Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

They would not easily use violence to resolve their internal conflicts. Under Xiao Hexin's strict order, all the Forces nouvelles soldiers s had to ask for the cooperation of those officials with a smile on their faces. There also wouldn't be any torture.

That's right, Xiao Letian was always a civilized person to be examined internally, he wouldn't beat you up nor scold you. He would only politely invite you into the room for fatigue interrogation.

Look at how dark it is in the single room. The visitor lit ten candles and placed a few glass mirrors at the back. Look at how clear your facial features are and how healthy your skin color is … Ah? What are you hiding from? Look here, look straight at us.

We're all civilized people, so we don't know how to use vulgarities. At the very most, we just grumble a little, like what's your name? Gender? Age? Position? How many people lived at home? We'll have a brief period of amnesia and ask you a hundred and eighty times over and over.

Also, I have to guarantee that you will eat and drink well. You want to sleep? Someone come, last cup of strong tea, do not drink, strong tea do not use up the bitter coffee of the foreigners.

Civilization. We want civilization to interrogate us.

The officials of the Ryukyu had never experienced such torture before. Eight hours later, Xiao Letian rubbed his hungover eyes as he woke up to wash his face and eat breakfast. The first batch of confessions had already been delivered to him.

Xiao Hexin's injured leg might not be able to fully recover, although he could walk very fast with his walking stick, his injured leg was still extremely stiff.

"Prime Minister!" "The ten tax collectors have already confessed, they used the power in their hands to bribe the captain, once a hundred thousand tons of ships are relaxed their hands will become eighty thousand tons, many of the goods at high prices are also intentionally marked as low, now it seems like the black hole of the customs revenue collection is as high as twenty percent …"

"The prime minister's method of interrogation sure is effective. They won't be beaten up, but they'll be admitted even faster. I believe that a steady stream of confessions will be delivered this morning …"

Xiao Letian did not directly respond to this and instead asked about Xiao Hexin's leg. Can't we lose our crutches? If this goes on, it looks like you'll have to learn from Zhuge Kongming. Sit down and eat together! "

Xiao Hexin sat on the chair, the waiter beside him served him a bowl of porridge and a plate of Soup Dumplings.

"Alright, the Prime Minister's Crab Yellow Soup Dumplings is indeed not bad. If my tongue doesn't have any problems, then this should be the flower crab's crab yolk and crab meat … "My legs are fine. If I could really go to the battlefield in a wheelchair like Zhuge Kongming, that would be a good thing too. Naturally, I would have become a Confucian general …"

"So hot …" So hot! Compared to Sima Yun, Luo Huo and the others, I am considered lucky, I do not even need to personally charge in the future when fighting, don't you think that I have taken advantage of you!? "

quickly changed the topic, "What are your thoughts on this corruption case?"

Lin Yuanmiao is the president of the Ryukyu's Ministry of Revenue, and Ryukyu's purse is in his hands. He did not dare to extended his hand, so he could only make a move towards other merchants. "

"The customs will pay some tax rebates. That's a small amount of money. The real shady part lies in the construction..." Although the Letian Firm is extremely rich, but we can only contract military works such as the shipyard, Nuo Beier's explosives factory, chemical factory, military factory … "Wait, as for the other civilian projects, we can only place a public tender."

"The basic construction of the arms warehouse in Nanshan was taken away by the Japanese merchants, and the Mi Street reconstruction was taken away by the Fukang Merchant Shop … "There are a lot of other things, Lin Yuanmiao will naturally be able to get involved in these civilian projects, and bribery is a common occurrence …"

"In the end, it's all because of him standing on his own two feet. He did all the work during the Prime Minister's reign and the internal strife. He has nothing to be afraid of now …"

Xiao Letian pointed to the table, "That's right, with merit there is nothing to be afraid of. With merit there, you have to turn the merit into money, this kind of thinking has been going on for thousands of years."

Xiao Hexin raised his head and drank all the porridge in the bowl, then wiped his mouth and smiled towards the Prime Minister, "I'll do as I said, and let Old Lin take back the spoils. It's already over if we kill his butler, Shan Zhen Hu, later on, there's no need to raise fish in the clear water pond, there's nothing we can do about it …"

"You think so too?" Xiao Letian looked at him in disbelief.

"Hey …" "Prime Minister, don't look at me like that, I actually hate corrupt officials even more than you do, but in thousands of years of history, corruption has never been completely cured. We personally saw the Heavenly King enter Nanjing, and we also personally saw how those high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Kingdom fell, so their corruption isn't any worse than the corrupt officials of the imperial government …"

"The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were part of the Primordial Era. Let's not talk about it any further. Ever since the history of the Spring and Autumn Battle Empire, when did corruption ever end?" "The Human Lord is just trying to strike a balance. If it gets too out of hand, we can just push it a little. If it doesn't work, we can just kill a few to vent our anger on the people. What else can we do?"

Xiao Letian sunk into deep thought, waved his hand to allow Xiao Hexin to withdraw, and sat in the study room without having worked for the entire morning.

