Chapter 493

After the demon beasts retreated and the Pioneers left, the Luo Shen Mountain Range, which had been lively all night, gradually returned to calm.

That group of armed nobles who had entered the pass overnight were still leading their own troops, busily bustling about south and north of the city.

It appeared they were gathering corpses, cleaning the battlefield, cooking, and disciplining the troops—showing vigor, disciplined training, and having the king's orders in mind.

But anyone with clear eyes could see they were merely making excuses, clinging to the capital region, unwilling to leave easily.

So what exactly is the purpose of their doing this?

Sun King (wiping sweat): "Oh, why are you all staring at me? I'm busy writing letters!"

Thus, the Sun King, who had just ordered all the feudal lords to hurry to the capital, immediately issued a second royal decree without pause.

Low EQ: "If there's nothing, just go back already—why are you all blocking my door? I'm scared, get lost!"

High EQ: "Your Majesty thanks all the loyal officials for their wholehearted assistance; since the beast tide threat has been crushed, if you have no other business, please return swiftly to your own fiefdoms, lest you cause unnecessary trouble and harm your own peace."

And the result is……

"Loyalty! Sincerity! As vassals serving Your Majesty, we are willing! We are not tired; please rest assured, Your Majesty!"

Moreover.

"Damn it! I finally came to the royal capital once, and after just a little while I have to leave? I have merit; I want to see the king! I want to see the king!"

As for the rest……

Oh, the rest simply pretended to be dead.

"What royal decree? You see, we don't have any royal decree here—we are followers of the doctrine of faith and justification; if we didn't receive it, it doesn't exist!"

【Hold on, savior, are you sure these are the great nobles and lords of this fantasy world? I feel like this is a group of Tang dynasty military governors teaming up to go to Chang'an to play games.】

"Oh, as long as the meaning gets across, why bother with all that formal speech—it's so tiring."

In short, no noble family is willing to just leave Qixia City and return to their fief; they all bring their troops, quite excited, milling about outside the city, plotting who knows what.

"Sigh!"

Thus, after letting out another sigh, the Sun King could only hurriedly send someone to contact the Xiguang Duke and the Huanguang Duke, asking the two state elders to rush into the city and hold a small meeting in the palace.

These days are different from before; usually when these old men meet, they have to trade barbs openly and secretly, hurling harsh insults at each other to feel satisfied, but today they met and actually sincerely exchanged pleasantries.

"Oh, Xiguang Duke, I see your wound is not light; please have a seat first."

As the vanguard of this battle, Xiguang Duke, in order to block the frenzied counterattack of the dying bear demon king, took a solid palm strike from him.

Although his old bones are still fairly sturdy and did not shatter on the spot, he was shaken so badly that blood flowed from his seven orifices.

If it weren't for the Duke's ample family wealth and the life-saving items on his person, he might have died in the midst of the beasts swarming and biting him.

"Hehe, it's fine; I am a martial practitioner, a level seventy-four warrior profession, cough cough, this minor injury will heal with a little rest."

"On the contrary, Huanguang Duke, you look in no good state at all; look, let me support you—your walking is a bit wobbly."

There's no way around it—this 'Minister of Finance' is one of the top lucrative positions in Huaguang; just casually taking a couple handfuls yields piles of gold coins.

However, at critical moments, the mobilization of large amounts of supplies and the approval of numerous lists must all go through his hands.

If an later audit discovers any problems, it could truly bring disaster upon himself!

Especially now, in this special situation, with the emergency at hand, all sorts of chaotic matters have actually been piled entirely onto his shoulders.

... For an elderly man whose level is not particularly high, all this is really too difficult.

Thus these two old men—one has a bruised nose and swollen face, constantly coughing; the other has dark circles under his eyes, his face as pale as gold paper.

This contrasts with the monarch on the main seat, who is clearly at death's door and can only cling to life with a rejuvenating elixir, making him appear like a vigorous, healthy old man.

Moreover, he had to rise voluntarily to 'respect the elders,' supporting the old fellows as they sat down.

"Sit down, everyone sit down—no wasting time; let's get straight to the point."

He gestured toward Luo Shen Mountain outside Qixia City.

