The censors were beside themselves!

This Feng Gaojie actually dared to answer back?

"Feng Gaojie, you traitor to your country. Coarse language and roaring in the hall of court — that deserves thirty strokes of the rod."

"Your Majesty, Feng Gaojie must have taken silver from Ning Chen. If Ning Chen is allowed to hold office, there will be no end to the trouble."

"Feng Gaojie, your intentions are wicked and your heart deserves to be put to death... Out with it. What did Ning Chen give you, to make you speak for him?"

"Your Majesty, your subjects are certainly not chasing an empty name. Your subjects think of nothing but the state, and every word comes straight from the heart... Your subjects beg Your Majesty to order a strict investigation of Feng Gaojie."

If I can't out-argue you, I'll stand on the moral high ground and accuse you, and throw a little dirt on you while I'm at it.

That was the censors' standing trick.

"Pah... you pack of fishwives. Day after day you hide behind the censor who dies for his remonstrance, all to win yourselves a name... Sanctimonious on the outside, and inside a belly full of thieving and whoring."

"I am not well acquainted with Ning Chen. Calling him back is for His Majesty's sake and for the empire's, and there is no private interest in it at all."

"Ning Chen is an official of our Great Xuan and a subject of His Majesty's... He slept with the woman emperor of Wu, and that is proof of just how strong our Great Xuan is. Ning Chen was spreading the fame of our state."

"Now the traitor has carved off land and named himself emperor, and that is naked arrogance and provocation... I ask you one question only. Apart from Ning Chen, who can put this vile bandit to death and take back our Great Xuan's lost ground?"

Feng Gaojie was loud and impassioned, arguing down a hall of scholars.

Come on then, let's hurt each other. I, Feng Gaojie, have read widely too, and it isn't…