I'm watching the gate in the jail

Master Ma was getting old, and his bones were still very hard. He stayed up until the middle of the night, clenching his teeth, and refused to say a word.

Wanda sat on the top chair, watching helplessly being beaten into a blood gourd.

He wanted to rush to the imperial prison several times, to take a shower in the heavy rain outside, to breathe fresh air.

But he can't go.

If you leave now, then the request of brother-in-law to "take good care of these 'unreasonable' brocade guards for me" will be completely impossible to fulfill.

Let go of fantasy and face reality.

Wanda said to herself.

Finally, just before Wanda couldn't hold on anymore, good news came from the torture room next door.

Ma Wei's nephew, who was being interrogated by Deng Xiang, couldn't stand the punishment and confessed!

"Well……"

After Wanda heard it, as if she had been pardoned, she covered her mouth with one hand and rushed towards the gate of the imperial prison.

"grown ups!"

Yang Xiuxian quickly followed out.

Hugging a big tree in the courtyard, Wanda retched for a long time, vomiting out nothing but a mouthful of sour water.

"call……"

He turned around, leaned his back against the big tree, and took a long breath.

Looking up, I found that the torrential rain just now had completely stopped, the sky was slightly purple, and only the leaves were still dripping raindrops intermittently.

The night sky is like washing, a piece of blue.

"My lord, are you... all right. Do you want Gao Hui to take you home?"

Yang Xiuxian raised his hand and reached out to him, thought for a while, and then slowly put it down.

Wanda shook her head, knowing that she had finally passed this hurdle.

In the future, no matter whether it is going to prison or sent to the execution room, it will not be his hindrance.

"No. Bring me the testimony later."

Wanda held her still churning stomach and stood up straight.

"Yang Qianhu."

He said.

"In the future, whether it's picking someone up or trying a case, you'll have to bring me with you."

It is a command and a plea.

"Yes……"

Yang Xiuxian nodded.

When he looked up again, he was already smiling.

"It's almost dawn. Let's go to the dining hall to find something to eat. We didn't eat anything last night."

When he said this, Wanda really felt that he was not hungry at all.

It happened that Gao Hui also came over from the prison, and the three decided to abandon Deng Xiang who was still interrogating Ma Wei's eldest son, and went to have breakfast together.

Deng Zongqi, who worked hard, held up his whip: I'll fuck you!

----------------

The breakthrough point is Ma Shilang's nephew, Wang Wenbao, who currently works as the treasurer of the Ministry of Household Affairs.

But he was only willing to admit that he had taken the benefits of the Ma family and his sons, and bought the treasury soldiers and pawns for them, and manipulated the money into the treasury.

As for the source of the fake money, no matter how many severe punishments Deng Xiang imposed, he just didn't say a word.

The Bank of the Household Bank located in the capital is just behind the Yamen of the Household Department, so it is also called "Houku".

As the money bag of Ming Dynasty, part of the tax bills handed in from all over the country remained in the local state treasury, and the other part was escorted to the capital and collected in the treasury of the household department in the capital.

These silvers of different colors and sizes will be melted, and then cast into large silver ingots such as ten taels, 20 taels, and 50 taels, with the date and stamp on the back, and then stored in the warehouse for safekeeping.

This is also the reason why Yang Xiuxian felt something was wrong when he held the money at the tea stall outside Linshuiju that day.

This is clearly how the official bank, which is not easy to circulate, appeared in the hands of street crooks.

It is also because of this that he has more eyes, and after a closer look, he finds that this is not only official bank, but also fake official bank.

In the most important place in the capital, at the feet of the emperor, there are people who dare to do such a thing, how courageous it is!

After separating from Wanda, Yang Xiuxian immediately sent his men to the south of the city to arrest the so-called "scorpion head".

In order not to startle the enemy and alert the whole clue behind the scoundrel, the Jinyi guards all changed into plain clothes and acted secretly.

The wrestlers lay in ambush near Laizitou's house for two or three days without a trace.Eavesdropping on the conversation between her mother and her neighbors, she found that she did not know the whereabouts of her son.Just as usual, his son committed a crime and fled outside the city.

It was mentioned in words that they have a distant relative in Baoding Mansion, and there is also a boy who is not good at learning in the family, and his son often hangs out with him.

Suspecting that "Scorpion Head" had escaped from the capital, Jinyi Guards turned around and went back to the Fusi Yamen in Beizhen, asking Shangfeng to issue a ticket to go out to handle the case.Then a ticket of Tiqi galloped to Hebei.

Who knew that on this day, this "scarred head" sneaked back home, took two taels of money, and sneaked into the city again to harm that young lady of the Qiao family...

Rushing to the open space where the body was found, both Yang Xiuxian and Deng Xiang felt frustrated.

The death of a rogue is not a big deal, the key is to cut off the clues to trace the origin of the fake silver.

Then, thousands of households riding little donkeys appeared...

Wanda was speechless for a long time, not knowing that such a big thing happened before that day, and she was completely kept in the dark.

