CHAPTER 361: CHAPTER 355: I AM THE MARQUIS MANSION DOWAGER 44

Tang Bai did not merely investigate the household servants but also, while Tang Zong was away, led a raid on Ms. Zhang’s private storeroom.

Ms. Zhang has been in charge of the household for more than a decade, and her private storeroom really contained no small amount of things.

Many items that originally belonged to the household were found in Ms. Zhang’s storeroom.

Then, Tang Bai, refusing to stop halfway, also found Ms. Zhang’s dowry list and sorted out the items listed, transferring all the remaining items to the household storeroom.

Ms. Zhang is now detained, unaware of these events.

Later, it was Liu Da’s wife who, crying, reported these acts of Tang Bai to Mrs. Song, begging her to speak on their behalf.

Mrs. Song was truly incensed.

She immediately ordered someone to tell Tang Bai and his wife to come over at once.

Tang Bai, now with someone backing him, was not at all afraid of Mrs. Song.

Unhurriedly, he went with Mrs. Li to the main house.

Upon entering, a teacup was hurled right at him.

Tang Bai quickly dodged with Mrs. Li.

Mrs. Song, livid with anger, turned purple in the face, "How dare you dodge? You unfilial son, you’ve lost face for our ancestors!"

Tang Bai was particularly defiant: "Lost face? It was just a search and seizure. Even the Emperor conducts them; am I not allowed to? I went after our own servants; what of it, isn’t it permissible?"

Mrs. Li was now unafraid of Mrs. Song, her face lit with a smile: "Old Madam, you know servants shouldn’t have private wealth. Yet our servants, one by one, they rob the public for private gain, the storeroom is almost empty, but these servants walk around flaunting wealth, not to mention Liu Da alone, affiliated with your ladyship’s household, owns several properties—just seizing his silver totaled ten thousand taels. You are aware, even our household doesn’t have that much silver, and let’s not even start on my second brother’s wife’s servant’s home wealth."

She spoke with a smile, but Mrs. Song took it as a taunt.

Mrs. Song grew even angrier: "Making such a spectacle of seizing the servants’ assets, aren’t you afraid of being ridiculed?"

Tang Bai stood his ground: "Ridiculed? Who would dare laugh? Besides, having money is all that matters, let those who want to laugh, laugh, it’s not like I’ve lost any flesh off my back."

Mrs. Song was so angry she wanted to smash Tang Bai to death.

"Fine, fine, do you no longer listen to what I say, or what..."

Tang Bai paid her no further attention and, grasping her hand, headed for the door, saying as they walked: "Old Madam, I have many affairs to attend to. Look, I’ve sent Taotao to invite officials from the government office; it’s inappropriate for us to punish these offending servants ourselves, better to send them to the government office."

Mrs. Song cursed furiously, then said: "You’ve gone after Ms. Zhang’s dowry too; return it to her, you..."

Tang Bai smiled: "I have not touched my sister-in-law’s dowry. What I took is all our own property. The dowry list is still intact, let the Zhang Family verify it. If anything is missing, I’ll kneel to the Zhang Family with head-butts in apology."

His words left Mrs. Song unable to unleash her fury.

Tang Bai seized the moment to grab Mrs. Li and flee.

He had managed to gather some items along with gold and silver taken from Ms. Zhang and those servants, and actually managed to make up the sum owed to the Ministry of Revenue.

That very day, Tang Bai instructed Tang Tao to escort several carts of silver, as well as furniture, antiques, and paintings to the Ministry of Revenue in a grand procession.

The court had intentions to commence war against the North, and the Ministry of Revenue’s funds were low; Minister Mi of the Ministry of Revenue was in a pinch when suddenly Tang Tao appeared with considerable silver.

He was taken aback: "Tang Tao, what is this?"

Tang Tao bowed in respect: "Mr. Mi, by my father’s order, I’ve come to return the silver owed to the Ministry of Revenue. It turns out, in recent years, our servants had been draining our assets; we had wanted to repay earlier, but there was simply no money in the house. It wasn’t until recently we discovered these servants were rich and plump. With a determined heart, my father and I raided a few servants’ homes. We didn’t raise enough silver, so we’ve also brought some items to be liquidated, could you assist in exchanging them for cash?"

