Chapter 1258: Investigate to the End (8)

Mu Yangling’s article caused a huge uproar among all the different classes.

Every dynasty’s end was marked by a tyrannical or incompetent ruler. Xia Youjie, Shang, Zhou, and Qin. However, no matter who it was, although they were scolded as tyrants and incompetent rulers, the world would always find all kinds of treacherous officials or disasters to share the responsibility.

For example, Xia Jie’s kingdom was destroyed because of Mo Xi1, the Shang dynasty’s ruler’s tyranny and incompetence was blamed on Daji2, and the Second Emperor of the Qin Dynasty was led astray by Zhao Gao3. In any case, if the Emperor was bad, people made up excuses for that. He was either bewitched by a beautiful woman or slowly turned bad by the deception of treacherous officials.

Mu Yangling was the first person to directly point out that the Emperor’s fault was greater than that of a treacherous official.

Great Qi practiced freedom of speech. Although the aristocrats felt that Mu Yangling’s words were bold, they endured it when they saw that the Emperor in the palace did not react at all.

The commoners who didn’t understand what was going on felt that Queen Consort Rong was right.

Everyone summarized three main points from her article.

Firstly, if the Emperor was muddle-headed, the government would be in chaos.

Secondly, if the prime minister’s authority was too great, it would easily breed corruption and allow him to control the government.

Thirdly, if the responsibilities of the civil and military officials were unclear, and if the officials weren’t supervised well, malfeasance and corruption could easily happen.

Regarding the first point, everyone could only hope that the royal family would be as cautious as possible when educating and choosing the crown prince. Once the Emperor took office, it would be very difficult to replace him because that would result in plenty of blood spilled. It was not worth it whether it was for the overall interests or personal interests.

Therefore, no one discussed that for the time being. Most importantly, they did not dare to discuss it. It was better to let the Emperor discuss such a matter with his sister-in-law.

However, regarding the second and third points, everyone had a good chat about how to weaken the Prime Minister’s authority and supervise the officials.

Seeing that everyone’s attention had finally shifted away from Qin Fang, Qi Xiuyuan took the initiative to mention these two things.

Now that Great Qi had been unified, some things should change.

Qi Xiuyuan left Little Bear in the palace and let him and Little Treasure participate in political affairs.

Meanwhile, Mu Yangling, who had run away after lighting the fire, was happily writing a letter to Qi Haoran, telling him that she had already completed what he had asked her to do.

When Qi Haoran received the letter, he was leading his men to surround Qin Fang’s remaining private soldiers. He read the newspaper that Xiao Lou had bought and then read Ah Ling’s letter. In the end, he helplessly folded the letter and newspaper and stuffed them into a large envelope before handing it to Xiao Lou. He snorted and said, “Tell Her Highness that I’ll discuss this problem with her when I get back.”

In the end, those prisoners still couldn’t help but confess. It wasn’t because they were touched by Mu Yangling’s words, but because of the information that Qi Haoran and Lord Bai had given them.

Mu Yangling’s words had at most shocked them and made them doubt their persistence.

However, what Qi Haoran discovered directly crushed their beliefs.

After Qi Haoran parted ways with Mu Yangling that day, he ran to look for Lord Bai. His original intention was to think of a way to forge some things. It would be best if he could make that man believe that he was Li Wenyuan’s grandson and that Qin Fang had adopted him after he harmed his family.

Since he wanted to forge evidence, he had to investigate Li Wenyuan’s family thoroughly. He had to come up with something substantial. If he wanted to make it believable, it had to be at least 40-50% true.

In the end, after investigating, Qi Haoran realized that that person was indeed Li Wenyuan’s grandson.

This discovery made Qi Haoran and Lord Bai feel a chill in their hearts. Hence, they looked at the remaining dozen or so people suspiciously.

Only after investigating carefully did he realize how terrifying Qin Fang was. Most of his adopted sons were the descendants of his enemies. They had all been exiled and beheaded for resisting him.

Most of the exiles died halfway. It could be said that other than General Yuan, his enemies were all dead.

The rest were the descendants of the dead soldiers at the northern borderline.

When the prisoners saw the evidence, their first thought was that they had forged the evidence!

Qi Haoran quickly confirmed that this evidence was not fake. He even said to them, “The oldest of you is only at the age of 30. In that case, the servants or teachers who took care of you when you were young should still be alive, right? If you still have doubts, why don’t you ask them?”

The prisoners’ expressions darkened. After a night of silence, their desire to investigate their background prevailed. They told Qi Haoran the addresses of the old servants and teachers.

To show his sincerity, Qi Haoran specially brought these prisoners along to arrest those people. Once they were caught, he immediately let them interrogate them.

Those people were all hired by Qin Fang to take care of his adopted sons or educate them. They were either servants or retainers1.

When the country fell, this group of people either died, fled, or dispersed. Among them, there were some who suffered hardship. Qin Fang’s adopted sons helped them secretly, so they knew the exact address of these people.

When Qin Fang took in these children back then, he had no intention of nurturing them into assassins or private soldiers. He only rescued them out of guilt so as to leave a bloodline for those families.

Therefore, his actions from the beginning were not confidential.

According to the confessions of those old retainers, Qin Fang had adopted these children with good intentions in the beginning.

“…The Prime Minister felt guilty. Seeing that the young masters were young and ignorant, he wanted to leave a bloodline for the soldiers and loyal people of the northern borderline. We were all chosen to take care of the young masters. Originally, the young masters were designated to leave the mountain when they reached 14 years old.” The old retainer explained in a low voice, “Before this batch, a few young masters had already left when they turned 14 years old. However, unlike you, they didn’t know that the Prime Minister had adopted them until they left. The Prime Minister also didn’t allow us to tell them their background… As for why the Prime Minister changed later, I don’t know.”

In any case, he was already used to the Prime Minister’s mood swings.

Fury appeared on everyone’s faces as they asked with cold eyes, “Since he felt guilty, why did you frame our parents?”

The old retainer said with a sigh, “It’s time and fate. Your parents were determined to bring down the Prime Minister, so he naturally had to protect himself.”

Everyone sneered. “If he didn’t do anything evil, why would our parents make things difficult for him?”

The old retainer closed his eyes and said after a while, “The Prime Minister was good at guessing the Emperor’s thoughts. What he did was just what the Emperor wanted. Even Queen Consort Rong knows that this should be Emperor Jingyan’s fault.”

Qi Haoran said coldly, “Don’t implicate Her Highness. Emperor Jingyan didn’t ask Qin Fang to rebel with the Second Prince.”

The old retainer opened his mouth. Thinking that he was no longer Qin Fang’s man and that Qin Fang had long passed away, he really did not need to offend others for him, so he shut his mouth and did not speak.

Because the bandits and assassins had personally interrogated him, they now believed the evidence that Qi Haoran had brought up. The adoptive father who had raised them suddenly became the enemy who had killed their entire family.

Their faith collapsed.

The anger that they had been holding back in their chests dissipated in an instant. Having lost all vitality, they were almost like the living dead.

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