“I heard that you went to Prosperous Spring Square, so I knew you would definitely ask me about it!” Sun Bingchen smiled, yet had an indifferent expression on his face. “Fang Beidou and the rest weren’t arrested. They are only being placed under house arrest at Deer Villa!”
House arrest? Yan Liqiang was slightly relieved to hear the words come out of Sun Bingchen’s mouth. Even so, he was still baffled. “My lord. Fang Beidou and the rest are pretty much ordinary people or a bunch of artisans at best. They normally ensure that their work doesn’t violate any laws. So why have they been placed under house arrest?”
“Tell me, are they the ones who own ‘The Great Han Times’, or the imperial court?”
“Huh? Why do you ask, my lord?”
“It’s true that you are the founder of ‘The Great Han Times’, but in the end, you have dedicated it to the Emperor. Therefore, the imperial court now owns the newspaper office is. Hence, it speaks for the imperial court and fulfills their orders. Fang Beidou and the rest have been placed under house arrest because they viewed the newspaper office as their own and refused the imperial court’s orders. That is why I had them seized, pulled them out from their posts in the newspaper office, and held them captive in Deer Villa…”
“Why… Why would they refuse the imperial court’s order?” Yan Liqiang was in disbelief.
“The imperial court ordered them to publish an article in the newspaper and they didn’t. If this isn’t an act of refusing orders, then what is?” While speaking, Sun Bingchen stood up and went to a bookcase in the study room. He pulled out a pile of newspapers, returned to Yan Liqiang, and set them on the table in front of him. “These are the articles that were published in ‘The Great Han Times’ after they were removed from the newspaper office and placed under house arrest. Before that, they strongly objected to publishing them, so I had no choice…”
Yan Liqiang took the pile of newspapers. He was shocked by the headline on the first newspaper: ‘The Stone Turtle of the Spirit Peace River deludes the masses.’ The headline of the next newspaper was ‘Everything is normal in Liu Province, there is no such thing as the Heavenly Dog devouring the sun.’ The next one was ‘Reports from citizens on the sighting of irresponsible individuals placing the stone turtle in the river at night,’ followed by ‘Regretting his action, a high official who sold his mansion at low price in the Imperial Capital is now offering double the price to buy back his residence…’
Most of the headlines printed on ‘The Great Han Times’ were along these lines. They pretty much contradicted the older articles on the birth of the stone turtle. As soon as Yan Liqiang took a look at them, he knew the news and headlines were largely made up to delude the masses.
It was no wonder Fang Beidou refused to publish such articles, because he clearly knew the consequences that would come with it. Both Fang Beidou and Yan Liqiang had put a lot of effort over the years to create a chance of survival for the citizens in the capital regions before the Heavenly Tribulation would strike. Hence, publishing articles like these would be no different than pouring all their previous efforts down the drain. The citizens who were initially going to escape might just stay back after reading those articles and ultimately lose their lives here.
These articles wouldn’t be able to trick smart people, but unfortunately, the masses would easily be tricked by propaganda statements like these. Even in Yan Liqiang’s previous world where the exchange of information was made extremely easy with the existence of the Internet, television, and other media, it was still common for masses to be misled by the media, let alone in this era. This was because most normal people lacked the ability to distinguish facts and stories. They would believe everything they heard. Even if they initially doubted certain information, their doubts would eventually be dispelled after the same message was repeated over and over again by the media. Compared to an era where information channels were much more limited, there was no way they would know if the sun was indeed devoured by the Heavenly Dog in Liu Province or if there was a drought in Zhu Province.
“My lord. Although I spent my days in Gan Province, I heard about the Stone Turtle of the Spirit Peace River too. The Heavenly Dog devouring the sun in Liu Province and the drought in Zhu Province had indeed taken place too. Why did the imperial court want to publish such articles on ‘The Great Han Times’ to fool the people?” Yan Liqiang looked at Sun Bingchen in bewilderment.
“The imperial court has no choice but to choose the lesser of two evils!” Sun Bingchen sighed.
“Huh? But previously I heard that the imperial court was prepared to start evacuating the citizens in the capital regions. Not only that, but the provinces and prefectures had also been given a quota and instructions to evacuate. So why has the situation reversed? The citizens in the capital regions should be leaving by now, but instead, I heard that they need travel passes from the bureaucracy to leave the capital region. At this rate, they will be sitting ducks if the Heavenly Tribulation strikes…”
“That is right. The imperial court has indeed made preparations to evacuate the citizens in the capital regions. However, they had no choice but to stop doing that…” Sun Bingchen had a conflicted look on his face.
