jdhmnovel Chapter 514 Over 5 million2! Phoenix bicycle (page 12)
Chapter 514 Over 5 million2! Phoenix bicycle (page 12)
When this group of knightly guards came around, they all took out short muskets and aimed them at the Fan family.
Under such circumstances, even if their identities were exposed, no one in the Fan family dared to resist with a sword, and they all surrendered without mercy.
Fan Yongdou did not dare to resist the Cavalry Guards, but continued to beat his daughter for revealing his identity. The captain of the Cavalry Guards used a scabbard to pull him off his horse.
After everyone in the Fan family was tied up and Fan Yongdou's identity was truly confirmed, dozens of knights couldn't help but smile.
"I heard that the Fan family is the leader of Shanxi merchants and is one of the eight families named and punished by the Holy Emperor. We have captured Fan Yongdou, which is a great achievement this time."
"Hahaha, who says it's not?"
"The other teams are probably jealous of us."
After hearing the discussion of the Qiaoqiwei, Fan Yongdou realized that Liu Sheng paid so much attention to Shanxi merchants, especially the Fan family.
How could the Fan family escape in such a situation?
Thinking of the several concubines he had blown up to death with his own hands, Fan Yongdou regretted it and couldn't help roaring madly.
"why why!"
Seeing this, the captain of the Cavalry Guard sneered: "Why? Your Fan family should have expected this day from the day you colluded with the Qing captives and betrayed the country for glory."
Fan Yongdou couldn't help but argue, "Collude with the Qing Dynasty and betray the country for glory? I don't know how many businessmen do this. Why does the court target my Fan family?!"
The captain of the Cavalry Guard said, "Don't worry, none of the merchants who colluded with the Qing prisoners and smuggled contraband will be able to escape this time."
After hearing this, Fan Yongdou realized that the Fan family was just the first big piece of gravel to be crushed under the iron fist of the imperial court...
Qianyuan four years, late March.
The Da'ei imperial court's embroidered clothes guards, standing army, personal guards, and inspectorate acted jointly.
Dozens of Shanxi merchants including Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, Jin Liangyu, Wang Dayu, Liang Jiabin, Tian Shenglan, Qu Tang and Huang Yunfa were investigated and dealt with in one fell swoop.
These Shanxi merchants were either smuggling contraband, colluding with Qing captives to pass on information, or both.
What's more, when the Qing invaders entered the pass and attacked the city, they acted as internal agents and opened the city gates. In fact, they were an accomplice of the Qing invaders in massacre.
The Da'ei imperial court not only beheaded those who deserved to be beheaded and exiled those who deserved to be exiled, but also notified all provinces and counties of the crimes committed by these Shanxi merchants through notices, making the people of the world despise them.
He also asked historians to record it in the annals of history, making Fan and other traitorous merchants infamy for thousands of years!
April arrived in a blink of an eye.
Nanjing Purple City, Tianxin Hall.
Liu Sheng was listening to a joint report from the Inspectorate and Xiuyiwei on the results of the investigation into traitorous and smuggling Shanxi merchants.
In fact, Shanxi merchants were not the only ones in the north to smuggle and collude with the Qing Dynasty. There were also such merchants in Northern Zhili and Shaanxi, and former Ming officials and big households were also involved.
It's just that there are the most people of this type among Shanxi merchants, and they are also the most helpful to the Qing captives.
Since Liu Sheng decided to investigate Shanxi merchants, he would naturally not let these people go.
Therefore, this is actually a major operation involving the three provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and North Zhili.
"A total of 315 million taels of gold and more than 1 million taels of silver were seized this time. A number of jewelry, calligraphy and paintings and other jewelry were found, and their value cannot be estimated at the moment."
"In addition, a total of 13 hectares of farmland and a total of 1858 properties and shops were inspected..."
In fact, the documents, account books and other information related to the property of smuggling and traitorous merchants in the three northern provinces have been sent to Nanjing and handed over to the department for re-statistics.
