At the same time that the ledger was sent to Zhu Cihong, well-informed people in the capital already knew about the great changes that had taken place in the two major salt administration centers of Yangzhou and Suzhou.

Suddenly, the people who felt that they were likely to be implicated panicked, including Qian Qianyi, the first assistant of the current dynasty, and Zhao Dequan, the eunuch of the master of ceremonies.

Zhao Dequan walked around the inner court in a panic, he regretted that he had not accepted bribes from wealthy businessmen such as the Zhou family in Yangzhou, there would be no crisis today.

The longer he followed the emperor, the more he understood the emperor's character, the more frightened Zhao Dequan became, he knew that if the emperor knew about him accepting bribes, even if he didn't deal with him in his previous situation, he would definitely not trust him anymore, and losing the emperor's trust was his greatest despair.

After hesitating for half an hour, Zhao Dequan made a decision, and after returning to his residence, he resolutely walked in the direction of the imperial study.

Zhu Cihong was handling government affairs in the imperial study, and saw Zhao Dequan holding a small box in his arms and sneaking in, like a thief.

Zhu Cihong put down the pen in his hand and glanced at Zhao Dequan expressionlessly, as if he knew his intention.

"Your Majesty, the slave is sorry for the Emperor." Zhao Dequan instantly knelt on the ground and said in a sobbing voice.

"Why are you sorry for me?" Zhu Cihong's voice was cold, with a hint of banter.

Zhao Dequan's body trembled, and he could see that the emperor must have been disappointed in him.

"Your Majesty, the slave maid has violated the law and discipline, privately accepted bribes from others, and is ashamed of the emperor's grace, please ask the emperor to give the slave and maid death!"

"How much did you collect?"

"About one million hundred and thirty thousand taels!" Zhao Dequan pushed the small box containing the silver ticket title deed and other things up to the front and back, bowed to the ground, and nervously waited for the next trial.

"Hand over your belongings to Nenu, go and get twenty rods, and go down!" Zhu Cihong pondered for a moment, leaving room for Zhao Dequan to admit his mistake and hand over all the bribes, and did not make a ruthless move.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zhao Dequan breathed a sigh of relief and retreated.

Although he handed over all his belongings and received twenty rods, as long as the emperor did not remove him, it means that the emperor will still appoint him, as long as he does not lose the emperor's trust, these are trivial matters, after all, as a eunuch, all he can rely on is the emperor's trust, and losing the emperor's trust is worse than death for him.

On Qian Qianyi's house, Qian Qianyi sat on a chair in the inner hall, his face pale.

"Master, what's wrong with you, has something big happened?" Liu Ru looked at Qian Qianyi with a panicked and decadent expression, and hurriedly asked worriedly.

With such an expression, Liu Ru had only seen it once last time when Qian Qianyi burned down Donglin Academy with his own hands, and this was the second time, and she guessed that something big must have happened.

"Madam, I" Qian Qianyi grabbed Liu Ruye's hand, and as soon as the words came out, he couldn't continue, only a look of embarrassment and shame.

After all, what did he say about that kind of thing, did he let him say that he was actually because he accepted bribes back then, and now that the incident has happened, he is afraid of the emperor's punishment?

This kind of thing is too disgraceful, even a huge stain, and it affects his image too much when he says it.

Although Qian Qianyi is nearly forty years older than Liu Ruyi, Qian Qianyi really loves Liu Ruyi, which is by no means false, otherwise he would not have risked the jokes of the whole world to marry Liu Ru is stepfamily, every man does not want to expose his stains in front of his beloved woman, and Qian Qianyi is no exception.

"Master, husband and wife are one, there is nothing that can't be said, if something happens, you can say it, if so, you can share some of it for you, if you don't say it, you will always be worried." Liu Ru gently leaned on Qian Qianyi and said.

"If so" Qian Qianyi sighed and touched Liu Ruye's hair, Liu Ruye's gentleness made him extremely moved, what more could he ask for if he had a wife like this!

This is an extremely strange scene, an old man over sixty years old and a beautiful woman in her twenties, the two of them snuggled up to each other, and there is deep love for each other in their eyes, this is a love that transcends ages.

In the end, Qian Qianyi couldn't help but tell Liu Ru is everything, after all, Liu Ru is his wife, and he shares honor and disgrace, if the emperor really wants to deal with him, Liu Ru knows the reason for the matter is better than not knowing it when it comes to the end.

Qian Qianyi spoke very slowly and was very embarrassed, and after finishing speaking, he couldn't help but stare at Liu Rushi secretly, afraid of seeing disappointment on her face.

In fact, Liu Ru was not disappointed, you must know that back then, when Qian Qianyi ransomed her, it was enough to use 50,000 taels of silver, according to the Ming officials' fortunes at that time, if Qian Qianyi did not have some extra income, it would be absolutely impossible to do it, Liu Ru is undoubtedly very smart, she has long known this, in fact, not to mention Qian Qianyi, which Ming official did not do such a thing of collecting stolen goods at that time.

Liu Ru thought very clearly, although Qian Qianyi was forty years older than her, enough to be her grandfather, but she was just a lowly Qinglou prostitute back then, even the so-called famous prostitute could not change the fact that she was low, and at that time, Qian Qianyi was already an important minister in the court who was the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, but he was willing to marry her, a lowly Qinglou prostitute as a stepwife, based on this alone, Qian Qianyi is worthy of her love for the rest of her life, no matter what she has done.

