Chapter 1257: Investigate to the End (7)

No one listened to Qi Haoran’s explanation. Just like that, the prisoners were escorted back to the prison.

Lord Bai’s subordinate whispered, “Lord, should we strike while the iron is hot?”

Anyone with eyes could tell that those people had loosened up. This was a phenomenon that had never happened before.

Although Lord Bai was also anxious, he had interrogated many criminals and knew that it was better to be quiet than to take action now. He still needed to give them some time to think.

Seeing that Queen Consort Rong and King Rong had already gotten into the carriage and were about to leave, Lord Bai immediately chased after them and said, “Your Highness, wait a moment. What do you think we should do next to pry their mouths open?”

“Shouldn’t you be better at this?” Mu Yangling was puzzled. “I’m not good at this.”

“…Your Highness is too modest. You’ve softened their attitudes just by bringing them around the streets…”

“Lord Bai.” Qi Haoran stuck his head out from behind Mu Yangling and interrupted him. “She is indeed not good at interrogation.”

Qi Haoran said righteously, “Since we can’t attack their bodies, we’ll attack their hearts. This time, the Queen Consort attacked their hearts. Lord Bai, you can just do the same thing.”

It sounded nice, but who didn’t know that it was best to attack the heart? But who had thought of taking them out to the city before?

Lord Bai felt that King Rong was inferior to him in terms of interrogation, so he didn’t need to listen to his opinion. Hence, he continued to look at Mu Yangling.

Mu Yangling blinked and said, “Didn’t you say that one of them looked like Li Wenyuan? Perhaps this could be a breakthrough.”

Lord Bai immediately looked at Qi Haoran.

Qi Haoran coughed lightly and whispered awkwardly into Mu Yangling’s ear, “I was just making it up. I did it out of desperation when I saw that they still didn’t budge.”

“That’s right. Li Wenyuan’s family assets were confiscated and his family exiled. Since his grandson was already three years old at the time, it’s impossible for him to have no memories at all,” Lord Bai said in a low voice. “That sentence only worked momentarily when their minds were shaken. If we bring it up again later, we’ll just be shooting ourselves in the foot.”

“Did that bandit really bear a close resemblance to Li Wenyuan?” Mu Yangling asked persistently.

“That’s true.” Qi Haoran said, “When I was young, I fought with a few young masters from the Li Residence. Later on, when the teachers called their parents over, I saw Li Wenyuan. That person does look a little like Li Wenyuan.”

“Isn’t that enough? Anyway, you didn’t insist that he was Li Wenyuan’s grandson back then. You merely said that they looked alike.” Mu Yangling looked at them innocently and said, “Why don’t you take them out to the streets again and let them hear more about how much the commoners hate Qin Fang?”

Qi Haoran immediately said, “Ah Ling, have you forgotten that you promised to help me curb these public opinions?”

Mu Yangling patted his hand and said, “That’s another matter. Don’t worry, I’ll definitely help.”

Mu Yangling’s way of helping was to muddy the waters.

It was impossible for her to really help Qin Fang clear his name. Her so-called speaking up for him was just dragging out more people to share the responsibility.

As she was the owner of the newspaper office, she directly used the back door to publish the article in The Great Qi Times and The Lily Times.

What Qi Haoran valued was her appeal. Because of the newspaper office and Harvest Grain Store, Ah Ling’s influence among the people was even greater than his.

This time, Mu Yangling didn’t preach about principles. She simply used herself as an example.

At the beginning of the article, Mu Yangling made her attitude clear. In terms of hatred for Qin Fang, hers was no less than anyone else’s. In terms of dislike for Qin Fang, while she did not dare to say that she was number one, she could at least rank second or third.

There were three reasons.

Firstly, she was from Xingzhou Prefecture and had lived at the border since she was young. Due to these factors, she had a deeper understanding of the country’s hatred than the non-border citizens.

Secondly, Qin Fang had once wanted to marry his concubine’s daughter to her husband as his co-wife. Even if he did not succeed, she still hated him for attempting to steal her husband.

Thirdly, the people left behind by Qin Fang wanted to kill the descendants of the Qi family, and her husband and children were all descendants of the Qi family. Moreover, because Qin Fang had indirectly died because of Qi Haoran, Qi Haoran and his sons were listed as the number one assassination targets.

Therefore, she was among those who had the most reason to hate Qin Fang.

However, this did not mean that she could completely blame Qin Fang for the chaotic world.

Qin Fang was just a minister who came from a humble class. Even if he was the Prime Minister, he was still supervised by the imperial censors. All the officials could impeach him and restrict his power.

Mu Yangling even specially explained the official system of the Great Zhou Dynasty in the form of a list to tell everyone that the reason why someone like Qin Fang could slowly become so formidable was not only because of his ability, but also because the government was in chaos at that time and officials were extravagant and corrupt. In the Great Zhou Dynasty, how many officials were unwilling to collude with others? Where were those people serving?

Before Qin Fang became the Left Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, he was Grand Tutor Yan’s student. It was said that he was highly valued by Grand Tutor Yan. Could it be that Grand Tutor Yan had misjudged him at that time?

Grand Tutor Yan had not misjudged him, and neither had the people of the world. Before Grand Tutor Yan cut ties with him, Qin Fang had indeed been a good official for a long time. Mu Yangling then asked if the people of Yizhou still remembered the Ceremonial Parasol of Gratitude1 that they had gifted Qin Fang in the 8th year of Jingyan.

That was an official who had once received the Ceremonial Parasol of Gratitude from the people before subsequently becoming a world-famous traitor. Was it his fault alone?

When Qin Fang was committing those treasonous crimes, what were the civil and military officials doing? What was Emperor Jingyan doing?

Did the Emperor object every time Qin Fang suggested increasing the taxes? Did the civil and military officials object?

At that time, the country belonged to the Guo family, not Qin.

Mu Yangling questioned, “Is it unfair to blame Qin Fang for the chaos in Great Zhou? After all, Emperor Jingyan was ultimately the one who made the decision. How many civil and military officials stood up to oppose it?”

Mu Yangling asked, “You’ve always been fighting against Qin Fang, but in fact, you should be fighting against yourselves and that high and mighty Emperor!”

Lin Weide put down the newspaper, his eyes sparkling. He asked his attendant, “How’s the situation outside?”

“There’s a huge commotion.” The attendant said, “The Great Qi Times and The Lily Times have both sold out. Several students from the academy got into a fight because they disagreed. I heard that even a few professors from the Imperial Academy personally rolled up their sleeves.”

“Meanwhile, the commoners are quieter. Those who feel that Queen Consort Rong’s words make sense gradually stopped scolding Qin Fang. Instead, they scolded the former emperor. They’re glad that Great Qi replaced Great Zhou.” The attendant smiled and said, “Master, Her Highness’s article is really well-written. It resolved everyone’s headache in an instant.”

Smiling, Lin Weide said, “While she has solved the previous problem, she has also thrown out a more serious problem. I’m afraid there will be chaos at tomorrow’s court meeting.”

“What kind of problem?”

With sparkling eyes, Lin Weide patted the newspaper on the table with a smile and said word by word, “Weaken the Prime Minister’s authority and supervise his responsibilities!”

The attendant opened his mouth wide and said, “Hasn’t the Prime Minister’s authority and responsibilities always been supervised? How can it be changed?”

“If even the Emperor can be replaced, what’s impossible?”

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