The army of Sandburg was defeated and arrived at Westburg a day later.
Qin Che, along with Li Mi and Lina, personally watched them unload the goods.
“Eight hundred people lost their lives, what a pity…” Li Mi sighed.
Lina glanced at Qin Che, who was standing silently to the side, and said, "I have already sent people to the southwest region to investigate the Scorpion Gang."
Qin Che nodded: "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle."
"In your eyes, these soldiers are nothing but expendable resources, right?" Lina said slyly.
Qin Che smiled and said, "That's not necessarily true. After all, they are a force we nurtured ourselves. I believe this defeat will help them grow."
Lina rolled her eyes, and Li Mi behind her bowed and said, "Master is kind and benevolent."
Lina said, "Alright, alright, you're not even trying to flatter me properly."
Li Mi was embarrassed.
“If we need to investigate from the outside, I suggest we also use the resources of the Awakening Department to investigate from the inside,” Lina said.
"Li Xin isn't having an easy time either. Someone is cutting off their talent pool. I can already foresee what will happen next, especially if it's truly an enemy..."
Li Mi interjected, saying, "Abolish the Awakening Department."
Qin Che glanced at him: "That's very possible. Although Li Xin didn't say it, I could tell he was very nervous."
Lina frowned and said, "Fu Xian is the third elder, a bigwig in the city council. How dare anyone target him?"
"Nothing is impossible. When it comes to interests, even an ant can kill an elephant, let alone an old man like Fu Xian." Qin Che shook his head.
Lina sighed, "In the end, it all comes down to strength."
"Madam, in any society, it's all about the survival of the fittest. More civilized societies might try to gloss over the truth, while more primitive ones... it's a matter of life and death. There's no difference."
At this moment, Lu Bin and Cui Zhiping finished supervising the unloading and jogged up to Qin Che, giving him a salute.
"master!"
"Ms. Lina!"
Qin Che and Lina both nodded to them. Qin Che's response was obvious, but Lina, being nominally Li Shuai's person and their superior within the organization, also saluted.
"Give the list of losses directly to Ms. Lina. Go and rest for a while. We'll have a meeting this afternoon."
"yes!"
Qin Che breathed a sigh of relief as he watched truckloads of goods being moved into the armory.
In his eyes, the Scorpion Gang was no different from small-scale operations, just a few dozen tons of goods. As for the dead soldiers, Qin Che never cared about them at all.
Li Mi said, "Let's hold a simple ceremony for the fallen martyrs."
Qin Che nodded and patted him on the shoulder: "You handle it." Then he turned and left.
Lina and Li Mi watched his retreating figure, and the former said indifferently, "A cold-blooded person."
Li Mi said, "I don't think you're cold-blooded, sir; you should be called calm."
"Why?"
Li Mi: "A ruler, a leader, must always be calmer than anyone else, so as not to go down the wrong path or choose the wrong side."
“With his strength, he doesn’t need to choose sides,” Lina scoffed.
Li Mi smiled and glanced at Lina. "Yes, Master chose humanity. In comparison, how many mortals have chosen the opposite path?"
What is the opposite direction?
"Not human, but a beast, an animal, a demon among men..."
After saying that, he followed the route Qin Che took, leaving Lina deep in thought.
...
In the afternoon, a conference was held at the Xibao Pavilion headquarters. The attendees were all Qin Che's confidants, as well as selected high-ranking officials from the Xibao Pavilion.
After Yuan Lin's death, the Xibao Pavilion was immediately placed under Qin Che's military control. Many people were dismissed and executed on the spot. Those who remained were too busy protecting themselves, and as time went on, more and more people chose to defect to Qin Che.
A good bird chooses its tree to perch on.
Yuan Lin is dead. They will die even if they don't surrender to the enemy.
Qin Che hadn't expected there to be so many opportunists, but that was only human nature. In that situation, whether it was a high-ranking official, an assistant, or a low-level manager or errand boy, they would all be swept along by the tide. They had no choice by nature. In fact, as many as 70% of the people present had never even seen Yuan Lin; they were simply doing things under his call and leadership.
They'll do the same thing under a different master, and it's not really their business, so it's normal.
A long table and a conference room were filled with government officials. The front half consisted of Qin Che's close associates: Lina, Li Mi, Lu Bin, Cui Zhiping, and various leaders such as Song Shan and Chun Niang. Of course, there was also Cai Dong from the Chen faction in Shabao, as well as a group of cadres from the military. They nominally followed Qin Che's lead and obeyed his orders, but in reality, they were all trained by Chen Fusheng.
However, in the current situation, both the Chen faction and the Qin faction are on the same side, and Chen Fusheng himself also needs to rely on Qin Che's extraordinary authority to govern the sand fortress.
The latter half consisted of high-ranking officials from the West Fortress government and the most prominent assistants at the very end. A few of them had previously worked for Meng Jingyuan, but Qin Che had forgiven them all. Now that things had come to this, everyone just wanted to save their lives, and there were very few die-hards who wanted to sacrifice themselves voluntarily.
Lina glanced at the people present and couldn't help but sigh.
A new emperor brings a new court.
At just one long table in Westburg, people from three different factions were seated. Not to mention the complex web of relationships within those walls, which was so intricate that it was impossible to untangle the mess. Anyone who could navigate such a place with ease was truly extraordinary.
"Alright, let's begin this meeting. Li Mi, you will chair the agenda."
Sitting on the left, the position symbolizing the leader's chief secretary, Li Mi nodded, picked up a thick stack of documents, and slowly began to speak:
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