Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1682 Untitled!

Therefore, Wanfu Bank was extremely important to Murong Yuliang!

Therefore, to smear Wanfu Bank and to target Wanfu Bank is tantamount to targeting Murong Yuliang!
Murong Yuliang is currently the Governor of Jianghuai, in charge of the two most important southern regions of the Great Qian Dynasty, Jiangnan and Huainan. He also holds the positions of Provincial Surveillance Commission and Provincial Administration Commission, making him arguably the top regional official in the Great Qian Dynasty!

Apart from military power, Murong Yuliang was the local tyrant of the Jianghuai region!

With such status and power, who would dare to mess with him behind his back?
Upon thinking about this question, a name immediately popped into Murong Yuliang's mind!
As the saying goes, there are always people better than you, and there is always a higher level to reach. Although Murong Yuliang has a lot of power and status in the Great Qian Dynasty, he is not the one who has reached the pinnacle of power!
As the old saying goes, "Two tigers cannot share one mountain," and it is precisely because of this principle that Murong Yuliang has been unable to take control of the central government all these years!
After years of open and covert struggles, Murong Yuliang also knew that he was no match for Cui Shao!
However, Murong Yuliang believed that he was not without advantages compared to Cui Shao!

At least in terms of age, I have an absolute advantage!
Cui Shao is 65 this year, while I am only 57. I am eight years younger than Cui Shao!
Being eight years old is a significant advantage in terms of age!
Moreover, Murong Yuliang felt that her health was still quite good, while Cui Shao's health had not been very good after the Cui Zibo incident.

Murong Yuliang felt there was no need to argue with Cui Shao over the short term. He could wait until Cui Shao withdrew before settling accounts for the grievances he had suffered at Cui Shao's hands over the years…

With this in mind, during his time as governor, Murong Yuliang always avoided any conflict with Cui Shao, being cautious and discreet in his words and actions, focusing all his efforts on development, hoping to gain Ye Mingsheng's appreciation through development and thus take over after Cui Shao stepped down!

Against this backdrop, when Murong Yuliang heard Sun Wenheng's account, Murong Yuliang's first reaction was that Cui Shao had seen through his thoughts and wanted to take advantage of him before he retired to eliminate him and then support his disciples and former associates to take over!

So at that time, Murong Yuliang made a decision, which was to have Liu Yufeng send someone to capture Zhao Dahai and control him, so as to see what was really going on!

However, while searching for Zhao Dahai, Murong Yuliang keenly discovered through some clues that things might not be as Sun Wenheng said. Upon discovering the anomaly, Murong Yuliang continued to arrest Zhao Dahai on the one hand, and on the other hand, he began to secretly investigate Sun Wenheng and Wanfu Piaohao!
After some investigation, Murong Yuliang discovered that Sun Wenheng was using the issue of releasing the D to deliberately set a trap for some merchants in Jiangnan!

For example, when a merchant from Jiangnan comes to Wanfu Bank to apply for a DK (Deposit Certificate), Sun Wenheng will tell him that there is no problem with the DK, but there are procedures to go through and it will take some time. He can invest in the early stage and then the DK will be issued later!
To gain an advantage, businessmen often follow Sun Wenheng's advice. However, after investing their own money in advance, when DK comes down and they continue to invest later, Sun Wenheng will deliberately find some problems and say that DK has issues, using this as coercion to demand that the other party provide benefits to the Sun family's business!

Zhao Dahai coveted Sun Wenheng's position as the head manager. So, during his time as the second manager of Wanfu Bank, he outwardly worked diligently and was very respectful to Sun Wenheng, the head manager. However, in secret, he was constantly collecting various materials about Sun Wenheng.

After a period of gathering evidence, Zhao Dahai had collected enough material to bring down Sun Wenheng, the head manager of Wanfu Bank...
However, Zhao Dahai knew that Sun Wenheng was arranged by Murong Yuliang, so even if he reported the matter to Murong Yuliang, it would be difficult to bring down Sun Wenheng, and he might even suffer retaliation from Sun Wenheng. Therefore, Zhao Dahai, who wanted to bring down Sun Wenheng, took the initiative to contact his friend Wang Tong, hoping to achieve his goal of bringing down Sun Wenheng through Wang Tong, an imperial censor of the Censorate.

Upon learning of this, Murong Yuliang was both shocked and furious. He never expected that Sun Wenheng would be so audacious as to try to undermine him at this time.

In order to prevent Sun Wenheng from causing him even more trouble, Murong Yuliang also wanted to deal with Sun Wenheng as well.

