Eagle-eyed and wolf-watching

Chapter 1690 The Great Cadres Who Would Rather Die Than Give Up Their Fortune!

After the initial surprise, Murong Yuliang asked with some curiosity:

Where did Sun Wenheng hide the silver?

“Sun Wenheng hid the silver in Xiaocaozhuang, 170 li east of Lin'an, and entrusted it to his confidant Cao Heng for safekeeping. Our Provincial Surveillance Commission conducted a thorough investigation of all of Sun Wenheng's subordinates and eventually found one of Cao Heng's mistresses.”

"According to this mistress's account, we learned that Cao Heng had been missing for a few days before Sun Wenheng left Jiangnan!"

"We, the Provincial Surveillance Commission, boldly speculate that Cao Heng went to see Sun Wenheng during the days he disappeared, so we made Cao Heng the prime suspect. After investigating Cao Heng, we found that he was very likely hiding in his hometown of Xiao Caozhuang!"

"After confirming that he was hiding in Xiaocaozhuang, I quickly organized a manpower to launch a night raid on Xiaocaozhuang. There, we broke into Cao Heng's lair, captured Cao Heng, and found the 500,000 taels of silver in the cellar of his house!"

After speaking, Liu Yufeng looked at Murong Yuliang with a proud expression, seemingly expecting praise from Murong Yuliang.

As the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangnan, he was originally highly valued by Murong Yuliang. In the eyes of outsiders, he was Murong Yuliang's right-hand man, and together with Tian Yu, the Provincial Administration Commissioner of Jiangnan, he was Murong Yuliang's two henchmen!
Murong Yuliang, who came from a powerful family, was always quite refined in his manner and treated his subordinates with courtesy. He rarely swore or cursed. However, this time the Sun family case was too big. Not only did Sun Wenheng run away with his family, but Wanfu Bank also lost one million taels of silver.

Feeling his life was threatened, Murong Yuliang lost his temper and unleashed a torrent of abuse on Liu Yufeng several times.
Liu Yufeng felt wronged and under immense pressure, as he was the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner in charge of criminal matters in Jiangnan!
Now that such a big case has occurred in Jiangnan, there's no doubt that he is the person primarily responsible!

This matter also reached Yijing. It was hard to say whether Murong Yuliang was dead or alive. After all, Murong Yuliang was a veteran of the Great Qian Dynasty and made great contributions to the unification of the world. Moreover, he was His Majesty's father-in-law, the father of Consort Murong, and the maternal grandfather of Princess Kexin and Prince Jingyan!
Therefore, considering Murong Yuliang's many years of merit and hard work, as well as the face of Consort Murong, the two princesses and princes, it is not impossible that His Majesty would demote Murong Yuliang to a commoner and spare his life, allowing him to retire at home!
However, Liu Yufeng doesn't have such connections, so if this matter isn't handled properly, he, Liu Yufeng, will definitely be beheaded!
Moreover, it is fortunate that since His Majesty ascended the throne, he has increasingly emphasized governing the country with benevolence and abolishing cruel punishments. Otherwise, if such a thing had happened in the previous dynasty, such a big mistake would not only have resulted in his death, but might have even implicated his family.

Therefore, given the current situation, Liu Yufeng is under immense psychological pressure. He knows he's racing against time and must recover the embezzled funds from Wanfu Bank's accounts before the matter is exposed.

While capturing Sun Wenheng is important, it's far less important than recovering the silver...

Because Wanfu Exchange House had the backing of the imperial court, and several prominent merchants from Jiangnan also held shares, many people in Jiangnan trusted Wanfu Exchange House and felt comfortable depositing their money there.
From the day it was established, Wanfu Bank quickly became the first choice for loans among major merchants in Jiangnan. Even today, it may be an exaggeration to say that Wanfu Bank is the economic lifeline of Jiangnan commerce, but it is certainly no exaggeration to say that it has a pivotal position.

Therefore, after discovering that Sun Wenheng had fled and that Wanfu Bank had incurred a huge deficit of one million taels of silver, Murong Yuliang considered that if word got out, Wanfu Bank's reputation would suffer a huge blow, and the commercial development of Jiangnan would be greatly affected.

Therefore, the governor of Jianghuai made a decisive move to block the news, in order to prevent it from spreading and causing panic and a run on the bank.

