Chapter 72 : Chapter 72

Chapter 72: If Killing One Is Not Enough, Kill the Whole Nest; If Confiscating One Household Is Not Enough, Confiscate the Whole Area

The moment Lu Zhi mentioned Old Commander Lu, the Great Qian Emperor could no longer vent his anger any further, no matter how furious he was inside.

He was still counting on that man to serve as one of Great Qian’s trump cards.

“Lu Zhi, carry out a thorough rectification. This must not happen again. If it does, even if We spare you, Old Commander Lu, for all his loyalty, will not!”

Lu Zhi hurriedly replied, “This subject obeys the decree! Many thanks for Your Majesty’s grace!”

“The Jinyiwei bears fault in this matter. Merit and demerit offset each other, so we will not reward you.”

Ai Peng immediately kowtowed in thanks.

In the matter of Sword-Forging Manor, what enraged the Great Qian Emperor most was that the Jinyiwei had known of it and failed to report it, and had even colluded with forces of the jianghu.

Especially those men who acknowledged neither sovereign nor father.

They had actually joined outsiders to murder their own colleagues!

Had they not already died to the last man, he would have wanted nothing more than to drag out their corpses and flog them!

The Great Qian Emperor felt stifled.

Why could the officials under him not devote themselves to him with the same selfless loyalty that the jianghu claimed to devote to chivalry?

Then a thought flashed through his mind.

“By the way, what sort of man is that Hundred-Household Commander who secretly reported the matter of Sword-Forging Manor to Us?”

“Replying to Your Majesty,” Ai Peng answered with lowered head, “Hundred-Household Commander Cheng has yet to reach the age of twenty, yet he is already fifth rank in martial arts and has entered Tianji Tower’s Human Ranking at seventh place. He is truly a talent of extraordinary gifts!”

The moment those words were spoken, the important ministers present were all shocked, and murmurs broke out among them.

“Seventh on the Human Ranking?!”

The Human Ranking had not recorded officials of the court for many years, so they had never paid it much mind and had not known such news.

All of them began praising him at once.

“Seventh on the Human Ranking—his future is boundless!”

“The younger generation of Great Qian’s court is no weaker than the people of the jianghu!”

Among the ministers praising Cheng Yu sat a white-bearded old man near the front. He kept stroking his beard, his face full of gratified delight.

“Seventh on the Human Ranking. As expected of my eldest grandson.”

This man was none other than Zhao Yi, who had returned to court to watch the proceedings.

Li Xin, standing beside him, wore a look of astonishment and could hardly believe it.

They had only been gone a few days. How had Cheng Yu suddenly become fifth rank and seventh on the Human Ranking?

He was certain Cheng Yu had not been concealing his strength any longer back then.

What kind of talent was this?

“Good. As expected of the Son of Heaven’s personal guard. This is exactly the sort of young hero they ought to produce.”

The Great Qian Emperor nodded in praise of Cheng Yu.

Ai Peng then continued, “What is even more valuable is that Hundred-Household Commander Cheng fears no powerful enemy when purging traitors and eliminating villains. He is devoted solely to the state and to Your Majesty. Everything he has done has been for the sake of displaying Your Majesty’s dragon might!”

“And all of it came sincerely from the heart, without the slightest intent to chase fame or profit!”

At those words, the Great Qian Emperor’s expression changed slightly.

“What makes you say that?”

“Replying to Your Majesty, Hundred-Household Commander Cheng is upright and unbending. His heart is fixed wholly upon Your Majesty. When he purged internal traitors and slew villainous criminals, all he spoke of was Great Qian and Your Majesty. He had absolutely no thought for personal fame, profit, or loss!”

Those words struck far deeper into the Great Qian Emperor’s heart than Cheng Yu’s talent had.

He did not lack gifted officials.

What he lacked were officials of unwavering loyalty!

“Is that truly so?”

Ai Peng bowed low. “A thousand times true. If his heart did not hold Great Qian and Your Majesty, how would Hundred-Household Commander Cheng have dared exercise the authority to execute first and report later, purge the internal traitors, and destroy Sword-Forging Manor?”

He concealed nothing and recounted how Cheng Yu had shouted of imperial majesty all the way through Dragon Abyss Path, cowing the region at every step.

The more the Great Qian Emperor listened, the more delighted he became. He could not help but exclaim loudly in praise.

“Excellent! This is exactly the sort of loyal subject we need!”

Exactly!

Why had Cheng Yu confiscated so many households?

Was it not all to display Great Qian’s imperial might for him?

Surely the man did not simply enjoy confiscating households for its own sake.

Great Qian was weak now, and the hearts of those under him were unsettled.

What the Great Qian Emperor needed was precisely this sort of man—ruthless, yet loyal!

“How could we fail such a worthy subject? Is he not already fifth rank? Good. Reward him with a double promotion to Thousand-Household Commander and summon him to the Headquarters Command Office!”

The moment those words were spoken, everyone was astonished.

The Headquarters Command Office was the Jinyiwei headquarters in the Great Qian Capital, right at the Emperor’s side!

Cheng Yu had clearly won His Majesty’s favor. He was about to rise in a single bound!

But at that very moment, a minister who carried an aura of natural authority stepped forward.

“Your Majesty, this man has only just been promoted to Hundred-Household Commander. If he has rendered merit, then another promotion to Thousand-Household Commander is acceptable—but he must not be transferred to the capital!”

“In wiping out Sword-Forging Manor, his methods were far too fierce. He has already earned the hatred of the jianghu. If he is promoted again, I fear the martial artists of the jianghu will be greatly displeased!”

Those words were like a bucket of cold water poured over the Great Qian Emperor’s heart.

Those damned jianghu martial artists again!

