Chapter 182: Scheme against each other
In the backyard of the prefectural government office, Li Chunhui was leading people to count the property in the yard.

His main task here was to confiscate property. As the head of the Ministry of Revenue, all the properties in front of him would be deposited into the Ministry's treasury.

Of course, such a matter as the confiscation of property could not be handled by him alone. Next to him were an imperial censor from the Censorate, a young eunuch from the palace, and a chief official from the Ministry of Justice.

Li Chunhui was just a worker, and the censors of the Censorate and the eunuchs in the palace supervised them.

It took them most of the day to search the entire place inside and out. All the silver and money were packed into boxes, and all the valuable items were stored together.

Looking at the detailed booklet in his hand, Li Chunhui's eyes moved slightly.

"Eunuch Yu, the property seized this time doesn't seem to be what we expected!"

"Does not match!"

Eunuch Yu looked very young, probably around twenty years old. He had a fair complexion and a slightly shrill voice.

"What's inconsistent? How much valuables did you expect to seize?"

He looked at Li Chunhui strangely. Could the house seizure be predicted?

Just confiscate as much property as the family has. What is there to predict?
Li Chunhui smiled and said, "Of course we can estimate it. Generally speaking, when we search a house, we will first estimate the property to be confiscated, and the basis for the estimate comes from the confession of the criminal."

"look!"

As he spoke, he took out a booklet from his arms, "This is Lin Xuan's confession."

"According to the above description, Lin Xuan received bribes of 80,000 taels from the Liang family in the past five years, in addition to various gold and silver jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, furs and cloth, etc."

"But look at the property we seized. There are only 20,000 taels of silver and more than 1,000 items. The total value is probably between 50,000 and 60,000 taels!"

"There is a shortfall of more than 20,000 taels!"

Li Chunhui is able to become the head of the Ministry of Revenue, so he is not an incompetent person.

He had a very detailed understanding of commodity prices and was also familiar with official duties such as house searches.

Before each house search, he could estimate a rough number. Although the number was not very accurate, it was not far off.

However, it was the first time for the young eunuch Yu to go out of the palace on business, and he knew very little about the ins and outs involved.

"Maybe it was spent by these untouchables!"

Eunuch Yu thought for a moment and said.

Zheng Xiao, the Censor of the Censorate next to him, looked at Li Chunhui thoughtfully.

"Eunuch Yu may not know that the Lin family also has many industries. The income from those industries is enough to meet their daily expenses. Even if it is not enough, there should not be such a big gap." Li Chunhui said.

After hearing this, Eunuch Yu made a look of sudden enlightenment, "So what does Lord Li mean?"

"Someone secretly hid the Lin family's property!" Li Chunhui finally said the key point.

"Who?" Eunuch Yu said cooperatively.

Li Chunhui hesitated and said, "I don't know. I am only a doctor in the Ministry of Revenue. The investigation of the case still depends on the Censorate and the Ministry of Justice!"

As he spoke, his eyes turned to Zheng Xiao who was not far away. However, Zheng Xiao had quietly walked a few steps away and was standing beside a flower bed, studying the exotic flowers and plants in the flower bed, as if he had not heard their conversation at all.

"..."

Li Chunhui looked stunned.

its not right!
Isn’t it said that Lord Zheng hates evil?
Shouldn't Lord Zheng carefully examine the matter after hearing what he said?

The person who was most responsible for the missing property in the courtyard was naturally the guard who was in charge of guarding it.

"Master Zheng, Master Zheng!" Li Chunhui suppressed the doubts in his heart and called out.

He didn't think that Zheng Xiao didn't hear their conversation just now.

"what!"

"Master Li, what's the matter?"

Zheng Xiao turned around and looked at Li Chunhui with a puzzled look.

Li Chunhui had no choice but to repeat what he had just said. However, after Zheng Xiao heard it, he smiled indifferently, then pointed at the exotic flowers in the flowerbed and said, "Master Li, what do you think of this flower?"

Li Chunhui was a little confused, but he still looked at the flowers in the flowerbed and said, "This is Cuiyunlan."

"How much is it worth?"

"Well, the Green Cloud Orchid is not considered precious. In Kyoto, one plant costs three coins of silver. However, Anyuan City is located in the northern cold land, so flowers and plants like this are more expensive. One plant should cost five coins of silver!"

Li Chunhui said proudly.

This is his ability. Even if it is just a green cloud orchid, he can talk about it in detail.

Zheng Xiao smiled and said, "Lord Li is dedicated to the public, and I admire him very much, but Lord Li missed something just now."

"The flowers and plants in this yard need to be replaced every year. I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money!"

"And this mansion, haha, a prefect's mansion is bigger than that of a provincial governor! If I'm not mistaken, this mansion should have been expanded several times in recent years!"

"Eunuch Yu, do you think this is right?"

Zheng Xiao looked at Eunuch Yu with a smile.

Eunuch Yu's eyes twitched, and his gaze jumped back and forth between Zheng Xiao and Li Chunhui several times.

He had never been out of the palace on business, but that didn't mean he knew nothing.

