In March of the third year of Hongjing, Wei Yuan secretly returned from the Wilderness, and the major case later known in history as the 'Painted Box Case' officially began.
This case ultimately implicated over a hundred thousand people, including more than three thousand officials of various ranks, and 8,330 Scholars with academic titles. The rest were family members who were affected. The officialdom of the Eight Commanderies of Jinnan was uprooted from the ground up, and the clerks were almost completely wiped out, sweeping away the literary circles.
Across the vast land of the eight counties, Qingming soldiers, fierce like wolves or tigers, captured people everywhere.
A few escaped, but had to pass through the sieve of mountain bandits and horse bandits. Only a tiny number bore seeds of hatred, changed their names and fled beyond the eight counties.
