Wu Zhou's "Custom Order" stipulated that brocade, damask, gauze, silk, cotton, silk, cloth, oxtail, pearls, gold, silver, and iron were not allowed to trade with the west, north, and the states along the border. These items were prohibited from trading among the people even during peace between the two states. These were items sold by the government.
Those who violated this rule and traded privately with foreigners would be punished as thieves and exiled for three thousand miles. Those who traded in weapons would be sentenced to death. And this was still a normal time of trade between the two states during peace. Now that Wu Zhou and Tubo were enemies and the two states often had wars, one could imagine how serious the crime would be if they traded the above items privately.
With this crime, the corruption, bribery, and other crimes that Yang Fan, Hu Yuanli, and Chen Dong originally collected were almost negligible. Based on their original crimes, their helpers in the imperial court could still move around and try to minimize a big problem. But when it came to smuggling prohibited items, especially weapons, with foreign countries, those people would avoid it and no one dared to meddle.
Zhang Changzong made a big arrest in Chang 'an. Many officials were his guests yesterday, but today they became prisoners. When Zhang Changzong made his move, all the preparations that Chen Dong and Hu Yuanli had made previously came in handy. Zhang Changzong did not arrest one person for interrogation and then arrest the relevant officials after he had a result. Instead, he arrested a group of people at once.
The arrested officials were all locked up in the imperial army camp outside the Xuanwu Gate, guarded by the Thousand Horsemen Camp and the Left Imperial Guard brought by Zhang Changzong. For the sake of safety, Zhang Changzong moved to the Imperial Army's camp while he was carrying out the arrest. If someone used a crossbow to deal with him, even if he had many experts by his side, he could not guarantee his safety. He did not want to follow in Yang Fan's footsteps.
Among the officials, gentry, dignitaries, and relatives that Zhang Changzong arrested, the first to bear the brunt were the people on the list that Zheng Yu had provided to Shen Mu, and Shen Mu had passed to Gu Zhuting through Abdullah.
One by one, officials who had connections with the aristocratic families were arrested on charges of smuggling, corruption, bribery, and so on. Some of them were people who had extremely high integrity and could not have had anything to do with these things, but they were also arrested on charges of forcibly associating with the aristocratic families. If Zheng Yu still did not understand what had happened at this point, then he was really hopelessly stupid.
Zheng Yu was shocked and angry, and immediately wanted to fight back. He also had a name list in his hands. This name list was sealed with wax and wax. Unless it was a critical moment, even he couldn't open it. Now that the Sect Masters of the Obvious and Hidden Sects had betrayed the aristocratic families, wasn't this the most critical moment?
He opened the list without hesitation. On the list were some important figures that belonged to the Obvious and Hidden Sects. However, the aristocratic families could bypass the Obvious and Hidden Sects and directly control them. Although the Obvious and Hidden Sects had Sect Masters in charge of the overall situation, it was impossible for such a large organization to have a Sect Master personally attend to everything. These people were all important figures in charge of specific aspects.
Some of them had tyrannical martial power, and some of them controlled the core of the Obvious and Hidden Sects. As long as he mobilized these people, he could use them to quickly kill the Sect Masters of the two sects without causing the Obvious and Hidden Sects to collapse. However, Zheng Yu, who felt as if he had obtained a treasure, quickly discovered that the name list in his hands was only an obituary!
Lin Yuhan, Wu Ran, Cui Fu, Wu Dong, Zhang Xing, Zhu Mingyong, Zhou Si, Wu Ning, Li Jianing, Gao Yunlong, Feng Rao … Each of them was either a famous scholar whose name shook an area, an ambitious and ruthless character of the underworld, or a local celebrity of a prefecture or a place, but they were all dead!
It was as if the Grim Reaper was racing with Zheng Yu. Everywhere he went, he only saw a cold corpse. Some had already been put into a coffin, and some had just been killed when he rushed over. He was just a step too late. A moment ago, those were still living people, people with power and influence.
Zheng Yu was unable to restrain his anger. He was like a night owl that came for no reason. As he visited again and again, he only saw corpses. He thought that the next person to be assassinated would be him, but he was still safe and sound. He was still walking through the streets, watching Zhang Changzong capture people, Chen Dong capture people, Hu Yuanli capture people, and watching unknown people kill people!
He knew that the people who killed people were definitely Shen Mu and Yang Fan, but he didn't know when Shen Mu and Yang Fan had obtained such a secret force. Even if the aristocratic families only had one spy in every department of the Obvious and Hidden Sects, it was impossible to not leak any information when they used so many people to kill so many people at the same time.
However, this time, there really wasn't any information leaked. Where did this group of men of sacrifice who came and went without a trace, acted viciously, and didn't hesitate to commit suicide once they were captured come from? When did Yang Fan and Shen Mu nurture such a group of men of sacrifice?
Yang Fan had only been the Patriarch of the Obvious Sect for two years, and these men of sacrifice definitely weren't his. It could only be Shen Mu. Shen Mu might be the founder of the Hidden Sect, but he didn't lack the aristocratic families' spies. To nurture so many men of sacrifice who were extremely skilled and loyal, who were willing to die for their masters, how could it be hidden from others?
To nurture such a group of men of sacrifice, it didn't just require time, wealth, and authority. If he wanted to avoid the spies of the aristocratic families and not let anyone notice, how meticulous of a plan, how long of a preparation, how deep of a mind, and how meticulous of a scheme did he need?
