The third emperor of the Sui Dynasty

Chapter 915 Decline (seeking tickets)
Also at the same night, in Wanghai Town, Liaodong, a group of about [-] strong young men marched northwest along the official road with swords and torches. Personnel from the five factions of "Liangxiang", "Chenghou" and "Yuanqin", according to their announcement, will decide the ownership of the pier tonight, so they all came.

In the depths of the forest, Xue Wanshu fixed his eyes on the bandit army on the official road. After receiving the order, he dispersed the soldiers of the Fourth Army and assigned them to problematic counties and towns in Liaodong.

Xue Wanshu personally led [-] people to the most complicated Wanghai Town. After the army was dispersed, all the troops traveled day and night, and finally converged to the vicinity of Wanghai County without any disturbance. After meeting with younger brothers Xue Wanbei and Qiao Shiwang, the army Resting in the jungle, he did not enter Wanghai Town in time.He knew that it would not be difficult to annihilate one or two forces, but the difficulty lies in how to wipe them all out. Today, these thieves finally created opportunities for him by themselves.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Xue Wanshu shouted: "Kill."

The sound of horns in the forest was loud, and thousands of arrows were fired at once. The dense arrows shot out from the forests on both sides. The four thousand bandits without armor were too late to guard against them.

Lu Renxuan, who had brought five Lu's soldiers here for training, was so frightened that he drew out his saber and hissed, "Break out of the siege, go out!"

The sound of killing on both sides of the mountain road was loud, and the front and rear roads were blocked by the Sui army. The arrows in the middle were like a shower of arrows. The bandit army was forced to advance and retreat on the narrow mountain road. Entering the crowd, the soldiers of the bandit army had nowhere to hide, and they were burned to the point of wailing and screaming.

After a few rounds of crossbow arrows, Sui army cavalry charged out from the forest on both sides wielding their spears. Ten thousand cavalry overwhelmingly rushed up the official road in an instant, massacring the chaotic bandit army.

The Bandit Army is a group of five forces. Under the chaos, they were unable to organize an effective resistance. Facing the brave Sui Iron Cavalry, the Bandit Army collapsed after several rounds of charges. Xue Wanshu's purpose was to annihilate them, how could the Sui army let them go, and they chased and killed them by riding horses.

Lu Renxuan was also startled by the killing sounds in the forest and almost fell off his horse, but when he saw the overwhelming Sui army cavalry coming, he immediately understood that the frequent training of the five armies in Wanghai Town had finally attracted the attention of the court, and directly Bypassing the local officials and mobilizing the army to suppress it, it was precisely because no soldiers from Liaodong were used that he was defenseless.

This was a battle without any suspense. Ten thousand elite cavalry faced nearly four thousand unprotected and unarmored rebels. The narrow official roads could not be formed, and the rebels could not form a spear formation against the cavalry.

In addition, the thief army encountered a sneak attack, and the morale of the army was already in turmoil. After a few charges, it quickly collapsed, making the battle a one-sided massacre. The escape route was blocked by the Sui army, and they had no choice but to surrender.

The desperate bandits surrendered one after another, the ground was full of bandits begging for mercy, and the siege ended quickly. The guards either died or surrendered. Lu Renxun was shot in the thigh and fell off his horse.

An ambush was over in less than an hour.

A Zhonglang general rushed to Xue Wanshu and bowed his hands to salute: "General Qi, the bandit army has all surrendered, a total of more than 200 people, and the rest are all dead. No one escaped, and our general has less than [-] wounded soldiers. man, no soldier dies in battle."

Xue Wanshu nodded: "Treat the wounded as much as possible, and bury the dead on the spot, deeper, so as not to be eaten by jackals."

……

At the same time, Liu Zhenghui, who had secretly sneaked into Liucheng, Shuangliao County, was also on the move. The county government was in chaos, and officers and soldiers were arresting everywhere. Almost all prominent officials were in Liucheng County. It was easy to arrest, and many of them made mistakes. Yes, but at this time I don't care about distinguishing, so I arrest them all at once, and then release them after the day breaks and the case is resolved.

Overnight, the situation in Shuangliao County changed drastically. When the soldiers of the Fourth Army copied all the way down the county mansion and found the picturesque and magnificent compound hidden in the jungle deep in the back house, they were also shocked. The rich prefect of Liao Dynasty.In the eunuch's back house alone, mountains of gold, jewels, and countless wealth were copied.

Of course, the top ten legions are the most disciplined troops. Even in normal times, no one dares to take the sheep by hand. At this time, there is a wave of anti-corruption. Anyone who dares to take an item will be liquidated after the war.

From the very beginning, Liu Zhenghui's plan was to catch the culprit, catch the big tiger, and let the little mouse go. In addition, Liu Zhenghui called the officials directly under the village level to the county government in time, explained the situation to them, and let them investigate the case in the court. Soothe the place before appointing new officials.

These people are all officials at the lowest level in the Sui Dynasty, and they communicate directly with the people. As long as they appease the people under their jurisdiction, the place will naturally be stable.Because of this, the political storm that started in Shuangliao County never caused the slightest turmoil in the local area.

This was also Yang Tong's prior instruction.

In Yang Tong's heart, the whole world belongs to him, and no one is more eager and sincere to fight against corruption than him.But officials were established to serve the purpose of ruling, stabilizing the region, and serving politics. He cannot smash all the jars and jars for the sake of a few rats.

Liu Zhenghui only stayed in Shuangliao County for two days, and then went to Lushun and Xiangping counties, where he started on the same day, to appease the place, until the imperial court appointed new officials such as the county guard and the county magistrate, and the Ministry of punishment, the Ministry of Imperial Affairs, and Dali Temple also sent A large number of people dealt with the aftermath, and only then did the criminals with conclusive evidence be escorted back to Beijing.

