Whether it was out of fear of Shentu Yang’s troops and combat capability, not a single local powerhouse or noble family put up armed resistance along the route while Zhao Bushi fulfilled the imperial decree to distribute disaster relief. This left Gao Jingde, who led a thousand cavalrymen to escort Zhao Bushi to various places, feeling deeply lonely.

“I originally thought that since the local powerhouses dared to use such underhanded tricks to smear the imperial court and force the people into rebellion, they must all be fierce and hot-tempered types. I never expected them to be such cowards.” Gao Jingde felt it was a great pity—when he led his officers and soldiers out of Luoyang, he had already thought about what kind of marquis title he should have the imperial court bestow upon him after gaining the credit for crushing the rebellion!

Yet he never expected that this bunch of powerful elites and gentry, who dared to oppress the common people and cause government oppression to drive the citizens into revolt, did not have a single person with true spine among them.

“When facing unarmed ordinary people, they dare to do whatever they please, but when they see us soldiers fully equipped with swords and armor, they become as submissive as rabbits. This is truly boring to the extreme!” Gao Jingde evaluated the local powerhouses with a face full of contempt. “A pack of cowards!”

Just like Shentu Yang, Gao Jingde was a man from the State of Yan who had been abducted to the northern desert court by the Xiongnu fifteen years ago. He had spent fifteen years as a slave in the Xiongnu court, suffering severe oppression and humiliation from the Xiongnu nobility, which made him feel exceptionally sympathetic toward the common people oppressed by the powerful families and noble clans.

During this mission where Zhao Bushi followed the imperial decree to distribute disaster relief, Gao Jingde’s nominal task was merely to protect Zhao Bushi and the accompanying young court officials, while all other matters had nothing to do with him. However, every time he arrived at a new place, he would voluntarily lead his cavalry to surround the residences of the local powerhouses, feeding the horses and sharpening the weapons to flex his muscles, which brought immense pressure upon the powerhouses and noble families.

This was precisely the main reason why every time Zhao Bushi brought up the matter of compensation, the local clans would immediately agree and provide the full amount of grain and funds for compensation at the very first moment.

Fearing that the noble families and powerhouses would demand the compensation grain and funds back from the common people after the imperial envoy left, Gao Jingde even left behind a warning, telling the citizens who had suffered injustice to go find him at the Prime Minister’s residence in Luoyang. “The Prime Minister said that the people are the most important, the state comes second, and the ruler is the least significant. Compared to you, the imperial court and His Majesty are both secondary, let alone those cowards who cannot even produce a decent heir. If those cowards dare to continue oppressing you after we leave, you come to Luoyang to find me, and if you cannot find me, go straight to the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister will surely lead troops to crush the rebellion and avenge you!”

Zhao Bushi could not bear to watch this and spoke up to correct him, saying, “The people are more valuable than the ruler, that was said by Mencius”

“Who is Mencius? Why haven’t I heard him say it? I only heard my big brother say it! Besides, if he said it, he said it. Does that mean others cannot say it after he finishes speaking? Why is he so overbearing!” Gao Jingde expressed his lack of understanding.

“You…” The always knowledgeable and well-read Zhao Bushi finally understood what it meant when a scholar encounters a soldier, no amount of reasoning makes sense. He did not want to lower himself to the level of an uneducated brute like Gao Jingde. Furthermore, although Gao Jingde did not understand the classic texts, there was nothing wrong with what he had said.

Relying on the active cooperation of Gao Jingde and the thousand cavalrymen, Zhao Bushi managed to smoothly complete the task assigned by His Majesty. The common people who received the compensation vied with each other to praise the benevolence and virtue of His Majesty and the imperial court.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Bushi had the young court officials along with the local provincial governors publicize to the citizens who had lost their land that the coal yards and weaving mills established by the imperial court were being expanded, and they would even implement a new policy of paying social security and housing funds for the hired workers. “…This is the kindness of His Majesty. His Majesty heard that the people of our Yin Dynasty, in order to survive, sold their land to powerful clans and wealthy households. His Majesty worries that it will be difficult for the people to survive after losing their land, so he issued a decree to the iron officials and the Privy Purse, ordering them to expand the workshops, widely set up jobs, and raise wages, using this to settle the displaced people. He also ordered the private weaving mills that if they want to recruit workers, the wages offered must be identical to those of the weaving mills established by the imperial court, and they must not take advantage of the chaos to exploit the people. If the people want to go inside the pass or to Henan Yin to work, the various commanderies, counties, and fiefdoms are also not allowed to block them privately. Those who violate the order will be treated as committing treason!”

