Chapter 20: Villas sold out, killing in public

Just at this moment.

Outside Soaring Cloud Pavilion, there was a sudden commotion.

A moment later.

Li Er's personal eunuch came to deliver an imperial decree.

Su Liang understood this, having already learned of it from Li Chengqian yesterday.

Su Liang immediately accepted the imperial decree and opened it to take a look.

It only contained a few dozen words.

"Department of the Secretariat: The merits of the Prince of Chu, Su Liang, are unprecedented in history; he is now granted the title of General of Tiance!"

Su Liang immediately looked at Wang De and said, "Sorry to trouble you, Eunuch; please thank His Majesty for me."

He then had Yu'er take some gold and silver and hand it to Wang De.

Wang De was quite embarrassed; although it wasn't the first time, this was still in public.

This was exactly Su Liang's temperament.

He then accepted Su Liang's kindness.

After Wang De left, everyone offered their congratulations.

A moment later, the auction continued...

"One hundred and one thousand gold..."

"One hundred and five thousand gold..."

"One hundred and ten thousand gold..."

"Two hundred thousand gold!"

A moment later, the bidding price had already reached two hundred thousand gold.

The one bidding at this moment was Wang Xing of the Taiyuan Wang clan.

During this period, Wang Xing had been in the limelight, as his clansmen had developed the fine salt refinement method.

For this, Wang Xing also kept his promise and established the tenth clan leader in the family's history.

In the end, "Rising East Villa" was purchased by Wang Xing for two hundred and sixty thousand gold.

Following that, sixteen villas were auctioned off one after another...

Within an hour.

All sixteen villas had been sold out.

Su Liang thus earned a full four million gold!

All sixteen villas were purchased by second-generation officials and noble families.

The two largest villas, Jade Peak Villa and Soaring Cloud Villa, were purchased by the Qinghe Cui clan and the Boling Cui clan, respectively.

The auction price was as high as three hundred thousand gold.

Xuri Villa was purchased by the Longxi Li clan for two hundred and fifty thousand gold.

Little Moon Villa was purchased by the Zhao Junli clan for two hundred and fifty thousand gold.

West Spring Villa was purchased by the Fan Yanglu clan for two hundred and twenty thousand gold.

Cool Shade Villa was purchased by the Xingyang Zheng clan for two hundred and twenty thousand gold.

The two villas of Autumn Ease and Rising East were purchased by the Wang clan for two hundred and sixty thousand gold; there was no other way, as the current snow salt business was only being done by Su Liang and Wang Xing.

The other four surnames and six prominent families clearly lacked the financial strength at this time, and no one was buying their own coarse salt.

The four villas of Ten Thousand Plums, Cloud Mist, Spring Bamboo, and Elegant Abode were bought up by the "Four Young Masters of Changan."

For this, Zhangsun Chong also spent over two hundred thousand gold.

The three of them also generously donated to help Yuchi Baolin purchase Yaju Villa.

Su Liang was speechless about this; he had already promised the four of them that he would build a few for them next year.

But the four of them all wanted to move in early.

The four villas of Righteous Martial, Spirit Jade, Treading Snow, and Frozen Frost were also successively purchased by the Hongnong Yang clan, the Lanling Xiao clan, the Langya Wang clan, and the Chenjun Xie clan.

The Hongnong Yang clan was exactly the clan of Yang Guang.

The Lanling Xiao clan was the clan of Empress Xiao.

The Langya Wang clan and the Chenjun Xie clan were two of the four great noble families of the Jin Dynasty, "Wang, Xie, Yuan, and Xiao," which had relatively declined by this time.

The eternal famous line of the Tang Dynasty, "The swallows that once flew in the halls of Wang and Xie, now fly into the homes of ordinary people," refers to the Langya Wang clan and the Chenjun Xie clan; people are generally accustomed to mentioning "Wang and Xie" together.

In addition, "Yuan" is the Chenjun Yuan clan, and "Xiao" is the Lanling Xiao clan.

At this moment, the noble families of the Tang Dynasty were dominated by the five surnames and seven prominent families.

