280: Chapter 280 Taking the Zhou Family as an Example

Yulong Prefecture Government Office.

Chen Hu was reviewing the case files of Yulong Prefecture.

Suddenly.

A Puppet official came to request an audience.

After Chen Hu ordered him to be brought in, he discovered that the other party was the one who had overseen the raiding of Prefect Xue Ao's home.

"Reporting to General Chen, after interrogating Prefect Xue Ao, his relatives, the steward, and others, subordinates have found five more hideouts for stolen goods. The contents of these hideouts have all been confiscated. Combined with all the gold, silver, jewelry, and other items, it is worth a full fifty million taels of silver!"

"Holy crap!" Chen Hu exclaimed. "This Prefect Xue Ao has been a Prefect for twenty years and actually embezzled 160 million taels of silver. That averages out to 8 million taels per year. That is truly impressive, even more than the imperial court's tax revenue."

As far as Chen Hu knew, the annual tax revenue of the imperial court for a single Prefecture City was only about 5 million taels.

It was a full 3 million taels less than what Prefect Xue Ao had embezzled.

"Continue the interrogation. See if that old thing has confessed everything!" Chen Hu thought for a moment and said.

"Yes!"

Just as the Puppet official retreated, someone else came to report that Patriarch Chu Hanshan of the Chu Family, one of the Inner City families of Yulong Prefecture, had come to request an audience.

"It seems there are still smart people among the families!"

Chen Hu thought to himself. After he occupied Linjiang Prefecture, the reason he did not take action against the Five Great Families of the Inner City was simple: the Nangong Family was his daughter's Family, and the heads of the other four families were all controlled by him using a loyalty card.

Whenever he had a need, they would fully support him.

There was absolutely no need to take action against them.

But the Inner City families of Yulong Prefecture had absolutely nothing to do with him.

As soon as he stabilized the Outer City, he would take action against the Inner City.

At the same time, he also held the idea of testing whether these Inner City families were sensible.

Half a quarter of an hour later.

Chen Hu received Patriarch Chu Hanshan in the front hall of the Prefecture Government Office.

The other party kept his posture very low and was exceptionally respectful to Chen Hu.

After a simple exchange of pleasantries.

Patriarch Chu Hanshan presented a gift list with both hands.

There was only one line of text on the gift list: ninety percent of the Chu Family's wealth and ninety percent of its assets.

Seeing this line, Chen Hu looked at Patriarch Chu Hanshan with some surprise. "Patriarch Chu, the wealth and assets of your Chu Family were accumulated by many generations of your Family. Are you truly willing to offer ninety percent to me?"

Patriarch Chu Hanshan immediately knelt on the ground. "General Chen, the development of my Chu Family has fallen into a Bottleneck. Your arrival, General Chen, has allowed this humble one to see an opportunity. If it were not for the fact that my Chu Family has many members who need to eat, I would even be willing to offer all the property and assets of the Chu Family to you!"

Looking at Patriarch Chu Hanshan kneeling on the ground, Chen Hu cast an Eye of Insight.

When he saw that the other party's loyalty was as high as 90 points.

Chen Hu knew that this guy truly had high hopes for him and wanted to join his side to strive for a future.

"I am curious. I have only occupied two Prefecture Cities at the moment. Why do you have such high hopes for me? By the way, get up and speak!" Chen Hu helped Patriarch Chu Hanshan up from the ground and asked.

Patriarch Chu Hanshan hurriedly said, "I dare not hide anything from you, General Chen. Actually, after you captured Linjiang, no, Menghu City, this humble one had already been paying attention to you. Besides that, I also received news that yesterday, you killed Marquis Weiwu Wei Zhenjiang, which means your cultivation has reached the Late Stage of Qi Refining. Therefore, I admire you greatly!"

Chen Hu said with satisfaction, "Very good. Since you are willing to join me, I cannot let down your sincerity. Just transport fifty percent of your wealth and assets to the Prefecture treasury. At the same time, I appoint you as the City Lord of Yulong City!"

The next moment, Patriarch Chu Hanshan stood up and knelt down again. "Thank you, General Chen! In the future, I will certainly serve you loyally, follow you faithfully, and never betray you. If I am lying, may I, Chu Hanshan, be destroyed by heaven and earth and die a horrible death!"

