Lian Erye in the Red Mansion

Wu Zhirong and the others were left in the courtyard of the Salt Commissioner's Office, where they were exposed to the cold wind all night.

But no one dared to complain.

As the soldiers carried boxes of valuables into the courtyard, Wu Zhirong and the others knew perfectly well that Jia Lian had confiscated the Zhao family's property!

Don't underestimate the Zhao family just because they are salt merchants; their background is far stronger than that of these local officials.

If Jia Lian dared to confiscate the Zhao family's property, he would also dare to strip them of their official hats and confiscate their property.

Suddenly hearing that Jia Lian had returned, Wu Zhirong and the others hurriedly went out to greet him, flattering him and subtly inquiring when they would be allowed to return to the yamen, saying that they still had official business to attend to.

"Go back? I'm afraid Lord Wu won't be able to go back..."

Wu Zhirong and the others' expressions changed, and then Jia Lian shouted, "Guards! Take Prefect Wu Zhirong, Assistant Prefect Wei Jitong, Vice Prefect Yan Shixiang, and the Salt Commissioner of the Salt Transport Office away to await their fate!"

"Yes, sir." The officers rushed forward, seized the four men tightly, and, ignoring their cries, took them away.

The remaining two or three people, along with Gao Kui and the others who ran over from the side courtyard, all had their expressions change repeatedly, looking at Jia Lian with a mixture of flattery and wariness.

Jia Lian smiled at them and said, "Gentlemen, there's no need to be nervous. Wu Zhirong and the others colluded with salt merchants to embezzle salt taxes. The evidence is conclusive, which is why I arrested them and they are awaiting the court's judgment. You are all loyal and patriotic officials, so I will naturally not do anything to you."

After speaking, he looked at the middle-aged civil official beside him: "I have been in Yangzhou for several days now. I have heard that Lord Zou is diligent in his duties and loves the people. He has a very good reputation and is a rare upright official in Yangzhou. However, because of this, he has been ostracized by Wu Zhirong and others."

I have great respect for an official as valiant and unyielding as Lord Zou. Although I have apprehended Wu Zhirong and others, I still need to continue investigating the salt administration and have no time to attend to matters concerning the prefectural government. Therefore, until the court dispatches a new prefect, I entrust the affairs of the prefectural government to Prefect Zou in his care.

Zou Tong, the Assistant Prefect of Yangzhou, looked solemn. Seeing that Jia Lian was not joking, he quickly clasped his hands in a salute: "Your Excellency is too kind. This is all within my duty. I am grateful for your trust. From now on, I will do my best to carry out your orders."

Although Zou Tong did not approve of Wu Zhirong's actions and was indeed ostracized because of it, he was able to remain safe until today without reporting Wu Zhirong and others to the court, which did not mean he was completely uninvolved.

He knew that Jia Lian might have let him off the hook because of his official reputation, or perhaps Jia Lian needed someone to keep the government in order, so he was naturally grateful.

"Since you say so, Lord Zou, I happen to have a favor to ask of you."

I left the capital in haste and did not take many documents with me. This time, I seized a lot of real estate from the Zhao family, and there are also many salt business accounts of the Zhao family that need to be investigated. With my current manpower, it is really difficult to investigate them all. I ask Lord Zou to send more officials familiar with document work from the prefectural government to assist me after returning to the yamen.

In addition, please also send a copy of the Zhao family's registered and stamped property list so that I may verify it.

The Zhao family had been entrenched in Yangzhou for decades, deeply rooted and possessing numerous businesses.

Unlike later generations, where all properties were registered with the government, this era saw transactions of land and real estate conducted directly without government involvement. All that was needed was a signed contract between the two parties, known as a "white contract."

Although white deeds are difficult to obtain government protection, they can save a lot of taxes and avoid being harassed by officials. Therefore, most of the private property in the Great Wei Dynasty is in the form of white deeds, relying entirely on family inheritance or written contracts for proof.

This is also the root cause of why it is so easy for powerful and ruthless people to seize other people's property in this era.

It's impossible for the Zhao family to register all their properties with the government, so it's easier to deal with those whose deeds are copied, but difficult to investigate those that aren't.

However, at least those officially registered by the government must be counted without missing a single one.

Zou Tong readily agreed to Jia Lian's request, then bid farewell to Jia Lian and left the Salt Commissioner's office with two other officials.

……

"grown ups."

Jia Yu walked into Jia Lian's temporary office and looked...

