The petitioners ca over and smirked at the sight.
Their goal was to stir things up to reach the Emperor. This was the people’s will; if the Emperor disregarded it and allowed Ye Zi’an to remain in office, it would be sheer incompetence!
If the Emperor complied with the people’s will and dismissed Ye Zi’an from office, it would be a good outco.
Therefore, the people kneeling at the palace gates were a case of killing two birds with one stone.
"This prince must go and see," Prince Zhuang snorted. He needed to keep an eye on these people to prevent them from stirring trouble with rumors; otherwise, he wouldn’t spare them in the future.
Upon hearing that the Pri Minister and others were going to see the Emperor, the crowd shouted again.
"Indeed, we plead with the Emperor to dismiss Ye Zi’an from office. We don’t want this kind of official as our leader!"
"We plead with the Emperor to dismiss Ye Zi’an from office!"
"We plead with the Emperor..."
Nearby, Li Wu was almost furious to death. These people were insane! Why were they always giving his young master trouble?
At this ti, Li Wen arrived with so pen and ink. He had ridden his horse to the streets to purchase them.
"Go help!" Ye Zi’an said to Li Wu. "You go record them and check who has truly had their ancestral graves dug up by ."
"Yes!" With that, Li Wen and Li Wu went up to the crowd, "Tell , what’s your na, where do you live?"
"I won’t tell you." The leader stubbornly lifted his chin, "Writing it down is useless. We won’t accept your compensation, nor will we yield. Give up on that thought. We only want you to not be an official."
"Exactly, we want you not to be an official. We don’t want your compensation!"
"..."
A group of people behind them raised their fists and shouted blindly.
Ye Zi’an couldn’t help but smile at this mont. His smile puzzled the people beside him; was he crazed from provocation? Ye Zi’an rarely smiled; he usually wore a wooden expression. Smiling today seed sickly.
At this mont, Ye Zi’an lightly parted his lips and said, "Who said I wanted to compensate you? You’re imagining too much."
The crowd was stunned upon hearing this. If he wasn’t compensating them, why ask for their address and ancestry?
Without waiting for them to speculate, Ye Zi’an provided the answer, "I want your information to check if your ancestral graves are still intact. If they are, I’ll personally lead a team to dig them up! I can’t carry the reputation of grave-digger without having done the deed, right? I might also accuse you of slander; your ancestral graves are intact, yet you claim I dug them up? What? Do you think I’m easy to bully?"
He really never did such a thing. It was Yang Chuxia’s instruction. He hired people for the digging.
The crowd was bewildered and shocked at what they heard!
What did he say? He actually declared publicly that he would dig up ancestral graves? His audacity was astounding.
The shock extended beyond the troublemakers, even to the nearby officials.
"Cousin, don’t speak nonsense!" Even Prince Zhuang, who hadn’t left yet, couldn’t help but voice his concern.
"Prince, this isn’t nonsense," Ye Zi’an turned to the crowd and said. "You all seem to be citizens of the Capital City, right? This matter initially occurred in Shandong. Is it possible that all your ancestral graves are in Shandong? Furthermore, when I was in Shandong, I investigated this matter. The governnt even subsidized money for it. Among those with damaged graves at the ti, none had ancestry in the Capital City. Even within Shandong, those with damaged ancestral graves were very few. So may I ask, what is the situation with you people?"
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