Zheng Yu didn't suspect the Guanlong Aristocratic Family at all because the Guanlong Aristocratic Family and the Shandong aristocratic families were like oil and water. The two couldn't mix. The Obvious and Hidden Sects' Patriarchs might have betrayed their judgment, but the soil they lived in and the environment they adapted to were still firmly branded with the Shandong aristocratic families' brand. It was impossible for the Guanlong Aristocratic Family to trust and support them so much.
But he didn't expect that this force came from the Guanlong Aristocratic Family, which he thought was impossible, and the person who mobilized this force was Yang Fan, whom he thought was impossible. He didn't know that Yang Fan had been treated as a son-in-law by the Guanlong Aristocratic Family because of the Minister of Internal Affairs in the palace. He didn't know that the Dugu Aristocratic Family had an extraordinary woman who had a discerning eye and had long been acting as a go-between for Yang Fan.
When the last person on the list that he treated like a treasure was announced dead, Zheng Yu tore up the list in frustration. Shen Mu and Yang Fan didn't have such a list in their hands, so the people that were purged from the Obvious and Hidden Sects weren't limited to the people on the list.
These people were people that the various aristocratic families viewed as absolutely reliable. After a long period of observation and analysis, Shen Mu and Yang Fan had decided on a group of people that they believed to be reliable. For example, other than that Mountain Elder Lin from Yingzhou Academy in the Sky Observation Division, the rest of the famous elders were included.
As for those who held important positions in the eyes of the aristocratic families and the Obvious and Hidden Sects, they were all on the list of people that Yang Fan and Shen Mu wanted to purge. They would rather kill the wrong person than let them go! It was precisely because of this that Shen Mu and Yang Fan's purge could be so clean.
This game of chess had already ended. Zheng Yu didn't need to count his moves to know that he had suffered a crushing defeat. He found Shen Mu resentfully. He wanted to know why!
"I have never thought of betraying, and I have never betrayed!" Shen Mu answered calmly in the face of Zheng Yu's angry questioning.
Miss Qiqi didn't show herself. Her man had a conflict with her maiden family, so it wasn't appropriate for her to show herself no matter what.
Zheng Yu said angrily, "Isn't this considered betrayal?"
"Of course not. We just want more independent power, and not become dispensable pawns in the hands of the aristocratic families that can be sacrificed at any time!"
Shen Mu said calmly, "Yang Fan and I are different from that Young Master Lu. We don't have a powerful aristocratic family supporting us, so we have no way out. Do you dare to say that the aristocratic families didn't connive with the Obvious and Hidden Sects when they were fighting? "
Shen Mu sneered, "They wanted to weaken the two sects, afraid that we wouldn't be able to escape. Young Master Lu lost the battle in Chang 'an, but did I win? I was sent to Xinluo. If it wasn't for Longxi's Old Grandpa Li's support, and if it wasn't for me opening up a new trade route for the aristocratic families in Xinluo, I would have been abandoned. "
Shen Mu's gaze sharpened. "From then on, I decided that I would never be a pawn that could be manipulated by others!"
The hall was silent. After a while, Shen Mu said coldly, "And Yang Fan is even worse than me. Although I'm not a noble son of heaven like Young Master Lu, I was still nurtured by the aristocratic families. At least I'm treated as one of them, even if it's an insignificant one. But what about Yang Fan? Have you ever acknowledged him? He's just a substitute under special circumstances and can be abandoned at any time. So, I hit it off with him! "
Shen Mu leaned back on the chair and said, "However, this has nothing to do with betrayal! The aristocratic families need the Successor Hall, and the Successor Hall needs the aristocratic families even more! We just want to change our subservient relationship to … cooperation! "
Zheng Yu clenched his fists and sneered, "But we don't need you anymore. Even if you control the Successor Hall, we don't need you! The aristocratic families can nurture you, but they can also abandon you at any time! "
Shen Mu smiled and said, "Maybe they didn't need us at first, but ever since you gave me that name list, they need us! They lost those people. If they lose us as well, then they will need at least thirty years to recover. Thirty years may not be much to a thousand-year-old aristocratic family, but it is very important to them! "
Deep regret surged in Zheng Yu's heart.
Shen Mu leisurely said, "When it's time to lower one's head, even the Emperor will lower his head. Rather fighting to the death for a moment of pleasure, this is the bravery of a common man, and not the demeanor of an aristocratic family!"
… …
There was a long table in front of Yang Fan. The table was piled with things. They were not gold, pearls, and jade treasures, but account books. However, every piece of paper and every line of words in these account books was worth a thousand taels of gold. House deeds, land deeds, documents, city records, these were all there, but they were not the most important. The most important thing was the name list. Every name on the list meant a sum of wealth, a network, or a group of people that could be used.
Yang Fan gently stroked the things on the table and muttered to himself, "I knew that the Prominent Clan was very powerful, but only today did I know just how powerful it is! And this is just a Prominent Clan. The foundation of a thousand-year-old aristocratic family is really incomparably strong. "
Gu Zhuting curiously asked, "Ah Lang, how much are these things worth?"
Yang Fan said, "Some of these things can be measured with money, but some can't. If you need an example … Let me put it this way, if you have the things on this table, you can establish your own country in the Western Region in the blink of an eye. At most three years, you can become a Queen that dominates the Western Region! "
Gu Zhuting turned her eyes and smiled, saying sweetly, "Why not Ah Lang be the King?"
Yang Fan sighed, "I already have the will but the strength to be the Sovereign. I can't be the ruler of a country."
Gu Zhuting knelt on one knee in front of Yang Fan and looked up at him affectionately, saying, "Ah Lang is the King in my heart, and always will be!"
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