Every time Zhao Bushi arrived at a place, in addition to giving out disaster relief, he would surely have everyone publicize the new imperial policy. The various commanderies, counties, and fiefdoms were thrown into an uproar, and the local lords and powerhouses were exceptionally dissatisfied with the new policy. They believed that by doing this, the imperial court was underhandedly seizing the fruits of their labor when the opportunity arose. They wanted to submit a memorial to argue with the imperial court, but they feared the iron hooves and sharp blades of the court—one must know that the current prime minister was Shentu Yang, a fierce man who defeated a hundred thousand rebel troops at Sishui Pass with three thousand iron cavalry. He could not be compared in the same breath as Huo Yan, who had repeatedly assembled the imperial army to crush rebellions but suffered repeated defeats, eventually losing his own life in the process.

The local lords had already experienced the combat capability of Shentu Yang and the Yan cavalry back when they marched to rescue the Emperor. They were all afraid that if they acted on impulse and took the lead, they would instead become the sacrificial lamb that Shentu Yang killed to warn the others. After weighing the pros and cons, they could only swallow their pride and temporarily back down.

On the other side, the common people who had lost their land heard that His Majesty was calling upon the displaced people from various places to go join the coal yards and weaving mills established inside the pass, Henan, and other regions, and it was even said that the workshops established by the imperial court would pay social security and housing funds for the hired workers. From then on, the people no longer needed to worry about having no support in life or nothing to rely on in old age. The displaced citizens who had already bathed in the kindness of the imperial court during the compensation matter carried the old and led the young to rush toward the Guanzhong region one after another, all hoping to live a new life at the foot of the Emperor’s residence.

“I heard long ago that the people in Guanzhong and Henan have a good life. During the drought last year, His Majesty called upon the imperial court to build waterwheels and pressure wells throughout Guanzhong and Henan, so the local harvest was not only unaffected by the drought but actually turned out to be a bumper crop.”

“That is not all! I heard His Majesty also ordered the establishment of community schools in Guanzhong, Henan, and other places, so that the children can all go to study.”

“I heard the local citizens can also go to the coal yards and weaving mills to do temporary work during the slack farming season, earning quite a bit of money. Every household has its granaries full of grain.”

“Exactly! As long as we enter Guanzhong, even if we have no fields or land, as long as we are willing to put in a good amount of effort, we will never starve to death anyway. Isn’t this much better than staying here and being bullied by others?”

“Let’s go! We must go!”

“Whoever in the village wants to go to Luoyang, let’s go together, so we can look out for each other on the road.”

Those who were anxious to rush to the capital around the turn of the new year were not just the common people who had lost their land. Many talented individuals who saw the imperial recruitment decree were terrified that the long distance would delay their examination, so they also set out ahead of schedule.

Countless long lines of human crowds gathered from all directions toward the Guanzhong region, and the prestige of the imperial court reached its peak amidst this word of mouth praise.

Seeing this situation, the local lords and powerhouses could not help but feel fear in their hearts. It was a well-known fact that in any dynasty, population was the greatest resource. The local powerhouses did not want to sit back and watch the imperial court grow strong, yet they dared not openly resist the court’s decrees, so they could only raise the wages and benefits of the private weaving mills in an attempt to retain the local people on one hand, while planting spies to blend into the displaced crowds on the other hand.

They only waited for the displaced people to arrive in Guanzhong, where they would seek opportunities to cause trouble and make the citizens lose faith in the imperial court.

“His Majesty is indeed generous and benevolent, but he does not know the old story that giving a small help creates gratitude, but giving too much help creates enemies. Those lowborn people are usually tricky and greedy; if the imperial court shows them three parts of kindness, they will develop ten parts of wild arrogance. This is what Xunzi meant by human nature being fundamentally evil. Today we will just sit back and watch the imperial court use generous wages to win people’s hearts, and when those lowborn people have developed a massive appetite, we will have our spies stir up the displaced crowds to force the imperial court to raise their benefits, leaving the court caught in a dilemma!”

“Doesn’t the Yin Emperor want to step on the reputation of the noble families and powerhouses to show off his benevolence? We will give him this opportunity. Let this Emperor who does not understand practical affairs see for himself how difficult those lowborn people are to deal with.”

“It would be best if we can provoke the imperial court into deploying the army to suppress the lowborn people, causing the citizens and the court to turn against each other… only in this way can the hatred in our hearts be eliminated.”

“These words are absolutely correct. The ordinary citizens do not read books and do not know etiquette, they are short sighted and have insatiable greed, what do they understand about the grand trend of the world? His Majesty does not understand our hardships and difficulties, but instead blames us for the rebellion of the unruly citizens. It truly wrongs us to death. Little does he know that the rebellion of unruly citizens has long been a common practice, and it has never stopped for more than ten years from the reign of Emperor Li until now, so were they also forced into rebellion by us before?”

