I’m the Farmgirl You Can’t Mess With
Chapter 961 - Chapter 961 Silent

Chapter 961: Silent Chapter 961: Silent Editor: Atlas Studios Not all the students agreed with disarmament.

Since it was a debate, there would only be a debate if there were two sides with opposing views.

Among the Imperial Academy students, most of them were neutral and did not express their opinions on this for the time being.

Only a portion of them felt strongly in favor of disarmament, while a small portion of them objected fiercely.

The ten student representatives had never expressed their opinions on this before.

To begin with, these 10 people were chosen as student representatives because they were highly outstanding.

They were representatives of their own class.

Especially the two humble class students, their appeal among the humble class students was very great.

This was because there were many offspring of officials and nobles in the Imperial Academy, and below that were children of scholarly farmer families who were relatively well-off.

Relatively weak compared to them, the humble class children naturally liked to cluster together.

As for the two of them, because they were brave and knowledgeable, they had been selected to be the leader of the humble class students.

This time, they had been chosen as student representatives because the Imperial Academy wanted to cultivate these talents.

As for the other student representatives, even if they didn’t have the rallying power of these two, their words still carried weight.

Their opinions on this public opinion incident caused a sensation in the Imperial Academy.

The debate was unprecedentedly intense, and one side was winning overwhelmingly.

Not only did the ten of them relay the Emperor’s words, but they also discussed this matter in depth.

Although their relationship with Great Jin and West Xia had eased for the time being and they had opened a market at the border, Great Jin and West Xia still occupied large areas of Great Qi territory.

On that land, their Han brothers and sisters were still living the miserable life of third-class citizens.

Could Great Qi really disarm with peace of mind at this time and open its door to Great Jin and West Xia?

If Great Jin and West Xia attacked south and east again, and the reduced army was unable to resist, who would bear this responsibility?

Could the students and officials who proposed disarmament bear the consequences?

On the other hand, it was complete nonsense to say that Prince Rong’s military achievements were accumulated using the national treasury.

Who didn’t know that Prince Rong’s military achievements were accumulated during the previous dynasty through his resisting the Great Jin and West Xia troops?

He was defending against external enemies.

Not to mention that he had never used a dime from the national treasury, even if he did, he would have done nothing wrong.

After digging out the old scores, everyone realized that although Prince Rong had conquered half of Great Qi, he had not taken it from the soldiers of the previous dynasty.

Instead, he had taken it from the people of West Xia and the bandits.

Even if he had chased after the Second Prince and the traitorous Prime Minister Qin in the end, it was because they had colluded with West Xia, plus more than half of his team were West Xia soldiers.

Besides, the Second Prince and Minister Qin were traitors.

Hence, the students who had misunderstood Qi Haoran felt guilty and blamed themselves.

It was also at this moment that Qi Haoran arrived in front of the Emperor’s desk at lightning speed.

As the memorial was sent over openly, Qi Xiuyuan naturally could not keep it under wraps.

In the letter, Qi Haoran refuted that those who proposed disarmament were idiots.

As he scolded, he wrote down the current situation at the border.

In the end, he recalled the time, place, and description of how he’d established his military merits.

Qi Haoran concluded by saying sarcastically, “You’re saying that I emptied the national treasury?

The salaries of the officials in the first three years and the rice eaten by the Imperial Academy students came from my inner treasury.

Just because I didn’t mention it, did you forget that your national treasury still owes me money?” Qi Haoran shouted at the Minister of Revenue from afar, “The scene of your Ministry of Revenue complaining about being broke is still vivid in my mind.

It’s only because my royal brother is sitting on the throne that I didn’t ask you to write me an IOU.

When will you return the money owed?” Qi Xiuyuan couldn’t help but hold his forehead.

His brother was clearly too furious to think straight.

Otherwise, he definitely wouldn’t have added this sentence.

Why didn’t Mu Yangling mention it before?

As expected, the expressions of the officials below were very ugly.

However, looking at the Emperor, who was holding his forehead with an ashen expression, most of them did not dare to speak.

They could only secretly glare at the few officials who had proposed disarmament.

These people were simply asking for it by bringing up disarmament at this time.

Originally, they could’ve gotten away with not returning the money owed to Prince Rong.

After all, this country belonged to the Qi family, which meant all the money was used on the Qi family’s subjects.

However, now that Prince Rong mentioned it, it seemed reasonable for them to return the money.

This was because the national treasury couldn’t very well take the money of one person, even if that person was the biological younger brother of the Great Qi Emperor.

They started regretting it.

If only they had stopped such comments as soon as they appeared, they wouldn’t have been slapped in the face now.

If only, if only.

This matter was left unsettled just like that.

Through the courtiers’ attempt to muddy the matter, the matter of disarmament was replaced by other state affairs and everyone gradually forgot about it.

However, Qi Xiuyuan and Rong Xuan did not forget.

They secretly got people to investigate the origin of the rumors.

Previously, it was not easy to investigate because there were many people who were talking about it, but now that the rumors had gradually stopped, it was easier to find the culprits.

This matter was not only targeted at the army, but also at Qi Haoran.

In the past two years, Haoran had been busy with the navy and the army, and had never offended anyone.

Why would anyone find trouble with him?

Back then, most of Qin Fang’s men had been killed, and this also didn’t seem like the work of the people he left behind.

Qi Xiuyuan and Rong Xuan didn’t want to alert the enemy, so they sent people to investigate secretly.

Amidst the uproar in the capital, the first three-entrance royal library was established.

The royal library only provided a place for everyone to read books.

If they wanted to borrow books, they had to provide a library card issued by the Imperial Academy.

And in order to get a library card, they had to apply for it at the Imperial Academy with their household registration certificate.

The borrowing period was limited to seven days.

After seven days, the book had to be returned.

Those who did not return it after the deadline would be deducted credibility points and banned from borrowing books for a month.

Furthermore, their borrowing period would subsequently be reduced to three days.

If they could not return the book in time again, they would be banned from ever borrowing books again and could only read in the library.

The books in the library could not be destroyed or dirty.

If they were discovered, they would be fined three times the value of the book.

Losing a book would also incur the same punishment.

At the moment, be it ordinary people or merchants, integrity was especially important, let alone scholars who valued credibility the most.

Books were especially precious to scholars.

Every book was cherished and protected.

Unless it was done on purpose, even the most careless person would not damage the books.

There were many tables and chairs placed in the open space of the courtyard for students to read.

In the room, they had to ensure absolute silence.

In the courtyard, they could discuss, but not loudly.

There were librarians in the library who managed the books and kept records of the borrowings.

They were all students of the Imperial Academy.

In addition, they were also in charge of the hygiene of the portion of the courtyard open to the public.

Many of those students had never swept the floor and trimmed tree branches before coming here.

They had no choice.

The Emperor had said that this was a good opportunity for them to train; furthermore, they had fought tooth and nail for this opportunity.

The officials in the imperial court didn’t know that the Emperor had set up such a thing until the library was opened.

However, because the library had the word ‘royal’ written on it, there was indeed no need to discuss it with them.

After seeing the scale of the royal library, they shook their heads slightly.

Although there were a lot of books inside and many titles that could not be bought in bookstores outside, this was simply a drop in the bucket compared to the collections of the aristocratic families.

Therefore, many people did not take it to heart.

Alas, no one expected that this library, which many officials thought was shabby, would become the largest gathering place for talents in Great Qi in the future.

Other than scholars who aspired to become officials via the Imperial Examination, there were also farmers, craftsmen, soldiers, and even fishermen and woodcuttersaEUR|