Judge of the Song Dynasty

At the start of the trial, whether it was the officials inside the courtroom or the crowd outside, everyone carried many personal emotions and had already chosen sides early on. But as the trial deepened, the crowd both inside and outside the courtroom gradually grew quiet.

Everyone had become absorbed in the proceedings and was thinking, including Sima Guang who was testifying. Before taking the stand, he had constantly reminded himself to remain objective, but after just a few questions, his answers were completely subjective.

He felt quite ashamed of himself.

But there was no other way – he hadn’t found an objective answer and could only respond subjectively.

This was why Xu Zhiqian believed that Sima Guang’s answers favored the opposing side.

But Zhang Fei knew that the old man was actually having quite a difficult time. To answer such sharp questions in such a short time and respond as well as he did was already quite good.

However, Fan Chunren believed that in this first round of exchanges, he was clearly at a disadvantage, and Su Zhe deserved much of the credit for this. After sitting down, he said to Su Zhe with great dissatisfaction: “Su Zhe, if you interrupt me again, I’ll request someone else to assist me.”

Su Zhe quickly nodded and said: “Please forgive me, Remonstrator Fan. I guarantee I won’t do that again.”

Because he knew that his elder brother was probably not in any real danger now.

Seeing that Fan Chunren was still glaring at him angrily, he added: “Remonstrator Fan, if you have any dissatisfaction with me, I will accept your punishment after the trial ends. Right now we still need to focus our attention on the case.” Indeed! Now was not the time for internal conflict. Fan Chunren took a deep breath.

Su Zhe whispered beside him: “Academician Wang is our best target for attack.”

Fan Chunren nodded and stood up, saying: “Your Honor, I wish to call Academician Wang Anshi to testify.”

Sima Guang in the witness seat breathed a long sigh of relief, suddenly realizing that his back was already soaked with sweat. This chair was really damn difficult to sit in! He supported himself on his knees with both hands and slowly stood up, showing clear signs of fatigue.

Zhang Fei saw this and exchanged glances with Xu Zhiqian, and both lowered their heads to stifle their laughter.

Sima Guang caught sight of the young couple laughing secretly and felt both embarrassed and angry, thinking he would settle accounts with that young man after the trial ended. But when he turned around, he found Wang Anshi swaggering over and quickly steadied his mind, not wanting him to notice.

Wang Anshi had noticed long ago. Coming before him, he smiled secretly and said: “How was it? Not a pleasant experience, was it?”

The corner of Sima Guang’s mouth twitched as he whispered: “Good luck to you.”

With that, he fled.

Wang Anshi looked disdainful, thinking to himself that the reason he didn’t like testifying was simply because he found it too boring, not like Sima Guang who was questioned until he sweated profusely and nearly unable to answer.

He sat down boldly in the witness seat – come on, open fire on me.

Originally he had found sitting here boring, completely being a prop for others’ performances. When had Wang Anshi ever played a supporting role? But after watching Sima Guang’s ordeal, he suddenly found testifying quite interesting.

There was still a challenge to it, and he liked that.

Fan Chunren observed this and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He asked seemingly casually: “Academician Wang, you and Academician Sima seem to get along quite well.”

Wang Anshi was slightly stunned and said proudly: “We get along fine, I suppose.”

Sima Guang rolled his eyes – who gets along fine with you?

Fan Chunren asked again: “Just fine? I’ve heard that in the past, you once served under Chancellor Bao together with Academician Sima, and after that you both entered the Hanlin Academy to work together. By all rights, this relationship should be quite good.”

“I object.”

Zhang Fei immediately stood up. “This case does not involve relationships between witnesses.”

Fan Chunren immediately said: “Your Honor, the relationship between Academician Wang and Academician Sima has great bearings on the case. I will prove this point shortly.”

Zhao Bian pondered briefly and said to Fan Chunren: “Continue with your questioning.”

Zhang Fei sat down helplessly.

Su Zhe turned his head to glance at Zhang Fei and whispered: “He’s hinting to Academician Wang.”

Fan Chunren said confidently: “I know, but it won’t be of any use.”

