Chapter 242 Want to Change This Era

Zhu Gui and his five palace guards were eventually transported to Chongqing in a prison van. After all, being tied up all the time could easily cause muscle necrosis, and could even result in death.

Chen the Judge did not give Zhu Gui any face at all. He openly ordered the prison van to be carried to the dock, and then pulled it to the Chongqing government office in a horse-drawn carriage. Along the way, the people of Chongqing flocked to watch.

This allowed Zhu Gui, the imperial teacher who was already famous throughout the world, to further increase his popularity.

The chief officers of the ten major clans in Jiangjin County, and even the sour scholar, had all approached Chen Gu, persuading him to give Zhu Gui some dignity, even if they had to kill him, instead of exposing Zhu Gui in an embarrassing manner in front of the world. After all, he was the emperor's teacher and should not be humiliated like this.

But they were all rejected by Chen Gu.

Chen the Judge personally went to the gate of the government office to wait for the arrival of the prison van. When he saw Zhu Gui, he had a look of despair on his face.

Chen Gu couldn't help but smile at this and said to Zhu Gui, "You old man came to my Huaxia territory to stir up trouble. Did you ever think that this day would come?"

"Chen Gu, a scholar can be killed but not humiliated. You humiliated me today. Aren't you afraid that the scholars all over the world will be disheartened?" Zhu Gui sneered.

Generally speaking, it is true that a scholar can be killed but not humiliated. After all, talent is the most important thing in any era. If a monarch wants to recruit more talents for his own use, he must show enough magnanimity. Even if it is a hostile relationship, as long as the other party is talented, he should be given enough respect.

Only by doing this for the world to see, will talented people in the world be more likely to choose you.

Zhu Gui was undoubtedly talented, and as an imperial teacher he was respected by Jiaqing. He could even be a role model for scholars all over the world. Suan Xiucai and others persuaded Chen Gu to give Zhu Gui the necessary respect so that the Hua Xia Department could better recruit talents in the future.

After all, Chen Gu's humiliation of Zhu Gui would definitely dishearten all the scholars in the world.

But Chen Gu didn't think so. If he just wanted to simply seize the world, he should naturally win over the scholars of the world in order to gain more elite talents for his own use. Then he would naturally give enough respect to Zhu Gui.

In order to show their magnanimity and respect for talents, they can even release him directly, or try their best to win him over and use him for their own purposes.

Maybe Zhu Gui also thought so, so he dared to go to Sichuan to stir up trouble. After all, he was famous. If he killed the Huaxia tribe, he would be a great contributor to the court and would become even more famous.

Even if he failed and was captured, Chen Gu should have given him enough respect. Isn't it like this in all dynasties?
The functions of counselors and generals are the same as those of magical weapons. After the lord captures his counselors and generals, he should naturally cherish them as he would captured magical weapons.

But Chen Gu didn't simply want to seize the world, but wanted to transform this era.

If Chen Gu simply wanted to seize the world, he would cooperate with the powerful families and officials, take advantage of the existing advantages, expand the army as quickly as possible, and then sweep across the world. He could even lead a large army directly to the capital and overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

Instead of staying in Sichuan to train the officials they need, re-legislating, establishing a new political system, and extending the management system to every town and market.

Chen Gou's approach meant that he no longer needed the old bureaucrats. This could be seen from the fact that Chen Gou did not surrender any civil servant in the whole of Sichuan. Chen Gou did not need the old bureaucrats, but wanted to train a group of new officials who could understand his will and serve the people.

If that was the case, how could Chen Gu be polite to Zhu Gui, the imperial teacher?
If Chen Ju wanted to recruit the old bureaucrats for his own use, Liu Qing would not have been sent back home, but would have been employed by the Huaxia Department. No matter how famous Zhu Gui was, he was not as useful as Liu Qing as a role model. After all, Zhu Gui's position was too high and there was no comparison. Liu Qing, an official who climbed up step by step from the grassroots and had a good reputation, was a very good role model.

Facing Zhu Gui's questioning, Chen Jue just smiled calmly, "Scholars in the world are just like that. If you really think that scholars can be killed but not humiliated, then just commit suicide. No one will stop you. Otherwise, accept the judgment of my Chinese law!"

Zhu Gui couldn't help but fall silent, he had never expected this result. Chen Gu would actually be so dismissive of him, the imperial teacher and role model for scholars all over the world. This shouldn't be like this!

As for suicide, it was impossible. Although Zhu Gui was over sixty years old, he was still in good health and had never thought about dying so soon.

Moreover, no matter how difficult the current situation is, after all, Chen Gu only controls a small corner of Sichuan. Even if his military is powerful, the imperial court, which controls the entire world, still has an absolute advantage. It is not completely impossible for Zhu Gui to turn things around.

Zhu Gui closed his eyes and stopped talking. Chen Gu waved his hand and asked Chen Qi to take the man down and wait for trial.

After catching Zhu Gui, the rest of the things became much easier to handle. They had to re-check the identity information of large depositors from all over the country and ask them to explain the sources of the large amounts of silver.

As long as they can explain clearly, the deposit is naturally legal. Even if it is a wealthy family that was persuaded by Zhu Gui to deposit silver, the deposit is legal. As for those who deposit silver using false identity information, the silver will naturally be confiscated.

In fact, basically all the silver came from the wealthy families and officials in Sichuan. After all, it was impossible for Zhu Gui to transport eight taels of silver from abroad to Sichuan and deposit it in the money house.

In fact, this money could be deposited in local banks through legal channels. In that case, even if Chen Gu knew that someone was making malicious deposits, he would not be able to do anything to them in order to maintain the legitimacy of the laws of the Ministry of Huaxia.

The bad thing was that the big families and old officials who had grudges against Chen Gu did not trust him. They were afraid that after they took out the silver and deposited it in the money house, Chen Gu would find all kinds of trumped-up charges to deal with them.

So they came up with a trick of using fake identity information to disperse deposits across the country to make tracing more difficult.

Unfortunately, it is not easy for ordinary people to come up with a hundred or so taels of silver. Even if they deposit the silver in scattered locations, the amount would be in the thousands or tens of thousands, which is as obvious as lice on a bald head, and it is not difficult to track them down.

By the time Zhu Gui was arrested, the total amount of silver deposited in Zong had exceeded 1.5 billion taels, of which 1.4 billion were large deposits of more than 1,000 taels.

After the inventory, it was found that 400 million taels of silver were normal deposits of new officials and the military, while the remaining 1 billion were deposits of old officials and wealthy families.

Zhang Haomin meant to confiscate all the ten billion.

However, Chen Gu refused without hesitation and only confiscated more than 200 million yuan of the money that was deposited using fake identity information. As for the rest of nearly 800 million yuan, Chen Gu recognized its legality as long as the identity information was real.

Let them take it away, or keep it in a money shop to earn interest.

(End of this chapter)