Yin Shuhuai firmly grasped Huo Yan’s hand. He could truly sympathize with Huo Yan’s pain of a white-haired man sending off his dark-haired child, and he could feel the Prime Minister’s rage at being outwitted, but he could not stand by and watch Huo Yan be blinded by anger: “The remnants of the noble families have committed treason, which is a crime that calls for the execution of their entire clans. The imperial court will send a massive army to crush the rebellion.”

“The Prime Minister is advanced in years. It is better for you to remain at court to plan the overarching strategy, leaving the opportunity for a decisive victory thousands of miles away to the younger generals,” Yin Shuhuai said sincerely.

Right at that moment, a servant brought in a freshly brewed bowl of medicinal soup. Huo Yan’s second son, who was attending at the bedside, took the medicine and was about to step forward, but Yin Shuhuai, sitting right by the bed, intercepted it.

Yin Shuhuai took the soup, stirred it with a spoon, and seeing that the temperature was just right, handed the medicine bowl straight to Huo Yan, “Good medicine tastes bitter, it is best to down it in one gulp!”

Huo Yan drank the medicine to the very last drop, and Yin Shuhuai continued to advise him: “The absolute priority right now is for the Prime Minister to take care of his health. The realm cannot do without the Prime Minister, and I cannot do without you either.”

Hearing this, Huo Yan wept even more bitter tears: “If it weren’t for my carelessness in letting the refugees pass through the gate so lightly, those treasonous noble remnants would never have thought of the strategy of crossing the pass in civilian clothing. I have brought about the deaths of the soldiers at Sishui Pass.”

This bout of weeping instantly caused the wives, concubines, and children who were silently attending the sickbed in the Prime Minister’s estate to weep and shed tears along with him.

Yin Shuhuai immediately said: “How can this be blamed on the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister treasures the commoners, which is why you ordered the refugees to be let through the pass. You wanted to give them a way to survive. Yet those rebels took advantage of the Prime Minister’s benevolence to commit such a despicable act. This is entirely due to their shamelessness, not the Prime Minister’s fault!”

Yin Shuhuai’s logic was perfectly clear and his stance was precise. Although military thinkers always championed that warfare is based on deception, there was still a line between a clever scheme and a thoroughly wicked act. Those great noble families constantly prated about benevolence and morality, yet they could come up with such a low-down trick to seize Sishui Pass. This was not only a provocation to the imperial court but a complete backstabbing of moral faith and trust.

Furthermore, recruiting the refugees into the capital had originally been Yin Shuhuai’s proposal. The noble remnants disguised themselves as refugees to seize Sishui Pass, which not only struck a heavy blow to Huo Yan’s political prestige but also delivered a fierce slap right to Yin Shuhuai’s face.

The moment he thought of the commoners of Xingyang being dragged into the chaos of war, Yin Shuhuai wished he could capture all those rebels and force them into hard labor.

“The Prime Minister can have the imperial court assemble the troops and dispatch a trusted general to lead the army against the rebels. The Prime Minister can sit in the court to stabilize the home front. Doing this will not only steady the army’s morale but also steady my own heart.”

All in all, Yin Shuhuai resolutely refused to agree to Huo Yan personally leading a campaign to Sishui Pass at the advanced age of sixty. He was genuinely afraid the Prime Minister would not return.

Everyone could feel Yin Shuhuai’s deep sincerity. Huo Yan’s second son, Huo Quan, cupped his hands and stepped forward, volunteering himself for the task: “Father can appoint me as the General for Suppressing Rebels and let me lead one hundred thousands troops to Sishui Pass to crush the rebellion. I will definitely avenge my elder brother, slaughter every single one of the rebels, and take back Sishui Pass!”

Huo Yan completely ignored his self-recommended second son. He looked at Yin Shuhuai with a deep, piercing gaze and suddenly said: “When this old servant leads the army against the rebels, all matters of the court will naturally be decided by Your Majesty. Your Majesty is intelligent and benevolent, and the entire court of officials admires you wholeheartedly. Moreover, Your Majesty has already reached the age of eighteen this year, so it is time for you to take charge of the government personally.”

Though it was only August, Yin Shuhuai felt his heart turn completely ice cold. If his previous advice to Huo Yan was merely out of concern for the man’s safety, not wanting a nearly sixty-year-old old man to personally fight on a battlefield, hearing these words made Yin Shuhuai feel that he ought to play along with Huo Yan’s performance.

“I haven’t even clearly understood the Four Books and Five Classics, and I know absolutely nothing about military or administrative affairs, so how can I take charge of the government personally?” Yin Shuhuai lowered his head and wept silently, “I still need the Prime Minister’s guidance. The Prime Minister must never abandon me and leave.”

“Is this what you hoped I would say?”

