Chapter 176: Assassination and the Great Purge!

"The opportunity won't wait, time won't come again, we can't drag this out any longer!"

"Can't you see? They've already put a knife to your throat!"

"At a time like this, who cares whether he's a king or not? It's either him dead or us destroyed!"

In the secret chamber.

Under the dim, flickering lamplight, a sinister figure spoke, his tone thick with killing intent.

And his treasonous words drew nods or murmurs of agreement from almost every conspirator present.

"For now, we must divide our forces into two routes."

"The first route: set explosives at the Wang Gongchang intersection—that's the road they must take on their way back to the palace."

"When that benighted king's carriage passes, light the explosives at once."

"The second route: head to the palace and seize the Empress Dowager, Wang Taifu, and the others."

"This route is of paramount importance; we cannot afford failure, otherwise our plan to install a new king will be hard to convince the people."

Someone raised an objection to this.

"The palace's senior guard commander, Gong Xin, is a confidant personally appointed by that benighted king—how can any of us get past him?"

To this, the sinister speaker who had spoken earlier showed no hesitation, but turned to look at a portly old man beside him.

"No matter. My Yang Family naturally has dark agents hidden among the palace guard partial generals."

"When the time comes, the palace route will be handled mainly by my Yang Family."

The portly old man had kind eyebrows and benevolent eyes, looking like a trustworthy elder from next door.

At this moment, he spoke calmly and slowly, with an indescribable confidence and composure.

Seeing this man speak, everyone in the secret chamber felt greatly reassured, and many of their earlier doubts were largely dissolved.

For this portly old man was of extraordinary status, a member of the aristocratic Yang Clan.

One of his specific roles was the chief steward of the Yang Family's mansion in the Imperial Capital.

The Yang Clan was absolutely one of the great aristocratic clans of the Great Zhou Dynasty, wielding power across Tian Xia; for hundreds of years they had flourished and multiplied, with as many as eight clansmen holding the rank of the Three Dukes, and their disciples and former subordinates spread across Tian Xia.

Even the power minister family of the Sima Clan, in the process of usurping great power, had formed marriage alliances with great families like the Yang Clan and ceded not a few benefits.

Even after Gu Xuan began personally ruling for over a year, he had not acted rashly or moved against the Yang Clan.

Once the portly old man spoke, it was like a decisive hammer strike, making the conspirators' plotting proceed more smoothly.

And time was precious; before long, they finally reached a roughly complete plan!

Their plan was direct and violent.

That is, first use a large quantity of gunpowder to blow up Gu Xuan, this iron-blooded and powerful Zhou King, and disguise this assassination as a counterattack by the Sima Clan Remnants.

Then, another group would seize the Empress Dowager and others in the palace, preparing to install a new king.

Of course, this new king must be young and easy to control.

Thus, most of the great power of the entire Great Zhou Dynasty would fall into the hands of the various aristocratic clans, continuing their lofty and transcendent status.

In fact.

To these conspirators, such a decisive measure was a last resort.

Among them were Forbidden Army commanders stripped of military power by Gu Xuan, and idle civil officials.

But whatever their status, they were basically spokesmen of the aristocratic clans at court, and some were even born of high-ranking officials' sons.

It was just that before this, they had been cautious enough not to leave too many ties with the Sima Clan, nor committed any unpardonable crimes.

Therefore.

Gu Xuan could only temporarily move these people out of the center of power, and could not physically eliminate them without reason.

Otherwise, Gu Xuan would truly become a benighted ruler, only disrupting court order and frightening the commoners who should have been allies.

But to these conspirators, that is, those fallen figures of the aristocratic factions, losing power and status was more unbearable than death.

And not only that.

Among the aristocratic clans, though there were no lack of dissolute heirs, there were also no lack of men of stratagem.

Among them, some had already been able to vaguely guess Gu Xuan's true plot from some clues.

That is, to thoroughly solve the aristocratic clans!

Though some of this was hard to believe!

But various signs showed that the current Zhou King His Majesty's many measures were advancing toward this goal!

After realizing this, these aristocratic elites naturally would not sit and await death, but must launch a counterattack.

And therefore, after Gu Xuan destroyed the Sima Family and pacified the Jie Tribe.

He would ultimately still have to confront this colossus of the various aristocratic clans head-on!

This was an inevitable result that would not shift with people's will!

Even though over the past year, Gu Xuan had tried every method, using drag-out tactics, hiding behind the scenes, and so on, only to give his own side more time to develop.

But times changed; with the spread of the Open Passage Society, and with the growing strength of this Zhou King His Majesty's direct forces.

