That night, all of the bailiffs in Baling led a large number of soldiers to investigate the brothels and boats.
Seventeen of the bailiffs had tipped them off and were all arrested. That night, the county yamen sentenced them to exile ten thousand li and send them directly to the north to do hard labor.
When the brothels and boats were attacked, many of the customers were trapped in their beds. However, most of them were safe and sound. It was just a false alarm.
However, among the customers who went to the brothels and boats of the Qingjiang Company, the ordinary people were fine. Many of them had clean backgrounds. Those who had colluded with the Qing officials or had close ties to Gyeongo were all arrested and sent to the yamen under the pretext of cooperating with the investigation.
The brothels and boats of the Qingjiang Company had definitely violated some of the regulations of the government. For example, the kitchen was too dirty, or the old laws that prohibited the use of bright yellow silk, or the beating and imprisoning of women. As long as they could find a reason, they would be immediately sealed up and all of the brothels and girls would be sent to the county yamen.
When they encountered brothels that they couldn't find a reason for, the bailiffs would seal them up on the grounds that the girls were dressed indecently.
The next morning, the news that all of the brothels and boats of the Qingjiang Company had been sealed up in Baling spread throughout Xiangzhou as if it had grown wings. At the same time, it was accompanied by another piece of news. Xusheng and Fang Yun were very dissatisfied with the fact that Hua Qingniang, Ge Yiming, and some other people from Xiangzhou had betrayed Jingguo and curried favor with Gyeongo. When Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye, the two henchmen, found out, they immediately began to investigate all of the brothels and boats in order to cater to Fang Yun. Last night, they had only targeted Baling. From today onwards, they would investigate all of the brothels and boats in Xiangzhou. They would not let any of the businesses of the Qingjiang Company go.
When this news spread throughout Xiangzhou, many people knew that the brothels and boats of the Qingjiang Company in Xiangzhou were completely destroyed. Even if they didn't investigate in the future, no one dared to go there again.
The citizens of Xiangzhou who had always been against Hua Qingniang spread the news when they heard the news, because they knew that Fang Yun had not given up on them. The Governor saw everything and was not like those high and mighty officials who did not care about such things for fear of affecting their power and position, allowing people like Hua Qingniang to run rampant. As a result, the citizens realized that protecting their country would not only cause them to be attacked by spies, but also be looked down upon by the officials who held the power of the country. Gradually, they gave up on protecting their country.
The neutral scholars from all over Xiangzhou stood out in a rare show of support for the investigation of the brothels in Qingjiang.
Ge Songxiao, who had recently been in the limelight, published an article. He did not directly attack Fang Yun. Instead, he pointed the spearhead at Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye, accusing these two officials of using their power to carry out revenge. He then argued at length that during Gyeongo's rule, Xiangzhou was far better off than it was now.
Many Gyeongo people supported Ge Songxiao under the article, praising Ge Songxiao for being the only sober Jingguo person who dared to attack Jingguo officials and mocked the rest of the Jingguo people for being slaves.
Afterwards, many people saw a funny scene at the bottom of the article. Ge Songxiao was mocking and ridiculing the scholars of the Jing Kingdom, and was flattering the scholars of the Qing Kingdom.
Very quickly, there were Jingguo scholars who could not bear to watch.
"That's right, Ge Songxiao is indeed not a slave of Jingguo, because he is a slave of Gyeongo."
"As a citizen of Xiangzhou, I do not agree with Ge Songxiao's opinion in this article. In a way, I hate Jingguo even more than Ge Songxiao, but even so, I do not support Jingguo's rival Gyeongo. This is because I know very well that Gyeongo is not a saint, nor is it a great philanthropist. They want to leave more imperial examinations for their own people, the best private schools for their own people, and the most profitable opportunities for their own people. As long as I am still a citizen of Xiangzhou, as long as I am different from them in terms of appearance, culture, and accent, they will not completely accept me. Therefore, I still believe that as a citizen of Xiangzhou, loyalty to Jingguo is naive, but loyalty to Gyeongo can only be described as lowly and ignorant. "
"Why do I hate Jingguo? It's very simple. In Gyeongo, a general who did not salute Gyeongo's flag was condemned by scholars. In fact, I do not think that forgetting to salute is a big mistake. In fact, I do not like those Gyeongo people who make such a big fuss over such a small matter, but I do envy such a country. In Jingguo, if you publicly declare that you are loyal to Jingguo, you will be attacked by a large number of Jingguo people. I truly hate those people, and I hate such a country. "
"I still believe that as a citizen of Jingguo, it does not matter if you are loyal to Jingguo or not. Everyone has their own choice. However, the ruler of Jingguo does not have a choice, and should not have a choice. Since he is in charge of this country, he must unconditionally eliminate the factors that cause instability in this country. Take Hua Qingniang's case as an example. A brothel keeper is not worthy of the ruler's intervention, and she is not worthy of it either. However, the matter became bigger and bigger, and even many powerful people in Xiang Province stood out to support Hua Qingniang. It is understandable that the ruler did not intervene. However, when Hua Qingniang and the people behind him, in order to escape, began to frame all those who supported Xiang Zhou and Jing in the name of 'Xiang Zhou', the rulers still didn't take action. I would rather see this kind of country perish. "
"Therefore, when Fang Xusheng, or Governor Dong and Governor Fang, took action to deal with Hua Qingniang and Qingjiang Company, and their methods of revenge were extremely ruthless, causing Hua Qingniang and Qingjiang Company to suffer huge losses, I was very happy. After so many years, Jingguo finally has an official who truly protects Jingguo, instead of fighting for power and eliminating dissidents every day. "
"If there is a day when someone calls for the overthrow of Jingguo and is not severely punished, and no one like Fang Yun stands out, then either most of the rulers want to change the dynasty, or Jingguo is undergoing a change of dynasty. When that time comes, the people of Jingguo should rejoice. We will either become the strongest country in the human race, or we will be buried with hundreds of millions of our compatriots. "
The reply of this scholar from Xiang Province immediately attracted attacks and ridicule from both Gyeongo and Jingguo.
However, there were also some who read his reply seriously and remembered this person's name.
Fang Yun put down his official seal. He did not know whether these replies were cold-blooded or hot-blooded, but he did not speak for a long time.
Then, Fang Yun looked at the documents on the table. They were all recommendation letters from various officials.
Although the Dongsheng Pavilion did not issue a document to allow the publication of the People's Daily in Xiang Province, they did not stop it either. Now that the Notre-Dame had approved or supported the publication, unless the Dongsheng Pavilion had to bear the risk of being isolated by the various courts, they would not stop Fang Yun from publishing the People's Daily. At most, they would delay issuing a document from the Dongsheng Pavilion so that the People's Daily would only be a trial publication and would never become an official publication.
Fang Yun had issued a document to the Governor early in the morning. He had decided to publish the People's Daily in Xiang Province. The government was only responsible for the review and not the publication. He had asked the officials to choose a suitable non-official organization to take over the publication.
Fang Yun had thought that these officials would be more reserved, but who knew that after half an hour of the document being issued, the officials from all over the country would send letters to the Punishment Hall's study room. Then, the people in the study room would copy the letters and pass them to Fang Yun.
Because there were too many people sending letters at the same time, the ten people from the Governor's Office had to go to the study room together to copy the letters from the officials from all over the country.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
