At the beginning, I became a county magistrate with greed of 500 million. The empress asked me to be

"Since Xia Yun is someone sent by His Majesty himself, this is all we can do."

Inside the military tent, Lei Zhenning let out a soft sigh.

What happened today was totally beyond his expectations.

If he had not arrived in time, the two sides would have almost engaged in a fight, and the consequences can be imagined.

At this time, Lei Zhenning's eyes turned to a letter on the table.

The signature on the letter was clearly engraved in large characters.

"Personally from Lei Zhenning, the Governor of Zhejiang."

That was a secret letter sent by the inner court yesterday. The person who wrote this letter was none other than the current empress!

Whenever he thought of the contents of the secret letter, he couldn't help but feel a sense of regret in his heart.

"Your Excellency the Governor is right. But that Chen Hanzhi actually mobilized our Hangzhou troops without authorization. I'm afraid his intention behind this is to drag you down with him."

After a moment, the trusted general continued to speak.

According to the court regulations, as long as they are in Zhejiang and Nanzhili, every soldier and horse is under the command of the governor.

If any accident occurred in the army, the primary responsibility would often be borne by the Governor-General of Zhejiang.

"Pass the order down. From now on, I will be stationed in the military camp. All the troops and horses in Zhejiang and Nanzhili provinces must be stamped with my seal before they can be transferred!"

Finally, Lei Zhenning seemed to have made some kind of determination, and he spoke one after another and made a decision.

……

Hangzhou City, prefectural government office.

Two or three hours passed in a flash, and all the soldiers under Xia Yun's command had eaten and drunk their fill at the banquet.

In stark contrast.

They were hundreds of merchants captured by Xia Yun from Hangzhou City, all of whom were starving and imprisoned in the dungeon.

Of course, the four chief salt merchants were not included in this list. They also did not have any food and were detained in a small dark room.

"Those guys...will not starve to death, will they?"

In the government court, Xu Wan'er was a little worried.

She also knew the harsh environment in the dungeon. In addition, those people had been living a life of luxury for a long time, and it was unknown whether their mental state could survive a night.

"Not in a hurry."

Xia Yun chuckled.

If you want to squeeze money out of those guys, you have to use extraordinary means.

To put it bluntly.

If those guys want to leave the dungeon, they have to pay!

Otherwise, why would he go to all that trouble to get those people into the dungeon? It couldn't be to cause trouble for himself.

"How are those four old guys?"

Suddenly, Xia Yun remembered the four chief salt merchants in Hangzhou who were held in solitary confinement.

"They are OK, but the master of the Zhou family is clamoring to see you."

Xu Wan'er reported truthfully.

"Master Zhou, you want to see me?"

Xia Yun raised his eyebrows. He then remembered that he had captured the other party's son Zhou Wendi and put him in the dungeon, and has not released him until now.

"Let them starve. We can talk tomorrow morning."

After thinking for a moment, Xia Yun shook his head.

The temperature is not high enough at the moment. Only when those guys' mental will reaches the limit, can he get whatever he wants!

……

Time flies, and five or six hours have passed.

In the blink of an eye, it was already dawn the next day.

Under Xia Yun's order, the Hangzhou merchants who had been detained in the dungeon for a whole night were finally released back to the ground and able to see the light of day again.

A night of mental torture made these merchants, who had been living a life of luxury for a long time, look extremely embarrassed.

In the government court, Xia Yun looked at the confused crowd and felt amused.

"According to the court's laws, you are provoking trouble and disrupting the government, and you should be sentenced to exile."

boom!

Xia Yun struck the gavel, and the cold sound immediately reached the ears of every Hangzhou merchant present.

This instantly woke up the crowd that was originally in a daze.

"Your Excellency the Prefect, we are all good citizens. We sincerely hope that you will show leniency to us!"

"Yes, sir, this is all a misunderstanding. How dare we go against the government?"

"..."

The merchants were in a panic and begged for mercy one after another.

Hearing this, Xia Yun's mouth curled up slightly.

The effect he wanted had been achieved, and he then glanced at Xu Wan'er beside him.

Xu Wan'er immediately took out a notice and read it aloud in front of everyone.

"According to Daliang's laws, your crimes are to resist the government, and you are sentenced to exile in this life. However, the prefect is merciful and considers that it is not easy for you to do business, so he forgives your crimes. Each of you only needs to pay the corresponding amount of redemption silver to regain your freedom..."

Dozens of breaths passed, Xu Wan'er finished reading the notice and then posted it on the pillar of the yamen.

The notice stated the specific price of the redemption silver.

For example, businesses running restaurants, casinos, etc. were required to pay 20,000 taels of silver each.

Merchants dealing in silk, cotton, porcelain and the like were required to pay 10,000 taels of silver each.

Of course, these were the richest merchants in Hangzhou, so they paid the most silver.

For those whose business was not very large, such as merchants selling fruits and foreign goods, each person only needed to pay a few hundred to a few thousand taels of silver.

Once the notice was posted, these merchants who had been detained for a night did not even bother to complain and rushed forward to express their willingness to pay.

After all, you can earn money again if you lose it, but if you lose your life, it is really gone.

In less than half a day, following the notification from the prefectural yamen, the families of these merchants rushed to the yamen with silver.

Sums of money then flowed into the lobby of the yamen.

It was not until the evening that, except for the four major salt merchants, all the hundreds of Hangzhou merchants in the yamen were released.

"My lord, these guys are really rich."

Xu Wan'er, who was usually calm, showed a rare excitement after counting all the silver that was handed over.

"How many?"

"Four million taels!"

Xia Yun and Xu Wan'er asked and answered each other.

"Yes, Not Bad."

Xia Yun nodded with satisfaction.

Even in Dai County, when they went out of the city to suppress bandits, the amount of stolen silver collected from merchants was no more than about three million at a time.

Hangzhou...is indeed a prosperous place since ancient times!

"What should we do with this money? Should we transport it back to Dai County?"

Xu Wan'er quickly asked again.

Four million taels of silver is not a small amount. According to Xia Yun's previous style, he basically hoarded the silver.

But this time, Xia Yun shook his head.

"You can use this money for infrastructure projects in Hangzhou."

Xia Yun gave the answer.

It’s not because he no longer loves money. On the contrary, he is more eager for money and his ambition has become even greater!

What he was thinking about was no longer the 500 million goal he had set when he first came to this world.

It's five billion! Fifty billion!

He wants to become the undisputed richest man in the world, possessing assets that are truly rich enough to rival a country!

To achieve this goal, it is not possible to simply save a little money today and a little money tomorrow.

Only by expanding the business can we achieve qualitative change through quantitative change!

At this moment, Xia Yun seemed to have foreseen the day when the entire city of Hangzhou would undergo earth-shaking changes.