He got down and crawled forward a few steps. He then bowed deeply in front of Mo Linyuan.
“Your Majesty! My King! This minister doesn’t dare! This minister would never dare!”
Originally, the reason why there were so many officials who followed and supported one of the three aristocratic families was because they assumed the emperor wouldn’t dare to go against those families. For many years, previous successive generations of emperors would simply keep turning a blind eye to their misdemeanors. And so, they naturally didn’t think that Mo Linyuan would be able to eradicate the families in one whole sweep.
That’s why for their own sake, the supporters formed groups that each obeyed one of the three aristocratic families, and disobeyed the emperor.
But today, not only did Mo Linyuan manage to capture all of the aristocratic families’ members, but he also managed to impact every other chess piece involved, with just one move! The fact that none of the members of the three big families returned made it clear that the conflict was resolved. What’s more, even the children of those families had been annihilated.
“Never dare?” Mo Linyuan snickered, “Never dare to do what? I’m not quite sure what you’re implying.”
After hearing one person speak up, the rest started to beg for mercy too. Each and every one of them continuously bowed their heads, trying to stir up emotions with their words.
“Your Majesty, show us mercy! We don’t want to die! We will definitely obey you in the future! We’ll be devoted!”
They had quite a bit of power in their hands, some even had their specific family’s trust. Others also held information to control the family they supported!
The surrounding original loyal officials couldn’t bear to see this scene. Yet at the same time, they also did not dare to beg for mercy. They just trembled fearfully in their seats. They didn’t want to bring any disaster to the innocent fishes in the pond.
“You’ll be devoted, eh?” Mo Linyuan regarded them lightly, “Does every single one of you think like this? How would you all certify your pledge of devotion to me?”
They all looked at each other, and finally a senior official in the back bowed to the point of prostration and begged, “We are willing to do anything for you, Your Majesty!”
“Anything? Are you guys sure?” Mo Linyuan’s eyebrows raised happily, “You all better remember what you promised…”
The officials were shocked as Mo Linyuan continued to laugh lightly. His fingertip softly tapped his throne’s armrest. He said menacingly, “…Because all of you will soon have to fulfill your promise.”
These people still didn’t quite understand what he meant. However, it didn’t matter, because they would soon understand.
At that time, Wen Feng stepped forward and whispered into Mo Linyuan’s ear, “The third group of people will be arriving soon.”
Mo Linyuan smiled softly, not responding.
In fact, everything that’s happened thus far were all a part of Mo Linyuan’s schemes. He already planned a year before to have multiple imperial guards conceal themselves in the forest. They were divided and hidden evenly, not alerting anyone to their presence.
Mo Linyuan had full control by using the fireworks as night signals, which alerted the soldiers to manipulate who came back first and who would arrive later.
After all, if the family members came back first, these terrified followers would have someone to depend on and wouldn’t surrender as easily. However, since the family members arrived later, these horrified officials would assume that the family members had already died. Naturally, they would be more willing to pledge allegiance and wouldn’t dare make another attempt at betrayal. But, how could it be this simple?
Mo Linyuan also hoped that he could destroy the three families in one move. However, it was near impossible. Therefore, he decided to cooperate with the Wen family. By doing so, he could use a diversion tactic and seize the early opportunity to subdue the supporters in the first group.
Mo Linyuan waved his hand and soon after, a man was shoved forward. Everyone was astonished to discover that the man was Zhou Yong! The son who was supposedly missing for many days and declared to have been murdered.
Currently, he was tied down and pushed onto his knees facing the bonfire. He started to panic when he saw the people surrounding him, especially when he noticed the 40 people that were kneeling behind him.
Mo Linyuan happily exclaimed, “Now, would you look at that? Everyone, this is your opportunity to demonstrate your devotion!”
Mo Linyuan then gestured for someone to bring in many different forms and variations of wines that had been poisoned.
“I’ve heard, when Zhou Yong “was alive” he loved to drink wine. If he didn’t have access to good wine, he would throw a tantrum and cause the people around him to suffer. That’s why I specifically prepared numerous fine wines here tonight. Now, why don’t all of you here, who are his friends, step forward and offer him a drink.* That way, he can happily go on his journey to the afterlife in hell and beyond, and he wouldn’t be so lonely.”
(*T/N: In Chinese culture, when someone dies, they would offer the deceased things like paper money, fruits, tea, and wine. So this is an ironic use of “offering wine to the dead” as well as “offering wine” to the guy who’s still alive to kill him.)
