It has been seven years since Su Changzhen assumed the position of governor of Southern Zhili.
During these seven years, Su Changzhen used various methods such as forming a party for personal gain, corruption and bribery, and plundering. He went to great lengths to amass money, and the Su family quickly became the leading wealthy family in southern Zhili, with huge wealth and land.
There are endless streets, high gates and deep courtyards, and clusters of shops. Even in Nanzhili, where there are countless rich people, Su Changzhen's family wealth is among the best. On weekdays, the children of the Su family live a luxurious life.
But on this day, the glory of the Su family finally came to an end!
Just three days ago, the former cabinet minister and imperial envoy Huang Yourong came to Nanzhili and announced Emperor Deqing's decree to investigate and try Su Changzhen's various crimes.
It stands to reason that when trying to deal with a high-ranking official like Su Changzhen, one should proceed with caution, carry out repeated investigations, collect evidence in detail, conduct open and covert investigations, appeal and cross-examine. It will take at least two months to complete the process and convict Su Changzhen!
However, Huang Yourong acted vigorously and resolutely. In just three days, he completed all the case handling procedures and confirmed all the charges against Su Changzhen!
Although he was a little hasty, Huang Yourong knew that no one would blame him. After all, the fall of Su Changzhen would be good for everyone! The common people would applaud when they saw the fall of corrupt officials, and the officials in South Zhili had hope of further promotion.
, Emperor Deqing was able to obtain Su Changzhen's huge property, and Huang Yourong himself and Zhao Junchen, the man behind him, were also able to take advantage of the opportunity to reap many benefits!
Therefore, no one will question Huang Yourong's arbitrary handling of the case. Perhaps Su Changzhen and his comrades will be dissatisfied, but these people have completely lost power now, and no one will pay attention to their ideas.
After Su Changzhen was convicted, Huang Yourong couldn't wait any longer. He immediately led a large number of soldiers to the Su Mansion and started ransacking the house!
This is Huang Yourong's fundamental goal, and the so-called trial and conviction is just a trivial prerequisite.
At the same time that Guo Tang's house was ransacked, the same disaster also hit the house of Su Changzhen, the former governor of Southern Zhili.
At this time, the originally magnificent and luxurious Su Mansion was now in shambles. The originally pampered Su family members were now all detained in the front yard of the Su Mansion. Those servants of the Su family who had always acted like a fox and a tiger were forced to
Kneeling around with hands tied, everyone was trembling tightly around Su Changzhen. Everyone in the Su family felt that a disaster was approaching and the end was coming. As for Su Changzhen himself, his face was full of despair and numbness at this time.
There was no resistance, just watching everything in front of me quietly.
After the soldiers broke into the Su Mansion, they began a cleaning-like search. Inside the Su Mansion, there were sounds of doors being kicked, boxes and cabinets being rummaged, rude yells and heavy footsteps, all filled with misery and panic.
The atmosphere. The soldiers searched house after house. All valuables were taken away, and all worthless things were discarded on the ground. If anyone in the Su Mansion dared not cooperate, they would be beaten with fists and kicks.
Now that the Su family has become a phoenix, it is worse than a chicken, and the soldiers have always been rude, so naturally they will not be polite.
Huang Yourong, who was commanding the soldiers to search the house, had a proud face at this time, looking at the magnificent Su Mansion, secretly calculating in his heart how much benefit he could gain this time!
At this moment, a sudden change occurred.
In the backyard of the Su family, there was suddenly a violent quarrel and yelling, and it seemed that someone was still fighting.
Huang Yourong, who was disturbed by this movement, was naturally unhappy. He turned to a householder next to him and ordered: "Go and see what's going on! Could it be that the soldiers were talking to each other when they saw a certain piece of valuable property?"
Can’t fight for it? All of Su Changzhen’s property will be confiscated, tell them to keep their hands and feet clean!”
After receiving the order, the man from the household quickly went to check the situation.
It didn't take long for this man from a hundred households to come to Huang Yourong with more than a dozen soldiers and two young women, and reported to Huang Yourong: "Your Majesty, the imperial envoy, it is not the soldiers who are fighting for property, but the soldiers under the low-ranking subordinates.
When he was about to search a house, he was blocked by several officials from the Metropolitan Procuratorate. These officials seemed to have been ordered by the deputy envoy Mr. Gu Quangu to protect the women in the house. However, the soldiers under his subordinates were rude and ignorant.
, he only wanted to search his house, so he got into conflict with these government officials."
After hearing Baihu's answer, Huang Yourong couldn't help but be stunned. Then he looked at it again and found that the soldiers in front of him were clearly divided into two groups. One group of people were wearing military uniforms and were military soldiers from Suzhou, while the other group was wearing military uniforms.
