In the Chengtian Mansion Inspectorate, Gong Wenbao, who had just returned from meeting Shi Wuyan, was approached by someone in a hurry. This person was also one of his cronies. Although he did not work in the Anti-Corruption Department, he was temporarily transferred from other places by him.
The department was mobilized to help investigate Chen Lifu's case.
Seeing the person coming in a hurry, Gong Wenbao frowned slightly. This person had been with him for several years. When he was working in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, he was with him, and he was promoted to Chengtian Mansion as Chengtian Mansion.
When the director of the Tianfu Inspectorate, which can be said to be the most important local inspectorate in the world, he also brought him here.
Normally he is quite steady, but today he was hurriedly walking and did not have the demeanor of a censor official at all.
However, before he could ask anything, the man spoke: "Sir, I have something urgent to report from my humble position!"
"Oh? What are you so anxious about?"
This person said: "People from the Chen family came just now, and they also brought various deeds for fields, houses, and shops!"
Hearing this, Gong Wenbao frowned, and his intuition told him that there was a problem, and it should be a bad problem!
Sure enough, what the man continued to say confirmed his suspicion: "The documents they brought were issued by our court, as well as original documents from the pre-Ming Dynasty, and there were also people from the tax department accompanying them, and they brought them
The Chen family’s tax payment records in the past few years!”
Hearing this, Gong Wenbao's expression suddenly changed: "What? Original documents from the pre-Ming Dynasty? So, these properties of their family already existed in the pre-Ming Dynasty?"
"Yes!" The subordinate said with a sad face: "I have personally checked that those documents are indeed authentic, and many acres of land, shops and other properties have been registered, and their tax payment records show that they have
The taxes paid every year amount to tens of thousands of taels of silver!"
Hearing this, Gong Wenbao felt a little dizzy on the spot. How did the people under his command do things? How come he didn't even find out whether the Chen family's property was owned or purchased later.
Also, why didn’t those bastards from the tax department wait until today to come over instead of telling them before?
If I had known this a moment and a half too late, damn it, the application forms for the arrest of everyone in the Chen family had already been sent to the court.
After hearing this, Gong Wenbao calmed down. His many years of experience as an official told him that this case was not as simple as he thought, and he was very likely to fall into some kind of trap, maybe not just
It is possible that he, and even his immediate superior, Mr. Shi Wuyan, the left deputy censor of the Inspectorate, may have fallen into this trap.
After pondering for a moment, he said: "You immediately find someone to conduct a thorough investigation of all the Chen family's properties. I will get a preliminary report tomorrow, no, tonight!"
Damn it, you’ve made a big mistake!
The more Gong Wenbao thought about it, the more scared he became. He did not expect that he was just investigating an ordinary case, but he did not expect that the behind-the-scenes case would be so complicated.
Why didn't anyone tell him before that the Chen family itself was extremely wealthy?
The censors from the Anti-Corruption Department that I trusted didn’t investigate, or they knew about it but didn’t tell me!
There must be something wrong here!
Many possibilities ran through his mind!
Is there really something wrong with Chen Lifu?
A quarter of an hour ago, Gong Wenbao thought that Chen Lifu had a problem, but now, this issue is worthy of discussion.
If there is no problem with Chen Lifu, then why would someone report him? Moreover, the content of the meeting was so detailed and the various evidences were presented so clearly that almost any censor who saw it would immediately think that there was something wrong with Chen Lifu.
Conduct an investigation.
In addition, why did the housekeeper of the Chen family hang himself on this joint?
What is hidden behind this?
Gong Wenbao was sitting alone in the office. He felt that a political storm was coming. Chen Lifu was undoubtedly the center of the vortex, but he had unknowingly walked to the edge of the vortex. This was a little bit...
If you are not careful, you may get involved and be thrown into the abyss of hell!
No, I absolutely cannot sit still and wait for death!
Now the tax department has sent someone here, and they have brought the Chen family's tax payment records over the years. What does this mean?
This shows that the big bosses of the tax department may have directly intervened in this case, or in other words, the big bosses of the tax department already believe that Chen Lifu has no problem.
If Chen Lifu really has no problem, how will this matter end?
Just say that there is no evidence, then let Chen Lifu go, and pretend that nothing happened?
Nonsense, if their Inspectorate dares to do this, they should be prepared to bear the wrath of the Tax Department. Qian Zuoli is not a jobber. Their Inspectorate casually investigates their core middle-level officials, and he is also the deputy of the Inspection Division.
Director, the next director of the Inspection Division, if you make this start today, how will the tax department live in the future?
They will definitely fight back!
