Chapter 281 Hidden Dangers
Li Mansion.
Li Nuo had just seen off his master and two senior sisters.
Although he really wanted them to stay for a few more days, it was hard to guarantee that His Majesty would not be suspicious of a sixth-level half-saint of martial arts living in Chang'an for a long time, so the master took the initiative to bid farewell.
This seems to be a tacit rule among the powerful people on this continent.
Every sixth-level strong man has his own territory.
They would not want another strong person of the same level to stay in their territory for a long time.
After seeing his master off, Li Nuo came to Honglu Temple again.
The Honglu Temple has been extremely busy these days.
The Dali Temple is responsible for killing people, and the Honglu Temple is responsible for handling funerals, providing a one-stop service for killing and burying the bodies.
A few princes die today, and a few dukes die tomorrow, and their funerals have to be handled by the Honglu Temple.
Because of the crimes they committed, the standards of the funeral will definitely be greatly downgraded. Although the process is a little simpler, it cannot cope with the large number of deaths.
The Honglu Temple could no longer take care of the funerals of those officials. It was already busy with the affairs of these top dignitaries. Two junior ministers, another temple secretary, and those officials who did not often come to the Honglu Temple were also urgently recalled.
It was not appropriate for Li Nuo to go to their house to offer condolences. The person was killed by his father, and it would be too inhuman for him to go to their house to offer condolences. He should at least consider the feelings of the family members.
So he was only responsible for scheduling and arrangements in the Honglu Temple.
In the past few days, officials from the Honglu Temple have also been discussing these matters.
From the mouths of these old ministers, Li Nuo accidentally learned some old stories.
To be precise, it was about my father back then.
When he first entered the officialdom, he and other young officials were ambitious to promote a series of reforms.
These included reforming the imperial examination system, abolishing the inheritance of titles, abolishing the privileges of the rich and powerful, and implementing the land reform...
For the common people, the reform was positive and beneficial, but every single one of them touched upon the interests of the powerful and aristocratic families. Back then, it was the Wang family that took the lead and the powerful and aristocratic families pushed forward, which led to them being deeply involved in a major case of treason.
In the end, out of the nearly twenty new scholars, only my father survived.
However, he chose to betray his fellow disciples in order to save his life and get promoted.
It is impossible that so many officials and dignitaries were involved in the Eastern Palace case, and the Dali Temple killed those who were involved in the case. All the others were acquitted.
This certainly can't be a coincidence.
If we apply equal laws, all these powerful people would be beheaded one by one, and there would definitely be no innocent people.
But the method of killing them is not a normal method.
Normal means cannot bring them to justice.
From the perspective of Legalism, this kind of behavior is not in accordance with the rules. Killing people by false accusation with selfish motives will not increase one's cultivation, but will damage it.
This is also a pain point for the Legalists.
If you don’t practice Legalism, you won’t have these concerns.
Or if one practices Legalism to a very high level, one can completely follow the law in one's heart, but that level is far from even reaching the peace one has now.
From a certain perspective, it was not a good thing for Li Nuo that his father killed so many people.
After a Legalist reaches the fifth level, it will become more difficult to improve his cultivation.
In fact, after the fourth level, the growth of cultivation becomes extremely slow.
Although the cultivation level required for the increase in cases has not decreased, the cultivation level required to break through the realm is more than ten times higher than before, and it is impossible to accumulate it by just solving ordinary cases.
Killing more corrupt officials, powerful people and the like can actually speed up your cultivation.
But the problem was that, taking advantage of the Eastern Palace case, most of the top dignitaries in Daxia had been killed by his father, and there were not many left for Li Nuo to kill.
One fact that cannot be ignored is that his biggest competitor on the road to becoming a law reformer is his father.
Ironically, my father is not a law-reformer...
If all these people were his achievements, I wonder how much longer their lifespans and how much more cultivation they could have gained?
Of course, Li Nuo was just fantasizing.
He currently had no way to deal with those powerful people. They had gold medals to avoid death and could even use their titles to offset the death penalty. If he wanted to deal with them, he had to use methods other than the Legalists...
…
Half a month has passed since the Donggong case occurred.
It was not until yesterday that Caishikou returned to peace and no one was being beheaded.
In the past half month, this Caishikou was a river of blood. The stone slabs on the ground were washed and became dirty again and again, and it was impossible to clean them all.
