Prince Su Shu looked at Lu Ming with cautious eyes.
Before he met Lu Ming, he had already found out his life experience.
Lu Ming was born into the Lu family in Jiaxing, a wealthy family whose poetry and calligraphy had been passed down for hundreds of years. During the previous dynasty, his family owned nearly 10,000 acres of land.
The Lu family and other local wealthy families persuaded the county magistrate to surrender, so that Jiaxing did not suffer military disasters.
The Lu family thus escaped the purge when the new dynasty was established. Most of their family's land was redeemed, but the Lu family could still enter the officialdom.
It was difficult for the Lu family to change their style, and they became important supporters of the old Confucian school.
There was a deep rift between Lu Ming and his father. He took advantage of the expansion of the empire and became a slave trader.
Taking advantage of the great development of the vassal country in America, Lu Ming traded slaves and accumulated a huge amount of wealth.
As the empire's major governor-general districts were abolished one after another, local Chineseization targets were achieved, and governor's offices were set up to rule the provinces.
Lu Ming judged that the slave trade would continue to decline without official support.
He sold the trading company in his hands before the slave trade was in obvious decline.
He later settled in Nanyang and engaged in cross-border trade.
Prince Su Shu said condescendingly: "Lu Ming, you are able to find your way back. This is a very correct choice.
You are not the mastermind behind this. If you explain your crimes carefully, you still have a chance to survive."
When Lu Ming heard Prince Su Shu's promise, he was relieved of his worries.
The empire's punishment for tax evasion is extremely severe. Anyone who exceeds 10,000 taels of silver will generally be sentenced to death.
Counting only the evaded taxes in his hands, a thousand lives would not be enough to kill him.
What they did was not just ordinary smuggling, but also evading some customs duties.
They also smuggled goods that were strictly prohibited from export by the empire to England, France and other European countries.
If he is not pardoned by a very powerful person, even if he plays a small role, it is impossible for him to survive.
Lu Ming earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in property. He was an extremely shrewd man. From the day he started smuggling, he had left a way out for himself.
He immediately knelt on the ground and said excitedly: "Your Highness, I know clearly the crimes these people have committed, and I have enough evidence in my hands.
These people think that I don't know their real secrets, so they completely underestimate me, Lu Ming.
I dared to go directly to the Japanese shogunate and negotiate the slave trade with the shogunate at the risk of being beheaded.
These people underestimated my courage and failed to see through my submissive appearance.
I only have a general understanding of the smuggling situation of these people before, but since I joined, I have recorded the smuggling situation very clearly.
Your Royal Highness, the relevant records are kept in the safe No. 1462 of the UOB Imperial Bank in Zhenyuan Province, Siam."
Prince Su Shu was very surprised that Lu Ming would store such criminal evidence in the safe of the UOB.
As the largest bank in the empire, UOB has no external deposit-taking or lending business.
The largest business of UOB is the issuance of gold and silver coins and banknotes.
The exchange of physical gold and silver from various foreign gold and silver currencies into imperial gold and silver coins must be completed through the UOB.
UOB also provides safe deposit boxes to protect customers' important property.
The customer sets the requirements for picking up the goods. If the requirements are not met, no one can take the goods out of the safe.
Prince Su Shu sent his confidant Dong Yunhan to retrieve the evidence that Lu Ming had placed in the Dahua Imperial Bank.
He sat on the chair again and asked Lu Ming: "Take this time to explain what you know."
Lu Ming stood up from the ground, his body trembling with fear, and he said tremblingly:
"Your Highness, there are too many things to do. I can't finish them all in detail for days and nights.
I can only talk about some situations that I think are important. If your Royal Highness has any questions, you can ask them at any time. I will tell you what I know."
Lu Ming saw His Royal Highness the Crown Prince nodding, and then he told the news he knew.
"I play a small role in the smuggling group and am mainly responsible for contacting buyers.
When I was engaged in the slave trade, I met many Europeans with a wide range of connections.
The empire was very generous to men, and even strong laborers could be resold to vassal states.
But the empire also lacks women, and the empire still needs to leave some women to attract immigrants from within the country.
The number of women is limited, and a living person cannot be choked to death by urinating, so we will set our sights elsewhere.
Our trade with Europe is the most frequent. Many places in Europe are at war and have extremely rich slave resources.
It is for this reason that I have close friendships with many European slave traders.
There are three leaders behind the smuggling group. One is Nanyang Governor Ma Kaiheng, who is mainly responsible for contacting the source of goods and exchanging contraband civet cats for princes.
On one side is Wu Hongyou, the director of the Nanyang Customs Administration. He is from the Wu family and has tentacles all over Nanyang.
