Mythic version of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 7310 There's Always a Clear Answer

Chapter 7310 There's Always a Clear Answer

Those who can sit in this position cannot be fools. These people may be bad, they may be greedy, but the only thing they cannot be is stupid. The stupidity they show is often to cover up other bigger problems, or to put it more directly, there is something unspeakable behind the scenes.

So when the secret guards attacked and stormed into the Chen family of Xiapi overnight, and a battle reportedly broke out, and the entire clan was captured, the entire bureaucratic system of Xuzhou knew that something big had happened, and countless letters of denunciation followed.

"Do you think they're sending this now because they know they're wrong, or because they know they're going to die?" Li Fu picked up a letter from the thick stack of complaint letters, glanced at it briefly, and asked Lu Yu, "Should we follow the principle of leniency for those who confess this time?"

“No, we insist that our secret guards arrest and interrogate one person at a time, and can execute them on the spot.” Lu Yu shook his head and said, “To be honest, I didn’t expect the problem to be solved so simply. All the links in between are perfectly complete thanks to the piecing together of these whistleblower letters. Even the witnesses and things we were still speculating about have now become perfectly complete.”

“After all, no matter how serious the situation was before, Marquis Chen never sent his private troops. The standard used to be the standard for handling matters, but this time it’s not the standard for handling matters. This time it’s the standard for annihilating an entire family.” Li Fu said with a touch of emotion, but in his heart he was even more determined to give his life for Chen Xi.

As a true elite who rose from the bottom, having endured hardship and toil and witnessed the chaos of the past, he understood better than Lu Yu and those high-ranking officials in Chang'an what stance Chen Xi was taking this time. The idea that the people are the most important, the state is secondary, and the ruler is the least important has been around for nearly a thousand years, but who believes it?

No one believed it, and even in later generations, not many believed it. But this time, Chen Xi truly demonstrated his will and showed how he viewed the world and the people. Without any scriptures or laws, he directly revealed his own understanding.

“Interrogate them one by one,” Lu Yu said after a moment of contemplation. “Obtain out all the smuggling routes of the personnel involved in the shipyard and fisheries department in Xuzhou, and then we can report back.”

"Alright." Li Fu nodded, which was roughly in line with his previous prediction.

The millions of acres of rice paddies in Xuzhou, imbued with the essence of heaven and earth, require a vast amount of grain. This is not something that can be obtained through normal channels, nor is it something that Chen Gui could cultivate in three years by digging up three ladlefuls from Yuan Shu. If Chen Gui had such ability, he could find a place to grow this himself and rise to prominence. After all, Yangzhou has been struggling for so many years, and it only covers such a small area.

Therefore, there are only two possible sources for the grain: Yangzhou or Japan. As for Yangzhou, Zhang Song may be a bit ugly, but his abilities are beyond doubt. Over the years, there has never been a problem of rice from Yangzhou being mysteriously lost due to the essence of heaven and earth.

Of course, there's not much to say about Yuan Shu and Liu Zhang loading sacks into their carts to cook porridge for them back home; it's just normal wear and tear that's understandable.

The problem is that even with such high losses, it's still within the normal range. As for Zhang Song's research on the essence of heaven and earth in rice, which greatly increased the yield, and then deducted some of the yield, well, Zhang Song was a governor, not a technician.

If technicians could be coerced like this, Zhang Song would have already gotten promoted and made a fortune if he had actually produced something like this. Given Chen Xi's character, there's no doubt about that. But since Zhang Song didn't produce it, we can assume he didn't.

This is something that Liu Bei and Chen Xi discovered five years ago. It was something that Liu Bei specifically asked Chen Xi to come and see when he found out that the old soldiers from Xuzhou were sending live fish from the coast to Chang'an. How did the old soldiers from Xuzhou manage to send fresh sea fish to Chang'an? They fed the fish rice cakes made with the essence of heaven and earth so that the fish could survive for a longer period of time.

