Chapter 153 Surrender as Soon as Possible

"Don't worry, the one who will make the move will be an assassin from the Hidden Sect of the Military Academy, holding a magical weapon. Even if Qi Hou is a master of martial arts, even tigers take naps sometimes. As long as you wait patiently, there will always be a chance."

"An assassin from the Hidden Sect of the Military Academy!"

Li Wei was startled, then his face showed ecstasy: "When Jing Ke assassinated Qin Shi Huang, if it weren't for the Suihou Pearl and Heshi Bi that the First Emperor Ying Zheng carried with him, and the Tai'a Sword automatically protecting its master, I'm afraid even the emperor would have died at the hands of the assassin."

The hidden sect of military strategists has always been extremely mysterious, but there is no shortage of records about them in the biographies of assassins. Every time they take action, their skills are amazing, and they can even reverse the course of history with their swords and change the world with their own strength.

Li Wei's heart was moved. He gritted his teeth and finally made a decision: "Okay, I promise you."

"Then it's a deal."

After saying that, the mysterious visitor turned and left.

Although Li Wei agreed verbally, he was calculating in his mind.

The other party refused to reveal his real name, so he must be unreliable. But so what?
As long as the five boxes of gold, silver and jewelry given are real!

Li Wei was determined to take the money and not do the job. What could the other party do to him?
After a while, Li Wei's two brothers, Li Ze and Li Fang, were also called to the study and told the whole story.

The second brother, Li Ze, was less courageous. When he learned that his elder brother was actually involved in such a fatal plot to assassinate Marquis Qi, he immediately became worried: "Brother, the other party refused to even tell us his name. Could this be a trick?"

The third brother Li Fang was a money-grubber. He didn't care how big the risk was. He only had eyes for the five boxes of gold and silver treasures. He was almost drooling at the corners of his mouth, and his expression was extremely arrogant: "This is easy. Anyway, the money is in our hands. If we don't do anything, can they take the things back?"

It was obvious that Li Fang treated the mysterious guest who brought money as a sucker.

If it were possible, the Yanshi Li family would naturally be happy to take revenge on Wang Jing.

But if things can't be done, then the worst that can happen is just giving up. Anyway, we, the Li family, have already received the money. If they keep dragging their feet and not helping you, do you still dare to sue the authorities?
You told the government that you wanted to hire someone to kill someone, and the person you wanted to kill was Marquis Qi?

What is the difference between this and courting death?
Obviously, Li Wei had the same idea: "The chaotic times are coming. The brave ones will die of overeating and the timid ones will starve to death. This money is just right to make up for the losses in the ironware business. As for whether to carry out the assassination plan, can't we choose the time to act ourselves? You can't force us to die, right? Anyway, if we can't find an opportunity, it means that the time has not come yet. It's not like we won't do it."

"Haha, yes, that's it!"

Li Fang raised his hands and feet in agreement.

Although Li Ze was worried, he couldn't see any negative impact of this incident on the Yanshi Li family for the time being, so he didn't think much about it.

At this time, the convoy that left the Li family entered Yanshi County in the drizzle and stopped in front of a drug store in the city.

"Master Yang, we're here."

"Didn't I tell you to call me shopkeeper outside?"

The curtain of the carriage was lifted from the inside, and the mysterious guest who had appeared in front of Li Wei before stepped down steadily from the carriage and walked into the drugstore with a leisurely pace.

The shop assistants following behind him were mostly silent, but they walked in an orderly manner, with steady and long breathing and eyes as sharp as swords. It was obvious that they were not ordinary drugstore assistants.

"My humble self, Yuan Si, greets the Chief Secretary."

"Get up."

It turns out that this guest with an extremely mysterious identity is one of Yuan Shu’s most trusted confidants, the Chief Secretary Yang Hong!
The drugstore in front of us is actually one of the industries arranged by the Yuan family in various places. It was just an ordinary drugstore before. Even the original clerks in the drugstore didn’t know that they were working for the Runan Yuan family.

At present, except for the shopkeeper and the accountant, all the other employees in the drugstore have been replaced by the Yuan family's death squad brought by Yang Hong.

"Yuan Si, go and arrange a few people to move all the things on the carriage down and hide them. Remember, be careful not to bump into anything and break it."

Yuan Si bowed: "As you wish."

He led his men and began to move the black lacquered wooden boxes from the carriage in the rain, and then carried them swiftly into the warehouse behind the pharmacy.

