Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 119 This official will be waiting for Jiang Lang on Qingyun Road in the capital!

"No, it's impossible!"

The Grand Canal Transport Commissioner Zhao Huai's face was ashen, his lips trembling violently, yet he couldn't utter a single complete sentence. "You're spouting nonsense!"

"A traitor?!"

Zhao Bingzhu trembled violently. This was a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family!

How could Xue Chonghu have known?!
"evidence?"

Xue Chonghu sneered and slowly pulled a secret letter from his sleeve.

The letter was yellowed, and the edges still bore traces of dried blood.

"You colluded with the demons of the East Sea to attack the three hundred students' warship in Jiangyin!" Xue Chonghu said, enunciating each word clearly. "The seal on it is your Zhao family head's private seal!"

"boom--"

Zhao Bingzhu felt the world spinning around him!
He certainly recognized the seal—it was the Zhao family's ancestral private seal, which he always kept close to his body!
"No, that's impossible."

Zhao Huai suddenly lunged at Xue Chonghu like a madman, shouting, "This is a frame-up! It's a forgery! My Zhao family never uses official seals, this is a frame-up and a forgery!"

"Oh!"

Zhou Yuanjun kicked him to the ground.

"The poem is complete—Dafu!"

As Jiang Xingzhou finished writing, the entire poem "Presented to Zhao, the Transport Commissioner, at the Banquet at the Vermilion Gate" suddenly burst forth with a blinding, bloody light!
"boom--"

A five-hundred-word poem suddenly floated into the air, each word like a knife, bursting forth with astonishing phenomena in the void—

The grand mansion has collapsed!

The starving people were crying out!

Rivers of blood and tears!
The entire Zhao residence trembled violently, and roof tiles fell off in a flurry.

Every word on the scroll of poetry transformed into a blood-red blade, slowly tearing apart the literary fortune that the Zhao family had accumulated over a century!

"Do not!!"

Zhao Bingzhu let out a shrill scream.

He was horrified to discover that his literary palace, which he had painstakingly cultivated for decades, was cracking inch by inch! His literary heart was also bleeding profusely, and black blood suddenly gushed from all seven orifices.

"This is... Poetry that pierces the heart! Poetry that pierces the heart has appeared in the world!"

One of the scholars was horrified and retreated, exclaiming, "Poetry is a blade, directly severing the heart of literature!"

The guests were stunned into silence.

Who has ever seen such a scene?

A single poem could incite such a vicious attack, causing the literary palace to crack and the heart to be stained with blood!

The blood-red scroll suddenly shot into the sky, transforming into a crimson rainbow that stretched for hundreds of feet across the night sky!

"Boom-thump-thump-"

The bell of the Confucian Temple suddenly rang out, like thunder roaring in the sky, its sound carrying for miles!

In an instant, a dazzling beam of light shot into the sky from the Zhao residence, illuminating the entire night sky of Jiangzhou!
The sunset glowed like blood, and the sea of ​​clouds churned!
A mirage appeared in the sky, its light obscuring the heavens and the earth.

Inside the Zhao residence, golden goblets of fine wine and delicacies filled the table. On the stage, dancers swayed gracefully, and the revelry lasted all night.

The white jade pool rippled with nectar, and the aroma of meat filled the air inside and outside the vermilion gates, creating an atmosphere of extravagance that blotted out the sun!

And then the scene changes—

Along the Grand Canal, emaciated laborers crawled on the ground, pulling grain boats as heavy as mountains.

The thatched huts were dilapidated, corpses of the starving were everywhere, and cries of agony were incessant!
"brute!!"

The people of Jiangzhou were furious, their eyes bulging with rage and their curses rising like a torrent!

"That's my dad!!"

A gaunt boy pointed at an old man coughing up blood in his hallucination and cried out in heart-wrenching sobs, "Three years ago, he was worked to death on the banks of the Grand Canal!!"

"The Zhao family is drinking the blood of hundreds of thousands of people living along the Grand Canal!!"

