Taiyuan City.

At the gate of the city, the guards stood lazily together in twos and threes, fiddling with and checking some people entering the city.

A donkey cart carrying tea leaves came from outside the city. The city gate official sitting in the shade under the city saw it from a distance, his eyes lit up, and he immediately waved to a few guardsmen.

The guards were also familiar with the process. When the donkey cart came to the city gate, they stopped it directly.

"My lords, this is the city entrance tax."

The tea merchant driving the donkey was not surprised by this situation and took out the money he had prepared long ago.

A guard took it and sent it to the city gate officer. The latter weighed it and curled his lips and said, "This is not enough."

The tea merchant's face changed slightly when he heard this, and he kept smiling: "Sir, what are you talking about? Isn't that what you usually say?"

The city gate official snorted coldly, walked up to the tea merchant and stared at him.

"Is this normal time? Don't you know that the traitor Su Yuan is plotting to attack the cities in Mozhou? In order to protect the people, Mr. Zhoumu lights lamps and boils oil every day, working diligently. Why don't you small businessmen and hawkers not do anything?

Do you know how to be considerate?"

After saying that, the city gate official put his hand on the donkey cart and stared at the tea merchant suspiciously: "Is it possible that you have some secret collusion with the Zhenbei Army? I think there may be something wrong with this batch of tea and we need to get it."

The Yamen will conduct a strict investigation!"

"Don't! The villain realizes his mistake!"

When the tea merchant heard that his entire truckload of tea was going to be confiscated, he immediately became anxious.

It was said to be an inspection, but he knew very well that as long as the tea entered the yamen, it would basically never come out again.

"Sir, please keep these..."

The tea merchant hurriedly took out a few more taels of silver and stuffed them into the hands of the city gate official.

The latter then removed his hand from the donkey cart and cursed: "Be smarter next time! You are really unruly."

"Yes Yes……"

The tea merchant didn't dare to say any more and hurriedly pulled the donkey cart into the city.

The city gate officer sat back on his chair and told the guards: "Please remember, there is going to be a war soon. Mr. Zhou Mu is very short of money. From now on, the city gate tax for entry and exit will be doubled."

"yes!"

At this time, a thin man came over.

The man was dressed in a gray shirt, with a piece of cloth wrapped around his face, revealing only a pair of dark brown eyes.

"Stop, have you paid the city entrance tax?"

A guard stopped the man, but the man turned a blind eye and continued walking around the city.

"Hey."

When the city gate official saw this scene, he jumped up from his chair.

He walked over and stopped the man in gray shirt personally, and shouted: "You are a deaf person, can't you hear that you have to pay the city tax?"

Several guards blocked the gate into the city horizontally. The man could not get around, so he stopped.

"I have no money." The man's voice was very hoarse, like a pair of cloth shoes rubbing hard on the sandy ground, which made people feel very uncomfortable.

"No money?" The city gate officer looked disgusted and glanced at a small cloth bag behind the man. "Take that bag off. What's in it?"

The man in gray shirt was unmoved.

The city gate official was angered by this silent contempt: "Left and right, take it down for me!"

"Yes! Sir!"

Some of the guardsmen snatched the man's baggage, while others grabbed his shoulders and arms.

But none of them saw that at this moment, a hint of extreme anger flashed in the man's eyes.

There is evil everywhere in this world, I really want to destroy it all!

"You want to see it? Then I'll show it to you."

His hoarse voice fell, and the next moment the baggage was opened, the city gate official and several guards saw only a flash of cold light, and then, several more blood holes appeared on their necks, and blood spurted out from the blood holes.

"You...ah..."

The city gate officer covered his neck and looked at the man in gray shirt with despair and fear.

The latter had no expression on his face, tied up his baggage and walked into the city.

Plop thong…

The bodies of the city gate officials and guards fell. The scene that happened in an instant made the people around them unable to react.

After a few breaths, someone screamed.

"Someone killed the official!"

Most people don't want to get into trouble and leave quickly.

