Wentang

Chapter 589
"Your Majesty is here."

"Meet your wife."

Following Zhao Meng's shout, all the people present except Li Shimin saluted, including Fang Xuanling who looked bewildered and Fang Lushi who was holding a flagon in doubt.

The eldest grandson Wugou waved everyone away, walked towards Fang Lushi's side without stopping, took the jug from her hand, and said in a warm voice: "Sister is indeed an infatuated person."

Then he said to Fang Xuanling: "The sage is a person who attaches great importance to emotions, how could he really give death to the relatives of the old officials just because he lost face. You, it's time to reflect."

Reflect on what?Naturally, it is to reflect on why the emperor thinks so badly.

But a companion is like a tiger, who dares to use the so-called feelings to measure the relationship between himself and the emperor?But at this time Fang Xuanling had no time to think about these things.

The moment he saw Yue Shan, he almost understood what was going on, and the whole person fell into unbelievable ecstasy.

From the bottom of my heart, there is gratitude to Yueshan, and gratitude to the emperor and empress.

Although the emperor forced him to divorce his wife, he really has no right to blame the emperor.Even if Fan Yang Lu did what he did, it would not be enough to die a hundred times. Fang Lu was the daughter of Fan Yang Lu, so he had to bear the consequences after enjoying the benefits brought by the Lu family.

It was reasonable for the emperor to let him divorce his wife. It should be said that he did not dismiss him directly, but it was considered generous to ask him to divorce his wife.

What he really wanted to blame was the Cui and Lu families, both in public and in private hated these troubled families very much.Yu Gong disrupted the normal order, and Yu privately harmed Fang's family almost broke up.

Instead, he wanted to thank the emperor for being generous and willing to give him a chance, Fang Xuanling knew this very well.

"Old minister, thank you saint for your kindness, and thank you for your kindness." Finally, he turned to Yue Shan and bowed solemnly: "Xie Yuehou, this kindness will never be forgotten."

Li Shimin looked at the sky with his chin, and snorted disdainfully at Fang Xuanling's thanks, while his eldest grandson Wugou comforted Fang Xuanling with a gentle voice.One of the couple sang the red face and the other the bad face, and Fang Xuanling and his wife were firmly controlled.

The next thing is simple, Fang Xuanling reinstates his post.But as punishment, he must personally preside over the work of splitting Boling Cui and Fanyang Lu.

Fang Xuanling has no right to refuse, people are selfish, it is normal to exchange the suffering of others for the safety of one's own family.

What's more, the Cui and Lu families are also to blame, but it is kind of them to split them up.

The next thing is relatively simple, the imperial court ordered Fang Xuanling to resume his post.

When everyone was wondering why he returned to office without divorcing his wife, it was 'unknown' who 'leaked' what happened in the palace that day.

Only then did everyone know that the relationship between Fang Xuanling and his wife was so deep that the emperor was moved to give them a chance to prove themselves again.

Naturally, he admired Fang Xuanling and his wife who never left, especially Mrs. Fang, who dared to drink poisonous wine to show her ambition, and gave her a thumbs up from the bottom of her heart.

I also admire the emperor and empress very much. The poisoned wine is vinegar, which means that the emperor is not really trying to kill people, but is testing them. This shows that the emperor has a big heart.

Especially the empress, she was the direct victim of the witchcraft this time, and she forgave Fang Lushi... It is truly a blessing in the world to have such a benevolent empress.

On the contrary, I hate those people who use witchcraft to disrupt the world even more.

The test that took place in the palace, there is another thing that was heavily publicized.

The Fang Lu family also felt the generosity and kindness of the emperor, and repented for the family's dirty behavior on the spot, and expressed that he would persuade his own lineage to leave the Fan Yang Lu family and move to live elsewhere.

This news shocked the whole world—even more shocking than the arrest of Cui Lu's second family's descendants.

In ancient times, the family was the most important thing in the world, and the crime of breaking away from the family was more serious than treason.Now that Fang Lu wants to let his father's lineage leave the family, it is simply treasonous.

Everyone is not a fool, and it is clear what consequences this will bring.Especially people from aristocratic families are even more worried.

Some people didn't believe that Fang Lu would really do this, so they found various ways to ask about the situation, or wanted her to stand up and declare that the news was false, but she never said a word.

Because the person concerned did not speak out, some people believed the news and some did not.But for those who were dismissed because they married the daughter of the family involved in the case, it is undoubtedly a guiding light.

So some officials tried to announce that their wives had severed ties with the family, but they were immediately reinstated by the officials.

What else is there to say now, follow suit.

