The smuggling case can be said to have stirred up a thousand waves with one stone, and after a round of encirclement and suppression, the entire southeast coastal area was involved.

First of all, the county guard of Northern Jiangsu County and hundreds of officials under its jurisdiction all participated, and the arrest can be said to have changed the entire high-level officials in Northern Jiangsu.

Then there are the four counties of southern Jiangsu, Yanjiang, Haifu, and Lingyue, and in the end, there are a total of three county guards in these five counties, two county officials, and hundreds of prefects and other officials with thousands of people are all involved in this matter.

And this is just for the officials, there are hundreds of maritime merchants involved, two with a net worth of tens of millions, more than a dozen at the million-level level, and nearly 100 maritime merchants with a net worth of hundreds of thousands.

The combined net worth of these maritime merchants has reached nearly 100 million taels, which is equivalent to one-third of the annual tax revenue of the Great Song Dynasty!

And the maritime trade business they are involved in accounts for the majority of the five counties, it can be said that nearly one-third of the share of the entire five southeastern counties is occupied by them, the other third is Feiyun Commercial Bank, and the remaining one-third is the rest of the small maritime merchants combined.

As soon as these people were arrested, there was chaos in the entire five southeastern counties to varying degrees, and there were too many people who relied on them for food.

If they fall, at least one-tenth of the people in the five counties will lose their livelihoods.

These five counties are arguably the most densely populated places in the entire south, with 70 million people living here.

The chaos of millions of people was about to start in the five southeastern counties, but Feiyun Commercial Bank immediately expanded its scale to get the extra market share, and then recruited workers to quickly stabilize the situation in the five counties.

But that's not all, the government also began to frequently meet with local small and medium-sized maritime merchants, and soon these small maritime merchants used the most favorable price to obtain a large amount of low-interest loans from Feiyun Qian Zhuang and began to rapidly expand their industries, while the Feiyun Chamber of Commerce quickly ceded a certain market share for them to grow rapidly, and continued to provide all kinds of help.

Soon, these small and medium-sized maritime merchants who were supported quickly filled the gap in the market and continued to grow, so that the chaos caused by the arrest of the maritime merchants in the five counties was calmed down.

At this time, in the cell, the maritime merchants who were caught in were very calm, and only some stunned young people were frightened and shouted that they were wronged.

"My lord! I was wronged! The villain is wronged! It's all my dad! It's my dad who is smuggling, I don't! I didn't! ”

"Wronged! I'm just a kid, I really haven't been involved in smuggling! That's what my uncle did! Woowoo woo ......"

"I'm wronged! I'm wronged! ”

……

However, no matter how much they shouted, no one would pay attention to them.

In the evening, I don't know if I was finally tired, and these stunned young people all sat back next to their adults.

While eating the food that had just been sent from the prison, these stunned young people asked their parents in confusion why?

This is the case at this time.

An Changfu, the only son of An Changfu, the head of the An family, is asking his father at the moment.

Hearing this, An Changfu slowly opened his eyes and explained:

"Naturally, because we are not afraid! Don't look at the government guarding us now, you see that after a while, when the market is gone, we will be in a mess, and the government will honestly send us back. ”

An Changfu is very confident, he knows how big these maritime merchants here are, and he also has a number in his heart.

For now, they play a role that no one else can replace.

Once they have been arrested for a long time, this Haifu County will be in chaos, and I don't know how many people rely on their own property to eat.

At that time, if these people are all in chaos, it will depend on whether the court can stop it.

If the imperial court can't stop it, then it can only let them out.

After listening to his father's explanation of the cause and effect, An Changsheng, the eldest son of the An family, also slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

Since there is no danger to his life, he doesn't have to think about it so much, and immediately the eldest son of the An family found a haystack and fell asleep.

However, what they didn't know was that when they were still in prison, they thought that without them, the court would not be able to solve the extra people, and they would come to invite them when the time came.

At this time, the outside world has long been replaced by new people.

This world will turn the same way without anyone, and it is not that they have to be.

In this way, for five whole days, this group of confident businessmen was also imprisoned for five whole days.

Just when they were thinking that they should be able to get out soon, things were completely different from what they had thought.

When they learned the specific situation from the jailers, these family heads who were originally a little arrogant became soft and lying on their stomachs like boiled eggplants!

The original self-confidence is gone, and the original composure has become a joke.

The people who shouted grievances are no longer only the original stunned youths, these family heads can join in!

It was only then that the Department of National Health finally began to interrogate them.

"Life?"

"An Changfu!"

"Gender?"

"Man!"

"Do you know what got in here?"

"Official! It's all a misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding! I don't dare anymore! Don't dare anymore! Let me go! ”

"Well, it seems that you are clear, in that case, then sign and draw!"

"Woo woo woo...... My lord, I was wronged, I was really wronged! ”

These maritime merchants are still making their last efforts, but unfortunately their efforts are useless, and they will still be sentenced for as long as they should be.

Soon, the maritime merchants were quickly arraigned.

Whether they are honest or not, they all got the verdict in the end.

Those honest ones are fine, ask what to answer.

And those who are not willing to cooperate.

Since the National Health Department dared to arrest people, there was naturally evidence, but the National Health Department did not directly show the evidence, but first gave him a set of torture packages, and then took out the evidence to convict him when he couldn't stand it.

I don't know how many people have been miserable by the operation of the National Health Department, but they don't care, they are all a group of tax evaders.

The way to deal with these maritime merchants is very simple, the main culprit involved in smuggling will definitely die, this is the tone set by Zhao Jun.

As for others, there will be different levels of disposition according to the degree of involvement.

Most of the property of these maritime merchants was confiscated.

The Department of National Health directly followed the system of a fine of ten for stealing, and forcibly paid ten times the tax evaded by these maritime merchants.

This has also led to a significant reduction in the property of these maritime merchants, and some of them are not even enough!

And that's just for the maritime.

The imperial court had another way to deal with those officials involved in smuggling, and those arrested had been secretly taken to Bianjing.

After all, it was the head of a county and other high-ranking officials, and there was no one in this place who could deal with them.

Naturally, they were to be sent to Bianjing for trial.

On the Bianjing side, the Criminal Department, Dali Temple, and the National Health Department will form three sessions to conduct the final trial of these high-ranking officials!

……

(End of chapter)