Huangming

Chapter 142 The Smell of Money Corrupts Bones, and the Favor of the Cangyu Clan Flows
The night was as dark as ink, and flames rose everywhere in Jiexiu County, while the shouts of battle gradually subsided.

Wang Chengen stood before the Hall of Accumulated Good Deeds, his python robe stained with blood, his gaze cold and stern.

He scanned the kneeling Fan family henchmen and salt workers, and shouted sternly: "Fan Yongdou and his son have been executed, and Liu Zunxian, the prefect of Fenzhou, and Wang Yunzhang, the magistrate of Jiexiu, have both been imprisoned! If you continue to resist, kill them without mercy!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Zhejiang soldiers formed a "Mandarin Duck Formation," the White-Spear Soldiers blocked the streets, and the Imperial Guards patrolled with knives to deter the scoundrels.

Wang Chengen simultaneously issued the following order:
"The Ministry of Revenue officials were ordered to take over the Jiexiu County government office and seal up account books, land deeds, salt permits and other documents to prevent local officials from destroying evidence of crimes."

"Dispatch the Imperial Guards to seal off the four gates of Jiexiu County and strictly check people entering and leaving to prevent the news from leaking to Fenzhou Prefecture or the border towns of Datong and Taiyuan."

"At the same time, people were sent to post notices and shout along the city: The Fan family has fallen, and the prefect and magistrate have all been imprisoned!"

The whole set of movements went on.

When the White Lotus rebels of the Salt Lake uprising saw that the Fan family had fallen, they scattered in disarray.

The so-called popular uprising vanished in an instant.

Most of these so-called popular uprisings were supported by local gentry. Unless it really came to the point where everyone was struggling to survive, a single call to action could turn a few hundred people into hundreds of thousands in rebellion.

"General Qi, Jiexiu is now under our control. The most important thing now is to control the military forces in Fenzhou Prefecture and guard against any mutiny!"

Qi Zuoguo understood the importance of this matter and said, "This humble general will now lead his troops to take control of the situation in the prefectural city!"

"Safe travels!"

Wang Chengen ordered Qi Zuoguo to lead Zhejiang troops to suppress the rebellion, and at the same time posted notices:
"The leaders of the White Lotus Sect who instigated the riots will be apprehended and their heads displayed to the public. As for the others, those who lay down their weapons and cease resistance will be spared punishment."

Having stabilized the situation in Jiexiu, Wang Chengen ordered Qi Zuoguo to lead his Qi Family Army to the prefectural city to take over the garrison troops and patrol officers of Fenzhou to prevent any unrest.

After doing all this, Wang Chengen turned his attention to the four people who had been imprisoned in Jiexiu County Prison.

The first priority is to interrogate Fan Yongdou and his son to extract their silver vault and force them to reveal all the hidden assets of the Fan family!

Wang Chengen stood with his hands behind his back in the county prison's torture chamber, the dim firelight casting an extremely long shadow of him.

The Imperial Guards of the Northern Garrison had already set up the torture rack, and the red-hot branding irons gleamed dark red in the charcoal brazier.

“Master Fan, let me ask you one more time.” Wang Chengen’s fingertips lightly traced a row of instruments of torture.

"Where is the silver vault? Where are the Fan clan members hiding?"

Fan Yongdou was suspended from the rack by iron chains, his white beard stained with blood and foam, but he grinned maliciously and said, "You castrated dog! I've been in the business world for thirty years, what haven't I seen?"

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm.

"Want silver? Go look for it in the underworld!"

Knowing that he was doomed, Fan Yongdou had nothing left to fear.

Since he was going to die anyway, he would never tell this eunuch in front of him about the money he had hidden!

This is the capital for the Fan family to make a comeback in the future!
It's the root of the Fan family!
"Good backbone!" Wang Chengen sneered and waved his hand.

The Imperial Guards immediately raised their salt-soaked cowhide whips.

The whip lashed across Fan Yongdou's back, instantly tearing his skin and causing it to bleed.

The old thief grunted, actually biting down half of his molar to suppress a scream.

Bang bang bang~
The leather whip lashed repeatedly, quickly turning Fan Yongdou's back into a bloody mess.

The stench of blood was pungent, and the horrific scene sent chills down one's spine.

Upon seeing this, Fan Sanba turned pale.

Seeing this, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard grinned and waved the iron brush in front of him, saying, "Young Master Fan has delicate skin, why not try this 'combing and washing torture' first?"

Before he could finish speaking, a red-hot iron brush was already branding his chest, and smoke billowed out, filling the torture chamber with the smell of burnt flesh.

"Ah—!" Fan Sanba let out a pig-like scream, and his crotch was instantly soaked.

Fan Yongdou's eyes were bloodshot: "You brat! Remember the Fan family's ancestral teachings! We, the sons of the Fan family, are all upright men! Even in death, we die a glorious death!"

Before he could finish speaking, the Imperial Guards had already shoved iron pliers into his mouth and ripped out three bloody teeth.

Now, Fan Yongdou could barely speak.

"A merchant who betrayed his country for personal gain dares to claim he died a heroic death? If there weren't experts here who knew how to execute someone by slow slicing or skinning them alive, I would have shown you such punishments!"

Wang Chengen slowly picked up a packet of white salt and sprinkled it on his father's wound in front of Fan Sanba.

Fan Yongdou's body convulsed like a shrimp, and he made inhuman "hoarse" sounds from his throat, but he still stared at his son with wide, bloodshot eyes.

"Don't say it, don't say it!"

Seeing this, Wang Chengen snorted coldly and cursed, "You're asking for it! Since you won't cooperate, then suffer more!"