From Liaodong and Youzhou feudal officials to prefecture and county officials, to the personnel secretly assigned by Fan Yang and Lu to various places to recuperate and recuperate, there are countless victories; there are more than [-] people who were brought back to the capital for interrogation. Of course, Most of these people were members of the seven noble clans, and there were less than a hundred officials. Dozens of these people committed suicide in fear of crime in advance during the escort, but even so, this tornado was just the beginning.

Although some places were not within the scope of Liu Zhenghui's supervision, Ling Jing, Wei Zheng, Yin Hongzhi and other officials assigned to various places also moved their hands at about the same time.

Moreover, this case is too important and involves too many areas. No officials dare to be negligent when handling the case. In addition, the Navy has provided too many clues. It is inevitable that this anti-corruption storm will spread to the surrounding areas.

However, because the court took the lead in planning and collecting evidence, and because the navy came to Hengshen to interrogate the captives and provided the court with a lot of information, the storm came fiercely and retreated quickly.In just one month, the soldiers of the Sui army entered the strongholds of Cui, Lu, Zheng, Li, Wang Pei, Gao, Xiao and other gentry clans in Luoyang, and arrested the main members of all clans.

To a certain extent, this is the real war between the imperial court and the gentry. Everything they did before was just to cut off some superficial forces of the gentry in the name of thieves. Although it can damage the reputation of the gentry, the big gentry It was not that the gentry were saved. They expelled those thieves who were killed by the court from their families one after another, and designated them as scum of the family. A scum, isn't he?

But this time it was different. The imperial court directly arrested all the seven noble families scattered in various places and brought them to Beijing.

As expected by the imperial court, as soon as this incident happened, it set off a storm in the literary world, and the great gentry, who were role models for scholars all over the world, were arrested and imprisoned at the same time.When the scholars of the world were confused, they were puzzled.

Soon the imperial court announced the official documents of the seven noble families selling food, selling weapons and equipment, collaborating with the enemy and treason, and decided to have a public trial of the case.

Without this official document, scholars all over the world will inevitably be in turmoil.Although they do not have the power to overturn the rivers and seas, they hold an iron pen and can write about their dissatisfaction with the court and their intentions to destroy the gentry without evidence and evidence, causing a cultural storm.

But as soon as the official document came out, the situation changed immediately.

Loyalty, filial piety, righteousness, loyalty to the emperor and patriotism are the core ideas of Confucianism.Except for those big nobles who value the interests of their own family more than the country, ordinary scholars still pay more attention to the country and their own family.

What's more, stealing millions of stones of grain from the imperial court and selling it to the enemy country is not much different from supporting the enemy to rebel.

No one is so stupid as to take such a big crime on himself for no reason.

For a while, scholars all over the world were dumbfounded, quietly waiting for the day of the public trial.

The public trial was held at Duanmen Square in Ziwei City, and Yang Tong also visited the scene in person. Seeing the scholars waiting for the trial, he was quite surprised. , this is enough to show that the lofty thousand-year-old gentry has a status in the minds of scholars.

At the beginning of the public trial, the officials of Dali Temple continued to collect evidence for interrogation. With all kinds of hard evidence, various accounts, various correspondence, and witnesses escorted from the Bohai Sea, the patriarchs of Lu Yu, Cui Ling, Zheng Yuancong, etc. There is no room for refutation.

The Criminal Ministry, Imperial Ministry, and Dali Temple issued a verdict based on the facts.

The families of Lu Yu, Cui Ling, and Zheng Yuancong, Lu Renxuan, Lu Maozhi, Zheng Zhongyu, Zheng Fan, etc. were directly executed, and the family members of Cui and Wang were not.

For the crime of stealing national wealth and collaborating with the enemy, this kind of sentence seems to be very light, but it is not.

There are obvious differences between Yang Tong and other emperors in killing. It's not that he was not decisive enough in killing, but that he wouldn't go out of his way to kill unless it really threatened his dynasty.

Although these people deserved to die, but Yang Tong did not intend to kill the culprits, confiscated their property, sent them directly to the island for labor, and the imperial court will display them in the National Library of the Sui Dynasty. The letters, account books, and confessions they have accumulated for generations to harm others will sooner or later become street rats that everyone shouts and beats.And without the reputation of being superior and detached, these people are no different from ordinary people

After this case, the most famous Cui family in Qinghe, Cui family in Boling, Lu family in Fanyang, Zheng family in Xingyang, Wang family in Taiyuan, Li family in Longxi, and Li family in Zhaojun are the natural smelly streets, and other parties involved or not The gentry also suffered disasters because they were tried at the same time, and they have also been declining since then.

Afterwards, when people suddenly looked back, they realized that the imperial court seemed to have turned the cart before the horse. Because before, the imperial court aggressively inspected the granary, but turned around and wiped out the gentry.

Of course, the investigation of the granary continues.But don't go to the big gentry to make secret arrangements. Naturally, the various grain merchants dare not oppose the court at this time, and without the control of the big gentry, they can conduct themselves and do business in an upright manner. How can they dare to offend the court?
In order to concentrate on solving the last anti-king of the puppet Tang Dynasty, Yang Tong concluded the case as soon as possible, so that the court officials could concentrate on the battle of unification.Yang Tong handled it very quickly. In just three days, more than 80 corrupt officials were sentenced to death, 62 people were exiled, and more than [-] people were dismissed or demoted.The matter of following the clues and cleaning up the moths made the Sanju Division continue to follow up, but this time the large-scale verdict is also a signal: the anti-corruption and anti-corruption has come to an end.

Some people of insight also saw the focus of the court from the "hasty" end of this incident.

That is to enter Yizhou with troops and crusade against the puppet Tang Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)