The nuance in his words were clear: these were all poisonous wines. If Zhou Yong drank them, he would definitely be well on his way to the afterlife in hell. His words stunned the bystanders who were loyal followers of the emperor. Zhou Yong was usually someone arrogant, and they’ve all been mistreated by him before. However, if the Head of the Zhou Family was already dead, that would mean Zhou Yong is the first in line to become the heir! If they killed Zhou Yong, that would mean the feud with the aristocratic family would be completely won by the emperor!
“What’s wrong? Are you all reluctant to send him off? Some of you must’ve had a good relationship with Zhou Yong. Even at this time, you are still unwilling to go against him?
When Zhou Yong heard this, his face became ashen. His hands were tied behind his back, with cloth stuffed in his mouth. He made sure to viciously glare at these people! If they dared to kill him, they also will not have a good ending.
Understanding Zhou Yong’s warning in his eyes, the 40 people remained hesitant for a while. Zhou Yong’s past violent nature was so impressionable that they were still scared of him even though he was currently restrained.
Ye Mu, who was seated next to Mo Linyuan, calmly watched the scene. She wanted to know what these people would choose to do: would they kill Zhou Yong to show loyalty? Or would they choose not to do anything?
In short, there was currently a conflict between outward devotion with inner opposition.
A moment later, one person suddenly stood up!
“I’ll do it!”
Everyone’s attention was now centered on him. Mo Linyuan also remembered this person; he was a fairly minor official, a historian who works in the department of literature named Li Hao.
That person faced Mo Linyuan to make himself completely visible within the emperor’s line of sight. Step by step, he advanced… and knelt on the ground!
“Your Majesty, let this official go first! Zhou Yong had humiliated my wife before. This official is willing to use these hands to send him off to the afterlife!”
Li Hao finished speaking before he pitifully lowered his head. Due to the fact that the Zhou family’s power of influence was so immense, no matter how Zhou Yong treated them, he could only endure it in order to protect his family. What’s more, his own father was a devout supporter of the Zhou family, so even if he wanted to do anything against them, his father would reject it.
Consequently, his wife committed suicide by hanging herself. Yet, he could only act like nothing happened!
However it was different now. Just now, not long ago, his father died in the forest. Therefore Li Hao was now considered the head of the Li family. With this opportunity dangling in front of his eyes, he absolutely cannot let it slip by!
Mo Linyuan had a delighted expression, “Great! You can propose a toast then. I want to witness your loyalty.”
Li Hao nodded his head, stood up, and slowly made his way towards Zhou Yong. Confronting Zhou Yong’s oppressive eyes, the imperial official lifted the wine glass.
“Let the heavens be our witness, killers are always killed in the end; you cannot blame anyone but yourself!”
After finishing his speech, with all the nuance hidden in his meanings, he took the wine glass and poured it into a green jade bowl.
Li Hao retreated and sat down on the side.
Mo Linyuan happily nodded in approval, “Anyone else?”
Crickets were heard. Mo Linyuan chuckled, “Looks like all of you are still the same as before. You really like to test my patience.”
His words made the faces of those kneeling turn even paler.
Ye Mu was aware that the imperial guards could not block off the others for too long. Those returning were quickly approaching the camp now. In this pressing race against time, she suddenly giggled childishly, “Brother Emperor, I’m hungry! Let’s modify this game so that we can finish this up quickly!”
“Oh? Tell me.”
Ye Mu replied, “Let’s distribute these fine wines among them and give them around 15 minutes to decide. In this timeframe, they can choose to offer the wine to Zhou Yong’s jade bowl, or drink it themselves. After 15 minutes, if they still can’t make a decision, we’ll just have the imperial guard brothers help them drink it themselves. What do you think?”
Mo Linyuan’s eyes shined in admiration for her plan, “Your idea isn’t bad at all.”
After the discussion, he signaled the poisonous wines to be poured and distributed into these people’s hands. Quite a few of their hands were shaking so uncontrollably that they almost spilled the wine.
Seeing this, Ye Mu maliciously cackled, “You guys need to hold your glasses steady. Behind this camp are where the women reside. If you don’t steady your hands, I’ll go give all the women a glass of wine myself. At that point there will be no argument of who will drink or not drink.”
Ye Mu usually doesn’t speak, but when she does, it causes apprehension deep in their guts! It’s no wonder she’s Mo Linyuan’s most significant person; she’s an absolute witch! Her actions seemed awfully ruthless.
In fact, even Mo Linyuan was astonished to hear Ye Mu talking like that. He knew deep down Ye Mu was not a coldblooded killer. She was doing this for his sake!
She clearly comprehended and feared that dragging this on would ruin things. As once the others returned from the forest, these people would loosen their manners, and consequently, he would have to face more exhaustive troubles. That’s why, for his sake, she was willing to abandon certain inhibitions. She firmly stood by his side. Her frame and stature was commanding, leaving no indication of her restlessness, with the exception of her hands.
