Red Mansion Taoist

Chapter 84 Confiscating the house
  Of course, Jia Qiang is more powerful than a normal archer who uses a treasure bow. The amplification effect brought by 56 points of agility is an unparalleled rate of fire.

Coupled with the unlimited supply of arrows in the inventory, as long as there is no heavy shield and heavy armor, there is no way to defend against his attacks.

"Sir, do you need a living person?" Jia Qiang turned to Lin Ruhai and asked.

He is now Lin Ruhai's bodyguard, so he still has to cover up.

"You don't need to live, it's a waste of the government's money!" Although Lin Ruhai was shocked in his heart, he still looked calm on the surface and said in a deep voice.

Jia Qiang obeyed the order, took a spear from the ground, and began to clean them one by one.

As long as there was anyone alive, he would add a shot.

At this time, the saltmen from behind also came over. The saltmen looked at Jia Qiang with horrified eyes. They were blocked by the coolies, but they still saw the battle just now.

It only took them time to pass the crowd, and the battle here was over. More than two hundred assassins were killed in a matter of seconds.

Three hundred salt cubes were still very useful. They began to move the corpse aside. This dock was very important and they could not wait forever.

"Teacher, you are too dangerous!" Jia Qiang said with some worry when she and Lin Ruhai were alone together.

If he didn't come over today, how could Lin Ruhai cope with such an assassination?

"Do you really think the assassin will find an opportunity easily?" Lin Ruhai asked with a smile.

Jia Qiang couldn't help but be shocked. He soon understood that Lin Ruhai's purpose in bringing him here was to use his hands to kill these assassins.

"Every year before the salt explosion, someone would try to kill me in order to cause chaos, but in the past I was very careful and never separated from the salt guards.

This time I knew the news in advance and knew about your bravery, so I lured these assassins out, just to give other salt merchants some warning! Lin Ruhai continued to explain.

Jia Qiang nodded. Lin Ruhai was afraid that the people behind these assassins had already investigated and were waiting for the assassins to show up.

"You didn't blame me, did you?" Lin Ruhai asked again.

"No, if this happens in the future, you will still come to me!" Jia Qiang replied immediately.

Of course I won't blame him. The more such things happen, the better. Unfortunately, the experience given by these two hundred people is still too little. I don't know how many times I have to experience this kind of situation before I can level up again.

Lin Ruhai did not wait here. Major cases such as the assassination of imperial officials would be investigated and handled by the prefect. Recently, salt quotations were being distributed, so there was no need for him to stay here.

The way back was still safe. In fact, under the protection of three hundred salt soldiers, it was impossible to break through unless hundreds of sergeants attacked and killed them.

Two days later, Jia Qiang was ordered by Lin Ruhai to lead a team to ransack the home.

The home raided this time was that of the medium-sized salt merchant, and no other evidence was needed. The information transfer between the medium-sized salt merchant and hundreds of households was always under Lin Ruhai's surveillance.

All the evidence has been collected, and with this assassination, a complete chain of evidence has been completed.

Everyone knew that Lin Ruhai had a powerful guard beside him, but not many people knew that the guard was Jia Qiang, and probably only a few people had guessed.

Lin Ruhai asked Jia Qiang to lead people to search the house. He also hoped that this house search could bring back as much of the property of the medium-sized salt merchants as possible. You must know that people sent by the prefect were also there to go with the house search.

If there wasn't a trustworthy person present, I don't know how much property would have been embezzled.

These properties should all belong to the Salt Transport Envoy's Yamen. The property that was being plundered was the salt merchant's home. The money gained was earned from the salt business, and it was also a case of assassinating the salt patrol censor.

Of course, this also meant to benefit Jia Qiang. Lin Ruhai knew that Jia Qiang ran the mansion alone and had no industrial support, so he would still take care of Jia Qiang when it came to making a fortune.

Jia Qiang was wearing armor, with her faceplate down, and took a hundred salt soldiers with her. Wu Zhifu and Zhang Zhizhou took two hundred soldiers, and the two teams marched together as one.

When I saw the house of a medium-sized salt merchant, I found that it had been surrounded by a large number of soldiers.

Looking at the people and horses surrounding them, there were probably more than two thousand soldiers.

Jia Qiang just took a look and realized that these were not soldiers belonging to Yangzhou Prefecture, but soldiers stationed in Yangzhou Camp.

Yangzhou Camp does not belong to Yangzhou Prefecture, but is an army led by the Ministry of War.

