The Emperor of Red Mansions: Many Children, Many Blessings, Opening Draft

What they feared was that the emperor would conduct a strict investigation of taxes, and what they feared even more was that the emperor established the East Factory to investigate corruption.

What they also feared was the emperor's attitude. The establishment of the East Factory gave those lowly people who they looked down upon confidence.

Especially the East Factory branches in various states and rich places such as Jiangnan. As soon as the East Factory opened the door, people lined up to file complaints.

After all, this was specially set up by the emperor to investigate corrupt officials, and it was for the people.

They had great grievances, and now there was a door for redress. How could they not line up to tell their grievances and pray for justice?

Although local governments have also taken many countermeasures to stop these people.

But there are many people who have been wronged, right?

For example, those who were oppressed by bureaucrats and rich people had their families lose their lives, become disabled, and their wives, daughters, fields, businesses, heirlooms, cattle and sheep were robbed.

There were also those who bullied people by bullying the market, bought things without paying, collected various protection fees, forced women into prostitution, sold usury, and fabricated false cases.

Basically, there were countless cases like this.

The East Factory Yamen was also unambiguous.

With evidence, witnesses, whether they were officials or rich, they were all arrested and their homes confiscated according to the law.

If anyone dared to resist, the East Factory would not hesitate to draw their swords and execute them on the spot.

The East Factory's decisiveness and ruthlessness did not scare the people, nor did it cause panic among the people.

On the contrary, whether it was the onlookers or the people who heard the news, they all cheered and felt that the East Factory Yamen was really a good Yamen for them, a clean Yamen.

And the eunuchs in the East Factory were also directly ignored by the common people for their shortcomings.

Of course, such inspections also caused many problems.

For example, the local garrison commander made a mistake and led troops to resist the law!

Or, they were afraid that the East Factory had already transferred their property.

However, these are indeed a thorny problem for the imperial guards and the soldiers of the Kyoto camp who were incorporated into the East Factory.

But for the eunuchs of the East Factory, it is a trivial matter.

Faced with those who led troops to resist the law, the eunuchs of the East Factory directly told the garrison who obeyed their orders that it was a big deal.

Tell them that they were all rebelling.

If this matter is reported, they will all become rebels and face the encirclement and suppression of the imperial army.

And afterwards, their families will be implicated and executed, or they will be demoted to slavery like the family members of the imperial guards.

In addition, the most important thing is that the garrison troops are not living well.

Their military pay and meals are often deducted by their generals.

And their generals are not good to them, so the eunuchs of the East Factory emphasize these.

And explained the numerous crimes committed by their commanders, asking them to think carefully, if they lay down their weapons now, the court can let this matter go and not report it.

And for such oppression and violation of the national law, the generals who were to be tried for participating in treason were so unworthy that the soldiers chose to drop their weapons and dare not confront the people of the East Factory.

And the generals, lieutenants, and captains who broke the law were all caught by the East Factory, and finally ended up with their homes confiscated and their families exterminated.

As for those who transferred their property in advance, that was even less of a problem.

What does the East Factory do?

As long as they catch people, whether it is psychological warfare or torture, there are still mouths that the eunuchs of the East Factory can't open?

Secondly, let alone the secret agents of the East Factory who are still secretly monitoring.

Although the number of 10,000 spies distributed in various places is not large.

But as the saying goes, there are only thieves who can do thieves for a thousand days, but there are no thieves who can guard against thieves for a thousand days!

Luowang spies are all specialized in this, and those who are targeted by Luowang spies don't know that they are being targeted.

So how can they not be discovered by Luowang spies when they secretly transfer money?

Even if they escape the secret surveillance of Luowang spies, they can't escape the interrogation of the eunuchs of the East Factory.

And even if they can get away with it by talking hard, the East Factory will post a notice that any officials, gentry, and wealthy businessmen who are questioned will be rewarded with a certain amount of silver, or a part of the crime can be exempted.

Can their money still be hidden?

After all, paper cannot cover fire. If these people want to transfer large amounts of money from their homes, how can they not need a large number of people?

If there is a greedy and timid person, won't the property be dug out no matter how deep it is hidden?

And even if it is not dug out, there are still clues provided, and the East Factory will follow the clues bit by bit.

So the stolen money, land and real estate seized by the East Factory alone is already an astronomical figure.

And this is just the beginning.

After all, the East Factory has only been stationed in various places.

And there are still many places in Da Wu where the East Factory does not have enough staff to station.

This shows how corrupt Da Wu has become.

Look, those government offices that do not have East Factory stationed nearby, the rich and unkind businessmen and tycoons began to talk about the East Factory one by one, and everyone was in danger.

They even affectionately called the East Factory the court's hawk dog, and they went to great lengths to find ways and ask people to find connections.

Similarly, the local East Factory government offices found so much stolen money, and the corrupt officials, the rich and unkind businessmen, the gentry, and the East Factory headquarters in Shenjing City were naturally not idle.

First, the Ministry of Revenue was the first to be seized by the East Factory.

And as many as 70% of the Ministry of Revenue officials were seized.

Among them, the stolen money seized was even more shocking.

However, what was most shocking was not only that the stolen money seized by the Ministry of Revenue amounted to more than 19 million taels of silver.

The land owned by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue alone was enough to rival the cultivated land of Yangzhou Prefecture.

Such a huge amount of land, not to mention how much of it was seized by the officials of the Ministry of Revenue, and how much of it was registered by others under the names of these officials of the Ministry of Revenue.

Anyway, these are all real tax-free fields.

It would be strange if the tax revenue of Da Wu was so high.

So many money fields were confiscated, and there were many shops.

Li Chenghan turned part of the extra fields into imperial farms, and part of them were incorporated into the name of Dongchang, allowing Dongchang's spies to plant them.

This also gave Dongchang the capital to settle down.

It is worth mentioning that these fertile fields were divided into various farms, and these farms kept a large number of tenants. In this way, Dongchang not only saved the trouble of arranging people to manage, but also had many more people to absorb.

And those who incorporated the land into the name of the officials of the Ministry of Households almost cried to death.

Because these lands were confiscated by the court, there was no reason to return them.

And the fertile fields have been incorporated into the names of the officials of the Ministry of Households who were confiscated, so from the legal point of view, these fertile fields have long had nothing to do with them.

So what they lost was their ancestral heritage.

And after losing it, they have no way to get it back, no matter where they go.