Chapter 635

Blood, a little bit, spread over the black‑gold floor that had been polished to be like a mirror.

The bloody smell enveloped the Works Hall offices.

One pile after another of old account books were brought out; the scribes from the Military Department, overjoyed, found in them one suspicious thread after another, then, by pulling the silk and cocooning, they drew out one spider‑thread‑like clue after another, making the clues grow larger and larger.

Moreover, the military law officers from the Military Department's Judicial Directorate directly set up an interrogation room in the Works Hall offices; one after another, officials suspected of wrongdoing were dragged inside, and soon after, wailing screams echoed from within.

These pampered, delicate officials, aside from having been beaten by their parents as children, have never suffered hardship since becoming officials; their backbone's sturdiness is even less than that of the brushes they daily use to handle documents.

One official after another confessed, one fake ledger after another was exposed, and one shocking corrupt case after another was uncovered in less than half an hour.

"Fine, wartime military law." Wu Tie raised the imperial sword.

Thus, row after row of Works Hall officials were pressed face‑down in the Works Hall courtyard, while countless terrified colleagues, trembling like quails and afraid to move, watched as the red‑clad executioners of the Military Department's Judicial Directorate beheaded them.

Each time a head hit the ground, the Works Hall courtyard rang with the cheerful shouts of the Military Department's Judicial Directorate officers.

Gradually, the shouts of three or five officers turned into the unified cheers of many soldiers and officials of the Military Department; each time a head fell, a thunder‑like cheer followed.

The bloody smell grew ever stronger, thick as strong liquor, flushing the faces of the Military Department personnel inside the Works Hall offices red, leaving them all slightly intoxicated.

Since the start of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, ever since the southwest battlefield opened, the civil‑service system controlled by Gongyang Sanlü has constantly caused trouble for the Military Department.

The Great Jin Divine Kingdom collapsed, Linghu Qingqing founded the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom, yet the civil‑service system under Gongyang Sanlü continued to cause trouble for the Military Department.

That feeling is like a burly, vigorous man who could sprint with legs wide open, yet someone has tied a two‑foot‑long iron chain between his legs.

Thus, the burly man could only wriggle his waist like a secluded young lady, moving forward slowly and deliberately.

The Military Department is that burly man.

These civil officials forced that burly man to bear not just one but many iron chains. Though it seems they did not delay military affairs, in reality the soldiers of the Military Department always feel restrained on the battlefield, fighting without smoothness or vigor.

Leaving other matters aside, over the past two months even the Military Department's Funeral Directorate's applications for compensation and funeral expenses have been blocked by the Revenue Directorate.

The Revenue Directorate isn't refusing to allocate funds; it simply doles them out grudgingly—your request submitted this month might not be paid until half a month later, a month later, one and a half months later, or even two or three months later, as you slowly wait in line for the money.

Frustrated.

Miserable.

Soldiers shed blood and fight desperately at the front, yet in the rear they still have to rely on others' goodwill.

On the Works Hall side, there is no deliberate extortion like the Revenue Directorate; each time they request allocation of various supplies, they are delivered promptly and in the required amounts to the army.

After all, the front‑line military supplies needed and the expenses of the Funeral Directorate are different.

If the Funeral Directorate's expenses are delayed by several months, can the dead still crawl out to seek the Revenue Directorate?

If the front‑line supplies fall short in quantity, causing defeat, the Works Hall would be beheaded… therefore, when the Military Department comes to the Works Hall to collect various military materiel, it does not encounter obstruction.

But look at the testimonies of these Works Hall officials, and examine the entries in their secret ledgers.

The military leaders brought by Wu Tie were all shaking with rage.

They substituted inferior goods, short‑changed weights and measures; these bold Works Hall officials even dared to tamper with the most critical energy furnace on the Military Department's standard warships. In the furnace's core combustion chamber, they dared to skim off thirty percent of the rare alloys used.

Unavoidably, on the battlefield these warships will take a bit longer to reach top speed, their cruising time at maximum speed will be shorter, and when they activate their defensive formations the charging speed will be slower; thus, by the time the enemy's main guns have already fired, your defensive formation may have only achieved less than fifty percent of its protective power……

Anyway, from a technical‑standard standpoint, warships built with cut corners will undoubtedly still pass inspection.

But on the battlefield, perhaps merely a finger‑snap's worth of deficiency, and every sailor on a warship can be blown to dust by the enemy's main guns.

