Chapter 328 Follow-up Actions

Chapter 328 Follow-up Actions

While arranging for people to clean up the battlefield, Hao Yu discussed with Xie Wanniang, "Should we send these people back to Guangchangwei, or hand them over directly to the garrison of the nearby garrison?"

After a moment's thought, Xie Wanniang said, "Send two people to deliver a message to A Yuan, and then we will stay at the post station with the prisoners for a day."

The post stations belonged to the imperial court. Unless the Yang clan members who sent people to attack them were insane and wanted to be accused of treason and have their entire families die together, they would certainly not send people to attack the post stations.

Hao Yu thought about it and felt that this method was indeed better. So, after burying the bodies simply, the group escorted the prisoners to the post station.

Only the two guards who were separated rode quickly towards Guangchangwei.

Xie Wanniang and the others slept soundly at the post station, while the two guards who were sent to Guangchangwei to deliver the message traveled along the official road, carrying torches, for most of the night.

Fortunately, they acted quickly enough. The few members of the Yang clan who were anxiously waiting for their subordinates to return with the news unfortunately failed to intercept the two men in time.

They hadn't expected Xie Wanniang and her group to be able to counterattack and kill their ambushers so quickly and decisively, so they didn't deal with the aftermath immediately, which gave Xie Wanniang's guards an opportunity.

At daybreak, the two revealed their identities and entered the Guangchang Garrison. They succinctly relayed to Jiang Yuan how their wives had been attacked halfway through the journey, successfully fought back, and even captured prisoners.

Upon hearing that the Yang clan members were responsible for the incident, Jiang Yuan immediately ordered his men to arrest them, their families, and subordinates. He then personally led a group of men to the post station to meet with Xie Wanniang and the others, and to interrogate the prisoners.

After waiting a long time for the guards to return and report on the progress of the matter, the few members of the Yang clan realized that something was wrong. They immediately sent other subordinates out to investigate, but because they still had some hope, they did not immediately hide with their families.

Of course, because of their growing sense of foreboding, although they did not flee immediately, they had already instructed their family members and servants to "be quiet and quick, and pack up the valuables in the house as quickly as possible."

The soldiers Jiang Yuan sent happened to arrive just as their families and servants were frantically stuffing bundles and wooden boxes into the carriages, as if they were fleeing a disaster.

They forced their way in despite the attempts of the guards and servants in the house to stop them. Those guards and servants, who were simply pushed aside and not immediately restrained, initially shouted that they were trespassing, but after seeing the bustling scene inside the house, which resembled ants moving house, they immediately shut their mouths in astonishment.

Seeing this, what could these guards and servants, who were originally only responsible for guarding the main gate and the second gate, not understand?

Their respective masters have already made up their minds to run away!

If they had managed to escape, it wouldn't have been a problem, but now they've been caught red-handed by the people sent by the victim...

The guards and servants all realized that their respective masters were likely facing a real catastrophe this time.

It's not just about losing official position and power, or simply being expelled from the clan and thus suffering scorn; it's about completely losing wealth, freedom, dignity, and even life, and potentially implicating one's family as well.

Those who shared the family's honor and disgrace, and whose fates were intertwined with theirs, naturally did not fare much better.

As they predicted, Jiang Yuan's Achilles' heel was the person he cherished. Regardless of whether those members of the Yang clan succeeded in harming the person he cherished, Jiang Yuan would not allow them to continue living in this world.

As for their families, according to the laws of the Great Wei, their adult sons, brothers, and nephews who participated in this matter all became the lowest-ranking criminals in the army, forced into hard labor.

These laborers not only had to do the dirtiest and most tiring work in peacetime, but also had to be the vanguard suicide squads at the forefront during wartime.

As for those who were unaware of the situation and did not participate, they were all sent to nearby military settlements to be responsible for farming, raising horses, and completing other miscellaneous tasks temporarily assigned by their superiors.

Accompanying them were their elderly relatives, female relatives, and children.

Unless a remarkable individual emerges from each of their families, achieves numerous merits after joining the army, and leads their descendants to rise again, they will be destined to remain ordinary military households for the rest of their lives.

To imagine living a comfortable life even after being expelled from the clan, as before, is just a pipe dream.

Their respective servants were also sold off or forced into hard labor according to the law.

By the time Jiang Yuan had restrained his anger and dealt with those families properly, as Xie Wanniang had instructed him to do so in a way that was reasonable and without giving anyone any leverage, it was already late spring and early summer.

Xie Wanniang, who had promised him that she would bring her child to Guangchangwei to reunite with him after the spring plowing was over, indeed came to Guangchangwei again with her child and a large group of guards after receiving reports from the heads of various villages about the spring plowing situation.

Accompanying them were Wang Xiaozhi and her four children.

Yes, Wang Xiaozhi now has four children.

Thanks to the subtle help and subsidies from Jiang Yuan and Xie Wanniang, her family, while not extremely wealthy, was already among the top-tier in Mingfu Village.

The deaths of children, which are common in poor families, never happened in her family. The couple raised all four children to be very healthy and strong.

Having not seen her younger brother Jiang Yuan for a long time, Wang Xiaozhi hardened her heart and abandoned her husband and household chores.

Of course, this does not mean that Chen Zhao has to be responsible for all the work in her family. Because the family has been buying and accumulating land year after year, they now need to hire people to help with farming.

Therefore, even if Wang Xiaozhi were not around, Chen Zhao would not be able to handle all the work on his own.

As for food, Chen Zhao still has his parents and elder brother and sister-in-law, so they won't let him go hungry.

At the very least, he could choose to cook porridge or vegetable and egg drop soup himself.

The only tasks that Chen Zhao needed to complete independently were the mundane chores such as washing clothes, watering the vegetable garden, taking care of poultry and livestock, and cleaning the house and courtyard.

Chen Zhao is a hard worker, and he can manage to do the chores around the house.

Moreover, he strongly supported Wang Xiaozhi's visit to Jiang Yuan. Firstly, Jiang Yuan had always taken good care of their family, and secondly, Jiang Yuan was now a third-rank military commander. He might not be entirely clear about what a military commander was, but Chen Zhao understood the concept of a third-rank official very well.