The Villain's Counterattack

Chapter 354 My cousin has the royal blood of the Dali Duan family

"As for the second charge, it seems to me to be pure nonsense. Even a three-year-old child wouldn't believe it. Since Lord Wang said the evidence is on the way, let's wait a while." Bao Bu Tong glanced at the minister surnamed Wang. The Emperor of the Great Song nodded and ordered that the petition should be presented immediately once it arrived.

"Speaking of the third one, haha, it's an even more fabricated charge!" Bao Bu Tong smiled and reported the backgrounds of all the officials in Rongjing County one by one. There was no mistake at all, and there was not a single one of Murong Fu's own people among them.

The minister surnamed Wang suddenly thought of one thing. Murong Fu employed many of his own people, but although these people used his power, they were undoubtedly all non-staff members, and were more like Murong Fu's own staff group. However, this team was more skilled and larger, unlike ordinary officials who only had three to five staff members, and some even had only one or two.

However, Murong Fu did not play by the rules. He arranged the personnel according to the tasks and categories. Not only did he arrange professional students from Gusu College, he also hired local respected elders and local authorities, making all the work go extremely smoothly.

They had to admire his ability to know how to use people and his courage to use them. These people had no clear official positions, but they could give orders and carry out various tasks in the name of Murong Fu, and they did a very good job indeed.

Bao Bu Tong calls this kind of personnel professional employees. They are used when there is something to do and returned after use. They are convenient and worry-free and do not take up resources. They are called professional matters that are left to professionals. Officials only need to coordinate the planning and do the final acceptance work, which saves worry, effort and money.

The third charge is also not established, probably because the position of staff can only appoint trustworthy people. If this is also a crime, almost all officials in the world are guilty of serious crimes.

"As for the accusation of colluding with the border troops..." Bao Bu Tong smiled at Minister Wang and said, "Lord Wang, is it a crime for Rongjing County to supply the border troops with fodder? My young master has many capable warriors under his command, so why must he appoint a lieutenant from the border army? If Lord Wang is not a fool, he will know the reason, right?"

Minister Wang was speechless. Everyone in the court knew who the so-called border army captain he was referring to. Although the Cao family was a military family, they had close relations with the royal family. It was not a taboo to have close contacts with a member of the Cao family, especially a single person. Cao Yi was also a model of a prodigal son who returned home, and it was only because Bao Bu Tong who helped him get on the right track.

Because of this relationship, Cao Yi would not betray Murong Fu. It was reasonable for Murong Fu to use his power to stabilize Rongjing County. As for the supplies to the border troops, half of them were voluntary and half were ordered. The previous county magistrate lost so much food and military supplies, but the new county magistrate Murong Fu had to repay them.

It seems that he was too honest and suffered a great loss. He could completely shirk responsibility because it was his predecessor's responsibility, not his fault.

"Let's take a look at the most vicious charge Lord Wang has leveled against him: treason! Tsk tsk, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, tsk tsk, the whole family is a light punishment, at least the entire clan should be exterminated." Bao Bu Tong tsk-tsk'd his tongue, his face full of mockery, but then he straightened his face and said, "Everything I'm going to say is true. I just hope the emperor and the ministers won't spread it. After all, it's not a good thing."

"My young master went to Dali Kingdom for half official business and half personal matters, with the personal matters being the most important." Bao Bu Tong was unconcerned about Murong Fu's private outing. "The official business was completed very well. We have established trade relations with Dali Kingdom, which has greatly increased the development potential of Rongjing County. As for the personal matters, it all started with my young master's fiancée."

"My young master's fiancée is my cousin, Miss Wang. They were childhood sweethearts and had been engaged since childhood. My uncle, Wang Erlang, is the president of Gusu College. He is both talented in literature and martial arts and handsome. My uncle's wife was born in Dali. When she was young, her family suffered a great change. Her parents were no longer with her, so she was protected by a family slave. After the Yang bandit rebellion in Dali, she fled to the Central Plains several years later. She fell in love with my uncle, Wang Erlang, at first sight, and they married. Later, they gave birth to my cousin, my young master's fiancée, Wang."

"Yes, just as everyone guessed, my cousin has the royal blood of Dali Duan family." Bao Bu Tong's words made everyone suddenly realize and understand why Murong Fu could easily enter the Dali Palace and was named a VIP. Has this guy climbed up the social ladder?

However, if counted from Lady Wang, this cousin's bloodline seems a little distant, and even if she is canonized, her title will not be very high. But royal blood is royal blood, and communication before marriage is inevitable.

The retainers of the Murong family, including Bao Bu Tong, naturally knew that Madam Li Qingluo did not have the royal blood of the Dali Duan family. The only one who truly had royal blood was Wang Yuyan. However, they could not say this to the outside world, otherwise Wang Jia Erlang would lose his face. Bao Bu Tong did not lie just now. He was just misleading with clever words, making the whole court believe that Madam Wang was the legitimate owner of the Dali Duan family bloodline, and Wang Yuyan was just a descendant.

