The day after the Emperor spent his time wallowing in self-pity, the fifty million coins sent by Shentu Yang finally arrived, long overdue.

The Emperor was overjoyed. At the grand court assembly, he issued an imperial decree appointing Shentu Yang as the Duke of Yan, granting him the authority to act as he saw fit. The unspoken implication was naturally to encourage this newly minted Duke of Yan to take advantage of the internal strife among the Xiongnu to launch his own military campaign and reclaim the lost territories of the Yin family.

The imperial army originally sent by the court to suppress the rebellion in Yan was still being detained by Shentu Yang in Shangdang Commandery. Mindful of the lives of their own descendants, not a single civil or military official in the entire court raised an objection. They watched helplessly as Shentu Yang, a traitorous rebel, transformed overnight into the new Duke of Yan.

Gao Jingde and Yao Wenruo, who had been ordered to Luoyang to smooth things over, accepted the imperial decree with immense gratitude. To avoid any complications that might arise from a long delay, they departed in great haste with the Emperor’s appointment as soon as the court assembly concluded.

Having secured the fifty million coins, Yin Shuhuai immediately summoned the Director of the Palace Workshops. Compared to the massive production boom of the later eras, which could only be described as an industrial Cthulhu, the productivity of the Great Yin Dynasty was far too low. Even though Yin Shuhuai had been racking his brains since his time-travel to improve his diet and living environment, his ability to make changes was severely limited by the constraints of the overall environment.

He could overlook the lack of internet, food delivery, and personal freedom. However, to make his daily life as affordable and comfortable as possible, resembling the modern world, Yin Shuhuai could only harbor the passion of igniting the Great Yin Dynasty’s first industrial revolution. Taking the technical officials of the Privy Purse whom he could actually command, he plunged headfirst into the palace workshops.

The Yin Dynasty inherited the system of the Three Excellencies and Nine Ministers from the previous dynasty. As one of the Nine Ministers, the Minister of the Privy Purse was the functional agency responsible for managing the private wealth and domestic affairs of the imperial family. Under the Privy Purse was a functional department called the Palace Workshops, which was the official bureau responsible for manufacturing implements for the imperial family.

When Yin Shuhuai first arrived through time-travel, he did not understand the various functional departments of the Great Yin Dynasty. Wanting to forge an iron pot to stir-fry food, he had been tricked by Zhuang Wuwei into looking for the Iron Officials. Just to eat a satisfactory hot meal, he had been forced to strike his first deal of selling official titles with Huo Yan.

Now that he had been there for three months, he naturally understood that the Privy Purse and the Palace Workshops were the direct subordinates under his jurisdiction as a puppet emperor.

The Director of the Palace Workshops was a eunuch named Mo Yu. When Yin Shuhuai first heard this name, he had asked him with great anticipation whether he belonged to the Mohist school. Mo Yu replied that he did not, which left Yin Shuhuai rather disappointed. After all, a ordinary person from the modern era like him, even if he had never read a single book by Mozi, would have heard of the legendary reputation of Mohist mechanics and mathematics.

Fortunately, even though Mo Yu was not from the Mohist school, his technical skills as the director were highly proficient.

For instance, over the past three months, under Yin Shuhuai’s orders, Mo Yu had improved toilet paper and furniture, and used springs to create flying shuttles, which greatly enhanced the efficiency of the jacquard looms. Furthermore, at Yin Shuhuai’s suggestion, the original single-spindle hand-cranked spinning wheel was modified into a three-spindle foot-pedal spinning wheel, significantly boosting the palace maids’ efficiency in spinning kudzu and hemp. Even the cotton ginning machine used for removing seeds from cotton and the four-foot-long wooden rope-string bow used for fluffing cotton were “transported” over by Yin Shuhuai from the modern era in one go, thanks to the legacy of the modern ancestor, Old Ancestor Huang Daopo.