But almost every one of them was secretly praising: Well done!

Soon, a team of officers came to deal with it, and an hour later, new guards came in.

As for those who died, it seemed like nothing happened and did not cause any disturbance.

Some people who were at the scene later speculated that the murderer might have a high profile, and even the state pastor would not dare to mess with him.

This is indeed the case.

In the Prefectural Shepherd's Mansion, Xu Yichuan took the letter with black peach blossom ink from the man in gray shirt.

After reading it, he also felt a sense of fear towards this man.

"You...Nine Thousand Years Old sent you to kill Su Yuan? The Yunshan Sect's assassination failed before. He should be protected by experts. Are you sure you can do it..."

"This is nothing you should worry about." Jiawu said expressionlessly, "You only need to act according to the orders of your adoptive father in the letter."

"This is no problem! As long as you can kill Su Yuan, I will raise troops immediately!"

Xu Yichuan patted his chest and said.

It turned out that Fu Chengyang's letter to him stated that he had sent an assassin to kill Su Yuan, and that as soon as Su Yuan died, he, Xu Yichuan, would immediately raise Mozhou soldiers to attack Beifeng City.

Of course Xu Yichuan is willing.

He probably also knew that without Su Yuan, the Zhenbei Army would definitely be in chaos, and it would not be difficult for him to win by then.

only……

Xu Yichuan was still waiting to ask anything, but Jiawu had already turned around and left, disappearing from sight.

this……

Xu Yichuan suddenly felt a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to his forehead.

He thought to himself that he was indeed a killer sent by Fu Chengyang. He came and went in secret, and his martial arts must be extremely high.

"It is said that the 'Spider' organization is full of masters, and they are divided into four levels: 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D'. I don't know what level this person is..."

"That's all, the less I know about these things, the better. As long as I can get rid of Su Yuan, I will continue to be my Mozhou shepherd, and I can do whatever I like with other matters."

at the same time.

Beifeng City, Zhenbei Palace.

Lu Wuyou stayed up all night and wrote down all the important information he knew about Mozhou and gave it to Su Yuan for review.

This information includes the defense deployment of some cities in Mozhou, as well as the names and residences of some generals.

Among them, there are many contents related to the four major families of Xu, Chen, Lu and Che.

Before Su Yuan met Lu Wuyou, he was not very interested in these things. Because he thought that he could just knock down the city and then directly renovate it.

Anyway, he has summoned soldiers to execute and implement his will, so he does not need to worry about any hindering forces.

But now, after reading what Lu Wuyou wrote, he had a deeper understanding of why the four major families could dominate Mozhou with one hand.

This is not only because they find backers and go to the capital every year to give large amounts of gifts to high-ranking officials, but also because they are all local wealthy families with a clan population of tens of thousands.

Imagine an ordinary family of five or seven, facing such a large number of wealthy families, what can they do if they are bullied? There is no way, they can only endure it.

This kind of clan power is not common in Beifeng City, because Beifeng City has not been built for a long time, and clans of this size cannot naturally form. However, it is very common in other old cities with long history.

Lu Wuyou also stated that the existence model of a large-scale clan, that is, the patriarch as the head of the clan, is actually similar to the emperor within the clan.

The chief of the clan can take care of the weddings and funerals of the children within the clan, but disobedience is not enough, because if the small family leaves everyone, it will not be able to afford food. This is also a deliberate design of the clan.

This made Su Yuan figure out one thing. In modern society, the power of clans is getting weaker and weaker. The ability of small families to survive independently from clans is definitely one of the important factors.

Then, if he wants to eat and properly digest Mozhou, he must ensure that the big clan disappears so that the small family can survive.

It gradually became clear to Su Yuan that although he could suppress it purely by force, that kind of peace would actually be a kind of white terror peace. The peace he wanted was a peace where everyone could live and work in peace and contentment.

"Disintegrate large clans and promote small families." Su Yuan regarded this as his main line in governing Mozhou.
Chapter completed!