Font
Large
Medium
Small
Night
Prev Index    Favorite Next

Chapter 46 The Trial

"Sir, there are at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver here. Do you really need to report it all?" A Jinyiwei swallowed his saliva and said in a covetous manner.

"I think it's more than one million taels." Another Jinyiwei also gulped and swallowed his saliva with difficulty. This time, a total of 300 Jinyiwei were dispatched. If they were divided by half a reward, one person could get at most 100 to 200 taels. For ordinary people, this is a big fortune, but it is not satisfying for these Jinyiwei. It is rare to meet such a wealthy official. As long as they hide 50%, the money they get can be increased by ten times.

If it weren't for the emperor's previous warning, Feng Kezong would have done the same thing without thinking. At most, he would have reported to seize tens of thousands of taels of silver. The salary of the Ming officials was so low. If it were calculated based on the official salary, tens of thousands of taels of silver would be more. But the emperor's words were still in his ears. Who knew if there were any spies from the Jinyiwei who was searching today? Feng Kezong looked at the gold and silver in Man Kiln regretfully: "Calculate everything clearly and hand it over to the Ministry of Revenue. Anyone who has privately obtained property will be beheaded!"

"What?" The Jinyiwei, who came in with Feng Kezong, thought he had heard it wrong. When he saw everyone confused, he realized that he had heard it wrong. He just wondered in his heart when his adults became as honest as water.

"Your Majesty, this is a list of items in Gao Hongtu's home. Please check it out."

"Well." After taking the list handed over by Feng Kezong, Wang Fu glanced over. Although he had already obtained the approximate numbers, he was still shocked by the number on the list. The silver liang alone was 1,053,453 taels, 6,700 taels of gold, more than 2,300 pieces of silk and satin, 560 kilograms of good ginseng, two tiger skins, four bear skins, more than 300 other furs, and four boxes of jewelry... After a rough calculation, the silver bribe was no less than 1.5 million taels. If you add the house, more than 10,000 acres of fertile land, it would be hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

No wonder some people say that the Qing magistrate had 100,000 snowflake silver for three years. Shi Hongguang Dynasty had collected taxes for half a year, and the total was only more than 6 million taels. Now only three months have passed, and the Ministry of Revenue has only more than 2 million taels of silver deposit. Xiong Rulin, the new left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, has reported to Wang Fu that if the tax silver collected for autumn grains is to be collected, according to the previous expenses, Gao Hongtu actually saved more than one million taels of silver, and just made up for the difference and there was a slight remaining.

Fortunately, he took him away from the Minister of Revenue in time, otherwise where would the more than one million taels of the Ministry of Revenue come from? Wang Fu thought to himself, and his expression remained unchanged: "Thank you for your hard work, and the half-asset you deserve can be collected directly from Xiong Rulin, the left minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and deducted from the property collected this time."

Seeing the emperor's calm expression, Feng Kezong became more sure that there were chess pieces arranged by the emperor among the Jinyiwei he brought, and secretly thanked that he could control it this time: "I thank you for your kind reward."

Feng Kezong went down, and Wang Fucai picked up the list again and looked at it several times. An impulse surged in his heart. If all these Donglin bosses were searched, they would probably have sufficient finances without collecting taxes from the people for several years. No wonder Li Zicheng made such a big mistake in Beijing. This is indeed quick to make money, which is much easier than collecting taxes from the people.

However, after thinking about it, Wang Fu gave up this tempting idea. He was famous for his raid on Gao Hongtu's house. Gao Hongtu had an affair with Zuo Liangyu and committed a serious crime of treason. It was not an exaggeration to punish the three clans. However, the property of other Donglin bosses was investigated for no reason. Not to mention that scholars would object, even officials in the court would be in danger.

Gao Hongtu was locked by the Jinyiwei, which scared Zhang Shenyan, Jiang Yueguang, Qi Biaojia, Liu Zongzhou and others who were discussing together. Of course, they knew why Gao Hongtu was arrested. The court did not keep the secret of Gao Hongtu's interrogation, but instead launched three trials. Because it involved a case of rebellion, the entire capital was talking about this case.

They were afraid of death. If they were involved, the entire Donglin Party would be in a state of disgrace and would have no chance to make a comeback.

Fortunately, Gao Hongtu was stubborn and did not bite anyone. He tried his best to show that it was his own way to contact Zuo Liangyu, because only Gao Hongtu signed the letter. Feng Kezong, Cai Zhong and Zhang Gongri were unable to interrogate him, so he had to sentence Gao Hongtu to abandon the market, and his whole family was exiled to Yazhou, and then the case was closed with the emperor.

Seeing Gao Hongtu's judgment, Wang Fu couldn't help but sigh. Gao Hongtu eliminated his dissidents and embezzled and accepted bribes, but he was still quite talented. After the Qing army advanced south, he did not surrender, but died of hunger strike. With this, he should have left his life. Therefore, Gao Hongtu's abandoned market was also exiled, and he was given a thousand taels of silver for Gao Hongtu's family to use in Yazhou.

The emperor's handling of Gao Hongtu not only surprised the ministers, but even the Donglin Party members were puzzled. There was no doubt that the emperor had no good feelings for the Donglin Party. Liu Zongzhou, Zhang Shenyan, Jiang Yueguang and others attributed the emperor's resignation this time to the fact that the Donglin Party prevented Wanli from making Lao Fu the crown prince. The Donglin Party members introduced the competition between Lu and Fu, because they were afraid that after the Fu ascended the throne, they would retaliate against the Donglin Party for the failure of Lao Fu to become the crown prince. Now it has indeed confirmed that their worries were right at the beginning, but for some reason they had to open a favor to Gao Hongtu again.

The Donglin Party members were puzzled and relieved. Since the emperor could spare his life, he would naturally not pursue the contact with Zuo Liangyu again. Zhang Shenyan and others also thought of an idea that made them excited. Could it be that the emperor wanted to check and balance Ma Shiying? Then wouldn't they still have the chance to enter the court?

Wang Fu did not think that Rao Gao Hongtu's life would have such an impact on the Donglin Party members. What he is most concerned about now is the situation where the new soldiers are recruited by the Yulin Guard. This Yulin Guard is the capital for his life. Until then, Wang Fu even threw most of the political affairs to Ma Shiying again, and ran to the military camp every day to check the selection of Yulin Guards.

After ten days of recruitment, the Yulin Guard recruited more than 160,000 people signed up for each recruiting site. Tens of thousands of people were initially screened and removed, and in the end, about 110,000 people were left to compete for the remaining 7,000 places.

Because Nanjing is likely to usher in a war soon, there is too little time left for Yan Yingyuan, and even he is not sure. He made suggestions to Wang Fu that the 7,000 people should try to summon veterans as much as possible to save time in training.

The fall of the north caused many original soldiers to flee to the south. In addition, some soldiers in the Beijing camp envied the high salary of the Yulin Guard and secretly signed up. At least 40,000 of these 110,000 people had served as soldiers, so even if all veterans were summoned, there would be enough troops.

However, Wang Fu was worried that if all the veterans were summoned, it would not only be unfair to tens of thousands of people who were not veterans, but also worried that those veterans would bring some of their previous habits to the army. No matter how high the military salary was, it would be useless. Wang Fu shook his head and rejected Yan Yingyuan's suggestion and issued an order to run for me. No matter how fast the seven thousand people ran, they were selected.

……………………
Chapter completed!
Prev Index    Favorite Next