My father ordered me to kill the emperor, but His Majesty bestowed a princess upon me instead.

"Won't."

I answered very quickly.

Wang Song seemed to have not expected this.

Some people in the hall who were expecting me to spout profound truths were also taken aback.

I continued, "Opening the tent won't make the Great Liang clean immediately."

"They'll just show everyone how dirty it is first."

Wang Song asked, "If that's the case, why open it at all?"

"Because if we don't see it, someone else will continue to make it dirty."

He looked at me for a moment, then smiled slowly.

It's not a laugh born of being forced into a corner.

It was more like an elder finally confirming that the young man in front of him had indeed only seen half of it.

"Shen An".

He didn't call me Imperial Censor Shen for the first time.

"You've checked a few accounts and rescued a few disaster victims, so you think governing a country is the same?"

"Find the mistake."

"Get rid of the bad guys."

"Change a set of rules."

"From then on, the world was at peace."

"I thought the same thing when I was young."

Coming these words to Wang Song is more troublesome than calling me naive.

Because he had seen dead people before.

Quite the opposite.

He's seen too much.

So many that they've learned to convert the dead into numbers.

"Governing a country is not about auditing accounts."

Wang Song turned to look at the court officials filling the hall.

"The country must be stable."

"The court officials need it."

"The border troops need to be supported."

"The grain supply must not be interrupted."

"Family members must not be disorderly."

"Local powerful families cannot be eliminated overnight."

"You save seventeen disaster victims today, but tomorrow, due to the collapse of the court, seventeen thousand people may die."

That makes a lot of sense.

That makes sense. Many people in the hall lowered their heads.

I think that makes sense too.

But such words usually only make sense when someone is about to die.

I asked, "So, Your Excellency, acting on behalf of 170,000 people, decided to kill off these 17 people right now?"

"Necessary losses".

"Who decides what is necessary?"

"The imperial court."

"Is it the imperial court, or the Wang family, who are secretly plotting against each other?"

Wang Song's smile faded slightly.

"The Wang family took the silver in order to maintain relations between the former officials and the local authorities."

"Use disaster relief funds to maintain operations?"

"Disaster relief funds, military pay, and the imperial treasury were never three completely separate accounts."

"When the imperial court was short of silver, it could only resort to borrowing from each other."

Bai Zhi suddenly spoke.

"The misappropriated funds will be returned by the accounting department."

Wang Song looked at her.

Bai Zhi turned the page to the very end of the second account.

"Not a single penny of the money that Wang took was returned."

"Miss Bai, the world is not an accounting office."

"Precisely because the world is not Wang's accounting office, the Grand Secretary should clearly record which money he takes."

Her voice wasn't loud.

Wang Song did not argue with her again.

He probably understood that arguing with Bai Zhi over the tent was similar to competing with Yan Xiaoyi to see who could run the fastest.

shameful.

We can't win either.

Wang Song looked at me again.

"When your father first started his rebellion in the southwest, he also said that he would only rob government grain and not the people's grain."

My heart sank slightly.

"And then?"

"Later, the southwest was without food for fifty-three days."

"Shen Lie requisitioned surplus grain from three counties."

I don't know about this.

Or rather, my father never told me.

Wang Song noticed my expression.

"Look."

"Everyone will understand when they reach that point."

"To save 10,000 people, we may need to take food from 1,000."

"To maintain peace and stability for a period of time, it may be necessary to silence a few people."

"It's not because they are inherently evil."

"Because once you get there, you can only choose."

I asked, "Did the Grand Secretary ever vote for himself?"

He stopped.

"What?"

"Since someone always has to make a sacrifice."

"When did the Grand Secretary include the Wang family in the list of necessary losses?"

"When will you send your grandson to the Southern Medicine Pharmacy?"

"When should Madam Wang be sent to the woodshed at Ci'en Temple to wait for the fire?"

The hall was so quiet that you could hear the lid of the medicine cup tapping softly.

