279: Chapter 279 Giving Money and Assets

After finishing the raid on Prefect Xue Ao's residence.

Chen Hu called over the Puppet official in charge of the raid and instructed, "Do a thorough interrogation of Prefect Xue Ao and his Family. See if he has any hidden wealth!"

Being a massive embezzler, he certainly understood the logic of a "cunning rabbit having three burrows."

Therefore, he felt that Prefect Xue Ao must have hidden wealth elsewhere.

"Yes!"

The Puppet official immediately accepted the order.

After taking Nangong Hongyan back to the government office, the other raiding teams returned one after another.

As the saying goes, what the superior does, the subordinates follow.

Since Prefect Xue Ao was a massive embezzler, his subordinates could not be much better.

Therefore, after raiding these officials, they obtained gold, silver, jewelry, grain, and land deeds worth over 90 million taels of silver.

After having people store these items, Chen Hu used his Spiritual Sense to observe the situation in Yulong Prefecture.

Because the rebel army had entered the city, the residents kept their doors and windows shut, as did all the shops.

There were, however, some small-time thugs wandering the streets, looking to see if there was anything to gain.

At the same time, in Yulong Prefecture, a poll tax and grain levy had been collected in the past few days.

Thus, Chen Hu decided to repeat his old trick.

He immediately ordered the Puppet officials to write notices and post them all over the city.

After posting the notices, they would beat gongs to remind the civilians hiding in their homes to come out and watch.

At first, no one was willing to come out.

But they would peek from behind windows or door cracks.

After discovering that the soldiers posting the notices had left, some people, unable to suppress their curiosity, walked out of their homes and came to the wall where the notices were posted.

When they saw that the Fierce Tiger Army was actually going to return the poll tax and grain collected recently, these people found it somewhat unbelievable.

But driven by a desire for silver and grain, many people went to the government office with a "try it and see" attitude.

This Prefect Xue Ao was much more ruthless than Prefect Yang Ze.

A few days ago, using the order from the Governors Office, he had wantonly collected poll taxes and grain.

Ordinary civilians, regardless of age, had to pay 3 taels of silver and 10 catties of grain per head.

After years of Prefect Xue Ao's governance, the civilians of Yulong City were not wealthy to begin with.

He knew that most of these civilians could not afford the silver.

So, he thought of a way: to cooperate with the Gangs in the city.

After these civilians could not pay the silver, the Gang members would step forward and take the initiative to lend these civilians high-interest loans.

Later, to repay the loans, these civilians had no choice but to work themselves to death.

It could be said that he squeezed these civilians to the extreme.

Soon, people arrived outside the government office to get their tax refunds.

Because not many people came at first, after going through the process, these people received the silver and grain.

For a moment, these civilians, who had been pushed to the brink, could not help but weep with joy.

The government officials had pushed them to the point where they could barely survive, but the newly arrived rebel army gave them hope to live on.

As the first batch successfully received their refunds, more and more people came to the government office, and soon, long queues formed outside.

Meanwhile, in the Inner City of Yulong Prefecture, the heads of the Four Great Families gathered together.

"What do you all think of this General of the Fierce Tiger Army?"

The one who spoke was the head of the Chu Family, Patriarch Chu Hanshan, a cultivator at the Late Stage of the Bone Refining Realm, and also the strongest person in Yulong City.

"We can only curry favor, not oppose him!" said Chen Changhui, head of the Chen Family.

"Brother Chen, you wouldn't happen to have some relationship with that Chen Hu, would you?" Zhou Chengbang, head of the Zhou Family, said with a mix of Yin and Yang.

"Fool!" Chen Changhui cursed directly.

"What did you say?" Zhou Chengbang glared at Chen Changhui. Due to interests, the relationship between the Chen Family and the Zhou Family had always been rigid; if not for the special situation, the two would never be in the same room.

Chen Changhui continued, "Don't you know that the 5,000 Black Armor Soldiers led by Chen Hu are all in the Bone Refining Realm? Our four families combined couldn't even beat one of his squads. What do you have to oppose him with? Of course, if you think your Zhou Family is living too comfortably, you can try!"