“Why?”
“Liqiang, do you know how many people are there in the entire capital?”
“I suppose a lot!”
“According to the statistics from the Ministry of Revenue, there are approximately thirteen million people in the entire capital region, and that includes the Imperial Capital, the four capital regions, five cities, and several thousand villages. The imperial court did plan on evacuating all these people but in reality, it is not feasible to do so…”
“Why not?”
Sun Bingchen’s voice was laced with helplessness and exhaustion. “If these thirteen million people are to evacuate from the imperial capital, they will need to pass through Hui, Jin, Yuan, Tong, and An Provinces. Only through these provinces can they migrate to other provinces and prefectures. Take a look at this…” Sun Bingchen pulled out the drawer in front of him while speaking, then took out a few memorials to the throne and passed them to Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang accepted the documents and the expression on his face changed after he randomly flipped through two of them. In the documents were reports that detailed the damage and losses suffered from the fires that broke out at the food reserves in Jin and Hui Provinces…
“Is… Is this on purpose?”
“If the imperial court were to evacuate the citizens in the capital regions, they would need to make necessary arrangements to the official warehouse and food reserves in these provinces to accommodate the needs of these people. When the imperial court worked out the evacuation plan, the decision was made with food reported to be available in the official food reserves in these places. But the reality was ghastly as these storages had been emptied out since long ago and it was apparent that the figures they reported to the imperial court were fabricated all this while. If the imperial court carried out inspections, they could at least shift some food from other places to their food reserve and do a cover-up. Since the citizens in the capital regions are evacuating this time, the imperial court will need to transfer grain from the local food reserves. Hence, their vain shifting methods no longer work as they need to come up with a huge amount of food.”
“So they would rather set the official food reserve on fire to destroy any evidence…”
Sun Bingchen nodded gravely as he spoke with fear. “If the official food reserves along the way cannot accommodate the mass evacuation of a million people, these people would become refugees. Can you imagine what happens if these refugees run amok? This empire will perish…”
Yan Liqiang broke out into cold sweat. His voice and fingers even trembled as he finally came to understand why Fang Beidou and the rest were arrested, as well as the reason behind the imperial court restricting the citizens in the capital regions from leaving by introducing the travel passes. “So… so… the imperial court chooses to let the commoners die here in the capital region when the Heavenly Tribulation strikes…?”
Sun Bingchen lowered his head under Yan Liqiang’s gaze and remained silent for a moment before speaking up. “You can’t say that the commoners are left to die here in the capital region… Not all of the Stone Turtle’s prophecies will come true. Nothing is certain yet. Perhaps… perhaps the Heavenly Tribulation will not happen…”
“What if it does happen?” Yan Liqiang questioned Sun Bingchen while staring at him intensely.
Sun Bingchen met Yan Liqiang’s gaze and steeled his voice. “If the Great Han Empire falls, not only the lives of thirteen million will perish. Liqiang, you won’t be able to understand unless you are in my shoes. There are times when you just have to make a tough decision.
Even if the capital region perishes along with the lives of thirteen million, as long as His Majesty and the imperial court still stand, the country will recover again in just a few years’ time…”
“There are serious food smuggling issues going on in the country. Why isn’t the imperial court cracking down on them and why are they not being reported in the court bulletin? Aren’t those corrupt officials the ones who should die?”
“If the imperial court is to open an investigation, most of the officials will be implicated. This will surely damage the imperial court’s reputation and authority, then lead to chaos in the affected areas. The imperial court has just obliterated Lin Qingtian and his allies. Not only that, but His Majesty will also be leaving soon to avert the disaster next year. So those people are needed to carry out their duties for the country. Hence, we have no choice but to turn a blind eye to this issue until we have time to address it in the next few years!”
“So we can’t kill all these corrupted officials, but we are letting millions of innocent people get killed?!” Yan Liqiang shouted as he slammed his palm on the table, toppling the teacups on it.
Sun Bingchen watched the spilled tea run off the table as he continued speaking with the same tone, “People are like weeds; they will grow back again after they are cut. The officials, however, are pillars of the country. Without them the country will surely collapse…”
Yan Liqiang felt as though he just got struck by thunder as Sun Bingchen’s words rendered him completely speechless…
