After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 47 List of Confiscated Property
Chu Yan got up before dawn.

The kang in the inner room of the warm room was not big, so it was only big enough for him, Concubine Wu and Concubine Zhou to sleep on. The two dancers slept outside. When Chu Yan woke up, they were still asleep, with their snow-white arms wrapped around him.

After a while, the palace maids came knocking on the door. Chu Yan pulled their arms away, got up, and asked the palace maids to bring in hot water.

The door of the warm room was opened. The four beauties from last night had not woken up yet. The palace maids took a quick look and saw that the room was in a mess, which showed how intense last night was.

After Chu Yan finished bathing, he looked at the two dancers, Xie and Song, who were kneeling obediently on the bed, and said to them, "When I ascend the throne, I will make you beauties and move you into the harem."

"what!"

The two dancers raised their heads, extremely excited. After confirming this from King Qian's eyes, they immediately knelt down on the kang and kowtowed: "We kowtow to thank the king for his grace!"

Noble ladies, talented ladies, and beauties did not have the title of concubine, but they were still much better than many palace maids and female historians who could not even get the title of beauty after serving the emperor in bed.

There were also many people who entered the palace as female historians or selected concubines when they were in their teens, and never had a chance to sleep with the emperor even when their youth and beauty faded.

Chu Yan smiled and said, "You guys are still the lead dancers. The dance last night was beautiful."

The two of them blushed with shame. They almost broke their waists last night. Fortunately, the king liked them and made them half concubines.

"As for you," Chu Yan said to the two people in the inner room, "Qiu'er, you will be promoted back to your original position as a noble. Xinmei, go and receive your reward yourself."

After saying that, he walked out of the warm room without caring about their reactions.

The hierarchy of concubines in all dynasties was very confusing. It was often the founding emperor who set the number of concubines, but later emperors added concubines with various titles. Chu Yan had no time to take care of these for the time being, so he still followed the old harem system of the Shun Dynasty.

When they arrived at Linjing Hall, Chu Ming and others were already waiting. Before the morning court session, Chu Yan first discussed something with them.

"Your Highness."

Chu Ming handed a document to the eunuch and said, "Last night, we discussed with several ministers of Shun Dynasty and decided to leave a list. Your Highness, please review it."

Chu Yan opened it and saw that the first name was Prince Zhongshun. As a representative of the surrender faction, he was qualified to retain a certain degree of wealth and glory.

The so-called list is a list of people whose property will not be directly confiscated, and they are allowed to hand over a certain amount of property themselves.

"Did those Shun Dynasty officials agree?"

Chu Yan looked and asked, and saw several familiar people among them, including Wang Ziteng, Prince Beijing Shui Rong, Zhuang Jin from the Military Affairs Council, etc.

The Jia family is not on the list.

All officials of the third rank and above in the Shun Dynasty were dismissed, but their influence was still huge. For example, Zhuang Jin was a pro-war faction, but if his property was directly confiscated, it would easily arouse the anger of those who also advocated the war.

Last night, Chu Ming had an argument with Zhuang Jin and others, which was actually equivalent to a negotiation.

"Yes," Xu Zhiyi said, "They are willing to hand over all their land, shops, and houses, retaining only their old home, and half of their gold, silver, and jewelry, in exchange for your forgiveness, Your Highness, and their willingness to serve as officials in the new dynasty!"

If you want to quickly stabilize the world, it is essential to gain the support of officials from the old dynasty.

But Chu Yan was unwilling to let them go directly, otherwise where would the reward for his 200,000 troops come from?

The silver and grain in the national treasury are still useful and cannot be touched.

Chu Yan would not directly raid the homes of those who had great influence, high reputation, or family members who were generals guarding the border, but would allow them to hand over half of their property themselves.

"Well, there are two more people who need to be paid?"

After Chu Yan saw the list, Xu Zhiyi wrote down two names: Han Mujie, Deputy Chief Censor of the Censorate; and Song Rui, Right Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple.

Chu Ming smiled and said, "These two are both well-known honest officials. Tomorrow when we send people to search their homes, we can pretend to be oblivious. After entering their homes, we can leave behind a hundred taels of silver to show that the people whose homes we are searching are all corrupt officials!"

Chu Yan laughed and said, "If they were truly honest officials, they wouldn't have asked for the hundred taels of silver. I guess they wouldn't have come to the morning court this morning, right?"

"Yes, they didn't go to the city gate to welcome His Highness into the city, but they should be willing to serve the king!"

Chu Yan nodded, skipped over the two of them, and after reading it, asked, "Where's the list of names to be confiscated?"

So Xu Zhiyi also submitted a list.

Chu Yan looked through it and found that there were many people on it, including princes, dukes, prince consorts, dukes, marquises and earls. Almost all of them were on it. A few people had "demoted to commoners" written on their names, and the rest had their property confiscated, their male members were forced to do labor service, and their female relatives were sent to the Yunting Palace.

