Chapter 174: Extermination of a Clan — A Major Case

At the conclusion of the Recall Bitterness Conference, Gu Xuan took the stage once more to deliver a closing summation.

"We must soberly recognize who our enemies are, and who our friends are!"

"Our enemies are powerful, and they are ferocious; they have occupied this nation for thousands of years, deep-rooted and inextricably entangled!"

"They are the aristocratic clans, the aristocratic families, and also gangs, bandits!"

"They are even wolves in human skin, bloodsucking parasites, sucking the blood of the majority while they themselves grow fat and bloated!"

"If we do not rise up to struggle, then our descendants, generation after generation, will suffer such oppression forever, never seeing the light of day."

……

Some of Gu Xuan's words were drawn from those several articles previously secretly printed and circulated by the "Open Passage Society."

Among the Forbidden Army soldiers present, a portion had read those articles.

Now hearing these words again, combined with their own and others' experiences, they could not help but gain a deeper understanding.

Within the Great Zhou Dynasty, those great families that have continued for hundreds or thousands of years — upon careful thought — actually differ little from gangs and bandits.

The Patriarch is the leader, family rules are gang regulations, members are a whole clan bound by blood, numerous and powerful, sharing honor and disgrace, forming a formidable force.

And they do not merely produce the underworld; scholars within the clans also produce talent in droves, many serving as officials in the court.

With money, men, and power, they naturally violently monopolize many resources and industries within the Great Zhou, forming de facto independent little kingdoms.

Such as mines, grain transport, industries, and so on — all manner of tyrannical market domination.

In this way, how can ordinary commoners oppose them? They can only be oppressed and bullied!

Even the royal house has been reduced to a vassal!

The Sima Family is the most typical representative among these aristocratic clans and families.

Were it not for Gu Xuan's arrival, Sima Shang's usurpation would have been imminent.

At that time, given the Sima Family's extensive alliances with many aristocratic clans' habitual behavior, the Great Zhou Dynasty would have thoroughly become a paradise for the great clans and a hell for the common people!

And this point, Gu Xuan also briefly expounded upon in his closing summation.

Just imagining such a corner of the future was enough to make the Forbidden Army soldiers shudder with cold!

It was precisely at this moment.

That they truly deeply understood the terror of the Sima Family's successful usurpation, and its grave consequences!

So-called people teaching people — they won't learn; events teaching people — once is enough.

Or as the saying goes: knowledge gained from books remains shallow; to truly know a matter, one must practice it personally.

The Forbidden Army soldiers attending this Recall Bitterness Conference were basically all of humble origin, or else Feather Forest Orphans; all had more or less experienced the suffering of this world.

It was only through this one time that they broke through the superficial impressions gained from hearing a few articles.

And truly understood why His Majesty the Zhou King promoted the "Open Passage Society" in the army, and pushed everyone to learn to read and write.

Yes, by the time it reached this moment.

Almost every soldier could basically guess that the person promoting the "Open Passage Society" was precisely His Majesty the Zhou King before their eyes.

Although all this seemed somewhat inconceivable, it was the truth.

And in his speech, Gu Xuan also mentioned some methodology.

"Opposing a powerful interest group usually requires an equally or even more powerful organization."

"We make our friends as many as possible, our enemies as few as possible; only thus can we achieve twice the result with half the effort!"

"Above our heads loom Three Great Mountains: one is the Jie Tribe, one is the aristocratic clans and families, one is the Quanrong Tribe."

"This first one, I have already roughly resolved; the latter two will depend on working hard together with everyone."

……

In fact.

The true organizers and executors of this Recall Bitterness Conference were the "Open Passage Society" core members within the Forbidden Army, including the Advisory Group and so on.

And at the outset of holding it, they were still full of doubts about this form of conference, even suspecting its usefulness.

But after this first Recall Bitterness Conference was successfully held in the East Garden Forbidden Army, they truly recognized its formidable aspects.

With the successful experience.

The second and third naturally unfolded in the South, West, and North Garden Forbidden Armies as well.

Out of certain considerations, Gu Xuan did not participate in the subsequent Recall Bitterness Conferences, but had core confidants deliver the closing summation in his stead.

Perhaps the effect was slightly reduced, but those principles were the same.

And on the other hand.

In the court and the public, the stirrings within the Forbidden Army were still slowly discovered.

For even though Gu Xuan had done his utmost to forge the Forbidden Army system into an existence like an independent kingdom, being so close to the capital region, paper still cannot wrap fire.

For a time, the entire court above and below was as if a huge wave had been stirred up!

At the Grand Court Assembly, numerous ministers, as if by tacit agreement, all demanded a thorough investigation of the Forbidden Army system, especially to ferret out the chief culprit.

