Chapter 507 Pre-Election Rumble 1
Chapter 507 - Pre-Election Rumble (1)
Winter, 200 AD.
Months had passed since Sun Ce's raiding incident.
After Sun Ce and his goons ran home, none of them make any military movement as if they never existed.
As for news about the missing Tong and Lu Bu, there was none. Both pillars of the Han Dynasty never returned to Ye again.
= Ye City, Throne Room =
A grand meeting was held today. All legion leaders, military strategists, governors, princes, and political leaders from various branches attended this gathering as Liu Xie summoned them using his authority.
He had to since Cao Cao and Te Langpu demanded it. Per Liu Ye and Zhuge Liang's advice, Liu Xie pretended to act as their puppet and let them abuse his power for now.
In the beginning, the meeting was a stage for honest governors and civil officers to report their achievements and their city development. Followed by the summarized report, legion commanders briefed about their army size, supply status, and their preparation for the grand war with Sun Ce.
Everything was in order. Usually, Tong or his wives would come out and bless them with gold, lifespan, or noble tiers as their rewards.
However, this meeting was staged by Cao Cao and Te Langpu. Instead of rewarding all officers, they switched the agenda to another matter that they had prepared.
"Next agenda, the emperor selection next year, I would like to propose the next year election regulations, qualifications, and the creation of the Federal Election Commission organization to administrate this matter."
"WHAT!?"
It immediately threw the officers to an uproar. Zhang Jiao, Lu Zhi, and the new minister of medicine who was promoted after Sun Ce's raid, Hua Tuo, led Tong's supporters to protest.
Lu Zhi stood at the forefront of his faction, "Don't be ridiculous! His majesty has never confirmed or entrusted us with this election project! You can't just select a new emperor when his majesty has not abdicated!"
Zhang Jiao also followed suit. As Tong's father, his standing in Tong's faction was the same as Lu Zhi.
"Her majesty has ordered us to begin the southern campaign against Sun Ce next year. We will not discuss this matter until we have truly unified the land!"
More Tong's supporters protested against this event, but Te Langpu grinned.
"Unfortunately, by our constitution laws, the emperor's mandate takes priority over the mandate of the empress. Even if her majesty sent a direct proclamation, we will abide by his majesty's decree! And Senior Lu, his majesty has given us a royal edict here! See this? This is the seal!"
He showed the golden scroll with a handwritten edict, which stated that the election was to be held next year. Nobody knew that it was written by Liu Xie and stamped with the Imperial Seal in his possession. In other words, it was a fake decree.
Lu Zhi continued to bicker, "Even if that's the case, the decree was years ago! His majesty's motto and guidelines were [Urgent First, Large Projects Later]! We need to solve the urgent issue of Sun Ce's rebellion before the election since it will create internal conflicts and freeze the economic growth!"
"The economic growth won't be affected by the election since we won't allow commoners to participate! Besides, we need a proper leader to unify our men before the southern campaign. Without his majesty, her majesty, and the prime consort's presence, our grand commanders will be confused since they don't know which command they have to follow! If their orders contradict, you can expect chaos!"
Lu Zhi had enough of this fat minister, he bellowed, "Why does it sound like you are trying to select somebody else to replace his majesty!? Are you trying to rebel!?"
"Wrong! It's just a temporary procedure to solidify our kingdom foundation."
Te Langpu sneered and glanced at the throne, where the princes were sitting, "We have many candidates for the throne. We will elect a new emperor or reelect the previous emperor every 4 years. When his majesty comes back, we can give the authority back to him. Isn't that right, your highness?"
While they were discussing, Friday and Medusa were not present in the throne room. Instead, the three princes, Liu Xie, Zhang Yi, and Zhang Guo sat on the throne together, monitoring the meeting. As for Sun Quan, he stood by their side, acting as their protector.
Zhang Guo was Friday's son, while Zhang Yi was Medusa's. Both were 7-year-old this year. Since their mothers were busy cultivating, Liu Xie took them to this meeting, so they could gain some experience.
Liu Xie did not want his younger brothers to suffer the same fate he had in the other timeline. He was worried that Cao Cao and Te Langpu might trick these two innocent princes like how Cao Cao and Dong Zhuo manipulated him.
For the sake of their growth and experience, Liu Xie brought them here to face reality as soon as possible, so they would have some immunity to trickeries, wordplay, and façade.
The two young princes cling to their elder brother as they were not familiar with administering the political meeting and old strangers. Thus, Liu Xie acted as their parent, protecting them from any greedy minister who might try to trick them.
Liu Xie's cold eyes look at Te Langpu in disgust. Then, he glanced at Zhuge Liang, who was hiding among the crowd.
'I'll believe in your words for once! When father comes back, I'll fucking kill you all!'
With the cold expression, Liu Xie stood up and bowed toward Zhang Jiao.
"Grandfather, I'm very sorry. For the sake of our country, we cannot mobilize our forces without an active supreme leader. We will select a new emperor, so the chain of command issue can be cleared. As soon as father comes back, we'll return the authority and the throne to him. Also, both mothers will still be in power after whoever gets selected as the new emperor. Their authority will be prioritized over the new selected emperor."
