In front of Guan Yi's cage, a large number of people from Baling City gathered. Even the soldiers who were there to maintain order were squeezed around the cage, with helpless looks on their faces.
In Dong Wencong's words, at first glance it would seem that all the people from Panorama Country were crowded here.
In front of the tube-wing cage, there was a makeshift notice board, which was prevented from being pushed down by the desperate efforts of many yamen runners.
The notice on the bulletin board stated that Guan Yi was willing to accept this punishment, and pointed out that Guan Yi had clamored to be sent away from the country. In the end, he got what he wanted, and Fang Yun gave him three feet of land.
The notice that followed listed the proceeds from the confiscation of Guan Yi's household, with a total estimated value of over 10 million taels of silver, far exceeding the normal worth of a Jinshi. If the literary treasures and sacred objects were not counted, the wealth of many university scholars' families would be around 3 million taels of silver.
According to Dong Wencong's instructions, the copying clerks specifically noted the sources of some of Guan Yi's family property, most of which were related to Qingjiang Trading Company, the Qing royal family and Qing officials.
Therefore, there was no need for the state government to spread the news. Various rumors spread, and soon everyone in Baling City and even in Xiangzhou knew that Guan Yi was doing things with money from the Qing Kingdom.
Afterwards, scholars from all over the country came forward and began to burn the supplement of "Xiangzhou Dibao". Many people, fearing trouble, also took the initiative to burn it.
The influence that Guan Yi had previously created in Xiangzhou disappeared silently.
Most people in Xiangzhou do not care about the affiliation of Xiangzhou, they only care about their own lives. However, even the most neutral people would not bother to support people like Guan Yi.
Hua Qingniang and Guan Yi were the backbone of the anti-Jing movement. Due to the inaction of the government before, many people were disheartened. Now the two of them have been punished so severely one after another. The people of Xiangzhou are in high spirits. Teahouses and taverns everywhere are talking about it, and all of them praise Fang Yun for his wisdom.
Fang Yun's imprisonment of Jinshi set off an endless war on the discussion board, and all the scholars from the ten countries were involved.
Some scholars from other countries believed that Fang Yun had gone too far and should not have treated Guan Yi in that way. He should have given Guan Yi some face, after all, they were all scholars.
However, some people also believed that if Guan Yi had only committed a minor offense, Fang Yun's punishment would have been excessive. But as an official of Jing State, he openly advocated giving up the country's territory for free, which was tantamount to treason, and the fact that he was not beaten to death proved that the people of Xiangzhou were too kind.
Various battlefields were opened up on the discussion board. Some articles discussed "whether treasonous remarks are legitimate remarks", some discussed "whether openly supporting the giving away important territory is considered treasonous remarks", and some discussed "whether Fang Xusheng's punishment is excessive", and so on.
The situation in Xiangzhou is complicated.
The people had been oppressed by the people of Qing for so many years, and had been taught a lesson by Qing lackeys like Hua Qingniang and Guan Yi. Finally, they had encountered such a gratifying event, and began to celebrate everywhere, making tonight like a festival.
Especially because the scholars who passed the imperial examination after joining Jingguo had their own future firmly tied to Jingguo, they strongly supported Fang Yun.
All the officials in Xiangzhou apparently stopped their activities and completely gave up opposing Fang Yun in name only. However, they submitted memorials to the Cabinet and the Holy Court to impeach or report Fang Yun.
Ever since Fang Yun became the Virtual Saint, the cabinet has not received so many impeachment letters for a long time.
With these impeachment letters, the Left Prime Minister's party launched an attack on Fang Yun at the court meeting the next day. However, the Governor's punishment of the Right Chief Justice, the Grand Secretary's punishment of the Jinshi, and the Xusheng's punishment of the fifth-rank official of Xiangzhou were not considered faults on the Shengyuan Continent, and could not even be considered dereliction of duty. After all, Fang Yun stood on the side of justice.
