Reborn as a eunuch, the system tells me to seduce the empress?

When Liu Kaishan was dragged in front of Chen San, his legs were shaking so badly that he could barely stand.

Chen San coldly sized him up, his tone laced with sarcasm: "Old sir, why are you hiding? The Eastern Depot is giving you face by inviting you for tea."

Having weathered decades of storms, Liu Kaishan managed to regain his composure and shouted sternly, "I am a hereditary earl, and my family possesses an imperial edict bestowed by the founding emperor! What is the punishment for your Eastern Depot's unauthorized trespassing at the earl's residence?!"

Upon hearing this, Chen San's lips curled slightly, as if he had heard an extremely funny joke. He didn't answer, but instead tilted his head and ordered the guards behind him, "Bring the box in."

Three camphor wood chests were carried into the courtyard and placed heavily on the ground. The moment the lids were opened, everyone in the courtyard gasped. One chest was filled with gleaming silver ingots, another with gold bars and jewels, and the third with thick ledgers and letters.

Chen San casually picked up an account book from the box, flipped through it, and sneered, "Lord Liu, don't try to scare me. This imperial edict from the Liu family probably can't protect you from this treasonous crime of colluding with the Mongols."

Liu Kaishan's face turned pale instantly.

"You agents of the Eastern Depot, stop spouting nonsense and slandering our noble deeds."

Liu Kaishan struggled to stand up, but two guards held his shoulders down, forcing him to kneel on the ground and roar: "My ancestors fought alongside the founding emperor to conquer the world. They earned their titles through countless trials and tribulations. How dare you, a lackey of the Eastern Depot, slander me as a traitor?"

Chen San remained calm and composed, pulling out a stack of yellowed letters from his pocket. He slowly squatted down and held the letters up to Liu Kaishan's eyes: "Old sir, take a look at this handwriting. You should recognize it, shouldn't you?"

Liu Kaishan stared wide-eyed at the letters, his pupils suddenly contracting.

He recognized the characters; it was a secret letter he had personally written to the Mongol Tatar tribe.

Although the wording is cryptic, the smuggling of ironware, the sale of salt, and the exchange of warhorses are all clearly implied, and anyone who isn't blind can understand it.

"You, you're slandering me." Liu Kaishan's voice began to tremble, his words filled with guilt. "I have never written any of these things. Your Eastern Depot is framing me. I will go before His Majesty and impeach you."

"Infiltrate us?" Chen San stood up, put the letter back into his pocket, the smile on his face completely disappeared, and his eyes were full of coldness.

"My lord, Minister Fang Hong also said the same thing in the main hall of our Eastern Depot. Guess where he is now?"

Liu Kaishan opened his mouth, making a gurgling sound in his throat, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Fang Hong is dead.

Lin Mo killed the Vice Minister of War, a high-ranking official of the second rank, without the emperor saying a word.

Although Liu Kaishan is a hereditary earl, what is he compared to Fang Hong?

"When we arrest people, the Eastern Depot never looks at any evidence."

"The iron scroll that the late Emperor bestowed upon our Grand Eunuch was inscribed with 'Imperial permission, to execute first and report later.' Old sir, you've lived to such an old age, surely you don't even understand this principle?"

Liu Kaishan trembled all over, and collapsed to the ground as if his bones had been removed.

Of course he knew this principle; everyone in the court knew it.

The Eastern Depot was founded by the late emperor, and Lin Mo was the late emperor's most trusted eunuch.

Back when the late emperor was alive, Lin Mo dared to impeach the Grand Secretary in front of the entire court, forcing the Grand Secretary to retire to his hometown.

Although the late emperor has passed away, the newly enthroned Empress clearly trusts Lin Mo even more.

Fang Hong's death is the best proof of this.

In this group of nobles, he was merely a minor count.

How could the Empress possibly fall out with Lin Mo for the sake of a count like him?

"I...I want to see Lin Mo!" Liu Kaishan suddenly remembered something and shouted at Chen San.

