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

Chapter 169

However, he knew this was wishful thinking. Although he was the vice president of the chamber of commerce, Zhang Ziyi did not carry much weight in Cui Wenkui's eyes. The vice president position could be held by him or someone else.

The entire chain of interests will not stop because of the absence of one person. If one person is missing, another will naturally take their place. Even Cui Wenkui is not irreplaceable.

After thinking for a long time, Zhang Ziyi decided to admit defeat for the time being and immediately had someone prepare 20 million strings of copper coins to repay the previous debt to Zhou Chu.

Zhang Ziyi was very wealthy, with over ten million taels of silver and more than ten million strings of copper coins. Even so, twenty million strings of copper coins was a huge loss for him, causing his heart to bleed.

However, Zhang Ziyi thought to himself that this was only temporary. After Zhou Chu was completely dealt with, although he might not be able to get all of the money back, he could at least get back a portion of it.

Thinking about this made Zhang Ziyi feel much better.

Looking at the income tallied by Shen Lian and Lin Lu, Zhou Chu was overjoyed. He had planned the route for the raid in detail beforehand. Along the way from the Suzhou government office to Wang Zan's house, there were several mansions of wealthy merchants from the core of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce.

Zhou Chu had already marked these people's homes, and today he simply copied them.

The wealthy merchants who could enter the core layer of the Jiangnan Chamber of Commerce were all quite rich, with the lowest having hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, not counting copper coins and other valuables.

As for Wang Zan, the prefect of Suzhou, although he was only a fourth-rank prefect, he was the prefect of Suzhou, so his status was extraordinary. More than five million taels of silver, more than thirty million strings of copper coins, and countless antiques and paintings were confiscated from Wang's mansion.

Wang Zan was a native of Suzhou, and all his family property was here. He was only a fourth-rank prefect, yet he embezzled so much.

This reminded Zhou Chu of Yan Maoqing and Luo Longwen, whose families were raided along with Yan Song. Their family assets were no less than those of the Yan family when their homes were raided, which shows how lucrative it was for local officials in wealthy and important towns.

This raid yielded over eight million taels of silver and over eighty million strings of copper coins.

Zhou Chu took out 100,000 strings of cash from the money and gave it to Chen Zhao, asking him to distribute it among his men.

This move was mainly to shut up the Jinyiwei guards in Suzhou Prefecture. Although Zhou Chu was not afraid of these people leaking secrets, since everyone knew who did it, and if anyone dared to go out and spread it, they would die without even knowing how. But he still had to give them the benefits they deserved, since they had done some work.

Zhou Chu had six million taels of silver and sixty million strings of copper coins transported to the capital. This time, Zhou Chu did not go through the money shops, mainly because he was afraid that the people in the money shops would embezzle the money.

This money is different from what Chu Li earned before. Chu Li earned it openly and honestly, and it could withstand scrutiny, but this money is illicit. Even if it was stolen by the money exchange, neither Zhou Chu nor Jiajing could explain it away.

Zhou Chu used the remaining money as military expenses.

There are advantages to keeping things secret. Zhou Chu can keep more of it, and as long as it's not too outrageous, Jiajing won't mind, since Jiajing takes the lion's share.

Zhou Chu didn't intend to hide how much money he had embezzled from Jiajing; he deliberately had Lin Lu watch over him while he tallied the figures.

News of what happened in Suzhou Prefecture was sent to the capital by express courier. Soon, all the officials in the court knew about the news and were extremely shocked.

Are the Japanese pirates in Suzhou Prefecture really this lawless? Is Cui Wenkui just a useless bum?

The next day, the court urgently convened an additional court session to address the matter. At the session, officials led by Yang Yiqing impeached Cui Wenkui for holding a position without performing his duties and doing nothing.

“Your Majesty, Cui Wenkui has always overstepped his bounds in Jiangnan Province and Southern Zhili. Now he can’t even manage Jiangnan Province properly. This man is truly a usurper of a high position and has accomplished nothing.”

Zhang Cong stepped forward.

Seeing countless people impeaching Cui Wenkui, Jiajing was very satisfied. However, he knew very well that he could not touch Cui Wenkui at will, otherwise Jiangnan Province would be in chaos, and he could only gradually remove his power.

"In that case, I hereby issue the imperial decree: Cui Wenkui, the governor of Jiangnan, has made such a great oversight during his tenure. He should first manage his own duties and not overstep his bounds again. In addition, effective immediately, Wang Shouren is hereby appointed as the governor of Yingtian, in charge of all affairs in Southern Zhili."

Jiajing's words caught everyone off guard. While the first half of his statement was within their expectations, the second half completely took them by surprise.

They had originally planned to recommend their own people to serve as governors of Yingtian, but now they were all speechless. The emperor's words were always the golden rule, and once spoken, no one dared to refute them without sufficient reason.

In any case, Wang Yangming was qualified to serve as the governor of Yingtian, both in terms of experience and other aspects.

"In addition, Yan Song was ordered to go to Suzhou Prefecture to serve as the prefect of Suzhou."

Compared to the previous statement, this one did not cause much of a stir.

At this moment, Xia Yan couldn't sit still when he saw the emperor so openly sending other people to Southern Zhili and Suzhou Prefecture. If these people cooperated with Zhou Chu, wouldn't the whole of Jiangnan be turned upside down?

"Your Majesty, the chaos in Jiangnan is something that Cui Wenkui is probably powerless to suppress. I believe that an imperial envoy should be sent to Jiangnan to inspect the situation on behalf of Heaven and restore a bright and peaceful world to our Great Ming."

When Jiajing heard this, he was not surprised. It would be strange if Xia Yan wasn't anxious after he made such an arrangement.

"Then who does Gongjin think is suitable to go?"

Jiajing said with great interest.

Most imperial envoys were officials of the third or fourth rank. Second-rank officials rarely wanted to travel around and looked down on the position of imperial envoy.

But forced by circumstances, Xia Yan had no choice but to bite the bullet and take on the job.

"Your Majesty, I am willing to share your burdens."