Is “The scale of involvement after Dong Cheng and others were implicated in the Edict Incident.” true?

The novel describes that after Cao Cao discovered the edict, he executed Dong Cheng and the other five, along with their entire families, at various gates, exaggerating the extremely tragic numbers (Chapter 24 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms: 'Only Dong Cheng and the other five, along with their entire families, were taken to various gates and executed. The dead totaled more than seven hundred people.'). In official history, it is only briefly recorded that the plot was exposed and Dong Cheng and others were executed, without giving specific numbers of casualties, indicating the novel's exaggeration (Records of the Three Kingdoms, Book of Shu, Biography of the Former Lord: 'The plot was discovered, and Cheng and others were all executed.').