Then more than two-thirds of the officials publicly announced that their wives had severed ties with their original families, and most of the remaining one-third chose to divorce themselves to protect themselves, and very few were willing to resign.

This behavior can be said to be a frantic slap in the face of the family, and almost lifted their last fig leaf.

No matter how these people who severed ties with the family negotiated with the family in private, in the eyes of most people, they really severed ties with the family.

It turned out that the so-called aristocratic family was so weak that it was not worth mentioning in front of the court. The emperor could force their children to abandon the family with just a word.

When everyone in the world reached such a consensus, the imperial power completely crushed the aristocratic family.

And then Fang Xuanling's eldest brother-in-law, Lu Yang, took most of their lineage to Yizhou, where he worked, for the convenience of taking care of and educating the children, leaving only some old people to take care of their hometown.

This news was really shocking, especially the aristocratic families all looked sideways.

Although Lu Yang didn't explicitly say that his lineage was going to separate from his lineage, anyone who wasn't stupid could see that the lineage was going to be separated.

Separation is the situation that aristocratic families are most afraid of seeing. It is a very simple truth. Unity is strong and division is weak. The Tweeting Order issued by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was the same reason.

In the past, the so-called division of the aristocratic family was just to give some land and other means of production to a certain lineage so that they could run their own businesses and be responsible for their own profits and losses.In fact, on a macro level, these means of production still have to be allocated by the family.

But now that Lu Yang has sold all the assets of his lineage, and the personnel have migrated to Yizhou, it is almost completely separated from Fan Yang Lu's.

It also means that the Fan Yang Lu family will lose this power forever. It can be said that this is digging the foundation of the family.

But after the shock, the aristocratic family didn't take this matter to heart.

In their view, Lu Yang's family had to do this only under the pressure of the court. After all, his brother-in-law was Fang Xuanling, the prime minister of the court, and it was normal for the emperor to catch him as a model.

They think this is just an example.

However, they soon discovered that things were not as simple as they thought...

The imperial court began to use various reasons to make things difficult for family members involved in witchcraft cases such as Fan Yang Lu, Boling Cui and others.

For example, the yamen went to their homes every three days to measure the land and check out hidden households.The question is which aristocratic family in the world has not falsely reported the number of acres?Didn't hide some hermits as their own servants?

It's like there is no such thing as a non-corrupt official in the world, so it's really accurate to check.And once it is found out, it will be severely punished.

There are also shop caravans, which are also checked over and over again, checking the source of the goods, where they are sold, whether there is price gouging, whether there is tax evasion and so on.

Even if there is nothing illegal, people will come to check three or five times a day, and even stay in your shop and never leave.In this way, the business will naturally not sit still.

There are also guides. In ancient times, people were not allowed to move around at will for the convenience of governance. If you leave your county, you must have a guide, otherwise you will be caught as bandits and exiled.

Ordinary people don't want to leave their one-acre three-point land to see the outside world in this life, even if you call the yamen to apply for it, they won't give you a guide.

But for the aristocratic family, this is not a problem at all. It is only a matter of one sentence for them to ask for a guide.But now it's different, the imperial court said a word, and the yamen directly confiscated all the guides of the children of these aristocratic families.

It is too painful for these aristocratic children to have no way to guide, unable to study and go out.

Anyway, in a word, the imperial court has too many ways to embarrass you.

The branches of these aristocratic families were targeted in various ways. At first, everyone thought it was the imperial court's revenge against them, so they didn't think much about it.

But later, someone had an idea and applied to the yamen to relocate their family to other places to settle down. Then the yamen immediately stopped all kinds of targeted actions, and even offered to help them sell their properties...

It would be really stupid for everyone to not understand what's going on now.

The imperial court is forcing the family to split up.

"Poison, the court's move is really poisonous."

"Yeah, splitting up the family has fundamentally cut off the hope of recovery."

"But I have to admit that the court's move is really good, and the opportunity is good."

"That's right. At other times, the imperial court would not have dared to use such a strong method against us, but now they have grasped the reason."

"But we can't just look at it like this? There are more than 30 big and small families that were forced to split this time. If they really succeed, the strength of our Shandong gentry will be greatly weakened. I am afraid it will be even more difficult to fight against the court in the future." .”

"What do you say? The families that were dismantled this time were all involved in witchcraft. Who would dare to intervene to stop them?"

As soon as this question came out, the court immediately fell silent.Yes, no matter how unwilling they are, they can only watch like this.

Wang Yuanzhuo watched the crowd silently from the side, but never spoke.

Some time ago, when the imperial army came to arrest people, he was the only one in the leadership of the academy to stand up and shield the students from the wind and rain. After this incident, his prestige in the academy reached its peak, and no one could match him.

