A group of people were left speechless by Si Fengwu's triple question.
After a long pause, they all turned to the old man who had initially questioned Si Fengwu.
While they were unwilling to accept their sudden dismissal from office, they didn't dare to confront Si Fengwu directly.
If it hadn't been for the old man's instigation, they would have already gone to the new capital.
At worst, they could take the imperial examinations again; if they themselves couldn't succeed, then surely one of their descendants would.
But now that they had come all the way to Si Fengwu's doorstep, if they couldn't retreat with their dignity intact, not only would they be in peril, but their descendants might also be implicated.
Seeing this, the old man inwardly resented these people for rushing forward eagerly when there were benefits to be had, only to push the blame onto him when cornered by Si Fengwu.
However, he knew that he was different from the others; if he couldn't resolve this matter here, he would lose his chance.
So, despite feeling a bit intimidated by Si Fengwu's oppressive aura, he forced himself to suppress his fear and stepped forward.
"Your Highness is indeed a prince of Great Qin, and also a prince of the new dynasty. But do not forget that you grew up on the sustenance of Great Gan.
Without the late emperor and the late empress dowager, it's uncertain whether you would even be alive today.
Now, less than three years after the late emperor's demise, you usurp his empire and insult his people. To be so heartless and unrighteous, are you not afraid that the late emperor will be disheartened in the netherworld?"
With these words, the eyes of the Great Gan remnants behind him brightened.
Indeed, no matter what kind of prince Si Fengwu was, it couldn't change the fact that he had once been indebted to Great Gan.
Even the onlookers cast scornful glances at Si Fengwu, viewing him as a "heartless and unrighteous hypocrite."
Si Fengwu, born to nobility, had always been an object of reverence wherever he went. When had he ever been looked at like a petty scoundrel?
Before he could react, Lu Qingwan couldn't stand it any longer.
"You old scoundrel!
You can enumerate the late emperor and the late empress dowager's favors to His Highness, but you conveniently forget to mention their kindness to you!"
As Lu Qingwan spoke, she produced a memorial, about a finger thick, and unfurled it with a swish.
"I didn't hold you accountable for every transgression out of respect for the late emperor, intending to preserve the last vestiges of dignity for you old officials of Great Gan. But you are too ungrateful!"
Without even glancing at the memorial in her hand, Lu Qingwan could clearly recite the list of crimes committed by the man before her.
"While the late emperor was alive, I won't detail the disgusting acts you committed in collusion with Duke Xu, Duke Pei, and that lunatic Feng Qingheng!
I will only ask you this: Prime Minister Wen, Prince Nan, and Grand Scholar Chi never offended you in the slightest and were pillars of the state who benefited all the people.
You instigated and threatened their clans to commit wrongdoings.
When you deliberately fabricated evidence to drag those three elders down with you, did you ever consider that Prime Minister Wen and Grand Scholar Chi were your own teachers?"
She forcefully threw the memorial at the man.
Lu Qingwan said coldly, "Xie Wenzhong, though you come from a noble family, you lost your father at a young age. How many people truly considered you a scion of a noble house?
You and Xie Cixiu entered the imperial examinations in the same year; he achieved the rank of third place, while you remained unknown.
If it weren't for Prime Minister Wen's love for wealth and Elder Chi's benevolence, would you have had your chance to rise?
Now that you are incompetent and cannot preserve your own glory, you exchange the integrity of those two for your own official position. Do you feel no guilt?"
Lu Qingwan, feigning rage, tossed the memorial away. By sheer coincidence, as the memorial flew, its binding loosened, scattering its pages everywhere.
The onlookers who picked them up were dumbfounded.
The scrolls of this group of Great Gan old officials, who considered themselves to have rendered great service, were thicker than the practice calligraphy sheets of children in the nursery.
"The recent frequent price increases of grain in the city were their doing. I thought it was because of the constant warfare and the court running out of food for us!"
"No wonder my brother couldn't get into the Jingshan Military Academy. It turns out this scoundrel had someone else take his place!"
...oΓg
As sounds of disdain and complaint erupted, the old man who had righteously accused Si Fengwu, Xie Wenzhong, the former Minister of Works, finally realized that despite all his calculations, he had fallen into the trap set by these two.
He, who prided himself on his intelligence and had maintained neutrality through the succession struggles of several princes and Feng Qingheng's madness, thought he could repeat his success and survive until the new dynasty.
But he never expected that Si Fengwu and Lu Qingwan were already waiting for him to make a move!
Xie Wenzhong could now be certain that Si Fengwu and Lu Qingwan were fully aware of his clever maneuvers from the past.
They deliberately waited until today to let him escalate the situation to a point of no return, so they could then legitimately remove him and the other Great Gan remnants from the imperial court.
After today, these old officials around him would no longer blame Si Fengwu for repaying kindness with enmity and for being heartless.
They would only blame Xie Wenzhong for his incompetence and for causing them to lose their positions and glory.
The group had arrived with imposing momentum, intending to secure a foothold for themselves and their clans in the new dynasty's bureaucracy. However, they left having lost even their last shred of dignity.
As Si Fengwu and Lu Qingwan prepared to leave, the group, as if their bones had been removed, could barely stand.
Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu, meanwhile, boarded the carriage prepared by their attendants and rumbled towards the outskirts of the city.
This direction of travel was not part of Lu Qingwan's plan. As the scenery before her became increasingly unfamiliar, her curiosity could no longer be contained.
"Where are we going? You're not going to sell me off, are you?"
Although she had been in this world for nearly four years, Lu Qingwan had spent most of her time on the move.
Even the capital, where she had stayed the longest, was not very familiar to her, so Lu Qingwan had no idea where she was now.
Si Fengwu chuckled and pulled her into his embrace, affectionately stroking her. "This king cherishes his newly wedded wife too much to sell her off like that.
I'm taking you to the place we agreed to visit. We should be leaving."
The reasons for staying in the capital were, firstly, to deal with the King of Ten Thousand Phoenixes and the True Dragon Seal, and secondly, to completely eliminate the lingering desire of these Great Gan remnants to interfere with the new dynasty's governance.
Now that both troubles were largely resolved, there was no longer any point in staying in the capital.
Lu Qingwan's attention was easily diverted. "Leave? Are we going to the new capital as well?
What about Songshan Academy and Jingshan Military Academy?
They've finally started to show some progress, and now we have to move again?"
Lu Qingwan was still eager to pursue her previous plans. As long as the overall situation was not stable, Si Fengwu would not ascend the throne.
Therefore, she had naturally assumed that they would not be going to the new capital anytime soon, but now it seemed Si Fengwu didn't think so.
"We will move, but it will be some time later. Otherwise, if too many people move at once, there truly won't be enough space."