My father is Yongzheng, and I am Qianlong?

Chapter 240 Angrily rebukes the governor, turning against him directly!
Pan Jianxuan's mouth gaped open, his face turning green.

It took him a long while to come to his senses and realize that his nephew, Pan Shicai, might have offended the Fourth Prince's men.

This made Pan Jianxuan feel extremely disheartened.

It turned out that after Fucha Fuqing was sent to the county government office by Pan Shichang, he took the initiative to reveal his identity and ordered the county magistrate to keep it a secret. He also ordered the county government to send someone to Jiangning to inform Hongli of the matter.

Hongli learned of this matter before meeting these wealthy merchants and inquired about Pan Jianxuan.

Coming to his senses, Pan Jianxuan had no choice but to kneel down immediately: "Fourth Master, I really didn't know anything about this."

"What you don't know is no longer important. What is important is that your nephew has committed the grave crime of disrespecting the law, which is tantamount to treason."

"So, you don't need to wait here to collect the debt. Go to the yamen and turn yourself in. You might still have a chance to live!"

Hongli said at this time.

Pan Jianxuan could only kowtow after hearing this: "Yes, sir!"

Meanwhile, the other wealthy businessmen looked at each other in bewilderment.

They began to worry that their family members might have been framed by Hongli for some crime, with the sole purpose of evading the debts owed to the Textile Bureau.

Upon realizing this, everyone's faces turned deathly pale.

After all, if their fourth prince really wanted to act like a hooligan, there was nothing they could do.

However, Hongli had no intention of resorting to dishonest means for a maximum of one million taels of silver, thereby damaging his credibility.

After all, he plans to issue government bonds and the like in the future.

Now, it's just that Pan Shichang has indeed gone too far. He actually made outrageous remarks, saying that he is the law, treating the Qing Dynasty as the Ming Dynasty, and thinking that he, as a gentry, can continue to act lawlessly in Jiangnan. Clearly, he has not studied hard enough and his understanding of the three major cases in the early Qing Dynasty is not deep enough.

Therefore, Hongli then looked at the other wealthy merchants and said, "As for your debts, as long as they are truly owed by the Textile Bureau, I will still say that I will repay them with the confiscated property of the Cao family as ordered."

Upon hearing Hongli's words, the other wealthy merchants breathed a sigh of relief, secretly delighted. Some even felt that there was still hope of persuading the Fourth Prince to support the closure of the Jiangning Textile Bureau.

"However, you must first report to the authorities and submit a report to the Governor's Office regarding how much the Textile Bureau owes you for goods."

"I cannot pay you based solely on the IOU you provided. Although your IOU bears the official seal of the Textile Bureau, the calculation and repayment still require the supervision of the Governor-General's Office."

At this point, Hongli asked, "Do you understand everything?"

"I'll wait to understand."

After the wealthy merchants answered, they left the Textile Bureau one after another and all went to the Governor's Office.

Pan Jianxuan also came to the Governor's Office and surrendered himself!
However, when Pan Jianxuan came to surrender, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, Fan Shiyi, met with him alone and asked him, "What exactly happened? How did your nephew offend the Fourth Master?"

"There might be a misunderstanding here. Even if my nephew is a complete scoundrel, he wouldn't dare to offend Fourth Master's people!"

Pan Jianxuan replied.

Fan Shiyi said after hearing this, "I will go and pay my respects to Fourth Master and see if I can clear up this misunderstanding."

“This time, your total debt far exceeds the existing assets of the Imperial Textile Bureau. As long as Fourth Master is willing to repay these debts and is unwilling to give up too much of the confiscated Cao family property, then you must support the closure of the Jiangning Imperial Textile Bureau and the sale of all its properties.”

“But if we really confiscate your Pan family’s property and don’t have to pay back your Pan family’s debts, then we won’t be able to persuade Fourth Master to support the closure of the textile bureau.”

Fan Shiyi added.

Pan Jianxuan nodded: "The governor is absolutely right. I wonder if Fourth Master would be willing to show some consideration for us gentry in Jiangnan."

"I'll go and try first. You go to the jail and wait for my news."

As he spoke, Fan Shiyi adjusted his official hat and left the governor's office.

Unlike Li Wei, Fan Shiyi, though a Manchu, had already colluded with the gentry of Jiangnan and begun plotting to seize the official profits of the Jiangning Textile Bureau.

According to Emperor Yongzheng's later criticism of Fan Shiyi, "When he was in Jiangnan, he was lazy and negligent, failing to perform any duties of inspecting officials and ensuring the well-being of the people. He treated local affairs as if they were outside his reach. Salt smugglers and major bandits were only apprehended after I had confirmed their names and issued secret edicts. Furthermore, in the Jiangzhe region, there were bandits hiding and inciting the people, yet he failed to enforce regulations and conduct investigations to curb their behavior; instead, he colluded with them privately..."

In short, Fan Shiyi was not proactive in achieving political achievements, but he was very proactive in making money and seeking personal gain.

At this time, Hongli also summoned Cao Zhaoye and other people in charge of the Weaving Bureau because of the debt.

Moreover, he had just received some bills from the Governor's Office, verified by the Governor, showing outstanding payments from the Weaving Bureau for raw silk and other materials purchased in the past.

"My lord, please understand. Although I am incompetent, I am not so indebted as to have incurred such a large debt for the purchase of raw silk."

Upon seeing that the total amount of these bills exceeded two million taels, Cao Zhaoye immediately knelt down and began to speak excitedly.

Hongli said, "With the official seal and signature of your Textile Bureau, how could it be fake?"

Cao Zhaoye said, "But this servant has never seen these purchase contracts. This servant's official seal of the weaving bureau has always been guarded by the servant Ding Hanchen. Whenever this servant needs to affix the seal, it is Ding Hanchen who takes it to affix the seal."

