After hearing Xiao Chen's instructions, Duan Tianming walked up and took off Yang Hu's official hat. Then he grabbed his official uniform and pulled hard, and the entire official uniform was also taken off.
"Master Yang, where have all the silks from Hangzhou Palace gone?" Xiao Chen asked, looking at Liu Hu, who was dressed in plain clothes and kneeling on the ground with a pale face.
"Last year, the mulberry field was hit by a disaster, and the silk production was severely reduced. The entire Hangzhou Prefecture had almost no harvest." Looking up at Xiao Chen, Yang Hu bit the bullet and continued to use his rhetoric to the Chief Secretary of Zhejiang.
"Okay, let's not talk about the silk. I heard that you and Wang Dachuan, a wealthy family in Hangzhou, are related to each other. Is this relevant?" Xiao Chen asked with a smile, without any intention of interrogating.
"Sir, this is indeed true. Wang Dachuan and I are sons and daughters."
"The leader of the Water Tiger Gang told me that all the silks in Hangzhou Prefecture have been hoarded by Wang Dachuan. I guess you don't know about this either?" Xiao Chen smiled, his eyes curved into crescent moons, making him look harmless.
Yang Hu lowered his head, sweat covering his forehead. His face became paler and paler, and he didn't know how to answer.
"Wang Dachuan hoarded these silks, and after the Ming Dynasty treasure ship left, he would transport them out and sell them in exchange for a large amount of real gold and silver. Mr. Yang probably doesn't know this either." Xiao Chen squatted down and got closer.
Yang Hu stood in front of him and looked into his eyes.
Before Yang Hu could answer, Xiao Chen said again: "If things continue like this, even if Wang Dachuan sells the silk and takes half of the money to Hangzhou, Mr. Yang probably won't think of it in advance."
Staring at Yang Hu, Xiao Chen smiled slightly and stood up.
"Master Yang really loves the people like his own children. Knowing that the Shuihu Gang is a group of local ruffians, he was afraid that they would gather to make trouble, so he did not hesitate to reduce the government's water supply and let the Shuihu Gang be responsible for most of Hangzhou's water transportation. Such merit
, should I report it to the emperor and give Master Yang a credit?"
"Your Majesty, please spare my life. I realize that I was wrong. I hope that your Majesty will be merciful. For the sake of your hard work in governing Hangzhou Mansion for many years, I will spare my life this time. I promise that I will never dare to do it again in the future. My Lord, spare my life."
, please spare my life." Yang Hu knelt on the ground and kept knocking his head, wishing he could smash his head into pieces to express his repentance.
Xiao Chen put his hands behind his back and slowly turned around: "At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Taizu made it clear that anyone who embezzles sixty taels of silver will be killed without mercy. You can weigh it yourself. After so many years, you, plus
How many times will your tribe have to behead to get enough money for you to embezzle?"
"Throughout the dynasties, officials were not allowed to engage in business. On the first day when Mr. Yang became an official, the documents from the Ministry of Personnel clearly stated the ways of being an official. Did the above regulations apply to Yang after he became the prefect?
Sir, have you forgotten all that?"
"Lying about the disaster, seizing the silk, deceiving the superiors and concealing the truth from the inferiors, this is the crime of deceiving the emperor. May I ask Mr. Yang, how many of you have the audacity to act so boldly?"
"Secretly sheltering the Shuihu Gang, using private boats to transport goods for maritime trade, and blatantly violating the imperial court's order to ban the sea. For this crime, you will be beheaded a hundred times. It is not an exaggeration."
"In order to achieve your own goals, you did not hesitate to use the name of the prefect to bribe your superiors, bribe the Coast Guard, and drag a large number of officials into the water. You are a worm in the court. It would not be an exaggeration to kill ten of your clans, let alone nine clans."
Yang Hu's whole body had collapsed to the ground, and only the sound of breathing was left.
Every one of the things Xiao Chen mentioned is a capital crime. Adding all the crimes together, it would not be enough to kill him a hundred or thousands of times.
"Although these charges are all capital crimes, they must be tried by the Ministry of Punishment before all nine of your clans can be wiped out. You can still live for a month or two while the Ministry of Punishment investigates and collects evidence. And what I want to tell you is that Dong
The factory doesn't need such complicated procedures. As long as I find you guilty, I can use torture to make your life worse than death and then confess. I can also give you a good time after you voluntarily confess."
"Of course, if Mr. Yang is a tough guy, even if he tortures you to death and is unwilling to speak, I will admire you instead. But I only admire you for your toughness, not your intelligence. Because even if you die, I will still learn from you.
Start with the closest clan members and continue the torture. The disadvantage of this is that it takes longer. Although I don’t know how many people there are in Mr. Yang’s nine clans, I believe that there must be someone who can’t stand it and will confess.
Yes. Tiger fathers are not necessarily tiger sons. Are you right, Mr. Yang?"
Xiao Chen smiled faintly, holding a grass branch broken off from somewhere in his hand and picking it between his teeth, as if these things were just trivial matters and not worth discussing in detail.
"I'll do it, I'll do it all." Yang Hu's voice was low, as if he was talking in his stomach.
What else could he do at this time? Besides confessing according to Dongchang's wishes, what else could he dare to do?
Without saying anything, he took off his official hat and even took off his official uniform. In the eyes of Dongchang, what is the difference between himself, a fourth-grade prefect, and a lamb on the fire?
Just pulling.
"There's no need to charge so many people. I'm too lazy to look at your many charges. Just write down the names of the relevant people. Anyway, Dongchang doesn't go through such complicated procedures when executing people." Xiao Chen couldn't help but remind him.
Duan Tianming waved, and a Dongchang school captain took off his baggage, which contained all the four treasures of the study, and placed them one by one in front of Liu Hu.
In just one stick of incense, Yang Hu had tremblingly written down the lives and positions of hundreds of people.
Taking the confession, Xiao Chen frowned: "Why are there so many? Pick out the chief officers of each department and let the Criminal Department handle the rest."
Seeing that Yang Hu had killed more than a dozen people, Xiao Chen looked at Duan Tianming: "Find a house in the yard and let Mr. Liu 'rest' first."
After arranging all the city defenses, the guard Qianhu Wei Qi came to the Shuihu Gang compound to wait for orders.
This Wei Qi was just a member of the Baihu in other guards before. He was transferred here just because the Hangzhou Prefecture wanted to form its own guard army. Because the entire guard army numbered more than a thousand, it was logical that Bian became
Thousands of households.
As a military commander, he was also a rough man. He was not used to the collusion between officials and businessmen, so he did not gain the trust of the prefect Yang Hu. He only focused on the daily defense of Hangzhou City.
Today, when I saw these people in Dongchang, acting vigorously and resolutely, and they were all generals, I felt an indescribable admiration in my heart.
Looking at Wei Qi who had arrived again, Xiao Chen said, "Wei Qianhu, has the city of Hangzhou been fully defended?"
"Sir, prevention and control are always there. All I need to do is give orders not to allow any carriages or ships to leave the city." Wei Qi chuckled, with a simple and honest look on his face.
"Okay then, send a hundred guards over and follow me to investigate Wang Dachuan, a big householder in Hangzhou."
