Zhang San, please behave yourself!
Chapter 291 - 280: I Didn’t Know They Were So Weak!

Chapter 291: Chapter 280: I Didn’t Know They Were So Weak!

As Zhang San’s words left his mouth, the great hall fell silent as a tomb.

The Emperor asked you to come to the hall to confess your guilt, yet here you are, asking for a reward, and even expecting the Minister of Punishment to invite you to dinner.

This isn’t just a question of how audacious you are anymore.

Do you even have a face?

"Cough cough..."

At this moment, the Magistrate of Metropolitan Prefecture stood up and said in a deep voice, "Town Martial Office Zhang San, the Metropolitan Prefectural Government Office has already investigated clearly that the people you killed on the street were indeed officials from the Ministry of Punishment, not Martial Artists pretending to be such officials."

Zhang San turned and glimpsed the Magistrate of Metropolitan Prefecture standing unexpectedly behind him.

Zhang San also didn’t understand if standing in the great hall was a matter of protocol or hierarchy.

Regardless, I don’t know, so I’ll just pretend it doesn’t exist.

Zhang San waved his hand dismissively, confident as he spoke, "Impossible, absolutely impossible."

As he spoke, Zhang San looked around at the expressions on the faces of the ministers surrounding him, some watching with keen interest, others taking pleasure in the misfortune, and he slightly smiled.

"The two leading figures claimed they were Yuanwai Lang from the Ministry of Punishment. I’m not quite sure what this position entails, but I remember it’s seventh-rank, right?"

"I’m curious, seventh-rank, and that’s it?"

"One slash from my sword, and those two were dead, plus eleven others as a bonus."

Upon saying this, Zhang San turned and looked toward the Minister of Punishment Shen Wei beside him, loudly questioning, "How could the people from the Ministry of Punishment be so incompetent?"

At that moment, Minister Shen’s face turned as red as if it had been kicked repeatedly by cow hooves.

Emperor Kaihuang sat on the dragon throne, a smile on his face.

Whether it was when he was once a minister in the Northern Zhou court or after he reluctantly became the Emperor when the Northern Zhou Emperor abdicated, he had never witnessed such an entertaining scene in the court.

A ninth-grade Scattered Official from the Town Martial Office had managed to make a third-rank Chief of Staff feel like cursing at any moment.

"Minister Shen, you are the Minister of Punishment. What do you think of Zhang San’s earlier remarks?"

For the first time, Emperor Kaihuang discovered that poking fun at someone’s sore spot could be so amusing.

Shen Wei, his face still red, opened his mouth several times, and finally turned his head to speak to Zhang San, "Those two men were indeed from the Ministry of Punishment."

Zhang San naturally knew they were people from the Ministry of Punishment.

Who would dare to impersonate an official from the Ministry of Punishment in the Capital? Are they insane?

But naturally, Zhang San would not admit to this.

At that moment, upon hearing Shen Wei’s words, Zhang San first looked shocked and astonished, his surprised expression and the seemingly unstaged step back, as if he had been truly struck by lightning.

Then, Zhang San furrowed his brows, falling into deep thought.

Amidst a slight shake of his head and the bewilderment in his eyes, suddenly, a light flashed across Zhang San’s pupils.

At this instant, Zhang San raised his head, chest out, and proclaimed, "I understand now!"

Minister Shen looked at Zhang San with disdain, thinking to himself: What do you understand?

I damn well don’t know why I had to admit those two imbeciles were from my Ministry of Punishment!

And you understand just like that?

Then, Zhang San immediately bowed toward Emperor Kaihuang on the dragon throne and said, "It must be that Minister Shen knew there were people in the Ministry of Punishment who were ’Going Through the Back Door,’ people without the requisite ability, yet occupying high positions, no different from national traitors. Wishing to address this issue, but feeling that his own power was too insignificant, he deliberately used this method to expose these two imbeciles to attract the Emperor’s attention."