Hongli also summoned Ding Hanchen, the chief steward of Cao Zhaoye's residence.

Just as many household affairs in the Jia family in "Dream of the Red Chamber" were managed by stewards like Lai Da and Wu Xindeng, many affairs in the Cao family were also handled by their own servants.

Because most of the Cao family's upper echelons didn't focus their energy on specific business matters, but rather on cultivating relationships. Therefore, after Cao Zhaoye said that, Hongli didn't have the energy to scold Cao Zhaoye for being muddle-headed and putting the cart before the horse. He only asked his servant Ding Hanchen, "Are you clear about these accounts?"

Ding Hanchen also shook his head: "I don't know either. I leave the procurement to my son. When he needs to use the seal, he will come and tell me first, and then take it to use."

After hearing this, Hongli realized that Ding Hanchen was also a careless person.

Then he looked at Ding Hanchen's son, Ding Shiliu: "You know about this, right?"

"Fourth Master, spare me! Fourth Master, spare me!"

“This servant took their money and stamped the seal without permission, imitating the master’s handwriting, without letting Father and the masters know. But this servant did not expect that they would suddenly swarm to collect the debt.”

Ding Shiliu replied, trembling.

Hongli coldly ordered, "Drag him back to the temple and guard him closely. We cannot allow him to die suddenly!"

"Whoo!"

Ding Shiliu was then dragged away.

At this moment, Hongli glared at Cao Zhaoye again: "This is the servant you rely on!"

Cao Zhaoye lowered his head, tears welling up in his eyes, and said, "This servant is incompetent and has caused trouble for Master Fourth Master, making him suffer!"

Shortly afterward, Hongli met with Fan Shiyi, the Governor-General of Liangjiang, at his request.

"Tell me, what's the matter?"

When Fan Shiyi arrived, Hongli was drinking jasmine iced tea. After taking a few sips, he put the tea on the table next to him and asked Fan Shiyi about it.

Fan Shiyi smiled and said, "This servant has come for the Pan family's affairs."

After hearing this, Hongli glanced at him and asked indifferently, "What does the Pan family's matter have to do with you?"

"You dare to defy me!"

"This servant is doing this for the sake of Fourth Master."

Fan Shiyi immediately bowed and said, "In my humble opinion, although Pan Shicai is indeed arrogant and rude, he is still young and not well-educated, and his nature is not inherently bad. There is still room for redemption. Therefore, Your Highness may forgive him this time and not hold it against him, so as to demonstrate your benevolence."

Hongli was instantly enraged, but gave him a cold look: "Are you trying to persuade me to be magnanimous?"

“After all, Pan Shichang is a son of a gentry in Jiangnan. If Fourth Master forgives him, it will spread a good reputation in Jiangnan, which is more worthwhile than pursuing momentary pleasure.”

Fan Shiyi replied with a smile.

After hearing this, Hongli asked again: "Do you know that the debt that the Pan family and other gentry in Jiangnan are demanding is not actually a debt owed by the Jiangning Textile Bureau, but a debt fabricated by them in collusion with the Cao family's servants, in order to swindle the Cao family?"

Fan Shiyi seemed to have expected this, and said with a smile, "This servant naturally does not know, but in this servant's humble opinion, since it has been stamped with the seal and has Cao Zhaoye's signature, the court should acknowledge this debt. This would greatly benefit the court in stabilizing Jiangnan."

"How do you say that?"

Hongli asked with an unfriendly gaze.

"Fourth Master, you are wise!"

“The Wu region has always been heavily taxed, so the people’s resentment is not light.”

"The existence of the Jiangning Textile Bureau not only brought little benefit to the court, but also consistently resulted in a deficit, causing the court to lose face and hindering the prosperity of the textile industry."

"Therefore, it would be better to take this opportunity to benefit the people by selling off the assets of the Weaving Bureau and the right to weave tribute items for the imperial use, in order to offset the debts, and at the same time let the gentry of Jiangnan see the grace of the imperial court."

"As for the imperial robes and other imperial-made items in the future, they can be purchased directly from the imperial treasury by the officials and merchants in charge of weaving. In this way, the court will not have to worry about the situation of officials in the weaving bureau selling inferior goods as superior ones or stealing good goods, nor will it have to worry about the problem of deficits. It can also reduce the grievances of the people in Wu and stabilize the tax base."

Fan Shiyi cupped his hands in reply.

Hongli laughed: "What kind of logic is this? They colluded with Cao family servants to fabricate a large number of false debts. The court not only has to admit that it owes them money, but also has to give them concessions. I just want to know, according to this logic, whose world is this?"

"Fourth Master, please calm down!"

Upon hearing this, Fan Shiyi immediately knelt down: "This servant is only offering this suggestion for the long-term stability of the Qing Dynasty!"

"If Fourth Master really refuses to acknowledge these debts because the Cao family denies them, he still won't be able to convince the people of the world, and he will break the hearts of the vast number of scholars and commoners in Jiangnan!"

Bang!
Hongli suddenly stood up, grabbed a teacup from the side, and smashed it directly at Fan Shiyi's head: "Screw you!"

Fan Shiyi's hat immediately tilted to one side, with tea dripping from the brim.

then.

Hongli pointed at Fan Shiyi and said, "You dog of a servant, do you think I am that stupid pig Cao Zhaoye?"

"When do you plan to truthfully report to my father, the Khan, about your secret marriage alliance with Pan Jianbin and the exchange of your children's birth certificates?"

"As a Manchu, how dare you intermarry with commoners without permission? Have you forgotten whose servant you are?!"

(End of this chapter)