The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 212 Trouble Times (Middle)

The messenger-guard obeyed the order. He then turned and flew off to immediately to convey the order quickly.

Moments later, the attacking side suddenly sped up their pace. A bunch of high level-cultivation warriors headed the attack. The Xi Chuan Sect’s military formation that was blocking them had quickly been broken.

Seeing this scene, Tian Lingzi finally showed a smile and said, “Now that is what I’m talking about.”

Prime Minister Chen Jingxuan was standing beside Tian Lingzi. He silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as he saw Tian Lingzi’s eyes. He was full of fear.

After Tian Lingzi’s protected Li Yan to Chengdu, he had made quite a few thunderous maneuvers. He wanted to quickly gain control of Xi Chuan and cease both political and military power.

With his first maneuver, Tian Lingzi got cozy with the head of the Xi Chuan civil officer, Chen Jingxuan. After gaining his trust, he petitioned for Li Yan to appoint Chen Jingxuan as the prime minister, and Li Yan acquiesced. Hence, Tian Lingzi had the Xi Chuan civil governing group firmly in his hands.

Later Tian Lingzi asked Chen Jingxuan to petition for Li Ting, one of two Xi Chuan senior generals, to lead his troops and fight Huang Chao. Li Yan had no reason to object.

After Li Ting and his troops left Xi Chuan, the strength of the Xi Chuan army had been greatly weakened. Tian Lingzi then took the opportunity to reward all the soldiers who protected Li Yan along the way to Sichuan, everyone except the Xi Chuan soldiers.

The other Xi Chuan senior general, Guo Qi was not pleased with it at all. Guo Qi knew that Li Yan was still in Xi Chuan and needed the protection of the Xi Chuan army. So he encouraged his troops to cause trouble. The goal, of course, was to obtain rewards.

Tian Lingzi had predicted that Guo Qi would act this way. So when the Xi Chuan Army started causing trouble, Tian Lingzi immediately mobilized the various troops he had arranged in advance and laid siege to the Xi Chuan military camp.

As Chen Jingxuan watched the Xi Chuan army that began showing signs of defeat, he secretly sighed and thought, “When Guo Qi is out of the picture, Tian Lingzi could take the control of the Xi Chuan army. From here on out, the military power of the Xi Chuan army will reside in Tian Lingzi’s hands.”

It was as Chen Jingxuan expected, the Xi Chuan army had fallen within an hour.

After the battle, Guo Qi fled Xi Chuan alone. He followed the down-flow of the river and headed east towards Guang Ling. He went east to seek refuge with Gao Pian.

When everything was sorted in the military camp, Chen Jingxuan followed Tian Lingzi back to the city. Tian Lingzi went to report to Li Yan about the situation of the “rebellion suppression battle”. So Chen Jingxuan headed straight towards the Secretariat government office.

When Li Yan fled Chang’an, he did not bring along the officers of the three ministries and six departments. And since he planned on settling in Chengdu for the time being, he had to reassemble the three ministries and six departments. Otherwise the emperor was just for show.

After Chen Jingxuan sat down in the Secretariat, the secretary brought him a pile of memorials to go over. The memorials from officers of different levels were all gathered and sent to the Secretariat. When the Prime Minister had checked it, he would then decide which ones would be brought to the emperor, and which ones he would deal with.

The imperial jurisdiction was vast. If every trivial matter required the emperor to make decisions, he would be exhausted no matter how powerful he was. And the Prime Minister would not be called the chief that presided over the officials and took charge of the political affairs.

Chen Jingxuan had spent half the day looking at memorials. Then suddenly squinted his eyes. He carefully read the memorial in his hand again from beginning to end. He took a deep breath and dared not delay a moment, then he quickly closed the memorial and went to see Tian Lingzi.

When he saw Tian Lingzi, Chen Jingxuan took out the memorial from his sleeve and handed it to Tian Lingzi with trembling hands. “Meng Zhaotu, the Left Appropriator had made a petition to ask the majesty to abolish power from the eunuchs. He also requested that power should be handed to the Prime Minister and other ministers. His words were quite disrespectful, saying that eunuchs are scourges...”

Tian Lingzi had just seen Li Yan, and as expected Li Yan had rewarded him for quickly settling the rebellion. So he was in a good mood currently. But He took a look at the memorial and his eyes suddenly became cold. Obviously, Meng Zhaotu’s word had made him upset.