"With the Emperor’s wise judgment and decisive actions, he will surely resolve this unhealthy bureaucracy and cleanse the court of the Great Sui Dynasty of all its corruption!"

"I must say, Minister Shen, how brilliant you are!"

At this moment, Shen Wei truly wished to obliterate Zhang San with Rune magic, turning him into dust finer than ashes.

"There isn’t any," Shen Wei could only reply helplessly to Zhang San while calculating in his heart how to kill this outspoken brat.

But after all, His Majesty was here, and even Zhang San had been summoned by name by His Majesty himself – who would dare to stop Zhang San from speaking!

Zhang San, hearing Shen Wei’s denial, looked puzzled.

"Then I really don’t understand..."

Upon hearing this, the anxiety in Shen Wei’s heart finally subsided.

There’s finally something you don’t understand.

Please don’t understand it.

If you understand any more, my future will be completely ruined by you.

Although Zhang San professed ignorance, not understanding didn’t mean he couldn’t speak.

On the contrary, Zhang San’s experience on the internet in his past life told him that the less someone understood, the more they liked to talk.

Of course, this is a very unscrupulous behavior.

But luckily, I, Zhang San, am precisely unscrupulous.

So...

Zhang San continued.

"Minister Shen, if what I just said was incorrect, surely it can’t be that someone, in order to frame me, deliberately went around you, the Minister of Punishment, and gave orders to your subordinates. And then had them overstep their authority to arrest me, right?"

"The Ministry of Punishment’s people arresting the Town Martial Office’s Martial Artists is already an overstep of authority."

"Those two men claimed to be Yuanwai Lang from the Ministry of Punishment but refused to show their identification, nor did they show the official documents needed to take us away."

"Lastly, when I questioned their identity, they didn’t explain further but instead drew their swords in the street, looking like they intended to commit a violent act. This..."

"Surely no one is trying to use the Ministry of Punishment as a tool to find an opportunity to weaken His Majesty’s Town Martial Office, right?"

At this moment, anyone who was sober-minded could already see that Han Yanxia and Zheng Zaisuang had indeed targeted Zhang San and his companions specifically.

Although it wasn’t certain whether it was personal vendettas at play or if someone was trying to suppress Zhang San and his group during this chance.

But in the end, it seemed to be just a small dispute among a few people.

Yet Zhang San’s mention of "finding an opportunity to weaken His Majesty’s Town Martial Office" immediately escalated the seriousness of the issue!

After all, the Town Martial Office was directly under Kaihuang’s command, and although its officials had ranks, the Ministry of Personnel would never dare to interfere with them.

Now that someone from the Ministry of Punishment dared to lay hands on people from the Town Martial Office, the matter could indeed be made a big deal out of a minor one.

However, Zhang San added another sentence: "I don’t really understand, but somehow this feels almost like treason to me. Of course, I don’t really understand. So I wouldn’t dare to speak recklessly."

By now, the court robe on Shen Wei’s body had become drenched, as though it were damp with tide.

He stood there, not daring to say another word.

Previously, he had defended himself in the court, saying that even though the order had not been given by him, it was probably those two young people from the Ministry of Punishment who were eager to alleviate the Emperor’s worries but ended up killed by the hotheads of the Town Martial Office.

He had even previously uttered the words, "Such arrogant and outrageous scoundrels, utterly rebellious! They should be executed with their entire clans!"

Fate is so capricious.

Kaihuang observed as Shen Wei’s complexion turned from red to white and felt that if he questioned Shen Wei any further, Shen Wei might just faint on the spot in the court.

Then, Kaihuang turned his head and noticed the Crown Prince, who was not far from Zhang San.

At this moment, the Crown Prince’s face was also extremely pale.

Zhang San secretly glanced at the Crown Prince and realized that the Crown Prince’s face was even paler than the man he had seen with a kidney deficiency outside.

Kaihuang smiled and asked the Crown Prince, "Crown Prince, regarding this matter, let’s hear what you think about it."