Chapter 91: The Empress and the Noble Consort Have Lost Their Virtue—It Is My Duty to Share the Burden

By this point, no one was naive enough to think that the matter would end with a mere few deaths.

Yet what followed still went far beyond anyone’s expectations.

Cao Peng’s ruthlessness and decisiveness surpassed all imagination.

He sheathed his bloodied sword and gave no further heed to Dong Cheng, whose severed finger had driven him to his knees. Instead, he turned to Emperor Xian.

“Your Majesty, all the guilty ministers and treacherous officials are here. Please issue your command!”

“I... I...” Emperor Xian hesitated, uncertainty written all over his face.

He knew that if he did not do as Cao Peng wished, he might not get through today. But if he cast out Dong Cheng and Fu Wan, it would be no different from severing both his own arms; from then on, he would have no one left he could use.

Besides, if he were the one to issue the decree, he would lose all support. From that point on, no one would ever be willing to die for him again.

Seeing that Emperor Xian still wavered, Cao Peng immediately strode forward and seized his wrist.

The force of his grip was so great that Emperor Xian winced in pain.

“Please, Your Majesty, issue the decree at once!”

Faced with Cao Peng, fierce as a wolf and savage as a tiger, Emperor Xian no longer dared hesitate.

“General, let go. I understand.”

Only after seeing him yield did Cao Peng release his hand.

Emperor Xian shook his arm, pain piercing to the bone, and at last spoke: “Dong Cheng and Fu Wan abused their power and plotted the assassination of the Grand Commandant. I knew nothing of it.”

Cao Peng pressed further. “Since Your Majesty knew nothing, then Dong Cheng and Fu Wan were deceiving their sovereign and overstepping their bounds. What punishment do they deserve?”

“Their crime... their crime... merits death.”

Enough. So long as Emperor Xian had yielded, there was no need for Cao Peng to do the rest himself.

“Manshu, you were ordered by His Majesty to gather the evidence of Dong Cheng and Fu Wan’s faction. Speak now!”

“This general obeys!”

Man Chong produced the prepared document and came to Emperor Xian’s side.

After bowing, he said, “Your Majesty, then I shall begin.”

Emperor Xian drew a deep breath to steady himself and said helplessly, “My loyal minister, if you have uncovered something, then speak. These treacherous officials do deserve to be punished...”

“This general obeys!”

Man Chong’s expression was grave now, like one of the stern judges of the underworld. In the hall, as his eyes swept across the room, no one dared meet his gaze.

“Fu Wan and Dong Cheng were the chief conspirators. Their crimes are as follows: forming cliques for private gain, colluding with the gentry, and plotting to murder the Grand Commandant of the present age, deceiving their sovereign and overstepping their station...”

“There are also members of the gentry such as Xiahou Jie and Xun Heng... who sought to overturn the laws of the realm...”

Man Chong read the indictment for nearly an hour.

After that, the guilty were dragged straight out of the hall and executed.

Dong Cheng, Fu Wan, Yang Biao, and the other ministers and nobles were the first to fall. Then came those who had taken part in the assault on the Grand Commandant’s residence. After that, the members of the gentry were brought out in turn.

Outside the hall, blood flowed like a river, and the officials in attendance watched in terror.

They feared that if Man Chong on the dais merely lifted a hand and pointed, the fierce soldiers would drag them away as well—and then they would have to make a trip to the King of Hell’s court.

The slaughter did not end until evening.

Everyone thought it was over. But then Cao Peng stepped up again and took Man Chong’s place.

“Please, Your Majesty, issue the decree!”

Again a decree?

The first decree of the day had already cost so many lives. What great matter was it now that required another imperial edict?

Emperor Xian had already been drained pale by the bloody spectacle of the day, and when he looked at Cao Peng, it was as though he were staring at a fiendish god.

“The court ministers have lost half their number. I am deeply grieved.”

