A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 278 Preview
kill.

He became a wealthy and powerful merchant.

They were also appointed as officials dispatched to other regions.

Ban means high slope.

Beiban is a mountain plateau stretching north of Chang'an City, covered with dense forests. Three main roads lead directly to the top of the plateau, where one can see an endless expanse of flat, fertile land.

The rugged and untamed mountain plateau is much more desolate than the banks of the Wei River, especially on this winter night when the north wind is howling, it is deserted and empty.

It was already past dawn, and the owners of the two bronze carriages, who had been traveling day and night to Liaodong and Liaoxi prefectures to take up their posts, drove towards the lush, high slopes.

Just as they reached the top of the plateau and entered the side road, not far from the pine forest, the two sturdy horses pulling the carriage seemed to sense something was wrong. They reared up and neighed, almost throwing their driver off the carriage.

The driver hurriedly tried to calm the horse, but then saw more than a dozen dark figures surrounding them. Before the driver could even yell at them, the figures drew their steel knives.

Steady, accurate, and ruthless, the weapon pierced the driver's heart. The driver let out a painful howl and then fell into darkness, tumbling off the chassis.

This alarmed the owners of the carriage. The newly appointed governor of Liaodong Prefecture, Chu Da, and the newly appointed governor of Liaoxi Prefecture, Er Kuan, poked their heads out, only to have a steel knife held to their necks by a dark figure.

The blade approached and immediately tore open the oily skin, revealing a shallow wound from which blood trickled out. The wind blew, but the pain was not felt; instead, the cold was bone-chilling.

Following the force of the shadowy figure, Chu Da and Er Kuan slipped off the carriage. Upon seeing each other and the servants who had served them for many years lying at their feet, they couldn't help but show their grief and indignation.

"I am the Prefect of Liaodong Commandery."

"I am the Prefect of Liaoxi Commandery."

Chu Da and Er Kuan revealed their identities one after the other, looking around. Er Kuan coldly said, "Hijacking an official of the imperial court and killing his attendants is a heinous crime. I advise you to lay down your knives and flee for your lives. Otherwise, when the imperial army arrives, you will surely be killed and your clans wiped out!"

The shadowy figure did not respond, but instead plunged the blade deep into Er Kuan's neck, drawing out bright red, scalding blood. Er Kuan immediately panicked.

"Inside the carriage were gold and silver bestowed by the imperial court; the brave warrior took them..."

"Stop talking. They're not bandits, and they're not after gold or silver."

Chu Da interrupted Er Kuan's voice, cupped his hands towards the clearly leading figure in black, and said, "Since we are all doomed, please reveal your faces, so that when we get to the underworld, we will know who killed us."

The shadowy figure nodded, and the group of shadowy figures removed their black cloths, revealing unfamiliar faces. The leader also removed his mask and laughed, "I'm afraid the Doctor doesn't recognize us."

Chu Da frowned slightly. "Broad backs, strong waists, and mantis legs—you're the elite of the army?"

Not recognizing the people didn't mean not recognizing that iron-blooded aura. Combined with his physique, as the head of Dong Zhongshu's four disciples, Chu Da's ability to recognize people made it easy for him to see through the identities of the shadowy figures.

“It used to be,” the first one said.

"now what?"

"Jinyiwei."

Hear the words.

Chu Da was taken aback, but then realized, "Is it the secret service that replaced the Embroidered Uniform Guard?"

After Zhang Tang lost the emperor's favor and the Embroidered Uniform Guard fell from power, the princes and ministers of both the Chinese and foreign dynasties were overjoyed, but they were also worried about the emergence of a new secret service.

After observing for a period of time, and seeing no new government offices being established, nor any government office recruiting or expanding its staff, the princes and ministers were finally relieved, thinking that the crown prince had abandoned the secret service and surveillance.