"The Grand Secretary always says it's for the sake of more people."

"But every time someone gets written out of the story, it's someone who isn't even qualified to choose."

"Disaster victims".

"Palace maid."

"Medical officer."

"accountant."

"You make decisions for the world, yet you never let the world know what you've taken or who you've killed."

"This is not necessary."

"That's called convenience."

I took a folded household registration paper from my sleeve and placed it in front of Wang Song.

The paper had Tian Xiaoya's name written on it.

Before yesterday, she had received rice from the granary, medicine from the pharmacy, and even died once in the Ci'en Temple donation book. A living person was used in three different accounts, and in the end, she had to ask the government whether she was still alive.

"The Grand Secretary said this was a necessary loss."

"Then please tell her, Your Excellency, exactly where did she go wrong?"

Wang Song did not look down.

I then unfolded it for him.

"Her father died in Qinghe Yicang, and her mother died of illness in Nanyaopeng. The village's land was taken away by local powerful families because the entire family died of the epidemic. If she doesn't have this new household registration, she still won't receive grain next year, and she won't be able to get married, buy property, or even prove who she is when she grows up."

"But in Wang's second account, she was just a number that had already been settled."

I pressed down on the paper.

"The Grand Secretary always says that the deaths of 17 people were to save 170,000 people."

"But you never let those seventeen men know why they deserved to die."

"Because once they are made to speak, the so-called necessity will become whoever has the power or convenience will live; whoever has no name or connections will be the first to be written into the list of losses."

"This is not how to govern a country."

"They're using people who can't argue back to fill the accounts you can't settle." Wang Song finally turned cold.

"presumptuous."

I nodded.

"I have indeed been presumptuous."

"The son of a traitor, ordered to assassinate the emperor, dares to investigate former ministers entrusted with the care of the emperor."

"These charges combined are so numerous that adding another sentence wouldn't be excessive."

Some people in the hall wanted to laugh, but dared not.

Xiao Lingyi glanced at me.

His eyes were probably reminding me that if I returned home alive today, there would be another matter to settle.

I'll pretend I didn't see it for now.

Wang Song said, "Do you think the emperor is cleaner than I am?"

This time, everyone looked at the throne.

The emperor did not move.

Wang Song continued, "In the fourteenth year of Chengxi, it was not an old minister who sealed the imperial tent."

"The imperial edict sealing the Changning side hall was not stamped with the imperial seal by this old minister."

"When the late Empress handed over the clue about the sick clothes, His Majesty already knew who was involved in the old memorial."

"But His Majesty chose to maintain the status quo."

"You are taking action against this old minister today because His Majesty is ill, the old ministers are old, and the court can finally tolerate this purge."

"Eleven years ago, Shen An, you wouldn't even have been able to get through the gates of the Censorate."

That's the truth.

The hardest thing to deal with is never a lie.

It's the truth that's been held in the hands of bad people.

Xiao Lingyi looked at the emperor.

"Father."

She only called out once.

I didn't ask any further questions.

The emperor, however, seemed to have heard all the questions that followed.

He picked up the medicine cup, then put it down again.

"Wang Song is right."

Everyone in the hall knelt down.

I felt uncomfortable standing, so I knelt down as well.

The emperor said, "The imperial tent was appointed by me."

"The Changning Side Hall was also temporarily sealed off by my order."

Xiao Lingyi's face did not change.

Only the fingers clenched tightly.

The emperor continued, "At the time, I thought that we should first stabilize the military pay, the imperial treasury, and the old ministers who had been entrusted with the task, and then investigate slowly."

"I thought the door was only closed temporarily."

"I also thought the medicine would just help her sleep."

"By the time I decided to open the door, she was already beyond waking up."

Wei Zhi lowered his head.

Sun Ajin closed her eyes.

The emperor's voice grew softer and softer.

"I have stabilized the court."

"And so, this debt of today remains."

