Zhang Chengde had one wife, five concubines, three sons and two daughters. Since the Zhang family had no defense, the whole family was caught.

Zhang Chengde's five concubines were of low status, but his status as a head wife was extraordinary. His head wife, Mrs. Xue, was born in Jiyongdu, a place of thousands of households in Danzhou, which later became Jiyong Village, Sandu Town, Danzhou City, Hainan.

His father's name is Xue Tao, and he has a hereditary reputation of bravery in hundreds of households. Although his position is not high, his ancestors are very famous.

It played a major role in winning this crucial battle.

Therefore, after Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, Xue Xiang served as Minister of the Ministry of Industry during the Hongwu period. However, Xue Xiang offended the left prime minister Hu Weiyong.

He was implicated and exiled to Hainan. The second son, Xue Neng, was assigned to Jiyongdu under Qianhu in Danzhou in the west of Hainan Island and settled there.

Xue Neng had a son, Xue Yuan, who studied hard and passed the imperial examination, and later served as the minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, thus becoming the first minister in the history of Hainan, making Xue Neng's family change their status and become commoners. And Zhang Chengde's father-in-law Xue Tao

, is the direct descendant of Xue Neng.

Precisely because of Xue's status, Zhang Rong did not dare to tie up Xue, and even Xue's son had to be treated well. When Xue was brought to Mao Jiao, Xue said angrily: "Master Mao, why are you doing this?"

Are you slandering my master for colluding with pirates?"

Mao Jiao used to be a Qianhu in Danzhou, so he naturally knew about the Xue family. He did not dare to offend Mr. Xue, so he had no choice but to laugh and said: "Ms. Xue, this is not me slandering Zhang Chengde. Do you have a relative named Zhang Quanli in your family?"

, Zhang Chengde sent him to contact the pirates and go ashore to burn, kill and loot. Now that Zhang Quanli is in my hands, do I need to escort him to confront you, Mr. Xue?"

Seeing that there was a witness, Mrs. Xue had no choice but to stop entangled in the matter. However, Mrs. Xue asked again: "Even if my father colluded with the pirates, he wouldn't be executed, right? My father-in-law is the deputy chief of the army, so according to the law, he should

How dare Mr. Mao do anything expedient when it comes to the Ministry of War review?"

This time Mao Jiao did not answer, but Zhao Mengguan stood up and said: "Mrs. Zhang, this officer is Zhao Mengguan of Jinyiwei Baihu. After Zhang Chengde knew that the matter failed, he was afraid that Master Mao would bring people to arrest him, so he organized his men to prepare

Taking advantage of Master Mao's inspection, kill Master Mao and this officer together, this Zhang Rong can testify!"

Zhang Rong is now a vested interest, so naturally he won't say anything. After Zhao Mengguan finished speaking, he nodded repeatedly, indicating that Zhang Chengde and his son died unjustly.

The Xue family is a woman. Although she has extraordinary experience, she can't speak to these men. She has no choice but to ask: "Since my father has been killed by you, what are you going to do with our orphans and widows?"

Mao Jiao said: "Zhang Chengde has been punished for breaking the law and has nothing to do with his wife, but Zhang Chengde's sons are sentenced to exile according to law!"

In ancient times, transportation was inconvenient, and exile was a severe punishment second only to the death penalty. Xue's son had just turned twelve years old. How could she bear to watch her son die on the road? There was no way Xue could do it but to plead: "Master Mao, you and I

Dad is a good friend, can you please spare my son for the sake of my Xue family!"

Mao Jiao saw the exciting part, and quickly pretended to be embarrassed and said: "Ms. Xue, you know that Zhang Chengde committed a serious crime.

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Li said that his son should be executed, and exile is already a sign of mercy from me! But after all, Xue Baihu has a good relationship with me, so be it! As long as Mrs. Xue tells you where the Zhang family’s money is hidden, I can make the decision for you.

My son is serving his sentence locally in Danzhou!"

Although exile is torture, the location of the exile has its own meaning. In ancient China, exile was mainly in border areas, such as Guangdong and Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Liaodong, and Hainan Island was also the place where officials were exiled in the past dynasties, including Danzhou and Yazhou.

There are many intellectuals who have stayed in Danzhou, so it is reasonable to be exiled to Danzhou. However, this is very lenient to Xue. Her hometown is Danzhou. Going to Danzhou is like going home, so she does not have to suffer much.

.

Mrs. Xue is a woman who has lost her mind after such a big thing happened in her family. Now in order to protect her son, she has no choice but to say: "There is a secret cave in the rockery in the backyard, which is where my master hides his money!"

With the identification, it was easy to handle. Mao Jiao quickly took his men to the backyard. Sure enough, according to Xue's instructions, he found a moving rock on the rockery. After moving the big stone, a gate made of fine iron appeared in Mao Jiao's house.

Focused eyes.

This gate is made entirely of fine iron, and is locked with a large copper lock in front of it. However, this is not a problem. At Mao Jiao's signal, the soldier used a sledgehammer to break the door lock, and opened a dark cave behind the door.

The entrance to the cave appeared in front of everyone.

Mao Jiao and Zhao Mengguan immediately realized that there must be treasure hidden in such a secret cave. Mao Jiao called one of his men and asked him to go in and have a look. Of course, Zhao Mengguan was not idle either, and called him over to follow him.

A member of the Imperial Guard came and asked him to follow him in. The two of them had no choice but to hold a torch each and walk slowly into the cave.

The cave was not big, so the two men walked out ten minutes later. Mao Jiao's men stammered: "Big... Marshal, everything in it... is full of money!"

