A presence that could casually spend hundreds of thousands of taels of silver on goods in a single day was hard not to notice.
After all, no one would complain about having too much money.
Nor would anyone consider such a person to be anything but a nouveau riche with no background, someone who deserved to be bled dry.
Moreover, such a wealthy merchant, suddenly bursting into the capital to shop extensively without even bothering to grease the right palms, wasn't that just a sitting duck?
So, the princes vying for the throne, who were in dire need of funds, and the insatiable top-tier nobles, upon receiving the news, became intensely interested and began their investigations.
However, the results of their inquiries left them greatly bewildered.
They couldn't find out when those people had entered the capital, nor when they had left, nor where their money came from, nor where the purchased goods were, or if they had been transported out of the capital.
Ding Yun's current identity was that of a dead person, and the bodyguard robots she brought were undocumented. Furthermore, they hadn't entered the capital through the city gates, so naturally, no one could ascertain when they had entered.
At the same time, Ding Yun herself had never left, but she had barely appeared in the capital. Her puppet robots possessed stealth capabilities and used personal aircraft to travel outside the city to acquire goods. They also had no need to pass through the capital's gates, thus it was impossible to track when these disappearing wealthy merchants had left.
As for the money, it was transported from other worlds.
It was never withdrawn from banks nor had any record of entering the capital, so it was normal not to be able to trace its origin.
The goods were also sold in other worlds.
They had never passed through the city gates.
It would be a miracle if they found any relevant information.
Yet, the complete lack of any information made these self-important individuals exceedingly perplexed, wondering how such an absurd situation could occur in this world.
Could the other party fly or tunnel underground?
Not a single piece of information could be found.
This simply didn't make sense.
Some even began to suspect that the wealthy merchants who had suddenly appeared in the capital had some powerful backing.
Someone who had erased this information for them.
Which was why they couldn't find anything.
But even with this thought, there were still many inconsistencies. Within the capital, they were already the most elite group; who could possibly be more powerful than them? It couldn't be the Emperor himself, could it?
But that was also illogical.
Emperor Minghui had no reason to do such a thing.
The possibility that the wealthy merchant had already been silenced by someone else, their wealth and goods plundered, and all related information erased, was more plausible than Emperor Minghui personally intervening to erase the information.
However, this was still speculation, and most people didn't believe anyone among them possessed such capabilities.
The discrepancy between reality, theory, and the investigative results left the participants utterly clueless.
They couldn't comprehend what was happening.
Of course, this was normal. After all, who would have imagined that Ding Yun was in the business of cross-world trading through teleportation gates?
But their inability to find information, and their failure to understand why such a thing had happened, did not mean they were helpless or truly resigned to the situation.
Ultimately, they quickly resorted to their ultimate move.
That was to directly submit a memorial to the throne.
Requesting Emperor Minghui to thoroughly investigate the matter.
Regardless of whether the wealthy merchant truly had significant backing, or if someone had gotten there first, since they hadn't obtained it, they certainly wouldn't let anyone else have it.
It was better to expose the matter outright.
To bring it into public discussion.
Let's see if Emperor Minghui could uncover the truth and understand the situation behind this matter.
Perhaps even bring the person behind it to justice.
As for what to do if it couldn't be investigated?
Then Emperor Minghui himself would likely be the most worried.
A presence that even the Emperor's direct decree couldn't investigate clearly would probably be treated by Emperor Minghui as an event as important as rebellion.
The reason for the memorial was also simple: the movement of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver was highly unusual, yet no traces could be found, and there were no entry or exit records for the capital. They had reason to believe that this silver had been smuggled into the capital, and even stronger reason to believe that the identity of these wealthy merchants was definitely problematic.
Ordinary officials found it difficult to directly memorialize about this matter, but censors had the privilege of memorializing upon hearing rumors, and these rumors naturally included those from the populace.