At the time, Chen Xi found it absurd and sent someone to investigate. After confirming that it was not a problem in Yangzhou, he didn't say anything more. After all, it was not incomprehensible for coastal people to go to Japan to exchange for some things. As long as it wasn't serious, Chen Xi wouldn't pursue it further.

Therefore, as long as the loss is within a certain range and the annual amount handed over is still at a normal level, Chen Xi doesn't really care if someone steals some of it. After all, when it comes to food, if someone passes by and feeds it to you, you can't really say anything.

After that, Chen Xi strengthened the management of rice cultivation based on the essence of heaven and earth in the Fusang region. However, the reality of Fusang made it meaningless for Chen Xi to strengthen management, because the Han people treated everyone like royalty!

Even though all the administrators were Han Dynasty officials, the number of officials was far less than the number of ordinary people. Therefore, when Han Dynasty citizens arrived in Japan, they were treated very well.

This led to a loophole being exploited, and Chen Xi, after much thought, decided not to plug this loophole. How many civilians could possibly go there? Even if they stole food, how much could they possibly eat? Oh well, he decided to just have Zhou Yu and the others keep an eye on things and prevent a large fleet from going up.

Focus on the big picture and let go of the small details; manage the channels well. This is Chen Xi's logic, and he has managed them quite well since the fifth year of Yuanfeng. But if the aristocratic families on the coast don't know that there is rice made from the essence of heaven and earth in Fusang, that would be a joke.

Of course they knew that getting a batch of food from Japan wouldn't be a problem for these powerful families, but to say they could bring back several ships to grow crops would be a huge disrespect to the Han dynasty's administrators there. But then a systemic bug occurred last year.

In other words, Zhou Yu, who was in charge of this matter, cut off the internet. At that time, all attention was focused on Southeast Asia. Although there were still people managing things in Japan, the intensity of management was far lower than normal. At least, smuggling of large ships was not a problem.

As the saying goes, sometimes even if you want to do bad things, you need an opportunity. Without last year's incident, even if the Zhao family of Xuzhou and the Chen family of Xiapi brought in rice from Fusang every year like ants carrying grains of heaven and earth, they could not have accomplished something of this scale this year.

Because the Zhao and Chen families who stayed in the country couldn't gather enough grain to grow themselves at once, the rice they brought back, imbued with the essence of heaven and earth, would be used by family members to make porridge.

What tight organization, what strong self-control? What a joke! If they had that level of self-discipline, why would they stay in the country? They would have gone abroad long ago to expand their territory and establish fiefdoms for their families.

To put it bluntly, the members who remain in the local area are either too old, have limited abilities, or are not suitable for developing outside. So if you can't get the grain in one go, even if you store it in your own warehouse, your younger generation will have plenty of ways to eat it all.

Who isn't a direct descendant? The essence of heaven and earth, the rice, has entered our family's storehouse. If we're not allowed to eat it, then it must be that the big boss of our family wants to eat it all by himself. How can we do that!

So sometimes, even if you want to do something bad, you can't just do it because you want to! You need to have the opportunity.

Regardless of the circumstances, smuggling by such a large vessel cannot bypass this state-owned unit, nominally called the Fisheries Department, which is actually also involved in ship management.

More importantly, Li Fu simply did not believe that the Zhao and Chen families had done such a thing, and no one in the Shipbuilding and Fisheries Department knew about it.

"Send someone to interrogate the director of the Shipbuilding and Fisheries Department directly," Li Fu said to the guards of the investigation team who were waiting nearby, putting down the whistleblower letter that could be considered substantial evidence.

The guard bowed, took the documents and seal handed to him by Li Fu, and then quickly led his men to Langya, Donghai and other places. Since it was smuggling, it was not just a matter of one or two places. The evidence was there, but more detailed investigations were still needed.

"How's the situation on your end?" After dispatching all his guards, Li Fu took the remaining materials that he thought were questionable to Lu Yu. The information he had collected in the past few days was enough to replace all the officials in Xuzhou.

