Before Zhao Xing made his move, he had thought through various possibilities:
First, a severe punishnt where all military achievents would be confiscated, his official position forfeited, and he would be imprisoned.
This possibility was extrely slim because even if everything was recorded, and even if Zhao Xing had intentionally killed soone, the fault initially lay with Qian Shougang, who, after all, was a military leader abusing his power.
It was not a ti when the Fortune Dynasty was collapsing, so the probability of such a punishnt was exceedingly low.
Second, a lighter sentence where his official position remained unchanged but his military achievents were penalized as a form of discipline.
The range of military achievents penalized would be about 30,000 to 100,000.
This was the scenario Zhao Xing had anticipated would occur.
Because in his previous life, he often used princes to farm "reputation".
Deliberately finding princes’ subordinates who had erred and executing them to boost his reputation score.
Such actions typically resulted in gaining "reputation" but losing "military achievents," "official positions," and "titles."
But, with careful handling, one could keep his official position and title, only sacrificing so military achievents to gain "reputation points."
Farming reputation from princes was also a favorite task among players because weakening the power of princes was exactly in line with Emperor Jing’s strategies during the Dingxin Period.
Everyone wanted to be like Boss Cao who assassinated Dong Zhuo and beca famous throughout the land. Large guilds were particularly fond of orchestrating such events.
Because in the Battle against Barbarians, military achievents were easy to obtain, but reputation points were hard to accumulate.
Its functions were nurous, including but not limited to "political reputation," recruiting famous generals, promoting rank, and more.
Prince Liang was the favorite target among players.
Because Prince Liang had significant influence, farming "reputation" from him would yield a bit more.
But, the cost would also be sowhat higher.
Zhao Xing estimated that 100,000 military achievents would be sufficient for penalties.
He and Long Xiao together had amassed two million military achievents, so a penalty of 100,000 each wasn’t significant.
As he had considered earlier, their next step was to join forces with various armies to fight in the Qinggang War Zone. If the incident of "military bullying" triggered today was not decisively countered,
then in the future, Li Shougang and Wang Shougang would co to usurp their achievents.
A defensive punch now could prevent a hundred more later.
With such an occurrence, should there be another friction with allied forces, he assud the other armies would restrain themselves a bit more.
However, neither being charged with a cri nor penalized in military achievents was an outco Zhao Xing had not anticipated.
"That makes no sense. Although I insisted it was an unintentional counterattack, anyone with eyes can see it was sowhat driven by personal grievances."
"At the very least, so military achievents should be penalized."
Zhao Xing pondered deeply.
Not being penalized in military achievents, however, caused Mr. Zhao so annoyance.
Because so matters were beyond his understanding, or rather, his experiences from a previous life no longer served as a reference.
"Soone intervened. But I didn’t even touch the three letters from Tian Shan. Who could be so capable to suppress Prince Liang’s forces?"
"Yang An? Does he have that much clout?"
"Fan Zhaoli? That shouldn’t be; he is just a fifth-rank official, and we aren’t even close."
"Liu Tianning? He did seem to think highly of , but Lao Liu can be at most a fourth-rank official now, right?"
Although this was supposed to be good news, Zhao Xing felt sowhat uneasy.
After withdrawing from the vicinity of West Xian Territory, he imdiately wrote to his teacher Tian Shan to inquire.
Before long, Tian Shan replied to Zhao Xing.
The letter contained only one sentence: The final decision was jointly made by Lingde King, Luo Hou King, and King Heavenly Destiny.
"Phew~" The letter burned, casting fluctuating light on Zhao Xing’s face.
After receiving the answer, a weight was finally lifted off Zhao Xing’s heart.
Although Tian Shan had written only one line, it revealed a wealth of information.
"I only knew about the preliminary investigation results, but the teacher ntioned ’the final result,’ aning there must have been variations in between. According to the rules, the initial verdict should co from Jiutian Yingyuan Mansion, followed by a report to the Military Realm’s Supervision Departnt."
"The Barbarian Battle is overseen by thirty-three anointed kings; in the most severe scenarios, it requires the joint deliberation of thirty-three kings overseeing the five major Grotto Heavens."
"But such a matter doesn’t reach the extent of needing ’thirty-three kings to deliberate.’"
"I belong to the Ten Suns Grotto Heaven of the Military Realm, under the supervision of Luo Hou King, King Heavenly Destiny, and Lingde King; this level of involvent is indeed surprising," Zhao Xing secretly thought.
With more information at hand, Zhao Xing felt more reassured.
Lingde King didn’t leave much of an impression on him, but he was familiar with the nas of Luo Hou King and King Heavenly Destiny.
Especially Luo Hou King, who was the first to react when Prince Liang suddenly rebelled, and prevented part of Prince Liang’s legion from heading north out of Lvliang State.
This individual was also among those who hit Prince Liang the hardest and, ultimately, it was he and King Heavenly Destiny who raided Prince Liang’s stronghold.
"Things are different now compared to two hundred years ago," Zhao Xing reflected, "At the dawn of the Dingxin Period, Emperor Jing aid for reform, heavily relying on his brother Prince Liang and granting him substantial power; co the Jingxin Period, Emperor Jing had plenty of people at his disposal, making this little brother sowhat expendable, even assigning people to watch over his own little brother."
"So it was these three overseeing the Ten Suns Grotto Heaven... No wonder..."
Understanding the key point, Zhao Xing felt much more at ease.
....
Military Realm, Hundred Soldiers Tower, topmost level.
Lingde King, Luo Hou King, and King Heavenly Destiny gathered.
"Luo Hou, I didn’t think you’d actually sign off on this," King Heavenly Destiny looked at Luo Hou King, "I thought you wouldn’t bother with this matter."
The second appeal of the Qian Shougang incident, which had been interfered by Prince Liang’s Faction, ruled that Zhao Xing and Long Xiao be penalized 200,000 military achievents and demoted two ranks.
But King Heavenly Destiny blocked this verdict and anded it to not guilty, not demoted, with a symbolic penalty of thirty thousand military achievents.
After learning about it, Luo Hou King revised the judgnt again, leaving his decree on record: "If there is no guilt, why penalize achievents?"
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