[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers":3,"chapter-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-25":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Restoring the Mountains and Rivers",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2364294,4623,"Chapter 25: The Art of Sovereignty","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-25",25,"\u003Cp>The sky gradually darkened, yet still no news arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Realizing something was amiss, Yue Shufeng rose to leave, but was blocked by Eastern Depot eunuchs who burst in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This scene was all too familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not long ago, his trusted aides had been seized in exactly this manner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Commissioner Yue, kindly come with us.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lead eunuch spoke with mocking tone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how exalted your status once was, once you fell into their hands, you became a prisoner at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damn it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I am the Left Censor-in-Chief of this court—how dare you lowly scoundrels lay hands on me!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if I am to be charged, it must be approved by the Grand Secretariat and His Majesty!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yue Shufeng spat out in disdainful rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a rank-two official, he commanded the Censorate, the most ferocious rhetorical force in Great Ming, his authority rivaling even the lesser ministers of the Six Ministries.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In past factional struggles, fire had never reached him—Great Ming had the unwritten rule that high officials were not subject to criminal punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Flip back through history: the ancient title for Left Censor-in-Chief was Censor-in-Chief, precisely among those privileged class.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Commissioner Yue, please do not be angered. We have not come to charge you, but to request your cooperation in an investigation—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And it is a case of high treason!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The young eunuch smiled without warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once a boundary is crossed, it can be crossed again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ordinary charges could not touch a high-ranking Left Censor-in-Chief, but treason was an exception.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking across Great Ming’s history, nearly all second-rank and above officials executed were tied to treason cases.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether anyone actually rebelled didn’t matter—the eunuch faction now needed a treason case to strike a crushing blow against the Pure Stream faction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You… you are framing loyal ministers!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yue Shufeng turned livid with rage, his speech now halting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Treason—anyone who touches it dies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He admitted he had done many vile things, many harming the state’s interests, but he had never once considered rebellion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Commissioner Yue, such words must not be spoken lightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We have merely asked you to cooperate in the investigation—we have not accused you of treason. How can this be called framing?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The young eunuch’s words made Yue Shufeng stomp his feet in fury.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Verbal combat had always been his strength; he never imagined one day he’d be so easily broken by a few simple sentences.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Imperial Prison—what a hellish place, he knew better than anyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how innocent you were, once you entered, the charges were entirely up to them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The only ones who could save him now were a few Grand Secretaries and the Emperor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they spoke up, the Eastern Depot would dare not use heavy torture—there would still be room to maneuver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a brief mental whirl, Yue Shufeng’s illusions shattered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of the five Grand Secretaries, two belonged to the Pure Stream faction, two to the eunuch faction, and one was neutral.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The eunuch faction and the neutral Grand Secretary would never intervene to save him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His own faction’s Grand Secretary, Pang, now lay unconscious.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether truly ill or feigning sickness, since he had stepped out of the storm, he would not re-enter it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The other Pure Stream Grand Secretary, due to a dispute over promotion two years prior, held a grudge against him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, not throwing him under the bus was already considered acting in the greater interest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To expect him to risk his political future to pull Yue Shufeng out was plainly impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Grand Secretaries would not act—and the Emperor was even less likely to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Think of how many memorials he had submitted condemning the Emperor during his tenure as Left Censor-in-Chief—Tianyuan Emperor’s impression of him was clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the palace, Zuo Guang’en knelt before Tianyuan Emperor, begging for forgiveness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the Eastern Depot had handled today’s affairs well on the surface, many hidden dangers remained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The “pointing at a deer and calling it a horse” tactic had suppressed the scholar petitions without causing major unrest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It should have been a great achievement, yet such a tactic was inherently taboo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The arrest of Yue Shufeng was even more brutal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had purged two-thirds of the Censorate’s officials, even capturing the Left Censor-in-Chief himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The remaining staff now faced triple the workload, forced to clean up their colleagues’ messes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For a long time to come, the Censorate would be unable to function normally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This level of strike far exceeded the bounds of factional struggle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmph!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve got quite the nerve—my Censorate has been crippled by you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now you dare arrest the Left Censor-in-Chief—next, will you drag the Grand Secretaries into the Imperial Prison too?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tianyuan Emperor sounded furious, yet he was not truly enraged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Disrupting other offices endangered the realm; crippling the Censorate, however, gave him peace for a few days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he wished to stop it, he would have intervened long ago—he wouldn’t have waited until after Yue Shufeng was dragged into the Imperial Prison to summon Zuo Guang’en for a reprimand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, your servant is wronged!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Those censors draw imperial salaries yet do nothing but evil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I cannot claim every man I arrested deserves death—but under Great Ming law, executing them all would be entirely justified.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These men publicly pose as moral gentlemen, yet secretly conspire for personal gain—they are the empire’s greatest plague.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The illicit cash I’ve uncovered alone exceeds four million taels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Plus over two hundred thousand taels of gold, over two million mu of land, ten thousand shops and properties, countless ancient texts, paintings, and rare treasures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Directorate of Ceremonial estimates that if all confessions are collected, the total value equals at least one year of imperial revenue.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With their paltry salaries, even after three thousand years, they could never have amassed such wealth!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing the stolen wealth figures, Tianyuan Emperor’s anger vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he known these men were so greedy, he should have released the eunuchs sooner—he needn’t have suffered financial shortages for so long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If he had known these people were so greedy, he should have released the eunuchs sooner and not endured prolonged financial hardship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve done well, Guang’en.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tianyuan Emperor’s tone softened.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With this money, the empire’s external threats dissolved instantly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Liaodong suffered heavy losses, with sufficient funds, a new army could be raised at once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Great Ming’s military strength has always been tied to qianliang—give enough money, and combat power surges.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The massive stolen wealth stemmed from the Eastern Depot’s habit of not distinguishing legal from illegal assets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Whether ancestral property or land falsely registered under the corrupt official’s name, all became illicit gains.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enormous sum became damning evidence to crush these officials—any future attempt to overturn their cases would be blocked by this mountain of stolen wealth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tianyuan Emperor was no fool—he understood the truth—but gold and silver moved hearts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let it be a sealed case.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sacrificing a group of corrupt officials who only knew factional struggle, to rescue the empire’s collapsing finances—this was clearly worth it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An emperor must be foolish when necessary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the eunuchs did it, and the stolen wealth went into the treasury—what has it to do with him, the Emperor?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, these are merely your servant’s duties.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Knowing he had passed this trial, Zuo Guang’en exhaled in relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1217,"2026-06-21T08:09:02.410Z",1,"Qwen3.5 397B","b96b6c4e39b41bc0cf79d47fc9d3d09df7886519325390cfe41850523175ca40","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-26","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-24",391,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frestoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-cover.jpg"]