Thousands of Mountains

Luo Qingshan was called to the front hall in the middle of the night, and when he heard that it was time to check the accounts again, he wiped his face with his hands and woke up instantly.

After seeing the account book that Yin Cen brought back, before he could calculate the abacus, his astonishment was beyond words, and then he became excited, "This is the real guy! I want to check it to find out the truth, and there is no bones left!"

The account books that Ye Mingzhi handed over this time were not like the previous ones that were fraudulent. They wrote all kinds of unnecessary tea preparation records in troubled waters, but every key link was clearly recorded. T-shirt verification is more effective than half the effort.

In less than three hours, all the records of ten years of account books have been checked. Luo Qingshan reported one by one, "The account books submitted record the actual number of fresh leaves and preparations collected by the tea workshop in the past ten years, and The annual transaction volume and income of the official tea trade, as well as the exchange of horse utensils in the mutual market, after careful calculation, according to the account books, the actual income of the part of the official tea that is recorded is comparable to the amount entered by the household department."

Everyone present was puzzled, why is it still a situation similar to fake accounts?

"However," Luo Qingshan seemed to be getting to the point of the sermon. Looking at everyone's skeptical expressions, he unhurriedly revealed a huge part of the shady scene, "Take one year as an example. The prepared tea is 19 million catties, including 1000 catties of tribute tea and 50 million catties of official tea, divided into three grades, each grade is 600 million gold, and 200 million catties of crude tea. According to the order, it will be re-divided." Luo Qingshan paused again during his speech, as if emphasizing the important point.

Yin Cen, Chen Ji, and Qin Nianqin also comprehended these four characters at this time—redividing, "What do you mean?" Chen Ji couldn't wait to ask.

Luo Qingshan continued, "After the re-division according to the order, 50 catties of tribute tea, 100 million catties of official tea, and a total of 300 million catties will be used as crude tea, which will be used as private business and sold secretly by the research tea house. A total of 380 million silver vehicles will be collected, and the tax will be as low as one-tenth, and the remaining 340 million taels will be sealed up."

As soon as the words fell, Yin Cen was fully aware of this secret operation method. Every year, more than half of the official tea was sold privately as low-tax crude tea, and the silver was used for private use. No wonder Yunnan official tea year after year With the decline in production and only a small amount of tax money, it is no wonder that ordinary people's crude tea cannot be sold at all. The market is full of good teas that are comparable to official teas, and no one will buy real crude tea.

The three of them figured this out, and were speechless for a while.

Chen Ji was surprised and puzzled, "Ye Mingzhi is just a private businessman, how could he have such courage?!"

Yin Cen also felt that there were many loopholes in it, "The account books say that the division is based on orders, whose order is it based on?"

Luo Qingshan said, "There is no detailed explanation in the account book."

Qin Nianqian asked, "What Ye Mingzhi obeyed was only the order of the Tea and Salt Department. Could it be the order of Ren Tonghuan?"

Yin Cen nodded thoughtfully, "It should be him, but I don't know if he also obeyed the instructions of a higher level."

Ye Mingzhi should be interrogated the most right now, but...

Yin Cen felt that he had made a big mistake, but he didn't expect that the other party would rather die and jump off the cliff with all his secrets.

Chen Ji asked Luo Qingshan, "How much is the official tea that has been corrupted over the years recorded in the account book?"

Luo Qingshan calculated a few more times and replied, "A total of 6405 million taels."

When Chen Ji heard the words, he jumped up against the case, "Where is this money... hidden?!"

Yin Cen has already ordered, "Come on!"

The hidden guards came together, "Here!"

"Immediately seal up Yanchafang and all related parties."

"Yes!" The secret guard was about to go after receiving the order, but saw the guards of the official post rushing to report, "His Royal Highness, Lord Yushi, what's wrong, what's wrong!"

Chen Ji grabbed the visitor's front, "Why panic! What's wrong?"

The guard stammered, "The Tea House is on fire! All of them... burnt..."

At that moment, the five people were shocked, Yin Cen and Chen Ji led the horses, and rushed to Yanchafang.

When he got to the door, he saw Qiu Luhua and Ren Tonghuan had just arrived, and Yin Cen didn't have time to ask how the fire started. He just asked Qiu Luhua's government office if there was a fire brigade?

Qiu Luhua looked distressed, "Where is there any fire brigade, besides, there has never been such a big fire in so many years, and there is no way to rescue it."

Chen Ji said angrily, "Tell all the soldiers and horses in your yamen to come here. If the fire is not extinguished today, you, the magistrate, don't do it!"

Only then did Qiu Luhua order someone to go back and call someone over.

After a while, Ren Tonghuan asked Yin Cen, "Master Yushi, can Ye Mingzhi still be detained in the official post? If you find it troublesome, you can go to the prison."

Yin Cen said lightly, "Ye Mingzhi jumped off the cliff and died."

"Ah?" Qiu Luhua and Ren Tonghuan both twisted their heads and exclaimed, "Why is this so?"

Yin Cen didn't answer, just glanced at the two of them calmly.

Shock turned into surprise, the two were obviously happy.

Especially Ren Tonghuan, taking advantage of the flames and no one paying attention to him, tried his best to calm down and asked, "My lord, did Ye Mingzhi confess anything before jumping off the cliff?"

Yin Cen turned his head and looked at him thoughtfully.

Ren Tonghuan felt guilty, and Yin Cen looked at it for a while and said slowly, "He said, if I want to know everything, Eunuch Ren will naturally tell me."