These documents were piled up like a mountain, and it was naturally impossible for Liu Sheng to inspect them personally. He only needed to know the final results.
At this time, Fan Jingwen and Li Weiqi were asked to report, just for the convenience of hearing some information at any time.
As the commander of the Embroidery Guards, Li Weiqi has been responsible for many inspections in the past few years. When he heard these data, he couldn't help but feel emotional.
These businessmen are so damn rich.
But considering that these merchants, mainly Shanxi merchants, made their fortunes from smuggling and even selling information, the total number of merchants and large households in the three provinces that have been convicted of crimes is more than 100.
Li Weiqi felt that it was natural to be able to seize so much property.
However, as far as he knew, the eight major Shanxi merchants, including the Fan family, had contributed the most.
Take Fan as an example.
More than 100,000 taels of gold and millions of taels of silver were confiscated from several large houses in Laiyuan Fort, Zhangjiakou Fort and Jiexiu's hometown.
However, this is only a small part of the gold and silver hidden by Fan.
The bulk of it is in nine secret money cellars built by the Fan family with the efforts of several generations.
It's not that the Fan family can't build more money cellars, but it's because they have a superstitious belief in "nine is the best number" and worry too much.
Regarding the locations of these nine secret money cellars, Fan Yongdou would rather be "interrogated" to death by Xiu Yiwei than speak out.
Fortunately, Fan Yongdou was not the only one who knew the location of the money cellar. The other Fan family members did not regard wealth as life as much as Fan Yongdou did, and they successively revealed the locations of the nine money cellars.
When the Xiuyi Guards, the Inspectorate, and the Xiaoqi Guards jointly opened the nine money cellars.
I found out that it was called a money cellar. In fact, it contained almost all gold, silver and some easy-to-preserve jewelry.
And the silver is mostly cast into the shape of a large winter melon.
As for gold, it's not that the Fan family doesn't want to do it, but gold is too soft, and casting it into winter melon won't have as much of an anti-theft effect as silver.
After final statistics, the nine money cellars of the Fan family alone contained nearly 500,000 taels of gold and more than 8 million taels of silver!
It can be said that the wealth accumulated by the Fan family for six or seven generations has exceeded that of many vassal princes in the previous Ming Dynasty!
Although the other seven Shanxi merchants were much inferior to the Fan family, their combined wealth was equally astonishing.
Coupled with the more than 100 other convicted merchants in the three northern provinces, the amount of property confiscated is naturally an astonishing number.
Fan Jingwen, who personally told these shocking figures, was even more emotional.
Although he was born into a family of gentry and landowners in Hebei, and some members of his family were engaged in business, in terms of wealth, the entire clan combined was nothing compared to the bottom of the eight major Shanxi merchants.
Recalling that Emperor Chongzhen has been troubled by the financial problems of the Ming Dynasty since he came to the throne, I can't help but think: If Chongzhen knew that the eight Shanxi merchants had accumulated so much wealth through smuggling and betrayal, I wonder if Chongzhen would be so angry that he would survive.
If the imperial court had been able to track down these smuggling and traitorous merchants and seize these properties, the Ming Dynasty might have been able to sustain itself for more than ten years.
Then I knew that it would be difficult to accomplish this in the Ming Dynasty.
Not to mention how many officials were bribed by Shanxi merchants and other traitorous merchants, and they were even unclearly implicated in some high-ranking officials in the court.
Even if these smuggling and traitorous merchants were really investigated, with so many people involved, the number of seizures reported to the court would be estimated to be reduced to less than one-tenth.
Maybe even less.
The Ming Dynasty was like a sickly old man with too many problems that could not be saved by raiding a group of merchants.
Liu Sheng was sincerely happy when he heard these data again.
Although it was a one-time income, it also added more than 140 million taels of silver to Da'ei's treasury.
If you count those precious items such as jewelry, calligraphy and paintings, as well as numerous real estate properties.