Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors-Chapter 489 - 263: One Person Does It All! (8000 words)_5

After ensuring the stability of the court, it was naturally time to initiate a large purge.

In the days that followed, various major cases continually surfaced.

Under Fan Cun’s directive, the Imperial Censorate went full force, continuously impeaching various officials for corruption and lawbreaking.

And Fan Cun, with a grand gesture, ordered thorough investigations!

Of course, beyond these purges, he also indulged in some personal preferences.

For example, some officials who clearly seemed uncooperative, he arrested!

Then there were officials whose names alone suggested they were no good, he arrested!

Included in these were Qin Huizhi, who held the position of Imperial Censor at the time.

Fan Cun had been holding back for several days, and now he finally took action, arresting Qin Huizhi first and replacing him.

Of course, some officials’ transgressions were easy to find, but others were not so easy to uncover.

After all, the Wude Bureau, as an intelligence agency, was still not up to par with the Jinyi Guard or the East and West Factories of the Great Sheng Dynasty in terms of competency.

Thus, other methods had to be devised.

Fortunately, even in the Qi Dynasty, an emperor had many ways to kill a minister if he wished.

For those who had looted gold and kidnapped women for the Jin during the Jingping rebellion, charges were brought.

For those whose performance was poor and implemented measures too slowly, charges were brought.

In the end, after much searching, Fan Cun found that there wasn’t much incriminating evidence on Qin Huizhi.

Qin Huizhi was a sycophant who adapted according to the situation, but clear evidence of corruption or acting as a stooge for the Jin? He had none for now.

He only started these activities after being captured by Jin following the Jingping rebellion.

Finally, Fan Cun grew frustrated and simply declared with a grand gesture, "Just charge him with a fabricated crime!"

Since you’re accused of treason, isn’t that treason? It must be dealt with!

As for Wang Shiyong, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, he had indeed genuinely completed the removal of inherited privileges.

Fan Cun didn’t plan on letting him off, especially since he had previously helped the Jin kidnap many women from the city, causing great public outrage.

However, considering he was somewhat sensible, he decided to leave him for the time being, planning to settle accounts after Autumn.

A large number of officials were directly dragged through the streets.

Those with serious offenses were executed in front of the people of the capital; those with lighter offenses were either dismissed from their positions or had their properties confiscated—essentially, they were thoroughly dealt with.

And every time an execution took place, the execution officer would recite the official’s offenses loudly in front of the public, clearly and methodically.

As for Qin Huizhi, Fan Cun paid special attention, insisting, "You must find me a reason to kill him!"

Such unreasonable actions naturally induced great protests from the officials.

"How could the emperor act this way!"

"What happened to the ancestral teaching of sharing the world with the scholars?"

The officials in court, fearful for themselves and each other, were naturally tumultuous, with waves of protests one after another.

And Fan Cun’s response was quite straightforward.

Guilty, imprisoned!

Not guilty, ignored!

And if after being ignored they kept nagging, then dismissed from office, go wherever you want to play.

After all, if the government could function without them, why should he care about the officials’ feelings?

At first, nearly all the officials were protesting.

But soon enough, as a large number of officials were imprisoned, some realized that something was wrong and wisely shut their mouths.

As time passed, more and more officials realized that "times had changed."

They noticed that although there were some vacancies in various departments, these gaps were quickly filled by students from the Imperial College. Also, even if some positions were vacant, the departments continued to operate normally without any paralysis.

Moreover, the citizens of the capital did not stand with them but instead applauded.

Every time officials were executed, there was a huge crowd, layers upon layers of people.

Whenever the execution officer read out an offense, people would shout, "Deserves death!"

When the heads of these officials fell, many in the crowd would even praise the imperial wisdom.

This hardly seemed like an emperor who had lost the support of his people...

Clearly, the supposed public opinion that the scholars talked about was often just an excuse to manipulate the emperor. They were only using various forms of public opinion to achieve their own goals.

But once the emperor mastered these tactics and played them even better, the officials’ so-called public opinion instantly became useless.

Consequently, even if they wanted to use this to advise, they couldn’t even begin.

Amidst this give-and-take, the entire court underwent a swift and thorough overhaul from top to bottom.

And various measures, including the removal of inherited privileges, were quickly implemented.

Of course, it wasn’t achieved overnight, but most matters were on the right track.

After all this upheaval, Fan Cun finally took a breather.

Previously, as Emperor Taizu of Sheng in the instance, he hadn’t played the role that involved reviewing memorials.

Now, he realized how daunting the workaholic state of Emperor Taizu of Sheng was.

At any rate, the affairs of the court had been more or less sorted out in this short period of less than half a month.

Next, it was time to deal with the Jin outside the city!

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