Johime Three Kingdoms

Chapter 148 Rumors and Evidence

"General, some people have come to complain again. Should we let them go to the county?"

"Well, send an officer to lead the troops for protection." Zhou Tai said.

Although Zhou Tai has been promoted back to the captain, but in the absence of a higher-ranking officer in the army, of course he is called the general. Who would be so ignorant and call him "Zhou Lieutenant"?
At this time it was Zhou Tai who was stationed outside the Xu Clan's land - the surrounding hundreds of hectares of land were all Xu Clan's property.

In fact, in terms of land, the Xu family is not much wider than Lu Su, but... the Xu family's biggest asset is livestock. The land previously replaced by buffaloes is distributed throughout Wu County and even Kuaiji, adding up to thousands of hectares. , no less than aristocratic families with less accumulation and "poorer", but because they haven't moved to another place yet, they can only collect rent.

"Here!" After receiving the order, the soldiers immediately went to arrange escorts.

Since Zhou Tai came to station nearby, he has received many people who came to accuse Xu of his evil deeds.

However, the military regulations clearly state that it is the job of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Punishment to punish corrupt officials and evil-doing nobles. Officers have the responsibility to convey and protect the plaintiffs on their behalf, but they do not have the authority to deal with them directly - of course, this refers to the car accident. Cavalry general Baitu's "administrative war zone", if it is in the sphere of influence of other princes, he can act in a hurry.

There are three main types of accusations against Xu. The first is destroying the Fuchun Deep Well, the second is robbing the Deep Well, the third is bullying men and dominating women...the number also decreases in sequence.

There are also some incredible rumors. For example, Xu Gong destroyed the deep well because he disliked the deep well and ruined the Xu family's feng shui. Every time he destroyed a deep well, a pair of boys and girls would be sealed in it. Others said that the Xu family wanted to rob the well. Shenjing went to feed the cows and horses and massacred the entire village. What's more... it was said that the Xu family knew witchcraft. After peeling off the cowhide and sewing it on people, they would turn people into cows!
Zhou Tai also wondered who was spreading the rumors, and he was very imaginative...

Zhou Tai believed it at first and dug several deep wells that were damaged, but he found no boys or girls. As for what turns people into cows?I don't believe you!

It's just that although Zhou Tai doesn't believe it, there are too many people who believe it. Now, almost all the missing children in Fuchun County within the past ten years are blamed on the Xu family. The massacre of the village is even more unreasonable and does not require witnesses - -Don’t ask, if you ask, they will all be killed, so there is no witness!
Some people even swore that they had seen Xu's cow talking...

Anyway, Zhou Tai didn't find anything, but he had no responsibility to help him refute the rumors, so he left it to them.

As for the people who were really wronged and came to complain to Zhou Tai, he also sent people to Fuchun - the Fuchun order had been captured by the officials amidst the laughter and laughter of the people because of dereliction of duty and collusion with bandits.

Now the joint law enforcement brigade of the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice is stationed in Fuchun, so if you want to file a complaint, you can definitely go to the county seat.

Zhou Tai waited for several days before it was finally his turn to take action!

A few days ago, the Ministry of Civil Affairs happened to conduct a random inspection on Fuchun's civil affairs, and it happened to focus on the Xu family. Today... several officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs were suspected of being detained by the Xu family. The chief clerk of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, who was in charge of this matter, immediately reported to the same people. Zhou Tai, who happened to be stationed nearby, asked for help.

Suppressing rebellious parties is the duty of the military, and it can act according to emergency situations.

So Zhou Tai immediately sent people to the nearest signal tower to deliver the message, and at the same time led troops to rush into the Xu clan area and surrounded the core residence of the direct descendants and the ancestral temple.

At this time, in Xu's ancestral temple, there were crowds of people and chaos outside. Many young tribesmen were talking angrily. Some were angry at the people outside, while others were angry at the people in the ancestral temple!
Inside the ancestral temple, there were also many elders of the Xu family, including Xu Gong, and several important stewards and court figures...

From the beginning of the drought, some people in the Xu family had already realized that something was wrong. When the deep well began to be used, they became even more worried.

However, more people are actually worried because their livestock require a lot of water!
The fact is indeed true. If the crops in the fields are not harvested for a year, the worst possible outcome is to wait for relief and become a refugee. As long as you can survive it, next year you will be a good farmer again...But if the livestock is cut off from water... it will be completely bankrupt in a few days. Even if you soak beef jerky in water next year, you won't be able to make live cattle.

Even the modern breeding industry is very risky, let alone the breeding in the late Eastern Han Dynasty.

However, in this situation, most of the core members of the Xu family still think of "cow". It has to be said... that the decline of the Xu family is inevitable.

In recent years, the core of the Xu family's decision-making has begun to be too eager for quick success and quick gains, frequently gambling on the fortune of the family. Xu Gong's position as prefect was quite dangerous. In order to eliminate the influence of the former prefect, the Xu family had already attracted a lot of criticism. Later, he actually He even dares to be on the front line when it comes to supporting Yan Baihu's separatist rule!
Although in a short period of time, more than ten generations of the Xu family have accumulated profits and power that have rapidly expanded into interests and power, it was also several seemingly successful "gambles" that made the core members of the Xu family become more and more gambling.

Of course, the Xu family is not just throwing eggs at stones. After all, such a large family would not be alive today if they were all brainless villains...

After breaking with Bai Tutong, the direct descendants of the Xu family, headed by Xu Gong, hatched a plan that pretended to be foolhardy and made Bai Tu feel that as long as they developed step by step, Xu's cancer could be eradicated sooner or later. Contact Cao Cao secretly. When Xun You came to Jiangdong before, Xu Gong had private contact with him.

By contacting Cao Cao instead of Yuan Shu, Xu was not completely stupid.

Xu Gong had a very good idea. His main strategy was to send a message to Xudu when he had nothing to do, advocating that Bai Tu was ambitious, and then asking Cao Cao for an official position, and expressing his love for the imperial court, which could be used as an internal agent...

If Xu Gong can become an official in the court, not only will he be safe, but Bai Tu will also be less able to attack the Xu family.

However, the "deep well disease" remarks he stirred up among the people before finally harmed him!

During Xun You's trip to Jiangdong, after comprehensive consideration, he decided that Bai Tu was "harmless". Naturally, Cao Cao did not want to talk to the Xu family and did not want to easily offend the "harmless" Bai Tu.

Although Xu Gong still persisted in sending messages to Xu Du, and this time Bai Tu's deep well made him suddenly become the savior of Jiangdong, and his popularity was unparalleled for a while. It seemed that he had "bad intentions" when he allowed the "deep well disease" to spread before. Maybe Cao Cao will really be vigilant?

But... the Xu family had no chance. The Ministry of Civil Affairs accurately conducted a spot check on the Xu family, and the public complaints were completely drawn!

Ever since Zhou Tai led his troops and stationed them nearby in the name of disaster relief, the Xu family had already been in silence.

The attitude of the officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs made them understand that there was no room for maneuver - if they really wanted to be serious, the population and cultivated land that Xu was hiding could make him bankrupt, not to mention there were other things that could not be "redeemed" The crime...

In the end, on the fourth day of the thorough investigation by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, dozens of unregistered hidden households were found in one of Xu's farms, and even... hidden bows and crossbows were found. Officials from the Ministry of Justice from the county, When he was also holding official documents and wanted to interrogate several Xu clan members suspected of various crimes, Xu Gong had no other choice but to violently resist the law.

Then Zhou Tai quickly came with his troops, and the Xu family was in chaos...

(End of this chapter)