Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

There was deathly silence in the Yingwu Hall.

Everyone was shocked by Chu Ning's words and stood there in a daze.

They never expected that Chu Ning, who had barely escaped danger, would dare to mention the matter of misappropriation of treasury funds at this moment.

Just now he looked like he was ready to die bravely, and now that he has finally saved his life, he still dares to bring up this matter?

"You...you were just pretending!"

Some family heads reacted and stared at Chu Ning with fear in their eyes.

The rest of the people came to their senses and thought carefully about Chu Ning's expression just now. There was indeed no trace of fear on his face.

It's obvious that he came prepared!

Chu Ning grinned, revealing a hint of amusement: "You said that I am pretending? Then just treat me as pretending!

Now, I will ask you one question: are you willing to hand over the treasury silver?"

You actually dared to file a complaint with the emperor here. If I don't punish you severely tonight, how can I justify the golden medal of immunity from death?

At this moment, the emperor stared at Chu Ning with a satisfied look on his face, and his right hand involuntarily touched his beard.

This kid Chu Ning has some of the spirit I had in my past!

Strike while the iron is hot and take the opportunity to ask the noble families to return the treasury silver. It's a pity he thought of this.

However, Chu Ning only had the confessions of those who had committed the arson, and he was afraid that he would not be able to make the aristocratic families surrender.

While he was deep in thought, the prince could no longer stand.

Chu Ning must not be allowed to complete the task assigned by his father, otherwise his father will only favor him more!

The prince narrowed his eyes and said in a cold voice: "Eighteenth brother, don't make trouble. You can save your life tonight, which is already a mercy from the emperor. Don't offend all the heads of the families!

Moreover, how can we conclude that it was the heads of the families who ordered the arsonists to do so based on their one-sided statements? "

This rat shit is everywhere!

Fortunately, I was prepared.

Chu Ning turned around and looked at the prince with a playful look on his face, and chuckled: "According to the time, he should be here."

The prince was stunned and didn't understand what Chu Ning meant.

At this moment, the voice of Ling Haoran, the Minister of Justice, came from outside the palace: "Your Majesty, I have something important to ask you!"

The prince's eyes turned cold, and he realized that the person Chu Ning was talking about was his father-in-law.

It’s so late, what is my father-in-law, the Minister of Justice, doing here?

Surprised, the emperor frowned, with a puzzled look on his face: "Master Ling, please come in and tell me."

"I am here to see you, Your Majesty!"

"Lord Ling, why are you here so late at night?"

"Your Majesty, when I was cleaning up the bodies of the five major families with the officials from the Ministry of Justice, we found a lot of silver in their mansions, including treasury silver!"

As he spoke, Ling Haoran shouted outside the hall: "Bring the silver in!"

Two imperial guards came in carrying a large box. When they opened it, a silver light flashed and white silver appeared in front of everyone.

Ling Haoran stepped forward and picked up a silver ingot, holding it high, and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, this silver ingot has a special symbol of our dynasty engraved on the back. It is the treasury silver that was misappropriated!"

Zhao Ming immediately stepped forward, took the silver ingot, and quickly handed it to the emperor.

The emperor took the silver ingot and took a look at it, his face gloomy: "Humph, the five major families are indeed in cahoots with the Minister of Revenue Chen Guowei to embezzle the treasury silver!

It seems that the King of Chu did not kill the wrong person tonight, and the five major families should be confiscated and exterminated!"

The prince was stunned when he heard this.

The emperor's words were equivalent to characterizing the five major families, and indirectly exonerated Chu Ning, while also putting other aristocratic families in a dilemma.

It seems that Chu Ning came well prepared tonight. With these treasury silver as a shock, it has been confirmed that the five major families have misappropriated the treasury silver. Next, he will definitely force other families to hand over the silver.

The prince became more and more frightened the more he thought about it, while Chu Ning smiled.

"Father, don't be angry. Let's see how much we can get back first."

Chu Ning pretended to be concerned and looked at Ling Haoran and asked, "Have you calculated the amount of silver?"

Ling Haoran said with a serious expression: "The time is too short and the money is too much, so we haven't calculated it yet.

However, I estimate that the treasury silver of the five major families should exceed 50 million taels, and the wealth left by the five families themselves is about 600 million taels. "

"This... so much?" The emperor was stunned.

He was not shocked by the amount of treasury silver embezzled by the five major families, but by the wealth of the five major families.

Six hundred million, this is equivalent to the tax revenue of the Chu Dynasty for several years.

In comparison, the embezzled 50 million taels of silver seems insignificant.

But Ling Haoran said sternly: "Your Majesty, they should not have embezzled only 50 million taels. Over the years, they must have exchanged the treasury silver for the silver circulating in the market."

This Lord Ling didn't get the point that the emperor wanted at all.

Chu Ning shook his head and added, "Father, the five major families have always controlled many industries. It's not surprising that they have so much silver, but a lot of it must have been exchanged for treasury silver."

To put it bluntly, it is money laundering.

All treasury silver has special marks and is of uniform size. If it is spent in large quantities, it will definitely arouse suspicion.

But if you switch to a city bank, there won’t be so many concerns.

Of course the emperor understood what Chu Ning meant. His eyes narrowed, his aura suddenly exploded, and he exerted force in the hand holding the silver ingot!

"Snap~" The silver ingot was crushed directly by the emperor.

"Damn them!"

The emperor gritted his teeth and angrily shouted: "The treasury of my Great Chu Dynasty is empty, it turns out that these termites are causing trouble!"

I wanted to build a mausoleum, but it was difficult to borrow money from them. I didn't expect that they had so much silver in their house.

The emperor became more and more angry the more he thought about it, his eyes spitting fire and his gaze swept over the other family heads present.

Suddenly, a powerful aura enveloped everyone!

The family heads only felt a chill on their backs and cold sweats ran down their bodies.

They knew that the emperor was angry!

Just when everyone was terrified, fearing that the emperor would target their families, Chu Ning spoke.

"Father, the aristocratic families are the cancer of our Great Chu Dynasty. Why not take this opportunity to wipe them out!"

Chu Ning pointed at the family heads with murderous intent on his face and said fiercely: "Anyway, they are unwilling to hand over the misappropriated treasury silver, and now they are all here, so just kill them all!"

The emperor narrowed his eyes, and a cold light flashed across them.

The heads of the noble families were horrified, and the timid ones immediately knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, I am willing to return the treasury silver, and I beg Your Majesty to forgive me!"

Once someone takes the lead, others will react immediately.

The emperor was obviously angry. If he really believed Chu Ning's words and killed them, wouldn't they die unjustly?

All of the family heads knelt down immediately and said, "We are willing to return the treasury silver, and we ask for forgiveness, Your Majesty!"

You can't not pay it.

It was Ling Haoran who searched the treasury silver, so they had no reason to argue.

Soon, Chu Ning had the confession of the arsonist in his hand. These two things combined were enough to cost all of their lives.

They don't want to follow in the footsteps of the five major families!

The emperor was secretly delighted when he saw the family heads kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy.

This kid Chu Ning is really good at what he does.

This way, I won’t have to worry about not having money to build my mausoleum!

However, we still have to give Chu Ning some face.

The emperor pretended to be angry and said, "Chu Ning, what do you think about this?"