Hot flashes

When the Zheng family's ancestral hall in Xuzhou was sealed off, an account book was found in a secret room of the hall. The account book recorded every single bribe the Zheng family had given to officials at all levels over the decades.

The time, place, people, and amount were all clearly written down, and even the purity of the silver and the bank's seal were attached at the end, as if afraid that future generations would not be able to find it.

The account book was delivered to the capital overnight and placed on Xiao Jue's desk. Xiao Jue flipped through it, put it aside, and said nothing.

Those officials whose names were on the ledgers—some still in office, some retired to their hometowns, and some already dead—would all be subject to the subsequent investigation, regardless of their location or whether they were alive or dead.

The private soldiers, retainers, and servants left behind by aristocratic families were dealt with more cautiously and thoroughly than their property.

The Cui family had the most private soldiers in Jiangbei, and their forces were the most widely distributed. They had estates in Qingzhou, Yanzhou, and Xuzhou, and each estate housed anywhere from dozens to hundreds of servants.

These people usually farm, guard their homes, and protect their courtyards. They practice during the off-season and work during the busy season, just like ordinary tenant farmers.

The official sent by the Ministry of War to Jiangbei to deal with the private soldiers was surnamed Sun. He was a middle-aged man in his forties who had worked in the Ministry of War for most of his life and knew everything about the garrisons, private soldiers, local militias, and village braves in various places.

Carrying Xiao Jue's written order and the Ministry of War's transfer order, he went from place to place, counting, registering, identifying, and disposing of the items.

The elderly, weak, sick, and disabled were directly dismissed and sent back to their hometowns, each receiving three taels of silver as a severance payment, enough for them to buy a few acres of land and settle down back home.

Those who were strong and able-bodied were incorporated into the border army and transferred to the southern and northern frontiers, far from the capital and their homeland, to guard the borders in various places. The southern frontier was a land of miasma and plague, and the northern frontier was a land of bitter cold. Once they went there, they were thousands of miles away, and whether they could return in this lifetime depended entirely on fate.

On the day of the dismissal, the drill ground of Cuijiawubao was filled with people. A dark mass of people stood from one end of the drill ground to the other, no one spoke, only the sound of the wind and the occasional cough carried far across the open fields.

Official Sun stood on the platform, holding a roster, and read out names one by one. Those whose names were called came forward, signed and affixed their fingerprints, received their money and travel permits, and then turned and left.

Those who were incorporated into the border army received much better treatment than those who were discharged. Each person received a resettlement allowance of five taels of silver, a brand-new set of winter clothes, a pair of thick-soled boots, and a military register with their name on it.

They were divided into several small teams and escorted by the Imperial Guards, departing in batches.

The first group to set off was to the North. Three hundred men, riding horses and wearing brand-new military uniforms, formed a long procession under the winter sun and headed north along the official road.

The procession moved slowly, the horses' hooves pounding on the frozen dirt road with a dull thud, like drums covered with thick cloth.

The second group to go to southern Xinjiang consisted of 500 people, who traveled by water.

The Grand Canal was filled with sails, blocking out the sun. The fleet set off from Tongzhou Wharf and sailed south along the canal, passing through Tianjin, Cangzhou, Dezhou, Linqing, Jining, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou, all the way south to that malaria-ridden, snake-infested land.

Some people on the boat stood on the deck, watching the scenery on both banks change little by little, from withered yellow to gray-green, and from gray-green to dark green, their eyes filled with bewilderment.

Those generals who had served aristocratic families were investigated even more thoroughly than private soldiers.

The Ministry of War reviewed the files of all the generals who had dealings with the Cui, Lu, and Zheng families, turning page by page and checking each entry meticulously.

From their birth dates, hometowns, and backgrounds, to when they joined the army, when they were promoted, and when they came into contact with the three families, everything was recorded in great detail.

The investigation revealed that many people were implicated.

Some were exiled, some were beheaded, and some were stripped of their official positions and never to be employed again. Those who were lucky enough to escape the consequences were transferred from their original posts to unfamiliar places to start all over again.

From then on, there were no more aristocratic families with private armies in the world.

Those fortified villages, farms, and camps that had occupied the water towns of Jiangnan and the plains of Jiangbei for hundreds of years were demolished, filled in, and transformed into farmland one by one.

The blue bricks were pried off, the stone walls were knocked down, the foundations were dug out, filled with soil, and crops were planted. A few years later, those places would be covered with lush green wheat seedlings and golden rice paddies, indistinguishable from the surrounding fields.

No one will remember that this place once housed a family's military power accumulated over generations, a power strong enough to shake the imperial court.

Those things melted away with the snow in January, seeping into the soil and disappearing into the cracks of time, leaving no trace.

All military power in the land was vested in the imperial court and the emperor alone.