“It is my will to abolish the Three Excellencies and the Nine Ministers, and appoint Cao Cao as Chancellor, to oversee all military and state affairs, to sweep the realm clean for me, and to restore and uphold Han!”

A roar of uproar burst through the hall.

At this point, Emperor Xian of Han would be reduced utterly to a pawn in Cao Cao’s hands.

The Son of Heaven of Han would become nothing more than an empty title, a shell with no substance left within.

“Hahahahahaha...”

Cao Cao let out a fit of wild laughter. He stepped forward and slapped Cao Peng hard on the shoulder.

“Anmin, you truly are a prodigy of the Cao clan!”

Then he trod through the blood outside the hall, skipping away in high spirits.

Though Cao Cao had already left the great hall, his voice drifted back slowly: “This minister thanks Your Majesty for your boundless grace!”

His retreating figure made it perfectly clear to everyone what it meant to be carried away by triumph and lose all restraint.

In the days that followed, Xuchang was engulfed in a bloody storm.

Using the Xutian assassination and the imperial edict hidden in the hem of a robe as the fuse, Dong Cheng, Fu Wan, and the other core conspirators were beheaded.

Under Man Chong’s ruthless investigation, the matter continued to spread, and the number of implicated people kept rising.

Royalist ministers, the gentry of the entire Yan Province, and even the civil and military officials under Cao Cao all found themselves dragged into the storm.

The lightest punishment was imprisonment and exile; the heaviest, execution and extermination of the entire clan.

Amid such ruthless bloodshed, the scholars and gentlemen led by Kong Rong no longer dared denounce Cao Cao as they once had. Instead, they hid themselves away, shrinking into their homes and not daring to appear in public.

Cao Peng once again stepped forward as Cao Cao’s spokesman, issuing one policy after another.

It was, in effect, a complete reorganization of the internal administration.

No matter how the policies changed, their aims came down to only a few things:

grain, taxes, and people.

Before, whenever these matters were touched, they would infringe on the interests of the gentry and inevitably provoke resistance.

But now, with the blood on the court floor still not yet dry from a few days earlier, not a single clan dared stand up to oppose the implementation of Cao Peng’s reforms.

These affairs kept everyone busy beyond measure, and even Cao Cao found himself occupied.

Only several days later, when he finally had a little free time, did he think again of the young emperor in the palace.

These days he had merely been too busy to deal with Liu Xie for the moment, but that did not mean the punishment for Liu Xie had ended.

“Xu Chu, come with me to the palace.”

“Yes!”

Cao Cao took Xu Chu and went to the imperial palace. He entered Liu Xie’s sleeping chamber with brazen ease, and no one dared stop him.

When Liu Xie saw Cao Cao, he looked as though he had seen a ghost and nearly fell to the ground.

“Grand Commandant?!”

“No, Chancellor! May I ask what brings you here today?”

Cao Cao smiled faintly. “I have been busy with official duties these past days that I neglected to concern myself with Your Majesty. Today I have come for Your Majesty’s sake.”

Liu Xie’s heart lurched. Though he did not know Cao Cao’s true purpose, he knew it could not possibly be good.

Cao Cao went straight to the point. “Fu Wan and Dong Cheng have already been put to death. But each of them had a daughter—one is Your Majesty’s empress, the other your noble consort.

“I was thinking that treacherous ministers such as they could only raise women without virtue. How could they possibly be fit to serve as Your Majesty’s wife?”

Liu Xie’s face changed drastically.

Was Cao Cao going to strip him of everything?

“Chancellor...”

Cao Cao waved him off, cutting him short. “Your Majesty need not speak. I shall relieve you of your worries.”

Several soldiers, fierce as wolves and tigers, rushed straight into Liu Xie’s bedchamber and began a thorough search for Empress Fu and Consort Dong.

A short while later, amid startled cries, the two women were brought before Cao Cao under guard.

Both appeared to be in their early twenties, exquisitely beautiful, with a naturally noble and graceful bearing.

At the first glance of them, Cao Cao actually stared, momentarily stunned.