Especially Nanyang Customs is almost the sole authority of the Wu family.
Without the cover-up of customs, the scale of smuggling would not be so large.
On one side is Huang Ying, the head of the Huang family of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce. The Huang family is an in-law of the Wu family and is responsible for the transportation of goods.
This smuggling gang is headed by the Wu family, and Ma Kaiheng would be the governor of Nanyang.
The scale of smuggling is so large that almost everyone in Nanyang knows it, and even the Wu family will not interfere with it like the Ma family.
The scale of smuggling is not large, but the funds involved are extremely large.
The amount I know is thirty million taels of silver a year.
The unit price of the smuggled goods is extremely high, and they are mainly contraband items that are prohibited from export by the empire.
A simple reciprocating steam engine sells for only 3,000 taels of silver coins in China, but sells for 500,000 taels of silver coins in Europe.
One hundred flash hats are not worth even one silver coin in China, but in Europe, one flash hat can be sold for five taels of silver coins.
Domestic wheat seeds cost only one tael of silver coins per pound, but when sold to Europe, one pound of wheat seeds can be sold for one thousand taels of silver coins.
Profits of hundreds or thousands of times are enough to drive people crazy.
The most valuable things are various machines, which are small in size but extremely expensive.
A domestic boring machine sold for two thousand taels of silver coins to the British, and they offered it two million taels of silver coins."
Prince Su Shu stood up angrily. He couldn't help but cursed: "These are the worms of the country. If we don't kill them, the people will not be angry."
Steam engines and various machines are the products of the industrialization of the Great China Empire, and they are the basis for the Empire to settle down and survive.
For just a few silver coins, these borers resold these things to European countries that were still hostile to the empire.
Europe also has its own civilization, and the craftsmen there are definitely not stupid.
With physical references, steam engines and various machines, sooner or later they will be able to reproduce them.
Prince Su Shu studied history before, and he was very angry at these moths who harmed the public and enriched private interests.
The Shanxi merchants of the previous Ming Dynasty had to deal with the situation when the Ming army on the front line was hungry and used scrap weapons.
They sold a large amount of food and weapons to the Houjin Tatars.
Prince Su Shu previously believed that this was a chaotic dance of demons that occurred in the last years of the dynasty.
He didn't expect that even when the empire was at its peak, there were still these people who betrayed the country's interests.
Prince Su Shu observed his father's policy and found that the empire strictly guarded against things like steam engines, but did not maintain extreme confidentiality.
If you want to keep something secret and completely open it to the public, it is very difficult to do so.
His father had already prepared for the leakage of steam engine technology.
My father said that if technology stagnates, it will be overtaken by latecomers.
Those who walk ahead need to pass through a jungle full of thorns.
Those who are following only need to follow the path of those in front, which will save a lot of effort.
Prince Su Shu didn't quite understand it before, but now he understands it somewhat.
He asked curiously: "Lu Ming, do you know why these people swallowed the diesel? Without this matter, you don't know when the incident will break out."
Lu Ming said with emotion: "This should be a mistake of cleverness.
According to my observation, the person who did this was mainly driven by the governor of Nanyang, Ma Kaiheng.
The most important factor is that Ma Kaiheng's position needs to be changed.
He must straighten out his previous accounts before leaving to prevent the new governor from finding out the clues later.
It takes a lot of money to settle the account, because the incident happened suddenly, so you can only choose products that are sold quickly and don't attract attention.
The three parties discussed and discussed, and they found that in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Jiaozhi areas, the newly emerged diesel fuel was privately priced higher and sold very quickly.
The most important thing is that this new product does not attract attention.
They decided to let the 10,000-ton cargo ship Min 163 haul all the diesel stored in Zhenhai Port to the Guangdong and Guangxi areas for sale.
There were signs of the crash of two other 10,000-ton cargo ships.
In this way, the Huang family can obtain two additional 10,000-ton cargo ships.
With these two ships, which are extremely suitable for ocean-going trade, they can conduct normal trade before the new governor joins the team.
Who knew that God would be unfavorable and there would be typhoon activity in November.
Due to the violent storms brought by the typhoon, ships transporting diesel were unable to leave the port.
Who knew that being just half a month late could cause such a big disturbance."
After Prince Su Shu listened, he understood the cause and effect of the matter.
Ma Kaiheng's transfer of positions is indeed true. Nanyang Province will have a great achievement, and there will be many people with ability and background.
They had known the news in advance and were ready to grab this great achievement.
Ma Kaiheng, who did not have a strong background, could only be transferred to other places to make way for these talented people.
