Protect Our Clan Leader

Chapter 1050: Chapter 66: Dominating the Trending Searches! The Immortal Master Lays His Stratagems (Vote for Monthly Tickets) Chapter 1050: Chapter 66: Dominating the Trending Searches! The Immortal Master Lays His Stratagems (Vote for Monthly Tickets) …

Longzuo County.

Langright Guard.

Not far from the East Mountain Passage, there was a rather spacious estate known as “Three Immortals Villa.”

“Three Immortals Villa” was nominally a property of the Langright Guard associated with an Eighth Grade Prominent Family. On ordinary days, the estate didn’t seem much different from neighboring farms, cultivating various grains and Spirit Fruits, and occasionally selling some low-grade Spirit Bird meat.

But in actuality, this was a covert position under the Three Talents Section, activated only at critical moments.

For instance, at this present time.

Inside Three Immortals Villa, a group of “outsiders” was currently gathered.

On the ground floor, the original farmers of the estate were busy with their daily tasks as usual, only now there were far more unfamiliar faces among the household guards, and their numbers had significantly increased.

In the expansive basement, the place was brightly lit, with dozens of Fluorescent Stone Spirit Lamps burning for many consecutive days and nights.

The basement of Three Immortals Villa had been specially constructed, not only vast in size but also extremely tall. Right now, it was densely packed with at least several hundred desks, and behind each desk, a scribe was bowing their head in busy work, flanked by piles of books and ledgers enough to make one’s scalp tingle.

The entire basement was exceptionally quiet, filled only with the sound of pages flipping “swish, swish, swish,” the “clack, clack” of abacus beads colliding, and the occasional rustle of clothing, coughs—nearly devoid of any other noise.

The atmosphere was tense and solemn.

At the highest part of the basement, there was a platform extending outward from the edge. The platform offered a wide view, allowing one to oversee the entire basement, observing the activities of everyone below.

Presently, on this platform, three men were each seated in their Taishi Chairs, leisurely sipping tea and quietly waiting.

These men were dressed in red official robes, embroidered with blue-purple Thunder Eagles. Clearly, these men were officials of Grade Four, powerful enough to make a place tremble with a single stomp in the local regions.

But at this moment, these three had come together.

“Zheng Hongwen, are your subordinates up to the task? It’s been almost a month since we started auditing, and we still haven’t found any issues?” Suddenly, a languid young male voice spoke up.

The speaker was the youth seated on the side. He was half-squinting, his official robe worn loosely and his posture relaxed and careless, looking somewhat disinterested.

This person was Qiao Hongbo, the head of the Inspectorate.

Coming from the Grade Four Qiao Family, he was an outstanding talent, and with enough strength and experience, he naturally became a Grade Four official in due course.

While the Inspectorate was responsible for monitoring the prominent families and officials of the world, its main focus was on more serious crimes with broader implications, such as colluding with pirates, treason, conspiracy to rebel, local violent conflicts, and annihilation of prominent families.

Issues such as tax evasion were something the Inspectorate typically chose to ignore.

This time, if it weren’t for the Prime Minister’s orders, he would have been unwilling to come. After so many days of secret investigation and finding not a single useful piece of information, his impatience was understandable.

“Qiao’s Command’s doubts are also my doubts,” spoke up Zhou Litde, the head of the Alchemy Department from the other side, with a serious face tinged with query, “I remember before we started the investigation, Zheng Command had confidently asserted that results would come quickly. Now, nearly a month has passed and we still have found no issues, how does Zheng Command intend to explain this?”

“Why the rush, both of you?” Zheng Hongwen appeared not to be in a hurry at all, leisurely sipping his tea, “Flies don’t sting seam-free eggs. The clerks of the Three Talents Section have been through special training, and no matter how well the Wang family covers it up, they can’t escape the fiery eyes of our clerks. We’ve only audited for ten years, and there is still so much left unchecked, let’s just wait.”

Zheng Hongwen was the head of the Three Talents Section and was also the deputy to Meng Yuanbai, the Three Talents Chief.

This investigation of the Wang family’s tax evasion was led by the Three Talents Section, with support from the Inspectorate and the Alchemy Department, naturally making him the leading figure among the three.

Despite his calm exterior, his anxiety was no less than that of the others, or more precisely, he was far more anxious than both of them.

Had it not been for his role as the principal organizer where he needed to maintain appearances, he would probably have already stood up and paced anxiously.

As the fourth Elder in the direct vessel of the Grade Four Zheng family, his hierarchical position wasn’t that prominent internally, and the family’s support for his career stemmed from a lack of other suitable candidates rather than his potential. Now with a new generation of direct heirs from his family intending to enter government service, the Old Ancestor planned to replace him once the heir advanced to the Purple Abode Realm.

Of course, this also had to do with his lack of accomplishments on the political scene over the years.

This time, he had specifically requested the assignment to assist with the investigation of the Wang family’s tax evasion, hoping to establish significant merit and dissuade the Old Ancestor from the idea of replacing him.

While Qiao Hongbo hadn’t paid much attention to tax evasion and was not well-versed with the current state of the prominent families, Zheng Hongwen was. In his opinion, which prominent family didn’t evade taxes?

With so many enterprises under the Wang family’s name, from the Wang Clan’s Artifact Refining Headquarters and Alchemy Department to the Wang Family Grain and Seed Business, each of these industries handled massive amounts of money each year. Could it be that every single employee was honest and incorruptible, never falsifying records?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com