The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 432 Mess

Is an armory a treasure trove?

Of course it counts!

These more than one thousand large-sized muskets made in Sichuan and Chongqing are well worth taking back for research and improvement.

And these knives, how many troubles would they cause if left in civilian hands?

After looting the armory, the vanguard officer praised King Atu, who had contributed the most, to the skies.

It almost blew the king's tail so hard it swung out of the windmill.

Gan Mingfu finally understood how the Rat King interacted with these people, and he couldn't stop laughing to himself.

My father-in-law is now the emperor, but he's really too poor.

The Zan family compound is the biggest hope for a major comeback.

Given the cunning nature of the Rat King, if he dared to laugh, it would definitely notice that the vanguard officer was flattering him.

He remains remarkably composed in critical moments.

I also casually offered a few compliments.

“Even a thousand soldiers and horses cannot match Your Majesty’s ability. Without Your Majesty’s help, even if they demolished the entire mansion, they might not be able to discover the clues to this underground labyrinth.”

The dizzy Rat King shook off the dirt that covered him, and, full of energy, led everyone to continue through the maze.

In fact, Gan Mingfu's boastful words weren't entirely wrong.

The Zan family's underground maze, with an area far exceeding that of the above-ground buildings, is located more than ten meters underground.

Let alone treasure hunters digging three feet into the ground, even digging ten feet wouldn't get them to the bottom.

There was only one hidden entrance.

Not everyone has such keen eyesight.

If you can't find the entrance, do you think the exit is easy to find?

The two exits are even more concealed than the entrances.

The first one is hidden in an abandoned well in the northwest corner of the manor.

The abandoned well is very deep, but the hidden exit door is designed on the well wall about one meter below the well opening.

Even those who suspect there's something wrong with the abandoned well will only go down to the bottom and dig up the soil.

Who is the kind person who has their door open onto the well wall?

The second exit is clearly an escape route.

At the mouth of a river that extends five miles from the manor's sewers.

Once you exit through this exit, you can escape by boat.

Following the sewers, they found the bearded guard at the river mouth, and were terrified.

"If Zan Jiu wanted to escape, he could easily take his family and run out of Sichuan."

Gan Mingfu speculated:
"He and his family can escape, but his hundreds of thousands of clansmen cannot. After becoming the leader of the refugees, he became burdened by his so-called reputation and was very afraid of being gossiped about by his clansmen. Besides, where can he escape to? He can't just live out the rest of his life in the deep mountains and forests under an assumed name, can he? With his flamboyant temperament, hiding and running around would suffocate him."

"Tsk tsk, if it were Ang, he wouldn't think that way. Better to live a wretched life than to die!"

"The key point is that in these three years, he only enriched his family. The local gentry and landlords of Sichuan and Chongqing wished they could eat his flesh and drink his blood! With the downfall of the Zan family, how can he have a good life?"

That's the principle.

There were escape routes, but given the circumstances, they were not used.

If Zan Jiu wanted to live, he could hide at home even if he didn't run away.

This place is the viewing hill to the south of the manor.

A man-made viewing hill, about two acres in area and over fifty meters high, has been completely hollowed out.

Inside, there was a structure resembling an air-raid shelter.

It also contained a lot of cured meat, dried meat, fresh fruits that can be eaten raw, and drinking water.

There were so many that they could feed hundreds of people hiding inside for two months. Both the two exit tunnels and the air-raid shelter had unique opening mechanisms, requiring the simultaneous operation of multiple devices to open them.

Therefore, the Rat King made a great contribution to finding the treasure location in the Zan family compound.

Look carefully.

Look carefully.

We found six treasure rooms in the underground labyrinth in just one afternoon.

The doors to each treasure room are crafted from a single piece of fine iron and equipped with sophisticated locks.

And these treasure rooms have lived up to their name.

It contained a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, antique paintings and calligraphy, and land deeds and house deeds.

The quantity is enormous.

The variety of products is vast.

The thousands of people who were raided went from being shocked and holding their chins in their hands to being numb with excitement when faced with the enormous wealth in the treasury.

Gan Mingfu, who was in charge of registering and compiling the records, was shaking violently.

Nothing more than writing nonstop.

"Gold, three million six hundred and seventy thousand taels."

"Eight million seven hundred thousand taels of silver."

"100,000 mu of superior-quality farmland and 200,000 mu of medium-quality farmland"

"Three five-courtyard residences and fifty shops along the street in Chengdu."

The bearded bodyguard of Emperor Qianwu kept inhaling and exhaling:
"Princess Consort, please don't laugh at me for not having seen such a grand spectacle. Anyone with an unstable mindset would easily be blown away by such a shock. In the more than two hundred years since the founding of the previous dynasty, it is said that the highest annual income was only a little over twenty million taels. The treasure room in the home of a mere leader of refugees in Sichuan is actually equivalent to the national treasury revenue of the previous dynasty for several years at its peak."

Gan Mingfu: "It's far more than that. This is only the wealth of Zan Jiu's family. Don't forget that he also owns three counties and hundreds of thousands of clansmen."

The bearded man's eyes flashed with a fierce light: "Don't worry! We won't let any of those with the surname Zan get away with it."

Emperor Qianwu spoke.

Since we're already here, we should take a good look at the Sichuan Provincial Administration Commission.

Don't leave your son-in-law with a mess when you leave.

Gan Mingfu: "."

He wanted to cry.

It will take some effort to deal with the fertile lands and estates that the Zan family forcibly seized from various clans and landlords.

The father-in-law will definitely take away all the gold, silver, and grain that were found in the Zan family's property.

What was left for him was a huge mess.

I'm so annoyed, I need to vent to my older sister before she leaves.

Gan Minglan greatly encouraged her younger brother to try his best to clean up the mess:
"Sichuan has been known as the Land of Abundance since ancient times. As long as the government is efficient and the laws are strict, and the land is returned to the majority of the people, it will be able to recover its vitality in just a few years. If it weren't for the establishment of a new dynasty, you might not have been able to become a provincial governor before the age of forty, even if you joined the army or took the imperial examination."

Gan Mingfu touched his nose sheepishly and nodded in acknowledgment:

"His Majesty has high hopes for the Bashu Provincial Administration Commission and plans to restore the garrison of the sixteen guards here, totaling more than 80,000 men."

"That's right. With such a strong backing, there's no need to worry about people's livelihood and peace. There's no shortage of water or farmland here, and we have salt and iron. With a population of three to four million, it's much easier to revive the economy than in a border town."

If Emperor Qianwu knew about this conversation, he would surely be overjoyed.

Fortunately, his efforts as a son-in-law were not in vain!
The Sichuan Basin, which had just been ravaged by bloodshed, was now considered a relatively safe haven compared to the provincial administration, which was suffering from severe natural disasters and displaced people fleeing their homes.

And this emperor still had a lot of bad cards in his hand.

Why did he personally lead an expedition before he had even firmly settled onto the throne?

There is nothing we can do.

I'm so worried.

In the four corners of Shangdu, Emperor Qianwu said he couldn't sit still for a moment.
(End of this chapter)