Chapter eighty 

Ying Zetian then stood up and spoke again as her people bought the few officials that she will need to kill tonight as they have just committed too many offences and she could not tolerate it.

"To the few officials that I will need to kill tonight. Do not worry, your family will follow your way very shortly and I thank you for your contribution to my royal coffers."

Speedily, the few officials that needed to be killed were killed. There was a vast empty space right in front of the royal palace and Ying one gives the signal for the next step of their plan to be carried out. All the officials were carried out so that they could watched the bodies of those killed tonight being burned together with bodies of those they once think unworthy. Once Ying Zetian saw that all were in place, she began to speak again.

"Tonight, for the sake of the health of the people of Changan and a lesson to the officials that will be under my rule in the future. Do not ever think just because you are a government official, you are greater than the people you serve. In the end, all of you is the same as the people you serve. And I burn the bodies of the once royal family and top government officials together to emphasize this lesson. And if anyone could not learn it, either you quit or in the end one word, death!"

After leaving Ying two and half of Ying Zetian dark guards in charge of the palace and seeing that everything is in place. Ying Zetian with a childish mad glee deeply etched in her face clapped happily while saying.

"One royal family down and four gentry families to go."

Ying Zetian then signal for her people to press the acupuncture point of the head of two gentry families before half dragging and carrying them out of the palace. After all, Ying Zetian wanted her takeover of empire of Tai Ping to be a quiet one. And so, Ying Zetian did the same to Shuang Guan Yi and Tang Wudi did the same to the head of the Yang family. The rest of the officials were left in place still staring at the bodies of once familiar people burning with the bodies of those who are ignored and thrown in the wild once they died.

If the officials were not already immobile from the medicine, they will already be weakened and stunned from the fear that Ying Zetian give them tonight. Not to mention the fear that Tang Wudi also given them tonight. Tang Wudi have the same madness on his face that Ying Zetian also has. Now that the mad Ying Zetian and Tang Wudi is not here, the officials have time to think of other things. After all, the officials could not do anything expect for thinking. No wonder, the officials were thinking that the old idiom is right, if you are not the same, you will not enter the same family.

Older officials who were in service in the time when the Ying family is the top gentry family in Tai Ping was reminded of Ying Taishan, albeit a crazier version. And at least half of such officials who were high in power in the Tai Ping court decide to fully support Ying Zetian as they still missed the times when Ying Taishan is around. When Ying Taishan is around, Tai Ping is more powerful and peaceful, not to mentioned wealthy. Even now, some of the older officials deeply regret the fact at their inability to help Ying Taishan especially after Shuang Guan Yi come into power.