The Heavens Begin with Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 31 Self-directed and self-acted
When Xue Pan heard that people and things had been kidnapped, he was filled with shock and anger, and subconsciously turned his gaze to Zhan Twenty-four.

When it comes to robbery and kidnapping, this guy is the ancestor!

As a result, Zhan Ershisi was even more angry than him. He glared, slammed the table, and shouted:

"This is the best place under the feet of the emperor. How could that robber dare to do such a thing?"

He hurriedly bowed to Shi Nai and apologized:

"Uncle, this is too shocking. My nephew and I have to leave first."

Shi Nai immediately expressed his understanding, then asked someone to bring the name card, handed it to Zhan Ershisi, and said:
"My dear nephew, you two should take my name card with you to Shuntian Prefecture. I believe that the prefect Han will not dare to give you any excuses."

After thanking him, Zhan Ershisi hurried out of the door and headed straight for Shuntian Prefecture.

When they reached a secluded place, Xue Pan came over quietly and whispered:
"Brother-in-law, this...is really not something you did?"

Zhan Ershisi rolled his eyes at him, looked around, and seeing that everyone around him was his own people, he snorted coldly:

"Why, do you have any objection?"

After hearing this, Xue Pan felt relieved and said with a smile:
"If my brother-in-law robs my own family, can it still be considered robbery?"

"If my brother-in-law wants it, why not just withdraw it directly from the account? Why bother mobilizing so many people?"

"It scared me so much that I really thought something was lost."

"what do you know?"

Zhan Ershi rolled his eyes and explained slowly:
"The Xue family's money belongs to your Xue family. You have to pay it back sooner or later if you withdraw it from the account."

"After the robbery, this thing passed through many hands. It became the case handling fund of our Jinyi Tiqi. It has nothing to do with your Xue family anymore."

"Master, I want to take this opportunity to clean out all the termites in the Xue family's shop."

"Those local shopkeepers have been colluding with each other for many years, working in collusion and protecting each other in various ways. Although I haven't looked at the accounts of the shops carefully, I can guess that they must have been flawlessly kept, and ordinary people can't find out at all."

"If we slowly find a senior manager to check the accounts, we may be able to find out the problem, but I am afraid that if we don't check it thoroughly, there may be strange things like fire dragons burning the warehouses or ghost soldiers borrowing the road, and the Xue family will suffer greater losses."

"Your Xue family's things will belong to the emperor sooner or later. How can you let them waste them like this?"

"Instead of engaging in intrigue with them, it is better for us to make use of the strengths of the Jinyi Tiqi and directly tie up the head shopkeeper Xue Zhong. Under severe torture, we don't have to worry about him daring to lie to us."

"Let's first clarify the relationships between the shop owners and find out which businesses they have tampered with. Then we can deal with them in a targeted manner in one step."

"If one shopkeeper is not enough, then we can 'invite' a few more shopkeepers. It was done by robbers anyway. What does it have to do with me, the Jinyi Tiqi?"

"Even if the detectives in the yamen rack their brains, I'm afraid they can't figure out that we were the ones who committed this crime!"

"If we can get the real account book, we can catch these rats with lightning speed and hand them over to the government for punishment."

"Even if we don't get the accounts, we can still make up for the losses from these shopkeepers by paying ransom."

"In addition, Master, I have arranged something else. I will take this opportunity to make a fortune."

Having said that, Zhan Ershisi turned to look at Wu Sihai and asked:

"How did things go?"

Wu Sihai bowed and saluted, "Master, everything went smoothly. We used unfamiliar faces, forged seals, and passwords provided by the Xue family. No store suspected anything. After the group of people finished the work, they immediately left Beijing and returned to the mountains, so they didn't expect anyone to find out where they were." "How much silver did they get?"

"Thirty-eight shops siphoned off a total of 134,800 taels of silver, all of which were shipped out of the capital."

After hearing this, Xue Pan took a breath of cold air.

Zhan Ershi was not satisfied. "The average value of this store is less than 4,000 taels of silver. It doesn't match the accounts we have!"

Wu Sihai had also been confused when he heard the report before, but now he had figured out the whole thing and replied:

"Master, when you go to various shops to withdraw money, you usually need to notify them in advance so that the shops can prepare in advance to avoid a shortage of money and affect business."

"We need it urgently now, so the shops everywhere can't just give us all the money at once."

"Besides, we are using the name of shopkeeper Xue Zhong, and the reason we used is that we don't have enough silver to pick up the goods at the dock, so we need to borrow it temporarily, so a few thousand taels of silver is enough for emergency."

"Ah, I see. That makes sense." Zhan Ershisi nodded and waved his hand, saying, "That's it. A few hundred thousand taels is not a small amount. It will be enough for us to use for a long time."

"Then don't bring Xue Zhong and the others back to our lair. Find a nearby hilltop, set up a tent, and interrogate them temporarily."

"As for the spices, find another place to store them temporarily and keep them away from moisture. After the Xue family has sorted things out, Wenlong will pay to buy them back."

Xue Pan was stunned when he heard this. All these things had been done without his knowledge before, but he only found out about it now.

But he had long been conquered by Zhan Ershisi, and even when he was listening in person to how everyone was plotting to take away his Xue family's property, he did not dare to raise any objection.

When it comes to the word "official", everything you say makes sense!
Now hearing Mr. Zhan mention him, he bowed hurriedly and agreed.

"Don't worry, brother-in-law. I will definitely give you a high price for what I saved."

Zhan Ershi nodded with satisfaction and praised:
"Ruzi can be taught!"

"These spices were ordered by various households. In order to prevent the orders from being lost and affecting the reputation of the Xue family, we temporarily purchased them from foreign merchants for emergency use. It is normal to increase the price a little."

"Let's just pretend we don't know what's going on with the shops. You and I will go to the government office to report the case and deal with the robbery of Xue Zhong."

After saying that, he turned around and asked Wu Sihai.

"Who is following up on the Xue family's affairs?"

"My Lord, it's Yang Yougong who's doing it. He has secretly sent someone to notify Xue Zhong's wife, asking her to prepare the cash, house deeds, and land deeds, and go out of the city tonight to redeem the person. Madam Xue is just an ordinary woman, and I don't think she would dare to make it public. When the time comes, let Yougong take away both the money and the person."

"Good!" Zhan Ershi praised and continued, "After the incidents of the various shops are exposed, have someone secretly spread the news that this robbery was directed and acted by Xue Zhong himself. He took advantage of his position to obtain the passwords of the shopkeepers, and then privately carved and copied the seal of the mistress, making a fortune. Now he has run away with his family."

"In short, let Xue Zhong take the blame. We can use this as an excuse to arrest the shopkeepers who lost money and replace them with our own people."

"If we can get the account book from Xue Zhong, we can report to the authorities and have their homes confiscated to compensate the Xue family for their losses. Even if we can't get the account book, these people have lost their jobs, so we can slowly deal with them."

“Kill many birds with one stone!”

Xue Pan was horrified when he heard this, and cursed the officials in his heart for being so evil-minded. He bowed hastily and praised:

"Brother-in-law is wise!"

Zhan Ershisi was happy as the money came into his account and his plan went smoothly. He laughed out loud, galloped on his horse, and rushed to Shuntian Prefecture to report the case.

Thanks to "巜巛", "Senior Diver", "Tiger Teeth for You", "Silent Walking in the Clouds", "kill丶Li Shang", "Book Friend 20220528175221507", "It was you who attracted the devils", "Bai Qianyue", "Book Friend 150513200212375", "Looking at You", "Niwang", and "JOJOers" for the reward of 100 coins!
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(End of this chapter)