Mo Linyuan saw her hands tightly gripped onto her skirt, faintly trembling.
He was suddenly consumed by anger, and sneered, “Let’s forget about the 15 minutes, you all only have 3 seconds to consider. Besides, a lot of people already died tonight during the hunting event, adding a few more wouldn’t really make much of a difference!”
After he impatiently stated this, everyone tensed up. This time, they did not dare to hesitate again. Everyone immediately carried the wine in front of Zhou Yong. Regardless of his scowl, right in front of his eyes, they poured those cups of poisonous wine right into the bowl. Rapidly, the bowl was full. The bowl of wine permeated an enchanting aromatic fragrance, with a faint green tint in it!
“Perfect.” Mo Linyuan immediately commanded, “Zi Xu, you can personally send him off!”
“As you command!” Zi Xu walked in front of Zhou Yong and pulled him off the ground. As he removed the cloth from Zhou Yong’s mouth, the guy started to furiously yell, “How dare all of you! I am the heir of the Zhou family! You still dare to do this?! Just you wait, You all will die for this! My dad won’t let you off! All of you will definitely die!”
Those people all withdrew to the side and kept their head down. Zi Xu didn’t waste anymore time and forced open Zhou Yong’s mouth before pouring the bowl of wine down his throat.
Zhou Yong struggled relentlessly, but because he was tied up, how could he possibly break free? With the bowl of wine now in his stomach, Zhou Yong twitched from head to toe. Since the wine was highly toxic, he died immediately. Yet even in death, his eyes remained open in grievance!
As for the 40 people standing at the scene, they were all his murderers!
After Zhou Yong died, those who fed him the poisoned wines could no longer stay calm. They participated in the killing of an aristocratic family member in front of so many witnesses. After all of this, it wouldn’t matter if the aristocratic families were alive or not, they had no chance of turning back now.
Mo Linyuan finally showed a grin. He glanced over at Ye Mu and saw that she was also glancing at him with a smirk. Of course the business tonight was still not over. This dinner banquet still had a long way to go.
After a short period, the last group finally arrived. Originally, they should have returned earlier, however they ran into an unexpected ambush near the end. They’d wrongly assumed that they wouldn’t have any reasons to be afraid because they had power in numbers. But unbenkownst to them, there was already a group hiding in the hunting grounds, who were all dressed as average commoners and knew the forest very well, prepared to ambush the families. Due to the fact that they were involved in the conflict, they arrived very late.
Originally, Chief Zhou had a bad premonition and wanted to send people ahead to complete the siege. But, the opponent once again blocked his plans and killed off those who were sent to siege. So, none of them had yet to return.
Suddenly, they heard a sharp whistle in the woods. Those who were blocking them rapidly retreated and disappeared. They hastily made their return and discovered hundreds of the officials were waiting for them. The expansive outdoor campus that could hold thousands of people was completely silent. The delicious smell of roasted meat and wine floated in the air. Although the ground was stained with blood, there no corpses were in sight.
The head of the Zhou family eventually rushed out. Wen Ze and the Wen family members also made their appearance exiting the woods. The girl who Mo Linyuan saved also arrived. She went up to Wen Ze, weeping endlessly while she recounted what happened. Wen Ze then glanced over at Mo Linyuan with a complicated expression.
“What is going on?” asked the Head of the Zhou family while he took a seat with a dozen of his people. Compared to the previous group that returned, they had even crueler smirks. He continued, “This was supposed to be a dinner party, how come the mood’s not festive at all?”
Mo Linyuan looked at him with a smile, “Chief Zhou seems to be crudely covered in blood. Could you have been wounded?”
The slightly chubby Chief Zhou shivered and laughingly replied, “Wasn’t this a night hunting event? It’s inevitable to have a few beasts with some blood splatters. It’s no problem at all.”
Those who were seated shuddered after hearing his words.
It’s no problem at all because the Wen and Zhou family returned. However, none of the Zhong family members returned.
The people who saw the two families didn’t say anything. The original 40 people that surrendered still had not fully resigned. Now, when they saw the two aristocratic families, they struggled to stand up. Surprisingly, they felt like they needed to rely on the emperor, which also didn’t seem like a good option.
Mo Linyuan asked again, “How come we still haven’t seen the head of the Zhong family. You two have such a close relationship, weren’t you guys walking together?”
Upon hearing this, Zhou Gu’s eyes grew a little anxious!
He shook his head, “How could we have a companion during this type of night hunting? What would we do if we accidentally harmed the other person? This official hasn’t seen him. They may have been delayed by an encounter!”
What delay? He was obviously dead! Everyone who was seated used to think the three big families were inseparable. Seeing the look in their eyes, a sudden shudder crawled down their spines. Indeed, there was no such thing as everlasting friendships, only passing benefits.
