Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 818 Behind the Scenes
"Scholars, scholars, you keep talking about scholars. Do you think that if the scholars join forces to attack me, I will have no choice but to compromise? Whose world is this?"

Liu He was furious.

"Your Majesty, calm down." Cui Jun said, "The court relies on recommendation for 70% of its personnel and Imperial College for 30%. Now both of them are against Your Majesty. Simply suppressing them is not a good strategy. Your Majesty, please think twice."

"Your Majesty, please think again."

Erxun also continued to persuade him.

Liu He was about to speak when Gong Saner rushed in again.

Liu He was very impatient and shouted, "What's going on again?"

Gong Saner held a large stack of things that looked like memorials in his hands: "Your Majesty, these are the letters of recommendation signed by local officials from various counties and students..."

Liu He's anger was aroused at this moment: "Well, they dared to collude like this, how is this different from treason and forcing the emperor to abdicate?"

Xun Yu took the heavy recommendation letter, took a look at it, and then looked at Xun You and Cui Jun helplessly.

Even without reading the content of this recommendation, one can know what it is saying. It is nothing more than the same as those students of the Imperial Academy, who are using the big name of swearing to give advice until death to threaten Your Majesty to execute Da Meng.

Liu He, Xun Yu and the other three knew that this was just the first step. Once Liu He compromised at this time, they would have more demands, such as taking control of the military power, restoring the three officials to discuss politics, and allowing more children of noble families to occupy important positions in the court and various important places.

"Great! What a great move! You pretended to resign from the recommendation just to build up your momentum and put pressure on me!"

He suddenly turned his gaze and stared at Xun Yu and the other two: "Wen Ruo, Gong Da, Zhou Ping, these traitors, do you still want to plead for them?"

The three of them knelt down in unison: "Your Majesty, we beg you to reconsider."

Liu He looked at them with some disappointment and didn't speak for a long time.

After a long time, he suddenly sighed: "Ah... I understand your intention. I can tolerate the anger for a while, but I can't lose the people's hearts. How can I not understand this principle?"

The three of them thought that Liu He had figured it out, but unexpectedly he changed the subject and his tone became sharp again.

"But this Han Dynasty belongs to my Liu family and the people, not to the scholars. The country has trained them, the court has valued them, and I trust them. Why? I want them to be loyal to the country and build careers for the people. But now they are only interested in their own interests, not caring about the dignity of the court or the laws of the country. What use is there for me to have such a rebellious heart? Are they waiting for them to rebel and take my head in the future?"

When he said the last sentence, Liu He's tone was extremely cold and murderous, which made Xun Yu and the other two tremble all over.

Even so, Xun Yu gritted his teeth and stood up: "Even if your majesty is furious, I must speak out. Your majesty can arrest, reprimand, or demote these scholars, but you cannot kill them. Now the ministers are almost rebellious. The more your majesty thinks it is difficult to retreat, the closer your majesty will be to turning the tables. I beg your majesty to hold back your anger for a while, and not act on impulse and ruin the court's plan."

"Bullshit!" Liu He couldn't help but swear.

"Where can I retreat? If I retreat one more step, it will cost Da Meng's life. How can I retreat? I have already let Cheng Mian down, and now I want to hurt Da Meng again?"

"Your Majesty, for the sake of our country and the world..."

"Okay, no need to persuade me anymore. I have made up my mind on this matter. I will protect Da Meng no matter what. Even if you kneel down and die here, I will never do that."

The three sighed as they saw Liu He's firm determination. "Since Your Majesty has made up his mind, we will not say anything more. However, most of the scholars were deceived by their elders and did not intend to oppose Your Majesty. I beg Your Majesty to show mercy and appease the scholars with kind words. Then, I will issue an order to hold a grand court meeting in three days to decide the case. At that time, Your Majesty will go against all opinions and grant amnesty with the power of the emperor. Send General Da Meng to the border and promote more children of the Feng family to show your favor. This may help to calm the situation. Even if our ministers have not achieved their goal this time and are still resentful, it is not good to mobilize troops like this again."

Liu He narrowed his eyes slightly and nodded: "Well, the three of you are so loyal and righteous that I cannot bear to refute you. Come, pass on my order to send ginger soup to all the scholars to drive away the cold, and tell them that I will give an explanation to all the ministers at the court meeting in three days."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Xun Yu and the other two bowed their heads and kowtowed.

"Okay, I'm tired. The three of you are here to assist me in handling government affairs. I'm going to go back and rest for a while."

Liu He turned and left, and the three men bowed to see him off.

After Liu He walked away, Xun Yu and the other two stood up. Then, they looked at each other and sighed together.

"Alas... Your Majesty is truly a wise and wise ruler who has never appeared in the world. This time, the ministers have really gone too far. The most helpless thing is that we clearly have a good plan to deal with it, but we have to keep silent. I am very uneasy in my heart. This is really a betrayal of Your Majesty's trust and high hopes..."

Xun Yu said this suddenly.

Xun You also looked apologetic: "We are tied to our family after all. The elders in our family gave instructions, and as sons, we had no choice but to do it. As the saying goes, you can't be both loyal and filial. Now I have a deep understanding of this."

"You two don't need to blame yourselves so much." Cui Jun was obviously more optimistic than them.

"Although this matter can be resolved by political tactics, it is only a temporary solution and not a fundamental solution. It is actually the same as the strategy Wen Ruo just proposed. Although your majesty is a saint, he has relied on military affairs for many years and knows little about political tactics. It is not a long-term solution to rely solely on the advice of our ministers. I think that this ordeal may help your majesty to open his mind again. If he can realize it on his own, wouldn't it be a hundred times better than you and I offering advice and speaking out?"

After hearing what he said, Xun Yu and Xun You's expressions eased a little.

"What Zhou Ping said may not be unreasonable. If Your Majesty can really be enlightened and master the art of being an emperor, even if we are misunderstood and lose Your Majesty's favor, we should be happy with it."

"I wonder why the elders in the clan are colluding with those ministers? We could have taken advantage of this incident to make our clan rise higher than before, which would have greatly benefited the country, the people, and ourselves. How could my uncles and great-grandfathers be so foolish?"

Xun You seemed to be very angry and started to speak rudely to the elders in the clan.

Xun Yu glared at him and said, "Gongda, don't be so presumptuous. The elders have their own considerations. How can you and I be so nosy?"

"Hey, Wen Ruo is just too good-tempered. He still speaks for them at this time. I argued with my father for most of the night about this matter. If he hadn't fainted from anger and I had to compromise, I would never have stopped arguing until dawn. They just hold on to the so-called "lips and teeth are cold" principle and don't want to see the aristocratic family gradually neglected by Your Majesty, or even fade out of the power center of the court, so they are in collusion with Wang Yun and others."

Cui Jun said this and suddenly sighed again: "Alas... I hope your majesty can survive this disaster, otherwise the three of us will never be able to atone for this sin even if we die a thousand times. At this moment, I finally understand why your majesty likes to use Qian Li and others so much. They have no family background, so naturally they can only rely on your majesty for everything. The three of us thought we were loyal, but now it seems... forget it..."

Xun Yu smiled bitterly and then looked in the direction where Liu He left.

"Don't worry. I think Your Majesty is not an ordinary person. This disaster will help Your Majesty achieve success and soar to the sky..."

The three of them didn't know that just as Liu He returned to his bedroom, a carrier pigeon landed.

He walked quickly forward, untied the letter from the pigeon's leg, and after taking a look at it, he smiled inexplicably.

"As I expected... If you want to play, then I will play with you..."

(End of this chapter)