Li Ling sat behind the desk and was looking through the stack of accounts, occasionally writing and drawing something on paper with a pen. Three men in front of him stood there with their hands down, but they didn't even dare to breathe. It was Su Fan, the ambassador of the banknote, and two deputys.

The three of them were panicked because the large amount of silver that should have existed in the silver treasury disappeared. Although they might not be able to report a certain number, it is obvious that it is enough to pursue the crime of losing the silver to kill them all over the family.

As a result, as Li Ling kept checking the account books, the pressure on the few people became heavier, and the atmosphere in the room also increased, causing sweat to flow down the foreheads of the three people, but they did not dare to wipe them. They were really embarrassed.

After waiting like a century, Li Ling finally put his pen and looked up at the three people in front of him. This glance made the three people shudder again: "Ambassador Su."

"The official is here." Su Fan quickly agreed, but his eyes still dared not contact Li Ling.

"Don't worry, I ask you, when did you take full care of this banknote?"

"The Xiaguan was appointed as the custody of the clan leader after the Mid-Autumn Festival last year."

"What about before that? Is it also working in the database?"

"That's right, but I just acted under the order and had never been exposed to those important accounts." Su Fan's meaning was very clear. It was naturally not his responsibility to have any problems in the accounts before this.

The other two cooperated at this time and immediately said, "Young people can testify, it's true."

"Well, there is one thing you haven't noticed is wrong?" Li Ling patted the paper full of things and looked at the three people and said, "Two years ago, the silver treasury here had more money and less money."

"Is there...yes?" Su Fan tried hard to recall, but for a moment he couldn't remember it clearly. "Xiaoguan only remembers that there were not many differences in the silver treasury over the past year."

"But if you calculate according to the numbers recorded in these accounts, do you know how much silver should be left in this library now?" Before the other party asked, Li Ling had already given the answer himself: "More than 523,600 taels! In other words, what is missing in this library this time is nearly 500,000 taels of silver!"

As soon as the number came out, the faces of the three people present suddenly turned white, their bodies became soft, and they almost knelt on the ground. Su Fan even cried: "This... how is this possible..."

"Did you not check the account book when you took over the location of the database before?" Li Ling couldn't help asking.

"No, the little one is just obeying orders, and there are Long Family soldiers who are closely guarding inside and outside the warehouse. How could there be any mistakes?"

Su Fan's words are reasonable. After all, Han officials like him cannot hold real power within the Long family. Therefore, he is called the Bank of China Ambassador, but in fact he is just a warehouse keeper and cashier. He has no power and dares not check the details of the accounts in the warehouse at all.

"Who is the one who is really in charge of this matter?" Li Ling felt that he should have grasped the key point and asked quickly.

"Before it was Long Tianxiang, then it was his confidant Long Yue. The soldiers here all obeyed their restraints."

"Long Tianxiang..." Li Ling couldn't help but stutter. To be honest, he always felt very strange about the lack of silver in the warehouse and the army. If such a situation occurred before he seized power, it could be said that Long Tianxiang was filling his own pockets and accumulating his own power; but after he seized power, he still looked the same, and things would be too unreasonable.

However, now is not the time to pursue this. It is obvious that two years ago, there was a big problem with Yinku, but the Long family didn't know it.

Looking at the three extremely panicked and aggrieved subordinates in front of him, Li Ling calmed down again: "As long as you haven't done it, I will not impose a charge on you. Let's go to a few warehouses first, and you can always find some clues."

"Yes. Thank you sir..." After hearing what he said, the three of them relaxed their hearts for a moment, and then quickly led him to the warehouse ahead.

The silver treasury here naturally occupies a large area, and dozens of elite soldiers guarding with bows, crossbows, steel knives. They used to be elite troops of the Long family, but now they are replaced by Dingxi Army, so safety is absolutely no problem.

The four silver warehouses of A, B, C and D were built on the left and right of the entire warehouse. Li Ling did not make any detailed choices, but turned around and entered the B-shaped silver warehouse closest to him. His own soldiers set a torch for him and illuminated it, which instantly made the originally somewhat black-stained warehouse bright.

Li Ling walked forward and touched the most huge silver boxes at the front with his hand. There were still silver ingots on it, but the quantity was not large. The total amount of silver in the four warehouses was only more than 50,000. However, this time his attention did not stay on these boxes containing silver for too long. He quickly walked along the relatively wide walkway to the depths of the warehouse, and then stopped in front of two rows of silver boxes: "Are the boxes here empty?"

