The one leading the house raid was Vice Minister Li of the Ministry of Justice, a trusted subordinate of Gao Gong. He first ordered soldiers to block all the large and small gates of the Lu mansion, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving.
For noble families, what mattered most was dignity—they could not dishonor their father’s reputation. Even when going to prison, they must enter with dignity.
Lu Yi, the current head of the Lu household, suppressed his fear and dressed in plain clothes. He ordered the family servants to open the main gate and led his younger brother Lu Cai and second brother-in-law Yan Shaoting to welcome Vice Minister Li.
Vice Minister Li held up an imperial edict and said, “This official has received His Majesty’s command to examine the Lu family’s property.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yi led his brother and brother-in-law to kneel on the ground, facing the direction of the Forbidden City, crying “Long live” three times and thanking the Emperor for his grace. Both thunder and dew are imperial favors.
Vice Minister Li continued, “By imperial decree! Embroidered Uniform Guard Vice Commander Lu Yi and Centurion Lu Cai have abused their authority, hoarded wealth secretly, concealed Shifan’s stolen goods, and harbored Yan Shaoting in their home, betraying the previous emperor’s kindness. Their hereditary positions are hereby stripped. By imperial order.”
Lu Yi and Lu Cai had long been prepared. They presented their court robes and official seals to Vice Minister Li. From now on, both brothers were commoners like Yan Shaoting. According to regulations, commoners must kneel when meeting officials. Lu Yi, Lu Cai, and Yan Shaoting knelt straight-backed before Vice Minister Li.
Truly befitting descendants of a noble family, even their kneeling posture was dignified—like three upright bamboo stalks that would rather break than bend despite wind and rain.
Vice Minister Li found this sight irritating. He snorted coldly, “Come, arrest these three men and put them in cangues!”
Soldiers carried over twenty-five-jin heavy cangues. With three sharp clicks, they locked them around the necks and wrists of all three men. Suddenly bearing such weight on their necks, which could nearly snap from the pressure of the cangue locks, they naturally could not maintain their upright kneeling posture. One by one, they lowered their heads and bent their backs to relieve the pain.
Seeing this, Vice Minister Li was greatly pleased. With a wave of his large hand, he commanded, “You all split up and raid each room. First drive the household slaves to the market to be sold. Search each one thoroughly—they must not carry any Lu mansion property out of the compound. Have the female family members go to the ancestral hall to await judgment. You must register everything in the ledgers—all precious objects must be recorded without omission!”
“Yes, sir!” His subordinates received orders and departed. This Vice Minister Li had rich experience in house raids. First, he must remove all extraneous people to prevent servants from causing disturbances while trying to save their masters. All Lu family household slaves were driven to the market to be sold off. No matter how respectable the stewards or housekeeping women had been before, they were all bought and sold like cattle and livestock—though their prices were even lower than livestock!
All Lu family female relatives and children were confined in the ancestral hall. The male family members—brothers Lu Yi and Lu Cai, plus son-in-law Yan Shaoting—wore twenty-five-jin heavy cangues and knelt in the courtyard awaiting orders.
With everyone under control and unable to steal and hide family property, Vice Minister Li then ordered men to raid each room separately, counting items one by one. Gold and silver vessels that were easier to appraise were weighed and packed on the spot, recorded in the confiscation registry. Furniture, bed curtains, precious silk tapestries, fur clothing and materials, famous calligraphy and paintings, etc., were categorized and recorded in specialized ledgers.
After half a day of raiding, property lists from all rooms were compiled in Vice Minister Li’s hands.
Lu Bing had been powerful and knew how to make money. Li Yiren was skilled at household management. Though the family’s children had no great achievements, they were all well-behaved and obedient, producing no wastrel sons to empty the family coffers. So even ten years after Lu Bing’s death, the Lu family remained among the wealthiest in the capital.
Back when Lu Bing desperately needed money to bribe Yan Shifan and buy Yu Dayou’s life, Lu Ying had deceived Li Yiren for money in her father’s name, carrying two thousand taels of gold from the treasury to Yan Shifan that very day. This showed how deep the Lu family’s wealth ran.
