CH 18

When Qi Yu turned to tell empress Zhou this, empress Zhou, who had been dazed in her palace, suddenly raised her spirits and grabbed Qi Yu’s hand excitedly:

“He really said so? Yu’er, you didn’t lie to me?”

Qi Yu’s little round hand was scratched and in pain. He struggled and nodded wildly: “Of course it’s true. That’s what imperial brother said.”

Even after he was released by Empress Zhou, he was still afraid.

But empress Zhou ignored him.

After hearing this news, she asked the maidservant to dress her up and went straight to the emperor’s bedroom.

Qi Yu didn’t understand what the crown prince meant, but empress Zhou understood. Since the emperor is about to wake up, doesn’t it mean that the prince has no intention of killing him?

She suddenly relaxed her mind and no longer had to hesitate and struggle between the father and son. The sallow face suddenly transformed into a beautiful smile.

……

In the emperor’s bedroom, Yuan Buwei’s dialogue with Xiao Zhi was not covered up and clearly entered the emperor’s ears.

He was shocked and angry, but the whole person was paralysed. Unable to even twitch his eyelids. He almost wanted to vomit blood!

Till they left, the emperor was still frightened and uneasy. His consciousness wandered back and forth in the dark, but like a headless fly he couldn’t find his way out.

In fact, the crown prince’s abnormal performance during this period has long made the emperor speculate that his poisoning and coma is related to the crown  prince.

But the emperor has been deceiving himself and others, forcibly ignoring this terrifying speculation.

Only in this way can he convince himself that he still has a chance to wake up again, rather than being directly killed by the evil crown prince.

But now, he can’t even deceive himself and others.

“No, no, how could it be? How could the crown prince have such a deep mind?” Thinking of the crown prince’s changes over the years, the emperor was filled with a horrifying guess, “Is he the same origin as me… No, no, don’t scare yourself! How can there be such a coincidence as two transmigrators in the same world!”

Forcefully calming his mind, the emperor tried to analyze: “… Maybe this is his true face. In the past, he was just acting deliberately to lower my guard.”

After all, in that period of history without the intervention of an outsider, the seemingly indifferent and harmless crown prince is actually deep-minded and cruel!

The emperor calmed down again.

It is worthy of being an emperor who had carved his name in the original history! Clearly he has been wary of him since the beginning. Yet unexpectedly, he still fell in this man’s scheme…

A strong reluctance rushed through his heart, but the emperor could only lie in bed, his consciousness sunk in the darkness and could do nothing.

His life and death are already in the hands of the crown prince.

Fortunately, his ten-years on the throne was not for nothing. The emperor kept forcing himself to calm down.

This era is different from the one he once lived in. Killing between a father with a son, a king and a minister is a most heinous crime in the eyes of these ancients!

Combined with the precedents seen in the history books in the past, after the emperor calmed down, he secretly speculated that at most his final outcome was forced abdication by the crown prince, house arrest and titled a retired emperor.

The more he thought about it, the more it made sense and the emperor breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the other party doesn’t kill him immediately, with his knowledge advantage over these ancients, he may still have a chance

Although he comforted himself, the emperor did not dare to guarantee how the crown prince would act.

With the passage of time, the more his consciousness is trapped in this vast invisible darkness, the more intense the despair in his heart, and the more he doubts his judgment.

After an indeterminable amount of time passed, a light noise suddenly came from the bedside. Then, the voice of empress Zhou sounded in his ear, with hints of tears of joy.

“Your Majesty…”

“Great, your majesty is saved…”

“Sure enough, I knew Xuan’er wouldn’t be so cruel. He’s not like that…”

“Please, after your majesty wakes up, don’t be so hostile to Xuan’er. If you don’t like him, just send him away…”

She was incoherent and rambling, but she still got the point across.

In the past, this voice only sounded annoying, but at this time, the emperor’s consciousness was pulled back from the edge of darkness. Giving birth to hope in his desperate heart and bursting out infinite joy.

… Yeah, that’s really… Great!

——

Informed by the empress that he still had up to half a month’s “prison term” left, the emperor in the small black room suddenly gave birth to hope. And began to look forward to the day of “getting out of prison”counting down each day.

