Chapter 848: Valley Scenery (Part )

"hiss!"

The sudden change caused an uproar in the audience.

"This..." Liu Xunyi was caught off guard and was stunned. He asked in astonishment, "Why do you say that, sir?"

"If you confess some things voluntarily, your guilt may be mitigated. But if I reveal it, your crime will be aggravated." Lord Qian said quietly, "I will ask you again, do you know your guilt?"

"May I ask, sir, what crime have I committed?"

"Not only are there court officials who hate evil, but also gentry and wise men who are highly respected. All of them are well-behaved and have great talent and far-sightedness. You are trying to play tricks in front of them, but you can't get away with it. You will only bring shame upon yourself." Lord Qian said righteously, "At this point, you'd better confess. Don't refuse a toast and drink a penalty."

"Forgive my stupidity, I don't understand what you mean." Seeing that Lord Qian was not giving in, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but frown, his tone quite displeased.

"Don't you understand? Or are you pretending to be confused? If you don't want others to know about some ugly things, you'd better not do them! You just accepted the emperor's reward with such brazen words, pretending to be a loyal minister who is willing to sacrifice his own life for the country and the people. Bah! You are simply a traitor who deceives the world and sells out the country for fame!"

"hiss!"

Lord Qian’s words carry a lot of weight, especially the four words “traitor and traitor”, which is a great humiliation no matter who it is.

"You..." Being accused of such a stigma for no reason, even though Liu Xunyi was a polite and chaste person, he could not help but feel indignant at this moment, "Why is this humble official pretending to be confused? What shameful things have I done? What right do you have to say that I am a fraud and a traitor? If you don't explain clearly today, this humble official will never accept the humiliation!"

"You are unwilling to give up? Oh, Your Majesty, Prince Rong, I, the entire court, and the millions of people of the Song Dynasty will not let you go!" Lord Qian said in a deep voice, "Since you refuse to explain, don't blame me for being ruthless. Let me ask you, did you sign a deed for the Mongols in the name of the Song Dynasty envoy, allowing them to go south to get food?"

"That's right! I have already reported this matter to the court..."

"It's good that you dare to admit it!" Lord Qian did not give Liu Xunyi a chance to defend himself, and continued, "I would like to ask you again, did you write a letter to the court, suggesting that the government troops guarding Qinhuai open a gap and let the Mongols pass?"

"It is true!" Liu Xunyi nodded without denying it. "I have an agreement with the Mongols to give them 100,000 dan of rice as compensation for calming down the disturbance in Yunya Town. Since both parties have agreed, we should let them go south to get the food. What's wrong with that?"

"Today, I will not pursue the crime of making decisions on your own. I just want to ask you one question, why did we let them come south to get the 100,000 dan of rice? Why didn't we send people north to deliver it?"

"This..." Liu Xunyi was speechless when Lord Qian pressed him.

When in Mobei, Hu Lie was very powerful and it was extremely difficult for Liu Xunyi to fight to the death to save the three prefectures. How could he dare to go even further and bargain with him?
"What? You are speechless after I caught you in a weak spot?" Lord Qian snorted and laughed, "You keep talking about '100,000 dan of rice'... is it the result of your desperate efforts to win it? Are you trying to say that if you hadn't tried your best to mediate in Mobei and risked your life to fight the Mongols, the Song Dynasty would have lost far more than 100,000 dan of rice, but also the three prefectures of Xingyuan, Jiankang and Xiangyang?"

"This..." Hearing the sarcasm from Mr. Qian, Liu Xunyi felt wronged and angry. Although he had no intention of taking credit, there was no need to hide it, so he spoke frankly, "It is indeed so!"

"Your 'bravery and wisdom', your 'loyalty', and your 'great achievements' have long been known to the world, so there is no need to show them off here!" Lord Qian said disdainfully, "If everything is as you said, not only would the people of the world regard you as a meritorious official of the Song Dynasty, even I would have to respect you. Unfortunately, the facts are not like that, and everything is a lie you have lied to deceive the world! You deliberately portrayed yourself as a loyal official who values ​​​​righteousness over life and sacrifices his life for the country, just to deceive the emperor's trust, deceive the court's reuse, and even deceive the people of the world's praise for you."

"This……"

Mr. Qian's impassioned speech undoubtedly caused a huge uproar among the crowd.

Some were surprised, some were questioning, some were angry, some were confused... they had a myriad of thoughts and different expressions.

"Everything is fake! Everything is a lie that Liu Xunyi told to deceive people. Everything is a conspiracy between him and the Mongols. In fact, when he was in Mobei, he had already kowtowed to the Mongols and fawned on them in every way in order to survive. Now he is working together with them to deceive the emperor and the court."

Faced with Mr. Qian's nonsense, Liu Xunyi was so ashamed and angry that his face turned pale and his whole body was shaking.

"I fought for the Song Dynasty and survived many deaths in Mobei. As a minister of the Song Dynasty, it's fine that you don't appreciate my efforts, but how can you...how can you falsely accuse me?" At this time, Liu Xunyi no longer cared about the disparity in their status. He pointed at the sanctimonious Mr. Qian and angrily scolded him, "Who told you that everything was fake? Who told you that I kowtowed to the Mongols? Where is Feng Tianba? He can testify for me!"

"Feng Tianba is worried about getting into trouble, so of course he will obey you. His words...are not enough to prove anything."

