"These beasts are corrupting the country with their greed for ink!"
The more Hu Zongxian thought about it, the angrier he felt, and then he slammed the table and said angrily.
Everyone present was shocked by Hu Zongxian's sudden move, especially Liang Hong and He Jin, who were kneeling on the ground.
"Sir, please calm down, everything we said is true!"
When the two of them saw this, they kowtowed to the ground with all their strength, making a loud banging sound and blood flowing freely.
"Bring them both to my custody!"
Hu Zongxian was in a very bad mood at the moment, and then he ordered the guards beside him.
"Yes, Lord Governor!"
After hearing Hu Zongxian's instructions, the guards who had been waiting at the side immediately stepped forward and escorted the two men away.
"My Lord Governor, please calm down."
After Liang Hong and He Jin were escorted away by the guards, Cao Shunhe immediately stepped forward and comforted them.
"It's okay, I'm just angry for a moment."
Hu Zongxian waved his hand to indicate that he had calmed down.
Then Hu Zongxian turned his eyes to Cao Shunhe and said.
"Next, all government affairs will be left to you, the governor of Jiangxi, to handle."
"I want to inform Your Majesty of the situation here!"
After hearing what Hu Zongxian said, Cao Shunhe nodded and then responded.
"Leave this to me!"
"Um."
After Hu Zongxian responded, he left the room.
…
As early as Hu Zongxian led a large force into the city, the Jin Yiwei who had been secretly assisting began their work.
With lightning speed, they arrested all the important officials in Nanchang Mansion!
A wailing sound came from a prison in the city.
"Say it, just say a name and you won't have to suffer this anymore."
A Jin Yiwei looked at the tortured man in front of him and said calmly.
And this man is Gao Hong, the chief envoy of Nanchang Mansion.
"I really don't know anything."
After Gao Hong finished speaking, he passed out again, blood dripping down his chin and onto the ground.
"Huh, stubborn! Wake him up!"
"I don't believe it. There are still people who can withstand the punishment of Jin Yiwei!"
"Yes, sir!"
Seeing this, the subordinates on the side quickly poured the salt water that had been prepared on Gao Hong's face.
"Ahhh!"
The severe pain radiating from all parts of his body brought him back from his coma.
"Hey, are you awake?"
The former Jin Yiwei asked with a smile on his face when he saw this.
"I really don't know anything about the things you are talking about. I just took some money from those salt merchants!"
Gao Hong looked at the face so close and said feebly.
"We have already found out about your cash collection! You collected a total of 5,725,621 taels of silver, right?"
"Besides, for safety reasons, you ordered it to be transported to your hometown, right?"
After hearing Gao Hong's words, the Jin Yiwei immediately added.
"You...how do you know this!"
After hearing this, Gao Hong's face was full of horror.
In his opinion, when he was planning this matter, it was absolutely foolproof. Not only did he not leak any information, but for safety reasons, all the people who knew about it were silenced.
How did the Jin Yiwei in front of him learn about this?
The Jin Yiwei seemed to have guessed what Gao Hong was thinking. He smiled and then explained to him.
"Are you confused, how do we know?"
"Alas, after all these years, you officials don't know how to change the place where you hide your things. Apart from the ancestral hall, it is the ancestral hall!"
After the Jin Yiwei finished speaking, a malicious smile appeared on his face.
"You might as well guess what we found in your hometown?"
"By the way, your son is quite cute. It should be time to go to school soon, right?"
"Besides, your wife and the few concubines you keep outside are also pretty good."
After hearing these words, Gao Hong became excited instantly.
"Don't touch them!"
Seeing Gao Hong becoming excited, the Jin Yiwei continued with the smile on his face unchanged.
"I myself can promise you, but my subordinates may not."
"Think about it, without you as the chief envoy as a backer, how will your wife and children survive?"
"Perhaps those people you have offended in the past are secretly thinking about how to ravage your wife and children!"
"Tell me, just tell me a name and I can make sure they are safe."
"If it doesn't help, you can also confess your enemies as well, and just treat it as a bad breath, how about that?"
Seeing that Gao Hong's inner defense had been broken, the Jin Yiwei continued to use the previous strategy and started to seduce him earnestly.
"Can you take responsibility for what you said earlier?"
I saw Gao Hong staring into the eyes of this Jin Yiwei and speaking word by word.
"Of course, no one here knows that I am the one who values commitment the most!"
"You can rest assured. Since I promised you, I will definitely do it. Just say it."
Seeing that the Jin Yiwei had promised him, Gao Hong immediately spit out a name with a look of resignation.
"Hmm, is there anything else?"
The Jin Yiwei ordered his men to take notes and then asked.
Some things only happen once and countless times, and once you start, you can never stop!
Soon, Gao Hong explained everything he knew.
"Well, thank you for your cooperation. I will fulfill my promise and make sure your wife and children are safe!"
The Jin Yiwei finished speaking, compiled his confession, and left quickly.
Soon, a large number of Jin Yiwei were dispatched and began to kill the people according to their names on the list!
…
In the study, Hu Zongxian is writing a memorial to submit to His Majesty.
The situation in Jiangxi is shocking and so complicated that Hu Zongxian didn't know how to write for a while.
Time passed slowly like this. I don’t know how long it took before Hu Zongxian cleared his thoughts, spread out his pen and paper, and started writing on it.
"Your Majesty, the humble minister Hu Zongxian has personally led the army to Jiangxi to quell the rebellion in accordance with your previous decree!"
"Currently, all the local forces that dared to resist have been eliminated by Weichen! In the process, Weichen also suddenly discovered that the situation in Jiangxi is complicated."
"According to what Weichen has learned so far, there have always been several large salt merchants in Jiangxi, namely the Liang family, the He family, and the Li family. They colluded with some officials in the capital to sell smuggled salt. Salt, huge profits!”
"But Wei Chen sent people to search all the homes of these salt merchants. The silver they got was converted into a total of fifty million taels!"
"According to these salt dealers, they previously cooperated with Zhao Wenhua, the former head of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. They need to give 30% of the profits from selling illegal salt to Zhao Wenhua every year! And Zhao Wenhua is responsible for settling official troubles for them. .”
"After Zhao Wenhua was beheaded by your Majesty, this group of people sent a new candidate to take over Zhao Wenhua's job, and he called himself "Master Li"!"
"In addition, these salt merchants also confessed that every year when the court sent people to collect the salt tax, they would pay an extra portion, and this extra portion was the benefit promised to this "Master Li"! The amount It’s quite huge, at least five million taels of silver every year.”
"And the extra silver paid by these salt merchants, after being transported to the capital through the Grand Canal, flowed into the pockets of these high-ranking officials in the capital through various channels, and was not transported to the national treasury at all!"
"Finally, Cao Shunhe, the governor of Jiangxi, had submitted several memorials to the court before, requesting that these salt merchants be dealt with, but he did not receive any response. I dare to guess that these memorials were stopped by someone!"
"The above is the information that Wei Chen has found out so far."
After Hu Zongxian finished writing the memorial, he waited for the ink on the paper to dry, then called his subordinates and gave instructions in a deep voice.
"Submit this letter to His Majesty as soon as possible!"
"Yes, Lord Governor!"
(End of chapter)
