Zhang Rang's recent actions were not kept secret from Wang Fu and others; in fact, they even received their support, as they wanted to gauge the Emperor's attitude on the matter.

"Attendant Zhang, has His Majesty said anything these past few days?"

"Your Highness, His Majesty is very pleased. Moreover, the money raised was not turned over to the national treasury; His Majesty put it all into the Imperial Treasury."

Wang Fu's expression shifted: "So, Your Majesty loves money?"

Zhang Rang nodded: "Yes, after all, His Majesty's life was indeed quite difficult when he was in Hejian!"

"Alright... as long as Your Majesty has a preference..."

Wang Fu's face lit up with joy, and he immediately made up his mind. He then looked at Cao Jie, Hou Lan, Xiang Rang, and the others present.

"Your Majesty is diligent in governing and loves the people, and is concerned about the affairs of the country. As Your Majesty's servants, we should step forward to raise funds and provisions to share Your Majesty's burdens. What do you all think...?"

"The prince is right. I will immediately send people back to our hometown to raise funds after we return..."

Hou Lan and others echoed his sentiments.

Zhang Rang quickly spoke up, saying, "Gentlemen, although His Majesty loves money, Yang Qiu is currently in charge of cracking down on corruption."

Therefore, I believe that when raising funds, we should only target those aristocratic families and powerful clans, and absolutely not exploit the common people or do anything illegal. Otherwise, if something unexpected happens, I'm afraid even His Majesty will find it difficult to protect us...!"

“That’s right, Yang Qiu is keeping an eye on us everywhere, he’s really hateful!” Wang Fu said with a gloomy face and a hateful voice.

They had naturally seen Yang Qiu's recent actions. Every time he arrested some corrupt officials and powerful figures, he would always implicate them. If it weren't for the emperor's repeated cover-ups, they would probably have been imprisoned in the Sili government's jail long ago.

"I have an idea; perhaps we can take this opportunity to bring down that Yang Qiu!"

Zhang Rang's eyes darted around, and a sinister smile crept onto his lips.

"Oh? I wonder what brilliant plan Zhang Changshi has in mind?"

Upon hearing that they could bring down that corrupt official, Wang Fu and his companions immediately became interested.

"Isn't Yang Qiu the one who hates corrupt officials the most? I think we can use this fundraising as a pretext to have our subordinates openly solicit bribes while secretly collecting donations...!"

Zhang Rang then stopped talking and looked at Wang Fu.

"Brilliant!"

After a moment's thought, Wang Fu's eyes lit up.

Seeing their still confused expressions, Wang Fu smiled smugly and said in a deep voice:

"Gentlemen, the reason why Yang Qiu is so unscrupulous is because he has deceived His Majesty by pretending to be upright and selfless. If he makes a few wrongful convictions this time, it will surely displease His Majesty. Then, what difficulty will it be to deal with him?"

"Indeed! Prince Wang is indeed a man of exceptional wisdom and strategy; we admire him greatly."

Everyone present realized the feasibility of this approach.

Seeing everyone's smug expressions, Zhang Rang couldn't help but let out a cold smile.

Soon, the entire eunuch group mobilized simultaneously. The powerful families and influential people in the Sili region were invited to banquets almost every day by officials from all walks of life and the families of those eunuchs. Some officials even openly solicited bribes.

Although Wang Fu and his men's plan was correct, they still underestimated the greed of their subordinates.

At first, they were terrified when they saw several of their colleagues being arrested by Yang Qiu. But when they heard that Wang Fu and others had not only bailed out those who had been arrested, but that even Yang Qiu had been reprimanded by the emperor, they were shocked.

As a result, some people began to act recklessly. They used to raise funds under various pretexts, but later they were unwilling to even bother with such formalities and simply sent people to their homes to demand donations.

Not only that, their greed also blinded them. At first, they would hand over the full amount of the donated money, but later they handed it over less and less. They even took 80% of the money that was originally meant for the emperor.

Even more ruthless individuals, in order to avoid being discovered by their superiors for embezzling funds, increased their initial fundraising targets from a few million to tens of millions, which was enough to make even the most powerful landlords and wealthy families lose their temper.

Within the territory of Sili, in a fortified village, about fifty people gathered in the main hall.

The leader of the powerful figures said with a resentful expression, "These lackeys of eunuchs are simply going too far! If we continue to let them extort and blackmail us like this, the day when our families are destroyed and our people die will not be far off!"

In just three to five days, he was visited no less than ten times and had nearly 50 million yuan of money and grain donated to him, which could be said to have taken away half his life.

But he dared not refuse, because as soon as he refused, officials would come to investigate him, so he lived in constant fear.

The others suffered similar fates, and some were even forced to give up their farmland.

"Yes, we absolutely cannot let him continue like this, or all the savings we've accumulated over generations will be gone!"

The powerful figures echoed his sentiments, each one furious but helpless, as they had no powerful backing in the imperial court.

Moreover, the past actions of these powerful landlords were despised by many upright scholars, so naturally no one stood up for them, which led to the eunuchs taking whatever they wanted from them.

"I wonder if Patriarch Zhao has any good plans to deal with those eunuch lackeys by summoning us here today?"

The group of powerful figures looked at Zhao Ning, who was at the head of the group.

Zhao Ning pondered for a moment, "Right now, only His Majesty can make decisions for us!"

"His Majesty?"

"good!"

Zhao Ning then looked around at everyone and said, "These eunuch lackeys are extorting money and blackmailing people in His Majesty's name, which is an insult to His Majesty's reputation. Therefore, once His Majesty finds out the truth, he will definitely not let them off easily!"

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