“During the great drought last year, the people had no harvest at all, and if it were not for us raising money and grain to extend the lives of the citizens, those lowborn people would have starved to death long ago. How could there be today’s chaos? They do not think of repaying the favor, but instead rebel and make trouble over a trivial matter, which is truly pushing things too far. His Majesty sits high in the imperial court, having only read a few books on the teachings of Confucius and Mencius and looked at a few articles by sour scholars, so his mouth is full of benevolent governance and loving the people. How could he possibly understand our difficulties?”

“Everyone says His Majesty was born foolish, was disliked by Emperor Li, and was exiled outside the palace from childhood to grow up among the common people without receiving any royal education, which is why he is stupid, ignorant, weak, and incompetent. After being brought back to the palace by the powerful eunuch Zhang Jian, he was even more willing to act as a puppet. Thinking carefully about it now, these words may not necessarily be true. The Yin Emperor is certainly weak and incompetent, but he is insidious and crafty. He deliberately called upon the imperial court to fully promote the water powered large spinning wheels during the planting of winter wheat, using massive profits to entice us to widely plant mulberry and hemp. In reality, he wanted to use this opportunity to ruin the clean reputation of the noble families, so that the imperial court could reap a million displaced people without lifting a finger!”

“That is exactly right, His Majesty is simply too treacherous. We absolutely cannot just let this go.”

The powerhouses and noble families who had been heavily outmaneuvered by the imperial court grumbled intensely, and they even agreed to launch an uprising together, so as to let His Majesty and the imperial court taste their power.

“They certainly came up with a good plan, but unfortunately their ambitions are high while their skills are low…”

Inside the Chengde Hall, Fan Juan, who had already replaced Huo Yan to take charge of the twelve branches of the Earthly Branches network, presented the intelligence secretly gathered by the night owl secret agents during the recent period to the Emperor. “The secret agents who sneaked into the displaced crowds have already wiped out most of the spies planted by the lords and powerhouses among the citizens, and the remaining spies are also under the strict surveillance of our department’s agents. Your Majesty can rest assured. Even if they are allowed to blend into Guanzhong, they will absolutely not hinder the grand affairs of the imperial court.”

However, Fan Juan wanted to take this opportunity to expose to the public the filthy methods used by the lords and powerhouses to plant spies and provoke the displaced people into causing trouble.

“…We must let the displaced people rushing to Guanzhong from various places know that once they cause trouble, the imperial court might abandon the new policy of expanding coal yards and weaving mills to settle the displaced people for the sake of avoiding trouble. At that time, the displaced people from various places can only be sent back to their respective commanderies and counties, and from then on, their wealth and lives will all be held in the hands of those local powerhouses who collect exorbitant taxes.”

Yin Shuhuai suddenly understood. “wants to make the millions of displaced people direct their resentment toward the lords and powerhouses?”

Fan Juan bowed his head and smiled. “This matter should naturally be so. The cause planted by the lords and powerhouses should naturally be swallowed as a bitter fruit by themselves.” Only in this way could they vent the hatred caused by the fact that His Majesty had kindly issued a policy to benefit the country and the people, wishing to share the massive profits with the noble families and powerhouses, yet ended up being plotted against by the lords and powerhouses, almost causing public resentment to boil over.

“This gentelman possesses countless brilliant strategies and never misses a single calculation, you are truly a pillar of the state.” Yin Shuhuai was very satisfied with Fan Juan’s strategy, and even more satisfied with the working efficiency of the night owl secret guards. Therefore, while monitoring the spies of the powerhouses, he added a little more weight to the shoulders of the night owl secret guards ordering the night owl secret guards lurking in various places to secretly map out the locations of mountains, rivers, roads, valleys, bridges, and even passes and granaries in various states and commanderies, just to be prepared for future needs.

Hearing up to this point, Fan Juan could not help but look at the Yin Emperor with deep meaning, and immediately made a deep bow reaching the ground. “Your servant accepts the order.” He knew that the Emperor he chose to serve would certainly not be a puppet who was content with partial peace in a corner.

Leaving aside how Fan Juan and the night owl secret guards under his command designed the trap to expose the conspiracy of the lords and powerhouses, time flew like a fleeting shadow, and in a flash, it entered the second month of the third year of the Jianyuan era. The talented individuals from various places who saw the recruitment decree gathered in the capital.

On the second day of the second lunar month, Yin Shuhuai held the palace examination in the Chengde Hall, intending to select outstanding talents and entrust them with heavy responsibilities.

The topic of the examination was personally set by the Emperor, using the previous incident where various commanderies and counties did not follow the imperial decrees, causing the local powerhouses to collect exorbitant taxes and force the people into rebellion as the question. He asked the talents who came to take the exam how they would handle such an issue if they were officials of the commanderies and counties.

