This night was a once-in-a-century disaster for the powerful families who remained in Lujiang City.

Shouts, crashes, and screams echoed through the night sky of Lujiang City.

Those wealthy landowners who were fortunate enough to escape the calamity huddled in corners, clutching their beautiful wives and concubines, trembling with fear that the soldiers searching their homes would come knocking.

However, Lu Bu, Dong Zhuo, and others had a clear target: those powerful figures who had committed numerous crimes. They did not bother those with a decent reputation.

The three thousand vanguards of the Imperial Guard searched Lujiang City for an entire night.

By the morning of the following day, more than two thousand people, including Zhang Yan and more than a dozen other powerful families, had been arrested and imprisoned.

After interrogation, those people confessed to colluding with the rebels.

When the news spread and people learned that the captured powerful figures intended to collude with the rebels to attack Lujiang, the surviving powerful figures and common people immediately turned against the rebels and denounced them.

Soon, Fan Kang, the prefect of Lujiang, personally signed the order to be beheaded.

Zhang Yan and other powerful figures, along with their relatives and family members, were taken to the front of the prefectural governor's mansion and beheaded as a warning to the public.

Blood flowed along the cracks in the bricks on the ground. The onlookers, seeing one headless corpse after another, couldn't help but feel horrified. A stench filled the air.

Those responsible for collecting the bodies were overjoyed.

The prefectural governor's office said that there would be a reward of fifty coins for each corpse collected.

"Sigh, if only we could kill like this every day, we wouldn't have to suffer their oppression anymore, and we could even make money!"

An elderly corpse collector sighed repeatedly as he collected the bodies.

"It seems the imperial court has sent troops here to stand up for us!" a young man couldn't help but echo.

The onlookers were also discussing it animatedly, feeling incredibly pleased to see those who used to swagger around being beheaded one by one.

As dusk fell, Zhang Yan and his men were finally slaughtered, and their corpses were all thrown into the mass grave outside the city.

Early the next morning, three thousand vanguards of the Imperial Guard set off outside the city to investigate the manors and properties of those powerful families.

The investigation went unexpectedly smoothly. Now that all the heads of the families were dead, the subordinates left behind in the manors naturally wouldn't resist.

By this point, nearly 80% of the powerful clans in Lujiang City had been eradicated, and the wealth, grain, raw silk, and various rare treasures that these clans had hoarded for many years were truly astonishing.

Looking at the treasury already overflowing and the hundreds of carts laden with valuables, Fan Kang, who had served as the prefect of Lujiang for many years, couldn't help but feel excited.

With this financial backing, I can finally go all out and make a big splash.

After the matter at Lujiang was settled, Lü Bu, Dong Zhuo, and Dian Wei immediately led their army toward Danyang.

Not long after Lü Bu and his men left Lujiang, Huangfu Gui, Zhu Jun, Xu Rong and others led 30,000 Chang'an soldiers to Nanchang County in Yuzhang.

At this time, the rebel leader Sun Sheng was personally leading 100,000 rebel troops to attack Yichun County.

However, because Yichun County was garrisoned by 10,000 troops from the prefecture and state, and because it was backed by the strategic Gan River, the rebels were unable to surround the city from all sides or cut off its supplies, and thus were unable to capture it.

After Huangfu Gui led 30,000 troops into Nanchang, and learned that Yichun was temporarily safe, he immediately dispatched troops to take over the city's defenses and the waterways leading to Yichun, cutting off Nanchang's connection with other places.

After taking control of Nanchang, Li Li, who was in charge of the Yangzhou Investigation Bureau, also sent people to deliver information about the powerful figures in the city to Huangfu Gui.

Although Huangfu Gui was getting on in years, his vigor was as strong as ever. Seeing the usual behavior of these powerful figures in Jiangnan, he was so angry that his eyes turned red. He immediately ordered a large army to be dispatched to clean up the powerful figures in Nanchang.

Wu County, Wu Prefecture.

After receiving the messages from Lujiang and Nanchang, Yang Qiu, who was stationed in Wu County, immediately summoned Huang Zhong, Li Jue, Gao Shun and others.

"Gentlemen, Fengxian and his men have already cleared Lujiang, and General Huangfu has begun his operations in Yuzhang. It's time for us to make our move!"

Yang Qiu's slightly excited and thrilled voice reached everyone's ears.

"Great, finally I can kill these bastards!"

Li Jue also said with a cold expression that in recent days, in order to guard against the local powerful families, they have been restrained and extremely frustrated, and have long been burning with anger.

Huang Zhong looked at Yang Qiu with a solemn expression: "Captain Yang, Wu County is not like Lujiang or Yuzhang. There are many powerful and influential families here, and their households are full of strong men. If our army wants to wipe them out in one fell swoop, I'm afraid it will be very difficult!"

Upon hearing Huang Zhong's words, everyone frowned. Wu County currently only had five thousand Imperial Guards, but there were more than forty powerful families inside and outside the city, each with at least three or four hundred people.

If it were a team of a hundred men like in Lujiang, it might not be possible to take it down. But if there were more men, it would be impossible to capture them all at once. If there were any oversights, it would definitely lead to chaos in the rear.

Yang Qiu sneered, "There are many ways to kill someone, why bother with a head-on confrontation?"

Huang Zhong frowned: "I wonder what Commandant Yang means by this?"

Li Jue, Gao Shun, Fan Chou, and the others also looked at Yang Qiu with puzzled expressions.

These soldiers are first-rate fighters when it comes to marching, fighting, and killing enemies, but it's really difficult for them to play tricks and schemes.

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