To touch Liu Biping is to touch the Liu family behind him.
This is the real reason why Shen Chen and Wei An had not taken action before - after all, confronting the clan forces is too scary a thing.
Nowadays, when many people in Min are in trouble, they still have the tradition of directly seeking help from the clan and letting the clan elders make the decision instead of notifying the government. This shows how much they value their clan.
If they act rashly against Liu Biping, Shen Chen and Wei An might really not be able to leave Fujian.
That's why Shen Chen and Wei An planned every step carefully and set up a series of traps. They first used the interests of the Maritime Customs to divide the connections between the four major families, elevated the Xu family to attract the attention and jealousy of the other three families, and then threw out bait to fool the other two families. After uniting the Xu, Wang and Chen families, they used the younger generations of the Liu family to disintegrate the Liu family's alliance from within.
In fact, these tricks are inconspicuous but very effective.
Because humans always value their own interests.
If Shen Chen had not surrounded the mansion this time and arrested Liu Biping immediately, Old Master Liu would probably have just watched the fire from the other side of the river and not cared about Liu Biping's irresponsibility and offense towards the clan.
But it’s different now. Old Master Liu has already weighed the pros and cons.
Shen Chen knew exactly what he wanted, and after a moment he said directly: "I came here on the orders of the Emperor, not to seek revenge. Governor Liu has fallen to this point because of his own fault, and no one else is to blame. As for the other members of the Liu family, if it is found that they have not done anything wrong, they will naturally not be implicated."
This shows your attitude.
What does it mean to have nothing out of line
They are one clan, and there is no way they had no involvement in what Liu Biping did. Shen Chen must know that when he said that, he was promising Old Master Liu and the others that as long as they could offer the right bargaining chips, he would definitely let the Liu family go.
Old Master Liu breathed a sigh of relief, looked at Shen Chen, took the thick envelope from Old Master Liu, and handed it to Shen Chen with both hands: "Your Excellency the Imperial Envoy, please be advised that there is an unworthy descendant in our clan, Liu Biping, who relied on his high position as governor to break the law and harbor evil intentions. For so many years, he has plundered the people's wealth and condoned pirates..."
He closed his eyes and listed dozens of Liu Biping's crimes in one breath. Finally, he bowed deeply and said, "Liu Biping's actions are truly unforgivable. As the leader of the clan, I feel ashamed of the people of Rongcheng and the clan members for having such a scum. Fortunately, we have returned to the right path and secretly collected a lot of evidence of Liu Biping's crimes during his tenure, and I am here to present it to you."
Shen Chen looked at him deeply.
He really wanted to create internal strife within the Liu family and then reap the benefits.
But he didn't expect that the old man from the Liu family would react so quickly, come to him so soon and do things so perfectly.
He raised his eyebrows, and Han Bo next to him stepped forward, took the thing from Old Master Liu and handed it to Shen Chen.
Shen Chen flipped through it and his expression became involuntarily excited.
It was really interesting - Old Master Liu was really sincere - they had everything they needed, as if they were afraid that Liu Biping would not die soon enough. They even had evidence of Liu Biping's smuggling of arms and collusion with pirates. Not only that, they even made a ledger with the names of officials and the amounts Liu Biping had bribed over the years. There were so many ledgers, and every one of them was filled with silver.
Old Master Liu was waiting for Shen Chen to read the book. He glanced at his son and said, "I only found out about the collusion between the Peng and Yi families and Liu Biping later. Liu Biping asked us to deal with the aftermath and asked the clan to take out one million taels of silver to help him fill the hole..."
It took a lot of thought to settle that matter.
Master Liu looked at Shen Chen's expressionless face, not knowing what Shen Chen was thinking or feeling. In a hurry, he could not care about anything else and said hurriedly, "There is more! The Imperial Envoy may not know who sent the letter to Liu Biping, causing Liu Biping to know that the court had found out about the Yi and Peng families, and who avoided this disaster - it was... it was Chu Jingxing, the prince of Linjiang at the time. He sent the letter personally..."
Even this matter was brought up, which shows that the Liu family is really desperate and really hopes to surrender so as to completely clear themselves of the matter involving Liu Biping.
Shen Chen said with a half-smile, as if he was a little surprised: "So that's how it is, I didn't know that."
This doesn't look like he doesn't know, it seems that he clearly knows, and this news doesn't move him at all.
After thinking it over again and again, he looked at his father and threw out another important piece of news: "Not only that, we also know that Liu Biping has been planning to seek refuge with... ...with Princess Linjiang."
The smile on Shen Chen's face froze.
This time he was really interested. He suppressed the emotions on his face, said "oh" calmly, and then asked softly, "What do you mean?"
This is truly true!
Mr. Liu was a little excited, but he was also relieved. He said with a sense of relief: "It is absolutely true, we dare not lie. Although Liu Biping did not tell us about this, some of us found that he used people to go to Jiangxi. Because the people in charge of the ships are our people, we can't hide these things from us. Although he is the governor, my father is the patriarch..."
Old Master Liu would not let Liu Biping decide all the affairs of the Liu family, so he would naturally keep some things in reserve.
Shen Chen listened with a smile, hummed, and motioned for them to continue.
After a pause, Master Liu continued, "We have intercepted a letter. We certainly dare not not send it out, but we all know the contents. Now I will show it to you, the Imperial Envoy..."
Shen Chen reached out to take it and read the contents quickly.
Compared with the things they handed over before, this letter was much less important. There was basically nothing worth saying about it, and there was nothing that could convict Liu Biping.
But it is worth seeing.
Shen Chen raised the corner of his mouth sarcastically, and for a moment he couldn't tell what he was feeling.
On it was a reply letter from Princess Linjiang to Liu Biping, in which Princess Linjiang clearly wrote that she wanted Liu Biping to kill him. She also promised that as long as Liu Biping could kill him to eliminate future troubles, she would definitely agree to Liu Biping's request to join the King of Linjiang and would definitely persuade the King of Linjiang.
Really...
Shen Chen raised his hand and threw the letter on the ground, his brows furrowed and his eyes cold, obviously he was really angry.
However, what made him angry was not the Princess Linjiang's undisguised murderous intention towards him, but her malicious intention towards Wei An - she actually wanted Liu Biping not to kill Wei An, but to report the matter of Old Lady Wei and the child of the Ming family to the emperor.
How stupid and cruel.