Probably not expecting that His Majesty would show so little respect for their pride, the civil and military court officials led by the noble families could not help but feel humiliated and angry. Consequently, they had the spies lurking among the displaced people take the lead in making trouble, attempting to make the imperial court face a humiliating situation as well. Little did they know that every single move they made had long been watched firmly by the night owl secret guards who had similarly blended into the displaced crowds.

However, what even the night owl secret guards did not expect was that as soon as the spies planted by the noble families jumped out to incite the displaced crowds to cause trouble, they were publicly seized by the displaced people themselves and turned over to the local government office. “…We beg the governor to judge clearly, we have long felt that this bunch of people was unusual. They had many complaints against the imperial court along the path of escaping the disaster. They frequently complained that the imperial court only opened the coal yards and weaving mills inside the pass and in Henan, forcing us to travel long distances and leave our hometowns. They also said that if the imperial court truly pitied the people, it should distribute land to us…”

However, the common people who had truly suffered from the exorbitant taxation of the local powerhouses would absolutely not have such absurd thoughts. In the beginning, everyone only thought that those who jumped around making the most noise were merely the local thugs and rascals, so they were too lazy to pay attention to them. It was not until everyone escaped all the way inside the pass and Henan, settling down in various weaving mills and coal yards under the arrangement of the imperial court, that those people still used the excuse that the settlement benefits provided by the coal yards and weaving mills were not good enough to clamor and urge them to express dissatisfaction toward the imperial court.

Only then did everyone reach the limit of their patience, directly grabbing the opposing parties and turning them over to the various management offices. “We ask the managers to kick these black sheep out, lest they ruin the rules of our coal yard or weaving mill.”

The managers arranged by the imperial court at the various coal yards and weaving mills were all trusted followers of Yin Shuhuai. Most of them were grassroots officials from the Privy Purse, and compared to ordinary citizens, their political sensitivity was much sharper. They immediately sensed that this might contain a conspiracy intended to overturn the grand affairs of the imperial court. Therefore, making a prompt decision, they turned all the people who incited the public over to the government office.

Seeing this situation, the night owl guards hidden in the dark secretly sent the evidence of the noble families and powerhouses planting spies and intending to ruin the grand affairs of the imperial court to the government office through various channels.

The truth was revealed to the world, and the noble families and powerhouses who used filthy methods in secret were cursed roundly by the common people. The Prime Minister Shentu Yang immediately issued an order to execute all the spies, and had the Emperor issue a decree to commend the citizens and managers who caught the spies. Finally, with a single transfer order, he dispatched the Yan army stationed outside Luoyang City to various places to arrest the rebels.

The local powerhouses turned pale with fear upon hearing this, and immediately sent people to present a large amount of precious treasures to bribe the Prime Minister, begging him to stay his hand and absolutely not take human lives. On the other hand, they submitted a memorial begging His Majesty to allow them to pay a ransom to grant exemption from their crimes. They even wrote letters overnight to their relatives and long-time family friends who were still holding office in the court, asking them to step forward and request His Majesty to show mercy. After all, the law does not punish the masses, so the imperial court could not possibly slaughter the noble families of the world over such a small matter, right?

The warning from previous examples was still fresh before their eyes, and Huo Yan’s bones were not yet cold, so they hoped the imperial court would take it as a warning and avoid repeating the same mistake.

A combination of soft and hard pressure actually highlighted a unity among the civil and military officials in the court that had never been seen before.

Seeing this situation, Yin Shuhuai could not help but smile. He immediately let Shentu Yang accept the money and settle the matter. However, there was only one condition: the imperial court’s ransom punishment this time did not want gold or silver, but only required the major noble families and powerful clans to use rice and grain to atone for their crimes.

A disaster that could have slaughtered the noble families of the world thus fizzled out into nothing. The noble families and powerful clans, who had experienced a false alarm, looked at the imperial court that chose to settle the matter peacefully, and they could not help but feel self-satisfied.

“I said long ago, even if that Shentu Yang has fought a hundred battles, what can he do? Governing the world is not about fighting and killing, and simply knowing how to chop off heads is useless.”

“It is just infuriating that the ransom we presented was entirely rewarded by His Majesty to the grand army to use as provisions. Isn’t this funding the enemy!”

“Those lowborn people are truly annoying. Someone was helping them fight for better treatment from the imperial court, so isn’t that good? They actually turned the people over to the government office, thinking that doing so could please the Emperor? Truly stupid beyond cure!”

The noble families and powerful clans who were lucky enough to escape with their lives began to grumble again, yet they did not know that a sharp guillotine, built entirely by their own hands, had already hung silently right above their heads.