Therefore, though the final confiscation list was not as extensive as Yan Shifan’s sixty-thousand-character “Record of the Tianshui Iceberg,” it still reached forty thousand characters—and this didn’t even include the luxurious mansion they lived in, or their fields and properties outside.
Vice Minister Li flipped through the thick confiscation ledger. The first volume was naturally gold:
“Gold ingots: three hundred fifty-one pieces, totaling three thousand eight hundred sixty-nine taels. Gold bars: four hundred pieces, totaling eight thousand forty-seven taels. Gold cakes: ninety pieces, totaling ninety-seven taels. Gold leaves: nine packages, totaling eight hundred fifty-seven taels. Placer gold: six packages, totaling seven hundred taels. Gold fragments: five packages, totaling four hundred fifty-nine taels.”
Plus various gold household items—gold incense burners, cups, plates, bowls, spoons, chopsticks, spittoons, etc.—over two thousand pieces totaling more than eight thousand taels!
Just the gold alone was substantial. Without even examining the totals for silver, jade, furs, furniture, and other items, this gold was enough to bring down the Lu family.
Vice Minister Li waved the thick confiscation ledger in front of Lu Yi and the others: “Still claiming your family never harbored Yan family wealth? Based on Lu Bing’s official salary alone, could he have accumulated such a vast fortune?”
What a joke! Among court officials, except for Yingtian Governor Hai Rui who was famous for his integrity, whose family lived on their official salary alone?
It was currently August 19th, a crisp autumn day, but the autumn tiger was fierce indeed. Lu Yi and the others knelt under the scorching sun wearing heavy cangues. Soon sweat soaked through their clothes, and all three men were nearly dehydrated and about to collapse. Upon hearing Vice Minister Li’s words, Lu Yi became emotional and was about to refute, but fainted from heatstroke.
“Third brother!”
Suddenly there was commotion among the house-raiding crowd. A group of horsemen broke through the encirclement and reached the confiscation site. Besides Lu Ying at the front, the rest all wore Embroidered Uniform Guard uniforms and carried embroidered spring swords. Behind Lu Ying was a handsome young man whom Vice Minister Li knew well—Lu Ying’s top lieutenant, one of the four scoundrels of the northern city, formerly the capital’s number one dandy, now the prodigal son returned more precious than gold, Embroidered Uniform Guard Regional Commander Wang Daxia.
Lu Ying was officially Lu Bing’s illegitimate son and legally not part of the Lu family, though she too had been dismissed and become a commoner, so she dressed as a civilian.
Lu Ying rode a fine horse, charging forward like an arrow. She jumped from horseback and took out a water pouch containing water mixed with salt and honey prepared by Wei Caiwei.
Lu Ying gave water to the unconscious Lu Yi, while Wang Daxia and Centurion Wu also dismounted to give sugar-salt water to Lu Cai and Yan Shaoting. Other Embroidered Uniform Guards held black umbrellas to shield them from the sun.
After giving them water, Lu Ying took out heatstroke prevention pills prepared by Wei Caiwei for them to hold in their mouths.
Lu Ying produced a large bundle of keys, trying them one by one to unlock the twenty-five-jin heavy cangues around her brothers’ and brother-in-law’s necks. The other Embroidered Uniform Guards formed three circles around the Lu family members—some holding umbrellas, preventing Ministry of Justice soldiers from approaching.
This group treated Vice Minister Li as if he didn’t exist, infuriating him. He raised the imperial edict and shouted loudly: “What are you trying to do? This official is conducting a raid by imperial decree, yet you dare trespass on this important confiscation site! This is disrespect to the imperial edict, disrespect to His Majesty!”
Wang Daxia said sarcastically, “Oh my, Vice Minister Li, such impressive official authority!”