Putting down his chopsticks, he looked at Yang Xiuxian with grievances.

Those watery eyes were like the "Golden Silk Tiger" who barked "Woomy" after not eating for half an hour, and Yang Xiuxian's heart softened when he saw it.

Master Yang couldn't help clasping his fists, promising that they would never hide the truth from thousands of households again in their investigations.

"It's almost there."

Wanda accepted it as soon as she saw it, turned her head to look at Gao Hui who was serving her the third bowl of rice, and said angrily, "It's fine if they keep it from me, why are you also keeping it from me?"

Gao Hui, Gao Hui, you big-eyed traitor!

I thought that only those who grew up like Deng Xiang would rebel. Although you are a bit "straight man", you are straight-hearted, but I didn't expect to be with them!

"Huh? I don't know you don't know, my lord. Didn't you show up at the scene, my lord?"

Gao Hui was stunned for a moment, then continued to bow his head to cook.

Wanda's temple twitched.

GOOD! VERY GOOD!

Now I fully understand why Wang Xi sent you to follow me!

Want to piss me off!

----------------

Although Wang Wenbao let go, the mouths of Ma and his son are still as tight as clam shells.Flowing water seemed to throw instruments of torture on them, and the two of them endured for two days without letting go.

After all, helping to sell stolen goods and making fake money are completely different things.

The former decapitated and exiled the army, while the latter not only decapitated, but also skinned and filled grass and exterminated the clan.

Fortunately, Wang Wenbao had already given out a list of Shushu in the household department. From top to bottom, they bought the Kushi, Kubing, Bitieshi and others who were in charge of document records.

After these people arrest the case, they should be able to find out the whereabouts of the silver soon.

Following the crowd, Wanda searched for clues to solve the case among boxes of stolen goods stolen from Ma's house.

"I'll go! This old man still scolds me, he has the face to scold me! Who gave him the courage?"

Looking at the piles of gold, silver and jewelry, as well as countless antique calligraphy and paintings, Wanda put her hands on her hips angrily, "The right servant of the household department is a third-rank official. According to the regulations, the monthly salary is only 35 shilumi. Where did the family get so much?" treasure!"

Although the salaries of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty were notoriously low, the old Zhu family did not have a policy of "high salaries and honesty" for their subordinates, and they squeezed as much as they could.

Therefore, among the officials of the Ming Dynasty, except Hai Rui, who only had one high-level official in hundreds of years, they generally made money.

Otherwise, let alone raising family members and servants, they might not even be able to afford food—after all, the old Zhu’s salary, the so-called stone rice grain, is not really rice.

Instead, the rice was mixed with silver taels of poor quality, and what was more, it was mixed with "big Ming banknotes" that were worth a little money in the early stage, but basically equivalent to waste paper in the later stage.

Therefore, the court turned a blind eye to officials using their power to make money for themselves. Otherwise, why would there be a Hai Rui in hundreds of years.

But these treasures all over the ground have completely exceeded the scope of the default rules.

Wanda recalled the "Prince Gong's Mansion" that he had visited in Beijing in his previous life, which is also the legendary Heshen's former residence. In the introduction of the scenic spots, he once glanced at the silver treasures that Heshen was searched for after being raided by Emperor Jiaqing. list.

At that time, he didn't really feel how corrupt Heshen was - after all, poverty limited human imagination.

Of course, Mr. Ma and Mr. He are not on the same level of corruption.Even so, it was enough to make modern Wan Xinghai feel aggrieved.

Looking back, I thought about when I first arrived in the capital, I only received such a few gifts, and I was so frightened that I couldn't sleep, and I took the initiative to go to Wan Zhen'er and surrendered.He also thought of the way the old man surnamed Ma scolded him in the imperial prison that day.

Why is there such a big gap between people?

And didn't you agree that I'm the villain?

"My lord, I still haven't found out..."

On one side, the school lieutenants and scribes sorted out all the treasures and registered them in the register one by one.There is another group of pawns looking through all the account books, documents, and letters confiscated from the Ma family, trying to find something similar to the account books.

The treasures piled up in two small halls in front of you are definitely not something that can be accumulated overnight.

The specific amount of embezzled silver and the ins and outs of the counterfeit silver can only be checked clearly by finding the ledger.

After a few days, a group of school lieutenants and clerks have gone through all the scraps of paper copied from Ma's house. They also found a lot of journals and gift slips at home, but the most important one was not found.

"We're going to Ma Mansion to search again to see if there are any extra clues. Do you want to go together?"

When Yang Xiuxian walked in, he saw the hot scene of everyone in the room.

Commander Yuan talked to him just now, talking about the fake bank case of the Ministry of Households, His Majesty Long Yan was furious in the early court, and the governor of Xianbei Town wanted to find out the truth before the Chinese New Year.

It is already the end of November, and there is only one month before the deadline His Majesty said.

Wanda jumped out from a pile of gold and silver, and nodded to Yang Xiuxian.

