Outside the Imperial Palace.
Cai Yong lay on the dust-covered ground, filthy all over. His eyes brimmed with shame and indignation, and he had even begun to wish for death.
In broad daylight, a minister of state had actually been thrown out by the emperor himself. This was an enormous humiliation.
A gentleman could be killed, but never humiliated!
In the Great Hall earlier, the emperor's distrust and anger toward Luo Kong had reached their peak, yet he had merely stripped him of offices with actual power and even appointed him Attendant-in-Chief.
To people of later generations, this might have seemed rather excessive.
But that was not actually the case. Compared with what had happened to Cai Yong, it was a minor sorcerer standing before a great one.
Luo Kong had simply left the emperor in Luoyang. The emperor had retaliated in a fury, but his retaliation had been measured, and far better than the outright partisan proscriptions against officials in the past.
Though the position of Attendant-in-Chief carried no real power, it was prestigious and unsullied.
The dukes, ministers, and courtiers in the hall had merely felt that failing to entrust Luo Kong with important duties at this critical moment was deeply inappropriate.
But how serious was Cai Yong's case? By the understanding of ruler and subject in this era, the bond between Cai Yong and the emperor had essentially been severed!
It was no exaggeration to say that someone of a fiercer disposition might well have returned home and killed himself.
That was because the emperor held the status of Son of Heaven, and a man could not kill the Son of Heaven. Had he merely been a lord, vengeance would likely have been taken directly on the grounds of the relationship between ruler and subject.
*No, I