Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 182 Big Silver Ball

"I found a mezzanine in the main hall of the main courtyard, which was full of gold bars, at least two or three hundred thousand taels!" Sanlang said excitedly.

Outside the Tang family mansion, Chen Gu heard the two people's report and said with a smile: "Then move all the things into the warehouse, and let Bai Wencheng and others send people to estimate the value, and give you one percent of the total value of the things found.

But I can’t give you all of it. I can only give you 10%, and all the officers will share 20%, and all the soldiers will share 80%. "

The guarantee is worth at least one million taels of silver. One percent is ten thousand taels of silver, and one tenth is one thousand taels. If ten people share it, it will be one hundred taels. Compared with the total amount, it is indeed not much, but compared with the salary, it is still a large sum of money.

Three or four thousand soldiers shared several thousand taels of silver, and each person could get one or two taels, which was more or less a happy event.

When the time limit came and no one came out to announce the good news, Chen Gu led his army to move in, only to find that the obstacle was still pouring water next to the house.

"What's your trick?" Chen Gu couldn't help but ask.

"Looking for a secret underground passage!" Stumbling Block answered casually, his eyes fixed on the ground to check the direction of the water.

Chen Gu also looked in the direction of the obstacle. The ground was paved with stone slabs, and the gaps were outlined with cement. In theory, water poured on the ground would not easily penetrate, which actually played a good moisture-proof role.

But the bucket of water just poured just flowed to a certain place, and soon sank into the ground and disappeared. The location was under the low table against the corner. The obstacle was delighted and said excitedly: "Found it."

Chen Gu didn't expect that this trick could really find the underground secret passage. He could only say that everyone has their own expertise. He smiled and said, "Send someone to dig!"

"There's no need to go through so much trouble. Usually, secret passages have entrances with mechanisms. Once you know the exact location, it's not difficult to reversely find the mechanism!" Stumbling Block said as he began to observe carefully.

Finally, his eyes fixed on a picture of plum blossoms on the wall. However, the roadblocker did not act in a hurry. Instead, he ordered his men to find some firewood and specifically instructed them to use straw bundles, a mixture of dry and fresh grass, or a mixture of wet hay and dry grass.

It was certainly not easy to find fresh firewood in the city, so the men finally got some hay, then brought in a bucket of water, wet some of the grass, and then tied the wet and dry grass together.

After his men were ready, the roadblock began to fumble around on the plum blossom painting, and finally pushed the drawing board and turned it around. There was a sound of gears turning from under the low table, and immediately two clever subordinates lifted the low table, revealing a hole underneath, about the size of two floor tiles, and a floor tile was only one foot square.

"Light the straws and throw them down. Throw the dry straw first, throw more, and then throw the mixed dry and wet straw!" the roadblock said immediately.

"Aren't you afraid of burning the things inside?" Chen Gu asked casually.

The roadblock smiled and explained, "It shouldn't be. This kind of underground secret room is usually more or less damp, so calligraphy and paintings, cloth and other things are not stored there. Even copper and iron are rarely stored there. Most of them are gold and silver, which are difficult to decay."

After a few words, a coughing sound was heard from underground. Is there really someone hiding in there?

Chen Gu couldn't help but become more excited about what was inside. He also took off the rifle on his back and aimed it at the exit to prepare for defense.

The roadblock said to his subordinates: "Send people to check all parts of the house to see if there is any smoke. Also arrange some people to go to the roof to check if there is any smoke in the surrounding houses. Wherever you see smoke, take people to search. Listen, those inside, come out and surrender quickly, and I can still spare your lives.

Go ahead and fetch some firewood."

Chen Gu looked at the stumbling block with a strange expression and asked, "Didn't you say that your family is a tenant farmer? How come you know all these tricks?"

The roadblock smiled a little embarrassedly and said, "Hehe, being a tenant farmer can't support myself. I occasionally do some tomb raiding, but my skills are very crude. Besides, the tombs that are worth digging are all from wealthy families, and there are people who take care of them, so I can't make much money.

The main reason is that my ancestors were not specialized in tomb raiding, so they don’t know how to read Feng Shui and can’t find those old tombs. The reason why they have these is actually the skills passed down from our ancestors. More than a hundred years ago, my ancestors had a small flag officer of the Jinyiwei, who was the kind who was responsible for confiscating property.”

"Well, now you have the expertise to do this!" Chen Gu said with amusement, but he was thinking in his heart whether he should set up a special team to search for houses.

These aristocratic families are hiding very deeply!
There were a few coughs underground and then there was no sound, but there was a commotion outside, but there was no shooting or bombing, so it should be a minor problem.

After a while, several soldiers from the logistics camp came in with a group of people. Among them, a young man looked dishevelled, but he was dressed very smartly.

"Leader, company commander, these people were caught in the courtyard next door. They were transporting silver. The silver balls were solid silver balls that were one foot in size. Each ball weighed several hundred kilograms." The leading soldier from the logistics battalion reported.

Chen Gu didn't know how to convert volume to weight, but a solid silver lump with a diameter of one foot must be very heavy. He frowned and asked, "How many silver balls did they transport out?"

"We have transported dozens of them!" the soldier replied.

Chen Gu narrowed his eyes and gave the order: "Seal off the houses in front, behind, and on both sides of the two families. Inform Bai Wencheng and have them go door to door tomorrow to register the population and check for suspicious persons. Issue a notice and ask the people to report on lawbreakers. There will be a reward after the investigation is confirmed, at least one or two taels of silver."

Chen Gu planned to conduct a city-wide search to find out all the unstable factors, and also search for the silver.

After the roadblock found a bellows to blow air into the secret room, he took people into the underground secret room to investigate. The final result of the investigation was that there were more than a thousand large silver balls with a diameter of one foot, and there were also more than a hundred gold balls with a diameter of one foot.

The total value far exceeds 10 million taels of silver, but even this should not be all that the Tang family has.

However, Chen Gu did not intend to care about it. He asked Lanluhu to set up a treasure hunting team, which was specifically responsible for finding the treasures hidden by the big families and made sure to check the entire Zizhou City thoroughly.

After checking the Qi family in Zizhou City and Luzhou, all the big families in any prefecture or county that dares to resist will be checked.

The common people were starving and poorly clothed, but the big families had warehouses full of grain, gold and silver. This money had to be taken out for secondary distribution.

(End of this chapter)