But even so, this relationship is not distant. Upon hearing this, the Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty did say that this was human nature. If Murong Fu pretended that there was no such relationship, it would be against etiquette.

The charge of treasury with foreign countries is not established here. At most, it is just visiting relatives and friends. It’s just that the status of this relative or friend in foreign countries is relatively high. After all, they are royal family. How can it not be high?

Minister Wang's face turned a little ugly. The biggest crimes he impeached Murong Fu for were dereliction of duty, abuse of people's power, secret communication with border troops and collusion with foreign countries. Now, except for the lack of evidence for abuse of people's power, the other three charges had failed. The following charges were actually very unfavorable to him.

As expected, Bao Bu Tong first narrated the battle of wits between Murong Fu and Zhuge Yi, and then explained why he adopted Zhuge Xiu as his sister. All the civil and military officials in the court then knew that it was Cao Yi, not Murong Fu, who had a crush on Zhuge Xiu. Murong Fu adopted Zhuge Xiu as his sister just to give her a good background so that she could marry into the Cao family in the future.

Moved by this, Zhuge Yi willingly presented the rare copy of the ancient book. However, because he chose the wrong timing, he presented the gift in front of everyone at Madam Murong's birthday, and everyone knew about it. He had to take the book to Murong Academy for exhibition, which attracted the covetousness of Minister Wang. After failing to get it after several attempts, he started to spread rumors and threaten the Murong family.

"It wasn't the Murong family that spread the rumors, but you, Lord Wang. As for the allegation of maintaining a private army, that's a bit much. Most of those people are hired fishermen and caravan guards, and some are affiliated with the academy." Bao Bu Tong smiled slightly and said, "I have to say that Lord Wang has a wide network of connections. While he is inciting hundreds of martial artists to attack the Murong family, he is also mobilizing troops to protect them. If they weren't using the imperial court's name, I would have thought those were all Wang's troops."

This statement put the minister surnamed Wang in danger. The most serious case was that he was raising private soldiers to impersonate the imperial army, and the less serious case was that he was secretly communicating with the army. It should be noted that it was a taboo for civil officials to secretly communicate with the army for no reason. In the Song Dynasty, civil officials could look down on military generals and deliberately suppress them, but secretly communicating with military generals and mobilizing troops for no reason was absolutely a taboo. However, the family of the minister surnamed Wang chose to do such a stupid thing in order to attack the Murong family.

Bao Bu Tong brought out evidence one by one to prove that the rumor that all martial arts in the world came from Murong came from this minister, that instigating people in the martial arts world to attack the Murong family came from his family, and that colluding with local troops to escort these people was also at his instruction. What's more, he even hired some thieves to sneak into Gusu Academy to steal books.

Bao Bu Tong revealed all the evil deeds one by one without mercy. After that, Bao Bu Tong continued to tell the story in detail about the so-called relatives of Lord Wang who were sent to Rongjing County, and even exaggerated them. The ugly faces of those people made even the civil and military officials in the court feel sick. Bao Bu Tong had a foul mouth, and his descriptions were so vivid that they were even more shocking and exciting.

"Sir Wang, as the saying goes, like father, like mother, and like son, like son. Just like the rat, he will dig holes. Just looking at the faces of your relatives, combined with your previous actions, should we say that people of the same family are alike, or should we say..." Bao Bu Tong's words made Minister Wang so angry that he almost fainted on the spot.

"Shut up!" A good man has three helpers, and a bad man also has three or five friends. What's more, this Minister surnamed Wang has been forming cliques for personal gain for a long time, and he still has some relatives and old friends in the court. Although he knows that Minister surnamed Wang is in the wrong, he will not allow Bao Bu Tong to really anger him to death. When he sees that he is talking too much, he speaks out to stop him, in order to protect the court from being tarnished.

Bao Bu Tong then said that it wasn't his own words that sullied the court, but rather Lord Wang's actions and the ugly faces of his relatives and friends. "My dear friend of Lord Wang, if you tell me to shut up, I'm afraid I might accidentally implicate you. Birds of a feather flock together, and those who associate with such people are more or less suspicious of their character. If the emperor tells me to shut up, I will absolutely not hesitate."

Just at this moment, news came from outside the palace that the Book of All People from Rongjing County, Yazhou Prefecture, west of Chengdu had been delivered. The Emperor of the Great Song Dynasty directly told Bao Bu Tong to shut up and ordered that the Book of All People be delivered, and he would be the first person to read it.

Bao Bu Tong seemed to have expected this. He kept his mouth shut, folded his arms, looked up at the ceiling of the hall and said nothing. Outside, a young eunuch trotted over and presented a thick booklet to the emperor.

The Emperor of the Song Dynasty opened it and saw that the first few pages were written in neat handwriting, expressing the demands of many people, but the back was filled with many fingerprints and signatures, which were divided into several different opinions. However, after reading it, the conclusion surprised him. He threw it to the eunuch and asked him to give it to other ministers to read.

The minister surnamed Wang was originally preparing to fight back, but he found that both the emperor and the ministers who had read the Book of the People had strange expressions on their faces. They did not show any anger at all, but were more curious.