CHAPTER 695: CHAPTER 342: DUKE ZHEN HAS A HEADACHE

Jinling City became "lively" with the arrival of Prince Jing and Prince Wei.

As soon as Prince Jing arrived in Jinling City, he began organizing the imperial examinations, yet not a single scholar registered to participate. He had anticipated this situation before coming to Jinling City.

He ordered the Jinling Governor to send people to persuade the poor scholars to register for the examinations, assuring them that with him, Prince Jing, present, no one could prevent them from taking part.

The Jinling Governor agreed on the surface but was perfunctory in secret. When Prince Jing found out, he unceremoniously beat the Jinling Governor, giving him fifty lashes. Moreover, he imprisoned the Jinling Governor and some constables in the dungeon.

Prince Jing knew that it was the families obstructing the imperial examinations, so he went to confront them. As expected, the families completely disregarded him as Prince Jing. Although he was angry, he did not lose his composure.

He took the token given to him by Empress Xie to the Song Family. As expected, upon seeing the token, the Song Family pledged their loyalty to him without hesitation, ready to follow his commands.

The Song Family Patriarch and the young master detailed the situation in Jinling City to Prince Jing. After listening, Prince Jing was overwhelmed with shock. Before coming to Jinling City, Empress Xie had told him that the city belonged to the Crown Prince and Duke Zhen, but he didn’t fully believe it. He didn’t expect the reality to be so extreme, even reaching a point of lawlessness.

With assistance from the Song Family, many poor scholars began registering for the imperial examinations.

The Li Family and the Fang Family did not expect the Song Family to betray them and support Prince Jing.

Opposing the imperial examinations, the Song Family did not participate because no one from their family was taking the exams. Whether the imperial examinations were held successfully or not was of no concern to the Song Family, so they did not send anyone to threaten the poor scholars.

Besides not participating in opposing the imperial examinations, the Song Family rarely engaged in Jinling City’s political affairs. The Song Family only wanted to trade salt for profit and did not wish to meddle in court matters. Of course, the Song Family regularly sent money to the Crown Prince and Duke Zhen.

Even though the Li Family was part of the Salt Gang, they were far from being on par with the Song Family. The Song Family had a heritage spanning hundreds of years in Jinling City and was truly the richest family in the city. Not only that, but its history was also longer than other aristocratic families.

On the surface, the Shen Family, as the head of the aristocratic families, was the leader of Jinling City, but truly it was the Song Family.

The Song Family supporting Prince Jing was something the Li Family and the Fang Family found hard to accept.

In the Fang Family, Fang Zhimiao angrily berated Song Qingyun.

Song Qingyun, despite being scolded, showed no anger. Instead, he remained very calm.

Li Jue sat to the side, coldly watching the composed Song Qingyun.

Fang Zhimiao, upon seeing that Song Qingyun had no reaction after a long tirade, grew even angrier.

"Song Qingyun, what on earth do you mean?"

Song Qingyun placed down his teacup and calmly said, "Have you finished your scolding?"

"You..." Fang Zhimiao’s face contorted with rage, his gaze at Song Qingyun full of malice.

Li Jue coldly questioned, "Song Qingyun, what does your Song Family intend to do?"

Song Qingyun calmly replied, "Our Song Family just wants to help Prince Jing ensure the successful hosting of the imperial examinations in Jinling."

With a loud bang, Fang Zhimiao kicked away the low table in front of him in fury. He roared at Song Qingyun, "You damn well support Prince Jing’s imperial examinations, Song Qingyun, are you out of your mind?"

Li Jue did not show such rage as Fang Zhimiao; instead, he asked lightly, "Why the betrayal?"

"Betrayal?" Song Qingyun chuckled softly, "From where? Our Song Family never declared loyalty to the Crown Prince and Duke Zhen, nor did we claim allegiance to you all, did we?"

Fang Zhimiao’s expression was grim: "What do you mean?"

"You several families have never genuinely pledged loyalty to the Crown Prince and Duke Zhen, so why come to accuse our Song Family of betraying them?" Song Qingyun found the questions of Fang Zhimiao and Li Jue amusing, wearing a mocking smile, "Our Song Family was only cooperating with you, not your dog."

Fang Zhimiao roared viciously, "Song Qingyun!!!"

"Your Song Family never participated in court matters." Compared to anger, Li Jue was more filled with confusion, "Why suddenly support Prince Jing? What’s special about Prince Jing?" To Li Jue, Prince Jing was not even as good as the Crown Prince.

"We didn’t participate before, but now we are," Song Qingyun said, "As for why support Prince Jing, it’s not something you need to know. You just need to know our Song Family is now aligned with Prince Jing, and from now on, we will no longer aid the Crown Prince and Duke Zhen."