With that, he looked at Wang Anshi again and said: “Please answer my question, Academician Wang.”

Wang Anshi suddenly froze, thinking to himself that this had been truly dangerous—he had almost been careless and fallen for this young remonstrator’s trap. After a moment’s contemplation, he said, “You could say that our relationship is not bad.”

Fan Chunren asked: “From Academician Wang’s tone, it seems you wouldn’t say you are particularly close?”

Wang Anshi suddenly appeared somewhat hesitant. To have him objectively evaluate his friendship with Sima Guang—he truly didn’t know how to assess it. He turned his head to glance at Sima Guang.

Sima Guang immediately turned his face away haughtily, as if to say: we’re merely casual acquaintances, don’t try to claim a relationship.

Zhang Fei watched this with mixed feelings of amusement and exasperation, muttering: “Damn it, I didn’t come here to ship couples.”

Xu Zhiqian asked curiously: “What does ‘ship couples’ mean?”

Zhang Fei froze, then quietly grasped her soft hand. “It’s like what we have.”

Xu Zhiqian was startled and quickly withdrew her hand, her face reddening as she scolded: “Are you trying to get yourself killed? This is a public courtroom.”

Zhang Fei muttered: “That’s what makes it exciting.”

“What?”

“Ahem, nothing, nothing.”

Meanwhile, seeing Sima Guang being so arrogant, Wang Anshi immediately said: “We certainly are not close.”

Fan Chunren smiled and said: “Having worked together for many years, yet your relationship can’t be called close—is this because of incompatible personalities?”

“I object.”

Zhang Fei said excitedly: “This is a lawsuit, not a matchmaking session. Now we’re talking about incompatible personalities? How absurd.”

Matchmaking?

Wang Anshi and Sima Guang?

Quite a few people couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Zhao Bian also felt this question was rather ridiculous and looked at Fan Chunren with displeasure.

Fan Chunren insisted: “Academician Wang and Academician Sima are extremely important to this case. Moreover, I recall that when Zhang San was defending Cao Dongdong, he also asked many similar questions.”

At the doorway, squeezed against the door frame, Cao Dongdong excitedly grabbed his two good friends Ma Xiaoyi and Fu Shichun: “Did you hear that? They mentioned me again, they mentioned me again!”

Fu Shichun looked completely bewildered, not understanding what was so worth celebrating about this.

Ma Xiaoyi, however, looked envious, wondering to himself whether he should also go secretly pursue a married woman so that Brother San would defend him too. That way he could also appear in court and be constantly mentioned.

Since there were no written regulations on this new style of questioning, Zhang Fei’s previous cases served as reference points.

Zhao Bian nodded, indicating that this line of questioning could continue.

Zhang Fei sat down, complaining: “Damn it, when did I become the standard?”

Compared to intelligence, emotional intelligence was indeed Wang Anshi’s weak point. He didn’t know how to speak diplomatically, so he said: “Perhaps we don’t get along very well.”

Fan Chunren asked again: “Besides that, might there be other reasons? For instance, might you be jealous of Academician Sima’s talent?”

Wang Anshi immediately flew into an embarrassed rage: “I would be jealous of his talent?”

Hearing his tone, Sima Guang was also quite displeased.

Zhang Fei sighed: “I thought he was the most reliable witness, but it turns out he’s the most unreliable.”

Xu Zhiqian also began to grow nervous.

Fan Chunren continued asking: “Is that so? To my knowledge, prior to this, you had never published your own articles in the official bulletin. Am I mistaken?”

Wang Anshi nodded.

Fan Chunren continued: “Yet recently, Academician Sima published his own article in the Authentic Books Store’s newspaper, which caused widespread discussion. Within two days, you immediately published an article in the official bulletin.

This makes it hard not to suspect that you, out of jealousy that Academician Sima’s article was so well-received by everyone, wrote an article to compete with it.”

Wang Anshi said disdainfully: “When it comes to writing, would I need to be jealous of him?”

Fan Chunren said: “Then why? To my knowledge, the official bulletin that published Academician Wang’s article was not reviewed by the Palace Secretariat or the Imperial Military Commission, but was published by direct order of His Majesty. Are you saying this was merely a coincidence?”

