Chapter 100: Keep the Green Mountains
Chen Jia smiled and said, "Uncle San, do you know why the entire Yu family was imprisoned?"
The Third Master was completely bewildered. "The Yu family and I are only relatives by marriage. What does their imprisonment have to do with our Chen family?"
"Uncle San, you are so naive. No wonder you supported Chen Fang, the spy, for so many years."
"Spy? Who are you calling a spy?"
"This is a long story. Someone, bring Chen Ping up here."
The people outside followed the order and brought the butler Chen Ping up.
The fourth master looked at Chen Ping, very puzzled, but the chill of the icy blade on his neck forced him to speak and urge:
"Chen Ping, tell me quickly, what's going on?"
Seeing that half of the people in the ancestral hall had knives on their necks, Chen Ping was afraid that he would suffer the same fate in a moment, so he immediately told them everything he knew.
There were sounds of people gasping for breath coming from the ancestral hall.
When the people with knives at their necks heard this, some of them collapsed to the ground, including the Fourth Master.
"That stinky bitch Liu is trying to bring disaster to my entire Chen family."
"Collaborating with the enemy and treason is a serious crime. What should I do..."
“I didn’t expect this Chen Fang was hidden so deeply.
I said that the old man had said before that we couldn't trade with Nanli, but as soon as Chen Fang took over as the head of the family, he broke this rule. He must be a spy."
The group of people who didn't have knives on their necks talked at once.
Seeing this, the Second Master quickly asked Chen Jia, "Jia'er, this...what should we do now? Our Chen family is on the verge of destruction."
The ancestral hall was buzzing with noise.
Old Mrs. Chen slammed her cane on the ground twice and said loudly:
"Shut up, everyone."
The ancestral hall suddenly became quiet.
Everyone looked up, and Chen Jia slowly said:
"Collaborating with the enemy and committing treason is a grave crime that will punish all nine generations of your family.
Although this was the result of Liu's deliberate planning, our Chen family was also guilty of negligence.
In order to preserve the Chen family lineage, I had no choice but to cooperate with the Duke of Zhenguo and cut off the tail to survive."
Chen Jia said, nodding towards Fu Long.
Fu Long said loudly: "Take it away."
The Right Jinwu Guards responded by dragging or escorting the people on the ground out of the ancestral hall.
The Third Master panicked when he saw this: "Jia'er, Jia'er, I was wrong. I'm your uncle, you can't just stand by and watch someone die."
The fourth master shouted as he was being dragged, "Jiaer, save me, save me..."
Chen Jia looked at the Third Master and said calmly, "Third Uncle, it's hard to say whether someone is close or not in this world.
Just when you stood up and accused me of being unfit to be the head of the family and wholeheartedly supported Chen Fang, you were no longer my third uncle."
"I was wrong, nephew. I was wrong. Please be merciful and spare my life."
The third master's face was covered in sweat, and he kept begging for mercy.
Chen Jia was too lazy to talk nonsense with them, he just looked at Fu Long and said:
"I've handed the person over to you. Take him away and interrogate him. There should be some clues.
You should confiscate all their property.
I will persuade others to donate their property to benefit the country as agreed before.
I hope the Duke of Zhenguo will keep his promise and spare the lives of everyone here."
Fu Long nodded: "I will definitely pass on the message."
After saying that, he grabbed the third master's neck and took him away.
After everyone left, the ancestral hall was half empty, and the rest of the people were silent.
After a long silence, Chen Jia asked, "Can I be the head of the Chen family now?"
Everyone quickly stood up and bowed to Chen Jia: "Greetings to the head of the family."
"Please sit down." Chen Jia said.
"You all know what happened. This is a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of your clan.
Now that I have dealt with Chen Fang, as long as you donate your property, you can save your lives."
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone hummed again.
One of them asked, "Donate all your property?"
"I begged them repeatedly, and they agreed to donate 90% and keep 10% for us to live on."
"Ninety percent?" someone objected.
The second master glared at the man and said, "Why, you don't want to?
Then go to jail and stay with those people."
When the man heard this, he sat back dejectedly and didn't dare to speak.
Seeing this, the old lady said, "Our Chen family started out as a business family, so which family doesn't have a few people who are good at business?
If you donate 90% of your money and save your life, you will be able to make a comeback one day.
As the saying goes, as long as the green mountains remain, there is no fear of running out of firewood. "
The second master also echoed, "The Liu family's incident was also caused by our Chen family's popularity. Otherwise, we wouldn't have fallen to this point.
So donating this money would be beneficial, at least it would prevent people from thinking of you and dragging you into this desperate situation of treason."
Most of the people sitting below nodded in unison.
Only a few of them were really reluctant to spend their money, and looked painfully embarrassed.
Chen Jiake ignored all this and continued,
"The Duke of Zhenguo gave us five days to deal with it, so everyone go back and prepare.
After five days, if you do not follow this method and hide something, and are discovered by the Jinwu Guards, I will not be able to save you.
That’s all I have to say. You can take care of yourself.
From now on, you must guard your home carefully, keep a low profile, and never show up. If it happens again, I won't be able to do anything about it."
After saying that, Chen Jia stood up and lit two more incense sticks towards the ancestral tablet.
"Ancestors, our Chen family has suffered this calamity and is temporarily dormant. We will eventually rise again. I hope you will forgive us."
Everyone stood up and said in unison to the tablet: "Our ancestors, please forgive us."
Besides, Yu Qingyue took advantage of the moonlight to escape and was about to cross the river and leave the Jiangnan Road.
But he was caught by someone on the river bank.
Chen Fang in the capital has long been targeted.
By the time Yu Qi brought the suspects back to Beijing, it had been more than a month, and the Dragon Boat Festival was approaching.
The Duke of Zhenguo immediately brought the details of Chen Fang's treason case to the palace to report. After the emperor looked at all the evidence, his face looked very ugly.
"Can you find out the connection between Chen Fang and Gao Hongchen?"
Li Yueyao asked while looking at the confession in her hand.
"In the past two months, the two sides have had close contacts, and Chen Fang has sent money to Gao Hongchen twice." The Duke of Zhenguo replied.
"In addition... In addition, I also discovered..."
"What did you find?" Li Yueyao asked.
"My men were following Gao Hongchen and discovered that the eldest prince was in contact with Gao Hongchen."
"The eldest prince? Not the seventh prince?" the emperor asked in surprise.
The Duke of Zhenguo asked with a depressed look on his face, "Seventh Prince? He's still a child. What does this have to do with him?"
Seeing that the Emperor and Li Yueyao did not answer him, the Duke of Zhenguo continued:
"The eldest prince seems to have taken a fancy to Gao Hongchen's daughter, Gao Tonghuan, and wants to marry her as a concubine."
"What does Gao Hongchen mean?" the emperor asked.
"He seems to agree with this." replied the Duke of Zhenguo.
Li Yueyao suddenly said, "Speaking of this, what does your Wen Ya mean?
From what Concubine Shu said, she wants the Second Prince to marry her."
After hearing this, the Duke of Zhenguo turned to look at the emperor and said:
"Your Majesty, this is what the concubine and I intend to do, but the final decision will depend on your Majesty's will."
The emperor heard this and said, "No matter who your daughter marries, the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion is the Second Prince's in-laws, so this won't have much of an impact."
The Duke of Zhenguo was delighted to hear this, as His Majesty had agreed.
Li Yueyao said, "I heard rumors that you want to marry your daughter to the eldest prince as his principal wife."
The Duke of Zhenguo and the Emperor were both stunned when they heard this.
The Duke of Zhenguo's eyes widened: "Your Highness, where did you get this information?"
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