They were the Longxi Li clan, the Zhao Junli clan, the Boling Cui clan, the Qinghe Cui clan, the Fanyang Lu clan, the Xingyang Zheng clan, and the Taiyuan Wang clan.

Among them, the Shandong noble families alone accounted for five: the Boling Cui clan, the Qinghe Cui clan, the Fanyang Lu clan, the Xingyang Zheng clan, and the Taiyuan Wang clan.

The ancestor of the Zhao Junli clan was Li Mu, a famous general of the Zhao State during the Warring States Period; from the Han Dynasty to the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the Zhao Junli clan had always been a famous and powerful family.

The ancestor of the Longxi Li clan was Li Chong, the first governor of Longxi Commandery in the Qin Dynasty; Li Chong's son was also a governor, and his grandson was the famous Li Xin.

Li Guang and Li Cai of the Western Han Dynasty both came from this lineage.

Li Guang's grandson, Li Ling, offended the Han imperial family because he defected to the Xiongnu, and this family disappeared for two or three dynasties.

Li Er came from a branch of this lineage.

During the Sui Dynasty, the political faction formed by noble families from the Guanzhong and Longxi regions was commonly known as the Guanlong aristocracy.

The Guanlong aristocracy, the Shandong noble families, and the Jiangnan noble families were the three strongest forces at that time.

The original intention of Emperor Yang of Sui, Yang Guang, in building the eastern capital of Luoyang was also to let the Guanlong aristocracy and the Shandong noble families check each other.

Digging the Grand Canal was not only to achieve true north-south unification.

It was also to use this to check and balance each other, using the power of the Jiangnan noble families to balance the north.

The three expeditions to Goguryeo also used the children of noble families, in order to suppress the noble families and weaken their power!

This also led to the eighteen rebel kings and sixty-four rebel forces declaring themselves kings.

Constant fighting between them led to the death of young and strong men, leaving only the old, weak, sick, and disabled in their homes.

The people were miserable, and without a stable living environment, the birth rate dropped sharply.

Seventeen years of continuous war caused the population of the Sui Dynasty to drop from fifty million at its peak to fifteen million in the early Tang Dynasty.

The number of households also plummeted from nearly ten million to less than three million.

This data also contained a lot of exaggeration.

During the Sui Dynasty, the territory was at least larger than in the first year of Zhenguan, including the Liang State, the Later Sui, Tuyuhun, and the Western Turks.

Moreover, the administrative efficiency in the early Tang Dynasty was low, population statistics were rough, and many people did not report their household registration to avoid taxes.

Compared to the fifth year of Daye, when the people of the Sui Dynasty lived and worked in peace and contentment and administrative efficiency was relatively perfect, the 50 million population counted was also accurate.

As for the countless people who died of exhaustion and hunger due to Emperor Yang of Sui's major projects, that is even more nonsense; the granaries built by Emperor Yang of Sui have been discovered to this day.

Behind all this, the shadow of the noble families was indispensable.

In the early Tang Dynasty, the five surnames and seven prominent families were already in their twilight years.

At noon.

The sixteen villas had all been sold.

Su Liang was also listening to music and drinking Da Hong Pao in Lingyun Pavilion.

At this time, most of the little fairies in Lingyun Pavilion were former famous courtesans from Pingkang Ward.

Almost all modern musical instruments had been mastered by them.

Su Liang was enjoying himself.

Staying at home all day was indeed boring.

At this moment, there was a stove every ten meters inside Lingyun Pavilion.

There was not a hint of cold.

The number of people in the pavilion was even greater; with the New Year approaching, many people had returned to Changan.

What everyone couldn't stand was that most of the former top courtesans of Pingkang Ward had redeemed themselves.

They came to Taoyuan City to resume their old business, and many people had to drive to the Tianqiao and Tianman Wards of Taoyuan City.

Pingkang Ward in Changan was a full 60 li away from Taoyuan City.

Su Liang's villa was relatively closer, only 40 li away.

Su Liang's current fief, Taoyuan County, was in the southeast direction of Changan City, between Changan City and Lantian County.

It was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the terrain was relatively flat, which was just right for development.

Su Liang had renamed the mountain behind Taoyuan Villa to Taoyuan Mountain, which is the current Jingyu Gully Bamboo Sea Scenic Area.