Thus, at the next morning court, under the instigation of some unseen figures, many censors submitted memorials about this matter, suspecting that the identity of these merchants was problematic, questioning if they were even citizens of the country, or if they had household registration.
They expressed concern that such extensive purchasing might affect prices, or that the merchants intended to hoard goods.
Emperor Minghui immediately felt like rolling his eyes. What kind of hoarding would involve buying already expensive items? Unless it was a large-scale purchase of grain or ironware, or other special goods, wasn't it going too far to worry about such things?
Of course, this was his initial thought.
As the censors mentioned that the merchants' silver could not be traced to external sources or banks, and that after their purchases, both the people and the goods had vanished without any record of entering or leaving the city, Emperor Minghui finally took the matter seriously. He ordered the Dali Temple, the officials responsible for guarding the city gates, and the prefect of the capital to cooperate in the investigation.
They were ordered to thoroughly ascertain where the merchants came from.
Where the silver came from?
Where had the people gone?
Most importantly, they needed to understand how they had secretly left the capital. Was there an inside connection?
Or were there secret passages?
If a few merchants could now sneak in and out secretly, then in the future, soldiers might also be able to sneak in and out. Therefore, this was absolutely not a minor matter. Once it involved the security of the capital, there were no small matters.
With the Emperor's decree, the investigation that had been covert naturally moved into the open.
Although everyone felt that with this action, it would be difficult for them to seize the wealthy merchant's assets, understanding the situation would not be without its rewards.
Initially, everyone was confident of success this time. If it still failed, what then?
However, reality dealt them a harsh blow. Even with the Emperor's personal decree and the cooperation of officials from the Dali Temple and the Prefect of the Capital, they still couldn't uncover any useful information.
In the end, the outcome was almost identical to their own preliminary findings: the origin of the people remained unknown, their whereabouts were unfathomable, the source of the silver was untraceable, and the destination of the purchased goods was a mystery.
For a time, the Assistant Minister of the Dali Temple and the Prefect of the Capital, who were responsible for the investigation, were at their wits' end. How could they report this result to Emperor Minghui? Reporting this would be no different from directly telling Emperor Minghui that they were incompetent fools.
This result, on the other hand,
exposed the deficiencies in their work.
Especially the Prefect of the Capital's shortcomings.
Why were there no records of these wealthy merchants entering or leaving the capital? Why were large amounts of silver and goods also without entry or exit records?
The capital, after all, was the heart of the nation.
Let alone merchants bringing in large quantities of goods or silver, even ordinary citizens entering were required to present travel permits or identity documents.
The current inability to find any records indicated negligence.
Those responsible for this matter would likely face repercussions, and the Prefect of the Capital, as the direct supervisor, could not escape responsibility.
Even if they knew it was due to subordinates' laxity or errors, he could not be absolved.
If the matter involved others, ordinary people, it would be easier for them to find scapegoats to kill. But the current subjects of investigation were a group of wealthy merchants who had just bought hundreds of thousands of taels worth of goods. Finding scapegoats was easy, but where could they find those hundreds of thousands of goods?
This had become a dead end.
Not only could the specific situation not be investigated,
but they also couldn't find anyone to take the blame and cover up the matter.
In the end, they dared not risk the crime of deceiving the emperor by falsifying the report, so they could only helplessly go to the palace to confess their incompetence and truthfully report their findings.
After all, stating the truth could be attributed to incompetence, but lying and deceiving would be deceiving the emperor.
"So, what you're saying is.
You haven't investigated anything yet?"
Hearing their report, Emperor Minghui was undoubtedly surprised. He knew that the sudden attack by the censors on the merchants that morning must have had a motive, perhaps instigated by someone, or perhaps someone couldn't handle it and had to expose it for him to solve.
But since the matter did indeed appear suspicious, he had gone along with it and ordered an investigation.
However, the inability to obtain results now was highly abnormal. It meant that the merchants were indeed very unusual, and the censors' suspicions might even be true.
