As the steward on Zhuangzi spoke, others no longer concealed:
"The housekeeper is right. We all went out to Zhuangzi together that day. Because we were afraid of being caught and jailed, we didn't dare to come back during this period."
"Aunt Xue from the kitchen seems not to be here..."
"It seems that Ma Fuwangji is not here either..."
"When the house was ransacked, all the valuables were confiscated by the government, leaving nothing behind. The villain took away a birdcage made of golden nanmu before leaving..."
"The villain...the villain took away the broken jade bricks in the hot spring pool..."
After everything was explained, Jin Wei locked the people into an empty room and arranged for people to guard them.
The people sent out to trace the tracks also came back to report:
"After checking, the carriages have all left the city. There are many carriages. Just before we came today, a few carriages left each city gate. Because they were scattered, the soldiers guarding the city did not notice anything unusual."
Jin Wei: "Where did you go after leaving the city?"
"The carriages did not meet up after leaving the city. Those who left in different directions still don't know where they went. It will take time to trace them."
Jin Wei: "After the Xue family was imprisoned, until today, were there still unfamiliar carriages entering and leaving the city?"
"My subordinates have asked the generals who guard the city. There are indeed carriages from other places entering and leaving the city gate. They are all ordinary merchants, and there are not as many as today."
Jin Wei said with a sad face: "In other words, it is very possible that someone stole part of the treasure in this treasure house before we came today..."
"General, are you worried that Your Majesty will punish you?"
Jin Wei nodded heavily: "The Xue family colluded with Gao Shangshu to evade the salt tax and secretly hid such a large sum of money. Your Majesty is already furious. Now if it is found that part of the money was stolen, it happened to be on the day we entered the city. What? I can do business..."
No matter how melancholy he was, he registered the property one by one and calculated the amount. Jin Wei still truthfully sent someone to deliver the book to the emperor.
After the emperor saw it, he was surprised, angry and happy.
Surprisingly, the value of the property.
The angry thing is that there are a lot of them, which are the Xue family's greedy salt tax.
The happy thing is, not only because I got such a large sum of money, but also because salt is really profitable.
This amount of money added to the national treasury can ensure peace and prosperity for Tianchu for at least ten years.
After digesting his emotions, the emperor, who was in a good mood, opened another secret letter from Jin Wei. After reading the content clearly, the corners of his lips that had not yet had time to rise were immediately replaced by rage and he swept the secret letter off the table:
"It's really contrary! You dare to covet my money! What does Jin Wei do for food!"
Zheng Cheng picked it up and after looking at it, he gently advised:
"Your Majesty, calm down. General Jin just has this suspicion. It doesn't necessarily mean it has been stolen. This treasure house was slowly filled up by the head of the Xue family over time. Although he doesn't remember the specific amount, he also knows the approximate amount. Please let him see it. You’ll know just by looking.”
The emperor suppressed his anger and said: "You are right. Go and copy this book quickly and send it to the prison so that the three Xue family members can see how many things are missing."
Zheng Cheng took the order and retreated. He called a few servants and quickly copied it and sent it to the prison.
The three members of the Xue family tried their best to recall, and after an hour, they roughly wrote down the missing items, and then wrote down the estimated total amount.
When the emperor saw that the lost property amounted to nearly five million taels of silver, he lost his temper again with heartache. Those were all his money, his!
In anger, he sent a letter to Jin Wei overnight, ordering him to recover the silver.
(End of chapter)