Wang Song prostrated himself on the ground.

"Your Majesty, if it weren't for us old ministers, the court would have collapsed long ago in the fourteenth year of Chengxi."

"I know."

"Then why did Your Majesty arrest this old minister today?"

The emperor looked at him.

"Precisely because I know."

"If I don't take those people I didn't dare to take back then, the Great Liang will forever be able to rely on the dead for stability."

Wang Song looked up.

"If the Southwest Army moves, the price of grain in the capital will rise."

"Once the old ministers fall, local officials will adopt a wait-and-see attitude."

"With the Wang family's silver route cut off, grain merchants in at least seven prefectures will no longer transport grain for the imperial court."

"Your Majesty has taken away this old minister; who will be your support now?"

The emperor remained silent for a moment.

"Relying on living people."

Wang Song smiled.

"Living people will feel hunger, fear, and rebellion."

"Dead people don't."

I suddenly understood.

Wang Song was not unaware of how wicked the Book of the Dead was.

He just felt that the dead were the most at peace.

They will not seek justice.

I won't change my mind.

They won't raise the wooden sign in the south of the city.

For him, the easiest way to govern a country was to write all those who would cause trouble as dead in advance.

The emperor said, "Wang Song."

"Hand over the seal."

The three words fell.

Wang Song's hand slowly moved down to his waist.

He held that seal for more than twenty years.

Students, former officials, banks, granaries, the former treasury of the Imperial Academy, and countless commemorative documents bearing the inscription "oversight" all passed through this seal.

Now, it's finally time to let go.

Wang Song did not immediately provide an answer.

He looked at Pei Shen.

"You also think I'm wrong?"

Pei Shen knelt on the ground.

"The Grand Secretary is not entirely wrong."

"But just because something wasn't entirely wrong doesn't mean we shouldn't acknowledge the parts that were wrong."

Wang Song then looked at Zhou Bingli.

Zhou Bingli no longer dared to raise his head.

Finally, he looked at the assembled court officials.

Some of them were his students.

Some people were promoted through the Wang family's grain supply route.

Some people were still relaying his message last night.

No one spoke at that moment.

The heaviest shackles on the head of the old officials were not Gu Xingzhi's hands.

When he turned around, he found that everyone behind him was waiting for him to fall first.

Wang Song finally removed his official seal.

Raise both hands above your head.

Gu Xing stepped forward to receive the seal.

The moment the seal left his hand, Wang Song's shoulders seemed to sag slightly.

Only one point.

He still did not protest his innocence.

There was no cursing.

"His Majesty."

"This old minister has one last question."

"ask."

"If the southwestern army besieges the capital, Shen Lie doesn't want to settle scores, he wants the throne."

"Does His Majesty still trust Shen An?"

All eyes in the hall fell on me again.

Even on his way out, that old bastard didn't forget to push me into the line of fire.

The emperor looked at me for a long time.

Whether you believe him or not, I will answer that myself.

"Let's settle your score first today."

Wang Song nodded.

Gu Xingzhi escorted him out of the hall.

He suddenly stopped when he reached the door.

"Shen An".

"Does the Grand Secretary have anything else to say?"

"Your father sent you to the capital not just to kill His Majesty."

My heart tightened.

"What do you mean?"

Wang Song looked at the letter from the Qingxia Grain Transport Commissioner on the long table.

"What the Southwest lacks is never just a knife."

"We still need a grain route to the capital."

Gu Xingzhi nudged him.

Wang Song said nothing more.

He stepped out of the palace gate, the light falling on his gray hair.

Wang Song handed over the seal.

Lady Wang fled.

The head of the old officials in the open of the purge finally fell.

But I can't be happy at all.

Because Wang Song's last sentence gave a different meaning to the order my father originally gave me.

I thought I was there to kill the emperor.

Perhaps from the very beginning, I was the pawn that Shen Lie used to open the gates of the capital's grain supply.