All of this added to the pressure on Liu Yufeng, the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangnan. Now that the silver has been recovered, Liu Yufeng can finally put his mind at ease!
Murong Yuliang also saw through Liu Yufeng's thoughts and praised him generously.

After praising Murong Yuliang, he also instructed Liu Yufeng to transport the 500,000 taels of silver they had found back as soon as possible. He stressed that the transportation process should be kept secret and that they should try to avoid letting outsiders know about it to prevent the news from leaking out. Although the silver had been found, it was not time to relax yet.

Liu Yufeng assured Murong Yuliang that there would be no problem, as he had already made arrangements. Under the guise of transporting military rations, he would secretly smuggle the silver back during curfew, ensuring no one would suspect a thing…
After Liu Yufeng left, Murong Yuliang sat on the sofa, pressed his back against it, and closed his eyes to rest.

Of the one million taels of silver that Wanfu Bank had lost, 500,000 taels have now been recovered, meaning the bulk of the loss has been recovered.

The remaining hundreds of thousands of taels of silver were either taken to Southeast Asia by Sun Wenheng or used as operating expenses for the Communist Party members in Jiangnan over the years. It would be difficult to recover them through normal channels. Therefore, to raise one million taels of silver and completely make up for the deficit in Wanfu Bank's accounts, it would probably be necessary to take unconventional measures!
Thinking of this, Murong Yuliang instructed his clerk:

"Bring Master Chen here!"

"Yes!"

At Murong Yuliang's command, a middle-aged man dressed in typical Jiangnan clerk attire came before Murong Yuliang.

This man was Chen Mingyang, the advisor that Murong Yuliang had recruited a year ago. For the past year, he had been responsible for some of Murong Yuliang's miscellaneous tasks.

After Chen Mingyang arrived, Murong Yuliang immediately said:

"Liu Yufeng has recovered 500,000 taels of silver!"

Upon hearing Murong Yuliang's words, Chen Mingyang also cupped his hands and said:
"Congratulations, sir!"

"But how to get the rest of the silver is still a problem!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Mingyang said with a somewhat meaningful tone:
"My lord, hesitation only leads to more trouble!"

Upon hearing this, Murong Yuliang fell silent. Seeing this, Chen Mingyang continued:
"My lord, it's impossible to escape unscathed at this point. You must make a choice. A wise man cuts off his own arm to save his own life. Besides, those people don't understand the situation. They're willing to risk their lives for their money!"

"Sir, why should you take the risk for them? In my opinion, they all deserve what they got; they've made a fortune over the years..."

After Chen Mingyang finished speaking, seeing that Murong Yuliang still didn't speak, he became a little anxious and immediately continued: "My lord, secrets can't be kept forever. Yi Jing will find out sooner or later, and you will definitely have to give His Majesty an explanation. You can't protect them. Rather than waiting for His Majesty to give the order, it's better for you to take the initiative. This way, His Majesty will have a better impression of you!"

Upon hearing Chen Mingyang's words, Murong Yuliang couldn't help but sigh deeply.

Ever since discovering that Wanfu Bank had a deficit of one million taels of silver, Murong Yuliang had been thinking about making up for the deficit.

Ultimately, Murong Yuliang's solution was to have Liu Yufeng find the silver that Sun Wenheng hadn't taken with him.

At the time, Murong Yuliang did not know how much silver there was, but he estimated it to be several hundred thousand taels. He regarded this silver as the main part to make up for the deficit!

As for the remaining silver, Murong Yuliang mainly had two methods!

His first thought was to seek help from several major merchants in Jiangnan. During his tenure, Jiangnan had developed well over the years, and these merchants had made a lot of money. Given the current situation, Murong Yuliang felt it was only right for them to bleed money.
As for the second approach, Murong Yuliang's idea was to get Tian Yu, Liu Yufeng, and others who had received benefits from Sun Wenheng to return some of them.

Murong Yuliang's plan was excellent. Through various means, he recovered the silver and plugged the hole, thus easing the Emperor's anger. He could also try to minimize the damage and allow everyone to escape unscathed…
So a few days ago, Murong Yuliang shared his thoughts with Liu Yufeng, Tian Yu, and a few others.