Originally speaking, they all represented different aristocratic factions, mutually very much at odds, yet now they spoke with one voice in a rare display.

There were even a portion of extremely shrewd civil ministers who, on the surface, echoed in a lukewarm manner, but in reality watched with cold eyes from the sidelines.

They were all elite figures among aristocratic clan scions, and had long since vaguely perceived something from the changes in the Forbidden Army system.

Similarly, there were some burly old generals standing among the ministers, likewise appearing on the surface to be echoing along, but their eyes flickered with uncertainty.

They were also the spokesmen of the various great families in the army, but these days they had all been either idled or driven out of the Forbidden Army core by Gu Xuan through various means.

The reason they watched with cold eyes was because they all keenly sensed that these changes in the Forbidden Army were very likely due to His Majesty the Zhou King.

This is a natural outcome; no matter how Gu Xuan tried every method to delay, to muddle the court situation, it was difficult to completely conceal.

Being able to delay until this moment was already the result of his painstaking efforts.

And the reason these shrewd civil ministers and generals did not join forces to move against Gu Xuan was mainly twofold.

First, although they had their suspicions, they still did not know exactly what step Gu Xuan truly intended to reach; otherwise, if they knew, they would stop at nothing to assassinate Gu Xuan.

Second, the timing had not yet arrived, and they each had conflicts among themselves, making it difficult to join forces completely in the short term.

And Gu Xuan sat high upon the throne, still putting on an appearance of being unaware.

As long as they had not completely torn face for a single day, he would maintain this posture for a single day, all to delay time as much as possible and buy time for his own basic plate to develop.

Therefore.

He still agreed to the ministers' demands on the surface, just like last time, ordering the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice to jointly organize an investigation team to go "thoroughly investigate" the relevant personnel in the Forbidden Army.

But in fact.

This so-called investigation team, from organizing personnel to approving funds, could be delayed if possible, and saved on if possible.

And Gu Xuan also threw sand into it, guiding various quarrels, delaying to the utmost extent possible.

This was his advantage as the Zhou King His Majesty.

As long as he remained in this position for a single day, as long as the various aristocratic clans had not made up their minds to turn hostile, he could exercise his power/authority to the greatest extent within the scope of his duties.

Back and forth, this project of investigating and dealing with the Forbidden Army system dragged on for a full several months.

Although outside criticism and urging never ceased, the investigation results never came to light.

……

And during this period, a case with extremely great influence and wide circulation occurred inside the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Henei Commandery.

The Chang Family was one of the largest aristocratic clans in the locality, and also a famous major landlord.

Their clansmen alone numbered in the thousands, the tenants farming for them numbered tens of thousands, and they also secretly controlled local industries such as slaughter and silk.

And not only that.

Now in the court, there were also two officials originating from the Chang Family, one old and one middle-aged, both of rank four or above.

It can be said, such a family was one of the typical representatives among the many aristocratic clans inside the Great Zhou Dynasty.

And the Chang Family's family head Chang Mao was a famous "great philanthropist", "great hero" in Henei Commandery.

But for some unknown reason, there happened to be an ungrateful child of about ten years old who ran to the local county yamen to report a case, saying his whole family had been killed by people dispatched by the Chang Family.

According to that reporter's account, his sister worked in the Chang Family's silk factory, and was raped and murdered by the Chang Family's Third Young Master.

And his father and elder brother went to reason with them, but were beaten and injured instead.

That very night, their home suffered an attack by "mountain bandits", almost the entire family was killed, only he alone happened to be out relieving himself and luckily escaped with his life.

The local county yamen accepted this case, and a yamen runner who had earned military merit and came from a border army background temporarily took in this child who reported the case.

Unexpectedly, that very night.

This yamen runner with a strong sense of justice had his head chopped off by someone, and that child who reported the case was also killed!

This yamen runner's father had also been an old soldier, naturally unwilling to let it rest, he went to the next level up, the prefectural yamen, to report the case, but was chopped to death in front of the prefectural yamen, and the murderer committed suicide on the spot!

Such bloody and ruthless methods, for a time, actually deterred some people.

However.

A few days after the incident, a minor officer in the Forbidden Army returned to his hometown to visit relatives, and while sitting idly with local constables, heard of this matter, and was exceptionally angry.

The Forbidden Army minor officer flared up in anger, "The Chang Family acts so lawlessly and with such blackened hearts, do they not fear the King's law?"

The constable hurriedly stopped him, and even looked around cautiously, saying prudently: "Brother, watch your words, watch your words, this case has no concrete evidence..."