Everyone knew Wang Daxia was an extremely difficult character. Major figures like former Prince Jing and Yan Shifan had all met their match with him. Vice Minister Li immediately became alert, cupping his hands toward the Forbidden City: “This official carries out His Majesty’s commands, representing imperial authority to severely punish corrupt officials.”
Clap clap clap! Wang Daxia applauded: “Well said! Come, come, let’s all applaud Vice Minister Li’s integrity and uprightness!”
The Embroidered Uniform Guards all clapped along, creating thunderous applause. The Ministry of Justice soldiers looked at each other uncertainly, not daring to move. The Embroidered Uniform Guard had a notorious reputation for stirring up trouble and creating false cases. Let Vice Minister Li fight with the Embroidered Uniform Guard—we foot soldiers will avoid this if we can.
Vice Minister Li found himself elevated to the clouds by Wang Daxia’s praise and couldn’t gracefully step down. He said, “Regional Commander Wang, your Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu has marriage ties with the Lu family and should recuse himself according to law. Therefore, the Lu family corruption case and harboring Yan faction stolen goods falls under our Ministry of Justice’s thorough investigation—it’s none of your Embroidered Uniform Guard’s business. You’ve rashly intruded here, disrupting our Ministry’s house raid. I advise you to leave immediately, or I will certainly report you to Elder Gao!”
Vice Minister Li brought out Cabinet Chief Minister Gao Gong.
“But you’ve finished the raid, haven’t you? We knew you’d finished before we came—how could we delay your confiscation?” Wang Daxia pointed to the thick confiscation list beside Vice Minister Li:
“I’m not well-educated, so don’t try to fool me. This is all in black and white—isn’t this the confiscation list? Go ahead and report me. Never mind Elder Gao—even if you report me to His Majesty, I’m not afraid. You’ve detained the people, confiscated the property—what’s wrong with us Embroidered Uniform Guards coming to observe? The Embroidered Uniform Guard are the Emperor’s eyes and ears. Even the daily price of eggs at the market—we compile reports for His Majesty’s knowledge. Such a major event as confiscating the Lu mansion—of course we wouldn’t overlook it.”
Vice Minister Li was stunned by Wang Daxia’s sophistry: “You Embroidered Uniform Guards call this mere observation? You’ve broken the cangues, given water to the prisoners, held umbrellas for them—this is observation?”
Wang Daxia said, “His Majesty ordered your Ministry of Justice to investigate the case, not to torture prisoners to death. These three men haven’t been tried yet. As a mere vice minister, without investigation, you can sentence these three to death? Torture them to death with sun exposure and heavy cangues? Moreover, this is an imperial case. The Ministry of Justice can only investigate evidence and suggest sentences. Only His Majesty has the authority to make final judgments—whatever His Majesty says is how they’ll be sentenced. Does Vice Minister Li want to overstep his authority and make decisions for His Majesty? Vice Minister Li, how bold you are!”
Wang Daxia placed hat after hat on Vice Minister Li’s head. Vice Minister Li felt as if twenty-five-jin cangues were pressing on his own skull, making him unable to think clearly and only able to be led by Wang Daxia’s nonsense.
Vice Minister Li bit his tongue to regain half his clarity and produced a confiscation ledger: “This volume records all imperial items—forbidden objects. Based on this alone, the Lu family deserves death!”
Wang Daxia glanced at it: “I’ve seen some of these things. They’re all items bestowed by the previous emperor—even this mansion was bestowed by the previous emperor. After Lu Bing’s death, the previous emperor pitied a house full of orphans and widows, giving rewards every festival and holiday. Year after year of rewards—the Imperial Supplies Office in the palace has inventory records. What a coincidence—today I brought the ledgers from the Imperial Supplies Office.”
Wang Daxia produced several ledgers as thick as bricks: “I copied these from the Imperial Supplies Office. Vice Minister Li, don’t be polite with me—feel free to compare them with the Lu family’s forbidden items. See how cooperative we Embroidered Uniform Guards are with the Ministry of Justice investigation—we’ve even found evidence for you. Shouldn’t Vice Minister Li thank me?”