Right before everyone’s eyes, Yin Shuhuai’s expression changed instantly, and he sneered with a chilling tone: “The Prime Minister’s words have truly jolted a dreamer awake. You go right ahead and fight your war. I will definitely stay in Luoyang and take charge of the government properly!”

“I can see that His Majesty respects Father immensely, and his words and actions completely take their cue from Father. Even his advice for Father to stabilize the court was entirely genuine. If Father has no true intention of returning power to His Majesty, why use words to test him, doing nothing but hurting his feelings in vain?”

After the Emperor returned to the palace, Huo Quan looked at his father, who was half-reclining on the bed, and carefully advised him: “Father executed the treacherous eunuch Zhang Jian and intended to carry out a deposition and installation of rulers. Although we don’t know why you didn’t depose the Emperor in the end, this action must have made the Emperor develop a deep rift with us. Back then, when he granted Liang Gong the title of Grand Tutor, was that not also an act of defiance against Father? Fortunately, Liang Gong sought his own destruction, which instead pushed His Majesty to Father’s side. I think His Majesty is actually a person who values emotional bonds.”

Huo Yan gave his son an indifferent look, and the words Huo Quan had not yet finished came to a sudden halt.

After a moment of silence, Huo Quan spoke up again, unwilling to give up: “Since His Majesty intended to appoint me as the General for Suppressing Rebels and let me lead the troops to reclaim Sishui Pass, why doesn’t Father listen to His Majesty’s decree? I also feel that Father should remain at court to deter any petty individuals, preventing anyone in the court from working hand in glove with the rebels to bring chaos to the government!”

Don’t think he didn’t know that the only reason those noble remnants could blend in with the refugees to enter Sishui Pass was absolutely due to internal coordination from the noble families and elites within the court. According to Huo Quan’s thinking, they should just execute all those fence-sitters to serve as a warning to others.

“Execute them all?” Huo Yan glanced at his reckless and blunt second son, laughing out of sheer exasperation: “Why don’t you go ahead and kill a few for me to see?”

Hearing this, Huo Quan instantly gripped his long sword and began walking outside with giant strides, but he was shouted to a halt by Huo Yan after only a couple of steps.

“Do you think I don’t know that the civil and military officials all harbor their own separate agendas? Do you think I don’t know they are sitting on the fence, even secretly contacting the rebels?”

It was precisely because Huo Yan knew this perfectly well that he had weakened the power of the noble families time and again. Unfortunately, the powerful noble families were not the type to sit around waiting for death either, and the fall of Sishui Pass was their counterattack against Huo Yan.

“Now that the rebels occupy Sishui Pass, they will be able to march their troops on Luoyang in a matter of days.” Huo Yan thought with deep annoyance that once the rebel army arrived at the city walls, someone would likely deliberately cause a riot inside the city, taking advantage of the defenders’ lack of readiness to open the city gates and welcome the rebels inside. As the saying goes, it is easy to guard against an outside thief but hard to guard against a thief in the house. Huo Yan did not want to wait for death, so he could only confront the enemy outside.

“Precisely because of this, Father must not leave Luoyang,” Huo Quan grew anxious. “If Father leaves the court, who else can suppress the civil and military officials?” If ill-intentioned people took this opportunity to cut off the army’s logistics, would Father not be attacked from both the front and the back?

“That is exactly why we must have His Majesty personally oversee the grain supplies and logistics.”

Rather than sitting around waiting for ill-intentioned people to hide in the dark and wait for a chance to ruin things, it was better to lure the snake out of its hole. Huo Yan had already made up his mind to use his personal campaign to reclaim Sishui Pass as bait to draw out all the enemies and wipe them out in one fell swoop.

“Does Father truly intend to return power to His Majesty?” Hearing Huo Yan’s words, not only was Huo Quan shocked, but Huo Yan’s trusted advisers were all completely dumbfounded.

Only the strategist Fan Juan smiled with understanding: “When the Master used provocative words just now, he surely meant to test His Majesty.” He wanted to see if the Emperor would stand by and watch the Prime Minister lead the campaign to his death just for the sake of taking personal control of the government.

Yet no one expected Yin Shuhuai to take an unconventional path. Not only did he agree to the Prime Minister leading the troops against the rebels, but he also stated directly that for the sake of taking personal control of the government, he could absolutely stand by and watch a sixty-year-old man actively seek his own death.

For a moment, it was genuinely hard to tell whether the relationship between the Emperor and the Prime Minister was good or bad.

But regardless, once the Prime Minister made up his mind, no one could alter it.

Huo Yan eventually led the army out on campaign. Before leaving, he returned political power to the Emperor, but he left Dong Wan behind. He had Dong Wan lead three thousand imperial guards to defend the palace, and he had his own son and son in law control the northern and southern armies, gripping the military power of the entire Luoyang region firmly in his hands.