The old woman beat her chest and stamped her feet, her withered fingers trembling.

"Heaven has eyes! The Sage of Literature has shown his power!!"

"boom--"

The people of Jiangzhou Prefecture cursed and swore.

The blood-and-tears painting in the night sky suddenly burst into flames!
Each cluster of flames transforms into a crimson character—the full text of "A Banquet at the Zhu Gate Presented to Zhao, the Transport Commissioner"!

Every word is written in blood, every sentence is piercing to the heart!
Inside the Zhao residence hall, there was an eerie silence.

The guests had already retreated to a corner, creating an invisible boundary between themselves and the Zhao family.

They stood with their heads bowed and hands in their sleeves, as if afraid of being tainted by even the slightest bit of bad luck.

"The Zhao family... is finished!"

Some people sighed softly, their tone filled with regret, but even more so with relief—relief that they hadn't gotten too involved with the Zhao family and that they could still remain uninvolved at this moment.

The evidence is irrefutable!

The celestial signs are clear!

A tainted reputation, a legacy of infamy that will last for a thousand years!
Now that things have come to this, the Zhao family can no longer escape the fate of having their entire household ransacked, a fate that everyone avoids like the plague.

"Someone is coming!!"

Zhao Bingzhu roared fiercely, his voice distorted beyond recognition.

He staggered backward, his face ashen, but his eyes flashed with a final, desperate madness—

"Kill them all!! Leave no one alive!!"

"boom--!"

The ground of the Zhao residence suddenly trembled!

The hidden door flipped open, revealing a secret passage!

Three hundred elite warriors emerged from all directions like ghosts!

They were clad in heavy armor made of black iron, their faces covered with hideous bronze masks, and the crossbows in their hands gleamed coldly, their bolts coated with a dark green poison!

"Whoosh whoosh-!"

Arrows rained down, instantly sealing off the entire hall!
"The Zhao family dares to secretly harbor armored soldiers?!"

Xue Chonghu's eyes widened in fury as he brandished the prefect's seal, shouting, "This is a crime of treason!"

His gaze turned cold, and Prefect Yin Wenbao instantly unleashed his oppressive aura—

"town!"

The sky and the earth suddenly darkened!

Suddenly, the light surged, transforming into a massive seal that enveloped the entire hall!

"Puff puff puff~!"

All the poisoned arrows spontaneously combusted and turned to ash in mid-air!

Even with a hail of arrows, it's nothing more than ants trying to shake the heavens!
"boom--!"

The gate of the Zhao residence exploded and shattered!

Three thousand armored soldiers surged in like a raging tide, their blades flashing in the moonlight, their killing intent soaring to the heavens!
"kill--!"

The leading general, wielding a long halberd, charged ahead. With a flash of cold light, the heads of three assassins flew off!
Destroy everything!

The momentum is overwhelming!

Although the Zhao family's elite guards were fierce and fearless, they were ultimately no match for the imperial court's elite troops. The sounds of clashing armor, swords piercing flesh, and dying screams mingled together.

"Pfft!"

Just as a suicide soldier raised his crossbow, he was simultaneously pierced through the chest by three spears and pinned to a pillar!

"Traitors should be executed!"

The soldiers roared as they advanced, leaving corpses strewn everywhere they went and staining the vermilion gates with blood!
In a short while,

The three hundred assassins of the Zhao family were almost completely slaughtered.

"Zheng——"

With a flick of his blade, Xue Chonghu knocked off the bronze mask of one of the assassins.

One after another, grotesque and twisted faces were exposed to the firelight, branded with the character "prisoner"!

"Sir, this is..."

Captain Lei Wanting's pupils constricted sharply. "A death row inmate who was once imprisoned in Jiangzhou. Didn't he die of illness in prison? How is he still alive?!"

The onlookers gasped. Those criminals who should have been executed were now armored and armed, becoming the Zhao family's henchmen!

"The notorious bandit who slaughtered a caravan three years ago!"

"A rebellious scholar who colluded with demons and barbarians five years ago!"