Such words naturally could not convince the Forbidden Army minor officer, "Such scoundrels who commit crimes, sooner or later someone will take them down!"

And present at the scene, there actually happened to be several retainers of the Chang Family, who immediately drew their knives, wanting to kill this Forbidden Army minor officer, and even cut out his tongue!

Fortunately, they had after all still underestimated this Forbidden Army minor officer's martial arts; although they chopped off one of his arms, they were all counter-killed by him!

In the following days, the Chang Family's retainers sent out several waves of people one after another, swearing to thoroughly behead him.

If not for the final moment, when he relied on the Forbidden Army officer plaque on his person to force his way into the local garrison military camp, he would likely have been unable to escape with his life.

It was also precisely because of this.

That this case finally reached Gu Xuan's ears, and spread throughout the entire court and public.

Such rampant and brazen murder, could not help but make people furious!

Even some officials who were also born from high-ranking aristocratic families felt it was a bit excessive.

Everyone just slowly extracts benefits like cutting flesh with a dull knife, but you, Chang Family, this is a bit too brutal, isn't it?!

Facing this case, Gu Xuan at first still followed the usual rules, issuing an edict for the Ministry of Justice to dispatch special case officers, specifically sending people to Henei Commandery to investigate the case details.

And the outbreak of this case also, to a certain extent, temporarily diverted some of the attention of the court above and below away from the Forbidden Army system.

Because very soon, two months later.

The Ministry of Justice officers tried and determined that several dozen of the Chang Family's servants were the principal culprits of this case; including the rape-murder and the killings, all were done by these people.

These people were also brought back to the Imperial Capital, awaiting execution after autumn.

As for the Chang Family's Third Young Master, he was sentenced to exile for ten years.

And the other Chang Family clansmen, even the Chang Family's patriarch Chang Mao, all had nothing to do with this case.

This kind of result, in the eyes of the common people, was obviously handling it leniently.

Although they universally felt anger, they were also very helpless, because this is the norm on this piece of land today.

And in the eyes of the many aristocratic clans, exiling a Chang Third Young Master was already a remarkable concession; could it be they really had to kill a high-ranking official's son, or even pursue more people, for a few lowly commoners?

If not for the Zhou King His Majesty paying attention to this case, perhaps not even the Chang Third Young Master would have been exiled, and they would have merely disposed of a few servants.

But this kind of result, ultimately, from the root, was not accepted by Gu Xuan.

He also could not possibly accept this kind of handling result!

Following a single order, a cold gate disciple was specially promoted to be a Ministry of Justice special case officer, and accompanied by five hundred Forbidden Army soldiers, rushed to Henei Commandery to retry this case.

Such a thunderous move could not help but make many people look sideways.

Even the Quanrong Tribe envoys took notice of this matter, relaying it back to the distant Quanrong royal court via carrier pigeon.

And several months later.

That Cold-gate official who deeply understood Gu Xuan's intent, under the powerful martial deterrence of a full five hundred elite Forbidden Army soldiers, arrested the entire Chang Family — which had committed countless evils and done wicked deeds for many years — bringing them all to justice!

Not trying the case would have been fine; but once tried, it uncovered the Chang Family's involvement in murder and extermination of households, violent monopoly, bribery of officials, and numerous other charges.

This was practically a local tyrant family running rampant in the region!

However.

Even under such circumstances, there were still some Criminal Law Expert officials who wanted to cite the saying "Punishment Does Not Reach the Great Clans" and submit memorials advocating lenient punishment for the Chang Family.

But perceiving Gu Xuan's iron-blooded will, they ultimately held back.

Finally.

Throughout the entire Chang Family, all who were guilty were either beheaded or exiled, practically uprooted to the last root!

And the Ministry of Justice officials previously dispatched there were likewise tried and found guilty of bribery, and beheaded in public.

And not only that.

At Gu Xuan's special instruction, all the inner details of this case were published in installments in the Court Gazette, fully exposing the Chang Family's layer upon layer of crimes.

As a result, the Court Gazette's sales volume in the marketplace once again surged greatly, its influence far surpassing the past.

Even remote prefectures, as well as the Quanrong Tribe beyond the borders, and the many small tribes of the North Border, began to pay attention to the Great Zhou Dynasty's Court Gazette.

Under such circumstances.

Gu Xuan struck while the iron was hot, having the Court Gazette reveal more of the Aristocratic Clans' true faces.

Such a move would certainly make those high gates even more vigilant, yet it could also awaken more of the bottom-level commoners.

This is a weighing of gains and losses, and Gu Xuan ultimately chose the latter, for sooner or later this step had to be taken.

(Chapter End)