Therefore, Murong Yuliang ordered Liu Yufeng to continue arresting Zhao Dahai, while also secretly taking control of Sun Wenheng and his family.

However, what Murong Yuliang did not expect was that before Liu Yufeng could make a move, Sun Wenheng received word of it in advance and quickly fled with his main family members. Even Zhao Dahai was not caught, and he escaped from Jianghuai.

Murong Yuliang was furious about this, feeling that Liu Yufeng, the Jiangnan Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, was a good-for-nothing, but at this moment he could only do his best to clean up the mess.

Murong Yuliang was the governor of Jianghuai, and he was practically a local tyrant in the region. However, this also meant that once Zhao Dahai left Jianghuai, it would be difficult for Murong Yuliang to effectively arrest him. After all, the Sun Wenheng incident was far too egregious, and if it were publicized, Murong Yuliang would be extremely embarrassed. This could very well cause him to lose all his previous efforts, and his plan to rise to the position of Grand Secretary after Cui Shao's retirement would become nothing more than a pipe dream.

At the same time, Murong Yuliang also understood that Zhao Dahai would definitely flee to Yijing, trying to hand over the materials in his hands to Wang Tong.

After understanding all this, Murong Yuliang secretly sent men to hunt down Zhao Dahai. At the same time, she wrote a letter to her daughter, Murong Qingwu, hoping she could have someone keep an eye on Wang Tong and, if Zhao Dahai found him, immediately kill him…

After dealing with these situations, Murong Yuliang turned his attention back to Sun Wenheng and Wanfu Bank.

Murong Yuliang ordered Liu Yufeng to arrest Sun Wenheng on one hand, and on the other hand, he was also conducting a preliminary investigation into Wanfu Bank.

Although he had somewhat anticipated that the situation at Wanfu Bank would be dire, Murong Yuliang was still shocked and furious to hear that a million taels of silver had vanished from the treasury!
Based on Murong Yuliang's understanding of Ye Mingsheng, once this matter reaches Ye Mingsheng's ears, even if he is lucky enough to survive, he will probably be demoted to a commoner, and the Murong family will also fall to the bottom!

Therefore, we should keep this matter from Ye Mingsheng if possible. If it really can't be kept secret, we should at least make up for the deficit in Wanfu Bank's accounts before Ye Mingsheng does!

Murong Yuliang knew that money was the most important thing in this matter, and even whether or not Sun Wenheng was arrested was secondary.

Thinking of this, Murong Yuliang then asked Liu Yufeng:
"Do you know where Sun Wenheng and his family are?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yufeng hesitated. Seeing his reaction, Murong Yuliang could no longer hold back and grabbed a pen and inkstone from the table, smashing it hard against Liu Yufeng.

"What exactly is your job as an inspector? What use are you to me? I'd rather have a dog than you!"

Amidst Murong Yuliang's furious roar, Liu Yufeng, a dignified second-rank official and the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangnan, trembled with fear and hurriedly explained:

"Sir, it seems that Sun Wenheng had been planning to flee for a long time. He ran very fast, and by the time we realized what was happening, he had already taken his family and sailed out to sea!"

"I think that by now, Sun Wenheng has most likely already arrived in Southeast Asia!"

Upon hearing this, Murong Yuliang became even more enraged. He pointed at Liu Yufeng's nose and cursed:

"If you can't catch Sun Wenheng and get the silver back, we'll both die! His Majesty will tear us apart alive!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yufeng trembled and quickly said:
"My lord, although I didn't capture Sun Wenheng, I didn't come away empty-handed!" "Speak!"

Fishermen who heard Sun Wenheng say that he left with his family in a small boat, and that someone was there to meet them in the open sea!

"Liu Yufeng, what do you want to say?"

"Sir, Sun Wenheng used this money to cultivate a private army in Southeast Asia and to lend money in Jiangnan. Much of the money Sun Wenheng lent out was stored in the vault of one of his outer residences. Although we did not find any money in that residence, our investigation revealed that Sun Wenheng had moved the money away just a few days before we arrived!"

Murong Yuliang was also a smart man, and upon hearing Liu Yufeng's words, he immediately understood what Liu Yufeng meant.

"You mean the silver is still in Jiangnan, and Sun Wenheng didn't take it with him?"

"That's how it should be!"

"What should be the way it is? I need a definite answer from you!"

"This subordinate believes that the silver Sun Wenheng entrusted to GLD is still hidden in Jiangnan! Sun Wenheng's sudden downfall prevented him from taking the silver with him..."