Not only is it the warships themselves; the main and secondary guns on those warships also charge a tad slower, their peak power is a tad lower, and the main gun's range is a tad shorter……none of this seems major, yet in combat it could very well be that tiny shortfall that turns a would‑be kill into a fatal counter‑strike.

Besides that, the armor's most vital spots—such as the chest, back, and the major arteries near the thighs—have plates that are a tad thinner and made of a tad more brittle alloy……what once could not be cleaved by enemy blades can now be split with a careless slip.

Furthermore, the bowstrings of crossbows are a tad thinner and weaker; even when the Military Department's divine archers clearly hit the enemy's vital points, lacking that tad of force means the arrows fail to kill—this too is inevitable.

Speaking of arrows, the quenching process for the arrowheads has been trimmed a tad, and the materials used are a tad inferior; what once could pierce nine‑fold spirit‑weapon armor now only penetrates six‑fold spirit‑weapon armor……

And there are the various swords, spears, halberds, etc. used by the rank‑and‑file, where the blade edges have been trimmed of a tad of material.

The regular legions organized by the Military Department consist of body‑cultivating practitioners; even their lightest weapons weigh nearly a thousand jin. With such heavy arms, shaving off a dozen jin of the core material—who among the suffering low‑rank soldiers would notice?

A dozen jin per soldier, a thousand soldiers amount to over ten thousand jin, ten thousand soldiers amount to over a hundred thousand jin……

Now the Qingqiu Divine Kingdom is at war, having mobilized legions numbering in the hundreds of millions, with untold numbers of weapons scrapped or damaged each day. The dozen jin of core material that has been skimped may well cause the soldiers' swords, spears, halberds, etc. to break a tad sooner than the enemy's weapons in the heat of battle.

A tad here, a tad there……small losses pile up into defeat, draining the frontline soldiers' essence and spirit, until they gradually suffer a crushing defeat.

"Therefore, to behead……not a single one is unjustified!"

Before the main hall of the Works Hall, Wu Tie sat squarely and steadily in the chair originally belonging to the Works Hall's director, legs crossed, issuing orders unhurriedly.

The formerly illustrious Works Hall director, dignified in appearance and possessed of great authority, and whose reputation among officials both above and below was excellent, Situ Tu, was seized by the neck by Wu Jin and Wu Yin, forced to kneel beside Wu Tie; no matter how he roared and struggled, he could not break free.

Right before Situ Tu's eyes, his subordinate officials were brought forward in rows and beheaded in rows.

Originally only low‑rank clerks, then gradually officials of rank, and finally even the Works Hall's hall directors, hall supervisors, and the chief and deputy supervisors of each bureau were dragged up, forced to the ground, and chopped down with a single blow.

Blood foam continually sprayed from Situ Tu's mouth as he shrieked hoarsely: "Prince An……are you trying to slaughter my entire Works Hall? Who gave you the guts? Who? You, you, you, you—if you butcher the Works Hall, the frontline army's needed military materiel……"

Wu Tie rose, drew the imperial sword that Linghu Qingqing had just bestowed a few hours earlier, and cleanly severed Situ Tu's head with one stroke.

"Without you lot of termites, could it be that we can't go on living?"

Wu Tie waved his hand and said coldly: "Convey my order: throughout the Works Hall, anyone corrupt beyond ten taels of gold is to be exterminated……and have the Military Department's Armaments Supervisor take full control of all subordinate mines, factories, workshops, and transport offices of the Works Hall. Expand the Military Department's Judicial Directorate a hundredfold—listen well, a hundredfold expansion—fully station it in all offices under the Works Hall's jurisdiction, to oversee everything, to monitor everything."

"Tell those people: today I am merely making a start; whoever dares, while I lead troops in battle, to drag me down or stir up trouble, I will slaughter his whole family—no empty threat."

Holding up the great command token bestowed by Linghu Qingqing, as if the Emperor himself were present, Wu Tie bellowed: "Do you understand?"

All members of the Military Department, up and down, shouted in unison: "Understood."

These military killing embryos, each one excited to the point of flushed faces……Heaven above, they actually followed Prince An and slaughtered the Works Hall offices!

Since the founding of the previous dynasty, the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, even at the Military Department's most imposing—even when Linghu Qingqing served as left chancellor—it had never been this formidable. A military commander, actually sitting directly on the heads of civil officials.

Especially the commanders of the Judicial Directorate, their eyes all turned red.

If they heard correctly, the Judicial Directorate is to be expanded a hundredfold?

