he was not able to respond. Emperor Taiwu then ordered Gao to draft an edict for him, ordering that Cui and Cui's staff—128 men in total—be executed, along with five family branches each. Gao refused—stating that not even Cui should be executed. Emperor Taiwu, in anger, was going to put Gao to death as well, but Crown Prince Huang again pleaded for Gao, and Gao was again spared, and in fact, Emperor Taiwu reduced the number of people to be executed. However, Emperor Taiwu still ordered a great slaughter of people related to Cui: All men and women, regardless of age, named Cui and related to Cui Hao in Cui's home region of Qinghe Commandery (roughly modern Xingtai, Hebei) Several cadet branches of prominent clans with marital connections to Cui's clan, including: The Lu (盧) clan of Fanyang Commandery The Guo (郭) clan of Taiyuan Commandery The Liu (柳) clan of Hedong Commandery Cui's staff members themselves were executed, although not their families. Before execution, Cui was put into a caged cart and placed outside Pingcheng so that people could see him. Scores of soldiers guarded him, and they took turns urinating on Cui's face and body. Cui yelled out in grief, and he sounded like "Ao Ao." After Cui's death, Emperor Taiwu began to regret putting him to death, and mourned bitterly. Despite the massacre Cui Hao's immediate cadet branch, his larger clan Cui clan of Qinghe which had several cadet branches survived into the Tang dynasty as did the larger clans of the other families like the Lu clan of Fanyang which survived into the Song dynasty. The Taiyuan Guo clan 太原郭氏 and the Hedong Liu clan 河東柳氏 both survived into the Tang dynasty. Unresolved issues What is not clear is what Cui had revealed that would bring such disaster on him. After all, Gao had admitted to writing most of the history, and yet he was spared and Cui was severely punished. Further, what Cui had revealed was not recorded in history. That had led to speculation that perhaps Cui had tried to start a Han rebellion, or that he had been the victim of a Buddhist conspiracy. Neither speculation appeared to be more than speculation. Modern historian Bo Yang believed there to be two probable reasons to Cui's death: He believed that Cui did reveal an infamy about the imperial clan—that Emperor Daowu was a traitor