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

After Lu Wanshan left, Zhou Chu took the documents for confiscating the property, found a horse at random, and headed to the palace.

As soon as he arrived at the palace gate, Zhou Chu dismounted, and the head guard hurriedly stepped forward to pay his respects.

"Commander, His Majesty has specifically instructed that if you come, you may enter directly without announcing your arrival. His Majesty is waiting for you in the Imperial Study."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chu didn't stand on ceremony and casually tossed the reins in his hand to the head guard.

"Could you please keep an eye on this for me?"

After saying this, Zhou Chu went straight to the imperial study.

On his way to the Imperial Study, Zhou Chu felt several probing gazes, which did not surprise him at all.

The palace is already riddled with nails; there are bound to be countless eyes watching me.

Screening palace maids and eunuchs was destined to be a long and meticulous process.

If a major reshuffle is carried out right from the start, it is bound to cause a huge backlash, and these people might even turn the entire palace upside down.

Soon, Zhou Chu arrived at the entrance of the Imperial Study. Huang Jin, who had been waiting at the entrance, immediately brightened up when he saw Zhou Chu.

"Lord Zhou, His Majesty has been waiting for you."

After Huang Jin finished speaking, he reached out and opened the door to the Imperial Study. Zhou Chu didn't bother to exchange pleasantries with Huang Jin and went straight in.

In the Imperial Study, besides Jiajing, Lu Bing was also present.

Aside from handling official business, Lu Bing spent most of his time protecting the emperor, in order to prevent any accidents from happening to Jiajing.

After all, there are precedents to learn from, and more than one of them.

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

Zhou Chu bowed and said.

“Hengqi, come here quickly. This is top-grade agarwood from Southeast Asia. It has an excellent calming effect. Take some back with you.”

As Jiajing spoke, he took out most of his agarwood from one box and placed it in another extremely exquisite box, then handed the box to Huang Jin who was standing next to him.

Huang Jin, holding the sandalwood box, approached Zhou Chu.

Zhou Chu bowed and accepted it.

"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty, but you have given me so much... Your Majesty..."

Zhou Chu hesitated before speaking.

"I still have one box left, no need to worry. By the time I finish this one, the new one should be arriving soon."

Jiajing said indifferently.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chu stopped being coy and put the box into his pocket.

"Your Majesty, a total of thirteen officials were arrested today, and they have all confessed. This is the document for confiscating their property."

As Zhou Chu spoke, he handed the document in his hand to Huang Jin.

Huang Jin handed it to Jiajing, who took it, opened it, and his eyes immediately lit up.

"These people are incredibly audacious, their embezzlement is outrageous."

Jiajing suddenly realized that he should act more angry at this moment, so he gave a serious rebuke in a proper manner.

"Your Majesty, there is something I hope you will forgive me for."

Zhou Chu bowed and said.

"What's the matter?"

Jiajing asked with some doubt.

"On my own initiative, I took out 200,000 taels of silver from the confiscated property and rewarded my Jinyiwei officers in His Majesty's name."

Upon hearing this, Jiajing glanced at the document again. If all the confiscated property were converted into silver, it would amount to nearly forty million taels.

This is equivalent to nearly a year's worth of expenditures for the Ming Dynasty's finances.

Of course, when reporting to the Ministry of Revenue, only the amount of silver that was copied was recorded, which was about three million taels.

As for the rest, Jiajing could simply treat them as his personal treasury.

This was the art of confiscating property during the Ming Dynasty. No matter how much wealth was confiscated, the only amount reported to the outside world was the amount of silver.

In this way, the people will be satisfied; otherwise, if too much information is released at once, the people will not be able to accept it.

Zhou Chu only learned about the art behind the confiscation of Xu Jie's house after the confiscation. If we calculate it this way, 20 million taels of silver were confiscated from Xu Jie's house, but if we add up all the other miscellaneous items, the amount converted into silver would probably be no less than 200 million taels, plus 400,000 mu of land.

The phrase "wealth comparable to a nation" is no longer sufficient to describe the Xu family.

Xu Jie truly deserved to die.

Zhou Chu thought to himself.

When Jiajing heard that it was only 200,000 taels, he thought it was insignificant compared to the confiscated wealth.

“What are you saying, Hengqi? These are minor matters. You can make the decisions from now on. You don’t need to tell me everything.”

Jiajing didn't care at all.

He knew very well that if someone else had raided his home and taken advantage of the situation, the losses would have been far more than just 200,000 taels.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards were clean-cut, taking only 200,000 taels of silver, which was nothing to Jiajing.

This is a good thing; only by taking the money can they better serve themselves.

Thinking of this, Jiajing was not angry at all; on the contrary, he felt that Zhou Chu had handled the matter extremely well.

"I have already sent people to the hometowns of these people. It is likely that only a small portion of their assets are in the capital; the majority are stored in their hometowns."

Zhou Chu continued.

Upon hearing this, Jiajing showed a hesitant expression.

"Isn't this a bit too extreme?"

In fact, Emperor Jiajing was never an emperor who liked to go to extremes. Apart from Xia Yan, who could no longer tolerate him, even Yan Song later could have lived a peaceful retirement if it weren't for Yan Shifan's last act of nonsense.

Even when Yan Shifan caused such a mess, Jiajing only investigated Yan Shifan and confiscated Yan Song's hometown; he did not kill Yan Song.

"Your Majesty must not be soft-hearted. If Your Majesty is soft-hearted towards these people, they will take advantage of you. Only a strong deterrent can make them feel afraid. I will bear this infamy. Your Majesty need not worry about it. This is what the Embroidered Uniform Guard does."

Zhou Chu offered his advice.

"Moreover, if His Majesty has money, there are even more things he can do."

Zhou Chu did not explicitly state his military training plan, as it was not the right time yet; he merely gave Zhu Houcong a brief hint.

Upon hearing this, Jiajing nodded without further hesitation.

"Go ahead and do the weighing work."

It's mainly money that moves people's hearts.

Zhou Chu is right. You can do more things once you have money in your hands.

Without money, anything you want to do will be restricted by the Ministry of Revenue.

"The weighing instrument has rendered such a great service, I truly do not know how to reward you."

Jiajing was extremely excited at this moment, and the frustration of the past two days was swept away.

"Your Majesty would be better off sending a few eunuchs from the Imperial Horse Administration to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to take care of my horses. My black horse has been kept at the Imperial Horse Administration for a long time, and it is inconvenient for me to ride it."

Zhou Chu didn't stand on ceremony and directly stated his needs.

Jiajing was pleased to hear this. He was not afraid of Zhou Chu making demands; he was afraid that Zhou Chu would be without desires.

"Alright, Huang Jin, go to the Imperial Horse Administration and convey my imperial edict. Order the Imperial Horse Administration to send five servants to the Embroidered Uniform Guard to feed Heng Qi's horses. The fodder should be taken from the Imperial Horse Administration, and the best fodder should be used."

Upon hearing this, Huang Jin dared not delay and hurriedly went to the Imperial Horse Stable to deliver the imperial edict.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kindness."

Zhou Chu bowed again.

"Why be so polite with weighing instruments?"

Jiajing was overjoyed. This was the first battle he had won since entering the capital, and he had also seized so much wealth. It was a dream start.

"At tomorrow's court meeting, I want to see who dares to oppose my proposal."