After the new styles of weaving looms, spinning wheels, cotton gins, and rope-string bows were manufactured, Yin Shuhuai wanted to establish textile workshops on a large scale in the name of the Privy Purse to recruit a vast number of female weavers. Unfortunately, this proposal was rejected right away by Huo Yan. The incident at the coal yard had caused quite a stir, and the immense profits generated from it had almost caused a falling out between Huo Yan and the influential families. Busy vying for power with these powerful clans, the Prime Minister did not want to complicate matters further, so he naturally blocked Yin Shuhuai from extending his reach outside the palace.

Yin Shuhuai possessed the professional etiquette of a puppet emperor to a high degree. This was specifically reflected in his absolute refusal to ever openly oppose the short-tempered Huo Yan. Since the Prime Minister would not allow him to open textile workshops outside in the name of the Privy Purse, Yin Shuhuai turned his attention to the inside of the palace.

First, he had the palace maids familiarize themselves with the improved textile tools, and then he sent these maids, who had mastered the new production tools, to the imperial estates to teach the tenant farmers. Yin Shuhuai even envisioned that once the tenant farmers within the imperial estates had completely mastered the new production tools, he could summon Liang Gong. By using reverse psychology to spark Liang Gong’s competitive spirit, he could get the influential families and powerful clans to step forward and establish private textile workshops across the regions, allowing more commoners to secure jobs and income. By baking a larger cake and introducing healthy competition, he hoped to gradually raise the living standards of the people of the Yin Dynasty.

After all, the funds and grain of the Privy Purse were limited, and the Prime Minister, Huo Yan, was unsupportive. Relying on Yin Shuhuai alone made it absolutely impossible to promote the new weaving looms and spinning wheels throughout the empire. It was not even quite possible to promote the new looms and spinning wheels within the imperial estates, given that Huo Yan had just recruited over a hundred thousand refugees on Yin Shuhuai’s behalf. Fortunately, at this critical juncture, the fifty million coins sent by Shentu Yang solved the difficult problem. With a grand wave of his hand, Yin Shuhuai directly allocated ten million coins to the Palace Workshops. On one hand, this was to have the workshops mass-produce the flying shuttle looms and three-spindle foot-pedal spinning wheels; on the other hand, it was to encourage the workshops to invent and innovate, modifying other crafts on their own initiative.

After all, two heads are better than one. Even Yin Shuhuai, who had thoroughly studied time-travel survival manuals just to max out his survival skills for this game, was merely engaging in theoretical talk. In the end, he still had to rely on the technical officials of the Palace Workshops to experiment and refine time and again to manufacture new products that suited the current production environment.

At the exact same time that Yin Shuhuai and the Palace Workshops were plunging headfirst into the production revolution of the Great Yin Dynasty, news that Grand Tutor Liang Gong was secretly plotting in his estate to assassinate the treacherous minister and the foolish ruler also reached the ears of Prime Minister Huo Yan.

Huo Yan flew into a violent rage. He immediately dispatched troops to seal off the Grand Tutor’s estate and ordered the arrest of Liang Gong’s faction members everywhere. Overnight, dozens of court officials were thrown into the imperial prison, throwing the entire city of Luoyang into a state of panic. The family members and close relatives of the arrested officials wanted to enter the palace to plead their innocence, but they were blocked outside the palace gates by Commander of the Imperial Guards Dong Wan, who led three thousand imperial guards. Left with no alternative, they could only kneel at the palace gates, weeping and crying out against the injustice.

The sounds of wailing shook the sky, but after a short while, everything fell completely silent. Hearing the commotion inside the palace, Yin Shuhuai sent the eunuch on duty to the palace gates to gather information. A short while later, the messenger returned and reported, “The Prime Minister ordered the Commander of the Imperial Guards to lock those people up in the imperial prison.”

Yin Shuhuai let out a long sigh. Although he had long known that Huo Yan was opinionated, arrogant, and extremely fierce, and would absolutely refuse to compromise when things happened, he had not expected that in the blink of an eye, even the current Grand Tutor along with dozens of officials would be thrown into the imperial prison by him.

“With such drastic actions, isn’t he afraid that the influential families and powerful clans will directly raise troops across the lands to launch a campaign against the Prime Minister?” Yin Shuhuai sent a direct letter flying straight into Huo Yan’s robe.