"What we need to determine now is whether the executive level, that is, the clerk level, is also involved," Lu Yu sighed. According to the current reports, the best outcome for the Xuzhou officials in this matter is that they are involved in negligence and laziness. Normally, these two issues would not lead to death, but now that Chen Xi really wants to deal with it severely, the outcome is indeed hard to say.

“The executive level can’t withstand the pressure from above. Let’s interrogate the county and prefecture-level officials one by one first,” Li Fu said, shaking his head. “Let’s leave the lower-level officials alone for now and take down all the big ones first.”

“I’m afraid that if we keep arresting them one by one, Xuzhou will become unstable.” Lu Yu’s expression was somewhat heavy. The prison was already overflowing. This was only because the Chen family of Xiapi resisted when they faced the secret guards, and the secret guards rushed in and violently disarmed them, resulting in the deaths of many members of the Chen family of Xiapi. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be a problem of not being able to accommodate everyone.

Although both the Zhao and Chen families were basically confirmed to be facing the extermination of their entire clan, there was a difference in their approach to the matter of the secret guards. The Zhao family offered no resistance after the secret guards appeared and surrendered without resistance. The head of the family involved in the case, after being interrogated by the secret guards, did not say a word and directly committed suicide by drinking poison. It was clear that he knew what he had done. Or to put it more bluntly, although he did not know what it was about, the secret guards came and the imperial edict was read, so he knew that he was finished and left with dignity.

Regardless, Zhao's gatekeepers and guards were at least not as extraordinary as Chen's. How extraordinary Chen's gatekeepers were can be seen from the fate of Han Yuan, who, after seeing the secret guards and realizing something was wrong, rushed from the north to Xiapi overnight to warn Chen.

Furthermore, it wasn't the secret guards of the Chen family of Xiapi who made the first move, nor was it ordered by the main branch of the Chen family of Xiapi. It was the guards of the front courtyard of the Chen family of Xiapi who made the first move under the command of the gatekeeper.

When Lu Yu and Li Fu received the case file afterward, they were completely dumbfounded. Who gave the gatekeeper such audacity? Even if these were ordinary yamen runners, let alone secret guards, if they appeared in a group at the gate of the Chen family in Xiapi, shouldn't the Chen family have opened the gate to accept the investigation? After all, this was not one person, but a group of people, and moreover, a group of people wearing armor!

To put it bluntly, even a high-ranking official in the central government wouldn't react like the Chen family's gatekeeper upon seeing a group of soldiers dressed in fortified uniforms at the gate.

This is also why only half of the Chen family from Xiapi came. After the other side made their move, the secret guards didn't hold back either. Their original role was Chen Xi's private army. Although they were disguised as government officials and had a legitimate organization, they were only responsible to Chen Xi. Chen Xi said there was no need to be polite and to kill anyone who caused trouble. So now that a real problem had arisen, what else was there to say but to kill them?

That night, half of the Chen family in Xiapi were killed. Except for those who knelt down and begged for mercy on the spot, everyone who stood up after the attack, shouted, and dared to fight back was killed, regardless of age or gender. Chen Gui died from excessive shock during the attack.

In short, while the Zhao family's side is still relatively intact, the Chen family has lost half its members. Even so, the number of people arrested is now so large that the prison cannot hold them all.

More importantly, Lu Yu was worried that such a large-scale arrest would cause panic among the people. The situation in Xuzhou was already very chaotic. If the arrests continued like this, and someone instigated unrest, Lu Yu was afraid that something bad would happen!

"Are you worried about being coerced by local authorities?" Li Fu asked Lu Yu.

“Some people are already feeling uneasy,” Lu Yu said, looking down.

"Mobilize the local garrison," Li Fu said in a deep voice.

“I’m afraid the local garrison might also have problems,” Lu Yu sighed. “Leaving aside the Chen and Zhao families, who are already locked in, it’s impossible to say that there are no problems with the bureaucrats at all levels in Xuzhou. Under these circumstances, the garrison may not be entirely pure.”

"Take the seal and imperial edict and go there." Seeing Lu Yu's expression, Li Fu knew that Lu Yu wanted to stop there, because many people had already died, but in Li Fu's opinion, not enough had died.