"Alright, there is no need to say more words of loyalty. We shall see in the future!"

Chen Hu helped him up again and found that the other party's loyalty value had reached 100 points.

He had become his die-hard loyalist.

Before long, Patriarch Chu Hanshan left the Prefecture Government Office with his subordinates, his face full of joy.

He had to go home to tally the wealth and assets and send fifty percent to the Prefecture Government Office as soon as possible, so that General Chen could see his loyalty.

However, after he walked out of the Prefecture Government Office, he saw the head of the Chen Family, Chen Changhui, and the head of the Jiang Family, Jiang Mofeng.

Seeing these two, Patriarch Chu Hanshan could not help but feel a bit smug. He still had the courage to be the first to surrender.

Although he lost fifty percent of his Family's property, he also gained the heavy trust of General Chen.

As for the Chen Family and the Jiang Family, even if they were also willing to join General Chen, their weight in General Chen's heart would certainly not be as much as his.

And that Zhou Chengbang who had not come to surrender; he was probably too slow to even catch a fresh meal.

"Brother Chu, I didn't expect you to move so fast. Have you seen General Chen?" Jiang Mofeng pulled Patriarch Chu Hanshan aside and asked in a low voice.

"I have seen him, I have!"

Patriarch Chu Hanshan smiled and said, "General Chen is very benevolent and righteous. At the same time, he is very satisfied with the surrender of the Chu Family. He has already appointed me as the City Lord of Yulong City!"

"What?"

Hearing that Patriarch Chu Hanshan had directly become the City Lord, Jiang Mofeng and Chen Changhui were filled with envy and jealousy.

"Thank you for the guidance, Brother Chu. We will go to see General Chen right now!"

Both of them became anxious. Although Patriarch Chu Hanshan had snatched the first place, they could at least secure second and third place.

If they waited until Zhou Chengbang also arrived, the results would be different.

Therefore, they had to rush to request an audience with Chen Hu.

Soon.

Chen Hu learned that the other two heads of the Inner City families had come to request an audience.

He also received them.

Both of them expressed their willingness to offer ninety percent of their Family property.

Obviously, these two were not pushovers either.

They did not say they would only offer seventy percent.

Since they had offered ninety percent of their Family property, and he found that their loyalty had reached over 80 points.

Chen Hu accepted and appointed both of them as Deputy City Lords.

As for the last one, the Zhou Family.

Chen Hu did not care anymore, because he intended to take the Zhou Family to task to win the hearts of the civilians in Yulong City.

Therefore, he contacted Luo Ningshuang through the sound transmission gu.

He asked her to bring a team of Brocade Guard to investigate the Zhou Family.

Time came to the evening.

Luo Ningshuang brought 200 Brocade Guard to Yulong Prefecture.

Accompanying her were Sun Lingyue and the young girl he had saved from Young Marquis Wei Wuji.

By the way, that young girl's name was Mu Shuangshuang.

She had now joined the Brocade Guard and held the position of Squad Leader.

After some simple affection.

Luo Ningshuang began to lead the team to investigate the Inner City Zhou Family.

With a thought.

The System panel appeared.

His gaze fell on the number of subordinates.

Early this morning, the total number of subordinates was just over 11.25 million.

But now, the number of subordinates had grown to 15.49 million.

Some of these subordinates came from the growth in several Prefecture Cities, and some came from the hearts of the civilians in Yulong City.

Compared to Menghu City.

The population of Yulong City was much smaller, with only a little over 5 million people.

Moreover, Yulong Prefecture only had jurisdiction over four Prefecture Cities.

Around nine o'clock in the evening.

Luo Ningshuang brought Sun Lingyue and Mu Shuangshuang to meet Chen Hu.

They also brought the incriminating evidence of the Zhou Family.

"Let me take a look first. You have worked hard. Eat something first!"

Chen Hu took the case files, and then with a wave of his hand, a table of exquisite dishes appeared.

After thinking about it, he took out a bottle of spirit wine and placed it on the table.

This feast was obtained from opening a card; the taste was quite good, but it was just ordinary food.