Jinyiwei Fanzi was much smarter than the soldier. He went in and took out a piece of silver, handed it to Zhao Mengguan and said, "Sir, there is a lot of silver in it, all official silver!"

Mao Jiao and Zhao Mengguan were overjoyed. They did not care about official etiquette. They grabbed the torch from the soldiers and rushed in. After entering the cave, there was a three-meter-long corridor. After turning around the corridor, it suddenly became clear. Inside was a cave covering an area of ​​ten meters.

A space of five to six square meters is made of rockery and rocks. There is light in some places, so it is not stuffy inside.

Mao Jiao entered the cave and was stunned by the scenery in front of him. He saw huge ingots of silver piled up into a mountain. Mao Jiao made a preliminary estimate and found that the pile of silver amounted to five to sixty thousand taels. In addition to silver, there was also some gold.

Silver utensils, such as gold bowls, gold plates, and various gold and silver jewelry. Mao Jiao reached out and opened one of several large boxes on the ground. There were gold bricks inside. Mao Jiao picked up one and weighed it. One weighed more than twenty kilograms.

.

Zhao Mengguan, who entered the cave right after Mao Jiao, was also dumbfounded. He was stunned for a long time and then said: "Master Mao, these gold and silver must be a hundred thousand taels!"

Mao Jiao smiled and picked up a scroll from a calligraphy and easel nearby. After opening it, he looked at it in the light of a fire. It was an authentic work by Wu Daozi from the Tang Dynasty. Mao Jiao said: "Master Zhao, I think it is far more than this. This scroll is by Wu Daozi in the Tang Dynasty.

Daozi's authentic work is probably worth thousands of taels of silver!"

Zhao Mengguan saw that there were fifty or sixty calligraphy and painting shelves.

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The scroll was full of joy, so doesn't it mean that the treasure in this cave is worth hundreds of thousands?

Zhao Mengguan was born in Suzhou where literary style flourished. When Zhao Mengguan was a royal guard, he raided the homes of criminal officials many times and had some knowledge of calligraphy and painting. He opened several scrolls and found calligraphy and painting from either the Tang Dynasty or the Song Dynasty.

Meng Guan looked carefully and found that these calligraphy and paintings were most likely authentic.

Zhao Mengguan was concerned and scolded Zhang Chengde for squandering natural resources. These treasures should be stored in a moisture-proof room, how could they be placed in this humid cave? In fact, Zhao Mengguan did not know that most of these calligraphy, paintings and treasures were from the Zhang family engaged in maritime trade.

Although stolen goods, calligraphy and paintings are of high value, they are extremely difficult to sell. Zhang Chengde regarded them as treasures when he first got them, but over time it became difficult to get rid of them, and there were too many of them, so they were no longer good things.

Zhao Mengguan was studying calligraphy and painting, while Mao Jiao was not in such a mood. He was looking through the treasures in the cave. In addition to the gold and silver he just saw, Mao Jiao also found several large baskets of Buddhist silver coins. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the great voyages of the Ming Dynasty,

At that time, overseas trade was extremely developed, so this kind of silver coins produced in Mexico entered China in large quantities. Later, a sunken ship was salvaged outside Manila, with millions of silver coins on it. Can you imagine the scale of the silver inflow at that time?

Mao Jiao was overjoyed when he saw the silver dollar. He saw that Zhao Mengguan liked calligraphy and painting, and he planned to use those worthless calligraphy and paintings to send Zhao Mengguan away. How could he get more silver for himself! Mao Jiao was rummaging around when he suddenly saw

There was a two-foot-square box in the corner of Shandong. The box was covered with iron sheets to prevent moisture. Mao Jiao carried it with his hand and it was extremely heavy.

Mao Jiao was overjoyed. It seemed that this was the most important treasure of the Zhang family. Mao Jiao took out his dagger and pried open the copper lock. When he opened the box, he found a rag of unknown color. He didn't take a closer look and threw away the rag.

Throwing it aside, he looked through it and found a yellow gold nugget underneath. Mao Jiao reached out and picked it up, weighed it, and found that it weighed two or three kilograms. Mao Jiao was very happy because this piece of gold was probably not worth a thousand taels.

When Mao Jiao was looking through it, he found some writing on his palm. He couldn't see it clearly in the darkness of the cave. After he brought the torch closer, he discovered that the writing on his palm was "Seal of the Great...". Because of the darkness, Mao Jiao couldn't see clearly.

All the fonts were written in fonts. He turned the gold nugget around and looked carefully. Only then did he realize that the gold nugget was not a gold nugget, but a two-inch square with a golden seal of a strange-shaped beast carved on the top. The inscription on it was a kind of

Strange seal script. Although Mao Jiao is not illiterate, he does not recognize this seal script and can only read a few characters in a relatively simple font.

Mao Jiao looked around, and then he saw Zhao Mengguan studying calligraphy and painting next to him. Mao Jiao said: "Master Zhao, do you know seal script? Please take a look at what is written on it? I got a lot of lead oil on it."

After hearing this, Zhao Mengguan put down the calligraphy and painting and came over to take the gold seal from Mao Jiao's hand. He studied it carefully by the light of the fire. Zhao Mengguan frowned more and more as he looked at it. After a while, Zhao Mengguan said: "Master Mao, let's stand together.

Great job!"

Zhao Mengguan looked at Mao Jiao's confused look, and cursed in his heart that he was really unlucky. How could he discover such a great achievement with this guy? If he had discovered it himself, he would have had the chance to be promoted to a thousand households. However, Zhao Mengguan

There was nothing I could do. There were Mao Jiao's men outside the yard. It was impossible for me to take all the credit. It seemed I could only share half of the credit with this guy.

(End of chapter)
Chapter completed!