The most arrogant in history

Chapter 249: Confiscating property and collecting wealth.

Ye Kun left behind an army of 10,000 to besiege Zhuti City.

Other troops were sent to encircle and suppress the rebels in the outer counties.

Zhuti County was surrounded, and the rebels in other counties and counties did not dare to resist and surrendered at the sight of the enemy.

After five days of siege, all parts of Zhuti County surrendered.

Huangfu Lin left some troops to garrison the major passes and county towns, and took a thousand soldiers with him to meet Ye Kun.

Huangfu Lin was the chief contributor in this expedition to Zhuti County.

Moreover, Huangfu Lin seized 170,000 to 180,000 taels of silver, tens of thousands of taels of gold, silk, porcelain and bronze wares from the four county towns and major fortresses, all of which were considerable quantities.

This time I made a fortune.

The large army brought by Ye Kun hardly fired a single shot. The soldiers traveled through mountains and rivers, as if they were here for tourism.

Zhuge Feng was waving a fan. A few days ago, he had already started to take inventory of and take over various gold and silver mines.

Some of the rebels were originally miners. In order to show their loyalty, they became guides and helped to restore production.

Ye Kun handed over the siege mission to Huangfu Lin, and accompanied by Zhuge Feng, he inspected several larger silver mines.

The silver mine has resumed production and started producing silver on a small scale.

Ye Kun checked the silver produced and couldn't help but frowned slightly.

This silver seemed to be lighter, and the sheen was wrong, it was brighter, as if it had been polished.

Zhuge Feng introduced: "Master Ye, our Zhuti silver is famous all over the world because it does not turn black. You see other silver, after being stored for a long time, the surface turns black. But our Zhuti silver is all shiny..."

"Ah, not black?"

Ye Kun looked miserable!

If it never turns black, it is fake silver.

Anyone who has studied chemistry knows that when the surface of metallic copper is oxidized, it turns green; when the surface of iron is oxidized, it turns red, commonly known as rust.

When the surface of silver oxidizes, it turns black.

Therefore, the old silver dug up from various places is black. If you boil it in old vinegar and then wipe it with a cloth, it will become shiny.

There is definitely something wrong with silver that never turns black!

Zhuge Feng was still very proud: "Hehe, so our Zhuti Silver is very popular."

"Yeah, it's nice not to get black..."

Ye Kun smiled awkwardly and went to check other silver mines.

The products of silver mines in different places vary greatly.

Some look like pure silver, some don't.

Ye Kun suspected that the silver that never turned black contained a large amount of zinc, but he couldn't be sure at the moment and had to take it back to Chengdu to find out.

As for the silver refining technology of silver mines, it was also very backward. It was still the old method from hundreds of years ago, using a large amount of lead to extract silver, commonly known as the soot blowing method.

This kind of process causes great harm to the workers' health.

None of the silver workers live long.

Ye Kun was unable to produce a large amount of chemical acid to improve the silver extraction technology, so he could only tell the workers to take the best protective measures.

It took Ye Kun five days to inspect the silver mine.

Returning to the city of Zhuti again, Ye Kun became impatient and ordered another wave of psychological warfare to scare the soldiers and civilians in the city. If they did not surrender within three days, he would break into the city and kill everyone!

The next morning, there was a sudden chaos in the city.

Ye Kun held up a telescope and looked at the guardhouse outside the city, only to see a head thrown out from the city.

Afterwards, someone on the top of the city wall shouted, "The traitor Huang Yan has been killed by us. All of us soldiers and civilians in the city are willing to submit to Lord Ye!"

Ye Kun chuckled and ordered the troops guarding the north gate to withdraw and accept the surrender of the city.

The generals of Zhuti City, Gu Tiancheng and Tao Houde, led their troops out of the city to surrender and knelt on the ground to plead guilty.

Lu Kaijiang and Zhou Xuanwu quickly led their troops into the city, took control of the government treasury and Huang Yan's private residence, as well as the four city gates, prohibiting the military and civilians in the city from leaving.

Ye Kun was not in a hurry. He went into the city to take a look and then went to the court to discuss the matter.

The surrendered generals Gu Tiancheng and Tao Houde knelt on the ground and said, "Lord Ye, we are willing to surrender and obey your orders."

Ye Kun sneered: "Come here, take Gu Tiancheng and Tao Houde out and behead them!"

The two surrendered generals were shocked and looked at Ye Kun in horror, shouting, "Master Ye, we brothers killed Huang Yan and surrendered the city to you, why are you killing us?"

