Chapter 99 Kill
The whip was like a spirit snake, and with a snap, it hit Zhou Hong's head.

Snapped……

"Ah..." Zhou Hong let out a howl, then hugged his head and curled up as if twitching.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes flashed with viciousness. He looked at him coldly and said, "Tell me, how much silver did you take from me?"

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..." Zhou Hong was already extremely frightened. He wailed, "Your Majesty, I am innocent. I am humble... I am humble... Your Majesty, please do not believe the treacherous words of the villain."

"Who is the villain?" Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he was shaking and his face turned pale.

Deng Qianqiu stood aside, feeling ecstatic, and silently said in his heart: "The one who said the villain is Deng Qianqiu, the one who said the villain is Deng Qianqiu."

Finally, I lived up to Deng Qianqiu's expectations...

Zhou Hong said: "This villain... is Deng Qianqiu."

Before he could finish his words, Deng Qianqiu immediately stepped forward and shouted, "Your Majesty, I am innocent and have always been honest and dutiful. But I don't know why, and I don't know who I have offended, but now..."

Zhu Yuanzhang pointed his whip at him and said, "Go away."

Deng Qianqiu let out an "oh" and quickly stepped back three feet.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhou Hong coldly: "You said Deng Qianqiu is a villain, do you have any evidence?"

"I am humble... I am humble..." Zhou Hong trembled. How could he still have the power of a thousand households? He was just like a frightened deer.

Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I will ask you again, how much money did you take from me?"

The last word "money" almost came out from between gritted teeth.

Zhou Hong was so frightened that his heart and liver were broken: "One... ten thousand taels... I am guilty of a thousand deaths."

Snapped……

Another whip swung down.

Zhou Hong screamed like a pig being slaughtered again and rolled on the ground in pain.

Zhu Yuanzhang stamped his feet, bent his body slightly, lowered his head and continued to stare at Zhou Hong, shouting, "How much is it?"

Zhou Hong wailed, "It's fifty thousand, it's fifty thousand..."

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes suddenly opened wide, and then he raised his boot and kicked Zhou Hong hard on the head, and then whipped him again.

"It's fifty thousand, it's fifty thousand? You told me it was fifty thousand? Do you think you can still hide it until now? Do you think... you hid my money, do you still have the life to spend it in this lifetime? Do you think you can still leave it to your descendants?"

Zhou Hong was in despair, completely in despair. He numbly pressed his new wound and said sadly, "Two hundred and one thousand... two hundred and one thousand taels..."

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "I'm afraid it's more than that. Two hundred and ten thousand, plus what you reported, it's no more than four hundred thousand. What about the rest, the rest of the silver?"

Zhou Hong cried, tears streaming down his face: "As for the rest, I don't know. There are some... some... losses..."

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed loudly, his laughter was extremely sinister, and then he said, "That's right, after calculating it this way, the account is clear! You took 210,000 yuan from me, and I forgot that when you searched all the money in your Qianhu Suo, you also took a lot of benefits for yourself. From this point of view, the account is correct."

Zhou Hong no longer cared about the pain, and quickly turned over and continued to kneel upright, then desperately kowtowed to Zhu Yuanzhang: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty... Please forgive me, I was just confused for a moment."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him gloomily and said, "Do you know who I hate the most in my life?"

Zhou Hong trembled: "I usually... even if I have no merit, I have worked hard."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Then I will give you one ingot of silver for each head you have contributed. One ingot of silver is worth ten taels. If you give me twenty-one thousand heads, I will spare you twenty thousand heads. Is that generous?"

Zhou Hong trembled all over. He raised his head suddenly and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang with an unbelievable look: "Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him coldly and said, "I am asking you, is this too lenient? For your little contribution, I will pardon you from the death penalty 20,000 times. Is that enough? What about the remaining 1,000 heads?"

Zhou Hong said sadly: "Your Majesty, can you please forgive me... and my family..."

Zhu Yuanzhang asked, "What do you think?"

"They are innocent..."

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at him coldly, as if he was looking at a dead man, and said, "Your 210,000 taels of silver, are you spending it all by yourself? Can you afford so much by yourself? If you don't want to bring disaster to your family, then... will you use your wealth to help your family?"

Zhou Hong was already in tears, filled with endless regret. He trembled and said, "I am humble... I am humble..."

But the next moment, he suddenly opened his eyes and pointed his finger at Deng Qianqiu: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty... He, he... Is he innocent? He also led people to search the house. I don't believe it. He is innocent. Why did Your Majesty punish me alone?"

Deng Qianqiu just felt sick.

This bastard wanted to take someone with him before he died.

Deng Qianqiu was not used to such people, so he stepped forward and said confidently, "That's right, I am innocent! If even a cent of the confiscated stolen goods is missing, I beg Your Majesty to kill my entire family. Zhou Hong, you are so cruel, you are so shameless that you think everyone in the world is the same as you."

Zhu Yuanzhang threw the whip on the ground and said, "I will investigate Deng Qianqiu's matter. As for you... someone..." Tang He stepped forward: "I am here."

Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "All the Qianhus, you must return all the stolen money within today. All the military officials above the rank of flag bearer will be beheaded, not a single one will be spared. Qianhu Zhou Hong is guilty of ten crimes, and his entire family will be executed. His house will be confiscated... Let Deng Qianqiu do the confiscating."

Tang He said: "Yes."

In an instant, several centurions and generals who were kneeling down felt the sky go dark and some of them fainted.

Zhou Hong was so frightened that he didn't care about anything else. He knelt down at Zhu Yuanzhang's feet and kowtowed: "Mercy, mercy... mercy..."

Zhu Yuanzhang was unwilling to look at him any more, and turned to Deng Qianqiu and said, "Clean up his house for me."

Deng Qianqiu hesitated and looked troubled, but still said, "Yes."

Zhu Yuanzhang saw that he looked strange, and couldn't help asking, "Do you have something to say?"

Deng Qianqiu said awkwardly, "Your Majesty, does raiding his house count as commission?"

This is indeed a procedural issue.

Zhou Hong confiscated the property of the rebels, and Deng Qianqiu confiscated Zhou Hong, so...is this considered as the confiscation of the rebels' property, or the confiscation of the stolen money obtained through corruption and abuse of power?

If it is a reverse birth, then it is easy to deal with. It will definitely be a 20% commission, after all, the price is clearly marked.

But if it is stolen silver... Logically speaking, this is not the responsibility of the Hundred Households Office. Does this count as commission?

Zhu Yuanzhang glared at Deng Qianqiu angrily and said, "Count it all. No matter how much you copied, I can't do without you. I'm not so stupid that I can't even do arithmetic well."

Deng Qianqiu touched his nose awkwardly and said, "Your Majesty, I don't want to bargain, nor do I... I just... I just feel..."

Zhu Yuanzhang waved his hand and said, "No need to explain, you did a good job and saved me money."

Now Zhu Yuanzhang finally understood.

It turns out that this 20% commission is not a loss, but a saving of money.

The account is obviously clear at a glance. A 20% commission is a huge profit compared to those corrupt officials.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

Zhou Hong was already in despair, but he was still doing useless work. His head had already been broken from kowtow, but he still didn't dare to stop. So, with blood all over his head, he continued to kowtow and beg for mercy like a madman.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't even look at him, he just turned around and rode on his horse, saying, "Let's go back to the palace, Deng Qianqiu, come with me."

After returning to the palace, Zhu Yuanzhang's anger had not yet dissipated.

So he simply summoned Deng Qianqiu to the Wuying Palace and said, "I originally thought that you were... taking advantage of me, but now it seems that the commission you gave me is good."

Faced with such direct praise from Zhu Yuanzhang, Deng Qianqiu was overjoyed.

He smiled and said, "Your Majesty, this money is not for me, but for the Hundred Households Office. I am not Zhou Hong. If the commission is in my hands, how can I embezzle it? What I uphold is to be honest and upright..."

Zhu Yuanzhang closed his eyes and sighed quietly, "I am not angry about Zhou Hong alone. What worries me is that everyone in this Qianhu Division is colluding with him and everyone has benefited from it. Zhou Hong can swallow more than 200,000 taels of silver. I... it's too early to raid his house. I should wait and see who he gives the stolen silver to. Then... I can catch them all in one fell swoop. Alas... I am still angry after all. I can't control my temper on weekdays."

Deng Qianqiu was speechless after hearing this. So what you regret is not ransacking other people’s homes as well?
A corruption case in history could definitely not be accomplished by one person. Everyone involved in the case would try to gain benefits. Under normal circumstances, only the main culprit can be held accountable. As for directly implicating a large number of people and catching them all in one fell swoop...I am afraid that emperors of all dynasties would have to judge the situation and stop at the right time.

People like Zhu Yuanzhang are indeed rare.

Deng Qianqiu couldn't say much, so he just said, "Your Majesty is really far-sighted."

Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly glanced at Deng Qianqiu and said, "As for the confiscation of property, you are only responsible for counting the gold and silver. As for the execution of the whole clan, you don't need to come. I will order the Yiluansi to handle it."

Deng Qianqiu was stunned and glanced at Zhu Yuanzhang.

He vaguely felt that... whether it was the Yiluansi or Zhou Hong, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to have been using them purposefully.

At this time, he even put Deng Qianqiu aside from such matters, as if he had his own ideas.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and sighed, "I have always been kind to others, but these people have to provoke me to commit such murder. How despicable."

Zhu Yuanzhang said, turning his head to look at Deng Qianqiu and said, "You should follow the prince well. There are many smart people around the prince, but there are also many who are too smart. I am always worried."

Deng Qianqiu hurriedly said: "I am humble... my position is low and my words do not count..."

Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head: "You are still young. When I was your age, I was not as good as you. Stop saying these discouraging words. Yes, there is another urgent matter..."

…………

The next two chapters will be updated later, Tiger needs to think about it.

(End of this chapter)