There were only a few people in the hall, and they were all leaders, which surprised me a bit.

"Is everyone here?"

Jia Lian looked up and smiled at Jia Yu and the others. Without saying a word, he took out four yellow envelopes from the drawer and handed them to Jia Yu, Yang Xun, Zhao Cheng, and Wu Jin, the Imperial Guard Captain.

"You all accompanied me on this case last night, and you've all worked hard. Here's a little something for your trouble; please accept it."

Yang Xun, Zhao Cheng, and the Imperial Guard captain weren't too surprised; they had long seen that Jia Lian was a generous man. After confiscating the property of the Zhao family, a wealthy but unscrupulous merchant family, last night, it would be strange if Jia Lian didn't offer them any thanks.

Jia Yu, a seasoned soldier who had been working his way up in the ranks, had never experienced anything like this before and was momentarily stunned. After all, based on his few brief encounters with Jia Lian, he had assumed that Jia Lian was a selfless and upright person, which was why he was highly regarded by the emperor.

I never expected someone would do something like this.

Seeing Jia Yu's expression, Jia Lian didn't offer any explanation.

"However, this isn't just for you; it also includes the hard-earned wages for your respective men. The investigation into the salt administration is far from over. I still need you and your men to serve the court and me. As long as things are done well, I won't hesitate to share some reasonable benefits with you. At the same time, I don't like anyone who's short-sighted..."

"I hope that all the brothers involved in this matter, regardless of their rank, will receive at least ten taels of silver as a reward. Do you all understand what I mean?"

"We understand, sir, and will certainly live up to your expectations. Rest assured, sir, since you treat us with such sincerity, we will not be so short-sighted as to withhold any benefits from our brothers."

Zhao Cheng, a centurion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, was the first to reply with a grin. He and Yang Xun had received considerable benefits on the day they arrived in Yangzhou, and they thought they wouldn't get any this time. Unexpectedly, Jia Lian still prepared something for them.

As for giving each of their brothers at least ten taels of silver... although they felt it was too much, after all, they had quite a few brothers besides Yang Xun. But then they thought that since Jia Lian had said so, the amount of money in the yellow envelope must be substantial, so they became happy again.

Jia Yu secretly took a deep breath. He had a full eight hundred soldiers under his command, each with at least ten taels of silver. Didn't that mean there were at least eight thousand taels of silver in that yellow envelope?

Therefore, after returning to his own place, he couldn't wait to open the yellow envelope and found that there was indeed a stack of silver notes inside, as well as a few gold leaves!

After counting for a moment, his hands started to tremble slightly.

Eighteen thousand taels!

Even if we follow Jia Lian's instructions, the lowest-ranking brothers only get ten taels, and those of higher rank get more. Wouldn't he still be able to keep about ten thousand taels for himself?!

Since becoming a commander of a thousand men, holding the rank of fifth grade, he felt that his salary and benefits were quite good, with two hundred taels of silver every year! Enough for his family to live a comfortable life in Jinling City.

Only now did he truly understand why the civil officials in Jinling City called them miserable military men!

Damn it, doing one errand with Jia Lian is worth more than decades of hard work for him.

I wonder if everyone else is also receiving such generous gifts, or if Jia Lian is showing him special consideration because we are from the same clan.

But none of that mattered anymore. He knew that from this day forward, his perspective needed to change.

There's no future in staying at the West Mountain Camp in Jinling City. I need to find an opportunity to get a better position, preferably working under Jia Lian.

Following his powerful cousin was a million times better than working alone in Nanjing. He even started to feel grateful to Governor Liao Jihong; if it weren't for his help, he wouldn't know how he would have fought for such a promising future and powerful backer!

Jia Lian could roughly guess what Jia Yu and the others were thinking, but he didn't care.

What are the small benefits they received compared to the Zhao family's wealth? The gold and silver seized from the Zhao family last night alone amounted to nearly three million taels. Adding in the various properties yet to be inventoried, the final value, while I can't say for sure, is definitely around four million taels!

This amount would probably startle even the emperor.

Yes.

Moreover, this isn't the end of it...

Jia Lian always felt that the Wang and Bai families, in terms of the amount of government salt they sold and the extent of their arrogance, far exceeded or even surpassed the Zhao family's. Letting them go like this would be unfair to the Zhao family.

If we were to confiscate their assets as well, wouldn't we be able to return to the capital with a fortune exceeding ten million taels of silver to report back to the capital?

In that case, even the emperor would probably jump for joy.

