Chapter 851: 811. The Conspiracy Turned Bigger
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A third, older noble leaned forward. “And how, exactly, do you propose we act? He was protected by white Imperial guards and had the entirety of the imperial army in his control. The Grand General and Deputy Grand General are both loyal to him. The people adore him. Even the rchants benefit from his reforms.”
“Not all of them benefit the reform,” a younger voice countered. “The salt rchants in Qingzhou are restless. The mining clans in Yuzhou feel slighted. If we unite them under our—”
“Enough.”
All eyes turned to the shadowed corner of the room, where a figure cloaked in darkness sat.
“Words are aningless. If you wish to strike at the Emperor, you must be willing to do what others will not.”
A pause descent upon the room. Then—
“What are you suggesting?”
The figure smiled.
“I suggest treason.”
Hearing that, everyone inside the room was struck silent, shocked into stillness. The air grew dense with tension. The idea of rebellion was never part of their original plans.
The Gentleman’s Concord, known among themselves as the Anti Lie Fan faction, was ford not as a revolutionary conspiracy, but as a calculated counterbalance to Lie Fan’s soaring influence.
Their goals had always been to gather power, rally voices in court, and beco a force too influential to ignore. Through ti and pressure, they had hoped to sway the Emperor’s hand, to reinstate the old rules, the old systems that safeguarded their wealth and influence. Never had they imagined taking up arms.
Murmurs broke out. Objections rose. One rchant lord in rich crimson robes spoke first. “That price is too heavy. If we rebel and fail, we lose everything. Our titles. Our lands. Our wealth. And if we sohow succeed, what then? We plunge the realm into a new round of chaos? Just after we recuperate under the banner of this new dynasty?”
Another nodded fervently. “Under Lie Fan’s rule, yes, we’ve been squeezed, our privileges reduced, our influence waned, but let’s not pretend he hasn’t made us richer in the process of that. My own revenues have doubled from trade alone. No more corrupt middlen, no more price gouging in the provinces. It’s efficient. Profitable. Why ruin that?”
Whispers of agreent rippled through the room. Despite their growing discomfort with Lie Fan’s sweeping reforms, many couldn’t deny the benefits they’d reaped.
Even if they no longer held the keys to unchecked authority, their coffers were still filling, so would argue, more than before. Corruption, after all, had always co with a risk. Under Lie Fan’s centralized and orderly administration, profits flowed reliably, if not opulently.
The argunt swept through the chamber like a tide, quelling the initial shock. Many began nodding, murmuring agreent, content to bide their ti and slowly undermine Lie Fan from within the system.
Then the man who had proposed treason, his voice still calm but now laced with icy disdain, spoke once more.
“You all speak of wealth and comfort, as if those things matter when the foundation beneath us is being shattered. We are the pillars of this empire, the nobles, the scholars, the military, the rchants, and many more. The country stands because of us. And yet, this self proclaid Emperor dares to spit on that foundation.”
His voice grew sharper. “He abolished the eunuch system, which has served this realm for centuries. He has dismantled the systems that empowered us, traditions that date back thousands of years. And now? Now he dares to take away our right to mint coin. That was not a privilege—” he slamd a hand on the table “—that was a sacred right given to us because we are the backbone of this country. That coin minting bore our legacy, our power, and our identity.”
His gaze swept over the assembly, his voice turning fervent. “These are not reforms. These are demolitions. Radical, reckless, and sacrilegious. Heaven itself will not allow it. Nor will our ancestors, whose laws and customs he now tramples beneath his boot.”
The tone in the room shifted. The earlier objections wavered, their certainty eroded by the weight of tradition, by the fear of cosmic retribution. Many of these n, corrupt as they were, still held deep reverence for custom and history.
They had stolen, yes. Manipulated, yes. But all within the accepted order of things. Lie Fan’s new vision tore at the soul of that order.
So who had spoken against treason now looked conflicted. A few even nodded slowly, convinced by the man’s call to defend tradition, not simply their own interests. Rebellion, in that light, beca less about greed and more about honor, about resisting a man who, in their eyes, sought to upend the world.
The tension in the room snapped when one of the dissenters rose to his feet, fury in his eyes. “Fine words. But let’s speak plainly. Even if we were to raise arms against the Emperor, what n would fight for us? What army would we command? The Imperial Army belongs to him. He has the Grand General, the Deputy Grand General, and all the prestige of the throne. We? We have words. Whispered secrets. That’s it.”
He gestured around the room. “And who among us would pool our wealth to fund such a rebellion? Look at ourselves. Thieves and leeches, all of us. The mont we ask for gold to fund soldiers, you’ll all scatter like rats. Who will sacrifice their treasures first?”
