The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 565

Young Master Shao used both soft and hard tactics.

"Enough with the nonsense. Today, either you and your men get out of here, or you try my Embroidered Spring Blade."

As he spoke, Da Zhu drew his embroidered spring knife, looking at the twenty-odd people in front of him without fear.

Most of these people were household slaves, and a few were guards. Da Zhu didn't take their fighting ability seriously at all.

Before Dazhu started practicing martial arts with Zhou Chu, he had already been practicing stance training for over ten years, building an incredibly deep foundation. In recent years, he had followed Zhou Chu in battles across the country, especially during the two years in Tibet, where he experienced countless fierce battles, both large and small.

The situation they face is many times more dangerous than what they are currently facing.

The current situation is not even considered dangerous. In Da Zhu's eyes, these people are not even as good as three or four lama soldiers.

The lama soldiers are really troublesome; unless you kill them completely, there is still danger.

"You're asking for it! Smash this shop!"

Young Master Shao gritted his teeth and said.

Upon hearing this, the servants behind him exchanged glances. Looking at Dazhu's exaggerated physique and the embroidered spring knife in his hand, not one of them was not terrified.

If they went up there, they didn't know if they would survive. For a moment, most people chickened out.

However, there were also those who were reckless, such as the head of the Shao family's guards. Relying on his good martial arts skills, he picked up a knife and charged at Dazhu.

Da Zhu didn't even dodge; he simply used his embroidered spring knife to cut the knife in the man's hand.

The quality of this folk-made knife is incomparable to that of the Embroidered Spring Knife.

The blow stunned the guard leader, but Da Zhu had no intention of letting him go so easily. With a swift movement of his embroidered spring knife, he severed the guard leader's right hand, spitting blood all over the ground.

"Ahhh!"

This man wasn't as tough as he appeared; he clutched his severed shoulder and writhed in pain.

"Come at me all at once, or I'll kill you all later."

Seeing that his men were even more frightened, Young Master Shao became enraged and said...

Upon hearing this, the servants immediately lost their nerve and fought with Dazhu. They would only give him a token beating, at most breaking his arms and legs, but if they didn't fight, they knew he would definitely kill them when they got back.

They clearly understood the stakes involved.

More than twenty people rushed forward. Dazhu's father took out the knife he had prepared beforehand, and he and Dazhu stood on either side of him. Dazhu slashed at them one by one, basically severing an arm each time. If anyone dared to lift their leg, Dazhu wouldn't hesitate to cut off their leg as well.

These people have no fighting spirit to begin with; they're just putting on an act. They'll accept losing an arm, but if they lose a leg, they can only accept their bad luck.

Soon, everyone was lying on the ground.

Looking at the severed limbs and blood on the ground, Zhang's father was filled with worry.

"Dazhu, won't this affect the shop's business in the future?"

Dazhu was speechless upon hearing this and didn't bother to pay attention to his money-grubbing father.

After Lu Wanshan returned, he had someone investigate briefly and then understood why Lord Zhou had asked him to investigate the Ministry of Works.

So someone in the Ministry of Works is blind and dares to provoke the Zhang family's shop.

"Send some people over there to help Dazhu clean up the scene."

After saying this, Lu Wanshan led his men straight to the Ministry of Works.

With a target in mind, Lu Wanshan naturally knew who to arrest first. Most of the officials in the Ministry of Works were corrupt, but the amount of money they embezzled varied. Lu Wanshan couldn't arrest them all, otherwise the Ministry of Works would not be able to operate normally.

However, with Zhou Chu's order, Lu Wanshan was not going to let it go easily. In addition to Shao Xi, there were more than a dozen other officials who had made the most money and were on Lu Wanshan's arrest list. These officials all held important positions.

Shao Xi was not at the Ministry of Works; he was off duty today and was at home with his concubine.

He had only recently taken this concubine, and she was still very much a novelty to him. Whenever he had free time, he would go to her room.

When the Embroidered Uniform Guards stormed into the Shao residence and dragged him off the bed, Shao Xi shuddered at the sight of the Northern Garrison's uniform, nearly suffering a stroke from fright.

Soon, all of the dozen or so officials from the Ministry of Works were arrested and imprisoned in the Imperial Prison.

They initially thought that only they had been arrested, and that Lu Wanshan, the governor of the Northern Garrison, had just gone crazy again and was arresting someone as a show. But when they saw so many colleagues, they realized that this matter was not simple.

"Is it that one?"

One of them looked at his colleague and said somewhat uncertainly.

Given their rank, they wouldn't dare address Zhou Chu by his name directly.

"Now it seems that only that one person can do it. Lu Wanshan wouldn't dare to arrest so many people at the same time without instructions from above."

"That's what Li Zan, the Vice Minister of Works, said."

He was the highest-ranking official among the Ministry of Works officials arrested this time.

Unlike the other officials who were arrested, Li Zan was appointed as the Vice Minister of Works in the first year of the Jiajing reign. At that time, Zhou Chu was still in Jiangnan. After Zhou Chu returned to the capital, although he experienced the Chen Wanyan case, he could not see the deeper meaning and thought that Chen Wanyan had simply brought this upon himself by offending too many people.

Little did they know that Chen Wanyan was simply pushed out by Jiajing to shield Zhou Chu from harm.

In the later case involving Mao, Ji, Yang, and Lian, it wasn't Zhou Chu who took action, but rather the Grand Secretary Yang Yiqing. Therefore, Li Zan didn't actually have much of a feeling towards Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Even though the Minister of Works repeatedly hinted to him not to make too much money, he didn't care much. He always felt that if he didn't make as much money as possible while he was the Vice Minister of Works, he might not have the chance to make money again in the future.

If Li Zan was like this, the rest of them were basically those who were added to the Ministry of Works after him, and a large part of them had come to the capital in the last two years. They had even less of an impression of Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, whom they had only heard of but never seen.

"It can only be him. He's only been back in Beijing for a short time, and he's already causing trouble? Isn't he afraid of offending people?"

Another official looked puzzled.

In fact, it wasn't just him who was puzzled; almost everyone who had been arrested couldn't understand what had gotten into the Northern Garrison Command. Why were so many people being arrested at once?

Everyone else has been making a fortune these past two years, but I haven't seen the Northern Garrison Command doing this.

This commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is truly ignorant of his own limitations.

Of course, this excludes Li Zan, the Vice Minister of Works.

He had been in the capital the longest among these people. Although he hadn't seen many things with his own eyes, he had heard about them. However, at that time, Li Zan treated them as stories. He felt that what Zhou Chu had done in the past must have been at the emperor's behest, or that countless people were involved. It was just a rumor that pushed all the blame onto Zhou Chu.

So I didn't take it seriously.

Looking at so many of his arrested colleagues, Li Zan couldn't help but recall the rumors about Zhou Chu, and immediately broke out in a cold sweat!