"Have you forgotten, my lord, last year, when the emperor raised the salaries of hundreds of officials in the world, he said that he would not blame the Ming officials for the things they had committed before, even if the lord received someone's money, it must be the previous one, and the emperor will not blame it." Liu Ru pondered for a moment and said.

Qian Qianyi's spirits perked, it is true that the emperor said such a thing, the emperor's golden mouth and jade words, there should be no falsehood, if this is the case, he should be able to escape this catastrophe.

"Hahahaha, Mrs. is really a treasure to relieve her husband's worries, and it is enough to get a wife for her husband!" Qian Qianyi kissed Liu Ru is beautiful face fiercely and laughed.

"I'm not ashamed!" Liu Ru's cheeks blushed slightly, and she scolded Qian Qianyi.

Although Deliu was relieved, Qian Qianyi was a lot more relieved, but the final result of the matter did not come out, and the worries in his heart still existed.

It wasn't until more than a dozen nobles in the capital were all arrested and put in prison by the Jinyi Guards and there was no movement on the hundreds of officials in the court, Qian Qianyi was really relieved, and the emperor really said that he did not blame the officials for this matter.

Not only Qian Qianyi, but also the other 20 or so important ministers of the court also secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and the expressions on their faces were as if they had climbed around the ghost gate but were lucky enough to escape the catastrophe.

After this incident, these important officials of the court experienced the fear of stepping into the ghost gate with one foot, and from then on, they never dared to accept bribes from anyone, and finally became one of the famous honest officials in history.

However, what Qian Qianyi and others didn't know was that the reason why Zhu Cihong let them go was not only because he said that he would not turn over old accounts back then, but more importantly, because of these handles, he could force Qian Qianyi and others to compromise on some major matters in the future, and it was Qian Qianyi's use value that made Zhu Cihong let them go, otherwise Zhu Cihong would let Daming's treasury add millions of taels of silver even if he was a scoundrel.

You know, because of the characteristics of the Ming system, before the first year of Zhongxing, the officials of the Ming Dynasty were all greedy, all of them were fat sheep, and their means of corruption and bribery emerged in endlessly, although it was impossible to be like the eunuch Liu Jin back then, one person looted hundreds of millions of taels of silver, but hundreds of thousands, more than one million taels of such is still common, more than 20 important ministers, really want to copy the house, just a few million taels of silver is not handy.

At the same time as the capital did it, Zhu Cihong also ordered to control the third army and the fourth army in Yangzhou and Suzhou, according to the directory in the account book, to capture all the merchants involved, landlords, magistrates, etc., especially those who were strong, because in order to pave the way for the next reform, it was necessary to weaken the strength of the heroes as much as possible, Zhu Cihong secretly gave Huang Degong and Yan Yingyuan instructions, so that they could pull the coastal heroes into this whirlpool as much as possible.

The Third Army and the Fourth Army, together with thousands of Jinyi Guards, centered on Yangzhou and Suzhou, quickly swept through the coastal areas south of the Yangtze River and Huaijiang River, and countless local officials and squires were raided and imprisoned.

In the end, dozens of nobles, more than 200 magistrates, more than 600 large and small merchants, more than 800 squires at all levels, a total of nearly 2,000 households were investigated, more than 40,000 people were implicated, in the process, because of resistance, more than 100,000 people were killed and injured, most of them were those squires and strong guards, after this battle, the squires of the four coastal provinces were greatly injured.

As soon as the news came out, it shocked the world!

The people talked a lot, and originally so many people were suffering, and many people couldn't help but have some sympathy, but when they saw the total amount of property seized and confiscated as reported in the Daming Daily, they immediately shut up one by one, and turned into scolding.

"With a total value of 142,720,000 taels of silver, it's really a group of fat sheep that will flow out of the walking oil!" Zhu Cihong sat on the dragon chair, looking at the report presented by Ying Longjun and Jinyiwei, shocked and a little angry.

The little palace maid Lan Xiang was making a cup of tea for Zhu Cihong to drink, and suddenly heard so much silver that her hands shook in shock, and the cup she was holding in her hand fell to the ground with a snap.

Before the little palace maid could ask for guilt, Zhu Cihong waved her hand and asked her to retreat.

"Begonia, I'm angry, come over and help me feel comfortable!" Zhu Cihong gritted his teeth and said to the begonia not far away.

The little palace maid immediately came over and helped Zhu Cihong stroke his chest and back, and after a while, Lan Xiang made another cup of tea that could clear his mind and calm his mind, and Zhu Cihong felt a lot less angry after taking a few sips.

142,720,000 taels of silver, equivalent to 2,000 households, an average of 70,000 taels of silver per household, which is not much, although 10,000 taels of wealth are considered rich, many households actually only copied out a few hundred and 1,000 taels of this, but after all, there are still those really big, the seven families of Yangzhou and Suzhou alone have copied out more than 30 million taels of property, as well as Shen Guogong and Dingguo Gong, two families that have been inherited from the Hongwu period like the Wei Guogongfu, although they are not as rich as the Wei Guogongfu, But the two families that have been in the past three hundred years have also copied out family wealth worth nearly six million taels, and there are many other noble and powerful magistrates, and the last one is also 20,000 taels.

Ming Youzhengde dealt with the eunuch Liu Jin, and copied out the family wealth worth more than 100 million taels of silver from Liu Jin's home, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty in history produced a Heshen, and the Jiaqing Emperor copied more than 800 million taels of property, and Zhu Cihong copied more than 2,000 households to get more than 140 million taels, which is really a small thing, but it is enough for the Ming treasury to burst instantly.

With the silver in hand, Zhu Cihong is also confident and ready to make the next big move.

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