Chu Mingdao said, "Of the Shun Dynasty royal family, the Emperor and the Retired Emperor have been retained, and Prince Zhongshun has been granted the title of County Earl. The rest, regardless of whether they surrendered or advocated war, were all killed. Some were imprisoned and shackled, while others were reduced to commoners."

"Ah."

Chu Yan nodded and saw that the Jia family was on the list of confiscated property, and there was no indication that they had been demoted to commoners.

"I have other arrangements for the Jia and Shi families. As for the Xue family, I will issue an order to confiscate their property, but don't send anyone."

"The Xue family?" Chu Ming and the others were puzzled. Xue Baochai's family didn't even qualify for the list, but the Xia family, also a member of the imperial merchants, was on the list, among the great merchants in the capital.

"The Xue family is staying at the Jia family's house."

Chu Yan had already sent his personal guards to surround the Jia family. Even if they forgot about this matter, the people who came to confiscate the property would not be able to enter the Jia family.

He wanted to wait until he ascended the throne before slowly dealing with all the golden hairpins of the Jia family.

After further discussion, Chu Yan finalized the specific list and handed it over to Chu Ming to make the arrangements, and the house search would begin tomorrow.

After they left, Prince Zhongshun, Prince Beijing and several ministers of Shun Dynasty came in and all bowed to the ground and kowtowed.

"Please inform us of your former official positions and titles."

Chu Yan ordered.

Without Prince Qian's permission, they dared not stand up. Prince Zhongshun smiled and said first, "Your Highness, I am Chen Ruiqing, formerly the Prince Zhongshun of the old dynasty!"

The others also began to report their names and official positions, including Zhuang Jin of the Grand Council and Minister of War, Grand Tutor Pang En, Vice Minister of Personnel Ni Rui, and Minister of Works.

There were both surrenderists and resistanceists, and some people were unwilling to surrender until this point.

Chu Yan said coldly, "You are all criminals of the old dynasty. Originally, we should have cleared you out to restore order to the court, but you are all so intertwined with each other that it is more useful to keep you alive than to kill you. For example, Shui Rong, your uncle is stationed at the border, and you took the initiative to come and negotiate with me, so I will keep you."

"Your Majesty, I, Shui Rong, bow to thank you!"

Prince Shui Rong of Beijing kowtowed respectfully, and the others did the same.

Chu Yan continued, "But your family's assets are worth millions. Leaving 50% is still a lot, so reduce it to 30%!"

Prince Zhongshun was horrified and quickly looked up to defend himself, "Your Majesty, most of our assets consist of land and business deeds, all of which have been confiscated. We don't have much gold and silver at home, and even 30% is barely enough to support our family!"

Chu Yan asked, "How many wives and concubines do you have? How many maids and servants do you have?"

"Uh……"

He didn't dare answer.

Chu Yan sneered: "Send away most of your concubines and maids, or marry them off to unmarried soldiers in my army. Do you still want to support thousands of palace maids?"

Prince Zhongshun still didn't dare to answer.

Chu Yan's tone softened a bit. "You are allowed to keep 40% of the gold, silver and jewelry in your home. You are not allowed to hide your wealth. Otherwise, it will be confiscated and I will punish you. So leave."

After kowtowed and expressed their gratitude, everyone retreated and headed towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony to prepare to attend today's morning court session.

The criminals of the previous dynasty are still ministers. As long as they can keep their official positions, they will have the opportunity to make a comeback in the future.

Chu Yan received several more groups of people and was about to go to the morning court to remove the tablet of the previous emperor from the Taimiao when Xia Shouzhong suddenly arrived with a report: "Your Majesty, Dai Wei, the personal guard you sent to surround the Jia family, has come to see you."

"Let him in."

Chu Yan sat down again. He was still interested in the Jia family, or rather, the Twelve Beauties of Jinling.

"Your Highness!" Dai Wei, wearing armor, bowed and saluted.

"Dai Wei, what do you want to see me about?"

Chu Yan smiled.

Remembering the names of your subordinates is an effective way to gain their loyalty.

"Your Highness, Master Jia Zheng of the Jia family wanted to go out to attend the morning court this morning, but I rejected his request."

"Oh." Chu Yan didn't care. Jia Zheng was a low-ranking official, so it didn't matter whether he came or not. Besides, he was already on the list of people to be confiscated and was no longer a fifth-rank official.

Dai Wei continued, "Jia Lian asked me to deliver a letter to you, saying that the Jia family is willing to send the young lady to the palace."

Chu Yan took the letter, glanced at it briefly, and said, "Go back and tell him I don't have time to care... No, if you say that, Prince Qian will just say he knows."

Let's leave the Jia family alone first, so that they don't think that they will not be confiscated if they send the girl to the palace.

It is necessary to copy, otherwise it will be difficult for all the Twelve Beauties of Jinling to enter the palace.

For example, Li Wan, Wang Xifeng and Qin Keqing, they were married, and the Jia family could not send them into the palace. If they had confiscated the Jia family's property and demoted them to the Yunting Palace, everything would have been easy.

(End of this chapter)