ALL NOVEL chapter 38
Chapter 38 A Good Show
Qin Ji had many followers.
These followers were not actually his own but were left by his father in the court. Even though many of them were, in a true sense, elders to Qin Ji, in terms of court status, Qin Ji was still their leader. Therefore, these followers would do their best to curry favor with him.
Qin Ji naturally knew that such followers, connected by interests, were not stable. But now, he indeed needed these people. Many of them were involved in various court affairs. The reason Qin Ji could do many things beyond his duties as Grand Marshal was because of the cooperation of these followers.
And now, he was going to mobilize these followers to do things for him.
…
Xia Yuxiao woke up from her palace in the early morning.
She didn’t sleep well. She had been dreaming since she fell asleep last night.
She dreamed that she was sitting upright in her seat, ready to issue some command, when suddenly, a tall and sturdy guy in mighty armor came up with a knife, then knelt on one knee and, with seemingly sincere and loyal words, persuaded her to give up the throne.
Of course, Xia Yuxiao would not agree, and then this guy openly pounced on her, pressing her firmly to the ground, and then raised the knife in his hand.
The terrible thing was, Xia Yuxiao did not wake up from the nightmare because of this. On the contrary, she soon had another dream.
A guy usurped her position, controlling the entire empire behind her back. She watched helplessly as her people died one by one in endless wars, as families were torn apart. But when she was about to collapse, the guy behind her still forced her to write edicts that she didn’t want to write.
When she woke up, she was in a cold sweat.
The things in the dream were not reality, but she was indeed worried about these things in reality.
She knew very well who the person in the dream was. She also understood that this guy would not really do what he did in the dream—he was very calm, and it was not the best time for him to act, so it was impossible for him to really do such a thing.
But…
Xia Yuxiao stroked her hand, the hand that had once held the other person’s neck tightly. She even had an illusion at that moment: this guy, did he really swear loyalty to me?
“Your Majesty, you’re awake?”
The girl beside her smiled at her.
“Ah, it’s you.”
Xia Yuxiao wiped the sweat off her face and said.
The girl in front of her was the daughter of the county governor that Qin Ji had recommended. Because she was surprisingly good at taking care of people, Xia Yuxiao didn’t leave her to grow old in the harem but transferred her to her side to take care of her.
“Are there any memorials today?”
“Today’s memorials are very similar to those of the past.” Liu Songyao said, placing stacks of memorials in front of her, “So similar that I’m a bit suspicious.”
Xia Yuxiao took these memorials and scanned them one by one.
Tsk, she was right, the similarity was indeed quite high.
Every day, there had to be a batch of memorials specifically impeaching Qin Ji. This had become a daily routine. If there were no memorials impeaching Qin Ji during the approval process, it would even make people suspect that something abnormal was going to happen today.
However, one of the memorials caught her attention.
This memorial wrote about Qin Ji’s transfer of five hundred elite soldiers. Xia Yuxiao was already used to Qin Ji’s transfer of troops. After all, the guy had considerable military power in his hands, so it was easy for him to transfer some troops.
This memorial was full of impassioned words, saying that Qin Ji transferred so many people, he must have ulterior motives, and earnestly requested the emperor to investigate immediately.
Ridiculous, if I dared to investigate, would I need you to shout about it?
Xia Yuxiao casually threw the memorial aside, then looked at Liu Songyao: “Are those memorials important? Bring them to me.”
“Well, this one,” Liu Songyao picked one out, “is about the construction of the canal.”
“What? Is there an accident in the canal construction?”
“Ah, no,” Liu Songyao said, “the canal construction is proceeding as usual, but the person in charge over there said they ran out of money.”
A vein popped out on Xia Yuxiao’s forehead: “Out of money again? Didn’t we just allocate funds a few days ago?”
“The canal construction is very costly, such consumption is normal—this is what they said in the memorial.”
“If he dares to say that again in front of me, I’ll shove the gold right into his mouth,” Xia Yuxiao said fiercely. “Does he think… does he think I don’t know the cost of building the canal? I didn’t question him the last few times and directly allocated funds to him, just for them to embezzle. These b*stards should get to work after they’ve had their fill. Now it’s become a bottomless pit that can’t be filled, right?”
Xia Yuxiao took a deep breath to lower her rising blood pressure, then picked up a pen to write a reply:
“Does His Majesty not know about the canal? The previous requests for money and grain have all been approved. How can you still ask for more? I hope you will take care of this yourself. I don’t know how much wealth your family has, but if needed, how about using your family’s wealth to fund the canal?”
In other words, don’t ask for too much, or I’ll confiscate your family’s property if you don’t get the job done.
Anyway, those guys have eaten enough. They should know when to stop.
“And there’s also the matter of military reform. Duke An Guo, Qin Ji, submitted a memorial saying that the reform of the army should start with improving the basic combat capabilities of the soldiers, so a large number of practitioners need to be hired to serve the army…”
“Approved, I’ll allocate some money… wait!?” Xia Yuxiao suddenly realized something was wrong. “This isn’t his responsibility!?”
Wasn’t General Bai supposed to be in charge of the military reform?
“General Bai went north to fight, so this task naturally falls to Duke An Guo. He is the Grand Marshal.”
“… Grand Marshal, Grand Marshal, always the Grand Marshal!”
Xia Yuxiao scratched her head in frustration, making a whining sound. She didn’t understand why the late emperor appointed this guy’s father as the Grand Marshal, and why she impulsively let him inherit the position after seeing him win a few battles!
“But on the other hand, even if Duke An Guo wasn’t the Grand Marshal, he would still take charge of what he should.” Liu Songyao shook his head.
“Alright, what else?”
“The Sal Kingdom sent envoys, and another tribe adjacent to the Sal Kingdom also sent people over.”
“Oh?”
Xia Yuxiao suddenly smiled.
Aha, they’re here. This is a good thing.
“Invite our esteemed Grand Marshal over, this will be a good show.”