The fates of all the merchants in China were not very good, it was too far away, so Shen Wansan was not needed to be mentioned. The Hu Xueyan of the late Qing Dynasty was the most typical example, of which Hu Xueyan's fate was the most pitiful.

Guang Xu had spent twenty million silver to build a silk factory and buy Jiangnan silk at a high price. With his own strength, he had attempted to go against the foreign merchants with the aim of restoring China's right to set prices for raw silk products.

Such audacious actions completely infuriated the foreigners. How dare a small merchant from the Qing Empire snatch the pricing right from our hands? If you don't die, then who will!

Amongst them, Hu Xueyan had almost succeeded. In the end, he had even forced the foreign merchants to shout the slogan "not buying silk for a year", attempting to break the chain that held Hu Xueyan's funds.

The Red Top Merchant was thoroughly defeated by the hostile forces of the foreign merchants, the Cave Mountain Gang, and the imperial court, and finally by the addition of a commercial intelligence of the French Italian harvest.

It couldn't be denied that Hu Xueyan plotted the raw silk for the sake of making money, but to a national businessman, snatching the right to set the raw silk from the foreign citizens was definitely a good thing for the country and its citizens.

Unfortunately, no one cared about what was meant by interest towards the nation and citizens. When Hu Xueyan's funds were broken, not only did his Silver Fukang not receive the support and protection of the country, it was instead met with a frenzied suppression by officials and merchants.

Empress Dowager Ci Xi was furious, and immediately ordered his to remove all of Hu Xueyan's clothing. Without the protection of his official body, this mega-merchant was like a dying whale on the beach, able to only allow himself to be cut.

This was the only merchant in the late Qing who dared to fight against international capital. The ones that he and Sheng Huai Xuan walked on were two different paths, although both of them had an official body, in Hu Xueyan's heart, they were still considered a national businessman. Sheng Huai Xuan was a pure official businessman, playing politics was his forte.

Therefore, the God of Fortune, the God of Northern Ocean, had been rich and honorable throughout his life. However, Hu Xueyan died a lonely death.

"What exactly are businessmen in the eyes of these officials? A rag thrown away when you use it? He was asking for bribes without the slightest psychological burden, and he was frantically cutting up corpses just like a dog to add fuel to the fire? "Dammit …"

While Xiao Letian was deep in thought, important progress was made in the interrogation, in the end, the butler of the Minister of Revenue, Lin Yuanmiao, was unable to hold on, and all the secrets between him and the Master were confessed.

In the half year since he had defeated the French Expeditionary Force, Lin Yuanmiao had performed meritorious deeds of his own, coupled with the fact that the new army was almighty in East Asia. The merchants of the Four Seas did not dare accept this outcome, hence he amassed a large amount of wealth.

He did not dare to start the Letian Firm's business, but he did not feel the slightest bit of burden eating other merchants. Within half a year, Lin Yuanmiao had actually amassed a lot of money and reached 700 thousand silver yuan.

Xiao Letian was shocked when he saw the confession. He had already had such a big appetite for half a year, what would happen in the future. But before he could get angry, a sentry ran in. Minister of Revenue Lin Yuanmiao kneeled in front of the Prime Minister's Manor and apologized to the Prime Minister! "

"Get him to kneel down for me, don't bother about him!" The furious Xiao Letian slammed the table and stood up.

The case of Lin Yuanmiao shocked the entire East Asian business circle. After Lin Yuanmiao knelt for eight hours and lost consciousness, when the Prime Minister had not seen the important officials of the Ryukyu for three days, the business circles of Japan, Korea, Qing Guo and even Hong Kong had exploded.

Wherever there were merchants, there would be people discussing about the case. There were even people setting up bets to see if Xiao Letian would punish him.

Three days later, Lin Yuanmiao's son, Lin Zhen, had sold all of his wealth and personally carried a silver carriage along the streets of Ryukyu with a thorny branch on his back to the prime minister to apologize.

The silver carriage had a million silver coins, which was all the property of the Lin Family. Lin Zhen cried as he was about to board the ship and go to Prussia to study.

"Prime Minister …" My Lin Family is willing to break all ties to atone for our sins! "Prime Minister, please be merciful …" Lin Zhen knelt at the entrance of Prime Minister's Manor, the thorns behind his back bleeding profusely.

Not long later, his comrade and good friend Xiang Ying ran out while crying. He passed on the Prime Minister's message to Lin Zhen, "Lin Zhen, may I ask if the salary that the Ryukyu court has given to your father is not enough? May I ask if the Letian Firm gives your family a small share bonus? Or is your father's contribution already so great that the law of the land cannot control it? "

Lin Zhen kowtowed as if he was pounding garlic, "Prime minister's lesson is, our Lin Family was wrong … I don't ask for anything else but for the Prime Minister's forgiveness of my old father's life, and for him to resign as a citizen! "

The Lin Family was truly afraid, even after the case was released, it did not say anything for six days, the terrifying feeling of a treasure sword suspended above their heads was far stronger than if it was chopped down directly, Xiao Letian might as well announce it directly, the terrifying feeling caused everyone in the Lin Family to crumble.