Chapter 120 - Politics
Chapter 120 – Politics
After seeing the hesitation in the agent's face, Wang Wei said: "You just need to inform me of the information you have gathered. You do not need to think about anything else."
After hearing this, the agent sighed in relief before answering:
"According to the information sent back from the frontier, General 2 and his legion had already conquered the majority of the Barbarian Wolf Kingdom, with the exception of the capital."
"However, as soon they were about to breach the city, 5 unknown and powerful Divine Altar Realm cultivators appeared and prevented them from succeeding."
"Immediately afterwards, we sent some of our elite agents from the Fate's Shadow to investigate the origin or source of these people. Our findings was that they are most likely from the Noble Alliance of our Dynasty."
After the agent said this, the room immediately became silent. All the ministers had their eyes wide open, with some having fear in their eyes.
The cunning ones could tell that something major was about to happen.
"Most likely?" asked Wang Ju with a frown on her face.
The agent lowered his head before answering:
"We can confirm that they are indeed responsible for this. However, before we could gather enough evidence, the other party seemed to have noticed and destroyed all links that tied them with the people of the Barbarian Wolf Kingdom."
After hearing this, many officials realized that things become complicated. Without evidence, his majesty cannot just randomly kill these nobles.
After all, this dynasty is one that runs with rules and laws. There needs to be some sort of order or process when doing things.
After pondering for a while, Wang Wei said, "Go give my order to the Royal Guard Captain to imprison all the nobles of the Capital."
All the officials were shocked, then many of them knelt on the ground and said together, "Your Majesty, you cannot!"
"Why?" replied Wang Wei with a calm look on his face.
"According to the laws of the dynasty, all people need a reasonable crime for them to be arrested," replied one of the ministers kneeling on the ground.
"From what I remember, my words were the law in this dynasty," replied Wang Wei with a nonchalant look on his face.
After hearing this, cold sweat started to fall down these ministers' backs. Despite not releasing any aura, all the ministers in the room suddenly felt a heavy pressure pressing on them coming from Wang Wei. This was his natural aura cultivated as person in high position, as ruler of an entire dynasty, in charge of the lives of billions of people.
The room became quiet. Over the years, these officials have grown accustomed to his majesty's calm, collected, and relaxed demeanor.
Unlike the majority of Emperors of this world, his majesty Wang Wei was truly a Wise Sage as he allowed his officials to express their opinions, to criticize his actions when necessary and to point out his shortcomings.
However, as a result of this, many of the officials forgot the fact that his majesty was in fact a very powerful cultivator who forged his throne with iron and blood.
And in the Great Xia Dynasty, his words are still absolute.
After realizing this, all the officials remained silent and dare not say anything again.
After a few minutes of silence, Empress Dong Lifen opened her mouth and said, "Your majesty, you are right in saying that your words are absolute. However, it is better to use a softer method dealing with this situation."
"After all, you still have a reputation to uphold. Your majesty might not care about reputation, but a good reputation can be of great use when dealing with newly conquered territories–especially to calm down and reassure the people."
Wang Wei had a pensive look on his face after hearing this, then he nodded. Afterwards, he looked at Wang Ju and asked, "Do you still have the evidence of all the crimes these nobles committed before the dynasty was established?"
"Yes, your majesty,' replied Grand Censorate Wang Ju.
"In that case, use these evidences as an excuse to capture and imprison these nobles."
Many of the officials secretly nodded in relief. As long as his majesty does things according to the law, then, they are relieved.
These officials do not actually care about the lives of these fallen nobilities. As long as the sanctity of the law remains untouched and undamaged, they are more than satisfied–even if it is just on the surface.
Suddenly, one of the officials that was still standing stepped up and said, "Your majesty, what should we do about the Transcending Mortality Realm cultivator?"
"Don't worry about this," replied Wang Wei. Then he gazed at the Commander of the Royal Guard–which was an army designated solely to protect the royal family and the capital.
"Tell the Captain to leave the Zheng, Leng, and Chang as the very last noble family to capture."
The Commander of the Royal Guard bowed then left the palace to do as his majesty ordered.
Meanwhile, in the Former Duke Zheng Residence.