"Open them all and check them!"

The boxes were opened one by one, and after turning over the straw compartments, what came into view was a large number of crossbows!
The sharp arrows are even specially maintained with animal fats, making them extremely sharp and chilling.

There are magic circles engraved on the crossbow. After being infused with the power of thought, it can even penetrate armor. It can be seen how powerful it is. Each one is a treasure worth thousands of gold and will not be used casually.

In addition to the large rhubarb crossbow, Yuan Shu also spent a large amount of money to have someone prepare some deadly poisons that would instantly kill Wang Jing.

After everything was checked, Yuan Si went to Yang Hong to report, and then raised his confusion: "Your Excellency, I don't understand why we have to give money to the Li family first? What if they take the money but don't do the job? What should we do?"

Yang Hong slid his fingers across the mustache under his nose and smiled smugly: "Is the money I paid for my life so easy to take? Don't worry, everything is under control."

Obviously, Li Wei thought he could take the benefits without doing anything, but he didn't know that in the eyes of a wise man, his little calculations were really not worth mentioning.

In Yang Hong's plan, assassination was only a part of the operation. The most important thing was not just killing people, but finding a scapegoat to create an opportunity for his escape.

Therefore, from the moment the money was collected, Li Wei and even the entire Yanshi Li family had completely fallen into Yang Hong's calculations and became a dish on the table.

"I hope this time, I can succeed with one strike."

Yang Hong continued to stroke his mustache, thinking in his mind how to carefully set up a deadly trap.

In the last battle of Liang County, Sun Jian was killed and Yuan Shu had to retreat to Nanyang.

Although Yuan Shu's strength was recovering rapidly thanks to the resources and connections of the Yuan family of Runan, his plan to advance to Luoyang and control the government had completely failed. This result naturally made Yuan Shu very angry, and he had been furious about this matter many times in recent days.

As Yuan Shu's adviser, Yang Hong naturally had to do his best to offer advice and suggestions to his lord.

It was originally thought that Wang Jing dominated Sili and no one could stop him, but unexpectedly a turning point appeared so quickly.

The "Inheritance Law" proposed by Wang Jing greatly affected the interests of the aristocratic families. In Yang Hong's view, this was an opportunity. For this reason, he did not hesitate to risk his life and brought some assassins with him, intending to connect with the local aristocratic families and assassinate Wang Jing.

Although the Northern Army is strong and has many wise counselors and brave generals, victory or defeat depends entirely on Wang Jing.

As long as Wang Jing died suddenly and had no offspring to inherit everything, the Northern Army would be leaderless, and the group of brave generals and advisers under his command would certainly not submit to each other. At that time, the entire Northern Army would fall apart, and Luoyang would inevitably become a land without a master, which would be easy to seize.

Luoyang, Situ Mansion.

Another day of court meeting ended, and Yang Biao returned home in a depressed mood, only to see his son Yang Xiu playing chess leisurely by himself in the backyard.

"Dezu, it's already this late, and you still have the leisure time to do this?"

"Father is back."

Yang Xiu smiled and stood up to salute, his expression still proud and confident, and pointed at the chessboard casually: "Why not play a game of chess, maybe it can relieve the boredom in your heart."

"Oh, that's fine."

Yang Biao sighed and sat down opposite Yang Xiu. The father and son, each holding black and white chess pieces, began to make their moves.

Playing chess was just a pastime, and Yang Biao soon started chatting with Yang Xiu about state affairs: "Marquis Qi is insisting on his own way, and I'm afraid there is no room for maneuver at this time. The war in Luoyang has finally stopped, and I'm afraid it will be reignited soon." On the chessboard, black and white pieces fell one by one, but Yang Biao could not let go of the stone in his heart.

Yang Xiu, on the other hand, looked calm, as if he was not worried at all that war would break out again in Luoyang City and disrupt the hard-earned peace.

Yang Biao was distracted and lost his mind. After only 112 moves, two big dragons in half of the chessboard were surrounded and killed by Yang Xiu who was focused on the game, resulting in a great defeat.

"Father, I won this round."

Yang Xiu won the chess game and seemed quite happy, with a calm smile on his face.

Yang Biao was getting more and more annoyed. He messed up the chessboard and said angrily, "I won't play anymore. This game doesn't count."

