Wang Xuan turned around, his gaze sweeping over the scholars kneeling all across the ground before Heaven-Bearing Gate.
More than a thousand people crowded the square, dressed in white and blue robes, forming a dark mass. Some had collapsed on the ground, some were trembling all over, and some were already knocking their heads against the stone slabs like pounding garlic, each blow echoing with a bang.
"Spare us, Your Highness! We were foolish for a moment! Please show mercy, Your Highness!"
"Your Highness, this student knows his mistake!"
"Please be merciful, Your Highness!"
Their cries rose and fell, mingling with the stench of urine and blood that spread through the square.
Wang Xuan looked at them without even furrowing his brow.
"Not one of you has any backbone." He sneered. "Then again, those with backbone would not cede land and pay reparations year after year."
Great Qian had stood for sixty years, yet it had suffered defeat and paid reparations forty-seven times. Annual tributes and payments had never ceased.
The surrounding nations had taken turns attacking them. Each defeat cost them a piece of land and a sum of silver. Great Qian's spine had long since been broken.
These scholars usually filled their mouths with the doctrines of sages and worthies, yet when a blade was held to their necks, they knelt faster than anyone else.
Xie Wenyuan knelt at the very front, his face as pale as paper, but he stubbornly held on without kowtowing.
He raised his head, his voice trembling. "Your Highness, if you wish to kill or torture us, then do it directly. How can you blame Great Qian's defeats and reparations on us scholars? Why do you not question the court officials, the Crown Prince, and His Majesty the Emperor?"
Wang Xuan laughed, and