How could this not be acceptable?

Without mentioning anything else, just the fact that the Tang Family was the first to repay the silver, Minister Mi could not let the Tang Family suffer a loss.

He quickly summoned someone to register the transaction, and then used the IOUs that the Tang Family had left at the Ministry of Revenue over the years to reconcile the accounts.

The Tang Family had accumulated debts of over 300,000 taels of silver. Now Tang Tao had brought 200,000 taels of actual silver, and the remaining was made up of antiques, calligraphy and paintings, as well as bulky but high-quality furniture.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue took inventory, then accounted for these items as a direct offset.

In the end, the Tang Family still owed tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Tang Tao took out a stack of silver notes from his sleeve and handed them to Minister Mi: "This is my wife’s dowry that she brought over after learning about our family’s situation, to fill this pit."

Minister Mi received the silver notes for archiving, returned the IOUs to Tang Tao, and crossed off the debt entries about the Tang Family’s owed silver, then smiled and said, "You have married a virtuous wife, you need to be nicer to your lady in the future, don’t let her down."

Tang Tao smiled: "Of course, if I dare to fail her, neither my father nor my mother will let me off lightly."

Minister Mi then sent the silver and items to the treasury and hurriedly entered the palace.

He reported the matter of the Tang Family’s repayment of silver to Emperor Yong Guang, who laughed heartily: "It seems the Supreme Empress is quite aware and tactful indeed."

It turns out that Emperor Yong Guang’s previous visit to the Emperor to discuss the debt collection was deliberately said where the Supreme Empress could hear.

Firstly, it was to inform the Supreme Empress about the necessity of the matter.

Secondly, it was to test, to see what the Supreme Empress’s attitude might be.

If the Supreme Empress intended to shield the Tang Family, then he would have to think of another approach.

Unexpectedly, the Supreme Empress was truly intelligent and had proper thoughts, he had only just mentioned it, and within days, the Tang Family promptly repaid the silver.

With the Tang Family setting this precedent, chasing debts became much easier thereafter.

Of course, Emperor Yong Guang didn’t just accept Tang Bai’s repayment without reciprocation.

For the ease of handling matters that were to follow, he decreed a reward for Tang Bai. Although he didn’t raise Tang Bai’s title, he gave ample face to the Tang Family. Meanwhile, the position Tang Tao held at the Ministry of Revenue also changed; he was directly promoted from a Sixth-Rank Langzhong to a fifth-rank official, ascending two ranks in just a few days.

Tang Tao was overjoyed, and Tang Bai was also quite happy.

However, Mrs. Song was frustrated.

Tang Zong had been an official for many years and was only ever a fifth-rank, but Tang Tao had just started and had already been promoted to fifth-rank, which made Mrs. Song feel particularly sorry for Tang Zong.

Mrs. Song got angry and started thinking about how to deal with Tang Bai and his son.

But before she could come up with a plan, Anning issued an edict to denounce Mrs. Song.

Anning’s edict directly criticized Mrs. Song for being an unkind mother, having no rules in managing the household, disregarding the order of seniority, allowing the younger son to occupy the main hall, while the eldest son was forced to live beside the horse stables, and in the end, ordered Mrs. Song to reflect upon her actions behind closed doors.

Once this decree was issued, Mrs. Song almost didn’t recover.

Having lived a life of glory, how could she bear such a loss of face in her old age.

Afterwards, Mrs. Song fell ill.

But the officials from the Ministry of Rites came calling.

Taking advantage of Mrs. Song’s illness, the Ministry of Rites inspected the entire Tang Mansion, instructed Tang Bai to change from Duke Zhongyong’s Mansion to Earl Zhongyong Mansion, and corrected several improper aspects.

Additionally, they urged the second branch to move out, freeing up the main house for the first branch.