Hearing this answer, Murong Yuliang felt somewhat relieved, and after pondering for a moment, asked:
How much silver is in this sum?

Faced with this question, Liu Yufeng thought for a moment and said:
"There should be 300,000 taels of silver!"

Upon hearing this answer, Murong Yuliang glanced at Liu Yufeng. Sensing his superior's gaze, Liu Yufeng replied somewhat helplessly:

"My lord, I really don't know the exact figure, but I estimate it should be between three hundred thousand and five hundred thousand taels of silver!"

Seeing Liu Yufeng say this, Murong Yuliang temporarily believed him, and then asked again:
"You took 20,000 taels of silver. How much silver did Tian Yu, Wei Gaojie, Yin Xiang, and Zhang Baoping take?"

After Murong Yuliang's interrogation, Liu Yufeng became honest and immediately spoke up:

"Tian Yu brought 20,000 taels of silver in cash, as well as some calligraphy and paintings. As you know, Governor Tian loves calligraphy and paintings the most. Sun Wenheng has been replenishing those antique calligraphy and paintings for him over the years. There are at least a dozen pieces in total, and each one is worth at least several hundred taels of silver. All these calligraphy and paintings together must amount to 10,000 taels of silver!"

“Provincial Governor Wei doesn’t like silver but prefers land. Sun Wenheng used various means to give Provincial Governor Wei 5,000 mu of paddy fields, as well as a golden Buddha statue. The total value must be 20,000 to 30,000 taels of silver!”

"Inspector Yin took less. Sun Wenheng gave him at least thirty gold bars in total. In addition, Sun Wenheng also gave him a three-courtyard house in Lin'an and spent a thousand taels of silver to redeem his favorite 'skinny horse'!"

"Prefect Zhang also received 15,000 taels of silver. In addition, Sun Wenheng bought Prefect Zhang a three-courtyard house in Yijing!"

Although he had expected it, Murong Yuliang felt extremely bitter when he heard that several of his important subordinates had taken benefits from Sun Wenheng.

But at this moment, he still asked with some doubt:
Why did Zhang Baoping ask Sun Wenheng to buy him a house in Yijing?

"Prefect Zhang thinks he's young and has a promising future, so he wants to make preparations early!"

Upon hearing this answer, a cold smile appeared on Murong Yuliang's face.

After pondering for a moment, Murong Yuliang gave the instructions:

"I don't care what method you use, you must find the silver as soon as possible. If we find the silver, we still have a chance to live; if we don't, we will all die!"

"Yes!"

After Murong Yuliang gave him a warning, Liu Yufeng left the room and boarded the carriage to return to the Provincial Administration Office.

Inside the carriage, Liu Yufeng closed his eyes to rest, recalling everything that had just happened.

These people, who had risen to such high positions as Provincial Treasurer, Provincial Surveillance Commissioner, and Prefect, weren't fools; they naturally understood what money they could take and what money they shouldn't...
The reason they took Sun Wenheng's money was partly due to their own greed, and partly because they had their own reasons!

Why was Sun Wenheng able to become the head manager of Wanfu Bank and take charge of such an important bank? It was all thanks to Murong Yuliang!

Without Murong Yuliang's help, how could Sun Wenheng have become the manager of Wanfu Bank!

Therefore, in their eyes over the years, Sun Wenheng has been Murong Yuliang's front man, his tool, and all the things he has done are Murong Yuliang's orders!
All the money that Sun Wenheng amassed was also for Murong Yuliang to amassed!

These people were all promoted by Murong Yuliang, so naturally they had to do Murong Yuliang a favor in this situation!
However, judging from Murong Yuliang's performance today, Liu Yufeng felt that they might have been wrong. It was obvious that Sun Wenheng had also fooled Murong Yuliang!
Although Murong Yuliang doesn't seem to be the mastermind, Liu Yufeng doesn't believe for a second that Murong Yuliang is completely innocent!
There is a saying among the people that Q-power is the best aphrodisiac. Murong Yuliang has been in power in Jianghuai for many years and can be said to be very proud of himself. This has given Murong Yuliang a second spring!
As the provincial inspector, Liu Yufeng knew very well that Murong Yuliang had at least three women over the years, and all three women were found for Murong Yuliang by Sun Wenheng!
Initially, Murong Yuliang arranged for the three women to live together, but later, due to jealousy and rivalry among them, Murong Yuliang separated them, assigning each woman a separate residence in Lin'an City…