"And those who tortured and mutilated young animals last year!"

With each face I recognized, my horror grew.

These heinous criminals were secretly "bailed out" of prison by the Zhao family at great expense and raised as assassins!

"What a Zhao Bingzhu!" Xue Chonghu laughed in anger. "Possessing armor is a capital offense, and now he even dares to steal a wanted criminal!"

Zhao Bingzhu's face turned ashen, his lips trembling as he tried to explain.

"No need to look."

The guards searched a secret room in the Zhao residence and found a register of traitorous scholars.

"Crash-"

The ledger pages turned, each page recording: in a certain year and month, a certain prisoner was bribed, and how much silver was spent.
The group of assassins became traitorous intellectuals under Zhao Bingzhu's command!

The evidence is irrefutable, and there is no way to deny it!
Zhao Huai slumped in a pool of blood, his brocade robe stained with blood. This once powerful transport commissioner of Jiangzhou now had empty eyes and trembling lips, unable to utter a single word of defense.

"Ho...ho..."

Zhao Bingzhu let out a gasp like a dying beast.

"Pfft!"

Zhao Zilu trembled violently, his knees hitting the ground, a foul stench spreading between his legs. This usually arrogant and domineering young master of the Zhao family was now shaking like a leaf, tears streaming down his face: "Spare me... Your Excellency, spare me... I'm not a traitor, I didn't know anything!"

But at this moment, no one mocked his ugly behavior anymore—because everyone knew that the Zhao family was on the verge of collapse, guilty of heinous crimes!

The execution of the entire family is a foregone conclusion!

Three thousand armored soldiers stood silently and solemnly, and arrested all several hundred members of the Zhao family.

In the blood-red dawn,

One of the ten great families of Jiangzhou, the richest family in Jiangzhou, the Zhao family, the Grand Canal Transport Commissioner, a century-old family that has been destroyed!

"The entire Zhao family are traitorous scholars; the evidence is irrefutable, and their crimes are heinous!"

"Immediately escort the entire Zhao family to the marketplace and execute them—!"

Prefect Xue's voice was like thunder. He swept his gaze over the guests and ordered, "All of you guests witnessed this with your own eyes! You are not involved in the Zhao family's case and need not be implicated. You may all leave!"

"Exactly!"

"Your Excellency is extremely discerning!"

The guests felt as if they had been granted a pardon and hurriedly dispersed, finally able to leave the Zhao residence in peace.

"Commander Lei, lead your team to confiscate all property from the Zhao residence, leaving nothing behind!"

"Order!"

Commander Lei clasped his hands in a fist salute, and the yamen runners and soldiers behind him pounced on various parts of the Zhao residence like wolves and tigers.

"boom--"

The warehouse's iron lock was cleaved open by a giant axe!

"Wow--"

The secret mechanism in the locked room was forcibly broken!
They ransacked the place, searching account books, land deeds, and all their possessions.

Holding a vermilion brush, Liu Mingchuan led dozens of yamen runners through the mess to inventory the valuables. Each item was recorded in the ledger.

That night.

"Mr. Governor!"

Chief Clerk Liu Mingchuan handed a thick account book to Prefect Xue Chonghu.

"5,300 deeds to paddy fields in Jiangnan—totaling 58,000 mu!"

"Twenty chests of pure gold ingots—one hundred and eight thousand taels!"

"Five hundred and sixty chests of official silver—five million seven hundred and fifty thousand taels!"

"A thousand pieces of scholar's treasures and various genuine works!"

"The scholar's writings and 3,600 rubbings!"

"1.2 million dan of millet! 1 million bolts of silk and brocade!"

"Ten thousand-year-old, seven-foot-long blood corals from the South China Sea, eight hundred catties of agate from the Western Regions, twelve jade screens, nine hundred pieces of jade carvings, three hundred dragon-tail inkstones, ten thousand reams of snow-wave Xuan paper, and two thousand purple-haired brushes!"

"What a distinguished family in the canal transport industry!"

