Late at night on April 19, Zai Chun heard news from Da Sixi that shocked him!
Thirty thousand taels of gold were copied from Prince Zheng's Mansion, and this was only the deposit in the palace of the capital. After being tortured and forced to confess, the housekeeper finally told the truth. In fact, the prince still had more than 20,000 taels of gold in his property outside the city!
Prince Zheng Chengzhi also deposited more than 20,000 taels in a British bank. These housekeepers alone told Prince Zheng that the gold in his hands was as much as 70,000 taels!
"Seventy thousand taels!" Zai Chun, who had just recovered, couldn't bear it anymore and began to cough desperately. "Cough cough cough...how can there be so many...cough cough cough..."
Can you not be afraid? According to the unit conversion of the Qing Dynasty, thirty thousand taels of gold is almost equivalent to one ton. Prince Zheng alone owns two tons of gold?
Da Sixi was also frightened by this number. He kowtowed desperately, "Long live the Lord... I couldn't believe it. I figured it out later..."
"Prince Zheng has been secretly mining gold in the Black Mountain Villa outside the Pass... This is not a generation that will mine gold again. He has been doing it secretly since the early years of Daoguang!"
"Prince Zheng is not the only one. Almost all the iron hat kings in the capital have people stealing ginseng, deer antlers, and gold outside the customs!"
"It has been stolen from the Daoguang period to today, long live my lord... These people have completely emptied our Longxing land! Wuwuwu..."
"Haha...cough cough cough...hahahaha..." Zai Chun coughed and laughed so hard that tears came out of his eyes.
"Okay...we are all loyal ministers! What nice words we say are so nice, but our stomachs are full of nonsense...The three provinces outside the Pass are the land of our Longxing. They were left behind by us Manchus who couldn't survive anymore." Back off!"
"Our ancestors did not develop this place just to give our descendants a retreat. Now you are even taking the retreat of our descendants!"
During the two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, the three provinces outside the customs had always been closed and protected. This law was very strict and was regarded as the fundamental law of the Qing Dynasty.
But the wicker edge system is not absolute. For these iron hat kings, they all have their own manor outside the customs!
The Manchus and the Qing Dynasty sealed off the pass just because they did not want to develop mineral deposits, destroy the mountains and old forests, and destroy so many precious protected animals. However, some of the fine plain land outside the pass could not be left in vain.
Open up the Imperial Village and send some Manchus to farm it. This is the real hard-core crop for the princes of the capital for two hundred years!
Xiao Letian's later generations of redology experts once verified that the Black Mountain Village mentioned by Ning Guofu actually alluded to the Manchu system, the Manor outside the Pass!
Those heroes who entered the Eight Banners could more or less be allocated some manors. Otherwise, where would they get so many animal skins, ginseng, bear paws, and salmon to eat every year?
However, the privileges granted by the imperial court to these royal nobles were limited to agriculture, animal husbandry, and a small amount of fishing, hunting, and gathering industries. Mining was really and absolutely prohibited!
Of course the Manchus and Qing Dynasties knew that there were gold mines outside the Pass, but they would rather exploit the Shandong gold mines inside the Pass, the gold mines in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, and they would also use the gold left in their hometown!
The emperors of the Qing Dynasty would not issue an order to attract the attention of the gold mines outside the pass unless they were really short of gold. Sometimes, if they were really short of gold, they would issue an order to temporarily open a gold mine for a period of time.
For example, Emperor Qianlong built a blond tower for his mother, and specifically ordered to mine three thousand taels of gold mines outside the customs!
With the emperor's special decree, the generals outside the pass can summon the gold miners and enter the sealed gold mines in the deep mountains and forests to dig for gold and gold sand... As long as they have mined enough, they have to evacuate immediately!
The gold mine must be closed intact and await the next decree from the court!
To put it simply, the gold resources outside the customs are under the direct management of the emperor. They are the emperor's private property, and the prince cannot steal them!
But today, this shady story was completely exposed. Only then did Zai Chun know that starting from the Daoguang period, the imperial power no longer had much deterrence.
These iron hat kings are conducting prohibited transactions in industries outside the customs, and their black hands have even reached out to gold mines!
"Hahaha... OK, OK... here's the decree, Prince Zheng is 'sick' and is infected with an infectious disease... Send Prince Zheng Chengzhi to rest in peace, and no contact with outsiders is allowed without my order..."
"Ahem, cough, cough... let's wait until the battle is over before settling the general ledger!"
In a sensitive period, things like Prince Zheng cannot be handled strictly. You can't hit or kill him, let alone indulge him. So just make up a lie and imprison him first!
It was now half past nine in the middle of the night. In the Haiyan Hall on the South China Sea, Prince Zheng had just received news from the outside. When he heard the top-secret news secretly sent by the young eunuch, his eyes suddenly became glazed over.
"Ah... this is going to kill me..." Prince Zheng Chengzhi shouted, and fell straight down from the chair. A group of female relatives in the room turned pale with fright, and they all came to help him.
Dafujin pricked his hair with a hairpin, and blood started to flow out. Only then did Chengzhi calm down and said, "Oh...it hurts...my heart hurts..."
"My gold...my gold...the little personal money I have saved for generations...my gold...wuwuwu..."
It was unjust to cry, and all the tears and snot were streaming down my face, "Hunjun... Hunjun! Are you not going to let us live at all? The Eight Banners are one body, and we are all relatives!"
"Our ancestors sacrificed their lives for our iron hat... This world was conquered by everyone together!"
"You only care about yourself? You don't give us any way to survive... you can kill with a thousand cuts!"
Prince Zheng was so obsessed that he didn't even look at where he was. He actually spoke without restraint. A whole room of female relatives tried their best to gag him, "You're crazy, stop talking... People are under the eaves, and there are people outside." Ears!”
"I don't care, I don't care... I have nothing left, my gold..."
At this moment, Da Sixi's cold laughter came from the door, "Hahaha... No wonder they say Prince Zheng has phlegm syndrome, his brain is really bad..."
"Here comes...Prince Zheng is ill, and according to His Majesty's decree, Prince Zheng is sent to Renshou Temple to rest in peace and recuperate...Children, please take good care of him!"
Several eunuchs rushed over and dragged Prince Zheng out. Prince Zheng was so frightened that he almost peed his pants. He thought they were going to drag him out for an assassination!
"No... don't... what are you doing? I haven't broken any laws... I'm just staying in the palace... I haven't done anything..."
"No...you can't treat me like this...wuwuwu...I have given all my gold to the court, you can't treat me like this..."
The wolf-like eunuch did not listen to his plea for mercy at all, and Prince Li, Prince Rui, Prince Su and others who had just arrived were stopped at the entrance of the courtyard.
Da Si smiled and said to the princes, "Prince Zheng is ill. It is an infectious disease... Your Majesty took pity on him and asked him to move to Renshou Temple to rest. The environment is quiet and it is a good place..."
"Princes and slaves, I have resigned...I have resigned..."
