The spontaneous campaign of young people to protect the emperor outside the Southern Palace quickly spread far and wide, shaking the entire Luoyang region and completely changing the perception of the emperor among powerful families.
They knew that after nearly a year of management, the emperor had indeed gained considerable prestige, especially among the younger generation, who had become an object of worship for many young people.
Even without the emperor's summons, tens of thousands of young people could be gathered to voluntarily protect him. What if the emperor issued an edict? What would happen then? It wouldn't be impossible for there to be more than ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand young people. Wouldn't that mean they could wipe out whomever they wanted?
It's not uncommon for emperors to raise their arms and call out, and receive a multitude of responses. However, they had never seen anyone so eager to protect and defend the emperor in their entire lives. This undoubtedly demonstrated that the emperor's prestige and influence had reached their zenith.
In an instant, all those with ulterior motives once again put away their own thoughts. In their eyes, the emperor's power was now irreversible, but if anyone dared to defy him, those fanatical young people would be able to tear them to pieces without the emperor having to lift a finger.
Unbeknownst to them, the emperor had grown to such a terrifying degree.
Meanwhile, Yang Qiu, Xun Shuang, and Song Feng, back at the government office, launched another large-scale arrest operation. In addition to the constables from the three government offices, some wandering knights and scholars also volunteered to help, making the arrest operation much faster and clearer.
Yang Qiu then waved his hand and arrested all the suspected individuals. In short, regardless of whether you did it or not, as long as you were likely to do it, arrest them all.
The arrest operation continued until midnight, and the prison in the Sili government office, which could originally hold thousands of people, was now overcrowded.
Apart from some incompetent officials who did nothing, even those who were originally upright officials were now all imprisoned.
Wang Rui, the leading figure among the clean officials, was also slumped in his cell, listening to the screams coming from the interrogation room not far away. Wang Rui's face was extremely pale.
Soon, as the prison door was opened, several eunuchs threw a blood-covered and wounded man next to Wang Rui, which made Wang Rui tremble involuntarily.
"Take him away...!"
Then one of the leaders pointed to Wang Rui, who was huddled to the side.
"What...what are you trying to do?! I am the Vice Minister of the Imperial Stud, a position with a rank equivalent to a thousand bushels of grain! How dare you act so recklessly without the decrees of His Majesty and the Empress Dowager?!"
Seeing the two fierce-looking eunuchs approaching, Wang Rui retreated in fear, while simultaneously threatening them with a blustering but weak voice.
"Calm down...!"
Upon seeing this, the two eunuchs stepped forward and grabbed Wang Rui, simultaneously punching him hard in the face.
"Ah~..!"
With a cry of pain from Wang Rui, several teeth, stained with blood, were ejected from his mouth.
"Ha! Even if you, the Imperial Stud, were imprisoned in our Sili Yamen, you wouldn't dare speak like that!"
Upon hearing Wang Rui's threat, the leader approached, looked at him coldly, and couldn't help but sneer.
"take away....!"
Then, the leader waved his hand, and several men escorted Wang Rui to the interrogation room next door, where they tied him to a wooden frame.
Upon seeing the rows of unheard-of torture instruments on the wooden frame not far away, Wang Rui was immediately terrified and turned pale.
"No...no...!"
As a constable with a whip in hand and a sinister grin approached, Wang Rui struggled in fear.
"Will you tell me or not...!!"
With a sharp shout from the constable, the leather whip in his hand lashed out and struck Wang Rui hard in the chest.
"Ah~..!"
A sharp pain made Wang Rui cry out in agony.
"Speak quickly...!"
Before Wang Rui could speak, the second whip lashed out at him, followed by another scream from him.
"Still so stubborn!!"
The constable grinned maliciously and then swung his leather whip again.
With three sharp cracks of the whip, Wang Rui was given a triple lash.
After being lashed six times in a row, Wang Rui almost fainted from the pain.
"Will you tell me or not...?"
The constable stepped forward, grabbed Wang Rui's chin, and stared at him with a ferocious expression. Wang Rui was pale, covered in cold sweat, and barely breathing.
Wang Rui glanced at the constable and said haltingly:
"You...you should...ask!!"
"Huh?? Didn't I ask??"
The constable paused for a moment, then turned to look at his companion behind him.
"It seems... we really didn't ask...!"
His companion shrugged and responded with a mischievous grin.
"Uh... sorry, I completely forgot about that...!!"
The constable was taken aback and looked at Wang Rui embarrassedly, but from the smile on his lips, anyone could tell that he was doing it on purpose.
"You...you guys...!! Uh...ah!"
Seeing the mocking looks on their faces, Wang Rui finally understood what was happening. Overwhelmed with grief and indignation, he tilted his head to the side and fainted.
"What a spineless coward, ugh!! Wake him up!"
Upon seeing Wang Rui faint, the constable spat and then ordered someone to bring over a basin of ice water.
"Splash!"
Stimulated by the basin of ice-cold water, Wang Rui slowly woke up.
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