To this day, the ground there has lost its original color. Even if it is washed clean, one can still smell a faint smell of blood when passing by there.
In half a month, more than a hundred people were beheaded here.
Among them, the powerful and wealthy accounted for more than half, and officials accounted for a small half.
When charged with treason, no matter if they were earls or marquises, dukes or princes, or officials of the fourth or even third rank, they were all treated equally and executed without delay.
The powerful and wealthy who were not implicated were also in danger. They stayed at home and refused to see outsiders, for fear that people from the Dali Temple would come to their homes and accuse them of treason.
The whole Chang'an seemed to be shrouded in a bloody atmosphere.
However, the people of Chang'an felt differently.
There was a lively scene at Caishikou every day. Normally, these high-ranking officials would not even bother to look at them. Unexpectedly, one day, they had the chance to see these people queuing up to have their heads chopped off.
They don't care whether these people are involved in treason or not.
The crimes committed by these powerful people are too numerous to list. Every one of them and every family of them is burdened with blood debts. Now that they have fallen into this situation, the people just want to shout out in relief.
In the case of the Eastern Palace, the Dali Temple was extremely cruel to these powerful officials.
But he was particularly lenient towards the accomplices of that year.
Since they were all coerced, the relatives of the dead accomplices were no longer held accountable. As for the two surviving palace ladies, only they were executed and their families were spared.
If we really want to impose a severe sentence, it would not be excessive to exterminate all three clans.
However, in this case, it is not realistic to execute the entire clan.
The main culprits are the King of Han and the King of You. If we kill their three clans, wouldn't that mean your Majesty will be killed as well? And those powerful people also have an inseparable relationship with the royal family. If we really kill them all, there won't be much royal blood left.
In this case, it would be better to just execute the key criminals. This is also a rare example of the Dali Temple showing tolerance and mercy in this incident.
Looking back at the whole incident, the King of Han, the King of You, the nobles, the Wang family and their followers all suffered a crushing defeat in the confrontation with Li Xuanjing.
The King of Han and the King of You lost everything, dozens of dignitaries died in Caishikou, and the officials supported by the Wang family were massacred in this incident. In just half a month, they went from being the family with the greatest influence in the court to the family with the weakest influence.
It would only take a few days to destroy it all.
But to restore its former glory, the Wang family will have to spend at least a few more decades.
According to the conclusion given by the Dali Temple, the Wang family was also involved in the Eastern Palace case that year. Combined with the relationship between the Wang family and the King of Han over the years, it is somewhat credible.
However, apart from killing Wang Yue, the court did not investigate the Wang family further.
Similarly, the Wang family has remained silent on the death of Wang Yue and the purge of officials from the Wang family.
But everyone knows that this matter is far from over.
If Wang Heng’s death was just a slap in the face of the Wang family.
This incident dug up the roots of the Wang family.
Behind this abnormal calm, a bigger wave is brewing.
The Imperial Palace.
In the imperial garden, two figures were playing chess.
Emperor Xia looked much younger than he was half a month ago. He thought for a moment, then slowly placed a chess piece down and said, "Can we stop now?"
Li Xuanjing said: "As ordered."
Emperor Xia took a sip of tea and said, "This time, we will not give the Wang family any face. Although the Wang family has temporarily endured it, it has ultimately planted a huge hidden danger."
Li Xuanjing picked up a chess piece and said, "Now that things have come to this, Your Majesty, why don't you take action and simply wipe out the Wang family? Wouldn't that save you from worries?"
Emperor Xia coughed, put down his teacup, and said, "Do you think I am you? Can you just frame someone for a crime and kill their whole family? You are shameless, but I still want..."
Li Xuanjing played chess seriously and stopped talking.
After an unknown amount of time, Emperor Xia heaved a sigh of relief and said, "Do you think I don't want to destroy the Wang family? If there is only one Wang family, it's fine. Those two old guys are not a concern. But if I move against the Wang family, the other families will definitely not sit idly by. By then, there will be chaos in the world. The other countries will not miss such an opportunity. Great Xia may perish in my hands..."
He looked into the distance with deep eyes and said, "For thousands of years, there has not been a dynasty that did not want to solve the problem of aristocratic families. If I can do it, even if I die for it, I will not be ashamed of my ancestors..."
(End of this chapter)
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