Under the forceful suppression of the Hall of Punishment and Fang Yun, more than a hundred families vanished like smoke.
Through the four successive phases of the Anti-Thug Campaign, Jing Kingdom not only improved and strengthened its judicial system and dealt a heavy blow to backward customs such as clan rule and extrajudicial punishment, but also confiscated vast amounts of wealth, shops, and farmland.
This wealth and farmland were nominally held in joint trust by the Sacred Academy and Jing Kingdom, filling Jing Kingdom's treasury and relieving its burning urgency.
In the eyes of the upper echelons of every nation, Fang Yun and the Hall of Punishment had become utterly vicious villains.
But to the common people and scholars at the bottom, Fang Yun and the Hall of Punishment were nothing short of their saviors.
Thus, far from falling into turmoil, Jing Kingdom's lower classes brimmed with new vitality. They might not obey whatever the authorities told them to do, but as long as an order was said to come from Fang Yun, countless commoners responded enthusiastically.
What was more, the day after the crackdown on local tyrants and corrupt gentry ended, the Grand Secretariat announced three things.
Jing Kingdom had collaborated with the Agriculture Hall and the Crafts Hall in the Bloodmang Realm, obtaining large quantities of farming tools and Armored Oxen. These would be distributed free of charge to Jing Kingdom's people to ease the hardships of farming.
Although the official announcement did not say so outright, Fang Party officials kept spreading the word among the people that Fang Yun had actually paid out of his own pocket for the Agriculture Hall and Crafts Hall's assistance. The court had not spent a single coin.
The people everywhere were immediately filled with gratitude.
In particular, among the people of