"…"
"Everyone, you don't have to worry about a thing! As I said, both my mothers will still have the last saying no matter who the new emperor is. The new emperor has to yield his authority to father when he comes back! This will be a temporary solution for the chain of command issues. Also, my father has appointed Li Feihong as the grand general of all legions, and his position will not change! Anyone defying his order equals defying my father's mandate! The new emperor will only have the authority to control the internal affair. For the military, Li Feihong is going to be the one supervising until my father returns!"
Everyone, including the colluded Cao Cao and Te Langpu, widened their eyes and turned toward Li Feihong.
This was not a part of their plan when they coaxed Liu Xie to support the election scheme! None of them had heard anything about Li Feihong's position in the military!
Li Feihong, who was attending this grand meeting, was also surprised. In reality, Tong had never entrusted this position to him other than giving him free-reign authority to do whatever he wanted in his territory.
This was the first time he heard that Tong gave him this kind of privilege.
Still, Li Feihong squinted his eyes as he noticed a subtle gesture from Liu Xie's aura fluctuation.
'Something is fishy. Does he want me to play along?'
Reading Liu Xie's gesture, Li Feihong improvised, "As his highness said. His Majesty has entrusted with the armies. No matter how the internal affair goes, all military officers will only be taking orders from me. Any violator will be treated as a rebel."
Cao Cao and Te Langpu widened their eyes as they glared at Li Feihong. Now, the latter had declared officially that his standing was on Tong's side, and they could not use him.
At the sideline, Guo Jia, who kept his mouth shut during his meeting, sent private messages to Cao Cao.
Guo Jia: "It's fine. We can still proceed with the plan."
Guo Jia: "Te Langpu has written the election rules. Zhang Yi, Zhang Guo, and Liu Xie are the default competitors, but we will put Sun Quan in there."
Guo Jia: "Also, I've talked to Sun Quan and Wu Guotai as you requested. They've agreed to cooperate with us. In this election, Te Langpu will promote Sun Quan as another candidate, and our clan will give the vote for Sun Quan instead of Liu Xie. Then, the Sun Clan will support Sun Quan to the throne."
Guo Jia: "It doesn't matter what Liu Xie is planning. In the end, we will push Sun Quan to trigger internal conflict as planned. As for Li Feihong's matter, we have to wait until Dian Wei and others' cultivation reaches 8-wing or above. After that, we'll kill him after the Sun Ce campaign."
Reading the private messages, which nobody but Cao Cao and Guo Jia could see, the Wei Chancellor's revealed a faint smile.
Cao Cao and Guo Jia had a mastermind plan.
Before Cao Cao had come up with this plan, Lilim contacted him as Zhuge Liang and Liu Ye had predicted. She offered him a place in her ranks, permanent immortality, and cultivation assistance, which benefitted him more than him serving Tong.
As shrew as he was, Cao Cao postponed his answer. Afterward, he probed Liu Xie if he was usable.
Fortunately, Liu Xie agreed. Had Liu Xie refused, he would have accepted Lilim's invitation and become her subordinate, just like Sun Ce, Guan Yu, or Zuo Ci.
Still, even though Cao Cao had Liu Xie's help, he chose not to rely on the latter since Liu Xie in this world was more mature than the other timeline. Cao Cao turned toward Sun Quan, who had been acting suspicious lately.
And it was as Cao Cao had guessed. Sun Quan was also hesitating if he should continue working for Tong or usurp the throne.
Now that Guo Jia successfully drew Sun Quan as a collaborator, the next step was crucial.
Cao Cao aimed to push Sun Quan to the throne!
With Sun Quan on the throne, the Sun Clan would be forced to fight against Sun Ce's armies, which would ruin their reputation and create a scandal story of the war between brothers.
Not only that, but this election would also create friction between Sun Quan's faction and Tong's supporters. Both sides would go into conflict and destroy each other like how all lords in the past tried to fight for supremacy.
Once both sides weakened, Cao Cao's faction would rise. They could expand their political influence and take over Tong's hard-earned empire from the inside!
This was once Sima Clan's master plan. Cao Cao stole it and adapted it into his own!
But now, Li Feihong emerged as their threatening obstacle. Without taking down Li Feihong, Cao Cao could not move Tong's armies.
Cao Cao: "Aside from waiting for Dian Wei's breakthrough, find a way to get rid of this bastard ASAP!"
Guo Jia: "I know. Be warned, though. Everyone in the main clan will learn about his death the moment he dies. We will also need to remove Dian Wei and our agents from the clan list before we assassinate him."
Cao Cao: "I'll talk to Lilim about it."
Guo Jia: "So, are we going to work for her?"
Cao Cao: "Nope! We'll be using her. From my talk with this wench, she wants everybody to worship her as a god. We can just create a cult for the fool, and we'll keep the authority to ourselves."
Guo Jia: "Don't harm the innocents in the process, my lord."
Cao Cao: "I know. I'll never harm the people! Why do you think we've joined Zhang Tong's forces? If not for the people, I would have continued fighting."
Guo Jia: "You'll lose."
Cao Cao: "…"
Guo Jia: "Anyway. Everything is evolving. Soldiers can now cultivate, so direct assassination using high ranking immortals will become an obsolete tactic because of the self-explosion threat. We should focus on creating private forces with only cultivators. I'm going to copy Zhang Tong's military school system and apply it in Xu Province."
Cao Cao: "Fine."