Every day, he repeats the continuous cycle of “from full of hope to gradually disappointed, and then full of hope again, hoping the arrival of the next day will come quicker”.

Passing each day like a year.

In contrast, Yuan Buwei is like a fish in water.

The reconstituted Imperial Investigation Department operated at a high speed day by day, acting as his eyes and ears, presenting many things that would not be mentioned in the memorials of ministers to him.

Qi Xuan had been in the army for many years, perhaps to avoid suspicion. He had never been deeply involved in the political affairs of the central court, only doing some superficial things.

Yuan Buwei read the memorials of ministers, the residence newspapers of the imperial court, and some tax data that were not publicized to the public. Combined with the information submitted by the Imperial Investigation Department, he immediately knew the situation of Beili.

This huge Beili looks rich and prosperous on the surface. Not long ago, it drove the Jiehu people out of the Central Plains. The emperor was almost praised as this generation’s leader, as if he had created the most prosperous era in current history.

But this is not the case.

If the world is divided into North and South halves by taking the long river as the boundary, the Central Plains in the North has almost used up all it’s resources after years of high-pressure rule by the Jiehu people.

Jiehu were arrogant in nature. They only knew how to ride in and plunder and were not good at production and management. After occupying the land of the Central Plains, their barbarian habits hadn’t changed at all, even after being called Da Yan after the founding of the Central Plains imperial dynasty.

After years of rule, the land in the North has long been ruined by them. A large number of people have been displaced or become slaves. Even the once powerful landlords were mercilessly robbed by the Jiehu nobles… What they did was equivalent to a gang of robbers breaking into other people’s homes and destroying everything in the house before they were driven out.

Even if they recapture the Central Plains, Beili got back a complete mess.

As for the south, there are no less problems.

The south is already prosperous, and most of the tax revenue of the national treasury comes from it. It can be called the money bag of the whole Beili. However, there are many local landlords, tycoons and merchants. And there are many aristocratic families south of the Yangtze River with countless ties to officials and gentry, forming an unshakable force.

From the beginning, the emperor’s force escaped to the south. In order to gain a firm foothold as soon as possible and obtain the support of the southern natives, the emperor made many promises to the powerful landlords and noble families in the south. Since then, in order to raise military funds for the campaign north, they constantly compromised to the southern aristocratic families, giving too much power that should not be given. Once this power is delegated, it will be difficult to recover it.

In today’s south, the forces of aristocratic families, landlords and tyrants are intertwined, and it is difficult to separate.

The court is the world on a small scale. After understanding these situations, the contradictions and frictions between civil and military officials in the court, which are too complicated for ordinary people, are clear in Yuan Buwei’s eyes.

Nobles and courtiers, who were born in the north, had long been ransacked by the Jiehu people. After the emperor went all the way south, they had to compete with the southern forces and try their best to compete for their interests against the southerners.

Therefore in the south, they are excluded everywhere. For many years, what they most desire is to recapture the Central Plains and return to their hometown.

Therefore, these people are the most staunch advocates for war in court.

To this end, even the dandies who only know how to play everyday have changed their old style and joined the army.

Ten years later, these war ministers from the north have become the most unshakable force in the military.

As for the south, the opposite is true.

In the south, the people sing and dance everyday as they lived in peace. As the group of aristocratic families lived a happy life every day, the emperor brought a group of northerners to the south. The land that should have belonged to them was taken away by the northerners, a large number of local interests were divided up by the northerners, and countless white silver was thrown into the war every year. Even if they recaptured the Central Plains, what benefit would they have?

In this way, those southern aristocratic families naturally prefer peace talks. In their opinion, things can be resolved as long as they give some money every year to appease those Jiehu people.

——So what if those barbarians and immoral people live in the Central Plains for a while and steal state treasures? Not long after they can easily recover the central plains when the barbarian’s momentum eases.

The contradiction between the two factions has a long history. Even now that the Central Plains has been recovered and the root cause of the contradiction has disappeared, their relationship with each other has not improved.

——Although there is no major battle between the two factions, there are still constant struggles for interests in court.

Prime Minister Su, whose family is rooted in the south for many generations, is regarded as the head of civil officials, as well as the spokesman for the southern faction.

