I

City ship division.

Wang Cai was not allowed to leave the office, and even his family members were not allowed to have any contact with him.

The investigation is still going on, Cao Benshu no longer intervenes in person, but came to chat with Wang Cai: "Wang Tiju, your deputy committed suicide in fear of crime, do you know the news?"

"Chen Xianchun committed suicide?" Wang Cai was surprised, and he didn't know if it was from the heart or a fake expression.

Cao Benshu sighed: "Chen Xianchun's problem is very serious. I investigated several trading companies engaged in maritime trade, and all of them evaded customs duties through his son. Such a large-scale tax evasion, as the chief officer of the Shipping Department, you will not always Don't you know?"

Wang Cai said sadly: "This old Chen is really confused. He was originally just a poor scholar in Hubei, but thanks to His Majesty and the court's kindness, he has achieved his present glory. He should serve the country well, how can he be corrupt and collude? What about merchants? As the chief officer of the Shipbuilding Department, as Chen Xianchun's boss, I have the responsibility of being ignorant and ineffective in supervision, how can I have the face to continue to be an official? Cao Yushi, I will take the blame and resign myself."

"You really don't know?" Cao Benshu asked.

Wang Cai said: "I really don't know anything. I am the chief officer of the Shipbuilding Department, but the management of goods and merchants is only in charge of Chen Xianchun."

This set of rhetoric is in line with common sense. Whether it is an imperial government office or a private company, it is really the deputies who actually do things.

Cao Benshu said: "It seems that I misunderstood you, but for your safety, you should stay here for the time being. When the truth comes to light, it will not be too late to leave this room."

Cao Benshu left after speaking, the door was locked, and Wang Cai was placed under house arrest.

Only Wang Cai was left alone in the room. He was quite energetic just now, but he collapsed on the seat in an instant.

He didn't know that the imperial court's investigation of the Shibo Department was actually Zhao Han's impromptu idea. He thought that Chen Xianchun's son was too ostentatious, which attracted the attention of the anti-corruption officials, and cursed the Chen father and son who had committed suicide countless times in his heart.

Although the phenomenon of the navy doing business in the field is still going on, the imperial court has formulated layers of constraints.

The Ministry of Commerce and the Navy Commander's Mansion directly dispatch officials to be responsible for naval trade, which is equivalent to a state-owned shipping company established by the Ministry of Commerce and the Navy Commander's Mansion. The Ministry of Commerce and the Naval Governor's Office can retain part of the profits, and the rest need to pay dividends to the Ministry of Finance.

Moreover, the navy's trade volume is limited every year to prevent disrupting the market and competing for profits with the people.

There must be loopholes in this approach. For example, smuggling by the Navy quietly cannot be completely eliminated. It is true that the military expenditure of the navy has been increasing year by year, and it cannot be fully supported by finances. It is only a temporary concession policy.

But there are also advantages. The navy trades off, and the navy smuggles quietly. They are very active in combating private smuggling.

In the waters of Shanghai, businessmen who dare to smuggle can do small things, but once they become big, they will definitely be targeted by the navy.

Since smuggling cannot be carried out at sea, and the inland trade is blocked by the Department of General Affairs, merchants can only collaborate with officials and merchants in the Department of Shipping. This form of tax evasion is very "safe", and it must be checked in detail with the tripartite account books of the supply company, export company, and general tax department, and can only be found out by comparing each transaction slowly.

The imperial court will not check accounts like this!

Wang Cai felt wronged, because Shanghai has been playing this trick since the day the port was opened.

It's just that I was cautious at the beginning, and the tax evasion was not a lot. After the unspoken rules gradually formed, officials, officials, and businessmen became accustomed to it, so they became more and more unscrupulous.

So much so that Chen Xianchun became the second-in-command, letting his son take the initiative to reach out to merchants. Those trading companies that do not evade taxes will be encouraged by officials to evade taxes as long as they go to sea for two or three consecutive years, and legal operators will become outliers instead.

What else to check?

From the top to the bottom of the Shibo Department, from officials to officials, at least half of them participated in it. Small officials earn dozens of taels a year, small officials earn hundreds of taels a year, and middle and senior officials earn thousands or tens of thousands of taels a year.

This is already the norm, and it is already the unspoken rule of Shibo Division!

Wang Cai felt that he was very clean and honest. He had been in the customs system for more than ten years, and he only made a total of more than a hundred thousand taels of silver. Chen Xianchun, who committed suicide in fear of crime, was ruthless. It is estimated that the embezzled money was more than 300,000 taels.

…

Cao Benshu came to another interrogation room.

At this moment, more than a dozen petty officials and bureaucrats in the Municipal Department were already trembling with fear.

Cao Benshu sat down slowly: "Inspecting goods, filing taxes, and keeping accounts, are you guys doing it? Chen Xianchun has already committed suicide, do you want to commit suicide too? With your grades, I'm afraid you can't be greedy. If you confess honestly, say Maybe you can still make meritorious deeds."

Just like making dumplings, all the petty officials knelt down: "My lord, please spare me. If you do what Hu Lushi tells you to do, the little ones will do what you want. Every quarter, the oil and water will be divided. It will not be much, and it will be shared equally. One There are only a few taels of oil and water per month."

"Hu Huiqing, you are so courageous!" Cao Benshu slammed the gavel.

The recorder named Hu Huiqing knelt down with weak knees, and said in a crying voice: "My lord, the little one is just going with the flow. Before the villain became the recorder, the Shibosi had already done this. The villain If you are disobedient, how can this recording matter continue?"

Cao Benshu asked, "How long has this kind of thing existed?"

