Chapter 317 318. Their expressions must be very interesting
Sow discord, make a feint to the east and attack in the west, fabricate something out of nothing, and make friends with distant countries and attack those nearby.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi first arrested several people under Xu Tongzhi, and used threats and bribes to coerce them into turning against them. At the same time, they used some half-true and half-false evidence, saying that some of them had reported others, and then they arrested another group of people and put them in jail.
Those arrested were the remaining confidants of Governor Bai Hui. Even his usual staff members were put in jail, leaving Governor Bai Hui alone.
However, Prefect Bai Hui was indeed an old fox. He remained calm at this time. He did not secretly contact Xu Tongzhi and others, nor did he ask for help from the people behind him. He calmly drank tea, ate, and did his official business.
He was indeed flawless.
The director of the prison department had some evidence that Xu Tongzhi and others had accepted bribes, but he had no evidence about the prefect. The prefect was very strict with his family and was famous for his virtuous wife and filial children.
Lei Li and his subordinates did not find any dirt on the prefect Bai Hui during their secret investigation. The existing evidence could at most accuse him of lax governance, which could be easily covered up by fining him a few years' salary or demoting him to a lower position.
"The Victory Strategy of the Thirty-Six Stratagems."
Lei Li said slowly, his face full of determination, "We'll make a feint to the east and attack in the west, taking the enemy by surprise. If we can't find any evidence of the prefect's crime in the government office, then we'll go to the Sihai Division and the Transportation Department."
"It just so happens that the Sihai Division has been left out for long enough. If those Sihai Division officials knew that we had arrested so many people from the government office and saw us in the Sihai Division again, they would be as amused as mice seeing a cat."
Seeing Lei Li's expression of eagerness to watch the show, Zhou Yi shook his head with a bit of amusement and said,
"The Baihui government office has a close relationship with the Sihai Division. The former director of the Sihai Division must have evidence of his guilt. It's just that he has been transferred back to the capital and is out of reach. It's a pity."
"But if you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself."
"Our Zhou Zhou is the new director. The officials in the department all thought he was a lone commander and were waiting to see Zhou Zhou make a fool of himself. But they didn't know what valuable information Zhou Zhou had found in the files of the Sihai Division."
Lei Zhouzhou did not work in the Information Department of Beijing Duyunliu Headquarters for nothing. After several months of "special training" - working overtime for his irresponsible father, he was able to work on his own.
He has not been idle these days. His subordinates have been making things difficult for him and want to strip him of his power and leave him without any support, but he has not said a word. He pretends to have nothing to do and goes through old files to familiarize himself with the director's duties.
Those subordinates thought he was easy to bully, and privately mocked Lei Zhouzhou, saying that he was just a bro and submissive in nature. However, they didn't know that Lei Zhouzhou had read the files and found out what was wrong based on his intuition.
Lei Zhouzhou brought out the files that he thought were strange, and compared them one by one with the people brought by Lin Zhong and Lei Li, checking for omissions and filling in the gaps, and finally found evidence of tax evasion by Sihaisi.
No matter how carefully the fake accounts are made, they are still fake; no matter how roughly the real accounts are made, they are still real.
Maritime trade is a high-risk and highly profitable industry. Something that is worthless on the other side of the ocean may be worth a fortune when resold to Dayou.
For example, glass is a luxury product that was introduced to Dayou from overseas and then deciphered by craftsmen working under maritime merchants.
Now in the Dayou Dynasty, the method of making glass is only in the hands of a large sea merchant, who has a close relationship with some nobles in the Beijing capital.
For example, tomatoes are imported eggplants. Because their leaves and raw fruits contain toxic bioalkalis, they were originally sold as ornamental plants after being introduced to Dayou. Only fools with plenty of money like Mengluo would buy them.
After Zhou Yi started selling tomatoes as a dish, other businessmen, like sharks smelling blood, quickly started to cultivate tomatoes in large quantities and compete for business in the "Yi Jia Sichuan Restaurant" series.
In order to seize more market share, new tomato dishes are emerging one after another. Some businessmen even spontaneously develop new tomato varieties, seeking higher-yielding and more beautiful tomatoes.
The "fox fruit" that was worthless overseas became a new agricultural star in Dayou. This was because tomatoes were delicious, beautiful, easy to grow, and had a high economic value, and at one point surpassed the status of sweet potatoes, a staple food substitute.
As the state agency responsible for managing overseas trade, the Sihaisi had the most money. Any little bit that leaked from the director's hands could make the people below rich.
If a fortune passes through your hands, even Buddha would be tempted.
Once you fall in love with it, you have to cook the books, otherwise you will be taking your own life as a target and your whole family will have to meet in the underworld.
But Lei Zhouzhou, Lin Zhong and others followed the clues and finally found out -
All the accounts in Sihaisi's archives are fake!
None of them were real accounts! The accounts that Lei Zhouzhou felt were wrong were so crudely made that he could tell something was wrong at first glance.
Lei Li originally wanted to arrest Si Haisi last. After all, it would take time to prepare a large number of large boxes filled with silver, and the prison was not big enough to hold so many people.
But now——
"The prefect has been in power for five years. I don't believe there are no flaws. If all the evidence is destroyed, what can he use to fight the people behind it?"
Lei Li snorted, "The prefect and the former director of the Sihai Division appear to be working in a professional and impartial manner, but they might actually be sleeping in the same bed. The Sihai Division definitely has evidence of the prefect's guilt, and those people there definitely know something as well."