Xue Chonghu laughed in anger and slammed the account book to the ground: "The wealth you've plundered from the people is enough to fill the treasury of Jiangzhou Prefecture for more than five years!"

"By order of this prefecture, all people in Jiangzhou shall be exempt from taxes for one year!"

"Anyone who has dealings with the Zhao family and actively reports on them will be forgiven!"

"Anyone who reports on the Zhao family's concealment of stolen goods will be rewarded with silver and their merit will be recorded!"

The news reached outside the mansion,

Immediately, the city of Jiangzhou was filled with jubilation, from the most powerful and wealthy families to ordinary people, all were in a frenzy!

"Heaven has eyes!" The white-haired old farmer knelt on the ground and wept bitterly, the grain sack in his arms trembling. "This year, at least, we've had a bumper harvest!"

Ragged children ran barefoot, chanting their newly learned rhymes: "The Zhao family is gone, taxes are off, we'll eat our fill!"

Someone went to the government office overnight to report, "This humble citizen has personally witnessed the Zhao family secretly transporting treasure chests to the downstream docks and loading them onto ships for transport elsewhere!"

The Imperial City of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Ten miles of long street with vermilion gates stacked one after another, and nine layers of palaces with golden scales flying.

Xu Mansion.

The courtyard house with its blue bricks and gray tiles is hidden in a deep alley. Two old plum trees lean out in front of the door, their branches as hard as iron, but their flowers bloom extremely brightly, so red that they are dazzling, as if they are soaked in blood.

Inside the mansion, the air was filled with the fragrance of sandalwood.

Xu Shilong, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, was turning the pages of a book at his desk.

"grown ups."

From the shadows, a man in black silently emerged, handed over a secret letter, and whispered, "Zhao Huai, the transport commissioner of Jiangzhou, has had his entire family executed by Prefect Xue Chonghu."

Xu Shilong raised an eyebrow. The secret letter clearly stated the whole story, along with Jiang Xingzhou's poem "Presented to Zhao, the Transport Commissioner: A Banquet at the Zhu Family Gate".

"That idiot from the Zhao family!"

Xu Shilong sighed softly, his fingertips tracing the secret letter. "They actually kept a traitor in their own household!"

He looked at the poem, his face ashen, and held the thin piece of paper as if it weighed a ton.

"While the rich wine and meat smell, the road with frozen bone."

This poem, which is used to stigmatize someone, is truly stunning!
"Good poem."

He chuckled softly, but his eyes were icy. "With just a few words, the Zhao family has been completely nailed to the pillar of shame, never to recover!"

"grown ups!"

A cold glint flashed in the black-clad man's eyes. He knelt on one knee, his voice low but unable to conceal the chilling murderous intent: "This Prefect Xue's raid on the Zhao residence in Jiangzhou shows absolutely no regard for your feelings! He's clearly broken off all pretense of civility! Shouldn't we find a way to bring down Xue Chonghu?..."

"Ah."

Xu Shilong sneered, his fingertips caressing the celadon teacup, and the tea in the cup gradually condensed into a layer of frost.

"Prefect Xue and Duke Xue are one of the core members of the noble clan! When have they ever given our aristocratic family any face?"

"Pass on the message—"

The third wife, Zhao, has failed to uphold the virtues of a wife; she is hereby expelled from the Xu household!

Giving up a mere concubine meant that the Zhao family of Jiangzhou and the Xu family, the Vice Minister of Rites, would have no further connection. It was no big deal.

He initially supported Zhao Huai as the Jiangzhou Canal Transport Commissioner only to use Zhao Huai, a commoner who had passed the imperial examinations, to profit from the canal transport.

Every year, the Zhao family had to "pay tribute" to the Vice Minister's Mansion with more than half of the wealth they reaped from the Grand Canal.

Pity!
Now that the entire Zhao family has been executed, the position of Jiangzhou Transport Commissioner will surely fall into the hands of other people in the Great Zhou court. Duke Xue has made a great contribution by eliminating the traitors, and this source of wealth will probably be controlled by the noble Duke Xue's family.

