I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 960 - Chapter 960 Domineering

Chapter 960: Domineering Chapter 960: Domineering Editor: Atlas Studios Perhaps it was because Qi Xiuyuan was too agitated or because of the two large boxes filled with IOUs left in the hall, the courtiers became unprecedentedly nervous, affecting the citizens in the capital.

Now, all the citizens in the capital knew that the Emperor was short of money.

Great Qi had inherited the open speech policies of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

As scholars, they enjoyed great freedom of speech.

It was unknown who had bewitched them, but the students in the capital began to talk about the issue of reducing the number of troops.

So much so, it affected the imperial censors in the imperial court and made them petition the Imperial Court to reduce military expenditure and reduce the number of soldiers.

As only a few people had mentioned it, it hadn’t affected the overall situation.

Hence, Qi Xiuyuan hadn’t taken it to heart at first and only rejected their memorials.

Who knew that within two days, the Emperor would resort to this to protect Prince Rong?

The war-loving Prince Rong had been unwilling to reduce the number of troops, and the Emperor had suppressed the memorials because he was afraid that Prince Rong would be provoked and go against the courtiers.

They argued that Prince Rong’s military achievements were paid for with the lives of countless soldiers and the silver in the national treasury.

These comments became more and more widely spread in the past two days.

Some daft censors even used this as a basis to request for Prince Rong to be punished and the reduction of troops.

Qi Xiuyuan was so angry that he almost killed someone.

According to procedure, if Qi Haoran were to be impeached, he had to defend himself.

Qi Xiuyuan was afraid that he would act rashly if he arrived without knowing the facts, so he sent him a pigeon to tell him the whole story.

Who knew that Qi Haoran would still explode?

So what if he knew how to fight wars?

Did he really want to sacrifice the lives of the soldiers?

Did those people really think that he liked to live in troubled times and be on the battlefield constantly?

Not to mention the first point, but the second point was completely nonsense.

After the establishment of Great Qi, when had he ever used the silver from the national treasury to fight wars?

His military achievements were all achieved before Great Qi was established.

Even when he had friction with West Xia last time, it was West Xia who made the first move.

Didn’t he also control the situation and not escalate it?

Not only did he seize the opportunity to make peace with West Xia and Great Jin, but he also claimed back a lost territory from West Xia.

Remember that huge mine?

Qi Haoran didn’t listen to Qi Xiuyuan’s explanation at all.

He pulled out a memorial and penned down his anger.

After that, he even copied a copy and sent it to Qi Xiuyuan.

Then, he quickly sent the memorials out.

This time, he didn’t use a messenger pigeon to send a secret letter to Qi Xiuyuan.

Hence, when Qi Xiuyuan received it, his memorial had already entered the capital.

It was impossible for Qi Xiuyuan to intercept it.

Qi Haoran was furious because if this matter was confirmed, he would become an evil official, Ah Ling would become the wife of an evil official, and his son would become the son of an evil official.

And why should that be?

He was clearly one of Great Qi’s greatest contributors.

If Qi Haoran didn’t want to sit by and wait for future generations to critique whether his contributions made up for his mistakes, because the descendants wouldn’t know what had truly happened in the past.

His merits could be assessed by him, the generals, the soldiers, and the citizens of Great Qi.

There was no need to leave this task for future generations.

After reading his memorial, Mu Yangling was stunned because she had never seen him speak so harshly before.

Mu Yangling knew that Qi Haoran was seriously mad this time.

Clenching his teeth, Qi Haoran said, “I loath Qin Fang with every fiber of my being, and now they’re treating me as if we’re the same kind of people.

How ridiculous!” Mu Yangling said weakly, “Only a few people are spreading such rumors.

Look, Brother Rong, the Right Prime Minister and the officials of the various ministries are all speaking up for you.

They don’t support reducing the number of troops.” “But in the eyes of those scholars, this only proves that I have the power to control the court and politics.

