The Ming Dynasty took an unconventional approach

Chapter 486 Progress
The salt transport envoy, Lord Jiang, trembled in his heart and left quickly.

Wang Zhen cannot withstand investigation, and his problems have been exposed so far;
They also could not withstand investigation. The land tax, private salt, maritime trade, and military farming issues in the south of the Yangtze River were all major issues that could lead to the killing of a large number of people.

Now, Wang Zhen only pointed out the problems of illegal salt and maritime trade smuggling, but did not go into details.

Wang Zhen is His Majesty's man. Was this Wang Zhen's choice, or was it the Emperor's intention?

If the young emperor really holds on to this matter, unless there is another war in the north or Luchuan, this matter will not be over until someone dies.

"Should we listen to Prime Minister Yang and take a step back, sacrificing the rook to save the king, or should we bite the bullet and go forward to fight out a victory?"

"Since Lord Jiang has said so, it is clear that he has decided to sacrifice the car to save the king, but I wonder who the abandoned car is?"

Lord Jiang was silent.

The others said, "There must be someone in charge. Ordinary officials are not worthy of your majesty's attention. Moreover, your majesty's move is to fill the national treasury. How much to take out to fill the national treasury and where to take it from must be considered carefully."

Lord Jiang: "Hasn't the reason why Wang Zhen was imprisoned by His Majesty been found yet?"

"I only heard that His Majesty was obsessed with yellow talismans some time ago. He ordered the Imperial Observatory to present several kinds of talismans to the emperor, and also went to see Zhang Gongfeng in the palace. On the day of the palace examination, His Majesty found a purse outside Kunning Palace, and inside it was the yellow talisman."

"The first time His Majesty distanced himself from Wang Zhen, a yellow talisman also appeared in the palace."

Some people wonder: “Why worry?”

Lord Jiang: "Even if we have to take a step back, we must be broad-minded. Wang Zhen must die!"

They also thought Wang Zhen was very annoying. After a moment of thought, they said, "There was another person imprisoned in the imperial prison before, Pan Hong's daughter Pan Yun. She was the junior sister of Yin Song of the Imperial Observatory. I heard that she was learning martial arts at Mount Sanqing and had great abilities."

"Didn't they say that Wang Zhen framed her and she wasn't Pan Hong's real daughter?"

"How did I hear that? His Majesty pardoned her for the Mu family and will no longer pursue her crime of deceiving the emperor."

"It would be best if it is, but it doesn't matter if it isn't. Since Wang Zhen has framed her, we are allies. Find a way to contact her and make sure she finds a way to alienate Your Majesty and Wang Zhen again.

If Wang Zhen loses the emperor's favor, he will be nothing."

"I'll send someone after her right now!"

"Let's do something about Ji'an," Lord Jiang said. "Prime Minister Yang is old. He has allowed Your Majesty to do whatever he wants over the years. He has lost the character of a good minister. This time he even spoke for Wang Zhen. To avoid losing his integrity in his later years, Prime Minister Yang should retire and go home to enjoy his old age as soon as possible."

Everyone else thought it made sense and nodded.

The next day, the wind direction in the court changed. The civil officials seemed unable to resist the attacks of Wang Zhen, Wang Wen, Ma Shun and others. Not only was Zhang Kai, the governor of Fuzhou, investigated, but Lin You, who had been imprisoned in the imperial prison, was also brought out for retrial.

Pan Hong, who was squatting in the cell opposite, was stunned. He waited until Lin You was dragged out of the prison with ghostly howls to be tortured. Only then did he close his mouth and mutter in horror: "I just said that, how come there is a retrial?"

Pan Hong was confused. "What's going on? My case hasn't been overturned, but the old case of digging the dam six years ago has been overturned?"

Lin You’s case was indeed overturned, but not for the better, but for the worse.

After the disaster, many families who bought flooded farmland were investigated, including many of Yang Shiqi's relatives.

A detailed investigation revealed that in six years, the Yang family's farmland has grown from more than 300 acres six years ago to more than 4,600 acres, of which 3,000 acres were newly added in the past two years, and about 1,300 acres were added immediately after the flood six years ago.

When the survey results came out, Yang Shiqi himself was surprised.

He glanced at the investigation form sent back from Ji'an by the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple, looked up at the housekeeper, and asked, "Is this true, or is someone deliberately framing me?"

The housekeeper said, "Of course it's a frame-up, old man. Our family has acquired some land over the years, but it's definitely not this much."

"Not so much, then how much?" The housekeeper hesitated and said, "There must be one or two thousand acres."

He quickly explained, "Your Majesty has given you a lot of rewards in the past few years. The money you sent home can't just sit there, so the eldest master used it to buy property. After all, it is a good thing to benefit his descendants."

Yang Shiqi nodded slowly, "Buying property is the right thing to do, but that amount of money can't buy so much land, right?"

The housekeeper whispered, "The master has a talent for business, and money makes money..."

Yang Shiqi looked into his eyes, and the butler's voice became lower and lower, and finally he fell to his knees with a flop.

Yang Shiqi was furious. He slammed the table and swept the case files to the ground. "I thought so. You guys are pointing fingers at me one by one. It turns out that you are the ones who are doing evil. Tell me what you did in your hometown."

The housekeeper kowtowed repeatedly and said in a trembling voice: "Old Master, I just bought some land and property, and didn't do anything else."

"So the list in the case file is all true?" Yang Shiqi asked, "Does our family really have more than 4,000 acres of land?"

Yang Shiqi's voice gradually turned cold, "Or... more than that?"

The butler pressed his head against the floor, not daring to say a word.

Yang Shiqi's eyes blurred and he fell backwards.

"Old Master——"

The Yang Mansion was in chaos.

The emperor ordered a reinvestigation of the Ji'an dike digging case, and the truth of the case was soon revealed. In addition to the Yang family, five other families were raided in succession. Among them were several families who had purchased the flooded land at a low price at the first opportunity, and then forcibly bought the remaining land by means of loans and other means.

Since the amount of silver seized was not much, the emperor turned his attention to the smuggling of private salt and maritime trade in the south of the Yangtze River.

Taking advantage of last year's pirate case, the Jinyiwei followed the clues and caught several officials who were smuggling weapons and colluding with pirates.

At the first trial, something dramatic happened.

Half of them were gentry from Jiangnan, who had close ties with officials from the Jiangnan faction, and paid tribute to them on a daily basis, opening the door to convenience;

Half of them were wealthy gentry who had allied themselves with local officials. They contacted Wang Zhen through these officials and paid tribute to them on a daily basis. Wang Zhen could even lend them ships from the navy.

emperor:……

Okay, okay, everyone is participating, right? Then just copy them all!
The Northern Pacification Office was extremely busy.

The emperor was also very happy.

He liked to watch the drama of property confiscation. Otherwise, he would be fed up with listening to them quarreling, blaming each other and attacking each other in the hall every day.

Of course, the money confiscated was only half of it. He stared at Zhang Kai, the governor of Fuzhou.

Zhang Kai fell very quickly, and his evidence was as if someone had handed it to the emperor, and the Northern Pacification Office was right every time it investigated.

However, apart from corruption and allowing wealthy businessmen under his jurisdiction to collude with pirates to engage in smuggling trade, all other evidence is gone.

It is punishable by death, but the crime will not implicate the entire family. At most, the house will be raided and all assets will be confiscated.

The emperor looked through the property list reported by the Northern Pacification Office.

(End of this chapter)