Realms In The Firmament

‘… One fight, we slaughtered over one million grassland folks. None of them survived. Now we are marching into the wild grassland and aiming straight at their headquarters. We will certainly wipe out the grassland wolves and rule the north. As their nest is broken, none of them will live. There will be no more troubles in the north for the great Kingdom of Chen. From now on, the grassland…’

This report caused the boiling disturbance in the court at once.

”Ye Nantian is a cold-blooded butcher! Grassland folks are recusant and brutal indeed, but what about the children and women? The innocent kids? The old and the weak? How could he do that! Lunatic! What a bloody butcher!”

”Ye Nantian ignores the king because he holds the army. He kills as he wishes. He has lost his humanity! I am protesting against that Ye Nantian! For committing such unforgivable crime!”

”He didn’t even report to the court before he did it! How inordinate and unruly! I protest against Ye Nantian for being arrogant to the King and the court!”

”It is a great thing to win the war, but to wipe out one race is against the heaven’s nature! Your majesty, Ye Nantian is pushing the kingdom to the opposite side of other kingdoms! We will become enemy to the entire world. He is devious…”

”If we conquer the grassland folk and make Grassland Wolves our dependency, they will pay a tribute to us every year and accept our education. Isn’t that a better solution? It strikes out our authority to the world. Ye Nantian is cutting off the future that we rule the north peacefully… It is a broad land in the north… A beautiful grassland… Such a waste to keep it deserted!”

”Your majesty… Ye Nantian…”

”Your majesty! Ye Nantian should be punished for that, so as to assuage popular indignation! To hold justice! Please, my king, make the decision and punish him!”

”Punish him, your majesty! We are begging!”

The officials kneeled down in the court, all tearing out, like they were bemoaning the state of the universe and pitying the fate of humankind, like they were some saints.

However, three of them were still standing straight up, without saying anything.

They were Prime Minister Zuo and two other old officials.

The three of them were all so old that their beard were all white. They were showing the same look, acting like they were asleep because they were old and easy to get tired. They acted like they didn’t know what was going on at all.

In fact, they were all sneering in their minds.

[What a bunch of fools!]

[I don’t care if Ye Nantian’s method is wrong or what. Ye Nantian, even his name is enough to make him right! Who is Ye Nantian? Punish him? The king would never do that.]

[You bunch of morons truly have been promoted too fast. You know completely nothing. You don’t even know the firmament is round and the rocks are hard…]

[Impeach Ye Nantian? That won’t work and it will only bring you humiliations…]

[Think deeper. Ye Nantian has always wanted to leave. He just never has a chance. Now you guys are impeaching him here… Is it Ye Nantian’s plan? If it is, that is such a brilliant scheme. One stone hits three birds. However, our king has been trying so hard to keep him her. You bunch of stupid men are trying to kick Ye Nantian out so badly… That is so stupid to break down our tower of strength…]

The three old men looked at each other sneakily and they knew what the other two were thinking. They just felt gloating. However, they still looked like they couldn’t hear anything.

The king was showing a dark face while holding the war report. He looked at the officials kneeling on the court. Suddenly, he felt furious.

[We made a deal. I saved his son and he should guard my north for twenty years.]

[It hasn’t been twenty years yet, but the enemies in the north are all wiped out. Not to mention twenty years, in two hundred years, even two thousand years, there will be no enemies in the north.]

[In other words, he has done what he promised in advance.]

[He will leave at anytime!]

[He doesn’t need these guys’ impeachment to leave at all.]

[And yet these fools are still doing this here, asking me to punish him…]

[So this is the ignorance of fools?]

[Woeful! Pathetic!]

The king sighed and then closed the eyes. He was deep in thoughts. [The Grassland Wolves threatened my kingdom and put the entire Land of Han-Yang in danger. Even if we can defeat them and make them dependent on us, once they grow stronger, they will rise up with rebellion! Those wolves can never be tamed. Education is meaningless! These men in the court should all know about it.]

[If the women and children were spared, twenty years later, there will be new grassland tribes… And they will keep coming to attack… These bloody officials all know it!]

[But they just have to use this to impeach Ye Nantian. They don’t care about the extinction of those grassland folks or their women and children… They just can’t let Ye Nantian keep being like this. They don’t want the other kingdoms in the world treat their generals like us… They are afraid that scholars will get to lower and lower positions in the world…]

[They know it is right to wipe out the Grassland Wolves, but they still want to hold onto morality to impeach Ye Nantian! They don’t simply want to put down Ye Nantian, they want to make an influence in the kingdom’s affairs.]

[They are gathering all the scholars’ power to affect my will.]

[They want higher position in the kingdom. They are not doing this because of Ye Nantian. They are doing this to me, the king.]

[Ye Nantian is an excuse.]

[Do you know how powerful Ye Nantian really is? He is a great figure who has been beyond the limit of this world long ago. Now you want to restrain him with the rule here. Do you know how stupid it is! Woeful! Pathetic!]

The king understood everything. He sighed heavily and opened his eyes slowly. Looking at the officials on the floor, he felt helpless.

For the first time, since Feng Zhiling gave him that dan bead and extended his life, he sighed!

How many people are with those officials?

Most of the ones who didn’t follow those scholars in the court were generals. However, there were only a little generals in the kingdom.

Now that the kingdom was in danger, the generals who had the power to talk in the court were all in the front line. The rest of them couldn’t fight against the group of scholars. They didn’t even have the right to speak.

The kingdom needed military officers to fight the war, but it also needed these scholars to rule the kingdom!

Scholars and generals were in opposite positions but cooperate with each other. However, in the court, the scholars always outwit the generals!

”Prime Minister Zuo, what is your thought on this?” the king tiredly asked.

…