He was not reconciled.

Liu Kaishan didn't want to die.

What is the Eastern Depot?

That's a place even more terrifying than the eighteen levels of hell.

If the Earl's family were arrested and imprisoned by the Eastern Depot, they would probably have no hope of even surviving!

To everyone's surprise, Chen San glanced at Liu Kaishan, who was terrified and pale, and spoke with a disdainful attitude.

Chen San stopped looking at him, straightened up, and waved to his subordinates: "Take everyone back to the Eastern Depot. Lock the men in the Zhaoyu Prison and the women in the Nanchang Prison. Don't let a single one escape. Confiscate their property."

"Yes!" The guards answered in unison, pouncing on every corner of the Earl's mansion like wolves and tigers.

Liu Kaishan was being dragged away by two guards. As he passed Chen San, he suddenly struggled to turn around, his voice already trembling with tears: "Chen San, I have no grudge against you, why must you be so ruthless!"

"If you spare the Earl's Mansion, I am willing to donate one million taels of silver to the Eastern Depot."

Chen San stopped, turned his head to look at him, his eyes full of sarcasm, and laughed: "Old Count, I think you're really senile. You've arrested all your Earl's men, isn't all this silver our Eastern Depot's?"

"Smash all his teeth and take them with you."

Chen San was afraid that Liu Kaishan would talk too much and say something inappropriate, so he had his men knock all of Liu Kaishan's teeth out.

With his mouth full of blood, Liu Kaishan was dragged out of the Earl's mansion by the guards.

His wife, two concubines, three sons, one daughter, daughter-in-law, steward, accountant, and personal servants—a total of forty-seven people—were taken out of the mansion one by one by the guards. The women of the Liu family wept bitterly, some screaming and wailing.

Some were paralyzed on the ground and refused to move; they were beheaded.

The sounds of crying and vomiting were deafening.

Liu Kaishan's eldest son, Liu Shijie, still wanted to resist.

As a result, a guard hit him on the back of the knee with a scabbard, causing him to fall to his knees with a thud. He was then kicked twice more, finally calming down.

A large crowd of onlookers had already gathered outside the Yongchang Earl's Mansion.

People stood at a distance, craning their necks to peer inside, but dared not approach.

The agents of the Eastern Depot, with embroidered spring knives at their waists and black lacquered crossbows in their hands, lined up in formation and blocked off the entire street.

Occasionally, some commoners would try to get a closer look, but they would be given a cold glance by the barbarian and immediately shrink back.

The ransacking of the house lasted from dawn until dusk.

The Yongchang Earl's Mansion had been operating in the capital for decades, and its mansion occupied a vast area, with seven or eight storerooms in the backyard alone.

The agents pried open each room one by one, counting and cataloging each item.

Silver was carried out in whole crates, gold bars were carried out in sacks, and jewelry and jade were carefully carried out on wooden trays.

The study was filled with antiques and calligraphy, making up half the room. More than a dozen genuine works by famous artists from previous dynasties were found.

There was also a whole box of land deeds and house deeds hidden in a secret room in the artificial hill.

The Yongchang Earl's Mansion owned seventeen shops, six residences, 1,800 mu of fertile land outside the city, and three warehouses at Tongzhou Wharf.

When all the valuables were gathered in the front courtyard of the Earl's mansion, even Chen San, who was used to seeing the world, gasped in astonishment.

The silver was piled up into a small mountain, roughly amounting to 1.5 million taels.

The gold filled three large camphor wood chests, amounting to at least ten thousand taels.

Gold artifacts, jade artifacts, calligraphy and paintings, and antiques were spread all over the floor.

Including the silver equivalent of shops, real estate, and land, the total amount approached three million taels of silver.

Three million taels.

What does this mean?

The annual salt tax revenue of the Great Liang Dynasty was only 1.2 million taels, and the annual land tax was only around 4 million taels.

The confiscated property of the Yongchang Earl's household was equivalent to more than half of the national treasury's salt tax revenue.