Murong Yuliang originally thought that these people would be smarter in this situation and would return all the silver they had taken, so that everyone could get through this difficult time together!
However, Murong Yuliang never expected that these people would be so engrossed in their desire for him to spit out silver that they would all keep their eyes down and their mouths shut!
The group stood there with their heads down, not saying a word. Murong Yuliang was furious about this. After repeated questioning, they finally opened up and said that they had already spent the money, either on buying land and houses or on women and gambling.

In short, these provincial governors, provincial judges, and prefects had no money in their hands, and even if they wanted to, they couldn't.

These people all advised Murong Yuliang to focus his efforts on those big merchants and let them take all the remaining losses.

Murong Yuliang was also very helpless in the face of such advice!
As a traditional GL, Murong Yuliang did not have a good impression of those big merchants. If it weren't for Ye Mingsheng's political advocacy, he would not have encouraged commercial development and improved the business environment so much!

So if possible, Murong Yuliang wouldn't mind letting the big merchants take it all!
But the problem is that in a politically-based environment like the Great Qian Dynasty, those big merchants who were able to build such large businesses undoubtedly had powerful connections!
Some of these individuals even had connections to Yi Jing's side, while the remaining deficits amounted to hundreds of thousands of taels of silver...
As the saying goes, even a rabbit will bite when cornered. Murong Yuliang believed that with his authority as the Governor of Jianghuai, he could make these people hand over half of their money, amounting to tens of thousands of taels of silver, to cover his losses. Although they were unwilling, they would likely grit their teeth and accept it, considering that their business had been doing well and they had made a lot of money over the years, and that their future business would depend on his support as the Governor of Jianghuai.

But if we let them take it all, it means that all the profits they've made in the past few years will be gone. These big businessmen definitely won't do that. They'll definitely go to their backers and connections, and that will blow things up!
So letting them take half was already the limit; the remaining half would have to be taken from Liu Yufeng, Tian Yu, and the others by Murong Yuliang.

Murong Yuliang also knew that these people were all in high positions and had great influence. With the Jiangnan region developing so well in the past few years, could they really stand by and let the merchants make money while they just watched and earned their fixed salaries and bonuses?

Although these people were promoted by Murong Yuliang and he recognized their abilities, he also knew that they were not the kind of people who were truly innocent!

Murong Yuliang didn't know the exact amount, but he figured that if a dozen or so people each contributed 10,000 to 20,000 taels of silver, they could easily raise over 100,000 taels. Adding the 100,000 taels from the big merchant and the silver that Sun Wenheng hadn't taken, they could cover about 70-80% of the 1 million tael deficit and resolve the matter.
However, Liu Yufeng, Tian Yu, and their ilk were willing to risk their lives for money, each of them as stingy as a miser!
Murong Yuliang was extremely disappointed, and he couldn't help but have other ideas.

Now, Chen Mingyang's words served as a reminder to Murong Yuliang that even if he managed to scrape together the one million taels of silver to cover the deficit, Ye Mingsheng wouldn't easily give in...

He had to give Ye Mingsheng an explanation, no matter what. He needed a scapegoat to take the blame for everything so that Murong Yuliang could escape unscathed.

Thinking of this, Murong Yuliang made up her mind and asked;

Who do you think is suitable?

Faced with Murong Yuliang's question, Chen Mingyang, who already had an idea, answered without hesitation:

"As the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner of Jiangnan, Liu Yufeng bears the brunt of the blame for this incident and is the person primarily responsible. He must take full responsibility for it!"

"As the Provincial Treasurer of Jiangnan, Tian Yu's responsibility is less than Liu Yufeng's, but he is equally culpable. He should also be brought to justice and handed over to Yi Jing for processing!"

Upon hearing the two names Chen Mingyang uttered, Murong Yuliang couldn't help but frown.

"Liu Yufeng, Tian Yu are the two people he values ​​most, and also the two most capable people under him. If they are both sacrificed, he will not have many capable people under him, which will be a bad thing for him to enter the cabinet and take charge of the court in the future!"

"What will the others think if these two people are killed?"

"If the morale of the team is low, it will be difficult to lead them?"

Seeing that Murong Yuliang was frowning and silent, Chen Mingyang understood what he was thinking and immediately continued:
"Sir, Liu Yufeng and Tian Yu took the most. If we arrest them, we can raise at least 100,000 taels of silver. Making an example of them will make the others behave, and then we'll have enough silver!"

Hearing Chen Mingyang's words, Murong Yuliang's resolve began to waver...
(End of this chapter)