Mythical Three Kingdoms

Zheng Tai, Shen Wen, and Deng Lun looked at one another when they heard this, realizing they could no longer dodge it; no matter how Li Youu had gotten hold of the bottom line of those other hundred-some families, at this point they definitely couldn’t stop him.

Zheng Tai stared at Li Youu, whose whole body was shrouded in Evil Qi, and after quite a while sent him a voice transmission. "If we don’t hand it over to you, are you going to turn things back into how they were back then? Isn’t the current situation pretty good? You’ve already slaughtered more than forty families, and you’ve taken the household registers of over a hundred more. As for the ones left, we haven’t committed any crimes at all. How about you spare us?"

"No." Li Youu answered without even thinking.

"Is it really necessary to push things this far? There are only fourteen families left now. So what if you lack these fourteen? The main and collateral branches of our fourteen families together don’t even add up to more than twenty thousand people. Even if we’re hiding some populations, how could that possibly shake the foundations of the Han Dynasty? Don’t go too far." Zheng Tai looked at Li Youu somewhat urgently as he tried to explain.

"There can be no exceptions. As for the fourteen families that remain, either there are capable people within their clans, or they are staunch supporters of ours. We can’t strike them down ruthlessly. But having come this far, I must bring all the people under heaven under state ownership." Li Youu looked in Zheng Tai’s direction with utter calm.

"You’ve never changed. You’re no different from how you were in the Young Emperor’s reign. You’re still the same, Li Wenyou!" Zheng Tai sent a voice transmission to Li Youu, carrying a kind of rage—oh, it should be said, to Li Ru.

"Zheng Wenye, I’ll ask just one thing: are you handing it over or not?" Li Youu said coldly. It would be strange if Zheng Tai didn’t recognize him. Back then, when Zheng Tai, Zhongg Ji, Xun Youi and that group were preparing to overthrow Dong Zhuo, it was he who took them down first. It would be odd if the other side didn’t recognize him.

"..." Zheng Tai fell silent; that killed the conversation outright. If the other man hadn’t changed, then saying anything was meaningless. "Fine, we’ll hand it over. You’re ruthless enough!"

"Give him the clan genealogy and the register of the clan’s private slaves!" Zheng Tai said to the people beside him. Deng Lun and Shen Wen were taken aback as well; seeing Zheng Tai’s grim expression as he was forced to do this in the end, they also knew that by now the situation was already unstoppable.

Once Li Youu had the items in hand, he picked up the volume for the Main Lineage of the Zheng Family and flipped through it briefly. He was slightly surprised. The foundations of Zheng Tai’s family were far deeper than what he had seen; they weren’t the least bit weaker than those Aristocratic Families whose reputations currently resounded across the realm.

"Now that I’ve gotten what I came for, I don’t mind saying a few more words to you." Li Youu put away the genealogies and the registers of private slaves, then looked at the three and said, "I know you’re unwilling, but having reached this point, I will not leave any future trouble behind."

Zheng Tai was silent. If he hadn’t known that only fourteen families were left who hadn’t handed their things in, he wouldn’t have chosen to bow his head. At this point, they weren’t afraid of being ostracized by the other aristocratic families that had already turned in their genealogies and private-slave registers. What they feared was Li Youu. Things had come to this; no matter what, Li Youu would force this through.

Granted, if they could hold out through this wave, then as long as these fourteen families did not perish, sooner or later they would become Aristocratic Families among Aristocratic Families, because the other clans had already had saddles put on them and could no longer stand as equals to these families. But at the same time, with only these fourteen families left, Li Youu would pour every effort into getting that saddle on them.

"I know. I just didn’t expect you to be this ruthless." Zheng Tai was silent for a moment before speaking. "All these years, I thought you’d changed. Turns out you’re still you."

"I have changed, otherwise I wouldn’t bother explaining to you." Li Youu looked at Zheng Tai and said, "Now there are two things I can offer as compensation. One is two thousand qing of land. The other is a piece of information."

"We want both." Zheng Tai cut off Li Youu directly.

"You can only choose one." Li Youu looked at Zheng Tai calmly.

"We’ll take the second." Zheng Tai said darkly. Deng Lun and Shen Wen both looked at Zheng Tai in complete confusion. Land was something tangible—two thousand qing! He just gave it up like that? Zheng Wenye, what are you thinking?

"Go to the North. Put in as much power as you can muster." Li Youu looked at Zheng Tai as he spoke, then immediately turned his horse and rode away, leaving behind a crowd whose faces had gone wooden.

"I..." Zheng Tai wanted to curse him. That piece of information is supposed to be worth two thousand qing of land? Li Youu, you bastard, may you die a bad death.

Deng Lun and Shen Wen likewise stared after Li Youu’s departing figure, their faces twitching, then turned to look at where Zheng Tai stood. With just one sentence from Zheng Tai, the two of their families had each lost six hundred qing of land. In an instant, Zheng Tai’s position was somewhat shaken.

Personal friendship was personal friendship; interests were interests. As Family Heads of aristocratic families, no matter how good their private relationship was, they could not abandon their clans’ interests for friendship. Especially since what Li Youu had just offered was solid, tangible interest—split between the three of them, that was an actual six hundred qing for each family!

"Head north. That bastard Li Wenru is ruthless by nature, but he keeps his word. Any promise he makes, he absolutely will fulfill. What he said in that second sentence definitely outweighs the first!" Zheng Tai, perhaps feeling the gaze from Shen Wen and Deng Lun, took a deep breath and said to the two of them.

"Are you sure?" Shen Wen said with a wry smile. "You can’t fob off the clan elders back home with just a single line like that."

"No need to fob them off." Zheng Tai was silent for a while, then said, "You don’t know who he really is, so trusting me won’t do you any harm."

Shen Wen and Deng Lun both gave bitter smiles, but they didn’t press Zheng Tai’s question too hard. As for the information the other man had bought with two thousand qing of land, whether it was true or false, from this point on they would treat it as true—otherwise they really couldn’t keep up appearances.

"We’ll just treat it as true. Otherwise, the three of our families really won’t be able to keep face." Deng Lun’s mouth twitched as he spoke, somewhat helpless.

Precisely because that information was so valuable, and because the Zheng Family, the Shen Family, and the Deng Family didn’t want to lose face, they genuinely treated this piece of information as a major affair and invested manpower and resources far beyond what ordinary clans would. Thus, when Chen Xi selected the first batch to go overseas and found new states, they were included.

A mere two thousand qing of land in exchange for a head start in founding states overseas—compared to a country of their own making, what does land really count for? As for danger—what is there to fear? This kind of golden opportunity has only appeared twice since the Three Kings, and this third chance, if they let it slip, who knows how many thousands of years it would be before such an opportunity appeared again.

For aristocratic families whose normal development could only grow more twisted under current conditions, if they could move abroad and be granted land and borders, they simply wouldn’t care about danger. An aristocratic family that holds a country in hand, versus an aristocratic family that’s been bridled by a country—even if the sizes of the countries differ, the former’s real strength is far greater than the latter’s, and it is far less constrained.

This was also the key reason why those aristocratic families that, during this period, didn’t work hard, didn’t give their all to display their capabilities, later beat their chests in regret. In this era, if you’re late by a step, heaven only knows how many years you’ll have to chase; if someone else founds a country first, who knows when the latecomers will ever catch up.