I have to say that Yu Yunwen's way is very correct, courtiers like Xiao Mo who have rebelled are rarely visited, and most of them come to take the opportunity to extort and forcibly occupy the land.

Five days later, Zhang Juzheng and Yu Yunwen investigated all the people suspected of this and submitted the list to Yang Gao.

In the imperial study, Yang Gao looked at the list handed over by Yu Yunwen and Zhang Juzheng with a gloomy face, only to feel that there was a ball of anger burning in his chest. As the so-called blow stone stirs up a thousand waves, Yu Yunwen and Zhang Juzheng took Xiao Milling as a breakthrough point, investigated deeply, pulled out the radish and brought out the mud, and found out 45 powerful people in one breath who were suspected of coercing and luring Xiao Liang to surrender and buy land at a low price.

What made Yang Gao even more intolerable was that among the forty-five families, there were nine people who were relatives of the emperor, Yang Xu, Yang Wen, the heirs of Teng Wang, Yang Ming, the son of Yang Xiu, the king of Shu, Yang Ming, the son of Li Changya, the son of Li Changya, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, Li Duo, the Qianniu Beishen, and Wang Junzhen, the son-in-law of Yang Liang, the king of Han.

"Yes, yes!"

After reading this list, Yang Gao looked up to the sky and laughed a few times, gritted his teeth and said: "I am still thinking about who is so bold, I can't imagine that it is actually my relatives, it is really surprising to me!" ”

Yu Yunwen heard the killing intent in Yang Gao's words, and immediately knelt on the ground and admonished: "Your Majesty temporarily suppresses the wrath of the thunder, after all, they are all relatives of the emperor, and some are your Majesty's elders, if Your Majesty punishes them easily, I am afraid that Your Majesty will have a bad reputation." ”

When Zhang Juzheng heard this, he immediately retorted: "Lord Yu's words are wrong, the prince is guilty of the same crime as the common people, when His Majesty Emperor Wen dealt with the crime, Yang Jun, the king of Qin, and the subjects of the world all praised His Majesty Emperor Wen for impartially enforcing the law, and today's situation is that His Majesty declares his determination to the people of the world, and it will make the people of the world grateful to His Majesty!" ”

Yang Gao bowed his head and said: "What Zhang Qing said is extremely true, I have made up my mind..."

"The Queen Mother has arrived!"

Yang Gao hadn't finished speaking, but he heard a shout from the eunuch outside the house, and Concubine Xiao, who was already the queen mother, slowly walked into the imperial study.

Yang Gao hurriedly got up from his seat and said to the Empress Dowager Xiao: "The sons and daughters saw the queen mother, but I don't know that the queen mother suddenly came to my imperial study, I don't know what is important?" ”

Empress Dowager Xiao smiled and bowed: "The emperor doesn't have to be polite, the original harem is not allowed to interfere in politics, and the mourning family doesn't want to come to this imperial study so as not to leave anything to do, but recently, the princess of Xiangguo, King Teng and other royal relatives have repeatedly entered the palace to plead with the mourning family, saying that they have violated the emperor's laws and regulations for a while, and I hope that the emperor can be extrajudicially gracious!" ”

"The Queen Mother's words are wrong!"

Before Yang Gao could answer, Zhang Juzheng, who was kneeling on the side, had already straightened his waist and said loudly: "The law does not show favoritism, not to mention that King Teng and others violated the newly promulgated land decree of His Majesty, if it is extrajudicial mercy, then where is the majesty of Your Majesty?" Where is the prestige of the imperial court? ”

"You!"

Empress Dowager Xiao glared, pointed at Zhang Juzheng with her finger and said, "You are so bold, the mourning family is talking to Your Majesty, how can you intervene?" ”

Zhang Juzheng said without humility or arrogance: "Queen Mother, please forgive Weichen for being presumptuous, but what Niangniang said just now Weichen really can't agree!" ”

"Humph!"