"These people are sly; they're just waiting for someone bold to cry out from a high place, then they'll rush in with weapons—what plan do you two have?"

Huanguang Duke had long guessed the purpose of the king's urgent summons for them to enter the palace; as the natural strategist, he had already prepared his talking points.

"Your Majesty, although the royal capital was not affected by this battle, the city's populace has long enjoyed peace and thus harbors worries; having just lifted martial law, they truly cannot withstand any stimulation."

Moreover, the external situation is also quite chaotic; the collapse of Yin Shen Peak has caused a major negative impact, and now folk rumors say that the corpse of the Purple Lightning God lies inside, and it has revived!

"Even if that is false, according to my information, prior to the collapse of Yin Shen Peak, a large-scale battle erupted there, likely involving more than one level-seventy expert, plus the final heaven-piercing, earth-shaking purple lightning…"

"In my opinion, what we should do now is to placate as much as possible—first settle everyone's hearts, unite the interior, and give no opportunity to those with ill intent."

"Um, so… let's first draw a sum from the treasury, enough to persuade a few to leave, persuade a few…"

Huanguang Duke offered his strategy, but the Sun King gave no comment, merely nodding silently.

On the other hand, Xiguang Duke, with a rough voice, directly raised an objection.

"Give money? How much? Huanguang Duke, you should know better than I! They are all big-mouthed lion types; ordinary benefits cannot fill their greed, so we must decide how much money—how much, little, profit, benefit—to spend to settle this matter."

Xiguang Duke seems to have a strong psychological shadow regarding this; he gestured wildly and then added.

"And if we compromise this time, what about next time? And the time after that? We are all lords; you know how terrifying greed can become—if we open this loophole, what will we do thereafter?"

"And then what?"

Huanguang Duke is no coward; after being blasted with two mouthfuls, he naturally retaliated immediately.

"Xiguang Duke! The situation now is that if you don't spend money, you can't even handle this little matter at hand!"

"Do you really think you, in your current state, could single-handedly wipe out everyone outside?!"

Thus Xiguang Duke's blood pressure also spiked instantly.

"Hmph! Even if it's a sick tiger, the tiger's prestige remains! When the time comes, I only need to… puff, cough cough!"

Moreover, the more he spoke, the more excited he became; a slight move would tug at his wound, and if he hadn't shut his mouth quickly, he might have spat out a mouthful of old blood.

"You…… oh! Hiss…"

Meanwhile, Huanguang Duke, who already had a splitting headache, now had to think of solutions while accompanying others in debate; even without saying two sentences, he painfully rubbed his temples.

"Sigh, you two, please calm down a bit."

The Sun King had no choice but to hurriedly order the servants to bring food, clean water, and healing medicine, telling the two old men not to rush, you don't rush either—better to replenish your blood first before speaking.

If they weren't stubborn enough, those two obstinate old men wouldn't be facing off in the Royal Capital's power arena; thus they recover their blood but not their feelings, and as soon as they show slight improvement they start arguing again.

One insists they should temporarily avoid the sharp edge and wait for the right moment, then after things pass slowly settle accounts—this gang of traitorous ministers and villains, not a single one will escape!

The other insists that they should spare no expense to uphold the royal family's dignity, now using absolute force to suppress all petty troublemakers—this trend must not be allowed to continue!

But arguing aside, their ideas are fully expressed—or rather, the Sun King wants exactly this situation.

The ministers argued among themselves while he silently listened from the sidelines; once things became clear and a solution emerged, he would step out from behind the scenes...

He would propose a constructive opinion, then let everyone continue discussing and arguing, even coming to blows if needed.

There's nothing he can do—the audience isn't the Yan faction and the Qingliu, this isn't the Ming dynasty, and he doesn't possess the Jiajing Emperor's arbitrary, overwhelming control.

As a monarch under a medieval feudal system, he can only use such means to prevent his vassals from banding together and maintain his absolute rule.

Cough.

"Well, I think..."

So this time he also wasn't in a hurry; he listened from the sidelines for a while, then after thinking things through clearly he spoke calmly, as usual, merging their ideas together.

And so, half an hour later, when this third royal order was issued from the city, the nobles below exchanged glances and all turned pale.