It now appears that the princes and ministers were too complacent. The new secret service, the "Jinyiwei," was secretly established without going through the official court procedures, by selecting elite soldiers from the military and bypassing both the Chinese and foreign courts.

The Crown Prince's determination to establish a special agency to replace the Embroidered Uniform Guard exceeded the expectations of all the court officials.

There is no difference between brocade robes and embroidered robes, but the terms "envoy" and "guard" are completely different, revealing the Crown Prince's thoughts: the secret service is no longer a group of self-serving officials seeking advancement, but a loyal hound protecting the imperial power.

Having grasped the key point, Chu Da couldn't help but admire the Crown Prince's political maneuvering. If the Crown Prince hadn't changed his original intentions and remained close to Guliang and Confucianism, what a bright future awaited Confucian scholars when he ascended the throne and was supported by them!

What a pity. What a pity.

"The Crown Prince wants to kill us?"

Er Kuan finally came to his senses and instinctively tried to struggle, but the worsening bleeding from his neck reminded him to calm down.

Even though his entire family fortune was confiscated and he had nothing but an official position in the imperial court, his mindset gradually returned to stability over time. He realized that having no money was fine as long as he was alive.

After all, it is better to live than die.

However, he had just recovered from the pain of having killed Confucian scholars, his mentor, and the sage family, and had lost the desire to die, when the Crown Prince suddenly wanted to kill him again.

Everything is like a dream, an illusion. To kill someone, you must first destroy their spirit.
How insidious and vicious the Crown Prince's methods are!

The shadowy figures looked at him, and Chu Da looked at him too, and said with a bitter smile, "We killed ourselves."

Ever since His Majesty and the Crown Prince turned against each other, this group of "Emperor's henchmen" has stepped into an abyss, and no matter which way they go, they will only sink deeper and deeper into it.

After the establishment of the system of shared merit, they had both stepped into the abyss, and it was only a matter of time before they were swallowed by it. His Majesty's pursuit of restoration has accelerated this process.

The Crown Prince cannot keep them.

Therefore, he appointed him to a high position in a border region, bestowed upon him great wealth, and then robbed and killed him on the way.

However, the emperor's cronies who were sent out of the capital and given gold and silver were far more than just these two.

"Just us?" Chu Da looked at the leader and asked.

The man at the front, his smile undiminished, declared without reservation, "Three thousand brocade-clad officials."

Three thousand.

Chu Da's body jolted, and he didn't even realize that the blade had penetrated two more inches into his neck.

Although no statistics have been compiled, Chu Da roughly remembers that there were more than two hundred Confucian officials and loyalists to the emperor in both the central and outer courts.

This thirteen-man squad of Imperial Guards, without a doubt, would have taken the lives of all the Confucian officials and loyal subjects of the emperor.

Then, they pretended to encounter bandits on the way, and were robbed and murdered.

That's the culmination of over twenty years of Confucianism's influence in the government.

In order to enhance the influence and power of Confucianism in the court, Confucianists made countless efforts to fill so many official positions in two dynasties. Especially at this time when Confucianism was declining, the importance of Confucian officials in the transmission of Confucianism is self-evident.

A sweet taste rose in his throat, and Chu Da suddenly coughed up blood with a "poof," the blood mist filling the air. "Your Highness, what a cruel heart you have!"

"Having robbed and killed so many court officials, trying to cover it up with robbery will probably not be so easy," Chu Da said, his blood-stained beard trembling.

The Han Dynasty, which was becoming increasingly stable, suddenly erupted into such a massacre. If the Crown Prince did not handle it well, it would cause turmoil to the Han Dynasty and its people.

"Someone will be held responsible for this," the leader said meaningfully.

Chu Da seemed to realize something and wanted to speak, but the swift sword had already slit his throat, leaving him with his eyes wide open in death.

Almost simultaneously, Er Kuan died on the spot.

"Move the corpse aside, strip off its good clothes, take the money from the car, and make it look like a robbery."

"Yes."

(End of this chapter)