They were taking advantage of Great Qian’s weakness and growing more insolent by the day!

For a moment, he was left speechless.

“This...”

Seeing someone obstruct Young Master Cheng’s future, Li Xin quietly reminded Zhao Yi at his side.

“Lord Zhao, should we...”

At court, attitudes toward the jianghu were divided into two factions.

One was the moderate faction represented by the minister who had just spoken. Their stance toward the jianghu was mild: if they could not provoke them, they would at least avoid them.

The other was the hardline faction once led by Zhao Yi.

Its goal had always been singular:

To trample the jianghu under hoof!

The two factions had struggled against one another for a long time.

The hardliners had once held every advantage, but after that unexpected incident and Zhao Yi’s resignation from office, they had completely fallen behind the moderates.

Now that the moderates wanted to block Cheng Yu’s future, only Zhao Yi could speak up and change the situation.

Yet Zhao Yi merely shook his head and made no move at all.

Seated upon the Dragon Throne, the Great Qian Emperor gave a helpless shake of his head.

“Wasn't the Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander of Jiannan Circuit missing? Then let him fill that vacancy. Traces of Prince Qing’s remnants have appeared there as well, so let him investigate on our behalf.”

The moderate minister nodded slightly, but did not withdraw.

“Your Majesty, the matter of Prince Qing’s remnants is by no means trivial. It involves too many things. If he investigates recklessly, I fear it may provoke serious trouble.”

“This subject believes an Imperial Envoy should be sent to supervise matters, so as to prevent great chaos.”

The other moderate officials stepped forward as well.

“This subject agrees!”

Hearing that, the Great Qian Emperor also felt it made sense. The court could not afford to lose face, but neither could it withstand some great upheaval.

That Hundred-Household Commander had ability and loyalty, but his methods were indeed too fierce.

If he went on another killing spree, there would not be such a convenient justification as the matter of Sword-Forging Manor.

Sending someone to keep an eye on him would not be a bad idea. It would also let him throw a little balance toward the moderates at court.

“Granted. You may arrange the matter yourselves.”

Below, Li Xin frowned, growing even more puzzled as he looked at Zhao Yi.

“Lord Zhao, they are clearly trying to deal with Young Master Cheng!”

Even his own grandson was being targeted by the moderates!

How could the old man show no reaction at all?

Yet Zhao Yi merely shook his head as though it were of no concern.

“You are still as impatient as you were fifteen years ago. This matter is a blessing, not a disaster. Why would I not accept it gladly?”

Li Xin’s mouth fell open. He understood even less now.

They had cut off Cheng Yu’s chance to rise straight into the capital and arranged for someone to watch and restrain him.

How was that supposed to be a good thing?

“That is why you still have much to learn.” Zhao Yi stroked his white beard, smiling faintly. “My grandson is a man of great ambition. His sharp edge is fully bared, and more precious still, his Internal Energy is equal to his ambition.”

“If he were brought now to the Great Qian Capital, with all its tangled interests, he would be constrained at every turn. He would not even be able to confiscate households properly.”

“But if he were made a Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander somewhere in the Jiangnan region, then he could truly accomplish great things.”

What Zhao Yi expected of Cheng Yu was far more than merely becoming a Jinyiwei favored by the Emperor.

If one wanted to trample the jianghu under hoof, one could do so only by accumulating strength and carving out a fearsome name.

Those were things very difficult to accomplish in the Great Qian Capital.

Li Xin understood some of it and nodded.

“Then how can sending someone to restrain him also be a good thing?”

Disdain for the moderates flashed through Zhao Yi’s eyes.

“Restrain him? You overestimate those people. They think they can plan from behind the scenes and suppress Yu’er, yet they fail to realize that my eldest grandson is a hidden dragon lurking in the abyss.”

“To achieve great things, he must first deal with those spineless creatures who only know how to bend and compromise.”

“If they dare reach out, then all the better. Let them see my eldest grandson’s methods!”

In Zhao Yi’s eyes, if Cheng Yu wished to accomplish great undertakings, then he truly did need to find a way to deal with the moderates at court and suppress the local jianghu martial artists.

That was the real test!

“Let me see what method my eldest grandson can find, and how he will break the deadlock.”

...

“A method? What method? Wouldn’t killing people and confiscating households be enough?”

In Qingjiang Prefecture, Cheng Yu sat inside the main hall of the Jinyiwei Hundred-Household Office.

“Yes, sir!”

The Jinyiwei subordinate kneeling on one knee accepted the order and withdrew.

Just now, he had been asking Cheng Yu how to settle the matter of those tens of thousands of laborers.

Most of them were farmers.

After they had been seized and taken away, their families had been left weak and helpless, and their land had been forcibly taken from them.

Now that they no longer had any farmland, they came seeking a solution from the merciful and compassionate Hundred-Household Commander Cheng.

The landlords and powerful local gentry who had seized the land also had something to say. Every transaction, they insisted, had been entirely legal and proper, with written deeds as proof.

Cheng Yu very much approved of their respect for the law.

He decided to order all of it returned at the original price.

Anyone who refused would have his household confiscated and be thrown straight into prison.

Cheng Yu picked up the intelligence his subordinate had brought back and began reading through it.

“Mm. Every last one of them has taken quite a lot and eaten until his mouth drips with grease. Which household should I confiscate first?”

At that moment, an imperial decree of promotion and reassignment arrived at the Hundred-Household Office.

After receiving the decree, Cheng Yu raised a brow slightly.

“Jinyiwei Thousand-Household Commander of Jiannan Circuit? Investigate the matter of Prince Qing’s remnants?”

His expression turned incomparably strange.

“In a sense, am I not one of Prince Qing’s remnants myself?!”