Since they are already making a fuss about this, let’s sort this out one thing at a time.” Mu Yangling felt that Qi Haoran’s idea was dumb and said, “Isn’t arguing with scholars and censors using your own weakness to fight against the other party’s strength?

Haven’t you been studying the art of war?” Qi Haoran rolled his eyes.

“I want to use my own strengths to fight against the other party’s weaknesses.

The key is, is Royal Brother willing?

Do you know what I’m good at?

I’m good at fighting wars and killing people.

Don’t tell me you want me to directly bring a team of soldiers to capture and kill those scholars?

That would really confirm my reputation as an evil minister.

How stupid would I be to do that?” “That’s right.

You’re the sun and the moon, while they’re at most fireflies.

How can they compare to you?

It’s not worth getting angry with them over this.

It’s better to ignore this matter for now.

By simply ignoring and slighting them, it’ll make such people feel worse.

Won’t you just be torturing yourself by getting into a verbal spat with them?” At the end of the day, Mu Yangling still didn’t want Qi Haoran to go against those scholars whose words were like knives.

Haoran didn’t do anything wrong, so why should he run up and be cut by their knives?

Moreover, seeing as his temper had been getting worse and worse recently, Mu Yangling feared that all that anger would do some real damage to his health.

Disagreeing, Qi Haoran stood up and said coldly, “I’m afraid that if we let them be, they will only become more and more arrogant.

Wasn’t the reduction of the soldiers in the previous dynasty caused by scholars complaining that the military expenditure was too high, on top of the civil officials adding fuel to the fire?

“And when Great Zhou lost a large piece of land, all they did was jump out and scold the soldiers for not resisting and losing their territory.

Li Zhengye was in the wrong, but those scholars and civil servants were greatly responsible for that too.

In short, if I tolerate it this time, they will push the limits further next time.

Is this the time to reduce the number of soldiers?

We have yet to reclaim our lost territory, and Great Jin and West Xia are still eyeing us covetously.

Once I reduce our troops today, the Great Jin cavalrymen will probably attack south tomorrow.” Qi Haoran was exceptionally domineering in this aspect.

Mu Yangling propped up her chin and thought about it.

While she could not let Haoran go against those scholars and look for trouble, she also couldn’t let Haoran bow down and avoid them.

In that case, she could only wrong Qi Xiuyuan.

After all, he was both Qi Haoran’s older brother and the Emperor.

Mu Yangling sent a pigeon to Qi Xiuyuan and told him that Haoran was livid and that the consequences would be very serious.

In order to prevent him from getting injured, she urged him to calm down those scholars.

Of course, they could not give in because a reduction of troops was indeed out of the question.

There were some scholars who were amenable to neither coaxing nor coercion, but there were those who were amenable to both.

With regards to the former, they could reason with them.

Failing that, they could note down the names of those people.

Such people had no place in the palace.

With regards to those who were amenable to both coaxing and coercion, reasoning with them was even more important.

He could first use coaxing before finally resorting to coercion.

There would certainly be a way to convince such people.

Scholars typically refused to give in to other scholars, but at the same time, they were also easily convinced by scholars.

Instead of sending these higher-ups to talk to scholars which would put them on guard, it was better to let their peers persuade them.

If someone could stir up discussions, they could start from there.

Qi Xiuyuan held the letter and thought for a while.

Remembering that he’d intended to use the library to attract the attention of the scholars, he took the opportunity to meet the Imperial Academy students and let them pass the message on behalf of the Imperial Court.

Who didn’t know how to put on an act?

Besides, Qi Xiuyuan did mean what he said.

When the country was unified and the world was at peace, he really planned to disarm and let the soldiers return to becoming civilians.

The ten student representatives returned to the Imperial Academy with tears in their eyes and began to discuss how to work hard for the Imperial Court, the country, and the Emperor.

As the books in the library were still in the midst of printing, they first discussed the matter of disarmament.