Chen Zhaohong is getting on in years and should be enjoying his retirement, but now he has to drag his family into a rebellion.

When you're out in the world, you're bound to get hurt.

What goes around comes around.

The Chen family is a prominent family in Lingnan, with members serving as officials throughout the generations. Over hundreds of years, they have become deeply rooted in Guangzhou.

This family is different from the traditional large families in the Central Plains because they live by the sea and have a business mindset in their blood.

The biggest difference between business thinking and agriculture is that one is about survival, knowing how to assess the situation and adapt, while the other is stable, but conservative and stubborn.

Ten years ago, when the powerful families in the Central Plains were opposing the emperor's new policies, the Chen family sold off all their fertile land at low prices, winning the favor and strong support of the local government.

Taking advantage of the local government's goodwill and strong support, Chen invested a lot of money in shipbuilding and navigation.

Starting from Guangzhou, a dense network of maritime transportation routes has been woven across the South China Sea.

At the same time, Chen's Trading Company was one of the trading companies in Guangzhou that had frequent contact with Chin Lwin and the Arab world.

It can be said that the Chen family were among the lucky ones in the first ten years of the Jingkang era.

They seized the opportunity presented by the new policies of the imperial court, shed their former image as local gentry, and transformed themselves into merchants who responded to the court's call, becoming newly rich.

No one outside the family knows exactly how much wealth the Chen family possesses; however, it is widely known that the Chen family is the richest family in Lingnan.

The growth of a family is like that of an individual.

At first, everyone was cautious and apprehensive when faced with new things, fearing they might be eliminated prematurely.

However, as one becomes stronger and external resources increasingly gravitate towards them, even a casual remark can have a significant impact.

Standing in the center of the stage, facing countless flowers and applause, it's easy to get carried away.

When people get carried away, they tend to become arrogant.

Once this arrogance takes hold, they start doing things beyond their capabilities.

For example, using money to bribe court officials.

For example, they infiltrated local militias and claimed kinship ties.

Another example is buying official positions, using huge sums of money to compete for major business opportunities, and then crushing competitors with price wars to form a monopoly.

Ten years ago, Chen Zhaohong's eldest son, Chen Jialuo, had to be very careful when walking on the street, fearing that his identity would be exposed and he would be implicated in the political turmoil.

Ten years later, when Chen Jialuo walked the streets of Guangzhou again, countless people lined up to watch.

Even Zheng Zeping, the former prefect of Guangzhou, had to consult the Chen family when making many decisions, otherwise half of them could not be implemented.

Logically speaking, the Chen family should be satisfied with their current status, no matter how arrogant they become.

But the Chen family has shady dealings.

If someone higher up had been there to stop Chen Jia from bribing officials, he wouldn't have had to take such a risk.

Most importantly, the fact that the Chen family privately kept warriors, possessed firearms, and had firearm manufacturing blueprints was exposed.

How was it leaked?

At the beginning of the year, the emperor was busy with the Northern Expedition, and the Jin people were thoroughly defeated by Zhao Huan.

Having just established himself in the central government, Yu Yunwen was thinking of taking Quanzhou from Prince Kang, preferably placing it under the jurisdiction of the South China Sea, and thus set his sights on Quanzhou.

Therefore, they specifically investigated Quanzhou's tax revenue.

They wanted to remove Tsai Yung-ling from office and replace him with their own people.

Sure enough, Quanzhou's tax accounts were in disarray, and the matter quickly escalated to the point where the Inspectorate intervened.

Liu Yanzong loved to do this; once he uncovered something, he could go to the emperor to claim credit.

So he was highly motivated and quickly learned that Cai Yongling had falsified accounts.

So he investigated each of the tax-evading companies one by one, and what he found shocked him.

Of the tax evasion cases, fifteen were registered under the name of a man named Li San.

This Li San was a carefully crafted false identity. The Imperial Guard investigated for two whole months and finally traced it back to Cai Yongling.

This matter wasn't over yet; Li San immediately implicated Chen Abao, the false identity of Su Yuanqing, the transport commissioner of Fuzhou.

This is a major discovery since the new policy was implemented.

So they followed the clues and found their way to the Chen family.

It turns out that Su Yuanqing's trading companies were closely connected with the Chen family's trading company.

Surprisingly, it even involved the trading of firearms, private armies, and the trading of blueprints for the third generation of Song Dynasty firearms!

In order not to alert the enemy, this matter has been kept under wraps.

However, the Chen family was quite shrewd, and soon realized that they were being watched by the Inspectorate.

Chen Zhaohong immediately realized that his shady dealings had been exposed.

The case of the Zheng family in Yingtian Prefecture last year had just passed. The Grand Chancellor of the court was demoted, the entire Zheng family was exiled to the frontier, and at least half of them died tragically.

This incident has always been a nightmare for Chen Zhaohong, who fears that one day the Chen family will suffer the same fate.

But I didn't expect it to happen so quickly.

This wouldn't be enough to make Chen Zhaohong rebel immediately.

After all, if they surrendered themselves to the authorities, given the amount of money the Chen family had given to the court, people would speak well of them. The worst outcome would be the confiscation of their property and the exile of the entire family to Hainan Island.

What does it matter? The Song Dynasty is under construction everywhere, and there are business opportunities everywhere.

What finally made Chen Zhaohong decide to rebel was that three hundred workers in the textile factory he co-founded with Aliben were all beaten to death by Aliben over a dispute about unpaid wages.

When Huang Huan, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial City Guard stationed in Guangzhou, learned of this, the Imperial City Guard was known for its tough investigative style, and the newly appointed prefect He Yongfu was also conducting a thorough investigation.

This matter quickly escalated into a conflict between the Yi people, the Chen family's private armed forces, and the government.

The warriors kept by the Chen family were alright; they knew the government was not to be trifled with and dared not go too far. But the barbarians were different.

The total population of Guangzhou Prefecture was over 100,000 in the first year of the Jingkang era, and by the tenth year of the Jingkang era, the total population had reached one million.

The total number of Yi people among them was 160,000.

Most of them were Kunlun slaves, Persians, and Arabs.

These Yi people had long lived on their own and were not very willing to communicate with the Han people, always thinking that the Han people would persecute them.

In fact, in order to broaden trade routes, the imperial court took good care of foreign merchants, at least in terms of providing them with many policies to help them make money.

Therefore, an article in the Song Dynasty official gazette angrily denounced certain foreign merchants: "Barbarians, they are not human! China, a land of propriety and etiquette, has received the teachings of the sages and treats people with kindness. These foreign merchants of Guangzhou repay kindness with enmity; how are they any different from beasts!"

When conflicts involve foreigners and the government, the Guangzhou government doesn't care where you come from; they arrest you first and ask questions later.

This deeply hurt the hearts of countless barbarians, and a large-scale riot broke out!

With no other options left, the Chen family also raised the banner of rebellion.

The riot took everyone by surprise; the rebels quickly rallied and massacred civilians in the streets.

The 10,000-strong army of Guangfu was no match for them and was completely wiped out.

All the guards of the Imperial City perished in the war.

Guangzhou, the premier city of Lingnan, the southern capital built by Zhao Huan with ten years of painstaking effort, a city that carried his dreams of great voyages, was transformed into a living hell within a month.

The people of Lingnan are groaning and bleeding!