Facing Yang Ge’s casual remarks,
Xiong Jun suddenly burst into hysterical laughter, "You have no idea what you’re truly facing!"
He certainly knew the meaning of the words that Lord Yang had just told him.
They not only explained the reasons and consequences of the Embroidered Guards crackdown on his Changfeng Gang,
but also that the figures behind him were now struggling to protect themselves, let alone him...
He also knew that he indeed had no choice.
By trusting Lord Yang, his whole family might still find a way to survive.
Otherwise, even if the Embroidered Guards were to magnanimously spare their lives, those behind him would surely eradicate them completely.
How dark their hearts and how ruthless their hands were, he was all too aware!
In the past, he had often done the dirty work of cutting the grass and rooting it out for them...
Therefore, from the moment the Embroidered Guards broke through the main gate of his Changfeng Gang headquarters,
he had already had no choice.
But he still felt fear!
Because he had seen the night, and he had witnessed the darkness...
"I truly don’t understand what I am facing."
Yang Ge pondered for a moment before answering truthfully, "That’s precisely why I need you to enlighten me... I can’t guarantee anything else, but as long as you cooperate fully with me and as long as I’m alive, no harm will come to your descendants!"
He spoke with gravity.
Yet Xiong Jun’s face was filled with bitterness, "Do I even have a choice?"
It was a dead end everywhere.
He could only pin his hopes on Lord Yang being as righteous as he claimed to be.
Ironically, even he felt the mockery in this situation.
After serving as the underworld’s hatchet man for half his life, he now could only hope that others were not as corrupt as he had been.
Yang Ge didn’t say anything more but turned instead to Yang Tiansheng, "Younger brother, I’ll have to entrust you with the care of this man’s family for the time being. Aside from me, no one is allowed to see his family, and I’ll trouble you to personally oversee their food and drink!"
Yang Tiansheng: ...
...
As the situation changed,
Xiong Jun, who was Jiangzhe’s sharp knife in the hands of the corrupt officials, immediately became the executioner’s blade poised to take their lives.
Chests of hidden gold and silver were unearthed.
Secret ledgers hidden in concealed places were copied.
The four hundred soldiers of the upper right bureau searched according to the leads, hustling about to apprehend those responsible for each link in the chain and bring them to justice.
The city was sealed for less than two days.
In Jiangdu, from Magistrate Yang Yuting of Yangzhou Prefecture to the respected elders in most neighborhoods, all were shackled and imprisoned.
The prefectural jail was overcrowded overnight!
If the handling of the previous case involving the three major grain merchants hoarding grain was like a stick hitting the water, just a warning shot,
then the approach of the upper right bureau this time was truly a knife plunging into the mud...
Yang Ge sat at the headquarters of the Changfeng Gang, continuously synthesizing confessions, evidence gathered from all sides, organizing and perfecting the crime puzzle of Jiangzhe’s corrupt officials.
The Changfeng Gang was a major gang in Jiangnan, with branches and manpower spread across eleven prefectures of Jiangzhe.
In other territories, the branches and manpower of the Changfeng Gang also played the same role as the headquarters in Jiangdu,
controlling the local underworld and gray industries,
while collaborating with local officials and landlords to exploit the common people.
The money and land obtained were each skimmed on every level, with the bulk of it being sent up the chain.
The entire system of corruption and bribery was like a pyramid.
The higher the official’s position, the more money and land they received.
And those at the top didn’t even know how the land and money that reached their hands had been obtained!
Of course, perhaps they didn’t care about these trivial details!
All they had to do was recommend and promote their subordinates at the appropriate time, and help them cover up some of the scandals that leaked out.
Perhaps in their eyes, this was their way of "giving back to their homeland."
This method of exploitation split the vast territory of Jiangzhe into two starkly different worlds.
The common people at the bottom suffered immensely in dire straits.
The officials and landlords at the top lived lavishly and enjoyed peace and prosperity.
And yet the overall situation looked like a picture of peace and order across the land...
As Yang Ge sorted through this extensive system of corruption and bribery, he felt oppressed, despairing.
He felt that the sky over Jiangnan was not one with blue skies and white clouds.
But rather a vast, impermeable net obscuring the heavens...
Trapped within this net, even the most heartrending screams were muffled and quiet.
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Now, Yang Ge found himself at the center of this vast net...
He no longer just wanted to do what he could or manage what he could control.
He wanted to pierce a hole in this expanse of sky,
to let the fresh breeze blow into this damp and musty realm.
However, his thunderous actions soon met with backlash that rose wave after wave.
First, on the second day after he sealed off the Yangzhou Prefecture office, a flurry of urgent documents, like a heavy snowfall, poured into the office.
Some were summaries of the autumn harvest from various places.
Some were requests for advice on the repair of the river embankments during the autumn floods.
There were also requests for assistance with obstacles encountered in tax collection...
Each was an urgent matter that had to be dealt with immediately, where negligence could cost one’s head.
This wave was a collective counterattack from the lower echelon officials of Yangzhou Prefecture: You want to investigate? Continue your investigations, then!
Although Yang Ge’s actions were harsh, they were still measured; he didn’t touch any officials not involved in the pyramid of corruption and bribery, even if they were not entirely clean.
After all, he couldn’t just arrest every official in Jiangdu, a city with more than a hundred thousand residents; if all the officials were gone, can you imagine the chaos that would ensue?
But in the eyes of those lower echelon officials, it was a different matter altogether: These outsiders, these Embroidered Guards, were arresting even the inconsequential officials like the local chiefs and neighborhood officials. Who could withstand their scrutiny?