Prince Su Shu was in the court at that time, just watching it for fun. He didn't expect that this small incident would eventually lead to this series of events.
He waved his hand and asked someone to take Lu Ming down.
As a tainted witness, Lu Ming must not let anything happen to him. He must turn this case into a flawless iron case.
Prince Su Shu also requested Governor Ma Fenjin of the Nanyang Governor's Office to send more manpower to prepare for arresting relevant personnel.
He only trusted the military who had no interest in smuggling.
He didn't dare to use the local Criminal Ministry and the Metropolitan Procuratorate in Nanyang.
People with innocent backgrounds have already joined the investigation team before.
Those who have not joined the investigation team will have more or less problems.
Governor Ma Kaiheng, the Wu family and the Huang family have been operating in Nanyang for too long, and it is impossible to judge how deep their hidden power is.
Prince Su Shu was so busy that he fell asleep on the table. Fortunately, the temperature here in Nanyang is very warm.
He was awakened by anxious knocking on the door outside.
"Come in."
Dong Yunhan approached the room carrying a large box, put the box down and opened it at the same time.
Prince Su Shu looked at the things inside. They mainly contained account books.
He stepped forward and opened the account book, which contained detailed smuggling information.
What cargo? How much is it worth? When will it depart from which port?
This account book is clearly recorded.
The account book occupies less than half of the box, which shows the amount of smuggling.
Prince Su Shu looked at the other things in the box and was very surprised.
This was a neat pile of photos, and he looked at the top photo.
The black and white photo is a bit blurry, but it can be seen that it was traded in the port.
His impression of the photo was still the battle between Lin Wenjing and Gu Qiandao.
Lin Wenjing was more skilled and used a camera to capture the Gu family's smuggling scene.
Prince Su Shu did not expect that technology would spread so quickly.
He didn't even expect that a minister of the Ministry of Finance had already been imprisoned because of this technology.
Governor Ma Kaiheng still hasn't learned his lesson, and the process of getting lost was clearly captured on camera.
Prince Su Shu picked up these photos and looked at them. The clarity of these black and white photos went from blurry to clear.
These photos demonstrate the rapid development of camera technology.
The last few clear photos clearly captured the figures of Wu Hongyou, director of the Nanyang Customs Administration, and Huang Ying, the head of the Huang family of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce.
Prince Su Shu frowned slightly. With these photos, he could already convict Wu Hongyou and Huang Ying.
But it is still a bit far-fetched to accuse Ma, the governor of Nanyang.
He looked at the thing next to the photo, which was a palm-sized vinyl disk.
This kind of thing is also easy to identify, it is the plastic disc used in phonographs.
He didn't expect that Lu Ming could do so many things. He could not only take photos, but also record the voices of these people talking.
He asked someone to bring the gramophone with some anticipation, then gently picked up the tape and placed it on the gramophone.
He moved the pointer of the gramophone, and a slightly noisy sound came from the gramophone.
Here are several people discussing the proceeds of smuggling and distributing the benefits.
Prince Su Shu listened to all these tapes and found Master Ma's tape among them.
He immediately called local officials in Nanyang to identify him.
One of the voices is whether it is the governor of Nanyang, Ma Kaiheng himself.
The three officials were also able to identify several of the speakers and who they were.
The governor of Nanyang, Ma Kaiheng, Ma Kaiheng's younger brother Ma Baosheng, and the director of the Nanyang Customs Administration Wu Hongyou are frequent speakers of the voice.
When Prince Su Shu received the confirmed results, he immediately asked his men to seal the evidence.
As we all know, with current technical conditions, it is impossible to modify the contents of photos and gramophone vinyl discs.
All these can be used as solid evidence that he can take action against Ma Kaiheng, the governor of Nanyang, in accordance with his father's will.
Prince Su Shu sent a telegram to inquire whether the military and investigation team members had arrived at the designated location.
The army is responsible for arresting people, and the investigation team is responsible for collecting evidence.
The forces of the army and the investigation team check and balance each other, and the two parties are extremely unfamiliar.
It would be difficult for the two parties to cooperate with each other and deceive Prince Su Shu.
Prince Su Shu received the call when everyone was ready.
He sent a telegram to everyone, and the arrest operation officially began.
He wanted to catch all these people in one fell swoop. Quick and concerted action was very necessary to prevent them from escaping or colluding with their confessions.
After Prince Su Shu gave the order, he sat on the chair and waited for the result with peace of mind.
The military has already taken action. This is a thunderous method.
Even if Ma Kaiheng, the governor of Nanyang, is really the local emperor here, there is nothing he can do.