Tian Lingzi returned the memorial to Chen Jingxuan, and coldly added, “Deliver the order, and degrade Meng Zhaotu to Residence Registrar of Jia Zhou.”

Chen Jingxuan shook all over but quickly answered, “Yes, Your Excellency!”

The order that Tian Lingzi said to deliver, of course, was an imperial order, but Li Yan did not actually give that order, so Tian Lingzi had told him to deliver a false order... Tian Lingzi was even too lazy to find any dirt on Meng Zhaotu. He had the audacity to pass on a false imperial order to degrade him!

Cold sweat broke out on Chen Jingxuan’s back as he quickly withdrew. As for the memorial, naturally Li Yan would never know about it.

After Chen Jingxuan left, Tian Lingzi waved his hand, immediately, a eunuch came to him. He only said three words, “Meng Zhaotu.”

The eunuch did not ask much, even did not hesitate and immediately withdrew.

Killing a Hand of the Emperor and killing an expatriate Residence Registrar were vastly different.

Having dealt with the matter, Tian Lingzi was at peace. He picked up the tea from a small eunuch and savored its taste.

Moments later, a eunuch came before Tian Lingzi with a scribe-like man.

“Your excellency, I am the scribe subordinated to Shi Pu, the Subaltern Officer of Ganhua Army. It’s a great honor to meet you Lieutenant!” said the scribe as he entered the hall and got down on his knees in the hall.

Tian Lingzi was still enjoying his fragrant tea. Without lifting his head, he added, “I heard that Shi Fu killed Zhi Xiang? A Subaltern Officer dares to kill a commissioner? How dare he! He’s committed a huge crime!”

The scribe quickly took out a red gold stamped post out from his arms. He held it high over his head to hand it to Tian Lingzi. The eunuch next to him took the post and gave it to Tian Lingzi to open it. Tian Lingzi took a look at it, and a smile seemed to have appeared in his eyes. Of course, this was not a memorial, but a gift list.

Tian Lingzi took a sip of his tea and added slowly, “How did Zhi Xiang die?”

The scribe immediately replied, “Due to ill-health.”

Tian Lingzi nodded and said, “The commissioner died while in office, but the Ganhua Army cannot function for even a day without a leader. Subaltern Officer Shi Pu is kind and possesses many virtues. I believe he can continue the post as the leader of the Ganhua Army.”

The scribe was overjoyed and quickly saluted again, “Thank Lieutenant for your trust!”

Shortly after the scribe withdrew, another eunuch entered with an elegant middle-aged man. After the middle-aged man saluted, he presented his gift list without saying anything. After seeing Tian Lingzi’s satisfaction, he said, “My name is Qin Zongquan, the Inspector General of Caizhou, I’m here to recommend Wang Xu as the Inspector General of Shou Zhou.”

Tian Lingzi nonchalantly added, “Granted.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant!”

In Shou Zhou, Wang Xu was originally a butcher. Having seeing the chaos in the world, he gathered a crowd and caused a lot of trouble with his brother-in-law Liu Xingquan. They overthrew the Shou Zhou government. After that, Wang Xu bribed Qin Zongquan to recommend himself as the Inspector General of Shou Zhou. Since Qin Zongquan got the money, he was happy to oblige.

Tian Lingzi took bribes from everyone and sold the governing. His days were full of joy.

The Hand of the Emperor Meng Zhaotu was a loyal minister with a good reputation. But he was convicted and degraded to Administrator for his words. But as soon as he left, he was assassinated by the river, not even 50 kilometers out of Chengdu.

When word of his assassination spread, the heavens were mad and people were exasperated. There had been many weird phenomena written in history books. Like the sky above the Jing Tomb started raining blood, and frost hit the grain shoots in Hedong. Meteor showers poured in Chengdu and chaos erupted everywhere. To make matters worse the vassal states were no longer loyal and therefore refused to defend against Huang Chao. That had greatly affected the Pinglu and Zhongwu armies’ plan to siege Tongguan.

Suddenly one day, a eunuch eagerly reported to Tian Lingzi, “Your Majesty has summoned Wang Duo.”

“Wang Duo?” asked Tian Lingzi, slightly stunned.

Wang Duo had been demoted for many years. When Lu Yan took over the power, he was pushed out of Chang’an. Now Li Yan actually summoned Wang Duo to meet him. That was not what Tian Lingzi had expected.

