The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Upon hearing this, Chu Liu could no longer hold back. He knelt before Zhou Chu, tears streaming down his face, and kowtowed several times.

Zhou Chu didn't dodge and accepted it calmly.

"Take Chu Liu to the Zhaoyu prison of the Beizhenfu Division, take him to see Liao Shun, and tell him what I said. Liao Shun is at Liao Shun's disposal."

Zhou Chu looked at Deng Yu and said.

Once you're in the Zhao Prison, whether you live or die is entirely up to Zhou Chu, unless you're some incredibly powerful figure.

Clearly, Liao Shun is not.

Nobody cares whether he lives or dies.

It must be said that Lu Wanshan, as the pacification commissioner of the Northern Garrison, was undoubtedly capable. In less than half a day, all these officials confessed their crimes.

After they confessed, their homes were immediately searched to prevent them from transferring their assets. As for how to decide what to do afterward, that was the emperor's business.

While confiscating the homes, Lu Wanshan also ordered a group of Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) officers to lead teams to the hometowns of these officials and confiscate their homes as well.

This was something Zhou Chu had instructed Lu Wanshan to do beforehand.

Zhou Chu knew very well that most of these officials' wealth was in their hometowns. These people were all rolling in money. If he didn't confiscate it all, how could he face the local people who had been oppressed by their families, and how could he face Zhu Houcong?

As darkness was approaching, Lu Wanshan approached Zhou Chu with a face full of excitement.

"Sir, these are the documents for confiscating our property."

As Lu Wanshan spoke, he placed the document on the table in front of Zhou Chu.

The documents documenting the confiscation of property only record the property confiscated during the confiscation.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards are the most meticulous when raiding homes; without their superiors' permission, anyone who dares to do anything is courting death.

Zhou Chu picked up the document and flipped through it.

The Liao family possessed 50,000 taels of gold, 300,000 taels of silver, 3.2 million strings of copper coins, and countless other treasures such as jade and porcelain, as well as countless silks and satins.

While the number of other officials whose property was confiscated was not as large as that of the Liao family, the findings were largely similar.

In total, the silver alone amounted to about three million taels, and the copper coins amounted to more than thirty million strings.

But Zhou Chu knew that these were just small fry; the real big profits were in these people's hometowns.

At that time, the amount of silver seized will probably be no less than ten million taels, or even more.

Zhou Chu also understood another principle: the higher the official position, the more money one could amass.

For example, Xu Jie later became the Grand Secretary. Before that, the Xu family was not particularly wealthy, otherwise they would not have set their sights on the Lu family, which had no descendants.

But after Xu Jie became the Grand Secretary, the Xu family, like a whale, began to devour the wealth and land of the world. When their property was confiscated, the land alone amounted to more than 400,000 mu, not to mention the wealth. The taxes of the entire Songjiang Prefecture were directly allocated to the Xu family. In addition, with the profits from smuggling, the silver alone found exceeded 20 million taels. Other items such as copper coins and jewelry added up to more than ten times the amount of silver.

Xu Jie's ability to amass wealth was more than ten times that of Yan Song.

In the past, when others investigated cases and raided homes, they would mostly raid the homes of these officials in the capital, after all, they wanted to leave these people some dignity and a way out.

But Zhou Chu didn't care about any of that; Zhou Chu needed money, and so did the emperor.

Only with money can you train your troops.

Zhou Chu certainly wouldn't use his own money to train troops.

“Take out 100,000 taels and share it with the brothers of the Northern Garrison Command. Then take out another 100,000 taels and share it with all the other brothers, so that they can share in the joy.”

Zhou Chu waved his hand and said.

"My lord, if you do this, I'm afraid you won't be able to explain it to His Majesty."

Lu Wanshan hesitated for a moment.

"Just do it. I'll talk to His Majesty. You tell your brothers that this money was a reward from His Majesty."

Zhou Chu waved his hand and said.

Zhou Chu would never use public funds to win people's hearts for himself; that would be a major taboo.

Using public funds to win over the hearts of the people for the emperor—that is the proper way to be an official.

Never be generous with other people's money. Zhou Chu was spending the emperor's money to do the emperor's business.