My chat group is full of female losers

Chapter 316 The enemy is coming
On the other hand, after two days of rest and good food and drink, Chu Lu felt refreshed and much more energetic.

He stretched, his joints cracking with a series of crisp sounds, sweeping away the fatigue of the past few days and the gloom brought by his dreams.

Sure enough, rest did help. He thought to himself.

But despite his feelings of reflection, he quickly composed himself.

In any case, we can't just keep resting like this; we should think about doing something.

Just as he was pondering whether he should continue investigating matters within the military or prepare for the next potentially powerful female lead who might appear at any moment, a sudden burst of noisy footsteps came from outside the hall, sounding like there were quite a few people.

Chu Lu raised an eyebrow, but before he could ask any questions, the palace door was suddenly pushed open.

Led by Chancellor Shen Shi'an, Minister of Revenue Jia Ruhui, and Minister of Rites Wen Yutang, and followed by a large group of civil and military officials, they stormed in with great momentum. Even Fang Xiaozhi, the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, who was already loyal to Chu Lu and held him in high esteem, was among them.

Their faces were flushed, their expressions were excited, and they were shouting something at once, creating a chaotic scene.

"Purge the court of corrupt officials! Your Majesty! We implore Your Majesty to purge the court of corrupt officials!"

"Eliminate the evil! Set things right!"

Chu Lu was taken aback, then gestured for everyone to be quiet and said in a deep voice, "What kind of behavior is this, all flustered! Speak slowly, what exactly happened?"

Fang Xiaozhi was the first to step forward. His stern, chiseled face was filled with grief and indignation, and his voice was firm and powerful: "Your Majesty! We implore Your Majesty to issue an edict to depose the Empress Dowager and eliminate this wicked and treacherous woman who has brought disaster to the country and its people!"

A demon? The Empress Dowager?
Chu Lu was puzzled, but showed no sign of it on his face: "Oh? What do you mean?"

"Your Majesty is unaware!" Minister of Revenue Jia Ruhui's round body trembled slightly with excitement as he hurriedly said, "That Empress Dowager is no human being! She keeps male concubines in the palace, indulging in nightly revelry, and has long since corrupted the royal family's morals! What's more, we have heard that in order to maintain her youth, she bathes in the blood of palace maids and absorbs their essence! If such a monster is not eliminated, our dynasty will be in grave danger!"

Jia Ruhui spoke with great detail, as if he had witnessed it firsthand. The officials behind him echoed his words, providing various shocking examples.

"What Lord Jia says is true! I have heard that a distant niece of a servant in another noble family was selected last month to serve in the Empress Dowager's palace, but she has not been found alive or dead! Only an embroidered shoe was found in a corner of the palace wall! That child was only sixteen years old!"

"There are also people from the palace's laundry department who say in private that the bedding sent from the Empress Dowager's palace is often stained with large patches of blood red. Although they claim that it is because rouge or dye was spilled, the bloody smell can be smelled from a long distance and is nauseating!"

"The guards on night patrol mentioned that after midnight, there are often inhuman voices near Cixi Palace, like weeping and lamenting, which frighten those who hear them. This is not an auspicious sign, Your Majesty."

…………

Listening to these outrageous accusations, Chu Lu asked, "How did you find out?"

The ministers were taken aback by what they heard and looked at each other.

Prime Minister Shen Shi'an's cloudy eyes darted around, and he slowly cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, I heard it from someone else."

"Yeah, me too."

"Who told you this?" Chu Lu pressed.

"I heard it from Lord Fang," Shen Shi'an said.

Chu Lu then looked at Fang Xiaozhi.

Fang Xiaozhi was taken aback, then replied, "I heard it from Minister Wen!"

A hint of unease flashed across Wen Yutang's gentle and refined face, before he replied, "I heard it from Minister Jia..."

Chu Lu asked them one by one, and the group of people gave a bunch of names. After some investigation, he found that there were indeed many overlaps, but he couldn't find any definite source, as if the news had appeared out of thin air.

“Then,” Chu Lu changed the subject, “is there any concrete evidence? Witness testimony or physical evidence, both are acceptable.”

Now, the hall was completely silent.

The ministers looked at each other, but no one could answer.

Chu Lu frowned and said, "So you all just listened to some baseless rumors, got into a mess, and came in droves to force me to abdicate?"

The ministers looked somewhat embarrassed and remained silent.

Seeing their behavior, Chu Lu laughed in anger and said, "This is outrageous! Do you have any semblance of the demeanor of court officials?! Get out! All of you, get out of here!"

However, to Chu Lu's surprise, the group of people were not scared off. Instead, they seemed to be enraged and stubbornly refused to leave.

Fang Xiaozhi knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty! If the Empress Dowager is not removed, the country will never have peace! If you do not agree, I will die in this Hall of Mental Cultivation today to repay the late Emperor's kindness!"

His threat of suicide immediately caused a group of upright officials behind him to kneel down, and the hall was filled with wailing and crying, as if they would all die on the spot if the emperor did not agree.

Chu Lu had witnessed this scene before, so he wasn't flustered, though he sensed something was amiss. He tentatively asked, "To execute the Empress Dowager over a mere rumor, Fang Xiaozhi, don't you find that absurd?"

