Protect Our Chief

Chapter 1050 - 66: Dominating the Trending List! The Immortal Lord Sets the Stage for Turmoil

...Longzuo County.

Langzuo Guard.

Not far from the East Mountain Corridor, there lies a sizable manor known as "Three Immortals Manor."

Nominally, "Three Immortals Manor" belongs to an Eighth-Grade Noble Family under Langzuo Guard. On ordinary days, this manor looks no different from other farms, merely planting grain seeds, cultivating spirit fruits, and occasionally selling low-tier spirit bird flesh.

But in reality, this is a secret outpost under the Three Talents Department, only activated in crucial times.

Such as now.

In the Three Immortals Manor, there was a gathering of "outsiders" at this moment.

Above ground, the original farmers in the manor were still working as usual, except there were noticeably more new faces among the Household Generals, and their number had also increased significantly.

The enormous underground room was brightly lit, with dozens of fluorescent stone spirit lamps having been illuminated continuously for many days and nights.

The underground room of the Three Immortals Manor was specially excavated, not only vast in area but also very high in height. At this moment, it was densely packed with at least hundreds of desks, each with a clerk busy working, beside them piled a daunting amount of books and account ledgers.

The entire underground room was extraordinarily quiet, except for the "swish swish" of pages turning, the "pat pat" of abacuses clashing, and the occasional rustle of clothing or cough, there was hardly any noise.

The atmosphere was tense and solemn.

At the highest point of this underground room, there was a platform extending from the edge. From this platform, one could overlook the entire underground room, taking in all the activities below at a glance.

Currently, there were three individuals seated in their respective master’s chairs, leisurely sipping tea, quietly waiting.

These three individuals were all dressed in red official robes, embroidered with blue-purple thunder eagles. Clearly, these three were Fourth-Grade officials of the current regime, who, in the local area, could cause a major upheaval with a single stomp of their foot.

Yet, at this moment, these three had gathered together.

"Zheng Hongwen, are your subordinates capable or not? It’s been almost a month since they started checking the accounts, and they still haven’t found any issues?" Abruptly, a lazy young man’s voice sounded.

The speaker was a young man sitting at the edge. He was squinting slightly, wearing his official robe loosely and sitting in a casual, lazy posture, appearing somewhat bored.

This man was named Qiao Hongbo, and he was the Commander of the Inspectorate.

He belonged to the Fourth-Grade Qiao Family and was himself an exceptionally talented Celestial Pride. With his achievements and qualifications, he naturally became a Fourth-Grade Commander.

However, although the Inspectorate is responsible for overseeing noble families and officials of the world, it mainly focuses on serious crimes that involve a wide scope, such as colluding with sea bandits, treason, rebellion, local conflicts, and annihilation of noble families.

The Inspectorate has always been unwilling to bother with issues like tax evasion.

This time, if it weren’t for the Chief Minister’s order, he wouldn’t have bothered to come. Having secretly investigated for so many days and yet found nothing of value, he was naturally somewhat impatient.

"Commander Qiao’s doubts are also my doubts." On the other side, the Commander of the Criminal Law Department, Zhou Lide, also spoke with a stern voice, a hint of skepticism on his serious face, "I remember that before the investigation began, Commander Zheng assured us that results would be forthcoming soon. But now, almost a month has passed, and still no problem has been found. How does Commander Zheng explain this?"

"Why are you two Commanders in such a hurry?" Zheng Hongwen, however, appeared not the least bit anxious, slowly sipping a cup of tea, "Flies don’t bite seamless eggs. Our clerks in the Three Talents Department are specially trained, and no matter how well the Wang Family conceals, they cannot escape the keen eyes of our clerks. We’ve only checked ten years of accounts; there are still many more to go through. We just need to wait."

Zheng Hongwen was the Commander of the Three Talents Department and also the deputy to Director Meng Yuanbai of the department.

This investigation of the Wang Family’s tax evasion is led by the Three Talents Department, with the Inspectorate and Criminal Law Department coordinating, hence he naturally took the lead among the three of them.

Despite his current calm demeanor, his inner anxiety was undoubtedly no less than the other two, or more accurately, he was actually far more anxious than the others.

If it weren’t for his role as the host, having to hold down the fort, he might have already been up and anxiously pacing.

As the Fourth Elder of the Fourth-Grade Zheng Family, he was born in the direct vein, but his status within the Zheng Family was not particularly high. The family cultivated him back then because there were no other suitable candidates. Now, with the family’s new generation of Direct Lineage Celestial Pride intending to enter officialdom, the Ancestor is inclined to replace him once the other achieves the Purple Mansion Realm.

Of course, this also has something to do with him not achieving much in his official career over the years.

This time, he specifically sought the task of assisting in the investigation of the Wang Family’s tax evasion case from the Director, aiming to seize the opportunity to make a great achievement, thus dispelling the Ancestor’s intention of replacing him.

Although Qiao Hongbo hadn’t paid much attention to tax evasion, he lacked understanding of the current situation of the noble families, while Zheng Hongwen was well aware. To his knowledge, which noble family doesn’t evade taxes?

The Wang Family has so many industries, from Wang’s Artifact Refining Headquarters, Wang’s Alchemy Headquarters, to Wang’s Grain Seed Company, etc., each of which handles massive funds annually. Is it possible that every single person is clean and honest without any fraud at all?