Ren Tonghuan knelt on the ground with a "slap", "My lord understands, this slave doesn't know anything!" Then he looked up at Yin Cen and said, "This pariah was still biting like this before he died, but I have treated him harshly on weekdays? So I entrusted him with a big job, but in the end, I didn't think of kindness, and even beat him back!"

Yin Cen frowned, "Grace? I want to know how much kindness you have for him."

Ren Tonghuan was terrified, and continued tremblingly, "The servant just saw that this person had a lot of human contacts in the border area in the early years, so he entrusted him with the tea making and official tea business. Selfless."

Yin Cen snorted coldly and stopped talking nonsense with him, the fire showed no sign of stopping, even though government officials and soldiers were fighting the fire, but it was a drop in the bucket, it was of no avail, but right now he was extremely anxious and helpless.

It wasn't until the sky was getting bright that a fire burned the tea house completely, and then the spread slowly stopped. Yin Cen and his party were waiting outside, and they were also ashamed by the thick smoke. When they entered the tea house, they saw a mess.

As Yin Cen walked in, he expected in his mind that there should be two places left, and sure enough, when he walked to the door of the warehouse, the corners of his mouth twitched into a smile.

When Ye Mingzhi built this warehouse, the materials used were unusual, not ordinary bricks and tiles, but stone walls and stone roofs, and even the doors were special fire-resistant paint, only some transom windows were left on the high places of the stone walls, and there were no other entrances and exits. Yin Cen heaved a sigh of relief after such a fire, and the warehouse was unscathed, and the official tea that had been prepared was still stored.

As for the other place, he and Chen Ji walked to the small courtyard at the back of the mountain. The courtyard had also been burned by the fire, and there were some ruins left. He went straight to one of them and looked inside carefully.

Chen Ji and Wu Ye'er Qin Nianqin also looked around together, and there was nothing of value in the burnt items, but that night Yin Cen saw with his own eyes that the house was locked, if it wasn't the account book, it must be the account book. money.

Yin Cen ransacked the house, and in the mess, only a copper vase against the wall remained in good condition, although it was also smoked into black and ash, Yin Cen touched it casually, feeling that the vase was really heavy, and thought, Tried turning around again.

An opening was slowly opened on the ground in the corner of the other side of the house, extending straight into the depths of the ground.

The four were overjoyed, Yin Cen summoned the secret guards, and they went down to the cellar together.

Yin Cen lit a torch and stepped into the stairs, Chen Ji grabbed him behind him, "Be careful."

Yin Cen turned his head and smiled at him, "It's okay."

Chen Ji blocked him behind, took the torch and walked ahead.

The cellar was rather deep, and when I went down to the bottom, I lit the torch on the wall, and saw ten large boxes neatly arranged in a square field.

Each one was unlocked, and the dark guard stepped forward to open it, only to see six boxes of white snowflake silver, and four boxes of gold stacked neatly.

Qiu Luhua and Ren Tonghuan, who were driven down, exclaimed on the spot. Qiu Luhua seemed to be about to faint, and Ren Tonghuan held him up, saying, "This untouchable! He has hidden so much money! He even cried to me about the loss of the teahouse every year. I think it's true." It's all in his private account!"

Turning to Yin Cen again, he said, "His Royal Highness, Your Majesty the Censor, this is living evidence of the crime!"

Yin Cen remained silent, this is of course Ye Mingzhi's criminal evidence, but he is already a dead person, and now the gold and silver mountains are in front of him, which can be counted as confiscated, plus Ye Mingzhi's fraudulent accounting, the court's criminal evidence expires, Yin Cen is enough to sue the court Return to life.

It's just...he remembered Ye Mingzhi's words before jumping off the cliff, don't continue to investigate, let's stop here.

Why stop here? Who is Ye Mingzhi protecting?Qiu Luhua Ren Tonghuan?I'm afraid it's not enough.

Yin Cen looked at Ren Tonghuan, and nodded slowly, "Eunuch Ren is right, these evidences, together with the account books in my hand, can indeed put him to death, but there are still some things that the Crown Prince and I don't understand clearly, so we'd better go back to the government office and discuss them again." Let's discuss."

Saying that, he asked the secret guard to carry the box up, and the group left the tea house and returned to the government office.

He didn't sleep all night, Yin Cen suffered two fires in succession, he was really tired, Chen Ji ordered someone to make ginseng tea, Yin Cen squeezed his hand quietly behind the people, and smiled at him.

There is no need for Yin Cen to go around with Ren Tonghuan and Qiu Luhua again, directly telling Ye Mingzhi that he handed over the real account books, and then committed suicide by jumping off a cliff in fear of crime, Ren Tonghuan burst into tears, "Thank God for opening my eyes! I am really blind to attract such a poisonous insect. Nian actually made fakes without telling everyone, and corrupted so much silver..."

Yin Cen was really too lazy to watch him act, so he interrupted, "I will draw up a memorial for Ye Mingzhi's crimes. Although he died, the crime is unavoidable. As for you, as the supervisor of the tea and salt department, the crime of negligence of supervision is also a crime." Don’t run away, come! Take Eunuch Ren to the government prison and wait for processing!”

The hidden guards rushed up and took him down amidst Ren Tong's cheers of injustice.

Although Qiu Luhua was still sitting, he was already trembling badly. Yin Cen looked at him coldly, wanting to join forces with others, but also so courageous and ignorant, it was really sad.

At this time, Yin Cen just found an excuse to arrest Ren Tonghuan first, but Qiu Luhua still couldn't move.Yin Cen was still short of breath, Ye Mingzhi gave him the evidence of selling | the stolen goods, and asked him to stop, but he didn't want to stop, he knew what was missing.

points | stolen evidence.