On the left and right sides of Taoyuan Mountain were the Chan River and the Ba River, a natural wetland park.

Before Taoyuan County existed, this area was all within the scope of Lantian County.

Lantian County had been beautiful in landscape since ancient times, and many literati and high-ranking officials lived in Lantian, set up villas, and built villas for this reason.

For this reason, Su Liang also built an asphalt road four zhang wide and fifty li long on the north side of Taoyuan City, leading directly to Mingde Gate of Changan City.

Taoyuan City was also built around the Chan River of the "Eight Rivers Surrounding Changan," and the seventy-two villages were the same.

It was not only for the convenience of fetching water.

It was also for future plans.

One hour later.

Su Liang was drinking vigorously at this time.

Seeing that it was quite noisy outside, he asked immediately: "Why is it so noisy outside?"

Xuance said upon hearing this: "Young Master, someone outside wants to bully Chen Qianqian."

Chen Qianqian was the top courtesan of Lingyun Pavilion.

Su Liang asked in surprise: "Oh, who dares to be so presumptuous in Taoyuan County?"

"Let's go and see together."

He stood up immediately.

A moment later, Su Liang and the other had already walked out of the private room.

"Young Master Su... Young Master Su..."

Someone immediately came up to greet them.

Su Liang asked: "What's going on? Who is bullying Miss Qianqian?"

A woman replied: "Returning to Young Master Su, it is Zhang Shenji, the adopted son of the Duke of Changping, Zhang Liang."

"He drank a bit too much Drunken Tang today, that's why..."

"Hehe... you are still helping him speak for someone who acts like this when drunk?"

Su Liang was also speechless.

Facing such children of noble families, brothel women would never dare to offend them.

I have to do it myself.

Just a dog of the Xingyang Zheng clan, how could he be so arrogant, daring to force a good woman into prostitution.

He walked over immediately and kicked him.

Then he looked at the drunk Zhang Shenji and said: "It seems you drank quite a bit of Drunken Tang?"

"I'm afraid if you drink another two liang, the whole world will be yours."

Zhang Shenji staggered and said: "Who are you, daring to manage Young Master's business?"

Su Liang joked: "Yo... it seems you drank another two liang."

Then he kicked him a few more times, causing Zhang Shenji to beg for mercy repeatedly.

Su Liang chuckled: "Is it the Duke of Changping, Zhang Liang, who gave you the courage, or the Xingyang Zheng clan who gave you the guts."

Zhang Shenji's servant apologized immediately upon seeing this.

He said immediately: "My young master just returned to the capital and didn't know the Prince was here, I hope you don't blame him."

Su Liang said disdainfully: "Then do you mean that if there was no one here to manage you today, you could do whatever you wanted?"

After Su Liang finished speaking, without waiting for the servant to answer.

He asked where the sword came from, and in an instant, a cold light arrived.

One sword to the throat, Zhang Shenji died!

The servant had already been scared to the point of wetting himself, paralyzed on the ground.

The surroundings were also dead silent, unable to believe that Young Master Su had actually killed someone in public.

Before everyone could react, Su Liang had already sheathed his sword.

After doing all this, Su Liang immediately said to Wang Xuance: "Xuance, have the White-Robed Guards take this servant down for strict interrogation; if there is any violation of the law or discipline, punish him strictly according to the law!"

These noble families have never had anything good since ancient times, so they must be made an example of.

Zhang Shenji was not just forcing a good woman into prostitution.

A moment later.

Su Liang said to Wang Xuance: "Send a letter to Zhang Liang; he knows what to do."

Su Liang did this to help Zhang Liang.

Zhang Liang in history succeeded by informing, and failed by informing.

Although Zhang Liang was timid by nature, he was a loyal person; he once reported Hou Junji for intending to rebel and was quite trusted by Li Er.

Zhang Liang was good at administration and often secretly sent his subordinates to investigate the good and evil in his jurisdiction, suppressing the powerful and comforting the poor and weak.

Unfortunately, Zhang Liang's wife, Lady Li, was not only lecherous by nature but also interfered in politics, gradually ruining Zhang Liang's reputation.