The original Qi Xuan has made great achievements in war over the years and has been supported by the military. He has become a banner for the army.

“So, the emperor relied so heavily on Prime Minister Su that he even turned a blind eye to many of Su Mingyou’s evil deeds. It’s not purely out of his faith in prime minister Su. It’s probably also to check and balance the crown prince…”

After reading the history books of the world, he understood that the so-called emperor’s reign is nothing more than a check and balance of power.

In this regard, Yuan Buwie is noncommittal.

If a skillful emperor uses the art of checks and balances, he can really control the government in his own hands. But this obviously cannot apply to the current emperor.

He is like a nerd who reads without understanding, only knows some theory and then blindly applies it. He thought that Su Cheng could balance the growing military power through the power of southern aristocratic families, but in fact, much of his power had been quietly eroded. The southern aristocratic families secretly wore the tiger skin of the emperor and developed more and more prosperity.

The game between the emperor and ministers is always ongoing, constantly trying to one up each other. He tried to make use of his courtiers. Why can’t they make use of the emperor?

In this way, the people who are close to the emperor can be divided into two groups.

One group are real confidants, that is, those who were not rooted out during the recent events. These people are not close to the north and the south factions. They can only be commanded by the emperor. Normally, they do some dirty work for the emperor that is inconvenient to be exposed in the open and stay hidden in the dark.

As for the other group led by Prime Minister Su, although they seem to be loyal to the emperor, they prioritise the interests of the aristocratic families in the south of the Yangtze River.

The emperor might make suggestions for them to suppress the crown prince. However when it comes to dirty work, such as using disgraceful means against the crown prince in private, the emperor will never rest assured of handing over such things that may leave a handle to them.

The former is not difficult to deal with. Without the emperor who is their biggest backer, Yuan Buwei can righteously send them to jail. With the imperial edict in hand, these people will step one foot in prison and fast track to the beheading stage.

As for the latter…

For more than half a month, Yuan Buwei did not only concentrate on attacking the power of the emperor. He also handled a lot of government affairs every day.

Once there is a major event involving the interests of the southern aristocratic families, the imperial court will immediately become anxious, and they can’t reach a consensus for a long time.

For example, the memorial to open sea routes currently in Yuan Buwei’s hand. Minister Zhou from the Ministry of revenue who advocated this memorial was immediately denounced by the party led by Prime Minister Su. Joining hands to oppose as if this matter was driven by the malicious motive of overthrowing the country. 

They even moved out the unconscious emperor and previous emperors, saying that the crown prince is only temporarily supervising the country and has no right to violate the ancestral traditions without authorization.

Of course, they still remember that the current crown prince has a manic buff on his body. Although it doesn’t happen much these days, they don’t want to annoy the crown prince and cause both sides to lose. Therefore, the tone of everyone’s speech is very euphemistic.

Such things happen frequently.

Yuan Buwei sat on the throne and idly watched these people jump up and down. Using this chance to witness the power of the aristocratic families south of the Yangtze River.

What are they best at? Doing bad things!

Yuan Buwei did not rashly attack.

In this case, even if he forcibly passes the memorial, it is estimated that these people will only agree on the surface, while making all kinds of small stumbling blocks in the dark.

He didn’t comment and only smiled as he asked the sprayed minister Zuo, who looked so confused he couldn’t find the path for retreat, to go back.

Seeing that the prime minister still wanted to chase after him with condemnations, to make an example of this man. Yuan Buwei lifted his eyelids to look at him and asked with a smile:

“This dynasty has always encouraged the free expression of views. Althoughminister Zhou’s comments are inappropriate, they are out of care for the people. Does the prime minister want to block Gu from communicating with the ministers?”

Prime Minister Su certainly did not dare to accept this accusation.

This is the right of their civil ministers to speak openly with the emperor. If he really dares to agree, he will be chased by the imperial censors before he can take a step out of the imperial court and beaten to death with ceremonial tablets. 

The author has something to say:

Rest assured, the blurb is not false advertisement (○＾ε＾ ○）。

Soon the exciting plot will start.

TN: Asking myself why I chose a project with a historical court plot …