Patriarch Zheng Yong was crazily destroying everything in his room. He threw tea pots and cups at the walls, he punched through all the tables and ravaged all the books around.
Then he looked at the other two people sitting in front of him and said, " Are you two stupid! Do you want our three ancient noble families to be destroyed!"
"You are overreacting, Zheng Yong," said Patriarch Leng Zan.
"That's right. This new Emperor is all about respecting the law. Without proper evidence, he will not easily take action against our families," said Patriarch Chang Liu.
"Didn't you notice this the past two years?" he added. "No matter what secret method our Noble Alliance uses, as long as we do not leave any evidence, at best, the officials will just impose a few meaningless taxes on us."
After calming down a bit, Patriarch Zheng Yong looked at these two like two idiots and said. "That is only because we did not do anything that greatly infringed on the benefit of his majesty."
Zheng Yong took a deep breath to calm himself down, then sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Why did you guys do this anyway? It could not be just to antagonize his majesty?"
Patriarch Chang Liu was silent for a moment before answering, "It's because the royal family of the Barbarian Wolf Kingdom offered us more than 70% of their family's wealth."
"Originally, the royal family asked us to sabotage the Great Xia from the inside," added Patriarch Leng Zan. "However, knowing how powerful the Great Xia Dynasty has gotten the past few years, we refused."
After hearing this, Zheng Yong sighed and did not say anything else. As such, the room became quiet for a few minutes. Only the sound of inhaling and exhaling could be heard.
"You do not need to worry too much, Zheng Yong. Nothing will happen to our alliance," said Leng Zan.
However, before he even finished his words, someone barged into the room while panting heavily.
Zheng Yong's anger that has just subsided flared up again and he roared, "I thought I told you not to interrupt me when I'm receiving guess in the study?"
"But Duke, I mean Patriarch, there is terrible news. The Royal Guard suddenly started to arrest all the noble families in the capital," responded the intruder.
"What!" said both Patriarch Leng Zan and Chang Liu who immediately stood up at the same time.
Zheng Yong's body trembled slightly after hearing this. What he feared the most had happened.
Meanwhile, Zeng Lan rushed over to the servant and held him by the neck and said, "Don't lie about something like that!"
"I'm…I'm…not…lying."
As such, Zeng Lan released the poor man after seeing the servant almost passed out. After that, he started walking back and forth in the room while muttering, "What to do, what to do, what to do?"
Then he immediately looked at Zheng Yong. Even Chang Liu did the same as they both realized that they had made a grave error in judgement.
As for Zheng Yong, he took a deep breath to calm himself down and said, "Do not worry, I will take care of everything. However, you guys need to lay low for a while."
After saying this, he completely ignored the other two and headed to another room in his mansion. There, Patriarch Zheng Yong had a Flying Pigeon Hex installed in order to communicate with people.
He took out a token and used his origin qi to activate the formation and send a message:
"Ancestor, I need your help again this time."
"What is this time?"
Then Zeng Yong explained in detail his next step of action.
Meanwhile, back in the palace, Wang Wei and the officials were still waiting for the result from the Royal Guards while discussing other problems to deal with in the dynasty.
After a few hours, someone hurried into the meeting room and handed a talisman to the agent responsible for reporting the news about the Barbarian Wolf Kingdom, who then relayed the information to Wang Ju.
"What is it?" asked Wang Wei.
"Your majesty, we just received news that three people flying destroyed countless houses in three different cities. However, there were no casualties during these incidents," replied Wang Ju.
"What about the flying people?"
"They flew away before the formations were deployed," replied Wang Ju. An answer that made Wang Wei sighed.
"It seemed that our bait was unsuccessful," said Yan Liling suddenly.
"It's unfortunate," replied Wang Wei. "Go and tell the Royal Guards to only capture all the properties of the Zheng, Leng, and Chang family."
Many officials did not understand the conversation between his majesty and the Chancellor. However, the few that did had sweat falling down their backs.
It was then that they realized that his majesty did not just use his overwhelming strength to become an Emperor, but he also had an amazing tactical mind. It's just that he did not need to use it most of the time.