The person who served was dressed as a yamen servant, and he was a yamen servant from the Imperial Procuratorate brought by Gu Quan, the censor of Youqiandu, from the capital.
Then, Huang Yourong looked at the two women again, only to find that the leading woman was about eight years old, with a beautiful face, exquisite facial features, a slender figure, and a gentle and charming temperament. Although she looked panicked now, she also looked a little more...
The endearing woman was obviously a lady from a wealthy family and seemed to be a direct relative of Su Changzhen, while the other woman was much inferior and was obviously the former's maid.
Then, Huang Yourong turned to Gu Quan and asked, "Master Gu, what on earth is going on? Did you really send officers from the Metropolitan Procuratorate to protect them? What is their origin that makes Master Gu care so much?"
Huang Yourong knew very well that Gu Quan was only his deputy envoy in name, but in reality he was Zhao Junchen's spokesperson, so he was very polite when he asked questions. He just wanted to find out the reason and had no intention of questioning or accusing him.
Gu Quan did not answer Huang Yourong's question immediately, but nodded to the woman and said with a smile: "This girl must be Miss Su Xiuning, right? Please don't worry, girl. Although the Su family has encountered a disaster, girl, you have a noble person."
If you help each other, you will never run into any trouble."
Then, Gu Quancai turned to Huang Yourong and explained softly: "Your Majesty, the imperial envoy, this girl is Su Xiuning, the youngest daughter of Su Changjin. His Majesty personally acted as a matchmaker for Zhao Junchen and Zhao, and found three girls in total, and this Su Xiuning
Miss Su is one of them. She and Mr. Zhao have met many times, and Mr. Zhao also has a very good impression of her."
After hearing Gu Quan's explanation, Huang Yourong suddenly realized that this woman was actually attracted by Zhao Junchen. No wonder Gu Quan would send someone to protect her deliberately, presumably to please Zhao Junchen.
Then, Huang Yourong looked at Su Xiuning again and thought to himself: "If this woman finally enters the Zhao Mansion, then the Su family may not have a chance to turn around in the future..."
Then, Huang Yourong ordered the householder: "Let's handle this matter according to your wishes. Don't disturb this girl. We must send someone to take good care of her. We must not let the soldiers frighten her...
Yes, most of this girl's boudoir contains her personal belongings, so don't let anyone search it. After the Su Mansion is sealed, you will personally find a secluded and comfortable house for this girl to stay, and
Send all this girl’s things over.”
Huang Yourong's decision was naturally against the rules of the imperial court, but he was now the imperial envoy, and this matter was not an important matter, so naturally no one dared to disobey his order. The hundred households respectfully agreed.
After that, he went to do things according to Huang Yourong's instructions.
Gu Quan smiled and thanked Huang Yourong: "Thank you, Lord Imperial Envoy, for your help. I will definitely report your kindness to Lord Zhao."
Huang Yourong nodded slightly, but said nothing more and continued to direct the soldiers to search the Su Mansion.
On the other side, Su Xiuning could have returned to her room. With the special care of Huang Yourong and Gu Quan, no one dared to disturb her now. However, after Su Xiuning saw the trembling Su family members in the front yard, she finally did not
He returned to his room, suppressed the panic in his heart, walked to Su Changzhen's side, and shouldered everything in front of him with his relatives.
Seeing Su Xiuning's choice, Huang Yourong and Gu Quan both nodded secretly.
At the same time, Su Changzhen, who was already numb and desperate, seemed to have thought of something after seeing the special treatment given to Su Xiuning by Huang Yourong and Gu Quan, and his eyes regained some brightness.
*
The Su Mansion was very large and had a lot of property. Even though Huang Yourong used a total of 300 soldiers and 20 accountants, the raid lasted for a full day.
It was not until evening that the accountants finally finished counting all Su Changzhen's property and registered all valuables.
"Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy, Your Majesty the Deputy Envoy, the counting results have come out." In the living room of the Su Mansion, an accountant reported to Huang Yourong and Gu Quan: "There are a total of 228 pieces of red gold jewelry, 21 hanging pearls, inlaid
Three golden ivory tendons, eleven pale gold plates, one hundred and seventy-seven precious calligraphy and paintings...eighteen black fox skins, six green fox skins, thirty-six mink skins, and twelve lynx skins
, three rolls of velvet... one hundred and thirty rolls of silk and satin, one hundred and eighty-one rolls of gauze, thirty-two rolls of feather crepe, eight rolls of python satin... thirty-two jade toys, one hundred and forty gold and silver utensils
Seven pieces, more than 500 pieces of copper, tin and other items, and a fat jade ring... The hoard contains 375,200 taels of silver, 5,500 taels of red gold, and 7,163 taels of copper coins... In addition,
, there are also thirty-seven land deeds, seventy-one store deeds, thirteen house deeds, two hundred and eleven farm deeds, and nine debt notes..."
