Chapter 186 - 186 182 Calculating Against Each Other

Chapter 186: Chapter 182: Calculating Against Each Other Chapter 186: Chapter 182: Calculating Against Each Other Prefectural Government’s backyard, Li Chunhui was leading people in inventorying the assets in the courtyard.

This time, his main task is to confiscate property. As the head official of the Ministry of Revenue, all these assets are to be transferred to the national treasury of the Ministry.

Of course, handling a property confiscation isn’t something he can manage by himself; beside him, there’s an Imperial Censor from the Imperial Examination Hall, a young eunuch from the palace, and a principal official from the Ministry of Criminal Justice.

Li Chunhui is just a worker, while the Imperial Censor and the young eunuch from the palace supervise them.

After spending half a day, they had sifted through everything inside and out, packing all Silver Coin and gathering all valuable items for storage.

Looking at the inventory list in his hand, Li Chunhui’s eyes flickered.

“Mr. Yu, the property confiscated this time seems to not match our expectations!”

“Not matching!”

Mr. Yu looked quite young, probably only around twenty years old, with a fair complexion and a slightly shrill voice.

“What is mismatched? How much property did you expect to confiscate?”

He looked at Li Chunhui strangely, could expectations even be made for confiscations?

Isn’t the property just confiscated based on what is found?

But Li Chunhui said with a smile: “Of course, we can estimate. Generally, we make an estimate of the property before confiscation, based on the confessions of the criminals.”

“Look!”

He said, taking out a booklet from his bosom, “This is Lin Xuan’s confession.”

“According to the description, Lin Xuan had received bribes from the Liang family amounting to eighty thousand taels in the last five years, along with various gold, silver, jewelry, antique paintings, furs, fabrics, etc.”

“But look at what we confiscated, only twenty thousand taels in Silver Coin and just over a thousand various items, with a total value of approximately fifty to sixty thousand taels!”

“There’s a shortfall of over twenty thousand taels!”

Li Chunhui had made his position as a principal official in the Ministry of Revenue through competence.

He had a very detailed understanding of market prices, and was experienced with official tasks like property confiscation.

Every time before confiscating, he could estimate a rough amount, which although not very precise, was not far off.

But this was young Mr. Yu’s first time out of the palace on an assignment, and he knew little of these intricacies.

“Maybe these lowly people spent it!”

Mr. Yu thought for a moment and said.

Imperial Censor Zheng Xiao, standing beside them, looked thoughtfully at Li Chunhui.

“Mr. Yu might not know, the Lin family also has many properties, the income from which should suffice for their daily expenses. Even if not enough, there shouldn’t be such a large gap,” Li Chunhui said.

Mr. Yu then looked enlightened, “So what Mr. Li means is?”

“Someone has secreted away the Lin family’s property!” Li Chunhui finally stated the crux.

“Who?” Mr. Yu cooperated.

But Li Chunhui took on a hesitant demeanor, saying, “This, the government doesn’t know, I am just a doctor from the Ministry of Revenue, investigating this case should be managed by the Imperial Examination Hall and the Ministry of Criminal Justice!”

Saying this, his gaze shifted toward Zheng Xiao nearby, who had quietly moved a few steps away by then, standing by a flowerbed, studying the exotic flowers and herbs as if he had not heard their conversation at all.

“…”

Li Chunhui was dumbfounded.

That’s not right!

Wasn’t Mr. Zheng known for hating evil?

Shouldn’t Mr. Zheng, upon hearing his words, scrutinize this matter carefully?

In the yard, the biggest responsibility for the missing property naturally belongs to the previous garrison responsible for guarding.

“Mr. Zheng, Mr. Zheng!” Li Chunhui suppressed his suspicions and called out.

He did not believe that Zheng Xiao didn’t hear their recent conversation.

“Ah!”

“Mr. Li, what is the matter?”

Zheng Xiao turned around, looking at Li Chunhui with puzzled eyes.

Li Chunhui had no choice but to repeat what he had said, yet after listening, Zheng Xiao just smiled indifferently, then pointing to the flowerbed’s exotic flowers and herbs, said: “Mr. Li, how about these flowers?”

Li Chunhui was somewhat puzzled, but still looked at the flowers in the flowerbed and responded, “These are cuiyun orchids.”

“What is their value?”

“Um, cuiyun orchids are not considered precious; in Capital City, one plant costs three maces of silver, but being in An Yuan City in the cold north, such flowers and herbs are more expensive, probably five maces of silver each!”

Li Chunhui proudly stated.

This was his expertise, even for a simple cuiyun orchid, he could talk extensively with authority.

Zheng Xiao smiled and said: “Mr. Li is dedicated to public duties, I really admire you, but just now, you might have overlooked something.”

“This whole yard full of flowers and plants is replaced annually, that must cost a pretty sum of silver, right?”

“And this government building, hehe, a Prefect’s government building is bigger than the governor’s building! If I am not wrong, this building has likely been expanded several times in recent years!”

“Mr. Yu, what do you think?”

Zheng Xiao looked at Mr. Yu with a smile brimming.

Mr. Yu’s eyes darted, his gaze shifting repeatedly between Zheng Xiao and Li Chunhui.

He had never managed assignments outside the palace, but that didn’t mean he was clueless.

