I want to ruin the country

What Wang Jindou didn't expect was that more than 7 million taels of silver were found in Eltai's house.

A lot of silver was seized from Qiying's house and Ma Yu's house, and Wang Jindou was not too surprised.

After all, they are all wealthy families who have accumulated wealth for generations. It would be illogical if they had less money.

But Eltai was different. His father was a small landlord, owning at most dozens of hectares of land and a savings of three or two thousand silver coins.

He is 42 years old this year. He passed the imperial examination at the age of 21 and has been a poor seventh-rank official in Beijing for several years. He is lucky to be able to eat and drink.

At the age of 27, he was sent to Shanxi to serve as a county magistrate. If he relied solely on his salary, he would probably not have enough money left after supporting two or three legal advisors.

He was promoted to Baoding Prefecture seven years ago. The saying "Three years as an honest prefect will earn you 100,000 taels of silver" means that if you are a relatively honest prefect, you will earn 100,000 taels of silver in three years.

Because the prefect is equivalent to the secretary of the municipal party committee and mayor of a prefecture-level city in later generations, such a powerful person naturally has a lot of gray income.

The term of office of a prefect is three years. Even if Eltai was a little greedy, it would be enough for him to make tens or even hundreds of thousands of silver coins in three years.

Three years later, through some unknown connection, he was evaluated as "outstanding" and promoted to the third-rank prefect of Shuntian Prefecture.

The prefect of Shuntian Prefecture was at the feet of the emperor, and there were many wealthy people in the capital. In three years, making two or three hundred thousand was not a small amount for him.

Wang Jindou thought that at most he could seize 500,000 or 600,000 yuan from Eltai's house, but he didn't expect that the gap between his imagination and reality was ten times.

"Tell me, where did you get all this money?"

Eltai remained silent.

Wang Jindou has always been against the use of torture, as it can easily lead to wrongful convictions.

He presented facts and reasoned with Eltai, and he talked until his lips were hoarse, but Eltai just wouldn't say anything.

"Eletai, your confession has been shown to the emperor. The evidence is irrefutable. It is absolutely impossible to overturn the verdict. As for the origin of your silver, whether you tell it or not will not affect your guilt. If you understand, let's talk about it. It will save both of us trouble!

If you still refuse to repent, you have tried many cases and you know how many ways there are to get you to speak.

As the saying goes, "People's hearts are like iron, false as iron, and official laws are like a furnace, true as a furnace. If you are not afraid of hardship, let's light the furnace and start tempering!"

Eltai thought for a long time and sighed deeply.

"Sir Wang, the guilty official also knows that he cannot escape the punishment for his crime. The reason he doesn't want to speak out is not because he is afraid of death, but because he doesn't want to implicate some of his superiors!

Now that it has come to this, the criminal is like a clay Buddha crossing a river, unable to save himself, and can no longer care about others, so you should stop torturing me, I have said it all!

Eltai began to explain, and when he finished, Wang Jindou was stunned!

Just as Yining said, if it weren't for Eltai's connivance and protection, people like Ma Yu would not have become a scourge to the capital.

Eltai not only exploited the people, amassed wealth, accepted bribes and perverted the law, but also made friends with the powerful, confused right and wrong, falsely accused innocent people of being thieves, and took human lives.

According to his confession, accepting bribes was not enough. He also took the initiative to attack, carefully planned, committed murder for money, and embezzled other people's property.

There was a wealthy man named Niu Yude in the capital. He was very wealthy and had a fortune of at least two million silver coins.

When Eltai first arrived in the capital to take office, a relative of Niu Yude mistakenly thought that the family servant had stolen something and beat him to death.

Liu Hongxi, the magistrate of Daxing County, sentenced a person to five years in prison for manslaughter and ordered him to pay funeral expenses for the deceased.

Niu Yude's relatives didn't want to go to jail, so they came to find Niu Yude.

A distant brother of Niu Yude was working in Shuntian Prefecture. Niu Yude found him and told him about the matter. The distant brother agreed to go to the prefect to ask for leniency.

Niu Yude gave Eltai five hundred taels of silver. This kind of thing was a big deal for Eltai, so he sentenced him to thirty taels of silver in compensation for "disobeying his master and causing his death by accident" and was responsible for the funeral.

Niu Yude and his relatives were very satisfied. They spent five hundred taels of silver and avoided imprisonment.

Unexpectedly, after the incident, Eltai returned the silver. Niu Yude was very surprised, thinking that he thought it was too little.

Eltai Road,

"What are you talking about? If I hadn't accepted it at first, you would have thought something was wrong and would have gone looking for someone else. But when I accepted it, you were relieved. Now that the case is over, you're relieved too.

I cannot accept the money. First of all, I work for the emperor and have a salary, which is enough for me to eat and spend. I cannot be corrupt and abuse my power.

Secondly, I see that you are a loyal person, and the person who asked you for help is definitely not an outsider. It is not easy for them to make money. This is a piece of cake for me, so don't take it to heart!"

After he finished speaking, Niu Yude was moved and admired. Whoever has seen Bao Zheng, the Justice, has seen Hai Rui, the Justice? Today, I, Niu Yude, have seen it!

Lord Eltai is the best official in the world and a first-class gentleman. I, Niu Yude, have decided to be friends with such a person.

From then on, Eltai and Niu Yude had close contacts, and he would go to Niu Yude's house to eat and drink whenever he had nothing to do.

In just two months, the two men cut off chicken heads, burned yellow paper, and knelt in front of the statue of Guan Erye to become sworn brothers. Eltai recognized Niu Yude as his elder brother.

Niu Yude felt proud to be able to become brothers with the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture. As time went by, they became good brothers who visited each other's houses and did not avoid each other's wives.

Eltai respected his elder brother and sister-in-law very much, and behaved like a humble gentleman every day.

When she opens her mouth, she praises her elder brother and his wife. When she closes her mouth, she praises her elder brother and his wife. It makes people feel that even brothers are just like this.

A few months later, Niu Yude returned from drinking with Eltai and suddenly died of illness.

The coroner came to perform the autopsy and said it was a sudden illness.

Eltai cried with tears and snot, saying that he regretted letting Niu Yude drink alcohol and causing his illness.

Niu Yude's wife and son had no suspicions and could only take care of the funeral arrangements.

Eltai was busy running around helping to arrange the funeral, making it grand and dignified.

The Niu family treated him as a relative. Niu Yude's only son, Niu Zhaoxin, called him "uncle" as if he were his own uncle.

During the period when Niu Zhaoxin was mourning for his father, Eltai often came to greet him and said that mourning for one year was fine, and there was no such thing as mourning for two and a half years. The emperor only mourned for one year, which was enough!

Niu Zhaoxin had been feeling very frustrated this year, so he agreed to it.

Eltai said to Niu Zhaoxin,

"Your father is gone. Although your family has some savings, you can't just sit back and enjoy it all. Young people should go out and start a career!"

He also told Niu Zhaoxin about strange stories from all over the place, such as the foreign concessions in Songjiang Prefecture, the endless scenery along the Qinhuai River, and the red-light districts in various places, which made Niu Zhaoxin restless and eager to make some moves.

After another ten days and a half months, he said to Niu Zhaoxin,

"I have a relative here who has been traveling to Jiangnan for a long time. He's in the silk business and makes a lot of money!"