Lady Li's arrogance and domineering behavior offended many people.

In his later years, Zhang Liang was accused of recruiting private parties and was imprisoned, all because of Lady Li.

Zhang Liang refused to confess, and Li Er unjustly killed a good official.

Su Liang could help him a little bit.

Over an hour later.

Changan City, Zhang Liang's residence.

In the main hall of the Zhang residence, many servants were crawling on the ground, shivering.

Zhang Liang's wife, Lady Li, was beaten until her nose was bruised and her face was swollen.

They all knew a little bit about their mistress's affairs.

Many servants had already confessed.

At this moment, Zhang Liang's eyes were splitting, and the veins on his forehead were bulging.

In his hand, he was clutching the letter sent by Su Liang.

The people who had an affair with Lady Li were on the paper.

There were more than twenty people known to have had an affair with Lady Li, almost catching up to a brothel woman selling herself.

I don't know how many more haven't been found out.

At the same time.

The people in the Ganlu Hall of the Taiji Palace naturally didn't know about this.

They were all impeaching Su Liang one after another.

Li Er's brows were also slightly furrowed, not knowing why.

It was impossible for Su Liang to kill just because Zhang Shenji flirted with a brothel woman.

Zhangsun Wuji looked at everyone and said: "Are you sure Su Liang killed Zhang Shenji just because of this?"

Feng Deyi said: "That is indeed the case, Zhang Shenji only returned to the capital recently."

"He had never seen Su Liang before."

Upon hearing this, Zhangsun Wuji looked at Li Er and said: "Could it be that Su Liang had some grudge against him before?"

Li Er said: "No, Su Liang is a man of temperament, there must be something we don't know."

Then he looked at Li Junxian and said: "Go and ask the Imperial Son-in-law, what is it all about!"

Li Junxian took the order and left.

Just at this moment.

Zhang Liang had also rushed over, and after bowing, he said: "Your Majesty, the Prince of Chu is cleaning up the house for his minister."

"Not only that, but also clearing out the pests for my Great Tang."

Upon hearing this, Li Er said: "Oh... what does the Duke of Changping mean by this?"

Zhang Liang continued: "Zhang Shenji is the minister's adopted son; this child not only had an affair with Lady Li but also did many harmful things."

"This is the evidence of the crime, please Your Majesty take a look."

Then he respectfully handed over a confession from the servants in the residence.

Li Er took it and looked at it carefully, and suddenly flew into a rage; more than a dozen women had died at the hands of Zhang Shenji.

I don't know how many more there were in secret.

After reading it, Li Er passed the confession to everyone to read.

After reading it, everyone remained silent.

Li Er immediately looked at Zhang Liang and said: "I will not interfere in your family affairs, but you must keep your eyes open when adopting sons in the future!"

Then he looked at the many officials: "Since the person is already dead, let this matter end here!"

"Check clearly before coming to report such things in the future; the Empress has not yet recovered, and I don't have time to deal with these unverified things."

"It will be New Year in a few days, let's all disperse if there is nothing else."

At this moment.

Inside Tianzui Ward of Taoyuan City.

The White-Robed Guards had also verified that more than a dozen women had died at the hands of Zhang Shenji.

He deserved to die!

The servants, as accomplices, were also beheaded in public.

The evidence of his crime was also published.

It spread throughout Taoyuan City in no time.

When the news reached Changan City, the people and dukes and ministers in Changan City were all clicking their tongues.

Su Liang's speed in handling the case was simply unbelievable, making people dare not believe it!

The noble families were even more surprised.

They also understood the reason why Su Liang killed, which was clearly done for their noble families to see.

Although Zhang Shenji was Zhang Liang's adopted son, he was indeed a person of the Xingyang Zheng clan.

Only the people of the Xingyang Zheng clan knew best that Zhang Shenji was just a pawn they had planted beside Zhang Liang!

After deep thought, a few people were even more terrified...

For this, only a few people like Li Er knew the truth.

Su Liang not only had the White-Robed Guards in white clothes and white robes.

He also had a force in black clothes and black robes.

The white robes were in the light, and the black robes were in the dark! ===== CHAPTER 21 =====