A hundredfold expansion means manpower increases a hundredfold, positions increase a hundredfold, and the power they wield is not merely a hundredfold greater!

Furthermore, are the Judicial Directorate's military law officers to be stationed directly in the numerous mines, factories, defense and transport offices under the Works Hall's jurisdiction? Does that not mean the Military Department's Judicial Directorate is taking direct control of the entire Works Hall?

The Military Department's officers and officials present, regardless of rank, all felt their pores erupt, their hairs stand on end, and countless goosebumps rose on their bodies.

"We will obey the Prince's military order." All the military department officers and soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs.

At this moment, the so-called disgrace and stigma on Prince An "Huo Xiong" had long been flung to the clouds by this bunch of military men.

They only knew that Wu Tie could bring them unprecedented power and profit, and they would follow him wholeheartedly to do the work.

Blood flowed along the smooth black-gold ground, spring-like blood water streamed out of the Works Hall's main gate, flowing down the steps onto the street. Near and far, the big and small officials of the Rites Hall, Household Hall, Punishment Hall, Personnel Hall and other offices stood like a flock of ducks with their necks stretched, dazedly staring at the commotion at the Works Hall.

Looking at that blood flowing out of the gate…… how many people have been killed in here!

Wu Tie stepped out of the Works Hall office, walking through the blood, and at the Punishment Hall gate across the street, a second-rank Palace Secretary came running out, trembling, pointing at Wu Tie and shouting hoarsely: "Prince An... Huo Xiong... you, you in the Works Hall, how many people have you killed?"

Wu Tie shook his sleeve, mounted his steed, and gave that Palace Secretary a lazy smile: "Oh, starting from Situ Peng, I've killed seven out of eight…… though I must admit, there are still white lotuses unstained by the mud in the world; in the great Works Hall, about one-tenth of the officials have never been corrupt—how rare, how rare."

He shrugged his shoulders, Wu Tie said with a smile: "Besides them, the rest have all been chopped."

With a neigh, Wu Tie spurred his horse and rode off.

Inside the nearby government offices, a sudden hoarse clamor arose.

"Butcher!"

"Tyrant!"

"Unscrupulous!"

"Lawless!"

"I want to see Your Majesty, I want to file a grievance before the throne!"

"Heaven above, you deserve to be torn to shreds, your line cut off……"

Wu Tie suddenly turned around, raised high the Imperial Treasure Sword in his hand: "Your Majesty wants me to dispatch troops at once…… I think the rear is uncertain, how can the front troops speak of victory? So why not, I will audit the accounts of each of your halls?"

"Here, Household Hall, your profits are abundant."

"Rites Hall, you select materials for the state each year—how much bribe have you taken?"

"Punishment Hall…… oh, you have the most to say—how many wrongful, false, and erroneous cases have you produced? Look at your hands, heads bowed—how many wronged souls wail and roar there?"

"Well, Personnel Hall—no need to say more—are your backsides really clean?"

"And besides, you big and small government offices—uh, the Green Hill Order, the Imperial Clan Office, the Astronomy Bureau… tsk tsk, should I go pay a visit to your places?"

The indignant ducks filling the street instantly shrank their necks.

Wu Tie gave a mocking laugh, shook his head, and spurred his horse to gallop wildly down the main road. The cold wind howled, thick dark clouds rolled across the sky, as if brewing something. Wu Tie's laughter echoed on the street; on both sides, countless officials stood there, their eyes like knives, seeming to want to carve Wu Tie into a thousand pieces and execute him by slow slicing.

Wu Tie laughed wildly, leading a large group of guards straight to the military department's prison, rushing there.

Just as they were about to reach the gate of the military department's great prison, Wu Tie suddenly turned back, waved at Huang Yu following closely behind: "Go to the roadside, find a fearless brave fellow, give him some settlement silver, and have him deliver a letter to Gongyang Sanlü…… the letter says, if he dares to cause trouble for me from behind, should I meet with mishap on the front lines, I will surely drag him down to die with me."

"Yes!" Huang Yu smiled, leading a detachment of guards to the roadside to look for those bold townsfolk.

Before the gate of the military department's great prison, Xiang Zan, clad in a black fur cloak, stood trembling; seeing Wu Tie come running from afar, Xiang Zan fell to his knees with a thud and bowed to Wu Tie.

Wu Tie looked at Xiang Zan, who had previously been an adversary, and nodded slowly: "Head of the Xiang clan, we will partner in war…… to put it bluntly, if your Xiang clan wants to survive this time, give it your all for me."