￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥￥

The officials waited with bated breath.

Li Qingcha slowly walked to the box and took out a piece of Qianjing white silk.

“According to statistics, the Gushe smuggling group committed numerous crimes in Bozhou alone. In the past five years, they have killed more than 2,500 people, including 317 children.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

There was total silence in the Golden Palace.

Chu Zhongtian looked at the emperor and asked, “Master Li, where did you get this statistic?”

He didn’t mean to make things difficult, he just felt that what happened today might go down in history, so there couldn’t be any ambiguity.

Li Qingcha replied: “This is what the people said.”

“Solitary evidence?”

“It’s not entirely an isolated testimony. The Yingsang people themselves have admitted that there are more than a thousand people who have done so.”

“They themselves admit…”

Chu Zhongtian really didn’t understand the murderer’s thought process.

Li Qingcha moved all the Qianjing white silk on the top of the blood box to one side, revealing the things underneath.

She took out the account book.

“We got this by trickery.”

As he spoke, he raised the account book with both hands.

The fingers of the emperor’s right hand, which was holding the armrest of the dragon throne, twitched.

“No need, I believe it.”

“Your Majesty is very perceptive.”

“I’m just curious about what tactics you used. I’ve heard that some prisoners would exaggerate their crimes in order to show off. Do the pirates of Yingsang do the same?”

“…”

Li Qingcha raised his head and glanced at the emperor.

Then she shook her head.

“I think it is unlikely: first, these data were obtained by asking Yingsang people on the pretext that Bozhou needed sailors; second, Yingsang people did not admit to killing children, which shows that they still knew that this behavior was no different from that of beasts.”

Everyone nodded silently.

If it’s about showing off, isn’t that kind of perverted behavior more worthy of showing off?

Chu Zhongtian sighed deeply.

“More than a thousand people, five… Come to think of it, the gunpowder account book that the Seventh Prince took out just now only counted the past two years, but according to Coach Li, the Gushe smuggling group has been active for at least five years.”

The Seventh Prince immediately stood up.

“Mr. Chu, the gunpowder trade may have started recently.”

“This explanation is also…”

“It may also be that there are too many account books. The new account book was established two years ago, and the earlier ones have not been found yet.”

“Well, that makes a lot more sense.”

Chu Zhongtian returned to his position.

From what he said, he was reminding the Seventh Prince to find the previous account books, or to find clear evidence that the gunpowder trade had only recently started.

The Seventh Prince was worried.

Where on earth does this university scholar stand?

He was a little confused.

The emperor, however, saw through everything, and for a moment he felt all alone.

He closed his eyes and pressed his thumbs to his temples.

“Let’s continue. Just follow what Coach Li said and count the crimes of the Gushe smuggling group based on more than 2,000 people.”

Li Qingcha bowed,

“Your Majesty, in that case, please take a look.”

He pointed to the right side of the box.

All I saw were neatly stacked thin bamboo strips, just like the bamboo slips before paper became popular.

The emperor was stunned.

“What is this?”

“This is the blood letter written by the people of Bozhou.”

Blood written on bamboo slips…

The emperor nodded to the eunuch beside him and asked him to fetch a few bamboo slips so that he could read them himself.

Unexpectedly, the bamboo slips were written in tiny calligraphy.

“My name is XXX. My son Dabao was killed by the Yingsang people when he was fishing for mullets in Lianjiang…”

“Your Majesty, my name is XX, and my daughter was kidnapped by the Yingsang people…”

“I am XXX. The Yingsang people robbed my property and killed my wife and children…”

……

Each bamboo slip contained a letter, all of which were similar words, neither literal nor colloquial.

I think the people knew that their letters would be presented in front of the emperor, so they tried their best to appear cultured, but ended up being neither high nor low.

There were different handprints on the bottom of the bamboo, but they were not bloody handprints, but silver powder. I don’t know what kind of transparent paste was used to fix it. Next to the handprint was a person’s name.

This signature is quite unique.

There is no need to compare to know that the silver handprint on the bamboo slip and the bloody handprint on the Qianjing white silk must have a one-to-one correspondence.

The emperor frowned,

“Is this the blood letter?”

He glanced at Li Qingcha and the Seventh Prince.

“It seems like there is no sincerity.”

Of course the Seventh Prince would not charge into battle at this time.

He gave way.

The meaning is quite clear, let Li Qingcha attack first.

Li Qingcha bowed again and asked, “Why does Your Majesty have this idea?”

“A blood letter, shouldn’t it be written in blood?”

“…”

Li Qingcha was speechless.

She coughed awkwardly.

“Your Majesty, the amount of blood from biting your finger… well… if you want to write a 100-word letter in blood, biting your finger off may not be enough. I’m afraid you’ll have to cut your wrist.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

There was an indescribable silence.

Everyone lowered their heads, not daring to look at the emperor’s expression.

Li Qingcha was afraid that the other party would ask some questions that were not common sense, so he said first: “In addition, the reason why these letters were written by others is not because the people are not sincere, but because they are illiterate.”

Emperor: (oへo╬)

“I know.”

“…”

Li Qingcha almost said something like “I’m just afraid you don’t know.”

She quickly changed the subject.

“Your Majesty, here are some pictures. On the day when the Seventh Prince arrived in Bozhou, pirates from Yingzhou came ashore to rob people, and the soldiers of the Young Phoenix Camp drew pictures of their crimes.”

I thought these things would be left for textbooks for future generations, but I didn’t expect to use them so soon.

The emperor no longer needs the eunuchs’ help.

He got down from the dragon throne, took the bamboo slip and flipped through it.

Then……,

“Bastard!”

He seemed to be furious and kicked the box over.

Several older officials were almost frightened to the point of having heart attacks.

thump–

The officials knelt down again.

“My lord, you are guilty!”

“You know, ‘I am guilty’, ‘I am guilty’, you say it all so nicely! Pick them all up for me to see, see!”

“…”

“Pick it up and have a look!”

The ministers ran over in a hurry, picked up the picture and looked at it.

Indeed, pictures are far more impactful than those cold numbers on documents.

But they are all “heartless”.

Every year we fight with the demon tribe, many more people die in the north.

They believed that the emperor also had a “heart of stone” and that his anger was mostly a show.

As for why to perform…

“emperor!”

Suddenly, Chu Zhongtian took a step forward.

“We are guilty of misjudging the situation in Bozhou.”

The emperor quickly suppressed his anger and glanced sideways.

“What do you mean by ‘misjudged the situation’?”

“I originally thought that the Bozhou navy and the Bozhou garrison officers and soldiers were suspected of unauthorized action and could be charged with treason, but now it seems that sending troops is what the people want. We, the ministers, misjudge the advice and ask the emperor to severely punish the Bozhou officials for the crime of inciting the emperor’s will.”

“…”

Seeing Chu Zhongtian take the initiative to take the blame, the emperor breathed a sigh of relief.

His eyes swept across the ministers who had their foreheads on the ground, and finally stopped at the Seventh Prince who did not kneel.

“My dear, you did a great job.”

After that, pause for a moment.

“You really didn’t disappoint me.”

It was clearly a compliment, but I couldn’t hear any emotion in it.