"And they actually dared to leave our Zhou Zhou out in the cold, pretending to obey but secretly disobeying—"
Lei Li narrowed his eyes slightly and slowly smiled. "I'm going to throw them all in jail, give them all dozens of lashes, and then tell them, 'Oh, we caught the wrong guy, I'm sorry, everyone—'"
"They definitely have funny expressions."
"Then, we'll kill the prefect Bai Hui with a surprise attack, let Xu Tongzhi and the people from the Sihai Division identify him, and let them go to court to frame each other."
“Tsk tsk.”
Lei Li's eyes gleamed with amusement and excitement, and he couldn't wait any longer. "That's going to be fun! I don't believe that even with disaster looming, the prefect wouldn't contact the people behind him, willingly working for those people in Beijing and dying."
"Hey, my husband, how about we go and dirty the Duke Su's mansion?"
"Su Guo Gongfu?"
Zhou Yi was stunned for a moment, then quickly realized, "Are you trying to avenge Zhou Zhou? Because the Duke of Su's Mansion turned Zhou Zhou away during his last visit?"
He couldn't help but laugh, but he felt helpless about his pettiness and vindictiveness. "Haven't you been sarcastic to Duke Su several times about this? Now that Bai Hui has come, are you going to sarcastic the Duke Su's Mansion again?"
"What do you mean by yin and yang?"
Lei Li smiled wryly, "I was having a friendly and cordial meeting with Duke Su. We just had a slight disagreement and exchanged a few words with him. How could it be so serious as to be sarcastic?"
If you say——
Lei Li asked Duke Su with a kind and friendly expression, "Other families have gained a son, but why did yours lose one? Could it be that the black smoke from the ancestral tomb choked your son to death? Or did you accidentally lock your son outside when you closed the door, and he died of anger?"
If this isn't sarcastic, then there's something fishy going on.
When Lei Li asked the Duke of Suguo, Lord Situ's family had just had a new baby, and the ministers in the court congratulated Lord Situ. He followed up the congratulations with a sarcastic remark.
Duke Suguo said at that time: "..."
Ministers in the court: "..."
Lei Li said to Master Situ with a playful smile, "You must take good care of your son. Don't be like the Duke's family, where they raised him with great difficulty only to lose him. Crying in front of the ancestral tablets will not help."
Lord Situ: “…” Thank you.
Therefore, it is not unreasonable for Zhou Yi to worry that Lei Li would be beaten up by the ministers in the court.
As the governor, Lei Li certainly couldn't miss the good show of the Sihai Division. He and Zhou Yi rushed to the scene as soon as possible, sat in the main seat and watched Lei Zhouzhou show off his power with great interest.
He came to watch the show and also to support others. If anyone was not convinced, he would whip them until they had to submit.
In just one morning, all the senior officials, most of the middle-level officials and many of the lower-level officials of the Sihaisi were thrown into jail, and even small clerks without official ranks were imprisoned.
Sihaisi suddenly became an empty shell.
In the afternoon, Lei Li took the lead, Zhou Yi followed, Lei Zhouzhou and Lin Zhong raided the homes of officials who had committed crimes in the Sihai Division, and carried out silver in boxes.
There was so much silver that the Sihaisi's warehouse could not hold it all, and the government office's warehouse was also full, so they rented a house specifically to store the silver and gold ingots.
Lei Li was worried, so he locked all the doors and windows, kept the keys in his pocket, and asked his men to guard the house and the two warehouses day and night. After thinking about it, he decided to transport the goods back to Beijing, so he also raided the Baihui Transport Department.
The Baihui government, the Yunliu Department, and the Sihai Department are closely related. If one of them commits a crime, the other two cannot escape.
Lei Li raided three places in a row over the next few days. He was so excited that he planned to visit all the county offices in Baihui and raid the homes of the county magistrates.
Whether they have committed corruption or not will be revealed after the investigation. Those with more money are corrupt officials, and those with less money are honest officials. Those who have many concubines but are not greedy will also be given a lecture and fined heavily, while those who have no concubines will be left alone.
Respect the Pure Love Party.
—— Prostitution, visiting brothels, and keeping mistresses and concubines don't count; these too will be punished! Doing things covertly is just as bad as doing it openly.
However, Zhou Yi stopped Lei Li and said, "Let's transport this silver back to Beijing first. Those counties are far away, and there's no rush to govern them."
"Alright."
Lei Li thought about it and nodded, "There's plenty of time. We can investigate the county magistrates later. Let's fire a bunch of people from the prison first. Otherwise, there won't be enough space. Crowding together will affect the quality of life in prison."
He deliberately spread the word that he would chop off heads to see who had committed the most and the most serious crimes, and then chop off the head of that person first to accumulate some merit to report to the emperor.
The officials in the prison suddenly rushed to report each other. No one wanted to be the first to die. Besides, it was better for a fellow Taoist to die than for me. The governor said that being a tainted witness would be considered as making meritorious contributions while serving a sentence, and I would not have to die!
Lei Li didn't know who was telling the truth, so he put them all in one room and let them confront each other. The group started arguing, and the verbal battle turned into a fight.
If Lei Li hadn't brought enough strong men with him, they wouldn't have been able to pull them apart. While they were quarreling and fighting and exposing each other's shortcomings, the recorder was writing furiously.
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