"Is it Ding Qinghong?" Liu Xunyi's eyes turned cold, and he asked with gritted teeth, "Is it Ding Qinghong who framed me? I want to confront him face to face..."

"There is no need for anyone to frame you. The evidence is irrefutable and you cannot argue."

"what?"

Looking at Lord Qian who seemed so confident, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but be stunned. However, no matter how hard he thought, he still couldn't figure out where Lord Qian's confidence came from.

"If you have done nothing wrong, you don't have to be afraid of ghosts knocking on your door!" Liu Xunyi made up his mind and said righteously, "If you have real evidence, just bring it out." "You won't cry until you see the coffin!" Seeing Liu Xunyi's tough attitude, Lord Qian laughed angrily, "You want evidence? Well, Xingyuan, Jiankang, and Xiangyang have had good weather and abundant harvests in recent years, and have occupied half of the granaries of the Song Dynasty. However, the three prefectures did not pay a single grain of rice to the court this year, leaving the treasury empty and the granaries in urgent need. Is this... considered as ironclad evidence?"

"what?"

Lord Qian's words revealed the secret, which not only surprised Liu Xunyi, but also shocked everyone present.

"How could this happen?" Liu Xunyi frowned, and quickly thought about the cause of the matter in his mind, "Could it be... related to the Mongols going south to get food?"

"How dare you play dumb!" Lord Qian said angrily, "What do you mean by going south to get food? You are clearly going south to rob food!"

"hiss!"

There is only one word difference between "taking food" and "robbing food", but the meaning is completely different.

"After the autumn harvest this year, the Mongols took the deed you signed and went south to Qinhuai, and entered the territory of the Song Dynasty without any effort. On the surface, Anchen handed over 100,000 shi of rice to the Xingyuan government office, but secretly sent Sui Zuo to lead people to plunder the official and civilian granaries of Xingyuan, Jiankang, and Xiangyang like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, leaving us with not even a grain of rice... What's more hateful is that when we led the army to recover, tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry had gathered on the northern line of Qinhuai and were waiting to take all the grain of Anchen, Sui Zuo and the three prefectures of Xingyuan back to Mongolia. If my prediction is correct, by this winter, the three prefectures of Xingyuan will have exhausted their remaining reserves and face a tragic situation of having no food to eat. By then, I don't know how many innocent people will starve to death, while we... are here enjoying fish and meat, drinking and talking happily. Are we really going to live up to the saying 'The rich are feasting and drinking, while the poor are freezing to death on the road'?"

Having said this, Lord Qian was filled with grief and anger, and he covered his face and cried.

"This……"

Liu Xunyi couldn't believe what he heard and kept muttering to himself: "Impossible! Absolutely impossible..."

"Now that things have come to this, you have no choice but to admit it!" Lord Qian was furious and scolded, "If you hadn't acted as a matchmaker for the Mongols, how could our army have neglected its defenses? If the Mongols hadn't used your name, how could they have passed through the Qinhuai natural barrier? Because of you, the grain depots of the Song Dynasty are empty! Because of you, the Central Plains will be full of starving people? Because of you, the emperor and the court have lost all their face and have become a laughing stock of the Mongols!"

"It was Hu Lie who tricked me! It was Hu Lie who tricked me..."

Liu Xunyi realized what had happened belatedly and at the same time felt extremely annoyed and his blood was boiling.

"Did Hu Lie deceive you, or did you deceive us?" Lord Qian said contemptuously, "You let the wolf into your house and robbed the people of the Song Dynasty of their food rations, and you still dare to say that you are not a traitor?"

“I…” Liu Xunyi was extremely anxious as he looked at the increasingly hostile gazes around him, but he had no way to defend himself. “I didn’t know Hu Lie was so treacherous. I was kept in the dark from the beginning to the end, just like the rest of you…”

"enough!"

Facing Liu Xunyi's strong defense, Prince Rong, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly interrupted. He slowly extended his hand to Lord Jia, who had a complicated expression, and said expressionlessly: "Now, it's time to ask for the second imperial edict from the emperor."

"This……"

"Ugh!"

Lord Jia sighed bitterly and reluctantly handed another imperial edict to Prince Rong.

"The Emperor has decreed that Liu Xunyi harbored evil intentions, deceived the public, and colluded with the Mongols to rob the granaries and rice warehouses of Xingyuan, Jiankang, and Xiangyang. His crimes are heinous and unforgivable. Therefore, all his official positions will be stripped and he will never be used again. He will be arrested immediately and handed over to the Jingji Judicial Department for trial. Once his crimes are fully investigated, he will be severely punished without pardon."

In just a stick of incense, Liu Xunyi fell from heaven to hell. Just now he was the "General Tianji" who was rising rapidly in the world, but unexpectedly, he was reduced to a prisoner who was condemned by thousands of people in the blink of an eye.

Things in the world are unpredictable and change rapidly, leaving those who don't know the reason looking at each other in speechlessness.

Especially those people who had just flattered Liu Xunyi in every possible way, they must be regretting it now.

As for Liu Xunyi, he was already filled with shock, shame, anger, and unwillingness, and his heart fell into the abyss, unable to extricate himself.

Why did the Double Ninth Festival banquet, which was supposed to be a happy occasion for a promotion with raised eyebrows and beards and toasts, suddenly turn upside down? Not only did it not bring any credit, but it also completely denied Liu Xunyi's loyalty.

The words "never used again" wiped out all his more than 20 years of hard work in Tianji Pavilion.

……

(End of this chapter)