Perhaps there was a security threat in the capital.
"Your Majesty, your subjects are incompetent..."
At this moment, the Assistant Minister of the Dali Temple and the Prefect of the Capital could only lower their heads and admit their incompetence, daring not to argue further.
The task assigned by their superiors had not been completed.
Refuting with excuses would be akin to seeking their own demise.
"Tell me the specific situation. I believe you were not intentionally negligent, which means those wealthy merchants indeed have problems. Tell me what you have found.
And then analyze how to get to the bottom of it.
What other personnel are needed for cooperation?"
Since the matter had not yet caused any consequences, Emperor Minghui, though displeased, was not yet enraged. After a moment of surprise, he calmly continued to inquire.
"Your Majesty, we also find this matter very strange. Because through the investigation, I have discovered that the reason for not finding records of those merchants entering or leaving with silver or goods is very likely not due to the negligence of the capital's guards, but because they never entered or exited through the city gates.
Before investigating this matter, I specifically invited famous court painters and shopkeepers and waiters who had seen those wealthy merchants to collaborate in drawing portraits of those merchants. Then, I took these portraits and showed them to the guards responsible for inspecting people entering the city.
All of them stated that they had not seen them.
The possibility of the guards collectively lying is very low.
Therefore, it is likely that those merchants truly did not pass through the city gates but entered and exited the capital through other channels.
But through which specific channels,
I have not yet discovered..."
The Prefect of the Capital did not dare to make any bolder speculations, only relaying information that could be inferred from the current known situation, and replied swiftly.
"Your Majesty, the information I have found is similar to what Prefect Li found. The only additional point is that there is a problem with the silver used by those merchants for transactions.
The silver they used for transactions appears to be privately minted.
This point is not crucial. The key is that their silver has an extremely high silver content, up to ninety-nine point nine percent.
It is even purer than the silver jewelry in jewelry stores.
The silversmith said it could almost be called pure silver.
Generally, privately minted silver by common merchants with a silver content of ninety percent is already considered good. Only official pure silver has higher requirements, with a silver content exceeding ninety-five percent, known as 'full silver'.
It's not that the silver content cannot be higher, but beyond that point, the cost of purification will increase severalfold.
Therefore, there is no need for further purification.
Even many silver jewelry pieces in jewelry stores have a silver content of only ninety-five to ninety-six percent. To purchase jewelry with a silver content above ninety-nine percent, one must pay extra.
However, the silver used by those merchants for transactions was all ninety-nine point nine percent pure. Even the most skilled silversmiths in the capital felt that they could not refine silver to such a degree. Melting and reshaping such silver might even lead to a decrease in its purity.
It is precisely because the silver provided by those merchants was of such high purity that the shopkeepers were delighted and eager to trade with them. I believe this point might be a breakthrough. Perhaps we can investigate where similar silver might have flowed from."
Seeing Prefect Li's eagerness to reply, the Assistant Minister of the Dali Temple felt fortunate that he hadn't solely pursued the merchants' whereabouts but had instead taken a different approach by focusing on the silver. At least he wouldn't have to say "me too."
He had at least provided some new information.
Following this was silence. Emperor Minghui pondered silently based on the information they provided. However, with such severe information gaps, especially containing content they couldn't understand, any contemplation was futile. After a long while, Emperor Minghui could only shake his head, giving up on investigating the matter himself:
"I suspect this matter is merely the tip of the iceberg, and there may be hidden content behind it.
So, you will continue to investigate this matter.
I will dispatch the Imperial City Department to assist in the investigation.
Since the matter has not yet been investigated, it should not be publicized. You will continue to investigate slowly, without making a big fuss and disrupting the order of the capital. Also, I do not wish to see anyone using this opportunity to extort normal businesses or conduct excessive interrogations."
"Alright, you may leave now. If there is any new development, remember to report it promptly or inform me directly."
"Yes!"
"Your subject takes his leave!" "Your subject takes his leave!"...