Seeing that the big Buddha finally left, the captains and wrestlers in the room stopped their work at the same time and let out a long sigh of relief.

"My God, it's finally gone. I haven't stopped all morning."

The clerk dropped the brush in his hand, shook his sore arm, and looked bitter.

"Thousands of households are working too hard. These days, they stare at us every day, and they don't go to the back kitchen. Those guys are out of control, and they can't even cook well these days."

"That's right, the work is so tiring, and I haven't had a bite of delicious food. I'll let Deng Zongqi talk to Mr. Wan later, let him not just stare at us, but also take care of his old subordinates."

Everyone complained, completely forgetting that in the past ten years or so, they still had to work.

"The most important thing is that the adults are here to stare... how can we do things in front of him."

A little flag stood up with his hips akimbo, commanding two wrestlers and a school lieutenant on one side, and said, "Hurry up, before your lord comes back, send out the things that were previously sealed."

The wrestlers swiftly carried several small boxes in the small room to other empty rooms in the yamen, and soon a respondent transported them out through the back door.

If it weren't for Yang Qianhu's "tune the tiger away from the mountain", they don't know when they would have smuggled these few boxes of "self-money" out of Mr. Wan's nose.

As Wanda said before, the salary of officials in the Ming Dynasty was not high, and the salary of a third-rank official was only 35 shilumi a month.

The salaries of low-level officials in Jinyiwei like them are even more pitiful.

The low-level personnel such as Xiaoqi, Lishi, and Xiaowei are the worst.

Those who are married and have a small family have forty liters of rice per month.A bachelor without a small family can only have fifteen liters of rice a month, so no matter how unpalatable the food in the canteen before, he had to mix two meals a day.

Moreover, the rice distributed here is not Lumi, it is mixed with a lot of brown rice and coarse grains, which is neither full nor good for eating.

In this case, if there is no oil and water to fish for, who will give their lives to the court.

Besides, Jinyiwei is not a Qingshui yamen like the Imperial Academy, it is a place where ruthless people gather.

Prisoners are living ingots in their eyes.As long as criminals come in, don't worry about whether they can be released later or how much they can blackmail.

Any prisoner who eats, drinks water, and lights a fire in the prison must demand money from his family.Not to mention the money that the family members dealt up and down in order to settle the case.

It may cost thousands of taels of silver, but in the end the prisoner will die in the imperial prison.

——If you have the ability, come and complain to me!

Be it Dongchang or Jinyiwei, the raiding of homes, especially those of high officials, was the source of their wealth.

As a rule, at least one-third of the confiscated property would be stopped at the Jinyiwei Yamen.The rest will be handed over to the Ministry of Households and rushed into the national treasury or the emperor's private treasury.

Before doing these things, they were all aboveboard.After all, in the yamen, everyone has the opportunity to participate in "sharing".

Whether Master Yang or Master Yuan, they all turned a blind eye.

But this time, a "thousands of households" happened to come.

Recently, Mr. Wan stopped being obsessed with cooking, and instead followed Yang Qianhu to handle the case, which made them have to be quick.

During the limited time when Wanda went out to eat and pee these few days, they transferred a batch of jewelry and some silver that were easy to get rid of like thieves, and they were waiting to distribute them to the brothers of Fusi in Quanbei Town.

"Boss, do you need to honor Master Wan?"

After transferring the things, the captain came over and asked Xiaoqi.

"You are stupid. Yang Qianhu specially told us not to let him find out, and you took the initiative to join us? Besides, he is Wan Niangniang's younger brother, the second son of the dignified Xinlebo family, what do you want? We are here Do you want 'filial piety'?"

"Yes, yes, who doesn't know that the emperor and empress call him into the palace for rewards from time to time. Don't let him know about this."

Everyone reached a consensus.

Just getting off the horse, Wanda sneezed violently and almost staggered.

"What? Got a cold?"

Yang Xiuxian hurried forward to support him, and asked with concern.

"Are you tired of investigating the case these days?"

Seeing that his small face had become thinner and his eyes were slightly blue, Yang Xiuxian regretted telling him that the emperor only gave him a one-month deadline.

"Drink more hot water."

Gao Hui got off his horse and said expressionlessly.

The author has something to say:

According to the "Research on Grain Yield per Mu in the Past Dynasties of China", in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, one stone of rice was about 153.5 catties of the present, and 35 stones was 5372.5 catties of rice.

One tael of silver can buy one stone of rice, which means that the monthly salary is only 1 taels of silver. If one tael of silver is equivalent to the current 17.5 yuan, the monthly income of a third-rank official is 750 yuan.The income is not as much as the current employees of large factories.

For a happy bachelor like Gao Hui, the basic salary of an ordinary captain in Jinyiwei is 15 liters, and a liter of rice (polished rice) is 1.5 catties. Gao Hui, a foodie, only earns 22.5 catties of rice a month...

It seems that if he does not eat the cafeteria, it will be very difficult for him to survive...

Therefore, officials from top to bottom are looking for ways to make money, so they must not just blame them blindly.