"Spreading rumors and inciting the masses!" Zhou Chengbang snorted coldly, "5,000 Bone Refining soldiers? What a joke. Even the Imperial Guards of Great Yong couldn't be all Bone Refining. How could a rebel like Chen Hu manage that!"

"It's true!" Patriarch Chu Hanshan spoke up at this moment, "I also found it hard to believe when I heard this news, so I went to observe personally. It is indeed all Bone Refining Realm!"

"Ah!" Zhou Chengbang was dumbfounded. At the same time, a huge wave of fear surged in his heart, "5,000 in the Bone Refining Realm? Wouldn't it be as simple as crushing an ant for Chen Hu to kill us?"

"I heard that after Chen Hu occupied Linjiang Prefecture, he did not target the Five Great Families in the Inner City. As long as we take the initiative and lower our posture, he might not target us!" the fourth head, Jiang Mofeng, said thoughtfully.

Patriarch Chu Hanshan shook his head, "Brother Jiang, your words have some truth, but not entirely. As far as I know, the Fierce Tiger Gang's rise depended on the Huang Family, and Chen Hu took a daughter of the Nangong Family as a concubine. The Wang Family sold Medicinal Pills to the Fierce Tiger Gang at a low price, so the two should also have a cooperative relationship. Finally, he stored a large amount of grain in the Hu Family's warehouse, which shows that the two sides also have some friendship. And us? We have no friendship with Chen Hu at all. If we don't show anything, do you think he won't touch us? After all, our four families occupy a lot of the interests in Yulong Prefecture. He has taken Yulong Prefecture, but we are still eating the biggest piece of meat. If it were you, would you be happy?"

Hearing this analysis from Patriarch Chu Hanshan, the other three Family heads fell silent.

"Brother Chu, why are you so clear about this?" suddenly, Chen Changhui asked curiously.

Patriarch Chu Hanshan said, "After Chen Hu declared himself General of the Fierce Tiger Army, I began to pay attention to him. Because within Ling Province, our Yulong Prefecture is the closest to Linjiang Prefecture. If the Fierce Tiger Army wants to expand, they will definitely take Yulong Prefecture as their target!"

"Then Brother Chu, what should we do now?" Zhou Chengbang asked.

"Give money to save our lives!" Patriarch Chu Hanshan said, "Hand over 70% of the Family property to Chen Hu. If he is not satisfied, hand over 90%!"

"What, 90%!" Zhou Chengbang exclaimed, "That's too much!"

Patriarch Chu Hanshan said lightly, "Money can be earned again, property can be accumulated again. If your life is gone, you have nothing. In any case, my Chu Family will offer 70% of our property to show our sincerity. If General Chen is not satisfied, I will hand over another 20%. As for what you plan to do, I won't ask. It's getting late, I'll take my leave first!"

After watching Patriarch Chu Hanshan leave, Chen Changhui and Jiang Mofeng looked at each other and also stood up to leave.

Only Zhou Chengbang remained.

"Damn it, these three guys are scared out of their wits!" he laughed disdainfully, "These properties are the accumulation of generations of my Family, why should I hand them over to a rebel!"

After returning home, Patriarch Chu Hanshan immediately ordered someone to prepare a gift list.

And this gift list recorded 90% of his Chu Family's property and 90% of his wealth.

Just now, when the four Family heads met, he had hidden one piece of news.

This news was that Chen Hu had killed Marquis Weiwu, Wei Zhenjiang, yesterday.

That Wei Zhenjiang was a peerless expert at the Middle Stage of Gang Refining.

Such a peerless expert died at the hands of Chen Hu, which shows that Chen Hu has at least reached the Late Stage of Gang Refining, or perhaps, like the Imperial Preceptor, he is a half-step Hunyuan Martial Saint.

If you don't hug such a big thigh now, when will you?

However, in order to make himself stand out more, he only revealed that he would give away 70% of his wealth and 70% of his property.

If the other three families only sent 70%, wouldn't that make him appear more sincere?