“Just… it’s right.”

"Open and take a look."

At that moment, a soldier stepped forward and opened the box cover with force. He lifted up a burst of dust, causing people on both sides to wave and dodge. Some people coughed twice. Li Ling watched all this silently and asked people to open several boxes one after another, but the result was the same. After five or six boxes opened, they were all empty inside, and they couldn't even find a tael of silver.

"Sir, the young people have already checked in the A-font library two days ago. Most of the boxes are empty..." Although he was uneasy, Su Fan still said truthfully.

Li Ling nodded, suddenly stomped his feet hard, and said, "You guys say, will there be things like secret passages here? In fact, the silver has been hidden there or has it been smuggled out from there?"

Several people looked at each other, but it was really hard to say that it was impossible. As Li Ling said this, some soldiers had already tapped on the walls and ground everywhere, trying to find the possible secret room. However, they were greatly disappointed. After a while, they were busy, not to mention secret room secretly, they could not even find a doubtful gap. Obviously, the warehouse was built extremely firmly and would not leave such hidden dangers at all.

"Pry a brick and stone to take a look." Li Ling then thought of something and ordered. In his memory, there was a story about someone robbing himself and building the silver under the stone slab in the warehouse.

However, this whimsical technique did not appear in reality. After prying up two or three bluestone floor tiles, there were no silver ingots underneath, just solid soil.

After several consecutive moves, they got nothing, which made Li Ling frown even more tightly and made Su Fan and the other two more frightened. If this continues, he will really not be able to get rid of it. Even if Li Ling said that he would not let them take responsibility, it would still be difficult to make them feel at ease.

At this time, another soldier opened an empty box at will. Seeing that there was no discovery inside, he closed it heavily, letting the dust on his head float up again, and just flew to Li Ling, causing him to cough. Seeing this, the soldier quickly knelt down and apologized: "You are reckless, please forgive me..."

Li Ling waved his hand with certainty: "You don't have to do this, I won't... not right..." Speaking of this, his face suddenly changed, which scared the soldier, thinking that he really wanted to punish him. As a result, Li Ling suddenly stepped up and looked at the box carefully. Then he looked at the other boxes for a while, then clapped his hands and said, "Sure enough, there is something wrong, I almost ignored it!"

Everyone was still a little confused at this time. Seeing him saying this, they couldn't help asking, "What's wrong with this sir?"

"The dust on this box is the biggest strange thing. Looking at the dust accumulation, I am afraid that no one has swept it for several years. Is this common sense?"

Su Fan shook his head. He had never paid attention to this. After all, he had fewer money in these treasuries, just a nominal ambassador.

"These boxes have not been touched for many years, which means that in fact, they did not transport silver into the warehouse two years or even earlier, so the numbers left on the books were just to cover up. In fact, the silver that should have been sent to the warehouse was transported elsewhere, that is, there was another silver treasury." Li Ling continued to explain, but this time, Su Fan and the others understood it, and their expressions changed again, and they were all a little scared.

Because they thought of one thing that had not been the case for this series of events, when only a fraction of the matter in the banking warehouse was discovered one day, the charge of stealing silver would have fallen on them. And then Li Ling would not have come forward to help them find out the truth.

After this fear, they immediately weakened their knees, so they knelt down for Li Ling: "Sir... You can see the problem, and you must always find the whereabouts of those silver."

"Of course." Li Ling's eyes flashed at this moment, "Since I know, they have never sent a large amount of silver into this warehouse, things will be easy to deal with. Obviously, Long Tianxiang has always had another warehouse to store silver. As long as it is in this Xunyang City, I can find it!"

When Li Ling told Sun Bi and the others about his inference, the two of them also showed surprise: "Why did he take the risk of doing such a thing?"

"Yeah, how good is this for him?"

"Didn't we always wonder how he easily gained the support of many soldiers in Xunyang and seized control of the city in one fell swoop? I think there is an answer now, and it's up to this money he secretly hid."

The two nodded and agreed to the inference. But then, Sun Bi frowned again: "If this is true, not to mention how much money he left in the warehouse, the location of the hidden silver warehouse would be difficult to find. After all, he had to hide from many people at that time."
Chapter completed!