After all, the national treasury's annual revenue is only a few tens of millions of taels, and the vast majority of it has a fixed destination. The remaining portion is what the two monarchs and the entire court are vying for.

Moreover, the vast majority of this would be taken away by the retired emperor.

Therefore, Jia Lian knew that Emperor Ningkang was actually very poor. This was also why Emperor Ningkang secretly instructed him to teach these greedy salt merchants a lesson, and even tacitly allowed him to kill them if they disobeyed.

In this situation, if I bring back an extra ten million taels of silver to Emperor Ningkang, I wonder if he'll immediately bestow upon me the title of Duke...

After all, he was risking his own reputation to bring him benefits! One can imagine that if he really confiscated the property of these salt merchants, the upright scholars in the court would definitely condemn him and label him with accusations such as "greedy and cruel" and "skin-picking".

However, upon further reflection, he decided against it. If Emperor Ningkang were to promote him to Duke right now, he would have to be wary of whether Emperor Ningkang intended to play the "kill the hunting dog after the cunning rabbit is caught" trick. After all, having no further titles to bestow is never a good thing for a subject.

Well, consider those two families lucky. At worst, they'll just bleed a little more than other salt merchants later, but we'll skip confiscating their property.

So they brought Wu Zhirong out and interrogated him about the whereabouts of An Siyuan's son. They hadn't asked before to avoid alerting him, but now that they had him under control, they naturally had to help the Xu family find their son.

At first, Wu Zhirong naturally denied it, but under Jia Lian's persistent questioning, he finally said, "If I were to tell you, would you, sir, resign and leave?"

Wu Zhirong deeply regretted underestimating Jia Lian, which left him with no room for resistance without any preparation.

Jia Lian looked at him, a half-smile on his face, and said, "What do you think?"

Wu Zhirong then became gloomy and dejected.

"Does Lord Wu think that I have some kind of relationship with An Siyuan? If you are willing to hand over his son, I can remember that you have a repentant heart and report your crimes truthfully without maliciously slandering you."

"If you don't cooperate, that's fine too. It will just add another charge to your list: murdering a colleague's young heir. This will deepen the Wu family's sins, but it won't cause me any loss."

Wu Zhirong knew that offending Jia Lian now was not a wise choice, but he hadn't completely given up. Having served as the prefect of Yangzhou for several years, he, like the salt merchants, had used money to pave his way and find a powerful backer. He still hoped that someone behind him could save him.

Therefore, he couldn't afford to offend Jia Lian too much, lest Jia Lian take advantage of his misfortune. So he said, "This humble official dares not deceive you, sir. Whether it was the matter of An Siyuan or the abduction of his son, it was all done by the salt merchants. This official truly knew nothing about it. However, after learning that Lord An's son had been abducted, this official did investigate and roughly found out that An Siyuan's son was in the hands of the salt merchant Wang family. If you wish to rescue him, sir, you might as well start with the Wang family."

Unable to protect himself, Wu Zhirong naturally refused to act as a protector for the salt merchants and betrayed them without hesitation.

"Really? Do you know the consequences of deceiving me?"

"This humble official dares not presume to say so; Your Excellency may investigate further and find out the truth."

Seeing that Wu Zhirong spoke sincerely, Jia Lian did not make things difficult for him. He had someone escort him back and then got up to go to the inner courtyard.

Originally, he only wanted to find Xu to exchange information, but when he saw Xu, she looked completely lost and dejected.

However, when she saw Jia Lian, she seemed to want to hide it.

"What's wrong?"

"No, it's nothing... You must be tired, my lord. Let me give you a shoulder massage..."

Madam Xu helped Jia Lian sit down and then began to massage his shoulders as usual.

Jia Lian frowned slightly, pulled her into his arms and sat her down, but stopped asking questions. Instead, he lifted her chin and smiled, "You say..."

Your son is in Wu Zhirong's hands. I have already arrested and interrogated him, but he claims that your son is not in his hands, but in the salt merchant Wang's house.

He doesn't seem to be lying. Could you be mistaken? Don't worry, regardless of whether your son is truly in the Wang family or not, as long as he's alive, I'm absolutely confident I can rescue him. Why don't you wait a few more days?"

Xu looked up at Jia Lian blankly, then suddenly broke free, turned over and knelt before him, sobbing, "What virtue or ability do I possess to deserve your concern, sir! I have an important message to convey to you..."

"What?"

"There are others attempting to assassinate you, sir!"

"!!"

……