A great crowd of Baling City residents had gathered before Guan Yi's cage. Even the soldiers maintaining order had been squeezed up against it, their faces full of helplessness.
As Dong Wencong put it, at first glance, one might have thought everyone in Jing Kingdom had crowded into this spot.
A hastily built noticeboard stood in front of Guan Yi's cage. Only the desperate efforts of numerous bailiffs kept it from being knocked over by the crowd.
The notice explained that Guan Yi had willingly accepted this punishment and pointed out that he had clamored to give away the kingdom's territory. In the end, he had gotten exactly what he asked for: Fang Yun had given him three feet of land.
The notices that followed listed the property confiscated from Guan Yi's home. Its total estimated value exceeded ten million taels of silver, far beyond the wealth of an ordinary Metropolitan Graduate. Excluding Literary Treasures and divine objects, even many Grand Academicians' households possessed only around three million taels of silver.
On Dong Wencong's instructions, the copying clerks had specifically noted the origins of certain assets in Guan Yi's household. Most were connected to the Qing River Trading Company, Qing Kingdom's imperial family, or its high officials.
Thus, without the prefectural authorities needing to spread the news, all manner of rumors circulated. Before long, everyone in Baling City, and even throughout Xiang Prefecture, knew that Guan Yi had been taking Qing Kingdom's money to do its bidding.
Afterward, scholars across the prefecture stepped forward and began burning the supplement to the Xiang Prefecture Gazette. Many others, afraid of getting into trouble, voluntarily burned their copies as well.
The influence Guan Yi had previously built in Xiang Prefecture vanished without a sound.
Most people in Xiang Prefecture cared little about which