Therefore, no matter how aggressive the Zuo Xiang and his party were, they could not cause any harm to Fang Yun in the end, and could not even force Fang Yun to submit a letter of apology.
Fang Yun knew early on that a large number of Qing officials had impeached him, but he completely ignored it. Instead, after consulting with some officials in Xiangzhou, he handed over the affairs of "Min Bao" to the Fang Family Library. A review team composed of the state government and various departments was stationed at the office of "Min Bao" to review the content and avoid the appearance of content that should not appear.
Fang Yun personally formulated the format of Min Bao, completely abandoning the book model and instead using the form of later newspapers.
Important news about the human race or Jingguo are placed on the front page and the first few pages of "Minbao", and then divided into different pages, such as Xiangzhou news, Jingguo current affairs, human race policies, Shengyuan trends, imperial examination guidance, interesting stories from all walks of life, etc.
After seeing the sample newspaper, the officials who worked with Fang Yun to draft the "Min Bao" were full of admiration. Dong Wencong was the most excited, because he was sure that the "Min Bao" had far surpassed the "Wen Bao" in all aspects. If it was distributed throughout the human race, it might be able to compete with the "Wen Bao" in ten years.
Dong Wencong thought about it and for the first time in his life, he put aside his pride and begged Fang Yun to give him an editor position, and promised to personally work on the Min Bao and do his best to protect the Min Bao.
Fang Yun has always been generous to his own people. Not only did he give Dong Wencong an editor position, he also let Dong Wencong be responsible for the Tongsheng test score section of the "Imperial Examination Guidance" page, and hired him as a columnist for the Tongsheng test score section, specializing in writing articles to guide Tongsheng.
Dong Wencong was ecstatic after receiving the appointment and thanked Fang Yun repeatedly. When he left Fang Yun's study, he was so excited that he accidentally knocked his shoes flying, causing people in the Governor's Office to laugh. The funny story of the governor's flying shoes soon spread among the officials in Xiangzhou.
Dong Wencong didn't care about making a fool of himself at all. He picked up his shoes, put them on, and quickly left to prepare for the first issue of "Min Bao".
Dong Wencong knew very well that in the Minbao, what the people cared about most were current affairs and local news, but the most valuable and highest-ranking section must be the imperial examination guidance section.
Among the four major examinations, namely, the Tongsheng examination, the Xiucai examination, the Juren examination and the Jinshi examination, the most difficult one is naturally the Jinshi examination. Some talented Juren's understanding of the Jinshi examination even surpasses those of old Hanlin and old Jinshi. If one is not careful, the instructor's reputation may be damaged. Only a grand scholar would dare not to guide the Jinshi examination.
The Tongsheng exam is the simplest of the four sections, and may seem less prestigious than the Jinshi exam, but in fact, the Tongsheng exam has a wider audience. It can even be said that if Minbao could be distributed throughout the human race, the Tongsheng exam section would be the page for half of the male population, and it would be a position for educating hundreds of millions of students.
From now on, those young people who have read Dong Wencong’s guidance articles, no matter what their status in the future, even if they become semi-saints, will have to call Dong Wencong "Teacher Dong" when they see him.
His contribution to educating hundreds of millions of people is no less than that of a great scholar who fought in many directions.
Among the three immortalities of making contributions, making statements, and establishing virtues, Dong Wencong has already found a shortcut to "making contributions."
No matter how excited he was, Dong Wencong kept his mouth shut because Fang Yun ordered all officials to keep all details of the Min Bao strictly confidential, otherwise they would be charged with treason.
The preparations for Min Bao were silent.
On the first day of August, the Holy Academy of Humanity published "The Holy Way" and "Literary Newspaper" as usual.
On the second day of August, the first truly privately-run newspaper in the history of the human race, "Minbao", was officially published. "Minbao" had no publicity at all. It was just placed in the bookstores of literary academies in various cities in Xiangzhou in the early morning. Even the booksellers were unaware of it.
The front-page headline of Min Bao was titled “My First Letter of War” and the author was Fang Yun.
.(To be continued.)