Seeing how the big families weren’t speaking, Chief Zhou coldly chuckled, “After speaking for so long, everyone should be hungry by now. Your Majesty, why don’t we start the banquet?”
Mo Linyuan replied, “No need to hurry.”
He suddenly signaled a servant to take out a small pile of notebooks. He softly flipped through the pages, the papers landing lightly like snowflakes falling onto land.
“Before starting the banquet, I still have some business to discuss.”
He chuckled softly, his eyes staring at Zhou Gu, “Head of the Zhou Family, someone has accused you of embezzlement, particularly for taking funds from the troops, doing business transactions with official positions, fraudulent class ranking of the imperial exam, and 20 more unstated capital offense! Do you admit to your crimes?!”
Zhou Gu stared blankly. Immediately with fear and trepidation, he fell forward on his knees, “My honorable king, this old official is completely devoted and loyal to you. How could I possibly commit these crimes?”
Although he looked on with terrified eyes, in truth his heart was completely calm and restrained. He wasn’t worried about what Mo Linyuan could do to him, as he had no evidence for the crime.
“You won’t admit to it? Then you’re claiming that you couldn’t have single-handedly achieved this feat. Let us thoroughly calculate all of the accounts in the book.”
“Let see… 3 years ago there was a big drought. I personally calculated down the disaster relief funds, and found you embezzled half of it! You still do not plead guilty for this?”
Zhou Gu stated with a stubborn neck, “I am innocent!”
“Fine!” Mo Linyuan clapped his hand and called out several people, “Zhao Zhuang, Wang Ji, and Mu Guangcai step forward.”
The three of them were those among the 40 that had recently sworn loyalty to the sovereign.
They were frightened and immediately knelt in front of the emperor. They listened to Mo Linyuan’s calm interrogation, “Zhao Zhuang, Wang Ji, when you were sent to accomplish the task of the disaster relief, speak honestly, how much money did you all take?”
At that moment, Mo Linyuan had already calculated around 1 million taels. This was something everyone knew about.
Zhao Zhuang and Wang Ji looked at each other and noticed that they both were covered in cold sweat. Zhou Gu was standing right there, but he was unworried, he didn’t think that these people would betray themselves.
Who would’ve known that in the next second, Zhao Zhuang nodded and exclaimed, “Yes Your Majesty! I confess… Only… O-Only 400,000 taels!”
Every single person gasped. The Zhou family was truly too fierce! Taking advantage of the son who was working at the Ministry of Revenue, they slowly sliced off big chunky pieces with a knife, exploiting the funds layer by layer. In the end, what could be left of the funds intended to arrive in the hands of the refugees?”
“You’re speaking nonsense!” Zhou Gu was in disbelief that this person would betray himself! He abruptly stood up, pointed an accusative finger, and angrily roared, “You are speaking malicious slanders!”
Mo Linyuan ignored his rage and simply asked the next person, “Mu Guangcai, speak up, when I sent you to inspect the relief situation, what did you report back to me?”
Whatever Mu Guangcai had said in the past, the people here were all already well aware of it. He had said that the refugees were thankful for the immense kindness of the powerful emperor. He even brought back a book filled with tens of thousands blood signed fingerprints, stating it was their way of expressing their gratitude.
Mu Guangcai was put on the spot, here it is! The thing he did, he will now face retribution!
He didn’t dare tell the truth. However at this time, he was riding a fine line!
The emperor’s goal right now was to bring down the Zhou family. Although he had done some misdeeds, if he helped the emperor right now, he would be safe. Mu Guangcai might have to sacrifice his status and power but at least he could still save his life!
If he did not cooperate, the emperor could still make a move later on. Mu Guangcai would inevitably be faced with something that could be worse than death itself!
At this critical moment, Mu Guangcai’s mind had never been more set!
From the night hunting to the situation with Zhou Yong, every single incident was going according to the emperor’s plans. That’s to say, Zhou Gu would die tonight! As he stood there, it became clear to him too.
Thus, Mu Guangcai suddenly pressed his forehead onto the ground deeply and loudly yelled, “Your Majesty, this official deserves to die! I confess, during the disturbing disaster in Liangzhou, due to the court relief supplies being excessively sparse, many refugees starved to death. Once this official had arrived, there was a catastrophic plague. It was only by suppressing them with governing forces that we managed to avoid a revolt!”
His words made everyone incessantly apprehensive. Mu Guangcai actually admitted to it? Wasn’t he afraid of death?!
Zhou Gu recoiled in disbelief. He also couldn’t believe that Mu Guangcai would actually admit to lying about the disaster report and deceiving their sovereign. This was a capital offense!