Empress Dowager Xiao snorted angrily all her life, ignored Zhang Juzheng, turned her head to Yang Gao and said: "Your Majesty, when the Xiaoguo army mutinied, a large number of imperial relatives and relatives unfortunately died in the chaotic army, and now the people of the clan are already scarce, if Your Majesty punishes again, there are still a few clan relatives left in my Great Sui Dynasty, and who else will be willing to assist Your Majesty?" ”

Yang Gao closed his eyes helplessly, stood up and bowed deeply to Empress Dowager Xiao, and said in a deep voice: "Queen Mother, please forgive your sons for being unfilial!" ”

"The Emperor... Emperor, do you really want to attack your clansmen? ”

Empress Dowager Xiao's face was pale, and she stood up tremblingly, with disbelief written all over her face.

Yang Gao's tone was resolute, "Queen Mother, if it's not the son's ruthlessness, these people are too ignorant." Queen Mother, look at Yang Yanzhao, the king of Changping County, he has been in Nanyang for more than two years, and his family has no private wealth except for the thirty hectares of land I have rewarded. After the king of the backers returned to Jiangdu from Dengzhou, he always felt that he was guilty, and he still lived in the military camp without placing a field house, how much credit they made for the Great Sui! But what about the heir King Teng and the princess of Xiangguo, they have not made an inch, but they are desperately crazy to collect money, seize land, and disobey the decrees of their sons. ”

Empress Dowager Xiao was silent, and only sighed for a long time, "Emperor, the queen mother begs you to only investigate the first evil, and don't blame their family!" ”

Yang Gao nodded, "Erchen understands!" ”

。。。。。。。。。。

At noon that day, the New Year had just passed, and the city was full of celebrations, but unexpectedly, the gate of Jiangdu City was suddenly closed, and Yang Gao urgently dispatched 5,000 armor soldiers from the camp outside the city to enter the city, and martial law was imposed on all sides, prohibiting people from entering and leaving, so that the pedestrians on the street thought that there had been another mutiny in Jiangdu City, and they hid in their own houses and did not dare to come out.

Zhang Juzheng personally sat in charge and commanded the arrest operation, and the heirs of Teng Wang Yang Xu, Yang Wen, Xingping Wang Yang Ming, and Li Sheng, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, were arrested and arrested in Dali Temple Prison.

After all the suspected officials were arrested, the Jiangdu County Shoufu Office posted a notice, claiming that Yang Xu, Yang Ming, Yang Wen and others had disobeyed the edict and secretly forcibly occupied the fertile land. After reading the notice, the onlookers clapped their hands and celebrated, praising Yang Gao Shengming, not showing favoritism, and being really a wise man.

The next day, Yang Gao ordered the three divisions to interrogate Yang Xu, Yang Ming, Yang Wen, Li Sheng and others, but the triage of the three divisions was actually just a formality, Yu Yunwen and Zhang Juzheng had already collected a lot of evidence when they started the investigation, and in the face of ironclad evidence, Yang Xuan and others did not dare to quibble, and they all admitted their crimes.

Two days later, Yang Gao issued an execution of a kind of people involved in the case, among which Yang Xu, the heir of Teng Wang, and Yang Ming, the king of Xingping, were also found to have privately accepted bribes from Li Yuan, the puppet emperor of Guanlong, and each had a large manor in Guanzhong, with thousands of hectares of fertile land, and were sentenced to be beheaded.

Li Sheng, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and Wang Junzhen, the judge of Dali, did not report it, knowing that Yang Xu, Yang Ming and Li Yuan were colluding, but they were bribed by Yang Shu and Yang Ming, did not report it, and were sentenced to confiscate their homes and remove officials.

Most of the rest of the people involved in the case were bewitched by Yang Xu and Yang Ming, lured by interests, or degraded or dismissed, and most of them lost the opportunity to develop in the court.

As soon as the case was concluded, the world was a sensation, especially the common people under Yang Gao's rule, seeing Yang Gao's determination to rectify the magnates and strictly prohibit the seizure of peasant land, they clapped their hands and celebrated and thanked Yang Gao for his grace. But the same Yang Gao's move was also belittled by many scholars, especially the Guanlong nobles, who reacted very strongly, and Dugu Zhen, the head of the Dugu family, even made a public declaration, calling on the scholars in the Jiangnan area to resist the rule of Yang Gao, an unkind and unfilial person.