He could ultimately no longer continue to keep a low profile, but must formally step onto the stage of confrontation!

On this day.

Because of the Empress Dowager's birthday, the current Zhou King His Majesty, long stationed at the Forbidden Army camp, was finally to return to the palace.

The carriage procession gleamed, setting out from the camp outside the city all the way.

Under the protection of hundreds of elite Forbidden Army troops, they entered the city through the Desheng Gate of the northern gate of the Imperial Capital, passed through the North Ward, went by Food Street, and so on, unhurried, heading toward the palace direction.

Not far ahead was the Wang Gongchang road section.

And at the center of this road section stood a flat stone bridge, beneath which was an inner city moat.

As the Zhou King His Majesty's carriage was about to reach that stone bridge, in the eyes of some people not far away, looks of excitement and anticipation involuntarily appeared!

However.

Just at this moment, the carriage suddenly stopped and no longer advanced.

Seeing this scene, the eyes of those originally filled with anticipation went straight, their breathing nearly halting!

One breath, two breaths, three breaths……

Yet the carriage seemed to have encountered some mishap, stopping just like that.

And in the very next moment.

Among the armored warriors around the carriage, two people of exceptionally agile skill emerged from who knows where, each hugging a strange water tank; in just a few arrow-steps they arrived before the stone bridge.

As two streams of water spouted forth, a small dwarf soaked all over, crying out strangely, was seized out by those two light-armored soldiers.

And all the onlookers present clearly saw that on that small dwarf's body were shockingly wrapped several firecrackers, only soaked through by water!

"This……"

Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air.

Could it be, this is an assassin intending to use explosives to commit murder?

And indeed, as several more armored warriors stepped forward and together lifted up a few stone slabs on the stone bridge, shockingly revealed within were several extremely dangerous gunpowder boxes!

In the crowd, a great uproar!

On this land, gunpowder is far from that developed, but this much gathered together is enough to blast out a huge deep pit!

If the Zhou King His Majesty passed over the stone bridge just as the gunpowder exploded, even if he possessed peerless martial power like the High Ancestor, he would likely be blown to death.

This is someone plotting rebellion, wanting to assassinate the King in broad daylight!

In everyone's mind, this sentence flashed in an instant.

And those few armored warriors' movements were also fast; in a moment they used water to soak those few boxes of gunpowder wet, cutting off the possibility of others shooting fire arrows to ignite the gunpowder amidst the chaos.

And not only that.

Almost at the same time, from the hundreds of Forbidden Army behind the royal carriage, several detachments of elite cavalry rapidly galloped out, arresting those dozens of aristocratic family retainers restless with anticipation in the crowd.

These retainers' martial prowess is naturally not low; against ordinary commoners they count as experts capable of fighting many alone.

But against elite elite cavalry, they are naturally like clay chickens and tile dogs, most captured in a few exchanges, the rest resisting fiercely also killed on the spot.

And just as this rebellion shock occurred here at Wang Gongchang.

In other places of the Imperial Capital, earth-shattering changes also respectively erupted!

First is the Wang Gong there, that guard Partial General intending to cause trouble and his subordinates, were controlled by the guard chief general loyal to the royal house, unable to stir up any incident.

Second.

Those ten-odd rebellious aristocratic clan mansions were all surrounded tightly by elite cavalry.

After proclaiming the decree, the elite cavalry leader waved his right hand, beginning the confiscation of property.

……

With the imprisonment and confessions of relevant personnel, and the official gazette's detailed disclosure of this major rebellion case.

The hundreds of millions of commoners within the entire Great Zhou Dynasty gained an even deeper understanding of the utter madness of the aristocratic clans participating in this case!

Participating in this case were the Yang Clan, Yun Clan, Ma Clan and other great aristocratic families, as well as old generals like the former Forbidden Army Commander.

Also four or five other second-rate aristocratic clans.

But whichever one, all are old aristocratic clans, old aristocratic families that have continued for many years within the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Each and every one intermarried with each other, roots tangled, and even some with marital ties to the royal house.

These people knew the Zhou King His Majesty's martial power is peerless; ordinary arrows, crossbows, knives, spears, etc., are hard to take effect.

Therefore, they secretly obtained gunpowder from their treasuries, intending to assassinate, then coerce the Empress Dowager and others, to enthrone a young ruler.

Such a mad scheme, if not for Gu Xuan having long established the National Protection Guard and long since monitored those discontented idle Forbidden Army generals, etc., they might truly have suffered a great loss.

Under the official gazette's voluminous reporting.

