and west part of the city, or the main road which was the only way people could pass to arrive at their destination, to enforce the deals. The traders received extremely poor payments and were subsequently ordered to transport their merchandise to the palace. At the time, there could hundreds of people buying goods at low prices by force at various markets in the capital city Chang'an () – often a few hundred Qian () were used to purchase goods worth thousands, or, in some cases, there might be no payment at all. The civilian traders dared not resist or even ask where these officials were from, even though there were often doubts as to the identities of the purchasers. The Chronicle of Shunzong period () written by Han Yu () recorded such an incident: while a peasant was going to the town carrying firewood he wanted to sell in the market, he met a eunuch claiming the firewood had already been bought by the emperor (through the Gong Shi system) and simply paying him a few chi of juan (), a type of silk product. The eunuch then ordered the peasant to transport the firewood to the imperial palace using his donkey and even asked for an Entrance tip (). All these demands upset the peasant; he gave the juan back and begged for mercy, but the eunuch insisted that he transport the firewood. In the end, the peasant assaulted the eunuch out of frustration and was arrested by a patrolling officer. Hearing of this event, Emperor Dezong dismissed the eunuch responsible by sending out an imperial decree and presented ten pieces of juan to the peasant. Although historical documents recording such events in detail can hardly be found today, scholastic researches generally used the terms rob (), seize (), pillage () or take by force () in Chinese to describe the eunuchs' misdeeds negatively. Abolition Shortly after his accession, Emperor Shunzong began to reappoint the Reformists, the leader of whom was Wang Shuwen. The Reformists implemented a series of policies, including the abolition of Gong Shi and the Scoundrels in the Five Workshops (:zh:五坊小兒, ), which acted as tools to oppress the civilian population. Criticism Sinologist Chen Yinke said "Gong Shi was the worst policy in the late Emperor Dezong period" in his book the Draft of Album Verses of Yuanbai (). Han Yu wrote in the Chronicle