Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 539 Heavy losses
Half a month later, Zhu Shenzui finally waited for Zhu Qiuqi to return.

In fact, on the second day after taking down the Fan family, Zhu Qiuqi sent someone to deliver a letter to Zhu Shencui in Pingyang, telling him that the Fan family matter had been settled. Zhu Shencui was very happy after hearing the news, but he was worried about the safety of Zhu Qiuqi and his family and their property, so he did not take any action, and continued to do what he had to do, waiting patiently.

After waiting for half a month, Zhu Shenzhui finally put his mind at ease when Zhu Qiuqi returned safely to Pingyang Prefecture and saw that he was safe and sound.

After they met, he brought Zhu Qiuqi into the house and closed the door. Without waiting for Zhu Shenzhu to ask, Zhu Qiuqi took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to him. After Zhu Shenzhu took it and looked at it carefully, he found that the paper contained what he had gained from the Fan family.

There were many things on the list, especially gold and silver. In addition, there were all kinds of jewelry and antiques, which accounted for nearly half of the items.

Among the treasures obtained from the Fan family this time, the gold and silver were relatively easy to count. After counting, the total converted silver was more than 855,000 taels. This was only the conversion of gold and silver, and did not include jewelry and antique calligraphy and paintings. However, because the calculation of the latter was a bit difficult, according to preliminary statistics, the latter was worth about 250,000 to 300,000 taels of silver. If only 250,000 taels were calculated, then the total amount would be more than 1.1 million taels.

This is not a small amount. You should know that the Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue during the Tianqi period was 7.5 million taels a year, but after the Chongzhen period, the current fiscal revenue dropped sharply to only 3.26 million taels.

After just one trip to the Fan family, he obtained an amount equivalent to more than one-third of the Ming Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue, which was enough to show that the Fan family was rich enough to rival a country.

This is still a rough estimate. If they had thoroughly cleaned the Fan family's house, they would have gotten at least hundreds of thousands of taels. You have to know that they only moved the Fan family's treasury and didn't have time to look for other valuables. Even in the cellar that served as the treasury, the two huge coins were not taken away because they were too heavy. Otherwise, the harvest would have been much greater than it is now.

"All these valuables are kept by my uncle in Taiyuan Prefecture. My uncle asked me to tell you something. The government is investigating the Fan family affairs. It's best not to move the valuables for the time being. Wait for a year or so before disposing of them."

"The arrangement is good. Let's do it according to my brother-in-law's wishes." Zhu Shenzhu nodded, then glanced at the paper and said with a smile: "You and your brothers have worked hard this time. Tell me, what do you want?"

Zhu Qiuqi also laughed immediately. He shook his head and said, "I have told you before that I will definitely do everything for you. As for other things, I don't care. As long as you are satisfied, that's all that matters."

As soon as he said this, Zhu Shenzhui understood what Zhu Qiuqi meant. He looked at Zhu Qiuqi seriously and asked again, "Really don't want a reward?" If he wanted a reward, this harvest alone would be enough to give him a lot of benefits. Apart from other things, taking some of the harvest from the Fan family would be enough for Zhu Qiuqi to become a wealthy businessman.

Facing Zhu Shenzhui's repeated questioning, Zhu Qiuqi remained firm in his statement without any hesitation. Seeing this, Zhu Shenzhui nodded, thought for a moment and said, "In this case, the trade route on the grassland will be handed over to you. Someone from the grassland will come in a few days. You can meet them then. If you have any questions in the future, you can discuss them directly with them. Remember to do it well and carefully in the future!"

Instantly, a look of joy appeared on Zhu Qiuqi's face, and he hurriedly stood up and bowed to Zhu Shencui to express his gratitude. As a member of the royal family who had always followed Zhu Shencui, although he had only done some peripheral work before, Zhu Qiuqi, who was smart, still knew a thing or two about Zhu Shencui's trade with the grassland and other things.

Now Zhu Shenzhui has handed this matter over to him, which not only represents the true acceptance of Zhu Qiuqi as the core, but also entrusts him with an important task. This is exactly what Zhu Qiuqi has always dreamed of, how can he not be happy?
What Zhu Qiuqi didn't expect was that after telling this story, Zhu Shenzhui did not give up rewarding Zhu Qiuqi. He told Zhu Qiuqi that his principle of employing people was to reward those who had made contributions and punish those who had made mistakes. Since Zhu Qiuqi had accomplished great things, it was impossible not to reward him. Moreover, not only him, but also Liu Bo and several other Jinyiwei, as well as Li Hu and his son, and the new army brothers who had done the work would all be rewarded heavily.

Zhu Shenzui decided to take out 100,000 taels of silver from the Fan family's harvest as a reward. Zhu Qiuqi, Liu Bo, and Li Hu, father and son, as the leaders, would get half, and the other half would be divided equally among the other Jinyiwei and the new army brothers who worked together. In this way, Zhu Qiuqi, Liu Bo, and Li Hu, father and son, would each get at least 12,500 taels of silver. This amount of wealth was no small sum, and it was enough to make people ecstatic.

This matter was settled. Zhou Anmin would not have to pay for the specific rewards. He would instruct Kang Youfu to hand them over to everyone one by one through Hengtong Commercial Bank in the form of silver bills. This was to avoid the safety of the property. After all, the Fan family's affairs had caused too much trouble and were now in the spotlight. The Fan family's property must not be used at the moment, and it would be inconvenient for them to have real money in their hands. It would be more appropriate to arrange it this way.

