The Rebellious Officials and Traitors of the Late Han Dynasty

Chapter 576 Accepting fate
Zhang Fan's face turned deathly pale instantly, his fingers gripping the edge of the table so tightly that his knuckles turned blue. The cries of his family members came from outside the window; the Imperial Guards were sealing off the residence.

"You...you're framing me!" Zhang Fan abruptly overturned the table, scattering writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones all over the floor. His ring-pommel sword clattered against the blue bricks as he roared, "My Zhang family is a prominent clan in Kuaiji! How dare you..."

Sima Yi bent down to pick up the long sword, gently blowing away the dust from its blade. Suddenly, he used the tip of the sword to pick up the scattered account books on the ground and sneered, "Does Lord Zhang know why His Majesty sent me to Jiangnan? Just these accounts of privately forged weapons are enough to exterminate your entire clan."

The sound of clashing armor echoed from the courtyard. Xu Chu strode in, clasped his hands in greeting, and said, "My lord, we discovered three hundred privately made crossbows in the cellar, along with seven volumes of registers of hidden households."

Warm sunlight streamed through the window, casting dappled shadows on Zhang Fan's face. He suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, a laugh tinged with madness: "Sima Yi! You think that bringing down the Zhang family will solve everything? The powerful families of Jiangnan are deeply entrenched; how could you possibly bring them down by yourself?"

“You’re wrong.” Sima Yi suddenly leaned closer and whispered in his ear, “What Your Majesty wants is not to overthrow anyone, but to implement new policies and completely change the situation in the world.”

"New policy?" Zhang Fan was taken aback, unsure of what to say.

“Naturally, the poll tax should be abolished and incorporated into the land tax. Whoever owns more land should pay more tax. This is called ‘integrating the poll tax into the land tax.’” Sima Yi sighed, “I only recently learned about this.”

Zhang Fan's eyes widened, his whole body trembling. He finally understood that the real stake in this game was not the survival of a particular aristocratic family, but the tax and labor system that had lasted for thousands of years.

"A madman." Zhang Fan slumped to the ground, muttering, "You are making enemies of all the gentry in the world."

Sima Yi turned and walked towards the door, the sunlight casting a long shadow of him. Without turning back, he said, "Xu Chu, see Zhang Gong on his way."

Three days later, seventeen heads hung on the flagpole atop Kuaiji City. In the most conspicuous position, Zhang Fan's head, with its eyes wide open in fury, swayed gently in the wind.

Before the notice board at the city gate, a minor official was loudly proclaiming the new policy: "Anyone who conceals a person's population will be executed by slow slicing, and accomplices will be exiled three thousand li."

When the news reached Xiangyang, Cai Mao, who was recuperating at home, was admiring the osmanthus trees in his courtyard. The messenger knelt on the ground and handed over the secret letter. Kuai Liang snatched it and read it, causing the hand warmer in his hand to fall to the ground with a thud.

"The Zhang family... wiped out?" His voice trembled.

Cai Mao remained surprisingly calm, simply breaking the osmanthus branch in two and coldly stating, "Order all the powerful and influential families in each prefecture to immediately register and report their hidden households."

"You admit defeat?" Kuai Liang asked hesitantly.

Cai Mao smiled wryly, "Brother Zirou, haven't you realized yet? This time, we've lost. No one in this vast world can stop His Majesty the Emperor."

Kuai Liang stared at the broken cassia branch on the ground and suddenly felt a tightness in his throat. When he bent down to pick up the bronze incense burner, he discovered that his reflection on the outer wall of the burner showed that his temples were already gray.

“De Gui.” Kuai Liang’s fingertips traced the sealing wax on the sealed letter, and he said bitterly, “Do you remember the locust plague during the Jian’an era? The scene of the Jingzhou gentry opening their granaries and the people kneeling in praise? Now we must personally hand those grateful tenant farmers over to the tax register!”