Receiving the message, Huo Yan entered the palace overnight to request an imperial edict: “Therefore, we must proclaim Liang Gong and the others’ heinous plot to assassinate the Emperor to the entire world. Such an appalling act of treason is a capital crime that brooks no forgiveness. Your Majesty should issue a decree to the realm, commanding all the regional lords to eradicate them together.”

Yin Shuhuai’s heart skipped a beat: “Then how many people will have to die?”

“Is Your Majesty still afraid of people dying?” Huo Yan’s fierce eyes stared intently at Yin Shuhuai’s face as he scolded, “Your Majesty is showing womanly compassion now, but do not forget how they secretly plotted to murder you and me!”

Yin Shuhuai nodded subconsciously, but immediately realized something was wrong.

This was not right. How did he end up on the same side as Huo Yan? He and Huo Yan were clearly supposed to be completely incompatible!

Yin Shuhuai scratched his head with some emotion, failing to understand how things had developed to this point.

No wonder people always said that when scholars rebel, they cannot get it done in three years. To think he had placed such high hopes on Liang Gong, even elevating him to Grand Tutor and wanting to hand over a wonderful opportunity like pulling people’s hearts together by opening a coal yard to him. In the end, this top official of the three excellencies, who could do nothing but talk, was not only completely incompetent but also handled matters with such a lack of caution. To let the target find out about a massive matter like plotting an assassination if you do not die, who will!

Yin Shuhuai let out a long sigh: “But then again, an attempted assassination plot shouldn’t be a capital crime, right?”

Clearly, the naïve college student from the modern era had not yet realized the cruelty of political struggles. He still maintained a mindset of prioritizing harmony, seeking common ground while reserving differences, and pursuing mutual development. If Huo Yan had not used thunderous methods to lock Liang Gong and his faction into the imperial prison, Yin Shuhuai had even intended to entrust the heavy responsibility of opening the textile workshops to Liang Gong.

In Yin Shuhuai’s view, because the influential families were overly cautious, they had already missed out on the coal yard once. No matter how foolish they were, they surely wouldn’t miss out on the textile workshops a second time, right?

As it turned out, they actually could!

The key point was that now it was no longer just a matter of missing out on the textile workshops, was it?

Seeing Yin Shuhuai’s hesitation, Huo Yan spoke up: “Your Majesty need not hesitate any longer. You appointed him as Grand Tutor, treated him as a pillar of the state, respected him at every turn, and did not even hold a grudge over his fault of secretly communicating with the regional lords. But how did he repay Your Majesty? As a subject, he knows nothing of loyalty to his sovereign or love for his country, nor how to serve his Emperor. He actually allied with traitorous ministers to secretly plot deposition and installation. Does doing this do justice to Your Majesty’s earnest expectations? Now that the matter has been exposed, he should accept his loss and end his own life. Yet this old scoundrel is brazen and shameless; even with ironclad evidence, he actually has the nerve to cry injustice. How utterly hypocritical!”

“Your Majesty should execute his entire clan to serve as a warning to others.”

Yin Shuhuai was naturally unwilling to kill people, and he even earnestly advised Huo Yan against doing so: “If you want to execute Liang Gong, execute dozens of court officials, and even execute their entire clans, how are their wives and children to blame? How can you take your anger out on them? Furthermore, these people all come from influential families, and influential families have always stood and fallen together, sharing a common bond. If you act with such harsh cruelty, what if you drive them to rebel?”

“If they rebel, let them rebel. Could it be that because we fear traitorous rebels rebelling, Your Majesty must tolerate their acts of usurpation?”

“Even so, we cannot slaughter the innocent indiscriminately”

“You are truly a boy unworthy of being counseled!” Seeing that Yin Shuhuai was still hesitating and refusing to issue the edict, Huo Yan flew into a grand rage. He actually bypassed Yin Shuhuai and directly had the Imperial Secretariat forge the imperial decree. It was worth mentioning that the original Director of the Imperial Secretariat had also been thrown into the imperial prison by Huo Yan due to the plot of deposition and installation. Now, from top to bottom, the imperial court had truly become Huo Yan’s one-man show.