Chapter 587 Jiangnan is doomed

When Xu Jie heard this, he secretly thought that something was wrong.

Big case, what other big cases are there?
What other big case do you, Hai Rui, want to bring about?
Xu Jie, who was well-read in history books, knew that in every dynasty, if the emperor wanted to eliminate a group of people he disliked, the best and most convenient way was to start a large-scale purge.

During the reign of Emperor Shimiao, Yang Tinghe, Xia Yan and others, as well as the party members behind them, were cleaned up in major cases that were caused by reasons such as great etiquette and border troubles.

If the emperor wants to clean out a group of wealthy and powerful families in Jiangnan and replace them with new ones, he has to set up a large prison.

However, after three days of trial, Xu Jie felt that Hai Rui was no longer strong enough to continue the trial and it was impossible to launch a large-scale trial.

In prison, it is not something that can be dealt with simply by lip service.

The bigger the case, the more we need a legitimate reason, a reason that can be put on the table to shut up the world.

The banned book case couldn’t even chop down this big tree like me, so what other case could chop down hundreds of Jiangnan noble families?
After listening to the case for several days, Xu Jie felt more confident.

Hai Rui had run out of tricks and his attack on the Xu family and the Jiangnan family ended there.

But on the fourth day of the trial, Hai Rui suddenly stood up and said he wanted to try a major case. What major case was there to try?
Are you, Hai Rui, going to follow the style of the Embroidered Uniform Guards and the Eastern Depot and fabricate false and unjust cases?
impossible!
I would rather believe that the sun rises from the west than believe that Hai Rui would frame someone unjustly!
If Hai Rui could confuse right and wrong and fabricate false cases, this was beyond Xu Jie’s understanding. Then there was no need for this world to exist. Let it be destroyed!

Xu Jie took a deep breath.

it is good!
Hai Rui, I want to see if you have any other major cases to try, and see how you try to accuse my Xu family and the Jiangnan family.

Hai Rui glanced at the crowd, and his eyes intersected with Xu Jie’s. The two stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, then their eyes crossed.

“Okay, let’s start the trial of the Renaissance Society case now.”

The Renaissance Society case?

What is this case?
How come we didn’t hear anything?

Xu Jie’s heart began to beat violently, like an experienced old hunter who noticed a tiger sneaking up under his nose under the cover of the grass and ready to launch a fatal attack at any time.

The gentry, celebrities and great scholars around could not help but whisper to each other.

The Renaissance Society case?

Does anyone know what the case is?
社？
It must be the literary society.

It was popular among the southeastern people to form literary societies. In Suzhou alone, there were at least 200 literary societies, if not 300. In the whole of Jiangnan, there were at least 800, if not 1,000.

But the name of Fuxing Society sounds weird. It doesn’t seem like a literary society, but rather a society formed by some bachelors in the market.

That has even less to do with us.

People like us are not from the same world as those bachelors. What they do has nothing to do with us.

The Renaissance Society case?

What kind of crime was this?
Hai Rui did not elaborate, but turned to Cui Caihu and Yan Zhangming and said, “Manager Cui, Inspector Yan, let’s begin.”

“Yes!”

Hai Rui added: “According to the law, a major case of treason should be tried jointly by the Central Procuratorate of the Ministry of Justice and the Prudential Court of the Metropolitan Procuratorate. However, the case happened in Jiangsu Province, and the Ministry of Justice and Metropolitan Procuratorate have instructed that Jiangsu Province should conduct a preliminary trial first, and then hand it over to the Ministry of Justice and Metropolitan Procuratorate for a review after the facts are clarified.”

After Hai Rui finished speaking and sat down, Cui Caihu slammed the gavel and announced loudly: “The trial of the Fuxing Society’s treason case has begun!”

The Renaissance Society conspiracy case?

When Xu Jie heard this word, his head started buzzing.

He just remembered that the Renaissance Society was a literary society that his second son Xu Kun joined and was elected as the head of. Xu Kun had mentioned it two or three times when he came home and he took it very seriously.

As the second son of the Xu family, Xu Kun was in charge of the general affairs of the Xu family. He was a well-known figure in the Three Wu areas and was dragged into countless clubs.

There are literary societies that recite poems and paint; charitable societies that have been started by sea merchants in recent years; Cuju, polo, dragon boat and hunting societies that came from the capital and Nanjing; Kunqu Opera, Nanyin and Hui Opera societies that have emerged in Suzhou; and even the Sanwu Society, which was started by ambitious young people in the Three Wus and has political purposes.
There are at least thirty-eight clubs, and the goals of the clubs vary, but the purpose of getting Xu Kun to join is surprisingly consistent: to ask the second young master Xu to pay money.

Xu Jie didn’t take the Fuxing Society seriously at all, and now a case of treason by the Fuxing Society suddenly emerged.

The tiger lurking in the bushes finally jumped out. It pounced on him and the wealthy families in Jiangnan.