"..." Lu Yu frowned slightly upon hearing this, and then just looked at Li Fu.

"Take the seal and imperial edict and go there." Although Li Fu was the deputy, he had come to Xuzhou with Lu Yu after Chen Xi had given his approval. In terms of weight, his words carried no less weight than Lu Yu's. Moreover, he had noticed the differences between him and Lu Yu. But on this matter, he was firm in his opinion: there was a problem with the garrison, but it wouldn't be a big problem.

"Does it have to be this way?" Lu Yu sighed, his expression becoming much more serious. "We should be lenient when we can. We've already arrested a lot of people. If we continue to arrest, even more people will be arrested, and even more people will die. Those who remain may not have any serious problems; more likely, they've just made a wrong step."

“He made one wrong step. Someone like me used to have to beg for food. One wrong step, and countless people’s livelihoods have been ruined. Lu Zhizhong, whose side are you on? Whose interests are you on?” Li Fu didn’t mince words and laid it all out. “Yes, Marquis Chen entrusted you with this matter. You’ve stopped there. No one can say you did anything wrong. And you’ll most likely be the governor of Xuzhou next. Keeping these people around is like using their mistakes instead of their merits, but that’s not how things are done.”

When Li Fu said this, his face was extremely cold. He didn't give Lu Yu any face at all. You have face in front of Chen Xi and Liu Bei. You have a background and a backer. But if you have a background and a backer, why do you still need to do this? I'm going to confront you even more.

If someone with your background, powerful connections, and direct access to the government and the Prince of Jin still has to submit to these people, then who the hell can get anything done?

"What I mean is that too many people have been killed. Once this document is released, I'll be the third person with the most bureaucratic blood on my hands," Lu Yu sighed. If the Xuzhou case were handled the way Li Fu did, Lu Yu's blood on his hands would instantly become second, essentially replacing the entire bureaucracy of Xuzhou.

Even though Li You and Man Chong are incredibly powerful, the number of officials they've killed might not be as many as Lu Yu has this time. This is because Lu Yu practically went through the list one by one, and unlike before, Chen Xi used to be lenient, but this time Chen Xi demanded severe punishment, which is absolutely deadly!

So if the case continues to be investigated like this, Lu Yu will be all alone in the officialdom after the investigation is over.

"So what?" Li Fu said calmly. "Give it to me, and I'll kill it."

At this moment, Li Fu's calm expression even showed a hint of coldness. He was the kind of person who could accept embezzlement and bribery, making a little money within the scope of his power, engaging in rent-seeking, and engaging in power-for-sex transactions. In Li Fu's view, these things were all normal.

But what do you mean by having a little power? You want to cause a complete crop failure in Xuzhou, then let the people of Xuzhou reap the harvest, taking away all the savings of the people of Xuzhou over the past twenty years, and then impose a system of personal dependence on them. Is this a matter of power? You have violated the laws of heaven!

Therefore, he must die!

"Give me the list." Li Fu simply reached out his hand.

Upon seeing this, Lu Yu sighed deeply, then put the list away without saying a word. He somewhat understood why Chen Xi had entrusted him with this matter—his talent lay in manipulating interpersonal relationships and organizing networks, revealing his obsession with certain things.

Now Chen Xi has sent him to Xuzhou, clearly intending to shatter some of his obsessions.

“Investigate,” Lu Yu sighed. “Take this to the Secret Guard and have them use the imperial edict and seal to communicate with the local garrisons, granting them temporary military control. If there is unrest in a region, the garrison can directly enter the region to quell the rebellion.”

Just as Li Fu said, there are definitely problems with the local garrison, but the problems are not too big. At most, there are a few corrupt elements, and it is impossible for the whole thing to be bad from the root.

Moreover, if the local garrison leaders were to go there with the imperial edict and seals, any sensible person would know what to do. After all, their little affair would at most result in a salary reduction or, in severe cases, demotion or stripping of titles, but not death. But how much did Chen and Zhao offer to defy the imperial edict to warrant the execution of their entire families?

Slipped away