Chapter 741: Definitive Evidence of Colluding with the Enemy and Treason

Dawn was just breaking, and the morning mist had not yet lifted from the mountain forests outside Xiazhou Chengwai.

Gao Jiong and Lu Ming had already led a thousand fully armed elite imperial troops, silently besieging the foot of Wang Shi Wubu.

The fortress built by the Wang clan over a hundred years possessed massive rammed‑earth walls two zhang thick, essentially an Independent Kingdom.

The wall of the fortress was filled with Wang Shi Private Soldiers clad in Leather Armor, brandishing Bow and Arrow, their faces tense as they stared at the black, oppressive army below.

Wang Huairen, wearing a precious cloud brocade long robe, walked onto the rampart surrounded by several guards.

He leaned on the cold Blue Bricks wall, forced down the thread of fear in his heart, and tried to resolve the crisis with his most favored method.

"You brats dare act so overbearing!" Wang Huairen shouted at the army formation below the wall.

"Our Wang ancestors once held high office in Xiazhou and have indelible achievements on this land!" he boasted of his family's pedigree.

"Today you surround Wang Shi Wubu with a nameless army, calling it land equalization but actually plundering the people's wealth!" Wang Huairen invoked the rites of saints.

"I will go to the Capital to sound the Dengwen Drum, report to Your Majesty, and accuse you of the crime of treason." Wang Huairen's words were still as sharp as a knife.

Lu Ming rode a black Warhorse that towered over a normal warhorse, looking like an immovable black mountain.

He scooped his ear with his little finger, his face full of extreme impatience toward such sour‑stale scholars.

Lu Ming had no interest in listening to the old fool on the wall recite any nonsense rites.

"Damn noisy." Lu Ming grunted roughly.

He tilted his legs and flipped off the horse, his heavy leather boots stamping on Mudi, kicking up a small cloud of dust.

The five hundred iron‑armored retainers on the wall saw Lu Ming dismount and immediately drew their bows.

"If you dare step forward again, I'll turn you into a porcupine." a Wang clan Guard Captain shouted provocatively.

Lu Ming let out a cold snort, reaching with one hand toward his back.

The Bing Tie Horse Spear, weighing a hundred jin, was lifted effortlessly with one hand, slicing a dull whoosh through the air.

Lu Ming paid no heed to the arrows aimed at him from above.

He inhaled deeply, his muscles bulging exaggeratedly beneath the specially made large armor.

Like a raging rhinoceros, Lu Ming charged at the massive Damen of the fortress, a gate wrapped in a century of ironwood and thick copper skin.

"Break it for me." Lu Ming let out a earth‑shaking roar.

From three steps away from the Damen he leapt, the spear harnessing the falling thousand‑pound force to smash the gate's center.

"Boom—" a deafening blast rang out, like a muffled thunder exploding on flat ground.

The sturdy gate, claimed to withstand even a siege hammer, shattered under Lu Ming's Demon God‑like strike, wood chips and copper fragments flying everywhere.

A door latch as thick as a water bucket snapped, the two massive wooden doors moaned as they collapsed inward, crushing onto the Shiban road.

The fortress was forced open with a huge gash.

Gao Jiong sat on his horse, the murderous intent in his eyes exploding at that moment.

He drew the Long Sword at his waist, the tip pointing at the breached gate.

"Wang clan openly defies the edict, closes the gate and refuses to emerge, tantamount to treason." Gao Jiong loudly gave the slaughter its designation.

"Except for children smaller than a cartwheel, anyone wielding a weapon and refusing to surrender shall be killed without mercy by this officer." Gao Jiong issued the most ruthless charge order.

A thousand tiger‑like elite imperial troops let out synchronized war cries, stepping over the collapsed doors and flooding into the hundred‑year fortress.

Amid the charging crowd, a soldier in elite uniform let out a wail, clutching his chest and collapsing into a pool of blood.

A cold arrow, source unknown, lodged precisely on the edge of his Guardian Heart Mirror.

That soldier was, in fact, a Mingjing Office Suicide Warrior pre‑arranged by Gao Jiong.

Seeing this, Gao Jiong leapt like thunder on his horse.