There were many valuable items in the Su Mansion, and it took the accountant nearly half an hour to report them all. His mouth felt dry and his throat was on fire.
There was so much property, there was really a mountain of gold and silver! There were also countless jewels that the soldiers hid on their bodies and took away.
On the other side, after hearing the accountant's report, Huang Yourong and Gu Quan were both a little stunned.
Among them, Gu Quan was just shocked by Su Changzhen's huge family fortune, but Huang Yourong was a little jealous in his heart. He felt that as a dignified former cabinet minister, he had not amassed so much money in the nearly ten years of assisting the cabinet.
When he retired and became an official, he respectfully gave them all to Emperor Deqing, but he didn't expect that Su Changzhen's family property was even more than his own!
Then, Huang Yourong sneered and said, "With so much valuable property, I'm afraid it won't be less than a million taels in total? This Su Changjin is really good at amassing money and extravagant! However, the amount of gold and silver stolen is too little. With Su Changzhen
How could it be possible that Zhen's net worth is only three to four hundred thousand taels of Tibetan silver..."
Gu Quan nodded and said: "It's not surprising that Su Changzhen can't hide all the money in his own house. I'm afraid he has other places to hide the money."
Huang Yourong stood up and said to Gu Quan: "It seems that Su Changzhen still needs to continue the interrogation, and he must spit out all the money! Mr. Gu, do you want to go with me?"
Gu Quan served as the deputy imperial envoy this time. He originally wanted to monitor Huang Yourong and prevent Huang Yourong from secretly taking too many benefits. Now that Huang Yourong wanted to ask Su Changzhen where he hid his money, Gu Quan naturally wanted to go with him. Otherwise, if Huang Yourong secretly concealed it
If there are several places where silver is hidden, Zhao Junchen's interests will be damaged.
Therefore, Gu Quan also stood up, nodded and said with a smile: "Of course we will go together, how dare you trouble the imperial envoy to interrogate Su Changzhen alone."
Huang Yourong also understood what Gu Quan was really thinking, but he didn't expose it and just walked out of the living room of the Su Mansion.
*
At this time, because the house raid had ended and it was getting late, everyone in the Su family was imprisoned in the rooms of the Su Mansion.
Among them, Su Changjin was the first offender and received the treatment of solitary confinement.
When Huang Yourong and Gu Quan arrived at the room where Su Changzhen was being held, they found that Su Changzhen was sitting on a chair with his eyes closed, his expression much calmer than the previous few days.
After Huang Yourong entered the room, he returned to his former "smiling tiger" character. He sat down directly in front of Su Changzhen and said with a warm smile: "I have really offended Mr. Su these days, but as an imperial envoy of the imperial court, I
, it’s just official business, I hope Mr. Su can forgive me."
Su Changzhen slowly opened his eyes and said calmly: "It's nothing. Mr. Su has been corrupt and perverted the law, and he deserves this retribution."
Huang Yourong still smiled and said: "Mr. Su, it's best if you can think about it! Now that the case is over and the house search has been completed, I will not deliberately make things difficult for Mr. Su. After all, there is a comradeship between you and me. Mr. Su
If you have any requests, as long as they are not too excessive, I will try my best to satisfy them."
Su Changzhen suddenly smiled, with a hint of sadness in his smile, and asked: "Mr. Huang Ge came to see Mr. Su this time, probably for the sake of money, right? Mr. Huang Ge felt that the amount of silver hidden by Mr. Su was too small.
You think Mr. Su must have another place to hide the silver, so you want to find out the news from Mr. Su?"
Huang Yourong sighed: "That's true. All this money will be confiscated. Naturally, I don't dare to let Mr. Su hide it, otherwise it will be difficult to explain to the court."
Su Changzhen was silent for a moment, and then said: "Su can tell Mr. Huang Ge where the rest of the silver is hidden, but Su has one request."
Huang Yourong's eyes lit up and he quickly asked, "Oh? Mr. Su, if you have any requests, just ask!"
As if he had made up his mind, Su Changzhen said slowly: "Su will have a private meeting with his daughter Su Xiuning for half an hour, and no one can disturb her during this period!"
"sure!"
Huang Yourong's expression changed slightly, and then he agreed to Su Changzhen's request simply and neatly.