However, Fang Xiaozhi remained resolute, seemingly unaffected at all; in fact, he seemed even more determined.

He slowly raised his head and spoke in a tone of almost pity, "Your Majesty, it seems you are determined to protect that palace demon."

His voice wasn't loud, but it clearly drowned out all the other noises in the hall.

“In that case…” Shen Shi’an said resolutely, his eyes red, “In order to protect the country and its people from being shaken, we have no choice but to do something extraordinary.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly stood up and actually walked towards Chu Lu.

The officials in the hall were stunned at first. Then, those officials who had just been kneeling and wailing suddenly had red eyes, got up from the ground, and approached Chu Lu!

This is clearly a plot to rebel!
Chu Lu was stunned for a moment.

But he quickly regained his composure. He first stood up in a panic, as if frightened by them, then said in a fierce but weak voice, "What...what do you want to do? This is insubordination, this is treason! Your entire family will be executed!"

However, the courtiers seemed not to hear them and continued to press on.

Seeing that threats were ineffective, Chu Lu softened his tone immediately: "My dear ministers, why are you going to such lengths? Can't we talk things out properly?"

But they seemed to have no intention of saying anything.

Chu Lu relented: "Alright, alright, I agree! I will issue the decree to depose the Empress Dowager!"

As he spoke, he seemed to have lost his footing and walked shakily toward Fang Xiaozhi, saying, "Minister Fang... help me to draft the imperial edict..."

Seeing that the emperor had finally given in, Fang Xiaozhi's face lit up with a triumphant fervor. He strode forward without any guard and reached out to help him up.

Just as the two were about to make contact, Chu Lu's expression suddenly changed.

His seemingly unsteady steps suddenly stopped, his body as steady as a rock, and with lightning speed, he grabbed a heavy jade paperweight from the dragon table and smashed it hard against Fang Xiaozhi's head!
boom!
With a dull thud, Fang Xiaozhi's ecstatic expression froze. He didn't even have time to scream before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed limply to the ground, blood gushing from his forehead, instantly staining the ground red.

This sudden, bloody scene was like a bucket of ice water poured over the heads of all the frenzied officials.

A moment of deathly silence fell over the hall.

Chu Lu didn't even glance at Fang Xiaozhi on the ground. His expression was cold and stern as he swept his gaze across the assembled officials in the hall. His voice was icy: "Who else dares to step forward?"

He took a step forward and roared, "Who else wants to die?!"

Looking at Fang Xiaozhi lying in a pool of blood, his life hanging in the balance, and then meeting Chu Lu's eyes, everyone felt a chill run from their feet to the top of their heads, their brains instantly swallowed by fear. They became timid and hesitant, their eyes darting away, no longer daring to meet Chu Lu's gaze.

Seeing that they had calmed down from their frenzy, Chu Lu stopped threatening them to avoid a relapse. He sighed and said, "I understand your concerns. I do not intend to ignore them. I will immediately send people to investigate the Empress Dowager's matter. If it is true, I will deal with it according to the law and show no leniency. You may go back for now."

These words gave the officials a way out. They were relieved and dared not say anything more. They hurriedly helped the unconscious Fang Xiaozhi up, and without regard for etiquette, they bowed and left the Hall of Mental Cultivation as if they were fleeing.

After everyone left, Chu Lu sat down again and asked in his mind, "The female lead?"

Qin Su's voice rang out: "That's right, it's a female lead."

"So, is her ability... mass brainwashing, or spreading rumors?"

"It's most likely the latter," Qin Su explained. "In female protagonist novels, the skill of directly manipulating minds through group brainwashing is relatively rare. In comparison, spreading rumors is much more common. They love to use this tactic, from small-scale domestic power struggles in rural courtyards where they spread rumors about other women having affairs, to large-scale dynastic battles where they destroy the morale of the enemy army by spreading scandalous rumors about the emperor. In some high-martial arts novels, there are even female protagonists who can easily overthrow a sect or family that has been passed down for thousands of years with just their words."

Chu Lu looked on with a puzzled expression and couldn't help but think to himself, "I'm not surprised that they can overthrow sects and families with rumors, after all, I've heard even more outrageous stories, but why would they like this?"

"Perhaps it's a reflection of reality," Qin Su said with a hint of teasing. "An organization conducted a survey and found that they seem to be very enthusiastic about this."

"Alright then." Chu Lu rubbed his temples. "Anyway, let's figure out a way to get through this first."

Since it was the female lead's doing, and her ability was to spread rumors, then the Empress Dowager is naturally innocent. Although it's unclear why they suddenly targeted the Empress Dowager, one must naturally stop the enemy from doing what they want.

"Based on past experience, the abilities of female protagonists cannot be solved by simply reasoning with them," Chu Lu analyzed. "Either we can forcibly eliminate them with correction values, or we can only find their weaknesses based on the logical principles of their abilities and thus break through them. Now is not the time to reveal our identities, and correction values ​​cannot be used recklessly, so we can only use the latter."

But what are the weaknesses of rumors?

He pondered for a moment, and then his eyes lit up.

—Got it.

(End of this chapter)