On the day of Lin Ruhai's assassination, two thousand soldiers came to surround the house of a medium-sized salt merchant to prevent the salt merchant and his family from escaping, and even transfer their property.

Magistrate Wu and Zhizhou Zhang went over first, followed by a deputy envoy from the Yanyun Envoy Yamen, who was sent by Lin Ruhai to meet Magistrate Wu on his face.

Jia Qiang did not speak to the two officials along the way. In terms of status, he was just Lin Ruhai's bodyguard.

But both Zhifu Wu and Zhizhou Zhang knew what Jia Qiang meant by following him. With such a large amount of wealth, the Salt Transport Envoy Yamen would of course send out trustworthy people.

As the bodyguard who rescued Lin Ruhai, he was the most trustworthy person. If it weren't for their status, Magistrate Wu and Zhang Zhizhou really wanted to make acquaintance with Jia Qiang, and could even draw her to their side.

A warrior-level guard, this is a powerful guard that you can't even dream of.

However, seeing Jia Qiang's attitude and the fact that there were people from the Salt Transport Envoy's Yamen nearby, they couldn't poach people in public.

"General Luo, why are you personally leading the team?" Magistrate Wu saw the general in armor and quickly smiled and went over to salute.

Zhang Zhizhou, who was following behind him, also showed a look of surprise, which showed that General Luo had a different identity.

"Yangzhou Camp is in trouble this time. I have assassins under my command, and a group of hundreds of households have been killed. How could I not come over and see with my own eyes!" General Luo clasped his fists and returned the salute, saying, but his eyes were looking at Jia Qiang.

He didn't expect that Lin Ruhai didn't come over, but after seeing Jia Qiang's armor, he recognized Jia Qiang as the guard who killed a group of hundreds of households.

His eyes first glanced at the armor. In the eyes of ordinary people, this armor was no different from normal armor.

But in his eyes, who had practiced the body-refining technique of generals for the fourth time, he saw that this was a special armor, an armor specially made for powerful generals. Even the powerful generals in the army could only be equipped by a few high-ranking officers.

The main reason is that the materials are too rare, making this type of armor very valuable, and the manufacturing technology is also controlled by the palace.

Looking at the treasured bow around Jia Qiang's waist and the white horse beneath her, there is no need to judge Jia Qiang's strength. This equipment alone is beyond his own.

Jia Qiang was also sizing up General Luo. After hearing the general mention Yangzhou Camp, he paid attention to the general.

The Yangzhou camp has very little contact with the local area, which is why Emperor Jingwen asked for a military talisman for him.

It was just that the Yangzhou camp was not in collusion with the salt merchants in private, as Emperor Jingwen had judged, and that was why the Hundreds participated in the assassination of the imperial official.

"I don't know what this person's name is, let's have a competition together when we have time!" General Luo said to Jia Qiang.

"Within one stone's throw, you will die!" Jia Qiang said in a deep voice, suppressing her voice. The expressions of Zhifu Zhang and Zhizhou Wu changed slightly. They knew General Luo's temper. Once provoked, they would probably take action on the spot.

There are two thousand soldiers and horses here, and they are not sergeants like yamen and salt guards, but sergeants who have actually gone to the battlefield. Not to mention the difference in numbers between the two sides, even if they have the same number, they will still be crushed.

To the surprise of these two men, General Luo did not take action, but spread his hands to show that he had no intention of using weapons.

Through the on-site investigation report at the dock, he learned that many soldiers were killed by arrows.

At that time, he suspected that the guard beside Lin Ruhai was a master archer. Now that he heard what Jia Qiang said, he was even more convinced of the rumor that Jia Qiang was a master archer.

He is still some distance away from Jia Qiang. Even if he wants to take action at this distance, it will take some time to get close to Jia Qiang.

And this distance is the best killing distance for a warrior-level archer.

General Luo didn't really want to fight Jia Qiang to the death. He was just a little angry. He said what he just said just to vent his depression.

Because of Lin Ruhai's assassination case, a Qianhu in the Yangzhou camp and more than a dozen middle and low-level officials were investigated. Among them, he single-handedly promoted Qianhu.

It was because of the assassins under his command, or the involvement of the entire Hundred Households, that this Qianhu would be sent to a faraway place without losing his head, with no possibility of recovery.

"Archer!" General Luo glanced at the treasured bow again, the expression on his face turned into a smile and said: "You should be a fellow soldier in the army, so you can drink when you have time!"

