At noon, the team stopped at a town - Huangsha Town.

You can still see the desert here, but there is a small river in the middle of the town and a lot of green vegetation around it.

The town is not big, with about a hundred households.

But there were quite a few people passing by, and the inn was full of people.

The team had just stopped, and before entering, we heard people inside talking loudly.

"You don't know, this Pei Junwang's daughter is absolutely awful. She's ugly, arrogant, and lustful. She's already ruined several talented young men before. I don't know who she's fallen for this time, and she's even planning a wedding."

"That's not the case. I heard that Prince Pei couldn't stand it anymore, so he chose a husband for her and forced her to get married."

"Eh~~~ I don't know which young man has become this unlucky guy."

"I heard he's the son of a wealthy family. Because they were suppressed by the empress, their entire family moved here and became dependents. That's why they had to be controlled."

"That's really tragic."

......

After hearing these words, Rong Qing immediately looked at Xiao Li, and saw that Xiao Li just raised his eyebrows and did not react much.

I was a little surprised, but didn't say anything for a while.

Xiao Li was thinking about the relationship of the Hedong County Prince's lineage. The Hedong County Prince was born into the Pei family, a prominent family in Hedong, and his biological mother was the late emperor's aunt, Princess Huairou.

In other words, the Prince of Hedong is the cousin of the late emperor, and the daughter of the Prince of Pei is of the same generation as Xiao Li.

Of course, these are all relatives of the original body, and Xiao Li doesn't recognize any of them.

In the evening, the team arrived in Yizhou.

Just as he was about to enter the city gate, a cloud of papers fell from the sky.

A man on the tower poured water down while singing loudly: "Heaven and earth are in chaos, yin and yang are not distinguished, the tyrant is in power, all things are in sorrow..."

Xiao Li caught the paper that was about to cover his face. It turned out to be a manifesto to attack the empress.

"Xiao Xuanyang is a jackal by nature, close to evil and perverse, murdering loyal and good people, killing his brother and slaughtering his clan. He reverses yin and yang, acts perversely, and disregards propriety and law. He is hated by both humans and gods, and cannot be tolerated by heaven and earth. Now he has launched a war across the world, the killing continues, the people are suffering, and his crimes are heinous..."

Xiao Li rolled up the manifesto and threw it on the ground. She didn't even bother to look at it.

Pei Chang'en, Prince of Hedong, was also one of the three rebel kings. Prince Xian united several factions and prepared to conquer the world by force, while Prince of Hedong recruited some literati, probably intending to win by scolding the empress.

Now most of the bad reputation that Empress Mingxi has in the world is caused by them.

The people benefited and knew who the good people were, but the Prince of Hedong brought a group of exiled scholars to write various documents to condemn them.

Moreover, they chased Xiao Li and scolded him. Although they didn't dare to jump in front of Xiao Li, it didn't stop them from shouting in the mountain.

When Xiao Li seized power and ascended the throne, they scolded him for being a hen that crows at dawn, going against the will of heaven, disregarding the right path, and breaking the ancestral family rules.

Xiao Li killed a large number of nobles and corrupt officials, who accused him of being tyrannical, cruel and inhumane.

When Xiao Li revived the imperial examination system, they accused her of being perverse and destroying the country.

Xiao Li was injured and in a coma for more than a year, but they were very happy and kept saying that it was a punishment from heaven and that she was unworthy of her position.

Unfortunately, the court officials were too loyal to the empress, and the military generals were too numerous. They could not defeat the generals or shake the new dynasty by just scolding, and ultimately they could only join the rebellion, which was actually just shouting louder.

They have been rebelling for so long, but haven't done anything earth-shattering.

Now that the empress has woken up, she attacks King Xian. They don't mention King Xian's rebellion, but all say that the empress killed her elders and relatives, disregarded etiquette and blood ties, and destroyed the Xiao family's country.

These intellectuals don't have much talent, and they're not very good at scolding people. They just repeat the same few sentences over and over again, and they can't do anything fancy.

But watching these idiots jumping around is really infuriating.

As soon as you enter Yizhou, you will smell the particularly strong scent of ink.

The streets are filled with calligraphy, poems and songs by literati, all of which are related to the campaign against the empress.

Teahouses and restaurants throughout the city are gathering places for literati, and you can see groups of people gathering together and writing calligraphy everywhere.

The child on the roadside was singing the same lines that the man at the city gate had sung: "Heaven and earth are in chaos, yin and yang are not distinguished, a tyrant reigns, all things are in sorrow. Now we have a king, he will punish those who are unjust; now we have soldiers, he will punish those who are disrespectful..."

Rong Qing approached Xiao Li and said, "Master, don't listen to their nonsense."

While Rong Qing was persuading Xiao Li, he looked at those people with murderous intent. If he was not the only one with His Majesty, he would definitely start a massacre at this moment.

Xiao Li is not that fragile and will not be broken by a few scolds.

I just saw that these scholars were bored and wanted to kill them.

Xiao Li did exile many nobles, but not the entire Yizhou City was exiled.

In fact, a large part of them were ordinary scholars around. The changes of imperial power and the empress's killing had nothing to do with them, but when they heard others scolding the empress, they also got hot-blooded and followed suit, as if they could not demonstrate their identity as scholars if they did not scold.

It is said that reading can make one wise, but the book they read was completely useless.

If they had scolded Xiao Li when she had just ascended the throne, it would be understandable. After all, it was normal for a new emperor, and a female emperor at that, to not accept it.

But it has been three years. The people of Longsheng have been exempt from taxes for three years. The factory has benefited the people, and water conservancy projects have been developed and free schools have been built.

All of these things have been implemented one by one. Which one is not a good thing that benefits the country and the people?

But these people are blind and can't see anything at all.

So is Prince Pei a good person?

The Pei family is a big family in Hedong. This family controls three cities in Hedong, oppressing the people, levying taxes, and bullying men and women. Which of these things are human?

Prince Pei was the most outstanding among them. When he was young, he was domineering and killed people for fun. Now that he is old, he has not restrained himself much. He even set up a Wanfang Garden, which is full of young women collected from several cities for him and his friends to play with.

But this group of literati were able to praise that scum to great heights after scolding the empress.

Well, birds of a feather flock together. It's normal for these idiots to follow a scumbag.

What they wanted was no longer an emperor who could benefit the people and had great talent and strategy, but simply a man to be the emperor. In other words, they were no longer making a fuss to support someone to be the emperor, but simply to follow the madness and pursue the feeling of speaking freely and insulting the emperor without any scruples.

What a bunch of rubbish!

After entering Yizhou, they said goodbye to Qi Chuan: "Thank you for your help, Master Qi. If we meet again in the future, we will definitely repay your kindness."

Qi Chuan knew they were determined to leave, so he made no effort to persuade them to stay. "Meeting is fate, so please don't be polite. If we meet again, I will definitely have a drink with you."

Xiao Li chuckled: "That day will come."