The real purpose is revealed!
The gentry around were also frightened by the word “treason”. Some of them stood up, some turned pale, some sat in their seats, and some could not help but talk about it.

The people around couldn’t help but start talking.

By the fourth day, the matter had grown bigger and bigger, and a major case of treason was exposed.

The scholars among the onlookers explained to the citizens the weight of the word treason, and everyone became more and more excited.

The bigger the case and the more people are killed, the more excited we are to watch!
The noises gathered together, like a pond full of toads on a summer night, their clamoring voices being the only sounds in the world.

Cui Caihu used the gavel again, and the gavel made a loud noise that was so loud that it shook the earth.

“Silence, silence!”

After several shouts and the scolding of hundreds of bailiffs around, the noise in the courtyard was finally suppressed, but then a loud explosion was heard outside the yamen.

When tens of thousands of people heard that a major case of treason would be tried today, they became excited and wanted to rush in to watch it live, not wanting to listen to second-hand reports of the trial.

Fortunately, the number of guards deployed today quietly increased to two to three thousand people, and they quickly blocked these excited people outside.

“What do you want to do? Rushing into the government office and yelling in the court, do you want to go in and be tried too?
Do you know what crime it is to offend the government? Exile three thousand miles away, just send you to the South China Sea to build a port city, come on, charge in! “

Several military cadets of the guard army roared a few times, and the people outside the yamen stopped.

Finally, when everyone inside and outside the government office was quiet, Cui Caihu slammed the gavel and announced loudly: “Bring the six main criminals.”

Xu Kun and the other five criminals were brought in. Before they could even open their mouths, they were all forced to kneel in the courtroom.

At first glance, except for Xu Kun, who was the second son of the Xu family, the first family in the Three Wus, the other five were all children of several major families in Jiangnan. They were all young talents and famous young men in Jiangnan. In the previous cases, they were only accomplices, not the principal offenders. They were named back and forth and were not qualified to be brought to court. However, Xu Ying, the third son of the Xu family, was brought to court as the principal offender in a case of bullying men and women.

Looking at the second brother with his dirty face and disheveled hair and a look of dejection, Xu Jie suddenly understood everything.

The emperor had been planning to dig up the roots and replace the old with the new one from the very beginning. He secretly collected a lot of information about Jiangnan, and then made some plans before sending Hai Rui, the Tai’a Sword, to Jiangnan.

From the very beginning, the emperor and Hai Rui, the ruler and his minister, began to use a combination of real and fake tactics. They infiltrated the Lahu Society, searched the Tianjie Courtyard, and then checked out the banned books, affecting the Jiangnan families.

Every step they took was actually a false move, covering up the biggest killer move, the Fuxing Society’s conspiracy.

The banned book case could bring down the Xu family, but it could only bring down the Xu family.

The emperor needs a basket that is big enough to hold the Xu family and all the other families in the south of the Yangtze River, those noble families that have been secretly resisting the new policies and occupying the rich farmland in the south of the Yangtze River.

This big basket is the case of treason committed by the Fuxing Society.

“The clerk named the criminal.”

“Xu Kun, from Huating County, Songjiang Prefecture”

The clerk called out the names one by one, and there was silence inside and outside the court.

Everyone knew the six people kneeling in the court, and everyone was waiting to see how the prosecutor would prosecute them for treason!
After the roll call, Yan Zhangming began to read the indictment.

“Xu Kun, Wang Minzhen, Lu Jiuxuan, Yu Guangling, Gu Xianwen, and Zhang Qi, together with 43 people, founded the Renaissance Society in Xingyue Tower, a Taihu villa, in February of the first year of the Wanli reign, and proposed the purpose of reviving the orthodox teachings and promoting Neo-Confucianism.

However, these were just their cover-ups. As early as the first half of the third year of Longqing, a small group of people with ill intentions, led by Xu Kun, gathered at Guangyue Temple on Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake and Lihua Garden in the other courtyard to discuss rebellion.

They compiled the treasonous words into a book and read it privately. This book is “Revival and Awakening Collection”. I will quote two passages from it.
“The current crown prince is tyrannical, unkind, and unruly. He will surely become the Jie and Zhou of the country. Now, all kinds of actions are destroying the orthodox teachings and slandering Neo-Confucianism. We, the children of the orthodox teachings and the believers of Neo-Confucianism, should rise up and fight. Eliminate violence and protect the good. We are determined to find a way to get rid of the tyrannical crown prince and welcome another benevolent ruler.”

The last sentence was like a thunderclap exploding in Xu Jie’s ears, and his whole body and mind seemed to have fallen into an icy cave.

Get rid of the tyrannical prince and replace him with a benevolent ruler!
How dare you say that! Aren’t you afraid of being exterminated?

But Xu Jie knew very well what kind of person his son was.

In that case, this bastard might really say it casually.

