's do this first. Take all these profiteers away and find a yard to lock them up."
The soldiers then escorted the entire Fan family and pushed them towards Liangzi Courtyard.
####
On the tower of the east gate of Taiyuan City, the eunuch Wang Chengen, the eunuch Bingbi, who rushed from the capital, and the governor of Xuan, Da, and Shanxi Wang Jimo stood together, looking at the ox carts carrying silver ingots and copper coins heading to Tianjin.
His face looked uncertain.
Wang Chengen looked at the soldiers of the Tiger Army heading east with their belongings, shook his head and said: "I didn't expect that the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the three towns of Xuanda in Shanxi could not stop the 40,000 strong soldiers of the Duke of Jin. They were defeated in a month."
It will be like falling flowers and flowing water."
"The emperor originally thought that this time the investigation of Shanxi merchants would be a long-lasting and major matter, and it was impossible to say that it would take a year. Unexpectedly, the Duke of Jin used thunderous momentum to complete the matter in only three months. The civil servants in the court had not yet reacted.
, Duke Guo of Jin has already wiped out all the Shanxi merchants who collaborated with the enemy."
Wang Jimo stroked his beard and shook his head and sighed, saying: "My lord, this time the emperor was deceived by Li Zhi. These Shanxi merchants have been operating in the three towns for hundreds of years, and the eight Shanxi merchants have tens of millions of properties. The emperor only needs five million.
Two, it’s really a big bargain for Li Zhi.”
This Governor of Xuanda, Wang Jimo, is a slippery character. He was a temporary official appointed by the emperor. He worked for a few years and then left. His relationship with the eight Shanxi merchants in Shanxi was not as deep-rooted as that of the local military attache. So this time I heard that Li Zhi was serving the emperor's imperial edict.
After investigating the affairs of Shanxi merchants, he hid and remained silent.
It wasn't until Li Zhi's army was so successful that everyone got the loot and uprooted the Shanxi merchants that he jumped out. Because Li Zhi plundered so much money from his territory but didn't give him a penny, he was full of money.
He was dissatisfied. Just when Wang Chengen came to implement the matter of "five million taels handed over to the emperor", Wang Jimo jumped out to fan the flames and encouraged Wang Chengen to ask Li Zhi for money.
When Wang Chengen heard Wang Jimo's words, his face twitched a few times, and he gritted his teeth and asked: "How much does the governor think Li Zhi gained this time?"
Wang Jimo took a deep breath and said: "Young nobleman, according to my rough estimate, Li Zhi is very rich this time. Not to mention those copper coins and silver ingots, just talk about the farms and shops accumulated by eight Shanxi merchants over the years.
I'm afraid it's as much as ten million. The money I got from ransacking the house should also be ten million."
Upon hearing this number, Wang Chengen's eyelids twitched uncontrollably, and he didn't say anything for a long time.
"So, including silver and copper goods, Duke Jin will receive at least 20 million taels this time?"
"Twenty million taels is the minimum!"
When Wang Chengen heard Wang Jimo's words, he felt very sorry for the emperor's inner treasury. Why did the emperor only offer five million? This is a big deal of twenty million! Wang Chengen suddenly forgot the etiquette and went on his own.
When I got to the wall, I looked at the carts of copper coins being shipped out with a worried look on my face.
Wang Jimo came up and said: "Young nobleman, you must let Li Zhi spit out some of it, hand it over to the emperor, and replenish part of the military arsenal of the three towns in Shanxi Province!"
Wang Chengen took a breath and said nothing.
While the two of them were standing there pondering each other's thoughts, Zheng Kaicheng walked up to the tower and came to greet Wang Cheng'en and Wang Jimo.
"Zheng Kaicheng met Wang Eunuch..."
Walking in front of Wang Chengen, Zheng Kaicheng was about to bow and salute when he heard Wang Chengen say in a nonchalant manner: "We haven't seen you for a long time, Zheng Shenjiang has gained weight again!"
Zheng Kaicheng was stunned and said with a smile: "The prince is joking, Zheng Kaicheng has been busy for a long time without even eating a bite, how can he gain weight?"
Wang Chengen snorted coldly and said: "Tianjin has made so much money in the three towns this time. It's really a big deal in one bite. Everyone in Tianjin has made a lot of money. How can I not get fat?"
When Zheng Kaicheng heard these sour words, he cupped his hands towards Wang Chengen and burst into laughter.
Wang Chengen looked at Zheng Kaicheng and said: "To be clear, giving five million taels to the emperor is really disrespectful. General Zheng, please tell me directly, what is the most you can give to the emperor?"