Everyone present stared at Wang Anshi.

Their expressions seemed to say: Wang Anshi, do you dare claim this was a coincidence?

Wang Anshi really didn’t have the nerve to say it was a coincidence. He said: “That’s not entirely the case. It’s just that I disagreed with some of the ideas in Academician Sima’s article.”

Fan Chunren smiled and nodded: “I know this too. In terms of political philosophy, Academician Wang and Academician Sima have some disagreements, and you have also argued about this in multiple meetings. Therefore, you disagreed with some of the ideas in Academician Sima’s article, which is why you published your own article to promote your political philosophy.”

Wang Anshi nodded.

Fan Chunren asked again: “What was the result?”

Wang Anshi was stunned. “What result?”

Fan Chunren said: “After you published your own article, did it generate widespread discussion?”

Wang Anshi’s face reddened somewhat as he said: “No.”

“Heh heh!”

Some scattered laughter came from the surrounding area.

“Silence!”

This time Zhao Bian didn’t hesitate and immediately struck the gavel.

It immediately became quiet.

Fan Chunren said: “It didn’t even generate as much attention as Miss Xu’s article.”

“I object.”

Zhang Fei jumped up furiously: “Remonstrator Fan, what do you mean by ‘didn’t even’? Was Miss Xu’s article poor? You should provide some standard for comparison.”

Fan Chunren was stunned and said glumly: “My apologies, I withdraw that question.”

“Outrageous.”

Zhang Fei glared at him angrily, then sat back down.

Xu Zhiqian’s face turned red as blood as she said: “What are you doing? My article was indeed inferior to Uncle Wang’s and the others’.”

Zhang Fei said: “I was just looking for a chance to interrupt him. Didn’t you see? The situation is very unfavorable for Academician Wang!”

Xu Zhiqian said: “But you can’t use me like that.”

Zhang Fei said: “I didn’t want to either, but my previous attempts to interrupt were all ineffective.”

It must be said that this interruption really did disrupt Fan Chunren’s train of thought.

But this time sitting beside Fan Chunren was the quick-witted Su Zhe, who quickly wrote a small note and moved it in front of Fan Chunren.

Fan Chunren glanced at it, then said to Wang Anshi again: “Academician Wang, if I said that your article generated less attention than the articles by Academician Sima and Miss Xu, would you agree?”

Wang Anshi took a deep breath and said: “I agree.”

Fan Chunren said: “And also less than the article that Chancellor Han later published in the Scholar’s Gazette.”

Wang Anshi nodded.

Fan Chunren said: “And just now you also admitted that there is an ideological dispute between yourself and Academician Sima, but judging from the attention the articles received, clearly Academician Sima’s ideas are more popular. And as I understand it, His Majesty has currently entrusted you with implementing reforms. This shows that you were afraid that Academician Sima’s article would affect your reforms, or affect His Majesty’s trust in you, which is why you ordered the closure of the Authentic Books Store’s Scholar’s Gazette.”

“Nonsense.”

“I object.”

Wang Anshi and Zhang Fei spoke almost in unison.

But Fan Chunren said resolutely: “I have evidence to prove this point.”

As he spoke, he looked directly at Zhang Fei. “Zhang San, as I understand it, on the eve of the closure, the next issue of your Authentic Books Store’s Scholar’s Gazette was to feature Academician Sima’s article. Am I wrong?”

Very few people knew about this matter, and everyone looked toward Zhang Fei.

Zhang Fei hesitated for a long while, then nodded.

Fan Chunren said: “Where is that article now?”

Zhang Fei said: “Burned.”

There was an uproar.

This was too despicable – when you couldn’t compete with articles, you resorted to such methods.

This was the behavior that scholars hated most.

In matters of profit, you could play tricks, but articles were sacred – this was no different from cheating on the imperial examinations.

Lu Huiqing’s face had already turned ashen: “It’s over! It’s over! Everything’s ruined!”

This time they had really gone too far.

“I’m finished with my questions.”

Fan Chunren sat back down.