A silence deeper than before settled in. The accusation, though scathing, was true. These n trusted no one, not even each other. They had grown fat off embezzlent and feared being the one outmaneuvered by another.
The instigator of treason sucked his teeth. “Tch.” He leaned forward, unconcerned. “We can discuss wealth later. There are… alternatives. Small army commanders, ambitious n with grievances, can be bought. I have contacts with rcenary groups, sizable and disciplined enough to be useful. As for gold? We can promise positions, land, and loot once the Emperor is taken.”
He looked at the map behind them, his eyes gleaming. “Xiapi is the key. Take the capital, hold the Emperor hostage, and the rest will fall into place. Once he is a puppet in our hands, his so called loyalists will scatter. The provinces will fall in line.”
Doubt hung in the air, but it was joined now by a dangerous possibility.
Another noble, quiet until now, cleared his throat. “Shall we put it to a vote?”
The room nodded.
One by one, the n voted. Hands raised. Tokens placed.
When the tally was done, the result was clear, an overwhelming majority.
The room fell deathly silent after the vote.
Ninety percent in favor of rebellion.
The remaining ten percent, those who had argued against such drastic asures, sat frozen in their seats, their faces pale. They had co here to discuss political maneuvering, not open treason. But the tide had turned against them, swept away by the fervor of the man’s words.
“This is madness,” one of the dissenters muttered under his breath, his fingers trembling around his wine cup. “We’ll be executed before we even raise a banner.”
The man, sensing the lingering hesitation, rose from his shadowed corner. His voice was smooth, calculated, like a rchant haggling over the price of silk rather than a man discussing the overthrow of an emperor.
“Gentlen, consider this, what other choice do we have? Lie Fan has already stripped us of our eunuch connections. Now he takes our mints. What next? Our lands? Our titles? Our very heads?”
A murmur of agreent rippled through the room.
Then one of the older nobles, a man with a face lined by decades of court intrigue, narrowed his eyes. “And the rcenaries you ntioned? Can they be trusted?”
The cloaked man smirked. “rcenaries care only for gold. And we have plenty of that, do we not?”
Another pause. Then, slowly, nods began to spread through the assembly.
Seeing that, those who protested stood, bowed politely, and excused themselves, declaring that they would withdraw from the faction entirely. They would rather live than gamble everything on a knife’s edge.
But the decision had been made.
Rebellion.
They would raise their banners in secret, gather arms and gold, and strike when the ti was right. The Gentleman’s Concord was no longer just a faction. It was a conspiracy.
And above them all, unnoticed in the high rafters, an Oriole Agent crouched.
His breathing was silent. His body was still as stone.
But his mind was racing.
He had morized every face, every word, and every vote. When the last noble departed, he slipped through a hidden passage in the ceiling, his movents silent as a shadow.
Within the hour, his report was in the hands of the Oriole Commander, who read it with growing satisfaction before sealing it with black wax, the mark of urgent intelligence.
By the morning, this report would be in Lie Fan’s hands to be read.
On the other hand, those who opposed the result, have their own private gathering outside of the eting room, their expressions are grim.
“This will end in blood,” one whispered.
“It doesn’t have to,” another replied, his voice low. “If we warn the Emperor about—”
“And risk our families? Our clans? Our life? You heard them. They’ve already decided on what to do. If we betray this plot now, we’ll be dead before sunrise, I’m sure of it.”
A third, the youngest among them, clenched his fists when he heard this. “Then what do we do? Stand by while they drag us all into treason? When they were captured, they would surely bring us along with them.”
The oldest among them sighed. “We wait. We watch. And if the opportunity arises… we report this to Your Majesty without then knowing.”
Then the next day in the morning, Lie Fan read the report in the privacy of his study, his expression unreadable.
Jia Xu, standing beside him, arched a brow. “Shall we arrest them now, Your Majesty?”
“No.” Lie Fan set the scroll aside. “Let them gather their forces. Let them commit fully to this path.”
“It’s a big risk, Your Majesty.” Jia Xu observed.
“A calculated one,” Lie Fan corrected. “Right now, we have nas, but not all of them. So still hide in the shadows. Let this conspiracy grow, and they will reveal themselves to us, then we uproot all of them.”
He picked up a chess piece from the board beside him, turning it over in his fingers, before placing git onto the board once again, checkmate the other piece that he played as well. “And when they do… we will end this in a single stroke.”
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Na: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 34 (201 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 966 ( 20)
VIT: 623 ( 20)
AGI: 623 ( 10)
INT: 667
CHR: 98
WIS: 549
WILL: 432
ATR Points: 0
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