For a time, the entire dynasty's public sentiment was roused.

Even some aristocratic families felt these rebels went too far.

Of course.

In the south where aristocratic power is most terrifying, recent official gazette distributions have all been suppressed.

Resulting in the number of commoners knowing of this major case not being many.

But here in the north near the Imperial Capital, after several purges, aristocratic power ultimately is no longer that strong, and the degree to which commoners were mobilized is also higher.

Against this background.

The "Open Passage Society" group headed by Gu Xuan struck while the iron was hot, finally launching preliminary actions.

On one hand, they formally and widely published various articles in the official gazette.

Including exposing the various crimes of the aristocratic clans, their erosion and harm to the entire nation.

Among them there is one sentence, Gu Xuan requested it be specially added in the last paragraph.

"The basic characteristic of the Gate Valve Era is the closure of the upward passage."

This sentence, somewhat neither classical nor vernacular, seems somewhat not matching the literary style on this land, yet is direct and clear, letting the vast majority of commoners deeply understand its meaning.

This is also an obvious fact.

Any adult, even if illiterate, can see this point through the phenomenon "the poor and pure are muddy like mud, the high-ranking good generals are timid like chickens".

Additionally.

In the official gazette, the "Open Passage Society's" various platforms were also continuously published, clearly displaying the vision of building a fair and just Open Passage society.

The publication of these articles is almost equivalent to the battle manifesto of the "Open Passage Society" headed by Gu Xuan!

They, to the major landlords, major aristocratic clans, major aristocratic families that have continued for thousands of years on this land, clearly declared the bugle call of battle!

Undoubtedly.

These actions stirred up a tremendous uproar throughout the entire Great Zhou Dynasty!

For a time, the hearts of the people in the many northern prefectures and counties were unsettled, with quite an atmosphere of turmoil and unrest.

And the old nest of the aristocratic clan forces — that is, the South — even showed a tendency to break away from the central court.

In fact.

All of this was within Gu Xuan's expectations.

But he still chose to do so, for the timing was now mature; continuing to bury his head in recuperation would instead be no longer suitable for the situation.

Now, his basic plate had already developed to a certain degree, and he could let go and begin to act.

First step.

Gu Xuan carried out a thorough rectification of the central court in the Imperial Capital.

Numerous idle, salary-drawing court officials were cleaned out; those investigated and found guilty of crimes were even imprisoned and sentenced.

Among these people, a small number were of Cold Gate origin, but the vast majority were scions of aristocratic families.

They each had their say; their effect staying in their posts was negligible, even negative.

After stabilizing the situation in the Imperial Capital.

Second step.

Gu Xuan dispatched special task forces, each protected by a certain number of Forbidden Army soldiers, to carry out a unified cleanup of the aristocratic families in the various northern prefectures and counties.

Among them, more than half of the aristocratic clans had already had criminal evidence uncovered against them by the secretly dispatched Protectorate Tiqi beforehand.

Crimes such as the Cao Transport Gangs, Mine Evil Forces, violent usury, Qian Qu Hao Duo of good farmland, and so on — countless offenses, all were among the means by which the great clans on this land sought profit.

Under the powerful crackdown dispatched by Gu Xuan, it was as if a campaign sweeping across the North had been launched, distributed among the large and small prefectures and counties.

Among this, naturally there was no lack of violent resistance from these evil forces, for the retainers raised by the various aristocratic clans were also desperate villains.

But facing fully armed, seamlessly coordinated elite Forbidden Army and Tiqi, they naturally could not make a stir and were quickly swept clean one by one.

Of course.

Among the aristocratic clans, there naturally were also some families that had not committed crimes, merely due to years of accumulation they were wealthy and populous, forces of great local influence.

But as time passed, these so-called law-abiding families would naturally also develop into those previous aristocratic clans in the future.

This is a fixed rule of thousands of years, never changed!

For these great families, Gu Xuan's adopted method was to relocate them to Mao Ling near the Imperial Capital.

The purpose of doing so was naturally to pull the firewood from under the cauldron for these hard-to-eradicate local snakes, uprooting them from their inherent spheres of influence.

The seemingly gentle aspect lies in allowing but forcing local tyrants to wear their family wealth and migrate to places near the capital.

Thus, it is both convenient for supervision and winning over, and also frees up space locally.

Local tyrants and those with slightly higher assets were all uprooted; then the organizational networks they established locally were dismembered, the commoners at the bottom gained room to rise, and the nation also gained more vitality.

A full half-year and more, the entire nation's North was in full swing.

But in the South, it was a completely different scene!

(Chapter End)