A Journey Through the Worlds of Film and Television.

Chapter 919 Another year

As the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion was surrounded, the three judicial offices arrived together, and the nobles living nearby also became nervous.

Soon after, a piece of news spread in Kyoto that a family of Jing'an Marquis had died suddenly and mysteriously, and no one in the family was spared. This caused quite a stir for a while.

In the mansion of Marquis Jing'an, people from the Three Judicial Departments interrogated everyone in the mansion and handed over the bodies of Marquis Jing'an's family to the coroner for examination.

All the most experienced coroners in Kyoto were gathered together. After repeated examinations, they did not find any suspicious marks on the body, nor any signs of poisoning. In the end, they only came to the conclusion of "stroke".

"What? You said that all of Jing'an's family died of a "stroke"? How is this possible? How could such a coincidence happen in the world? Seven or eight people in the family all died of a stroke at the same time?"

"Sir, we really didn't find any signs of poisoning, nor did we find any external damage. Did you find any toxic substances in the food and drinking water of Jing'an Marquis's mansion? We have even checked the well in the mansion."

"Go and ask them again and see what they showed before they died."

Soon, the person in charge of the interrogation came over to report: "According to the reports from the servants and maids, there was nothing unusual about Jing'an Bo and several young masters and ladies before they died."

The three judicial officials checked many times, turning almost the entire Jing'an Marquis's Mansion upside down, but they did not find anything unusual, so they could only report the truth to Emperor Changtai.

During this period, the prefect of Shuntian also took Lu Cheng to the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion to investigate, but also did not find any suspicious traces.

However, the amount of gold, silver and other valuables stored in the treasury of the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion made the officials of the three judicial departments gasp in surprise, and they quickly reported it to Emperor Changtai.

Emperor Changtai was originally waiting for the three judicial officials to find out the truth, but after seeing the inventory list of the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion, he couldn't help but be surprised: "This Jing'an Marquis's Mansion is really worthy of being a century-old mansion. It actually hides so many treasures."

It is no wonder that Emperor Changtai was surprised. In recent years, with frequent disasters, coupled with land annexation and officials at all levels deceiving their superiors and subordinates, the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty has been getting lower and lower every year.

When Emperor Changtai first ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty's total annual fiscal revenue was still around 20 million taels, but now it is less than 15 million taels. This is even after taking into account various land taxes, salt taxes, commercial taxes, etc.

This number may seem like a lot, but it is not enough to spend. The court needs to pay salaries to officials at all levels, pay soldiers, and use it for various infrastructure projects, disaster relief in various places, etc.

Every year's expenditure is increasing, while every year's income is decreasing, Emperor Changtai is almost worried.

Now, the gold, silver, jewelry, antiques, calligraphy and paintings in the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion add up to nearly 10 million taels. This does not include the land, real estate, businesses, etc. under the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion.

If all these were added together, the total assets of the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion would definitely be equal to the total fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty in one year.

Faced with such a number, even Emperor Changtai couldn't help but be tempted.

Now, Jing'anbo and his sons and wives were all dead. Whether the branch of Jing'anbo's mansion was qualified to inherit the title was all up to Emperor Changtai.

After a moment of silence, Emperor Changtai gave an order: "Order to seal up the treasury of the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion and wait for the Ministry of Internal Affairs to inspect it. Ask the three judicial officials to pay attention when investigating the case."

After investigating for two or three days, the three judicial departments did not find anything useful.

Advanced technology that is hundreds of years ahead of this era, coupled with toxins developed by future top biological experts, will make it impossible to find any trace of them, let alone in this era, even in the 21st century.

Afterwards, the three leaders of the Ming Dynasty's judicial departments, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, the Minister of Punishments, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, were all reprimanded by Emperor Changtai.

Since the top leader was scolded by the Emperor, officials at all levels below would naturally be scolded as well.

The superior scolds the subordinate, and the subordinate scolds the subordinate again. Those who are scolded will be scolded, and those who are fined will be fined. It is not easy for everyone.

The person who was most pleased about this was the head of the Imperial Household Department. With more than 10 million taels of money pouring into the Imperial Treasury, the tense situation in the Treasury would be immediately relieved.

However, before the head of the Imperial Household Department was very happy, the Ministry of Revenue could not wait to get a piece of the pie. The emperor's inner treasury was empty, and the Ming Dynasty's treasury was also empty. There was a shortage of money everywhere, so naturally everyone was eyeing the more than 10 million taels of property.

At the beginning, the three judicial officials entered the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion to investigate, and with the addition of the Shuntian Prefecture Yamen, people from several yamen gathered together. With so many people and eyes, the news about the Jing'an Marquis's treasury naturally could not be concealed from the Ministry of Revenue.

In the end, it was Emperor Changtai who stepped in and transferred five million taels of silver to the inner treasury, and the rest of the property and fixed assets were handed over to the Ministry of Revenue, which processed them and eventually put them into the national treasury.

Of course, after those fixed assets arrive at the Ministry of Revenue, what price they can be sold for in the end depends on how the officials of the Ministry of Revenue divide them.

Emperor Changtai seemed to have anticipated this. In order to ensure that as much of the remaining wealth as possible fell into the national treasury, he specially sent people from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Embroidered Uniform Guard to supervise.

For a time, everyone in the court was paying attention to this huge fortune. Even the truth behind the death of Jing'an's family seemed not that important.

Even Emperor Changtai was thinking, if a "Marquis of Jing'an" was so rich, how much wealth did the other four kings and eight dukes, and the various marquisates and earl's mansions have hidden?

If they were all seized, perhaps they could reorganize the army, put down the rebellion, and revive the Ming Dynasty.

When Emperor Changtai thought of this, he felt a little moved, but he quickly suppressed his thoughts and calmed himself down.

"Banban, how is the investigation going with the Jinyiwei?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, there is nothing unusual with Lu Tuiguan. He has been actively investigating these days, but the death of Jing'an Earl's family is too strange, and the several imperial doctors in the palace have not found anything unusual. It is normal that Lu Tuiguan did not find anything."

"Perhaps, I am just overly suspicious. You can go down."

In the evening, Lu Cheng walked out of the Shuntian government office and found that the people who were secretly staring at him had become two more. He still rushed home as usual.

In the past few days, there were suddenly more Jinyiwei who were secretly watching Lu Cheng, and they were hiding more covertly.

Lu Cheng also knew that if he killed Jing'an Bo's family directly, it would definitely arouse some suspicion. After all, everything happened too coincidentally.

However, Lu Cheng himself had no evidence of being absent, and he had never been close to the Jing'an Marquis's Mansion before, so no connection could be found no matter how hard they tried.

The Jinyiwei were not gods, so of course they could only return empty-handed.

After leaving the government office, Lu Cheng went to the market to buy some New Year goods before returning home.

"Another year has passed, and it's time to add fuel to the fire of the end of the Ming Dynasty..."