After drinking a few cups of horse urine, he started to talk nonsense and said anything. He even dared to say no to his own father. These outrageous words were likely to be spoken carelessly while he was half drunk and half awake.

Several other famous young men and young talents in the southeast also have this temperament.

What’s more, they are used to being lawless outside and have no idea of ​​their own limitations.

I don’t feel bad about saying these outrageous words, I even find them fun and exciting. Others don’t dare to say them, but I do. My words don’t count, I even have to write them down to show that I am special.

What a bastard!
However, Xu Jie still hoped that if Xu Kun only said these treasonous words, he would be doomed, but the Xu family would still have a chance to be rescued.

After reading two sentences, Yan Zhangming said very seriously: “These treasonous words are recorded in four volumes, all of which were written down by Lu Jiuxuan, Yu Guangling, Gu Xianwen, and Zhang Qi. The handwriting has been checked and confirmed to be correct.

In the third month of the spring of the first year of the Wanli reign, the second month after the founding of the Renaissance Society, Xu Kun proposed the establishment of the Command Office for Restoring Order in the Taihu Lake Villa, and officially began planning for treason and regicide.

When Xu Jie heard the last two words, he felt as if an invisible hand reached into his chest, pinched his beating heart hatefully, and squeezed it so hard that it almost broke it.

Xu Jie’s forehead, back of the head, back and chest were covered in sweat due to the pain.

The gentry around also looked ashen, some collapsed on the ground from their chairs; some were trembling all over and their teeth were chattering.

He actually dared to plot treason and regicide.

These two words are so powerful that compared to them, other things like drinking and having fun during the national mourning period are nothing.

Not only did they dare to speak out, they were bold enough to draw up an action plan.

The command department for rectifying the chaos?
You might as well go straight to the command headquarters for confiscation of property and extermination of families.

Yan Zhangming continued to read: “Xu Kun presided over the draft action plan recorded by Wang Minzhen as follows. Contact the relatives of the officials in the court, secretly speak with one voice, and instigate the emperor to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum and inspect Nanjing.

Then contact Jiangnan people, purchase weapons and armor, train assassins, and wait until the emperor goes south to pay homage to the Xiaoling Mausoleum to start the action.
They bribed monks from Tianjie Temple and placed assassins as monks. At the same time, they secretly purchased weapons such as armor and muskets and hid them in Tianjie Temple. In total, they seized 100 muskets, 500 swords and spears, and 20 sets of armor. They also arrested 91 assassins and assassins who were pretending to be monks.

Tianjieyuan is located in the south of Nanjing, close to the Xiaoling Mausoleum. At the same time, the Police Department also seized 15 sets of armor, 600 swords and guns, and 57 bird guns from the Jiming, Cheng’en, and Puyuan temples. At the same time, 121 criminals and assassins who pretended to be monks were arrested in the Jiming, Cheng’en, and Puyuan temples.

Xu Jie felt dizzy after hearing this.

Damn it, this is confirmed!
This is completely screwed.

He knew that Tianjieyuan had close relations with the wealthy families in Jiangnan, and that the major families would recruit and support some gangsters and assassins to do some dirty things.

For safety, these people would most likely be placed in Buddhist temples. Getting a certificate of ordination was a piece of cake for the noble families. Those thugs and thugs would put on cassocks, shave their heads and become monks, hiding in the quiet places of Buddhism, where it would be difficult for the government to find them, and it would be the safest place.

The Tianjie Temple manages more than a dozen Buddhist temples with thousands of monks, and it hides the most people of this kind. It is not surprising that so many fake monks and criminals have been found.

But it is unclear whether these fake monks are thugs or assassins, whether they are doing dirty things for the aristocratic families or preparing to rebel and kill the king.

Add to that the swords, guns, armor, and muskets that were confiscated in public, and the Tianjieyuan and Fuxing Society had yellow mud in their crotches, which was either shit or shit.

Yan Zhangming continued to read: “On March 21st of the first year of the Wanli reign, after the outline of the conspiracy to treason and regicide was drawn up, Xu Kun, Wang Minzhen, Lu Jiuxuan, Yu Guangling, Gu Xianwen, and Zhang Qi summoned 52 core accomplices and showed them the rebellious book. Everyone agreed, swore an oath of blood, and swore to heaven.

This is an affidavit signed by everyone.
After that, Xu Kun and the other six people recruited their own followers and pulled people into the group. As of the 30th of last month, there were 379 traitors in the Renaissance Society, 117 core traitors, 89 traitors who participated in the rebellion and regicide, and 107 traitors who knew about the rebellion.

Yan Zhangming read out a long list of names slowly and calmly. Xu Jie and the gentry around him were so restless that they felt as if they had lost their parents.

It’s over. We’re all going to be wiped out this time.

I’m afraid that most of the Jiangnan families of poets and scholars, famous scholars, and gentry from all over the country will be wiped out.

Jiangnan is probably doomed this time!
(End of this chapter)