He no longer mentioned the competition. If he competed with a warrior-level archer, there would be no benefit in winning.

Although these archers don't have much improvement in combat power in close combat, as long as they keep their distance, they are the gods of death on the battlefield.

Even strong-level archers in the Daqian are extremely rare. Not only does it require talent to improve your archery skills to perfection, but the scarcity of treasure bows is also an important reason.

Jia Qiang clasped her fists and did not explain anything more to General Luo.

"Open the door, go in and search the house!" Seeing that General Luo was fine, Magistrate Wu took out an official document and said.

Everyone from the government office, Yanyunshi office, and Yangzhou camp were overjoyed. Although they were not allowed to keep it privately, according to the rules, one-tenth of the money from the ransacked house was to be kept and distributed to the parties who ransacked the house.

As for the assets of the salt merchants, they must first be sent to the Salt Transport Envoy Yamen, and then the distribution can be discussed in detail.

Jia Qiang's mission here is to supervise the process of confiscating the house.

He jumped off the white horse. The outer wall of the salt merchant's house was very high, reaching four meters. He just took a start and stepped on the wall alternately with his feet twice, and his hands reached the top of the wall.

Then he took off his treasured bow and attached an arrow.

Although the place where he stood was not the highest point of the salt merchant's house, he could still see most of the house.

Several parties present issued orders to their subordinates not to hide anything secretly, hiding it under the watchful eyes of the warrior-level archers, for fear that they would not die quickly enough.

The salt merchant did not resist at all. In fact, it is meaningless to resist now. If he really resisted, the whole family would be killed on the spot.

So the salt merchant opened the door, and the three parties sent some people to enter.

Then came the screams of men and the screams of women.

The first group of people to enter were armed with weapons and took out all the men and women first.

Men and women line up in a row and are tied into a string with ropes.

Next, professionals came in. Whether it was the salt transport yamen, the government or the army, there were professional searchers. When they entered, they moved all the salt merchants' belongings to the outside grounds.

Including the property hidden by the salt merchants, there is no possibility of evading it under the search of these professionals.

Batch after batch of property was delivered to the venue, and the sheer quantity of it made everyone present breathe quickly.

Jia Qiang paid attention to these professional investigators to prevent them from hiding small items somewhere.

As for hiding it on the body, it is impossible. After the searchers complete their mission, other people will go over to search their bodies.

Having experienced many house searches, Da Qian has a perfect process for searching houses. As long as the person in charge is not greedy, the chance of others being corrupt is very small.

It took three hours, but no one felt hungry.

When the last item was placed on the field, the first item of the house raid was over.

From where Jia Qiang was standing, she could see what was going on inside some buildings. The exquisite calligraphy and paintings on the walls of those buildings, and even some gold and silver bars inlaid on the walls, had all been taken down.

Even if someone buys this house, it will still need to be renovated.

The accounting offices of the three parties have been keeping statistics. Now they compare the recorded data, and then take out one-tenth of the property.

Jia Qiang was invited to the center and stood with General Luo, Wu Zhifu and Zhang Zhizhou.

What the soldiers could get were fractions, and the large sums were divided among several officials present. This kind of legal income was the main reason why the prefect, prefect, and General Luo came here.

If Lin Ruhai came over, he would also be able to get one of them.

Only then did Jia Qiang realize that the teacher had given her his share.

During a house raid, Jia Qiang got 30,000 taels of silver. Why did she divide the money instead of the belongings?

Silver is the most fair value. The value of the rest, such as jade, agate, etc., is difficult to accurately judge. In addition, even if you get it, you will lose part of it when you sell it. It is not as economical as sharing the silver directly.

Jia Qiang didn't feel much about the 30,000 taels of silver. The person who was most affected by this house raid was the salt merchant's family.

He does not sympathize with the salt merchant's family. Although what the salt merchant did has little to do with his family, his family members have enjoyed the benefits created by the salt merchant and must bear the corresponding consequences.

What he touches is the ultimate fate of the people involved.

Among them, most of the men would be beheaded, because what the salt merchant did was to assassinate an official of the imperial court, and it was also a capital crime for a man in the family to be implicated.

Although the woman will not die, she will be sent to the Jiaofang Division and live a life worse than death.

Jia Qiang saw the danger in it, and he didn't want his relatives to face this fate one day.

Originally, he had taken the Jiangnan Salt Affairs matter a little lightly, but now he was determined to do this job well, for no other reason than to gain more power and have the ability to control his own destiny.

(End of this chapter)