The same event could have entirely different outcomes under different circumstances. In this world, Liu Qi had beaten two blameless scions of imperial and noble blood to death. One was his older kinsman, and the other was a young nobleman of the rather exceptional Duke of Qi's house. This was utterly intolerable.
Just as Jia Yi had said, when the hare died, the fox grieved. The imperial clan, maternal relatives, dukes and marquises, officials, students, and others could not tolerate such an atrocity. Though the imperial house was exalted, it absolutely could not kill without cause.
Apart from the Luo Clan's existence, perhaps the greatest difference between this world and the real one was the underlying foundation of its thinking. This was what was truly most precious.
The Ruler-Minister View of Righteousness and Profit that the Luo Clan had always promoted, along with the idea of restraining a ruler's power, had long since sunk deep into the subconscious of the people of All Xia, becoming an imperceptible influence. On top of that, Luo Ling had harnessed the momentum of the realm in Treading Down the Law, dealing the idea of I Am the State another heavy blow in practice.
Although the idea of equality had not yet penetrated the lowest strata, there was in fact a consensus among the powerful: even an emperor could not arbitrarily kill a nobleman or an official without any grounds.
We are not slaves for you to whip at will, but ministers who help you govern the realm, and we deserve respect.
No normal person in this world wanted to be a dog. Although ministers rarely discussed Mengist Confucianism openly, its ideas truly spoke to their hearts. Who but a ruler would dislike them?
Ordinarily, none of this showed, but the Liu Qi incident was