Hu Huiqing replied: "The villain was already like this at the time when he entered the Shibo Department eight years ago. But in the early days, he had to restrain himself a lot, and everyone was very afraid. Gradually, he became less afraid. He felt that the imperial court would not come to investigate, and he became more courageous. It’s getting bigger and bigger. Especially that Chen Xianchun, after being a vice-president, even took the initiative to let businessmen evade taxes.”

"Eight years, I'm afraid it will be longer." Cao Benshu knew that this time he was playing Dafa.

Eight years ago, some of the chief officials of the Municipal Shipping Department had been promoted to the central government, and some held important positions in the localities. How many people are involved in this?

Cao Benshu asked, "Is Wang Cai corrupt?"

Hu Huiqing said: "Wang Tiju also came from a junior official in the Municipal Bureau of Shipping..."

Cao Benshu asked again: "Do you have the relevant account books? It is the real account, not a fake account for the court to see."

"I dare not stay." Hu Huiqing bowed her head and said.

A small official suddenly said: "There is an account."

Cao Benshu immediately sat up straight: "Did you save the account?"

The little official replied: "The villain does not have accounts, but Fan Experience may have."

Cao Benshu asked, "Who is Fan Experience?"

The little official replied: "Fan Ching was transferred from Suzhou Datong Bank two years ago, and he was in charge of the cashier of the Shibo Department. Fan Ching had been in office for two months. It was not his business, and he quietly went to inquire about it. In the spring of last year, Fan Jingli died suddenly. It was rumored that someone killed him. After Fan Jingli died, Wang Tiju personally attended to his funeral and brought people to Fan Jingli's home to sort out his belongings. I'm afraid...he was searching the account book .”

When Cao Benshu heard this, she was extremely angry. Not only was she corrupt, but she even dared to murder her colleagues!

"Where is Fan Jingchen from? Has his body been transported back to his hometown for burial?" Cao Benshu asked.

Hu Huiqing said: "Fan Jizheng is from Guizhou, and the journey is far away, so it is impossible to transport it back to his hometown. Such things must either be buried in Shanghai, or cremated and taken away by family members. Fan Jilin...was cremated."

That is, there is no way to do an autopsy.

Cremation is very popular in the south, and there are a lot of records in the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Not only those who die in other places choose to be cremated, but many local people also choose to be cremated when they die. There are even professions that specialize in burning corpses.

Cao Benshu continued to ask: "Fan experienced going to Shanghai to be an official, did he bring his family or accompany him?"

Hu Huiqing said: "I didn't bring it with me. I heard that I lost my wife. I have a young son in my hometown in Guizhou."

Cao Benshu asked, "Have you ever hired a servant?"

Hu Huiqing said: "I hired a maid, and I don't know the details of this maid."

Suddenly another small official wanted to make a contribution: "Master Yushi, that maid lives in Fahua Town, and she is still a neighbor to the villain, but she got married last winter. As for where she will marry, the villain is not too clear."

Fahua Town, namely Xujiahui, got its name from Fahua Temple.

The temple fell into disrepair for a long time and was directly demolished, and the monks also returned to the common people and became common people.

The place name of Lujiazui already exists, and it was named after Lu Shen, the ancestor of Lu Guang who was investigated a few days ago.

It took Cao Benshu five days to invite the maid named Wu Lian.

At first, Wu Lian didn't say anything, just kept crying and shaking her head.

Cao Benshu was even more certain that the maid must know something, so she comforted her with kind words for two days.

Wu Lian finally spoke: "My lord, Mr. Fan is a good man. He... He stored a small box in the bank, saying that he would not live for a few days, and asked the girl to take it to the Inspector of Integrity. He also said that in the box If you have ten taels of silver, take it out and give it to the daughter of the people as a dowry."

"Why don't you go get it?" Cao Benshu asked.

"Minnv dare not," Wu Lian said. "On the second day of Fan Xianggong's cremation, Minnv's house came at night. Minnv's father and elder brother were beaten and forced to hand over things. Minnv was so frightened. He couldn't speak, but he didn't hand over Fan Xianggong's box. Later, he was really scared, so he hurriedly married and went to the neighboring county."

Cao Benshu asked, "What about the access certificate?"

Wu Lian said: "When those villains came to the door, the women swallowed it."

"Do you know those villains?" Cao Benshu asked again.

"There are more than ten people in total, and the women know two of them," Wu Lian said, "One is Liu Er, and the other is Zhu Huhu. They are both nicknames."

Cao Benshu immediately ordered the arrest, and sent people to Datong Bank to pick up the things.

Unfortunately, both Liu Er and Zhu Huhu have left Shanghai. All the hooligans who hung out with them also ran away, and went directly to sea by boat, some said they went to Luzon, some said they went to Japan.

Fortunately, I got the things from the bank, a letter, an account, ten taels of silver.

Cao Benshu first opened and read the last letter: "My name is Fan Hongjing, my style name is Ding'an, and I am from Kaili, Guizhou. My father passed away early, and my uncle oppressed me. Fortunately, I was raised by a loving mother. Thanks to Your Majesty, I took back three of my deceased father's shops, so I have financial resources. Taking care of the old mother... Now I am the experience of the Shanghai Shipping Department. There are filth here, and it must be thoroughly investigated and rectified...Wang Cai was promoted and Chen Xianchun was appointed as the deputy. Knowing that I was investigating secretly, they invited me to join in the dirty work many times. So I pretended Promise, I will get more than 800 taels of dirty silver one after another..."

"I drank with Wu Wengang, a sea merchant, and made insinuations about the amount of his tax evasion. This guy is alert, and I am afraid that he will tell the truth. I will deposit the account books I have created in the Datong Bank of Shanghai County..."