Inside the room.
Sang Hongyang sat at the head of the room and smiled at the King of Jiaodong and the others seated below. "Your Highness, I came to Qi Land under orders to investigate commercial taxes. Recently, I uncovered some minor matters concerning the Wang Mansion, so I came to make inquiries."
With that, he handed some evidence to the King of Jiaodong. The Queen sitting beside him snatched it up, skimmed through it, and said bitterly, "What treacherous scoundrels! To think they deceived the Wang Mansion. Had the Grand Minister of Agriculture not investigated, we would still be utterly hoodwinked by these villains. We have truly failed to live up to His Majesty's grace."
Sang Hongyang was taken aback, then asked, "Your Majesty, are you saying the Wang Mansion actually knew nothing of these slippery villains' deeds?"
The Queen raised an eyebrow and asked coldly, "Grand Minister of Agriculture, are you suggesting that the Wang Mansion deliberately evaded the court's taxes and is now shirking responsibility?"
"You may eat carelessly, but you cannot speak carelessly. Sowing discord between imperial brothers and driving a wedge between a vassal kingdom and the court-what exactly are you trying to do, Grand Minister of Agriculture?
"Do you intend to eradicate Great Han's Imperial Clan and tread Tyrannical Qin's old path?
"If the realm should one day crumble, whom would we rely upon to prop up the falling heavens if not the Imperial Clan? A minister from the Legalist School like you?"
She slapped a whole string of accusations onto Sang Hongyang. The earlier ones had at least some reasoning behind them, but the final remark infuriated him outright.
The Legalist School truly faced discrimination everywhere now. Many of its disciples had changed allegiances, studied other schools' doctrines, and become their core disciples.