Wang Duo knelt before Li Yan in the palace, and the emperor scanned his memorial. “Then Li Yan looked at him coldly and said, “Prince An has already told me about you. Zheng Tian is useless so he has been driven away from Fengxiang. But Guanzhong cannot function without a minister to command the troops. I originally intended for Prince An to govern all the vassal states, but he said he lacked the experience. So he recommended you, I’ve long known about your talents. Though you had been demoted and driven away, but that was schemed by Lu Yan. I dealt with Lu Yan while I was in Chang’an. I hope you don’t let Prince An down and myself down this time and annihilate that b*stard rebel Huang Chao!”

Wang Duo hit the ground hard with his head and answered, “I will die for you, your grace!”

Li Yan rubbed his eyebrows tiredly and said, “Everyone said that Gao Pian was a great talent, but when I asked him to lead troops to attack the rebels, he held back. He kept looking left and right and was very hesitant. To think that his reputation was on the same level as Prince An. They were known as the imperial double swords. He’s brought shame to the old Prince An’s reputation. That’s it for now, prepare early and head off to battle.”

After ten days, Li Yan decreed that Wang Duo would be the governor of all armies, as well as Yicheng’s commissioner. He led all the Military forces of the land to wipe out Huang Chao.

Having heard that piece of information, Tian Lingzi was so furious that he broke the teacup and said with anger, “Our lot have always feared that Prince An would end up with the military power. So I continue to advise the Majesty that Prince An was just not seasoned enough to be the chief of the all the armed forces. I’ve always used Prince An’s inexperience as an excuse, but I didn’t expect Prince An to be so cunning and relentless. He even brought out that old fool Wang Duo. I feel so regretful and hate him even more now!”

Of course, Tian Lingzi knew Li Ye’s relationship with Wang Duo. And Wang Duo simply would not allow Li Ye to suffer losses if he led the troops.

Wang Duo had a good reputation. When word got around that he was to be sent out to battle, people’s confidence were boosted. And when everyone heard that the Prince An Li Ye was approaching Tongguan with more than 100,000 troops, all the Vassal State Armies that had been fighting against Huang Chao had a huge morale boost.

...

Daizhou.

The sun was shining brightly and the weather was perfect. Li Keyong was fully armed and practicing riding and shooting on the grounds. He was galloping at flying speed on his horse, then he let go of the reins and cocked his bow. He shot out seven arrows straight and a hundred feet away, a wooden stand with strings that had copper pots on the end were breaking one by one. All seven copper pots had dropped to the ground.

Such skills, had immediately won a round of thunderous cheers for Li Keyong. The soldiers that were watching all applauded and cheered for him.

Li Keyong reined in his horse, and raised his longbow with high spirit. He was about to say something to encourage the soldiers to take practice seriously. Then suddenly, just outside the crowd, he saw Monk Huiming putting his palms together and bowing to him.

He knew that Huiming was looking for him so he didn’t linger. He got down from his horse and walked straight through the crowd towards Huiming. “To what do I owe the pleasure, master?”

“Let’s talk in the tent, general.” Huiming did answer directly, but turned and entered the big tent. He then glanced at Li Keyong, with whom he had lived for a long time. So they understood each other quite well. Li Keyong immediately dismissed the scribes in the tent for some privacy.

Huiming did not speak until everyone was far away. “It is the time for the general to dispatch your troops.”

Li Keyong was startled and looked at Huiming up and down a few times. The monk was still calm as anything, and apart from the sanctity on his face, he couldn’t tell much else.

Li Keyong walked to the Host’s Seat and sat down. He looked at Huiming and proceeded with a heavy tone, “The other day, I received the news that Li Ye defeated Zhu Wen and breached Dengzhou. I had said then that I should have sent troops. That was a good opportunity for the imperial troops to reverse the situation. But master said that the time was still too soon. Later, I heard that Zhu Wen defeated the group of heroes in Guanzhong. Fengxiang and other towns were like turtles, too cowardly to send their troops. I said then that the time was ripe for me to send troops. Because that was the time for our ministry to turn the tide and earn meritorious deeds. Master still said that it was too soon. At present, Meng Zhaotu had been unjustly persecuted, causing chaos to erupt in every corner of the world. The people of Tang no longer trusted the governors, so why does master say that the time has come now?”