"What nerve! The Wang clan dares to deliberately attack Court troops." Gao Jiong roared, pointing at the bewildered retainers on the wall.

"The Wang family clearly intends to rally a rebellion, holding the whole clan accountable, sparing no living soul." Gao Jiong logically used this vicious chain scheme to turn the Wang clan's guilt into a Dead End Trap.

A hundred embroidered‑cloak emissaries did not crowd the gate.

They drew steel flying claws with ropes from their waists, spun them in the air a few times, and accurately hooked the two‑zhang‑high wall top.

The embroidered‑cloak emissaries climbed the wall swiftly like agile apes.

The so‑called martial masters hired by the Wang clan for a high price were utterly outmatched before these rigorously trained state killing machines.

An embroidered‑cloak emissary flipped onto the rampart, his body still mid‑air, the embroidered spring sword already drawn.

The blade flashed, decapitating the obstructing martial master in one cut, blood spraying onto the Blue Bricks.

The wall's defensive line collapsed within the time it takes to sip a cup of tea.

The guards and Private Soldiers who usually relied on Wang clan power to bully the countryside, after witnessing true battle‑hardened elites, fled in terror, dropping their weapons.

Cries of agony and kneeling pleas echoed through the entire fortress.

Gao Jiong stepped through the blood‑soaked ground into the innermost inner residence of the fortress.

He smoothly led his men to Wang Huairen's usual quarters, the Shufang.

Two embroidered‑cloak emissaries stepped forward and pried open the Hidden Door behind the bookshelf, revealing a Secret Chamber.

Gao Jiong entered the Secret Chamber and soon retrieved a Huojian‑sealed rosewood box.

In front of the trembling Wang Shi Clan Members, he slammed the box heavily onto the Shiban in the courtyard.

The box spilled out a dozen letters, the envelopes bearing the seal of the Qi State Eastern Palace.

Whether these letters were forged by Gao Jiong in advance or not, at this moment they were solid iron evidence.

"Wang Huairen secretly corresponded with Crown Prince Gao Xiaoyu of Qi State, plotting internal and external collusion to overthrow our Great Zhou border." Gao Jiong stepped on one letter with his foot.

"The evidence of colluding with the enemy and treason is conclusive; the Wang clan this time cannot die any more." Gao Jiong's laughter sounded especially grim in the courtyard.

At this moment Wang Huairen had no trace of his earlier arrogance.

He had just tried to flee through a dog hole in the Back Garden, but sharp‑eyed Lu Ming seized the collar of his neck‑garment.

Lu Ming dragged the former storm‑calling clan head of Xiazhou, as if carrying a sick chicken, all the way to the front courtyard.

"That old thing runs pretty fast." Lu Ming casually tossed Wang Huairen at Gao Jiong's feet, as if discarding a bag of moldy trash.

Wang Huairen hit the ground, his face covered in blood; his disheveled hair lifted as he looked up, and seeing the scattered letters, he instantly understood the trap he'd fallen into.

"You're framing me, this is a set‑up, old man has never seen a person from Qi State!" Wang Huairen croaked, struggling to rise.

"Chen Yan, that scoundrel, even if I become a ghost I won't let him go!" Wang Huairen's mouth kept spewing filthy curses.

Gao Jiong didn't even want to hear him finish the nonsense.

He tilted his head toward the embroidered‑clothed envoy beside him.

The envoy immediately stepped forward, planted a foot on Wang Huairen's chest, and forced his jaw open.

Gao Jiong drew the dagger he carried and crouched.

"Since the Wang clan chief loves preaching grand principles so much, keeping that tongue is also a disaster…" Gao Jiong's tone showed not a hint of fluctuation.

The dagger's cold gleam flashed through the courtyard.

A chunk of meat, dripping with blood, fell onto the Qingshi slab.

Wang Huairen let out a mournful, indistinct wail, his hands covering his mouth that kept spewing blood, rolling in pain on the ground.

The surrounding Wang Shi Clan Members who had been escorted out saw this scene, were so frightened they collapsed on the ground, not daring to even cry.

Gao Jiong stood up, took out a White Cloth, and wiped the bloodstains from his dagger.