"Uncle, you have thought it through very well. This arrangement couldn't be better." Zhu Qiuqi was very happy and flattered Zhu Shenzhui with a smile.

Zhu Shenzhui smiled without commenting, and then asked Zhu Qiuqi, what else did Zhou Anmin say besides that the property could not be touched for the time being. Zhu Qiuqi slapped his forehead and said that he almost forgot. He quickly told Zhu Shenzhui that because the matter of the Fan family was too big, the government could not figure out who had attacked the Fan family for the time being. Even the servants and guards who had escaped from the Fan family were nowhere to be found, and for a while they could not figure out who had done it. In desperation, the Taiyuan government could not find any clues, so they could only ask for help from the Jinyiwei. The Jinyiwei in Shanxi was now under the control of Zhou Anmin, and even the Jinyiwei had been involved in the matter of the Fan family. Now they turned around and asked the Jinyiwei for help. This sounded really funny. Isn't this asking a thief to catch a thief?

"My uncle also said that he would make all the arrangements for this matter, and he would use the Shanxi rebel army and the western rebels as an excuse to solve the case. But my uncle reminded me that the news has now reached Zhangjiakou, and Fan Yongdou, the head of the Fan family, has asked his second son to take care of the business in Zhangjiakou temporarily. He and his eldest son have been rushing back to Jiexiu day and night, and judging from the time, they are probably back to Zhangyuan Village now."

After a pause, Zhu Qiuqi tentatively asked whether they should take advantage of Fan Yongdou's return to Jiexiu to act quietly. If possible, they could get rid of him directly and avoid future troubles.

"No need." Zhu Shenzhui shook his head and said, "Now is not a good time. If Fan Yongdou gets into trouble now, my brother-in-law's cover-up will be meaningless. Even a fool would know that what happened to the Fan family was definitely not done by the rebels or traitors. It must have been done by the enemies of the Fan family."

"To avoid trouble, don't touch Fan Yongdou. As long as he can't find out, let him do whatever he wants. Besides, the Fan family's savings of many years have been destroyed, which is enough to make Fan Yongdou feel painful. For a person like Fan Yongdou who values ​​money more than his life, seeing the Fan family like this is even more painful than killing him."

Zhu Shenzhui's words made Zhu Qiuqi nod his head repeatedly. This was indeed reasonable. It was better to be quiet than to move. Fan Yongdou, who had lost his family property, was more miserable alive than dead. What if he was put aside for the time being? Anyway, Fan Yongdou couldn't run away, so there was no rush to deal with him when there was a chance in the future.

Zhu Shenzhui's guess was correct. Fan Yongdou looked like he had lost his parents. When he learned in Zhangjiakou that his ancestral home in Jiexiu had suffered heavy losses after being attacked, how could Fan Yongdou sit still? He immediately handed over the affairs of Zhangjiakou to his second son, and he, his eldest son and guards, rushed from Zhangjiakou to Jiexiu overnight, and finally returned to Zhangyuan Village a few days later.

When Zhang Yuancun saw the mess in the Fan family compound, Fan Douyong's blood boiled and he almost fell to the ground. Fortunately, his eldest son supported him and Fan Yongdou was able to stand firm. Then he was stunned and couldn't help crying.

The Fan family has been in Jiexiu for seven generations up to Fan Yongdou's generation. These seven generations of Fan family started out as small businessmen. Relying on the hard work and management of generation after generation, it was not until their generation that the Fan family has become prosperous as it is today.

But no one expected that in just one night, nearly half of the Fan family compound became like this. Even the sons and women who stayed in the Fan family compound were few in number. All the men died, and only a few of the women were still alive. His two concubines were killed after being insulted, and even his stepmother became mentally ill because of this incident and was living a life worse than death.

Fan Sanbo, the third son whom he valued the most, lost his life. The body he found was no longer human. That was fine, a woman could be remarried if she died, and a son could be reborn if he died. What made Fan Yongdou most distressed was that the savings of several generations of the Fan family were gone. Especially when he saw that the entire cellar that served as the vault was almost completely emptied, leaving only two huge ones that had not been moved away, Fan Yongdou almost couldn't bear the shock and had a cerebral hemorrhage.

After finally adjusting his mood and regaining his sanity, Fan Yongdou asked people to count the losses of the Fan family as soon as possible. After counting, when he learned that the Fan family had lost millions of taels of property, Fan Yongdou was so angry that his hands trembled and his face was extremely ugly.

"Who did it? How did the thugs get into the Fan family compound?" As a successful businessman, Fan Yongdou was no drunkard. On the way back, he asked about the attack on the Fan family. However, the information he collected was all kinds of things, and most of them were unreliable. After returning to the Fan family, Fan Yongdou called all the surviving servants and servants of the Fan family, including the guards, and asked them about the situation one by one, intending to find out the truth.

After listening to the replies and asking questions for a long time, Fan Yongdou finally got a glimpse of the truth. According to the answers of the crowd and the information from other places, these strong men first pretended to be officials appointed by the court, and then deceived Fan Sanbo's trust and entered the Fan family compound.

Then they kidnapped Fan Sanbo, and with the help of insiders and outsiders, they opened the gate of the Fan family compound, allowing their accomplices who had been prepared outside to rush into the Fan family, and then burned, killed, looted, and finally left.

As for the number of the enemy, some said it was dozens, some said it was hundreds, and some said it was several hundred or even thousands. Because it was too chaotic at the time, and the guards who fought the new army head-on were either dead or fled later, and it was nighttime and it was impossible to see clearly, so it was impossible to be sure how many people came.

(End of this chapter)