Chapter 311: General Acceptance

Contemplation appeared on Qin Yining’s face as she put her words in order. “Apart from wanting to put a mistake in the emperor’s hands, the marquis is also making a friendly overture to His Majesty. He’ll probably do all he can to apologize and indicate weakness after returning to the palace.

“When someone usually strong and tough suddenly submits and emphasizes his place as a subject, that will certainly cause the emperor to look at him in a new light. The prince’s personality will also make the marquis’ gesture even more valuable in comparison.

“After this mess, it also gives the emperor the opportunity to say to the prince to ‘not randomly kill innocents’. After all, he couldn’t very well forbid the prince to take revenge before. This mess actually helps His Majesty keep the surrendered Yan officials that he wants to.

“But the most important thing is that not only does the marquis cozy up to the former Northern Ji officials with all this, but he can do a great favor for the surrendered Yan officials as well.”

“Oh?” Xu Weizhi’s brow was slightly raised, but the light of comprehension exploded in his eyes a moment later. He look at Qin Yining with both surprise and delight, remarking with great sincerity, “Miss Qin is wise indeed.”

Pang Xiao also looked at his beloved, who was speaking with great assurance; admiration danced in his phoenix-shaped eyes.

Qin Yining dimpled and used a tender, pale-white fingertip to draw circles on the teacup lid. She continued softly, ‘I come from Great Yan, so I more or less understand some of what the officials are thinking. There are three batches of subjects to enter the capital. The first are the ten aristocratic houses accompanying Commandery Prince Yan. These are the creme of the crop for the Great Yan officials. They’ll be very important after arriving in Great Zhou.

“But my guess is that the military officials at court must be from His Majesty’s personal party of followers. Apart from putting some of his people in key positions for the civil subjects, the remaining positions are divvied up between the former Northern Ji officials and Great Yan. This makes for limited vacancies.

“With the numbers of people that the marquis killed off in the first batch, that means there are more opportunities of the second and third batch. These people won’t necessarily have a bad impression of the marquis.”

“That’s right. Though it was a matter of life and death, and the people who died were innocent, those who survived may feel lucky and that ‘thank goodness so-and-so died, so that I have the opportunity to take this-and-that position’.” Pang Xiao sighed when he heard this part of her analysis.

One had to know that the prince rarely joined in his followers’ discussion. It was usually the strategists deliberating a problem, then Xu Weizhi brainstorming a few plans. Everyone would analyze the pros and cons of all of them together, then have the decisive Xie Yue pick the most appropriate one from all of them.

Pang Xiao would listen from the side during all this and express his opinions at the very end, but he wouldn’t interject halfway through.

His actions today were quite rare, but to be honest, everyone present wanted to echo his sigh when they thought of just how human nature was. Their impression of Qin Yining had also changed once more.

The Qin fourth miss smiled at Pang Xiao. “We don’t need to dwell on just how much evil lurks in human nature. Everything I just spoke about should be just an afterthought for the marquis, and this also wasn’t the key point of him extending an olive branch to the Great Yan officials. The key point still has to do with Your Highness’ feud with the Qins and Great Yan.”

Pang Xiao had understood her meaning by now. “It was Grand Preceptor Qin who was devised a plot, but the one who told him to do so was the trash emperor. When I attacked Great Yan, rumors within the capital made me out to be a demon who killed without blinking, and who ate the flesh and drank the blood of my victims. Those from Great Yan must be highly wary of me, deathly afraid that I’ll take my anger out on them. Or that I’ll hold them responsible for my father’s death.”