If you want to survive in the palace and even be able to behave like a decent person, you must have some plans in mind, otherwise you won’t even know how you died.

He hadn't come to his senses just now, but now he understands.

Li Chunhui wants to stir up trouble and use him and Zheng Xiao to do so.

"Haha, Lord Zheng is really thoughtful. My family and Lord Li have overlooked the flowers and plants in the yard!" Eunuch Yu said with a smile.

Zheng Xiao smiled and turned to look at Li Chunhui, "Lord Li, it's still early, why don't we go to the Military Preparations Office and take a look!"

Li Chunhui's face was a little ugly. It was somewhat embarrassing that his little trick was seen through on the spot. However, since things had come to this point, he could no longer force it. He could only say awkwardly: "Then let's go over and take a look first!"

After saying that, he walked out of the yard first, and Zheng Xiao followed behind him with his hands behind his back, strolling leisurely.

Eunuch Yu's eyes turned, and he took a few quick steps forward, "Master Zheng, what exactly is this Master Li thinking?"

Although he guessed that Li Chunhui wanted to use him, he did not see through the tricks behind it.

"What else could he be thinking? He just wants to kill someone with a borrowed knife!" Zheng Xiao said.

"To kill someone with a borrowed knife, we are the knife! Then who is he going to kill?"

"Who else can we kill? Who else could have privately occupied the things in this yard before we came?" Zheng Xiao said lightly.

"Secret Guards!" Eunuch Yu was shocked.

"..."

Zheng Xiao stopped and looked at him helplessly.

Eunuch Yu came back to his senses and smiled awkwardly, "Uh, I guessed wrong!"

Isn't it obvious?
Who is Li Chunhui? How dare he pick a fight with the Secret Guards? Even if he was kicked in the head by a donkey, he wouldn't dare to do that!

"Yang Zhengshan, the garrison commander of Anyuan City!" Zheng Xiao said softly, then quickened his pace and left.

Eunuch Yu obviously didn't know who Yang Zhengshan was, and couldn't understand why Li Chunhui targeted Yang Zhengshan.

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

On the other side, Yang Zhengshan didn't know that someone had helped him to avoid disaster. At this time, he was planning how to destroy the other party's plan.

He wrote and sent three letters in succession.

This unexpected disaster made him very annoyed. He clearly had no interest in the position of commander of Songzhou Guard, but some people regarded him as a competitor and wanted to attack him.

No matter who the opponent is, he will make sure that his efforts are in vain.

After asking someone to deliver the letter, Yang Zhengshan waited patiently.

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

When he saw Yang Zhengshan's letter, a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"This Yang Zhengshan is really a shrewd man!"

"Take away the firewood from under the cauldron!"

"Haha~~"

He laughed softly, then raised his head and said to the messenger: "Go back and tell your master that I will help him this time, but he owes me a favor!"

The person who came to deliver the letter this time was not Han Fei, but a close follower of Yang Zhengshan.

"Here!"

The attendant responded and bowed and left.

In the afternoon, Yang Zhengshan received Wang Bin’s reply.

In the study, Yang Zhengshan waved his hand to signal the follower to leave, then grinned helplessly.

This favor is considered to be owed.

But there is nothing that can be done about it. If you want to ask someone to do something for you, how can you do it without owing them a favor?
Of course, Wang Bin was willing to help him not just out of favor.

To put it bluntly, his favor is worthless now, and it is not worth it for Wang Bin to help him for the sake of a favor.

As for Wang Bin’s thoughts, it is not difficult to guess.

The commander of Songzhou Guard is under the command of Wang Bin.

Wang Bin naturally doesn't want to have a restless leader under his command.

He hasn't even arrived yet, but he's already caused so many problems. This person is definitely not someone who can be manipulated.

In the past, Wang Bin had no power to drive Sha Pingchuan away, but in the future he didn't want to have another subordinate who cheated on him behind his back.

So Wang Bin was just doing a favor.

However, Wang Bin agreed to Yang Zhengshan's plan, so the matter was half successful.

As for the other half, it is in the mountains.

The position of commander of Songzhou Guard is not something that Wang Bin can decide alone. He also needs the consent of Chongshan Pass.

"I don't know if Wei Cen has this ability!"

Yang Zhengshan said with some concern.

He was not fighting for himself, but wanted to push the position of commander of Songzhou Guard to Tan Jingtai.

That’s right, he was just doing good things by promoting Tan Jingtai to the commander of Songzhou Guard.

If you are fighting for yourself, then it doesn't matter if you owe a few more favors, but if you want to do good things, it is not appropriate to owe too many favors.

Therefore, he did not ask Zhou Lan for help, nor did he look for anyone else, but just asked Wei Cen for help.

He didn't need to repay Wei Cen's favor because Wei Cen still owed him many favors.

All the effort he put in before was not in vain.

All of this is blamed on Wei Cen.

However, Yang Zhengshan was not sure whether Wei Cen could influence the Dusi Yamen in Chongshan Pass.

If Wei Cen can't do it, then he can only think of other ways.

(End of this chapter)