"Father, if you lose the game, you can always try again, but life is so short. If you make the wrong decision, you may not be able to regret it. You will end up losing everything. You must be careful."

Yang Xiu sorted the black and white pieces on the chessboard one by one and put them back into the chess bowl.

But his words startled Yang Biao subconsciously, and he immediately asked in confusion: "Dezu, did you see something?"

After Yang Xiu had arranged the chessboard, he smiled calmly: "Is Qi Hou's goal really the Inheritance Law? Or should I ask, can the promulgation and implementation of the Inheritance Law really restrict the world's aristocratic families?"

Yang Xiu then began to analyze the situation for his father: "The imperial dynasty governs the country with filial piety. Even if the Inheritance Law is really implemented, what can it do? As long as the land and property are distributed in advance, can the government really interfere? And within the major families, anyone who dares to be dissatisfied can be suppressed with just one sentence of disobeying the elders and violating filial piety."

After hearing this, Yang Biao came to his senses and carefully considered the whole incident.

It is indeed as Yang Xiu said, the "Inheritance Law" proposed by Wang Jingsuo seems to be aimed at the aristocratic families, but in fact it is fundamentally different from the Enfeoffment Order.

Because the Enfeoffment Order was aimed at feudal states and nobles, it reduced their titles and power and divided them internally.

However, inheritance law cannot effectively weaken the aristocratic families, because as the head of the family, he has absolute power over how the inheritance should be distributed, and as long as he makes a will in advance, outsiders are not allowed to interfere.

Unlike Yang Biao, who was in the middle of the situation and did not see the true face of Mount Lushan, Yang Xiu was not only extremely smart, but also stayed out of it. After careful consideration, he immediately understood Wang Jing's true purpose. At this time, he specially reminded Yang Biao: "Father, the Inheritance Law is just a smokescreen. What Qi Hou wants to do is actually to survey the land."

As soon as these words came out, Yang Biao was shocked: "What, he wants to survey the land!?"

"if not?"

Yang Xiu, who had a delicate face, gave people a feeling of being aggressive at this moment: "The condition for the implementation of the "Inheritance Law" must be to count the assets first, otherwise how can we talk about distribution and inheritance?"

A word awakened the dreamer. At this moment, Yang Biao felt cold all over and his nerves were tense: "No, I must stop this."

The Hongnong Yang family is also a super wealthy family of the Han Empire with three generations of dukes. Naturally, they have a lot of land under their names. Over the years, they have engaged in large-scale land mergers through various means and have become very fat. Moreover, since the reign of Emperor Huan, they have basically not paid taxes properly.

Yang Biao was an honest official and never greedy for money, so he was not afraid of Wang Jing's auditing, but he was afraid of having his land confiscated!
There is no noble family that is not afraid of!

During the Western Han Dynasty of the Yanhan Dynasty, the imperial court was still able to guarantee fiscal revenue through the official sale of salt and iron, and there were also state-run workshops throughout the country that could also generate continuous income.

However, after the Wang Mang Rebellion, the imperial court's control over the local areas declined significantly. Politics is a continuation of the economy, and this decline in control was itself caused by the loss of control over resources.

Therefore, the official fiscal revenue of the Eastern Han court was mainly from the Ding tax, which is commonly known as the head tax. It was generally levied on male adults and was calculated based on the number of people and age.

In addition to paying taxes, the people had to perform labor service every year, which meant working for the government for free. For example, when the Great Wall was being built, Qin Shihuang did not give the people a penny.

Why was the Xian Qin Dynasty called "Tyrannical Qin"?
After the Qin Dynasty unified the country, the population of the entire Central Plains was probably just over 20 million, of which 10 million were men.

And how many "prisoners" were there in the entire Qin Dynasty?

Over a million people!
Excluding the elderly and children, these one million people accounted for almost one-third of the country's middle-aged working population. So many people became criminals and were forced to migrate. At the same time, they were also forced to do labor service by the government and worked for the Qin Dynasty for free.

It would be fine if they all committed crimes, but in fact many people did not break the law at all. They were "convicted" only because many of Qin Shihuang's major projects required sufficient labor.

It was precisely because of this that as soon as Qin Shihuang died, the people of the six kingdoms all rose up in rebellion. After all, cattle and horses also have tempers and it is impossible for them to work hard and never complain.

The Yanhan Dynasty learned lessons from this aspect. After Liu Bang became emperor, he implemented the Huang-Lao way of governing the country, allowing the people to recuperate and social order to gradually return to normal.

