Wang Chuan was reading in the library.
At this moment, a fellow student from his year walked up to him and threw a piece of paper in front of him.
Opening the paper, Wang Chuan glanced at it hastily, then tore it up and hid it. He then rose and walked out.
Leaving the library, he immediately headed outside Bowen Academy, then blended into the vast crowd. At the same time, several students also emerged from the academy and walked towards the same location.
However, their path was quickly blocked by approaching security guards. Without explanation, these security guards immediately arrested them. At this point, they saw Commander Di Ying staring intently at them, and beside Di Ying was a person who looked very stern.
“Commander Di Ying, what are you doing?” Wang Chuan was alarmed, but maintained a calm demeanor, after all, students had the right to go out freely.
Di Ying sneered. He said, “You know what we’re doing in your hearts. Once you taste some hardship in prison, you’ll confess everything.”
Wang Chuan’s face paled, while the other arrested students were scared senseless. They were formerly children of powerful families. After their families declined, they had to enter Bowen Academy to find a way out.
But even so, their resentment towards the imperial court had always festered in their hearts, because it was the imperial court that made them lose their once privileged lives.
So, they were easily bought. As long as they agreed to go to the State of Chu, they could from then on obtain wealth and glory.
“Imprison them all and interrogate them severely!” Di Ying said angrily.
As his voice fell, a student immediately cried, “Commander, spare our lives! We were only misled for a moment! We won’t go, we won’t go!”
Wang Xuan seized the opportunity and said, “Where were you going? And who else is involved?”
“We truly don’t know that. Only one person was responsible for contacting us. We don’t know each other. We only know that we were supposed to go to the East Market, where they would meet us,” a student said anxiously.
Di Ying and Wang Xuan exchanged glances. The two immediately rushed to the assembly point in the East Market. The owner of the tofu pudding stall was there. “Commander Di, you actually betrayed me!” the owner of the tofu pudding stall said, looking fierce but inwardly weak.
Di Ying snorted coldly, “I have confessed all about our transaction. It was I who was misled and fell for your trick before.”
“Hmph!” The owner of the tofu pudding stall snorted angrily upon hearing this.
“Something’s wrong, something’s wrong.” Just then, Wang Xuan muttered to himself, “Di Ying, are you still deceiving me? This is too easy; it can’t be like this.”
“Wang Xuan, I’ve told you everything! What else is there to deceive you about? When the Emperor returns, I will face death!” Di Ying said anxiously.
Wang Xuan stared at Di Ying’s eyes again for a while, then nodded slightly. He said, “These students, including him, were arrested too easily. Do you think the plan meticulously crafted by the Prince of Chu and the Cao family would be this simple?”
While Wang Xuan was speaking, a hint of panic flashed in the eyes of the tofu pudding stall owner.
“But besides these students, no other students have left Bowen Academy,” Di Ying said.
Wang Xuan frowned deeply in thought. He said, “Immediately verify all students from Bowen Academy and the former Bowen Academy.”
The secret guard behind him nodded and set off for Bowen Academy. At the same time, the security guards, under Di Ying’s command, also began to check one by one.
At the same time, Wang Xuan had the security guards control the city gates, allowing no one to enter or leave.
In the evening, he received the results.
“All students currently enrolled in Bowen Academy are present. Not a single student working in factories is missing either. Wang Xuan, are you overthinking it?” Di Ying said, looking at the search results.
Wang Xuan shook his head. A secret guard commander had to cultivate the ability to be suspicious. And with his years of experience, the intelligence personnel cultivated by the Prince of Chu were quite capable, though they were nothing compared to them.
“Commander, there’s no mistake. Everyone is accounted for, except for those students who were previously expelled,” a secret guard said calmly.
A flash of insight suddenly struck Wang Xuan. He immediately slumped down. “This is bad. We’ve all been fooled. These students who were expelled from Bowen Academy are the real defectors. The overt bribery was just a diversion.”
With that, he immediately sent someone to search. Not long after, the security guards returned.
“Commander Wang, six students and their families left the city today,” the guard said.
Di Ying’s face turned extremely grim. He had been played. Everyone had been played.
“Indeed. These six students deliberately failed their exams,” Wang Xuan said.
To motivate students to study, both Bowen Academy and its predecessor had always implemented an elimination system.
Students whose academic performance was truly substandard would be asked to leave. These individuals, upon leaving the academy, would become ordinary commoners again. After all, being unlearned, they wouldn’t acquire much knowledge.
So they wouldn’t think that some students deliberately chose this path to leave the academy, to escape the surveillance of the secret guards and security forces.
“What do we do now? It’s all my fault!” Di Ying said painfully.
Wang Xuan sighed, “This has little to do with you. Even without you, these expelled students would have escaped. The only difference is that the elite students they bribed would also have escaped. Now that you’ve spoken, at least a portion of the loss has been avoided.”
“Then what should we do?” Di Ying said anxiously, “We can’t just let these people escape, can we?”
Wang Xuan turned and walked out. “We’ll go find Senior Grand Secretary Pang now and have him order the blockade of all roads and docks, and mobilize the militia for a search.”
With that, the two went together to find Pang Yukun. Upon learning this news, Pang Yukun deeply understood the gravity of the matter. He immediately ordered the mobilization of all forces to find these six students.
However, to their disappointment, they searched for several days without any results.
And at this time, the news also reached Jinling Province.
“This Di Ying is simply…” Niu Ben looked at the news sent by Pang Yukun with a complex expression. “Your Majesty, I, your old servant, am guilty. It is my fault for not leading the army properly.”
Xiao Ming smiled wryly, “Di Ying was confused for a moment, but thankfully he repented in time. However, I can no longer protect him. Let the Great Yu Empire’s law deal with this matter.”
Luo Quan and Niu Ben exchanged glances and sighed. People feared being confused for a moment, because some mistakes, once made, could never be undone.
Xiao Ming’s thoughts were not on Di Ying now, but on the defecting students. At this moment, he was very glad that Bowen Academy only taught general knowledge, and some technical details were still confined to the laboratories.
But even so, the knowledge they possessed was already quite extensive.
From the very beginning, he had paid close attention to the brain drain, but despite all precautions, problems still arose.