Chapter 277: Chapter One Hundred Ninety-Four
In the Imperial Study of Chengguang Hall, Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang were reporting the matters of Yangzhou in detail to the Emperor.
Yesterday afternoon, Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang returned to the capital from Yangzhou. The Emperor asked them to rest at home for a few days, and after they were well-rested, to enter the palace for a briefing.
It was impossible for Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang to rest at home for several days. After resting for most of the day, they entered the palace to attend the morning court on the following day.
Earlier at the morning court, Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang gave a brief report of the affairs in Yangzhou to the Emperor. As the other ministers listened to their report, they all gasped in shock. They hadn’t anticipated that the issues in Yangzhou were even more astonishing than they knew. No, they were shocking.
Previously, the Family Heads of the noble families from Yangzhou were escorted to the capital for execution. At that time, their crimes were listed one by one, each more grave and terrifying than the last — an endless list.
The entire court, of both civil and military officials, only knew the charges against the Yangzhou group, but they were unaware of what Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang specifically did in Yangzhou. They also didn’t know what the situation in Yangzhou was like at the time.
Now, after listening to the report from Grandmaster Liu and Song Dekang, it became clear to them that the situation in Yangzhou was extremely perilous. If it weren’t for Song Dekang and Grandmaster Liu being there, the Yangzhou group couldn’t have been subdued at all.
The situation in Yangzhou was dangerous and complex; without a pre-laid plan, it would have been impossible to completely eradicate the noble families in just a month or two.
This clearly showed that the Emperor had set a large trap to wipe out the noble families in Yangzhou. Not only that, he even deliberately indulged the Yangzhou noble families.
When thinking about the eradication of the Yangzhou noble families as a trap set by the Emperor, both civil and military officials felt a chill in their hearts, and hairs on their scalps stood on end.
The Emperor knew for a long time what the noble families in Yangzhou had been doing over the years, yet he always pretended to know nothing. Moreover, with Dong Jin, the Emperor also knew about the cooperation between the Yangzhou noble families and Dong Jin and had always protected Dong Jin. The Emperor also knew of their rebellious intentions, but he endured silently.
To completely eradicate the noble families in Yangzhou and cleanse not just Yangzhou, but the entire Jiangnan officialdom, the Emperor laid plans in secret, patiently waiting for the Yangzhou group to fall into the trap.
The most terrifying aspect was not the Emperor’s schemes, but his patience. After the Yangzhou group fell into the trap, the Emperor didn’t rush to eliminate them but continued to bait the trap, luring them to sink deeper.
The Yangzhou group was completely unaware of the trap laid by the Emperor. They fell into it step by step without realizing it and were even complacent. Just when the noble families in Yangzhou thought they were about to succeed, they were caught in a single sweep by the Emperor. The Yangzhou group probably didn’t even realize what happened when they were captured.
The ministers guessed right; the noble families in Yangzhou didn’t react at first and had no idea what was happening until they were thrown into prison. Only then did they belatedly realize they had been deceived, but by then it was too late.
The Emperor is not only a master of setting traps but also a patient hunter.
The court officials had some understanding of the Emperor’s methods, but through the Yangzhou incident, they discovered that the Emperor’s cunning and strategy were far deeper than they had imagined.
They speculated that the Emperor had long wanted to eliminate the noble families in Yangzhou, but the situation there was too complicated, and the Yangzhou noble families were extremely vigilant; the slightest mistake could alert them. To uproot the noble families and wealthy merchants in Yangzhou in one fell swoop, the Emperor probably laid his plans a long time ago; how early, they dared not imagine.
The civil and military officials in the court knew that the Emperor’s removal of the noble families in Yangzhou was just the beginning. As for what beginning, it was obviously the start of suppressing or weakening all noble families.
Although the noble families in Yangzhou couldn’t compare with those in the capital, they had existed for hundreds of years like the capital’s noble families. Their influence was deeply rooted in Yangzhou, established and hard to shake.
Seeing these noble families that had been in Yangzhou for hundreds of years, who commanded the skies and storms with a flick of a hand, easily uprooted by the Emperor, how could it not cause the civil and military officials in the court to be shocked and fearful?
The capital’s noble families were the most fearful and uneasy. They understood clearly that the downfall of the Yangzhou noble families was the Emperor’s warning to all the noble families in the realm, including them.