But in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Yanhan Dynasty gradually entered an era where aristocratic families and powerful families dominated. Even if the court did not exploit the people, the aristocratic families and powerful families would not be polite.

In reality, the imperial court was unable to collect taxes from the aristocratic families and powerful clans, and some industries such as salt and iron in the Western Han Dynasty were also divided up by the aristocratic families and powerful clans. Therefore, in order to maintain finances, the court could only squeeze the people desperately.

Compared with the powerful aristocratic families and wealthy clans, it is not easy for ordinary people to evade taxes and labor service.

Because the aristocratic families and powerful families are often able to collude with local officials, conceal the population and land properties, and even tamper with the fish scale registers, shifting the taxes and corvee labor that should have been borne by themselves onto the poor people, making it even more difficult for the lower-class population, who are already overwhelmed, to survive.

If the promulgation of the "Inheritance Law" is like digging up the ancestral graves of the aristocratic families, then surveying the land is like directly cutting off the lifeline of the world's wealthy families, enough to make them feel pain deep in their bones.

That's why Yang Biao is now as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He can't wait a moment and wants to immediately connect with other civil and military officials to persuade Wang Jing to give up this plan.

But before Yang Biao could leave, Yang Xiu stopped him and asked solemnly, "Father, do you want to execute the entire Yang family?"

It is said that man dies for money and birds dies for food.

But when it really comes to the question of whether money or life is more important, rich people will generally choose life.

The bigger the Yang family became, the less Yang Biao dared to risk his life, so he stopped in his tracks after hearing what Yang Xiu said: "Grandmaster De, what do you mean by that?"

Yang Xiu sighed: "Father, don't you understand? Marquis Qi is a man who is determined to do great things. He has the ambition to change the world. How could he stop because of a few words of advice? Father, think about it carefully. How many of those who blocked Marquis Qi's way are still breathing now?"

Yang Biao was shocked when he heard this, and then he said dejectedly: "Alas, where should our Hongnong Yang family go?"

Although he had a high opinion of himself, he also knew that even if he joined forces with the civil and military officials in the court, what would be the effect?

What kind of waves can a bunch of trash who can't even defeat Dong Zhuo make when they face Wang Jing, who can beat the Xiliang army to the ground?

When he was struggling, Yang Biao saw his son Yang Xiu looking confident, and immediately asked, "Ancestor De, do you have any idea to solve the current predicament of the Yang family?"

"Father, do you know that two days ago, the Wang family sent a member of the clan to study at the Mohist Academy in the south of the city?"

"Yes, it is true. Is there anything wrong?"

"Father, have you heard that Marquis Qi has allowed the Wang family of Taiyuan to participate in the business of four-wheeled carriages? Father, times have changed. The profit of Qiqiao Pavilion is a hundred times greater than that of farming. Even if we, the Yang family of Hongnong, work hard in the soil, we can only make a few carriages a year. Why should we worry about a few grains of sand instead of the glittering gold? This is not what a wise man does."

Obviously, Yang Xiu had a good brain and could easily calculate that the rate of return from opening a workshop far exceeded the income from farming. Moreover, the tax resistance of the Yang family of Hongnong was itself a huge risk.

The Zhou family of Fenyin had opposed Wang Jing over the issue of food in the first place, and the Northern Army finally found an excuse to exterminate their entire family. Now the Yang family of Hongnong is trying to stop Wang Jing with their bare hands. Do they really think that Wang Jing's Hongming Sword is useless?
Yang Biao actually dared to hear Yang Xiu's reminder. He suddenly realized: "So Dezu, what you mean is..."

Yang Xiu knew that troubled times were coming. The things that the Hongnong Yang family had relied on in the past were nothing under the iron hoofs and blades of the Northern Army. Therefore, he advised his father Yang Biao: "Father, things change with time. We, the Hongnong Yang family, want to continue our inheritance. How can we stick to the old ways? Since Qi Hou wants to survey the land, we should support him instead of opposing him. Then, we can use this as a bargaining chip to exchange interests with Qi Hou. Even if it is for a thousand gold to buy horse bones, Qi Hou will definitely not treat our Yang family badly."

It is better to surrender early. After all, the first person to eat the crab can get the fattest part. If you surrender later, you can only eat the leftovers of others.

(End of this chapter)