And the other leaders lost their hearts because of their ugly performance, and they didn't have the face to stay here and left one after another. He also took the opportunity to become the de facto supreme leader of Bailu Academy.

Of course, this is also inseparable from the support of the family behind him.

This time, he tried his best to let the family stay out of the matter and escape the catastrophe. His status in the family has once again jumped to a new level, and his right to speak has become more important.

And when he expressed his intention to become the dean of the academy, the Wang family was naturally willing to contribute resources to support him.

After going through all kinds of things before, other aristocratic families are also aware of the importance of Bailu Academy, and all those who are qualified have appointed new spokespersons.

Today is the first meeting of this group of new spokesmen. As the leader of the academy, Wang Yuanzhuo naturally needs to take a good look at this group of future colleagues.

From the current point of view, it's not bad. The people sent by those families this time are all people with real materials.Unlike before, the aristocratic families didn't pay much attention to the academy, and the people they sent here were all of average ability to dawdle.

When he inspected others, others were also observing him, so someone asked, "President Wang, what's your opinion?"

"I don't have a good idea, but it's a bit immature." Wang Yuanzhuo said with a smile.

"I don't know what Dean Wang thinks?"

"Political disputes are nothing more than a matter of advancing or retreating. Previously, the aristocratic family's attack was resolved by the court. Now it is the court's turn to attack." Wang Yuanzhuo said:

"I'm willing to bet and admit defeat. Since the attack failed, we have to give some loot to others. What we have to do next is to endure, accumulate strength in secret, and then find the court's flaws to prepare for the next attack."

In fact, this is not such a brilliant idea, but everyone present nodded in agreement, and no one objected.

Wang Yuanzhuo was even more satisfied with this.

Not because these people agreed with his statement, but because he finally had a group of reliable teammates.

If it were placed in the previous group of people, many people would definitely jump out and mock themselves, saying that this idea is too stupid, and it is no different from doing nothing and waiting to be slaughtered.

But none of this group of teammates stood up and said so.

The idea is not the more brilliant, the best way to deal with it is always the most suitable one.Now that the imperial court has grasped the handle, it can raise the butcher's knife recklessly. At this time, any seemingly brilliant idea is futile.

The best way is to forbear, not to give the court the opportunity to expand the results of the war.

After this incident is over and the strength of the family recovers, we will talk about the next step.This is the mature and prudent method, and it is also a magic weapon that the family can pass down for thousands of years.

People are knives and I am fish.

No matter how reluctant those families were, under the power of the imperial court, they had to bow their heads and choose to split the family.

In the period of more than four months, 36 aristocratic families were split up successively, and the vitality of the Shandong gentry was severely injured, and they were unable to cause any disturbances in a short period of time.

At about this time, the joint trial of the three divisions in the witchcraft case finally came to a conclusion.

A total of more than 36 direct descendants of the [-] families involved in the case were all executed, and the women were assigned to Jiaofang Secretary.As for the property, most of it was confiscated and confiscated, and a small part of the branch that was split was taken away and sold.

A total of 67 officials involved in the case and direct participants ransacked their homes and executed them, and the women were assigned to Jiaofang Secretary.

There were more than a hundred officials who wanted to take the opportunity to become famous and participated in it. A few of the heinous ones were ransacked and executed, and the rest were all ransacked and exiled without pardon.

It's more about the kind of people who don't distinguish between right and wrong, or are bewitched, or because of ignorance, or really participate for a righteous purpose. There are as many as thousands of people.This kind of person has little subjective malice, and the punishment is far less severe than the previous categories.

Most of them were reprimanded and demoted, a small number were dismissed directly and never used, and only a small number were found out for other crimes and sentenced to heavy sentences.

After this trial, more than a thousand people were beheaded, tens of thousands were exiled, and more than [-] people were implicated in other punishments. The court has been emptied a lot because of it. It can be said that it is the biggest case since the establishment of the Tang Dynasty. up.

If the charges were changed, some people might say that the emperor was brutal, but everyone took it for granted in this big trial.

Again, the ancients believed in the existence of gods.Disrupting the world with witchcraft is a capital crime recognized by everyone, as long as it is involved in the case, it is not too much to kill as many people as possible.

In particular, there is a scourge of witchcraft by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty for comparison.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty killed all his sons just because of a rumor, and implicated tens of thousands of people.

This time in the Tang Dynasty, under the circumstances of conclusive evidence, Li Shimin only arrested the first offender and did not get too involved with the three clans, which is considered benevolent.

That's the benefit of having contrast.

In short, this witchcraft case started by the family finally ended with Li Shimin's complete victory.

(End of this chapter)