Everyone present froze. Tao Dingnian cried out, "No! Shen Ming, you must not bring ruin upon yourself!"
"Chief Clerk Shen, you must think of your descendants!" Wen Gu's voice was steeped in vicious menace.
"Chief Clerk Shen, don't cut off your own path of escape!"
Dozens of officials urged him to reconsider. They knew all too well what sending Shen Ming to the Northwestern Army would mean.
Ao Huang could not help glancing at Fang Yun. Scholars really are full of dirty tricks. Simply killing Shen Ming would barely affect the Left Prime Minister, but making someone from his own camp go to the Northwestern Army to atone would be like delivering a resounding slap to his face before every official in the Jing Kingdom.
Fang Yun looked at Shen Ming with a faint smile at the corners of his mouth, but all Shen Ming saw in his face was coldness and a crushing pressure like Mount Tai.
"Please forgive my offenses, my lord. I... admit defeat!"
Shen Ming finally could hold out no longer. The resolve in his heart collapsed with a crash, and he fell to his knees.
Crack... crack...
Then an even sharper sound rang out. Everyone heard his literary guts shatter.
"Pfft..." Shen Ming coughed out a mist of blood and passed out on the spot.
Not a single person went to help him.
Many officials sighed. If a young Provincial Graduate's literary guts shattered, he could become like an ordinary person after a few years of recuperation. But with Shen Ming's literary guts shattering now, he would not live another three years.
Ignoring Shen Ming where he lay on the ground, Fang Yun pronounced his sentence: dismissal from office, confiscation of his estate, public parading, and penal military service, with none left out. He did