Chapter 8: Purging the Traitors

"Who leaked the information today?"

In front of the sleeping quarters.

More than twenty house servants and six maidservants stood in two rows.

"..."

Upon hearing this, the house servants and maidservants looked at one another; not a single person spoke.

"Hmph, this Prince will give you one chance to confess yourselves. But if I have to find out myself, I will make it so that your cries to heaven go unanswered and your pleas to the earth go unheard," Zhao Xu threatened.

The house servants and maidservants remained silent.

But the expressions of some had already changed.

"You truly do not shed tears until you see the coffin. Liu Fu, go bring Zhang Han here!" Zhao Xu said angrily.

"Yes, Your Highness." Liu Fu turned and left.

Before long, four guards in Armor escorted Zhang Han and the guarding house servant to the sleeping quarters.

Upon seeing Zhao Xu, the bodies of both men began to tremble slightly.

One day.

Zhao Xu had thoroughly seized control of the Yan Prince Mansion, and he had been reduced to a prisoner.

Now, their lives and deaths rested solely on a single thought from Zhao Xu.

"Your Highness, spare my life, Your Highness, spare my life..."

Zhang Han no longer possessed his usual arrogant demeanor.

His face was covered in tears and snot.

The guarding house servant was the same, shivering and unable to utter a single word.

They could never have imagined that a mad Imperial Prince would recover his sanity overnight.

While Zhao Xu was insane, they had been able to control the Yan Prince Mansion, and even the entire Yan Commandery, by keeping him under house arrest.

But now, standing before them was the dignified Ninth Prince of the Great Song, the Yan Wang of Yan Commandery.

Before such a Zhao Xu, they no longer possessed any power.

"Spare your lives? Hmph, this Prince will at most let you die with some dignity," Zhao Xu sneered.

Imprisoning the Yan Wang and bullying his maidservants—this crime was equivalent to treason.

"Your Highness, spare my life, Your Highness, spare my life..."

Hearing this, Zhang Han became even more pathetic, kowtowing like a pestle pounding garlic.

Zhao Xu swept his gaze over the group of house servants and maidservants.

Those with guilty consciences felt as if they had been struck by lightning when they met Zhao Xu's eyes.

Unable to bear it any longer, three house servants and two maidservants immediately knelt down.

"Your Highness, spare our lives. It was us who leaked the news; we were forced into it..."

Zhao Xu looked at them coldly. "Confess truthfully: who did you report the news to today?"

"It was the Zhang Family, the Huang Family, and the Du Family," one house servant said.

"Grand Tutor Zhang said that if we didn't listen to him, our families wouldn't be able to survive," a maidservant cried out in grief.

Zhang Han hung his head.

Just after he arrived in Yan Commandery, Zhang Qian had sent someone to invite him to his residence.

After flipping through the genealogy, the two discovered they were actually distant relatives.

Upon learning from Zhang Han that Zhao Xu was insane, the two secretly colluded to plot the wealth of the Yan Prince Mansion.

Beyond that, he also used the authority of the Yan Prince Mansion to issue multiple administrative orders to profit the Zhang Family.

In return, the Zhang Family gave him eight thousand taels of Silver as a reward.

Zhao Xu looked at Zhang Han. "You have certainly done quite a few good deeds. Will you confess yourself, or shall we use torture first?"

In the Capital City, Zhang Han had originally been a profligate; he had bribed the great eunuch Liang Cheng in the palace to obtain this position.

He was never a man of any backbone.

Now that he had fallen into Zhao Xu's hands, he was scared nearly out of his wits.

Hearing that torture was to be used, he nearly lost control of his bowels.

Like beans spilling from a container, he confessed everything he had done over the past three months.

As Zhao Xu listened, his expression grew increasingly ugly.

In the end, he was so furious that he stood up and kicked Zhang Han.

"Not only did you sell off this Prince's farmland, you actually sold the salt permits of Yan Commandery, sold the mines, and dared to impose additional taxes to make up for the tax arrears of the Zhang, Huang, and Du families, and launched massive corvée labor to reclaim wasteland for those three families!" Zhao Xu kicked him again and again.

These orders had been issued in the name of the Yan Prince Mansion.

By now, the commoners of the entire Yan Commandery likely hated the Yan Prince Mansion to the bone.

This shook the very foundation of his rule over Yan Commandery.

How could he not be furious?

"Your Highness, please calm your anger; it is not worth damaging your health," Feng'er advised from the side.

Liu Fu said, "Your Highness, I fear the things Zhang Han sold cannot be reclaimed. After all, these were legitimate transactions, and the Zhang, Huang, and Du families will not spit them back out."

He paused, then said, "However, the ruined reputation of the Yan Prince Mansion can be restored. We only need to..."

Liu Fu made a throat-slitting gesture.

Zhao Xu nodded; he had already thought of this.

To appease the anger of the commoners of Yan Commandery, he could only make use of Zhang Han's head.

Glancing at the half-dead Zhang Han, Zhao Xu signaled for the guards to drag him away.

He then said to the servants and maids who had confessed, "The Prince Mansion can no longer tolerate you. Go to the front courtyard, receive thirty strokes of the cane each, pack your things, and get out of the Prince Mansion."

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your mercy in sparing our lives." The servants and maids wept and wailed as they rose and left.

Facing those who remained, he said, "Remember this: from now on, as long as you follow this Prince with unwavering loyalty, this Prince will not treat you unfairly. But if you harbor ulterior motives, I will show no mercy."

"Yes, Your Highness." The crowd felt a tightening in their hearts and hurriedly bowed as they spoke.

The eyes of Luan'er and Feng'er were filled with little stars as they looked at Zhao Xu.

