Ten years had passed in the blink of an eye.
In actual history, not much happened to speak of during these ten years.
It was nothing more than the assassination of General Han Fuyue, which plunged the nation into mourning, while Qin Huizhi received a promise from the Jin people that "the Pri Minister cannot be dismissed without cause," further consolidating his power over the court and the country.
In the realm of the Trial Illusion, even less occurred during these ten years.
The peace treaty had been established, and General Han Fuyue was dead.
Both the Qi Dynasty and the Jin people had lost the drive to continue the war, seeming to enter a period of peace.
For most people of the Qi Dynasty, although they were deeply grieved, the majority accepted this hard-won peace, hoping that for the rest of their lives no war would break out between the two nations.
However, the Jin people began aggressively preparing for war.
The next ti they headed south would be to extinguish Qi once and for all.
During these ten years, the character Chu Ge did only a few simple things.
The first was to isolate the emperor from the outside world.
At this ti in the Qi Dynasty’s system, the emperor was the absolute core, and officials, including the chief ministers, were essentially just his employees.
The emperor was both the athlete and the referee; he didn’t need to compete directly with the ministers, but when he wanted to replace soone, he simply needed to incite so ministers with conflicting interests to impeach the individual, and then he would follow the tide and dismiss or replace them with those he trusted more.
And within this were so very special groups, such as the Hanlin Scholars, giving officials, and clerks from the Bureau of Secretaries.
Their important duty was to directly draft imperial edicts for the emperor.
Chu Ge, as these officials, had them vacate their positions upon taking office, leaving these positions empty.
In other words, the emperor could no longer find anyone to issue his edicts, making him go through Chu Ge, the chief minister.
Thus, the emperor was thoroughly isolated from the officials.
The second was to seize control of governance.
Chu Ge, as the character Li Hao, directly utilized his family and kinship to maintain long-term control over three core departnts within the Six Ministries: the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Justice.
He left the other three non-core departnts symbolically for other officials to share in the spoils.
Moreover, the officials of the Six Ministries, whether Secretaries or Assistant Ministers, all reported to the Left Vice Chancellor of the Ministry of Personnel, who was Chu Ge himself.
That is to say, Chu Ge was actually able to control the Six Ministries and implent policies as he wished.
The third was to take control of military power.
In the Qi Dynasty, the Privy Council held military power, and Li Hao, whom Chu Ge portrayed, held the position of the Privy Council Envoy.
The fourth was to control the Imperial Censorate.
The so-called Imperial Censorate was the Qi Dynasty’s monitoring departnt, the Imperial Censorate, which was also Li Hao’s forr profession.
Chu Ge, as Li Hao, directly purged disloyal elents from the entire Imperial Censorate, seizing complete control of the supervisory body.
From that point on, the Imperial Censorate beca a tool to suppress dissenters. Anyone who was problematic could be censured by the Imperial Censorate, subject to fabricated charges and large investigations, or even directly executed for conspiring to rebel.
These events, seemingly impossible under the political system of the Qi Dynasty, unfolded so simply.
And Emperor Gaozong of Qi had no ans to counteract them.
For Chu Ge, none of this had been particularly difficult to accomplish because Qin Huizhi historically had done the sa.
In the end, it was because of the "Pri Minister cannot be dismissed without cause" clause from the Jin’s peace agreent.
With that clause, the status of the emperor and the officials had been completely reversed.
If the emperor could not dismiss officials at will while the officials could freely arrange their own people among the ministers... then the ultimate outco was self-evident.
...
After all this, Chu Ge naturally faced the scolding of the world.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, the Li Hao he portrayed had only three identities.
The first was as the traitor who killed General Han Fuyue; the second was as the grand villain who deceived the emperor; the third was as the powerful minister who eliminated dissenters and brought chaos to the court.
Villain, powerful minister, and traitor to the country – this image was no different from Qin Huizhi’s.
Yet amid these actions, details that diverged from real history were ignored by everyone.
Firstly, Chu Ge did not dismantle General Han Fuyue’s army as it had been.
In actual history, Qin Huizhi had intentionally fragnted and divided General Han Fuyue’s legitimate troops, first by vilifying the general, followed by appointing his own people to take over the army, and then subjecting them to harsh and oppressive treatnt.
These soldiers had to either accept the humiliation and harsh punishnt from the court, often facing arrears and abuse, or those who caused trouble were executed or exiled, even suppressing a portion of them with charges of treason.
After such oppression, the original army, however combative, beca dispirited and fell apart.
However, in this slice of history, Chu Ge did nothing, instead properly maintaining General Han Fuyue’s army from that year and allowing the officers to continue their routine training.
Secondly, although Chu Ge also controlled the politics and dominated the court, he did not rely entirely on the corrupt and wicked.
On the contrary, as his position gradually solidified, he began to consciously promote people of insight in secret, placing them within the various departnts of the Six Ministries.
They might not hold high-ranking positions, but they could replace the main officials of the Six Ministries at any ti.
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