Chapter 1206 Whose World Is It After All?
Upon hearing this, a glint of light flashed in Yuwen Ye's eyes.
He smiled and said, "Yes."
"have?"
Yuwen Yuan was taken aback. He was about to ask where the troops came from to reset the Twelve Guards when he suddenly saw several guards outside the hall hurriedly retreating to both sides. Then, a familiar figure strode into the Taiji Hall and, ignoring the situation in the hall, said directly, "Father, I have something to report!"
Upon seeing him, Yuwen Yuan's brows furrowed involuntarily.
But facing his youngest son, whom he had personally appointed as the "General Who Guards the North," he could only compose himself and ask, "What is it?"
Yuwen Cheng walked into the main hall and saw Yuwen Ye, Shang Ruyi, Pei Xingyuan, and others still standing in the center of the hall, obviously responding to Yuwen Yuan's words. He immediately said, "The people Second Brother brought back are going to rebel!"
His very first words were about rebellion, which made Yuwen Yuan's expression turn serious.
"What happened?"
Yuwen Cheng's face still showed lingering anger. Compared to his earlier show of force outside the city, he now looked rather disheveled. He immediately said, "The men my second brother brought back are completely disobedient to me. I ordered them to split up and set up camp in several different military camps, but none of them moved. Shen Tu Tai and Shan Tong'er, in particular, were leading the trouble!"
With that, he clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Father, these are all traitors. If they are not severely punished, they will surely become a great threat in the future!"
Upon hearing his words, Yuwen Yuan's heart sank.
He had already sensed something, but before he could answer, Yuwen Cheng, as if he had caught someone red-handed, turned to Yuwen Ye triumphantly and said, "Second Brother, who are they relying on to cause such trouble?"
Yuwen Ye merely glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, his cold eyes showing no panic or helplessness, and simply said, "What kind of power can a group of surrendered soldiers rely on?"
"..."
"But you, Third Brother, when you had them set up separate camps, did you explain the reasons?"
Yuwen Cheng sneered, "A bunch of surrendered soldiers. Me, the dignified General Who Guards the North, going to explain the reasons to them? Do they deserve it?"
Upon hearing this, even Yuwen Qian frowned slightly, and Yuwen Yuan let out a deep breath. Yuwen Ye then calmly asked, "Third brother, do you know what is the priority in settling surrendered soldiers?"
Yuwen Cheng asked, "What?"
Yuwen Ye said, "Appease and pacify."
"..."
“Third brother, you were outside Luoyang before, and you didn’t know that these people were all captured by me in the Battle of Hulao Pass. There were more than 80,000 of them. In addition, with the surrender and rebellion along the way, I brought back a total of 120,000 troops. They were not the original troops of the Great Sheng Dynasty. Among them, nearly 50,000 were troops that Xiao Yuansui took from Luoyang, and the rest were gathered after he swept through Hebei.”
"..."
"These people come from diverse backgrounds, have left their homes to come here, and are surrendered soldiers. They are already uneasy. Now you want to disperse them all immediately without explaining the reasons. How can they feel at ease?"
"..."
"Third brother, leading troops, managing the army, and attacking cities are not easy tasks."
Yuwen Ye's words implied from beginning to end that the attack on Luoyang was not the achievement of this General Zhenbei. In fact, he didn't even need to say it outright; one only needed to look at his ability to lead and manage troops to know that.
At this moment, Yuwen Cheng also began to realize what was going on.
His face turned ashen as he gritted his teeth, but he couldn't say much. He could only immediately turn to Yuwen Yuan and say, "No matter what, Father, letting these surrendered soldiers cause trouble in the army will inevitably lead to chaos sooner or later. My idea is that they should be severely punished, especially the ringleaders!"
Yuwen Yuan's brows furrowed as well.
Although he knew he should appease the surrendered soldiers, if they really caused trouble, the court had to take action. Otherwise, trouble in the army would always start as a small spark and eventually escalate into a major crisis, which would be difficult to manage.
Just as he was about to say something, Yuwen Ye reacted quickly this time and immediately said, "Father, I have something to report."
Yuwen Yuan turned to look at him, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "You speak."
Yuwen Ye said, "Father just said that he wanted to restore the Twelve Guards, but he was troubled by the lack of manpower in Chang'an. In fact, the 120,000 men that I brought back are the best candidates."
Yuwen Yuan's eye twitched slightly.
Just now, when he saw Yuwen Cheng barge into the Liangyi Hall and mention the riots by the surrendered soldiers, he had a vague premonition. Now, hearing Yuwen Ye bring it up directly, he finally understood that although he had convened the entire court assembly, it had been controlled by Yuwen Ye all along. Whether it was accepting his lavish conferment of titles on Shang Ruyi, or making only the almost humble request of establishing his own government and military headquarters, or accepting the semi-empty title of General of the Twelve Guards, he remained unperturbed.
Even during that long period when he interrogated Pei Xingyuan, he didn't say a single word. Now it seems that it wasn't just that he was confident Pei Xingyuan could prove his innocence, but also that he needed that time.
He was using this time to wait, waiting for Yuwen Cheng to fail in dealing with the surrendered soldiers and return to complain, for the court to be unable to handle the 120,000 troops, and then, logically, for him to take over as the General of the Twelve Guards!
Every step was within his calculations.
Yuwen Yuan tightened his grip on the dragon throne slightly, but those in the hall below couldn't see such a subtle movement. Only Eunuch Yu, who was serving beside him, heard some very soft snapping sounds. Looking down, he saw that the emperor's thick knuckles were white from the tension.
Grandpa Yu was so frightened that his face turned pale.
After a long silence, Yuwen Yuan finally let out a long sigh, withdrew his hand from the armrest of the dragon throne and placed it on the imperial desk, saying, "Your considerations are indeed thorough."
Yuwen Ye immediately replied, "Thank you for your permission, Father Emperor!"
Yuwen Yuan said nothing more, and the atmosphere in the hall became extremely tense. In particular, the civil and military officials in the two ranks looked at each other with some unease.
Everyone could see that the Qin King had controlled this court session. From the moment he captured Luoyang, opened the treasury without authorization, and deployed troops to guard the eight passes of Luoyang, to his return to Chang'an, where he, as the Grand General of the Twelve Guards, swallowed up the 120,000 surrendered soldiers and took control of the entire Chang'an city's guards, he had completely controlled Luoyang in the east and Chang'an in the west. Even if the civil and military officials around him did not receive the emperor's rewards, their strength was already astonishing. Moreover, the emperor could not possibly fail to reward these soldiers who had fought and bled for the court.
He even has a powerful wife by his side who can command troops!
Looking at Prince Qin, Yuwen Ye, in the main hall, and His Majesty the Emperor seated on the dragon throne, a strange yet dangerous thought suddenly arose in everyone's minds—
Whose world is it, really?
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