Continue the investigation to find evidence to convict Chen Lifu?
In this case, it can be regarded as a method. Regardless of whether he is really guilty or not, as long as there is sufficient evidence, the Inspectorate will be sure to send Chen Lifu to prison, thus declaring the Inspectorate's correctness.
But when the time comes and a forced investigation fails to convict him, Gong Wenbao is almost certain that his official career will come to an end!
What should you do? Check it or not check it? What is the best thing for you to do?
Now, Gong Wenbao actually no longer cares about whether Chen Lifu is guilty or not. What he is thinking about now is how to remove himself and numb the situation. This situation is dangerous. If he fails, he will lose his official position!
If he had known earlier, he would not have investigated the case in the first place. Unfortunately, there is no use regretting it. Now that this situation has been created, it must be solved.
The whole afternoon, Gong Wenbao was meditating in his office, drinking pot after pot of strong tea. Even when it was time to get off work in the evening, he did not leave the office, let alone go home.
Of course, in the evening, he finally got a report from his subordinates. The many acres of land, shops and other industries found in the Chen family today, except for the flour mill that had just been opened, all the others had belonged to the Chen family in the pre-Ming Dynasty.
of.
Moreover, they also checked the account status of Chen Lifu in the Royal Bank. This account showed that Chen Lifu had opened this account at the Royal Bank of the Tang Dynasty before he took up the official position of the Tang Dynasty, and maintained the minimum balance all year round.
Fifty thousand taels, sometimes as much as more than 100,000 taels of silver deposits.
At the same time, many large sums of money can also find a place to go.
Referring to the tax payment records provided by the tax department, it can be said with almost certainty that many properties of the Chen family are the original properties of the Chen family and were not purchased after Chen Lifu became an official.
But there is also a loophole here, that is, the large amount of gold and silver in their cellar is difficult to prove that it belongs to the Chen family.
Even after appraisal by professional technicians, they have always concluded that most of the gold and silver submitted are old items, and the casting time of some gold bars can even be traced back to decades ago!
However, this does not mean anything. The inscriptions on these gold and silver do not say that they are silver nuggets cast by the Chen family themselves. Most of the gold nuggets are official silver from the pre-Ming Dynasty.
No one stipulates that after Chen Lifu withholds taxes, he cannot exchange them for gold and silver!
Today, a large amount of official silver and copper coins from the pre-Ming Dynasty are still circulating among the people!
You say that this is what your Chen family has accumulated over the decades, but others also say that Chen Lifu exchanged it for these old-quality gold and silver after deducting taxes.
In other words, Gong Wenbao is still faced with the dilemma of whether to continue the investigation or not!
Gong Wenbao read the investigation report for most of the night, and did not fall asleep until late at night. Early the next morning, he called all the six or seven censors in charge of the case from the Anti-Corruption Department.
, and then gave an order to have the guards lock them all into the Inn of the Inspectorate. At the same time, the picket office within the Chengtian Prefecture Inspectorate will conduct a severe interrogation of them!
Damn, you dared to conceal and omit the report, putting yourself in such a dilemma. If there was no problem here, he, Gong Wenbao, dared to just take off his head and use it as a urinal for them!
Subsequently, he used the confidants who reported yesterday as his team to rebuild the team to investigate the Chen Lifu case. There were only three censors, all of whom were the people who investigated the Chen family's property yesterday and had not been involved in the Chen Lifu case before.
middle.
His order to the new team is to continue the investigation, but the focus of the investigation can be changed to focus on investigating whether this staggering amount of gold and silver belongs to the Chen family, or whether it was acquired after Chen Lifu became an official in the past two years.
of.
In addition, he must also focus on investigating the mysterious death of the Chen family's housekeeper. His intuition told him that this person must be the core figure in this case, and he would definitely be able to find a breakthrough point from this person.
After giving the instructions, he once again dragged his tired body and red eyes to the Central Supervisory Office. He was going to Shi Wuyan to report the situation.
Damn it, for Chen Lifu's case, he has been in and out of the Central Supervisory Office many times in just a few days.
If it was a good thing, forget it, but it turned out to be a very hot potato.
After entering Shi Wuyan's office and meeting him, it was just as he expected!
When he reported the details of the Chen family's property and the response from the tax department to Shi Wuyan, Shi Wuyan immediately became furious. If he didn't have to worry about his dignity as a senior official, he would have slapped Gong Wenbao on the spot.
Mouth.
But even without taking action, Shi Wuyan scolded Gong Wenbao severely. When he cursed, his spittle was sprayed directly on Gong Wenbao's face, but Gong Wenbao didn't dare to wipe his face, so he could only