“There are too many people hidden by our aristocratic families. If this continues, how much tax revenue will the court be able to collect in a few decades? No founding emperor would agree to this.” Cai Mao looked at Kuai Liang.

This wise man from Jingzhou, once so insightful, has now been blinded by self-interest and is no better than myself. Can't the other side see what the emperor is up to?
"De Gui, you are mistaken!" He suddenly slammed his hand on the table, the teacups clattering loudly. "Since the restoration under Emperor Guangwu, which dynasty hasn't shared power with the aristocratic families? Your Majesty's perverse actions are truly abhorrent!" "Afraid of what?" Cai Mao looked at him disdainfully and sneered, "The emperor holds military power, and those soldiers are all hoping for the downfall of us powerful families!"

"Hmph, if we powerful clans join forces, at worst we can plunge the world back into chaos." Kuai Liang thought about how much more money his family's land would have to pay in taxes every year, and felt a pang of pain in his heart. He sighed, "If I had known this would happen, I should have supported Cao Cao or Liu Bei back then."

The two looked at each other in silence. Everyone knew that Qin Shou was not friendly to the powerful clans, but no one would have thought that things would turn out this way. After Qin Shou seized power, the crackdown on the powerful clans was unprecedented.

One policy after another, like a rope around the necks of powerful families, tightening ever tighter, instilling despair in them.

Cai Mao slowly rose, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing into the depths of the courtyard. Osmanthus petals fluttered down, carpeting the bluestone slabs with a pale golden hue.

"Brother Zirou, have you seen last month's official gazette?" He suddenly pulled a scroll of bamboo slips from his sleeve. "The Li family of Longxi donated three thousand hidden households, and His Majesty bestowed upon them a plaque inscribed with 'Loyalty and Diligence for the Country.'"

Kuai Liang's pupils contracted sharply. Of course he remembered the sensational news that had shaken the court and the public—not only was the century-old Li family not investigated, but their patriarch, Li He, was promoted to Prefect of Liangzhou.

"This is a divisive tactic!" Kuai Liang clenched the bamboo slips tightly, his fingernails scraping against the surface with a harsh sound. "First, eliminate the Zhang family to establish authority, then elevate the Li family as an example."

Before he could finish speaking, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Cai Mao's eldest son, Cai Lin, stumbled in, his official hat askew, not even bothering to straighten it: "Father! We just received a military report that General Zhao Yun has led 30,000 elite troops to Jiangxia!"

"What time did you arrive?" A thin crack appeared on the teacup in Cai Mao's hand.

“Last night at midnight.” Cai Lin swallowed hard. “What’s even stranger is that the Huang family of Jiangxia submitted their list of hidden households to the prefect’s office this morning.”

Kuai Liang suddenly burst into laughter, tears welling in his eyes, and sighed, "What ruthless methods! With the executioner's blade hanging overhead in the north and sugar pills tempting us in the south, they're putting us on the hot seat!"

Cai Mao slowly gathered the broken porcelain shards into his palm, and drops of crimson blood dripped from between his fingers onto the bluestone slab. Gazing at the glaring red, he suddenly recalled the flames on the river during the Battle of Red Cliffs.

"Pass down the order," he said, his voice hoarse and unlike his own. "By noon tomorrow, complete the register of all of the Cai family's lands and tenants. I will personally deliver it to the Prefectural Governor's office in Xiangyang."

"Father!" Cai Lin knelt down with a thud, his forehead hitting the stone steps heavily. "There are as many as eight thousand hidden households in our family. If we report them all..."

"Eight thousand?" Kuai Liang suddenly laughed maniacally, pointing at Cai Mao and cursing, "De Gui, De Gui, you've kept this from me for so long! Last year when we were discussing countermeasures, you clearly said there were only three thousand!"

"At this point, what difference does it make whether it's three thousand or eight thousand?" Cai Mao said with a wry smile, "Aren't they all going to be handed over anyway? Unless you want to rebel!"

Kuai Liang listened in silence.

He dared not take any risks when facing Qin Shou.

(End of this chapter)