"Bring on the 'Pipa'!"

At Wang Chengen's command, two strongmen held down Fan Sanba, and a Jinyiwei captain thrust iron hooks into both sides of his spine.

As the hook slowly stirred, Fan Sanba's screams suddenly rose in pitch, sounding as shrill as a broken pipa string.

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!" Fan Sanba broke down and cried.

"The silver vault is hidden in a secret compartment beneath the Buddhist shrine in the ancestral home! It was hidden by the clansmen in the dungeon of Zhangbibao!"

He struggled, tears streaming down his face.

"Please, Father-in-law, give me a quick death!" Upon hearing this, Fan Yongdou flew into a rage, breaking off an iron chain and lunging at his son: "You wretched child! The Fan family's century-old legacy has been ruined in your hands!"

Wang Chengen swung his iron ruler backhand and knocked him down, then sneered, "Drag him away and continue to serve Master Fan's 'Eighteen Sets'."

He turned to the Imperial Guards and said, "Search as his son instructed!"

That night, the Imperial Guards retrieved 800,000 taels of silver from a hidden compartment in the Fan family's Buddhist shrine and arrested over a hundred members of the Fan clan in the Zhangbibao dungeon.

The screams inside the torture chamber didn't gradually subside until the fifth watch of the night.

Fan Yongdou was eventually tortured to death in Jiexiu County prison, never uttering another word until his death.

However, no matter how tough he was, it was useless.

There are not many people like him who value money more than their own lives.

The interrogation is still ongoing!

The captured members of the Fan clan were interrogated one by one, and Wang Chengen was determined to extract all of the Fan family's wealth from them!

No matter how many burrows you, Fan Yongdou, have hidden, you will eventually reveal the truth about the silver you buried to these people.

They knew where the silver was, and that silver was theirs!
Wang Chengen showed no mercy to Liu Zunxian, the prefect of Fenzhou, and Wang Yunzhang, the magistrate of Jiexiu. On the one hand, he interrogated them about their embezzled funds, and on the other hand, he demanded that they reveal evidence of crimes committed by officials in Shanxi!
As dawn broke, the Imperial Guards, who had been busy all night, finally stopped the interrogation.

More than twenty people were tortured to death on the spot.

The others all bore signs of torture, missing limbs, which were considered minor injuries.

Under such inhuman torture, the gains obtained through interrogation are naturally extraordinary:
One million three hundred thousand taels of silver were forged, and even more was for land, shops, and warehouses.

All of these items together are worth over two million.

When Wang Chengen saw the Fan family's assets that had been seized, his murderous intent intensified.

Damn it!
With so much money, why only give him 100,000 taels?

Sending beggars away!

If you had given me eighty or ninety thousand taels, I would have swallowed my anger. But you dared to be so ungrateful, so you can't blame me for this predicament!

"Eunuch Wang, what should be done with these prisoners?" Qin Minping stepped forward and asked.

More than a hundred members of the Fan clan, along with the families of Liu Zunxian and Wang Yunchang, basically filled the county jail.

Wang Chengen sneered and said, "Anyone who dares to disobey the king's orders shall naturally be beheaded and their heads displayed to serve as a warning to others!"

He surveyed the crowd and said coldly, "Tomorrow at noon, behead them at Caishikou in Jiexiu County! Let the people of Jiexiu see the fate of these corrupt officials and traitorous merchants!"

Everyone was awed when they heard this.

They all seemed to foresee the scene of bloodshed at Caishikou in Jiexiu tomorrow.

This is to establish authority!

Of course, authority must be established, but favors must also be bestowed.

Wang Chengen continued, “On our way to Jiexiu County, we encountered many families who were starving. Among the shops we confiscated this time were several grain shops, containing hundreds of thousands of catties of grain. We opened these grain shops and granaries to provide relief to the people, to show the Emperor’s boundless grace!”

The reason why a few grain shops could hold hundreds of thousands of kilograms of grain is because these merchants are inhumane.

The Fan family's penchant for hoarding and speculation, coupled with the officials' assistance in inflating prices, led to very high grain prices in Fenzhou Prefecture.

When people can't afford to eat, they have no choice but to sell their land to survive. If they have no land to sell, they have to sell their children to barely make ends meet.

This is the main source of Fanjiatian land.

The annexation of land led to an increasing number of landless people.

The hardships faced by ordinary people at the bottom of the Ming Dynasty were inextricably linked to these individuals.

"Your Excellency Wang's righteousness is truly admirable!"

Qin Minping also cared deeply for the people. Upon seeing such a righteous and virtuous official, he felt admiration, but at the same time, he also felt some worry.

"However, all the proceeds from the confiscation of property belong to the state. If you, Father-in-law, distribute the grain without authorization, you may be impeached by the censors."

"Hahaha~"

Wang Chengen laughed loudly and said, "The censors don't care about the lives and deaths of the people, but His Majesty can't be indifferent. I'm going to confiscate property on behalf of His Majesty, and naturally, I'll let the people know along the way that the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty is an emperor who loves his people like his own children. So what if the censors impeach us?"

Upon hearing this, Qin Minping admired him even more, and he had already made up his mind.

If His Majesty truly intends to punish Wang Chengen, he will be the first to speak well of this hero!

"Stop talking about this."

Wang Chengen, however, became worried about Qi Zuoguo's situation.

"I wonder if General Qi will be able to quell the situation once he arrives in the city."

He had another worry in his heart.

How will the border towns of Datong and Taiyuan react to his actions in Jiexiu County?

PS:

I've been a bit busy lately, so I'll be posting longer chapters tonight.

Attached is a map of Shanxi:
(End of this chapter)