To survive in the palace, and even carve out a semblance of personality, one must have proper schemes; otherwise, you wouldn’t even know how you died.

Just now, he hadn’t grasped the implications yet, but now he saw clearly.

Li Chunhui was stirring up trouble, using both him and Zheng Xiao to do it.

“Hehe, Mr. Zheng has thought about it thoroughly. My family and Mr. Li have overlooked all the flowers and plants in this yard!” Mr. Yu said with a chuckle.

Mr. Zheng smiled and then turned to Li Chunhui, “Mr. Li, there is still time, why not we visit the Military Equipment Department?”

Li Chunhui’s face turned somewhat ugly, as his little schemes were seen through on the spot, which was somewhat embarrassing.

However, as things had come to this point, he could no longer insist and could only mumble, “Then let’s go check it out first!”

After speaking, he walked out of the yard first and Zheng Xiao followed leisurely with hands clasped behind his back.

Mr. Yu quickly followed with a few quick steps and asked, “Mr. Zheng, what is Mr. Li really thinking?”

Although he guessed that Li Chunhui wanted to use him, he didn’t see through the intricacies involved.

“Whatever could he be thinking? It’s nothing more than trying to use someone else to do his dirty work!” Zheng Xiao said.

“Use us as the knife! Then who does he want to kill?”

“Who else can it be, who could have privately occupied the things in this yard before we came!” Zheng Xiao said indifferently.

“Secret Martial Guards!” Mr. Yu exclaimed.

“…”

Zheng Xiao stopped walking, looking somewhat helplessly at him.

Mr. Yu snapped back to reality, chuckling sheepishly, “Ah, I guessed wrong!”

Isn’t that obvious?

Who is Li Chunhui to dare to pick a quarrel with the Secret Martial Guards? Even if his brain were kicked by a donkey, he wouldn’t dare!

“Yang Zhenshan, the garrison commander of An Yuan City!” Zheng Xiao said softly, then quickened his pace and left.

Mr. Yu obviously didn’t know who Yang Zhenshan was and couldn’t understand why Li Chunhui would target him.

He wanted to catch up and ask more, but unfortunately, Zheng Xiao had already walked far away.

Meanwhile, Yang Zhenshan was still unaware that someone had averted a disaster for him; he was currently planning how to sabotage the other party’s plan.

He wrote three letters in a row and sent them out.

This see om nom ground disaster made him quite annoyed. Though he had no interest in the position of the commander of the Songzhou Guard, someone treated him as a competitor and wanted to stab him in the back.

Yet, no matter who it was, he was determined to leave them empty-handed.

After sending the letters out, Yang Zhenshan calmly waited.

The next morning, Wang Bin received another letter from Yang Zhenshan.

As he read Yang Zhenshan’s letter, a slight smile appeared on his lips.

“This Yang Zhenshan, truly is cunning and calculating!”

“Cutting off the enemy’s supplies!”

“Hehe~~”

He chuckled softly, then looked up and said to the messenger, “Go back and tell your master, I will help him this time, but he owes me a favor!”

This time, the messenger was not Han Fei, but one of Yang Zhenshan’s personal followers.

“Yes!”

The personal follower responded and bowed before leaving.

That afternoon, Yang Zhenshan received Wang Bin’s reply.

In the study, Yang Zhenshan waved for the personal follower to leave, then ruefully curled his lips.

This favor was now owed.

But it was unavoidable if one wanted someone’s help. How could it happen without owing some favors?

Of course, Wang Bin’s willingness to help wasn’t just for the favor.

Frankly speaking, right now his favor wasn’t that valuable, certainly not worth Wang Bin’s help for just one favor.

As for Wang Bin’s own considerations, they weren’t difficult to guess.

The position of the commander of the Songzhou Guard fell under his command.

Naturally, Wang Bin didn’t want to have an unruly person under his command.

Before even arriving, he’d already stirred up so much trouble; undoubtedly, this person was not someone easy to manipulate.

Previously in Sha Pingchuan, Wang Bin couldn’t decide to send him away, but after that, he didn’t want another subordinate to cause havoc behind his back.

So, Wang Bin was just repaying a casual favor.

However, with Wang Bin agreeing to Yang Zhenshan’s plan, the matter was now half-successful.

The other half relied on Chongshan Pass.

The position of the commander of the Songzhou Guard wasn’t something Wang Bin could decide alone; it needed the agreement from the Governor’s Office at Chongshan Pass.

“Let’s see if Wei Cen has the capability!”

Yang Zhenshan said with some worry.

He wasn’t fighting for himself, but was trying to push Tan Jingtai to become the commander of the Songzhou Guard.

Correct, he was simply trying to do a good deed, helping Tan Jingtai to rise in position.

If it was for himself, then owing a few more favors didn’t matter, but for doing good deeds, racking up too many favors wasn’t proper.

Thus, he didn’t ask Zhou Lan for help, nor sought anyone else, merely asking Wei Cen for a favor.

Wei Cen didn’t need to be repaid the favor, as he already owed him a lot.

Previously, he had spent so much effort not for nothing.

All these had to be counted on Wei Cen.

But whether Wei Cen could influence the Governor’s Office at Chongshan Pass, Yang Zhenshan was also uncertain.

If Wei Cen couldn’t manage it, then he would have to think of other methods.