Before the words were finished, a muffled thud came from behind the screen.

A glimpse of a peach-colored skirt could be vaguely seen, the face filled with panic—it was the Zhao family daughter who had just been divorced. Soon after, she was divorced, expelled from the Xu household, and vanished without a trace.

The man in black glanced at it, then hesitated: "Sir, the accounts of the tributes Zhao Huai has given to the grain transport officials over the years..."

"Burned."

Xu Shilong pulled an indigo booklet from the cabinet and casually tossed it into the charcoal brazier. In the instant the flames leaped up, the booklet was faintly visible, covered with a dense array of bloody fingerprints.

"What a pity... the Jiangzhou canal transport route, such a lucrative business, has fallen into the control of the Duke Xue's mansion!"

He looked at the rising smoke and suddenly sneered.

"My lord, is Prefect Xue really going to let this go? The losses have been so great. If we don't retaliate, people will think that you are afraid of Xue Chonghu!"

The man in black lowered his head and spoke in a very low voice, as if afraid of disturbing the crows circling outside the window.

Xu Shilong stood with his hands behind his back in front of the window, the twilight casting half of his face into shadow: "Since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, the noble class has risen to power through military merit, holding imperial edicts and military power. Even the Emperor calls them the 'pillars of the nation' and has always relied on them."

He suddenly turned around, the candlelight on the table flickering in his eyes, "What Xue Chonghu has seized this time is irrefutable evidence that the Zhao family is raising traitorous scholars!"
The correspondence was meticulously handwritten; the records of secret meetings were accurate down to the minute, specifying the time and place. Such airtight evidence made it impossible to turn the tide!

"Fortunately, Xue Chonghu has a handle on the Zhao family, not mine."

I can't afford to have a complete falling out with him and get into a fight to the death!

Xu Shilong sighed.

Now that the Zhao family case involves traitorous intellectuals, he can only keep a low profile to avoid being attacked by the noble group and getting burned.

These are not what he fears most.

The Great Zhou aristocratic family and the noble groups need strength to fight each other.

To bring down a political enemy in the court requires irrefutable evidence; otherwise, it is easy to overturn the case or even launch a counterattack.

What he truly feared was this poem, "A Gift to Zhao, the Transport Commissioner: A Feast at the Rich's Gate," which included the lines, "Behind the rich gates, the stench of wine and meat; on the road, the bones of those frozen to death!"

To achieve fame through literary talent, you need nothing but a pen and unparalleled talent to write a stunning poem or essay for the "Dafu, Mingzhou, Zhenguo" region!
Once one's literary reputation is tarnished, one becomes like a rat crossing the street, avoided by everyone in the court.

Just like the Zhao family, no one dared to go and rescue them.

Now that Xue Chonghu has gained Jiang Xingzhou, the most talented scholar in Jiangzhou, he is like a tiger with wings, and has a huge deterrent effect in the court.

He had a gut feeling!
The threat posed by Jiang Xingzhou is far greater than that posed by Xue Chonghu!
"Xue Chonghu? Although he is a nobleman, he is nothing but a brute. He is stuck as the prefect of Jiangzhou Prefecture. If he wants to take another step forward and become a governor and a regional minister, it will be as difficult as climbing to heaven."

"Jiangzhou top scholar, with outstanding literary talent, is now just a Xiucai (a scholar who passed the county-level imperial examination), yet he has already stirred up the winds and clouds in Jiangzhou and helped Xue Chonghu bring down the fifth-rank transport commissioner of the imperial court."

"Sooner or later he will go to Jinling Prefecture in Jiangnan to take the imperial examination, and he will go to the capital to take the metropolitan examination, and he will step into this great Zhou imperial city!"

Xu Shilong lightly twirled his fingers, as if weighing an invisible chess piece.

"I am waiting for that young master Jiang on Qingyun Road in the capital!"

Suddenly, illuminated by the candlelight, a cold glint flashed in his eyes like a knife.

(End of this chapter)