The follow-up to this matter ended with the Emperor punishing all ranks of officials in Hong Yang Prefecture, including the Magistrate.

Only when they were certain that the Magistrate and several County Magistrates who had oppressed them had all been punished by the Emperor did the common people truly believe that the Emperor really did keep them in his heart, and that he had only been deceived by officials from the aristocratic families before.

Common people are easily bewitched and easily brainwashed, especially when life is very bitter; then they are all the more easily brainwashed. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Because what they trust in when they trust the Emperor is not the Emperor himself, but the hope in their own hearts; people always like to evade reality and to seek benefit and avoid harm.

The common people of Hong Yang Prefecture now lived better lives, but in the court waves were surging; although the Magistrate’s entire faction in Hong Yang Prefecture had been uprooted, since the Emperor had seized hold of their handle, the aristocratic families were powerless to turn the tide.

Yet the aristocratic families were not willing to admit defeat; they grabbed onto another handle and refused to let go—the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture had forcibly seized grain.

In the court, officials from the aristocratic families collectively impeached the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture for rebellion, insisting that those troublemaking commoners who had seized grain in revolt must be arrested and dealt with.

The Emperor’s attitude toward this was to neither confirm nor deny; no matter how the aristocratic-family officials clamored, he simply ignored them, and on the memorials he maintained the same stance—keeping them in the palace and not issuing any decree.

This display of the Emperor that looked almost like showing weakness made those aristocratic-family officials think they could coerce him, and they leapt about even more gleefully in the court.

The turmoil in the court over this matter was too great, and with no resolution in sight, rumors began to stir outside; people said that the Emperor’s situation did not look good now, and that the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture were very likely to be "cleansed."

This news, under the Emperor’s deliberate spreading, quickly swept across the entire country and reached the ears of the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture; this news made countless commoners anxious and filled with dread, and they followed it with extreme attention.

The reason was simple: matters like this were far too close to their own lives—floods, droughts, years with not a grain harvested; in a lifetime, who doesn’t run into such times a few times?

This was something every one of them might experience; if, when the time came, they also encountered a muddle-headed official, and they learned that the life-saving relief grain sent by the Emperor had been withheld by greedy officials, then in order to seek a way to live, it was not at all certain they would not do what the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture had done.

When the lips are gone, the teeth feel the cold; it hit too close to their own lives, and this sense of substitution made all the common people pay immense attention to the outcome of this matter. They were all waiting—waiting for the Emperor’s attitude, waiting for a result.

The aristocratic families were also pressing and also waiting—waiting for the Emperor to yield, waiting for the Emperor to concede defeat. The aristocratic families were not stupid; they also knew that, by using the Hong Yang Prefecture incident, the Emperor had already won over a great mass of popular support.

The aristocratic families naturally could not allow the Emperor to gain the hearts of the people; that would be a threat to them. So as long as the Emperor compromised and arrested those commoners in Hong Yang Prefecture who had seized grain, the Emperor’s current good reputation would be utterly ruined.

An Emperor who has the hearts of the people will undoubtedly further squeeze the living space of the aristocratic families and become ever more troublesome; whereas an Emperor without the hearts of the people is much easier to contend with.

Just when the relationship between the aristocratic families and the Emperor had already become drawn bows and crossed swords, and the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture were nervously wondering whether they should run to the mountains to become bandits for a while to escape disaster, the Emperor finally gave a response.

The Emperor gave a response that all the aristocratic families found unbelievable—he issued a self-criticism edict! And he did it with great fanfare, posting the self-criticism edict everywhere, determined to let all common people know.

In the self-criticism edict, the Emperor stated bluntly that he had made improper appointments of officials, that twice he had sent out relief grain for disaster but it had not reached the hands of the common people, so that he had driven the common people to be forced into extreme actions.

Several important ministers from aristocratic families gathered together and were discussing how to further force the Emperor to submit when they heard this news; several of them smashed the cups in their hands on the spot.

One among them, an elder with graying hair who had passed the age of fifty, slapped the table and said hatefully, "It’s over, truly a collapse at the last moment!

I never imagined this Emperor would put aside his pride and issue a self-criticism edict. Now not only will he not lose the hearts of the people, he will instead gain even more of them. This round, we’ve lost!"

Everything unfolded exactly as this elder had thought. After the Emperor’s self-criticism edict was issued, what it stirred up was an uproar; there was not a single commoner who was not enraged on account of the Emperor’s self-criticism edict.

This anger was not directed at the Emperor, but at the aristocratic families mentioned in the earlier rumors. Among the common folk, the aristocratic families had an absolutely huge reputation.

The common people could be ignorant of who the "parent-official" above their heads was, but they could not be ignorant of which aristocratic family in their area was the most powerful and most impossible to offend; this was also why commoners so easily believed that aristocratic families could cover the sky with one hand.

The common people had long been oppressed by the aristocratic families and had also deeply internalized the belief that the Emperor was the greatest and surely could suppress officials from the aristocratic families; that was why they had vented their anger on the Emperor.

But now it was different. The Emperor had been forced to admit to a fault that was not his, which showed that he, too, just like them, was being heavily pressured by the aristocratic families.

The common people did not dare speak out openly, but when two or three of them gathered in private, they could not help discussing the matter; remarks expressing dissatisfaction with the aristocratic families and sympathy for the Emperor grew more and more numerous.

In the hearts of the common people, what is the Emperor? He is the one who, if he says the sky is green, no one would dare refute—the one holding supreme authority. The Emperor cannot possibly be wrong, and is also supposed to be forever incapable of admitting fault.

Yet such a lofty Emperor, precisely because he wanted to treat them, the common people, well, had been forced by the aristocratic families to apologize and make amends.

In that instant, they felt empathy for the Emperor; they felt that the Emperor, like them, was being deceived and persecuted by the aristocratic families, and even felt that the Emperor stood on the same battle line as they did, with the shared enemy being the aristocratic families.

Their prairie-fire anger all tilted toward the aristocratic families. This was exactly the purpose for which Yin Shuangshuang set up this game for the Emperor—to tear away the blindfold the aristocratic families had draped over the common people’s eyes, and at the same time to help the Emperor gather the hearts of the people.

............

"This time, it is truly thanks to Yin Aiqing’s excellent stratagem. All the resentful energy from these aristocratic families slandering Us for so many years has finally been repaid once.

Most important of all, now the common people under Heaven incline toward Us. A single self-criticism edict—who would have thought that such a mere self-criticism edict could have such great power.

If Yin Aiqing had not said that this tactic can be used once and no more, We would really want to issue a few more self-criticism edicts, hahaha!"

In the Capital City, within the Diligent Governance Hall, the Emperor held the confidential intelligence report in his hand and laughed heartily, his expression extremely pleased and carefree. Even he had not expected that a single self-criticism edict would have such a good effect.

At his side, General An was also all smiles. "This minister has heard that the common people of Hong Yang Prefecture are most grateful to the Emperor; many households voluntarily enshrine the Emperor’s longevity tablet and pray every day for the Emperor’s long life."

The Emperor nodded with his face full of delight, then said with some emotion, "In the blink of an eye, Yin Aiqing has already been away from the Capital City for many years. I truly cannot wait to summon Yin Aiqing back to the court to help Us with one more arm of strength."

General An also missed Shuangshuang very much. "Your Majesty need not be anxious. Once Mr. Yin’s term in Qingyang Prefecture is over, Your Majesty can summon Mr. Yin back to the Capital City to take up office."