The ledger is the last means of saving the lives of each family, because it records the names of all the officials who have accepted bribes from them, just to prevent an accident from threatening those who have been involved to rescue those who have been involved when something happens one day, so it is very important, Zhu Cihong has already decreed that he must get the ledger.

The news of the great changes in Suzhou and Yangzhou was blocked as much as possible, and while the news had not yet spread widely, Jinyiwei was ready to use torture to force the accounts of each family as soon as possible.

At the same time, Yan Yingyuan was also taking Ying Longjun to raid the houses.

20,000 Ying Long troops, hundreds of brocade guards were all dispatched, and the entire Suzhou was as big as the governor and salt envoy of the third grade, and as small as the yamen messenger who had no product, almost all of them were purged and imprisoned and raided. There are also more than half of the local wealthy businessmen, etc., who are also imprisoned and raided their homes.

The so-called Qing prefect's mansion in one year, 100,000 snowflakes of silver, the home of the governor of Suzhou suddenly confiscated more than 900,000 taels of gold and silver, and the salt transportation envoy was even more, more than 1.7 million taels.

"Huh? Wrong! Yan Yingyuan continued to look at it, and suddenly frowned: "Why did the Han family copy out 600,000 taels, the Wang family 400,000 taels, and the Xu family 500,000 taels, this is definitely not right, the three have been operating in Suzhou for hundreds of years, and have been the emperor of the soil for decades, how can it be less than the governor of Suzhou and the salt envoy who have only been in office for less than ten years!" ”

"Big brother, needless to say, they must have been hidden." Feng Houdun asserted.

"Yes, now that the treasury is empty, the emperor asked Ying Longjun and Jinyiwei to check together, that is, let us copy out all the silver taels so that we can replenish the treasury!" Although the gold and silver involved are absolutely huge, Yan Yingyuan does not have the slightest greed, he is a person who regards money as dung, and he is dedicated to assisting the emperor in the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty.

"Let the Jinyi Guards have to pry their mouths open, not only the ledger, but also the place where the money is buried must be found!"

No one can survive the torture of Jinyiwei, and in less than one night, the Han family and the Xu family have explained everything, and only one Wang family's bones are hard enough, but Jinyiwei has a way.

"Wang Donglian, the Han family and the Xu family have already explained, even if your Wang family doesn't hand over the account book, it doesn't matter, but there is one point, the place where the Wang family buries the gold and silver must be said, and if you keep your mouth hard, it will only bring real destruction to your Wang family. This morning, the emperor just handed down an edict, as long as he cooperates with telling the truth and handing over all the dirty silver hidden, except for the first offender, the rest of the people can open the net and only be sentenced to exile in Yunnan, if not, the nine clans will be punished! Jin Yi Wei Bai sneered.

Wang Dongli was already covered in blood, and the prison clothes on his body were dyed red, and when he heard the words of Mr. Jinyi Wei, his body trembled slightly, and his face was like ashes. Wang Dongli did not doubt Jinyiwei's words, after all, no one dared to falsely pass on the holy oracle, if he said this, the emperor really gave such a will, if he didn't say it, the Wang family would inevitably be destroyed by the nine clans, and the incense would be cut off. At that time, even if the Wang family still has those gold and silver money, what is the use!

"I say, I say!" Wang Dongli finally compromised and explained everything.

Jin Yiwei immediately recorded every word that Wang Dongli explained.

Half an hour later, Ying Longjun and Jinyiwei cooperated, with planing hoes and other things, pressed the heads of the Han, Wang, and Xu families, and flocked to three places respectively, the nearest of these three places was only ten miles outside Suzhou, and the farthest was forty miles away from Suzhou.

"Is this it?" A leading Ying Long Junqian pointed to a place and asked Wang Dongli.

"Yes, this is it!" Wang Dongli nodded weakly.

"Quick, dig quickly, dig three feet into the ground within a radius of fifty meters!"

After dozens of people excavated at the same time, half an hour later, with a click, a soldier of the Ying Long Army dug up a marble slab, looking at the artificial grinding marks on the slate, there is no doubt that it must have been buried artificially.

"Pry open!"

Soon the slate was pried open, revealing a dark entrance with a large chamber stacked with wooden boxes underneath.

Immediately, Ying Longjun and Jin Yiwei not only found the huge amount of gold and silver jewelry buried in the three families, but also found a large number of ledgers.

"Sure enough, there are ledgers!" Ying Long Junqian was overjoyed.

After getting the account book, Ying Longjun and Jinyiwei immediately sent someone to escort it, and it was transmitted back to Nanjing City non-stop, and it was handed over to Zhu Cihong in less than a day.

"Your Majesty, this is the account book for the last three years." Jin Yiwei commanded Peng Cheng to hand a ledger to Zhu Cihong.

Zhu Cihong flipped through the pages of this ledger page by page, and was instantly attracted by the content inside.

On the third day of the fifth month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Uncle Tian Guo was 100,000 taels of silver.

On June 12 of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the Lord of the Hubu Shangshu Zhou was 7,000 taels of gold.

On October 21 of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the governor of Suzhou was 20,000 taels.

On the ninth day of January in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Suzhou salt transport envoy

On the fifth day of June in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the first assistant of the cabinet was 100,000 taels.

On the fifth day of June in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Jiang Yueguang, the head of the household, said that he was 60,000 taels.

On the seventh day of June in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, benefited 20,000 taels.

On the seventh day of June in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the eunuch Zhao Dequan was 50,000 taels in charge of the eunuch.

Seeing this, Zhu Cihong was furious, snapped, and closed the account book with a gloomy face.

"Hehe, I didn't expect Qian Qianyi and Zhao Dequan to be involved, it's really good!" Zhu Cihong laughed angrily.

Not only these, not to mention the magistrates and the past, there are at least 20 officials in the court today, and all of them are high-ranking officials and important ministers, there are three in the cabinet alone, Qian Qianyi, the first assistant, Sun Ze, the secretary of the Criminal Department, Zhang Zongyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Works, and more than a dozen hereditary nobles, the Marquis of Zhenyuan, the Duke of Shenguo, and the Duke of Dingguo

"No wonder Daming loses at least seven million taels of salt tax every year, it turns out that so many people are fattened!"

There is no doubt that Zhu Cihong immediately ordered to start taking people according to the account book, and out of certain considerations, Qian Qianyi and other more than 20 important ministers in the court will have great use value in the near future, so Zhu Cihong did not move them for the time being, but the dozen or so nobles were not so lucky.

There was a precedent of copying out nearly five million taels of property from the Wei Mansion at once, and Zhu Cihong was not soft on those nobles who had been hereditary for more than a hundred years.

After all, those nobles are hereditary, each of them is a local emperor, countless land and real estate under their names, the farthest Shen Guogong is even the same as the Wei State Mansion from the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present family, as the top powerful nobles, they all belong to the privileged class, enjoy a series of policies such as tax exemption, no need to think, Zhu Cihong's next agricultural tax reform will inevitably be opposed by them because it touches their interests, Zhu Cihong can just take this opportunity to eradicate them first.

...