Zhuge Feng was also puzzled, and stepped forward and said, "Master Ye, these two have done nothing wrong, why are they being executed?"

Ye Kun frowned: "To live in their land and give up their city is unrighteous; to eat their salary and kill their master is disloyal. Why keep such a disloyal and unrighteous person?"

Gu Tiancheng shouted: "Master Ye, I don't accept it. It was you who said that those who surrender the city will be promoted three levels..."

"But I didn't ask you to kill anyone. Who told you to kill Huang Yan? Huang Yan hid countless gold and silver, and before I could find out the truth, you killed him!"

"I..." Gu Tiancheng was speechless.

Zhuge Feng winked at Ye Kun and whispered, "Master Ye, I'm afraid that if we kill these two men, no one will dare to surrender in the future."

Ye Kun then let them go: "Okay, considering Zhuge Military Advisor's plea, I will spare you this time. You should be careful when you are under my command in the future, otherwise I will kill you sooner or later."

Gu Tiancheng and Tao Houde trembled with fear and kowtowed to express their gratitude.

Ye Kun's eyes swept across the faces of the civil and military officials of Zhuti County and asked coldly:

"How much property do you have? How much is the equivalent of silver? Please report it all, write it down on paper, and sign it. Then, I will count your property. Anyone who conceals the information will be executed along with his entire family!"

The Ye Kun at this moment is no longer the Ye Kun who had just entered Chengdu.

With great power in hand and a large army at his disposal, he can easily deal with corrupt officials in remote areas.

All the civil and military officials in Zhuti County were trembling with fear and wrote down the discounted prices of their properties on pieces of paper.

Some people wrote one thousand taels, and some people wrote several hundred taels.

Ye Kun took a look and said with a smile: "These adults seem to be clean-handed. Come on, invite all these adults to the prison and serve them well. Then send people to check every household, and if there is any concealment..."

Tan Bamao smiled and put all these corrupt officials into jail.

For five whole days, Ye Kun was busy confiscating houses and counting the gold and silver in Zhuti County.

All the officials in Zhuti City, big and small, were stripped down without exception, and their homes were almost dug up.

The resulting number was astonishing: 700,000 taels of silver and 90,000 taels of gold!

Mainly the property of Huang Yanhe and his cronies.

This guy has been entrenched in Zhuti County for twenty years, so it is normal to have so much gold and silver.

Adding on the gold, silver and silk confiscated from the four counties below, as well as the gold and silver from Hanjia County, Ye Kun felt that he could go back to Chengdu and lie down for three years.

Because the total assets seized were exactly equal to Yizhou’s total fiscal revenue for three years.

No wonder Huang Yan wanted to rebel. If it were Ye Kun, he would also rebel!

From this batch of confiscated gold and silver, Ye Kun directly deducted 500,000 taels of silver and sent someone to deliver 50,000 taels of silver to Shangguan Jifu.

Each of his six sworn brothers was given 10,000 taels of silver and 1,000 taels of gold.

Huangfu Lin, Tan Bamao, Wu Xuan, Xue Ju and others were all rewarded.

In Chongqing, Ye Kun allocated 100,000 taels of silver and 20,000 taels of gold.

All the soldiers who followed Ye Kun into the battle were rewarded with two taels of silver each, and they were all smiling happily.

Ye Kun took the rest back to Chengdu and put it into the government treasury.

All the corrupt officials in Zhuti County were tattooed on their faces and exiled to Chongqing to build a city. The officials' families also immigrated and moved away from Zhuti County.

Ye Kun was merciful by not killing people in large numbers.

On the second day of August, Ye Kun arranged the personnel of Zhuti County. The army returned triumphantly to Chengdu City and brought back hundreds of carts of spoils.

On the way back, Ye Kun also inspected the southern counties and brought all the former military and political officials back to Chengdu, replacing them with his own people in power.

At this point, Ye Kun finally completely controlled the entire Chengdu Plain.

But outside the plains, there are four counties on the southern edge, which are nominally under Ye Kun's control but are actually not under his control.

The officials of Chengdu, both great and small, were shocked by Ye Kun's thundering methods. They were all filled with fear and went out of the city to welcome him, praising Ye Kun for his mighty bravery and his victory in every battle.

When the tiger showed its might, they realized that it was not a sick cat!

Ye Kun became rich and rewarded officials at all levels.

He also helped the people, won their hearts, and used both kindness and force.

The genius doctor Xia Tuo had just returned from Changsha after treating Wei Dingshan and reported the situation to Ye Kun.

Ye Kun met Xia Tuo in the back hall, asked him to sit down, and then asked, "How is Lord Wei's health now?"