Luan'er said, "Your Highness is so majestic; you truly look like a Yan Wang now."

Feng'er's gaze flickered, her face full of smiles.

They had already resigned themselves to their fate, never expecting that Heaven would play such a joke on them—no, it was a grace.

Zhao Xu dealt with the internal traitors and let Liu Fu return as well.

Only Feng'er and Luan'er remained in the bedchamber.

The moon had risen at some unknown time, and Feng'er said, "Your Highness, it is time to rest. This servant will have someone fetch water for Your Highness to bathe."

Having been busy from morning until night, Zhao Xu was also somewhat exhausted, so he nodded.

After washing up.

Feng'er and Luan'er spread the bedding for him again and personally served him as he lay down, letting him experience for the first time the decadent joy of the ancient nobility.

"Do you want to join me?"

Lying on the bed, Zhao Xu patted the side of the bed, deliberately teasing the two.

Having suddenly arrived in ancient times from the modern era, without a mobile phone or a computer, he found the long, long night incredibly boring.

Upon hearing this, the two turned bright red.

Feng'er was shy, but her gaze was burning; Luan'er's head was lowered to her chest.

They both understood that they were Zhao Xu's people, and Zhao Xu could use them at any time.

"Your Highness, please wait a moment." Feng'er pulled Luan'er and left the bedchamber.

But when they returned, wet and fragrant, Zhao Xu was already sleeping soundly.

……

The next day, until the sun reached the willow branches, Zhao Xu woke up leisurely.

Seeing Zhao Xu get up, the expressions on Feng'er and Luan'er's faces were half-smiling, and they then fetched water for him to wash up.

After a simple meal, Zhao Xu left the bedchamber.

Liu Fu was already waiting in the middle courtyard.

He dared not go to the back courtyard because, without orders, no male was allowed to appear there.

"Your Highness, the various Rich Clans of Yan Commandery have sent the documents for the Merchant Association. From now on, our Prince Mansion will exclusively hold forty percent of the profits. In addition, the shares of the other families are all here." Liu Fu handed the documents to Zhao Xu.

Nodding, Zhao Xu scanned them roughly.

The documents also listed the personnel sent by each family, including those for purchasing raw materials, those for ice production, and those for sales.

"Today, these people are heading south to Jinling. What should our Prince Mansion do?"

Zhao Xu thought for a moment, "Just send three Prince Mansion servants to go along."

He had brought the Zhang Family into the Merchant Association after careful consideration; on one hand, it was to extract silver from the Zhang Family, and on the other, it was to deliberately create conflict.

He had already roughly figured out that the current Rich Clans of Yan Commandery were led by the Zhang Family and the Dong Family, divided into two factions.

Therefore, to prevent the other side from taking advantage, both sides would surely keep a close eye on the accounts.

If there were only one family, they would certainly think of deceiving him.

But now, it would be very difficult for any one family to tamper with the accounts.

So the Prince Mansion only needed to send servants to just go through the motions.

"Yes, this servant will go handle it immediately." Liu Fu left.

Zhao Xu arrived outside the gate.

Chang Wei stood outside the main gate like a pillar, staring at passersby as if anyone could be a robber.

"Your Highness, there was no incident last night." Chang Wei had dark circles under his eyes.

Zhao Xu patted his shoulder, "Thank you for your hard work."

"It is my duty, Your Highness." Chang Wei said loudly.

Zhao Xu was quite satisfied with this Commander of the guards, Chang Wei.

He had to thank his Imperial Father for sending such an upright man to his side.

However, this also showed from another perspective the chaos of the current Great Song Dynasty political situation.

Those who were truly capable could not be put to important use.

The entire Imperial Court was filled with sycophants and flatterers.

"Commander Chang, according to the laws, how many men should my Personal Army have?"

As the saying goes, the pen is not as good as the gun.

One reason why the Rich Clans of Yanzhou were so rampant was that the Northern Di Cavalry raided every year, and the Imperial Court was surrounded by enemies on all sides, with its military strength stretched thin.

Therefore, they allowed the Rich Clans of Yanzhou to train private soldiers and build Fortresses to deal with the Northern Di people; the Rich Clans of Yan Commandery had not only money but also private soldiers.

And the consequence of doing so was that the separatist forces in Yanzhou became even more rampant.

"Replying to Your Highness, according to the laws, a total of twenty thousand men can be maintained."

"Then do you want to be the Great General of my Personal Army?" Zhao Xu said indifferently.

Upon hearing this, Chang Wei's heart rate accelerated rapidly, but he said, "Your Highness is joking. What virtue or ability do I have to be the Great General of the Yan Prince Mansion's Personal Army?"

Zhao Xu thought to himself that he was still pretending, so he said casually, "Since that is the case, I will choose someone else."

"I feel that I could also give it a try." Chang Wei said hurriedly, smiling sheepishly.

"Mm, that's right; a soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a qualified soldier." Zhao Xu stood with his hands behind his back, looking like a sage.

For him, he now had Silver.

The first thing to do was naturally to build up the army; political power grows out of the barrel of a gun, a principle that remains unchanged through the ages.

Otherwise, the Silver he earned would ultimately be making wedding clothes for others.

And with a Personal Army, only then could he take control of Yan Commandery in the next step and finish off the Rich Clans that defied him.

"A soldier who doesn't want to be a general is not a good soldier." Chang Wei recited this sentence, which stirred up the aspirations he had when he first joined the army.

Once, he too had been full of hot blood, wanting to serve the Imperial Court.

But that blood had cooled amidst the deceit and treachery in the army; now, Zhao Xu's words ignited the dead volcano in his heart like a thunderclap.