After leaving the teahouse, Li Longchuan boarded Yan Fu's luxurious carriage.
The two sat facing each other, neither speaking for a while.
The sudden clash between Zhang Weiyu and Chongxuan Sheng this time had become exceedingly fierce.
First, the renowned scholar Er Fengming had written a grand essay, On Merit and Fault. Several hundred words long, magnificent in prose and precise in its allusions, it swiftly spread throughout Linzi.
The central question discussed in the essay was whether merit and fault could offset one another.
The debate that unfolded from it was said to be the fiercest in nearly a decade, rivaling the furor from when Xu Fang had cursed the Deposed Crown Prince.
One side sounded the arrow-whistle with On Merit and Fault; the other answered with the equally forceful essay Heroes and the State, turning it into a thrown spear.
The debate raged fiercely, drawing many figures from both court and public into the fray.
In the end, the public consensus established was: "Merit is merit, fault is fault. When judging merit, one need not count prior faults; when punishing faults, one need not count prior merit."
Thus, as a matter of course, a newly fledged censor submitted a memorial to the court, requesting an investigation into Jiang Green Sheep...
This was a political struggle on every front. From public opinion to the imperial court, Chongxuan Sheng, forced into a response, and Zhang Weiyu, launching the offensive, battled and countered one another at every level.
On one hand, Chongxuan Sheng swiftly organized the literary debate to set Jiang Wang's reputation right. On the other, he continually dug into Zhang Weiyu's problems, while stirring up momentum both within and beyond the court, demanding to know what motive lay behind erasing a hero. He had nearly turned the tables for