"This... why are the orders we received not the same?"

Indeed they differ; take those with lesser strength and few troops, who cannot reach the rank of great nobles and are only called minor nobles—viscounts and barons.

The royal order they received stated that the king, in his personal name, had granted them a large subsidy as a reward for their loyalty and patriotism, hoping they would continue to shine in their lands, cherish the people, and never forget the king's grace.

And the larger nobles, especially those commanding heavy troops and holding high rank—the dukes—were all invited by the king under the pretext of a 'victory celebration' to come to the Royal Capital for a meeting.

If that were all, they'd surely be pleased—after all, who would lose by bringing troops into the city?

Thus the invitation made it clear they were to attend a 'merit celebration', so each was allowed only a single-digit number of attendants.

Even a top-tier noble like the Xiguang Duke, in recognition of the Xiguang family's many years of service to the kingdom, is permitted only twenty armed guards as a favor.

"Ah..."

Anyone can see this is meant to separate the nobles from their troops, completely cutting off any chance they might find an excuse to rebel.

"But what of it?"

"As long as the king lives, you are ultimately subjects!"

"Even if it's a yang plot, it's still a royal command!"

"These lords can't suddenly fall ill, risking the great taboo of rebelling without cause for seven days."

Moreover, under this scheme the Sun King also successfully split and diverted the nobles below.

First, he gave them money—directly feeding those minor nobles who were merely there for show, hoping to strike it lucky, with petty stipends.

"Guigu, we're only a few catties—we can't really go along with others causing a ruckus."

"Seeing it's good enough, we'll slip away."

Thus, having achieved their strategic aim, they marched off with their own troops—whose fighting strength and discipline were even worse than bandits—delighted to leave the capital region.

Although their combined strength doesn't match that of the great nobles, they are numerous, scattering away in a thin, scattered fashion, dealing a strong blow to the morale of the nobles below.

Precisely for this reason, many who don't know the allusion to the Hongmen Banquet but feel that going in would likely not end well for them also chose to become obedient subjects.

"Haha, I just remembered I need to go back to urge the farmers to do summer planting, so I won't bother Your Majesty here—please have the envoy convey my regards. Haha, farewell, farewell!"

Then he obediently led his troops away swiftly, linking up into stretches, causing the noble forces below to lose another large chunk.

"Damn, these cowards!"

By now, anyone intending to incite rebellion, imitating the Lionheart King's old tale of seizing the throne to let me sit, has virtually zero chance.

Although this hasn't disappointed those clever great nobles too much—they were just idle players, with or without dates, striking two sticks; the timing hasn't come, and if it fails, it's fine.

But only a few with enough courage, feeling their wrists are strong enough—even able to scoop money from boiling water—still dare to stay here, and after repeated consideration accept this invitation.

"Hmph, I'd like to see what that old guy with the 'sour' character at the start has to say!"

When they entered the city in single file, they unexpectedly found there was no 'dismounting might' as they had anticipated.

Not to mention the piled-up demon beast corpses, even the roadside guards were intermittently present; only the servants and attendants in charge of reception followed them all the way to the Sun King's Castle.

After seven turns and eight turns along the red carpet they reached a high building; who knew that upon opening the gate they'd find two familiar faces.

"My lords, we really are a rare sight; come, come, come—it's rare to have so many people today, His Majesty said everyone must be happily pleased!"

The king opened his private medicine storehouse and let everyone partake; the Xiguang Duke and the Huoguang Duke at least outwardly have recovered the steady breath and ruddy complexion of a healthy person.

One had a piercing gaze, the other a smile like honey, and like an old steward they walked over to welcome them in.

Now the dukes were puzzled—these two old fellows who usually can't wait to set up a stage and fight in the capital every day, how did they inexplicably end up standing together?

Could it be…

But before they could think it through, they were led away, blowing a pleasant fresh wind, into a banquet hall full of warblers and swallows.

Who knew that as soon as they glanced, the great nobles were completely scared stupid.

Whether it was the civil duke rich enough to rival a country or the martial duke with many troops and wide command, each stood frozen at the doorway, unable to move, not even able to take a step.