Li Er’s roaring could be heard even standing outside the Hall of Ten Thousand People. Pei Du, who had arrived first, had already dismounted, leaping up the palace steps in a few bounds. Before even entering, he loudly reported: “Your Majesty, please calm your anger! Entrust this matter to this humble general—I will surely slaughter their city, annihilate their nation, and burn their ancestral temples to vent Your Majesty’s fury!”

By the time Yun Ye strode into the great hall, he saw Pei Du’s face full of joy, winking at their group. Li Er stood behind the dragon desk, both hands supporting the desk, the crown on his head shaking violently—he must have just been enraged beyond measure.

The saying goes that when the lord is humiliated, his subjects must die. This was precisely such a moment. Over a dozen men knelt on one knee together, requesting the Emperor to issue orders to eliminate the fool who had brought such fury upon him.

“All beloved ministers, rise. With you capable warriors and skilled commanders, I have no worries.” Li Er allowed the generals to rise, his anger seemingly abating slightly.

Yun Ye found this very strange. The Great Tang’s territory was now somewhat excessively large. Including those autonomous tributary prefectures that had voluntarily submitted, the territory to the north had already crossed the Northern Sea, to the west was Persia, to the northeast were the various Mohe tribes, to the southwest were Tianzhu and Tubo, to the south there were no neighbors—Yun Ye had killed them all clean—to the east across the sea was the Wa Kingdom, and on the Korean Peninsula only Silla and tiny Baekje remained. Who could still make Li Er this furiously angry?

If there were any adverse developments at the borders, he as the Minister of War should be the first to know. Why did he know nothing? Now everyone in the world was avoiding the Great Tang—who would be so foolish as to stroke the Great Tang’s tiger whiskers?

“Yun Ye, do you know who the commandant of the Protectorate of Pacified West is?” Li Er’s gloomy voice rang out.

Yun Ye quickly stepped forward to answer: “Your Majesty, since our dynasty pacified Gaochang, the Protector of Pacified West has always been Prince Consort and Commandant Qiao Shiwang. He has served as commandant of the Protectorate of Pacified West for four years.”

Li Er nodded and said: “How does the Ministry of War’s Merit Assessment Bureau evaluate Qiao Shiwang?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, since Qiao Shiwang has guarded Pacified West, though he has made no advances, he has never brought shame upon our nation through military losses, nor has he lost an inch of territory. Therefore, the Ministry of War’s Merit Assessment Bureau rates him as average.”

“That’s fairly evaluated. Civil affairs are not within your Ministry of War’s assessment scope, so Qiao Shiwang’s faults have nothing to do with your ministry. You may step back.” After hearing Yun Ye’s answer, Li Er was noncommittal.

Civil affairs? Yun Ye unexpectedly heard the words “civil affairs” from Li Er’s mouth. What civil affairs could there be in Pacified West? Apart from Turpan, the administrative seat of Pacified West, the rest were all tributary prefectures. Although Academy students had continuously gone there over these years, their main purpose was exploitation, not bringing warmth to the people of Khotan and Kucha—where did civil affairs come into it?

As long as Qiao Shiwang overawed those tributary prefectures, prevented them from declaring independence, and ensured the trade routes remained open, that was already a great achievement. How could civil affairs be connected to him? If Old Qiao got into trouble over civil affairs issues, that would truly be terrible luck.

“Fang Xuanling, explain the Western Regions’ affairs to these beloved ministers, let them understand what exactly our dynasty’s great army has been doing in the Western Regions these years. It would be best if they could take warning from this.”

Fang Xuanling emerged from the left side, came before the various great generals, and said sorrowfully: “Since the eighth year of Zhenguan when Hou Junji pacified Gaochang, our dynasty has continuously deployed troops to Pacified West. Tuyuhun, Xue Yantuo, and the Huihe have all retreated. Khotan, Kucha, ancient Dayuezhi, Kashgar, and Yanqi have all fallen under our dynasty’s control. However, merely four years have passed, and ancient Dayuezhi has already disappeared. Kucha had a population of four hundred thousand—now less than one hundred thousand remain, huddled miserably in the place called Kucha crying out in suffering.”

“The fate of the Khotan people is slightly better, mainly because that place is rich in pearls and jade. As long as they pay heavy taxes, they can barely survive. As for the Kingdom of Yanqi, it has had six different kings in four years. Add to this Loulan, which suddenly disappeared some time ago—I wonder if the great generals, upon hearing these matters, can still remain unmoved?”

“What’s it got to do with us?” Hearing it wasn’t foreign invasion, the group of great generals immediately lost interest. Pei Du quietly responded from within the crowd. These words weren’t wrong—if Han people suffered such misfortune, these men would come before their sovereign with their heads on the line, that was certain. But now, since it was a group of savages from who-knows-where encountering these tragedies, it truly didn’t evoke much sympathy.

Everyone had received their share of the annual tribute silver from the Protectorate of Pacified West. As long as it wasn’t the crime of military defeat and national humiliation, who would care what actually happened in distant Pacified West? At least in Yun Ye’s letters to Qiao Shiwang, he had clearly stated that the Academy’s people were going to investigate the secret of Loulan’s disappearance, not targeting the Protectorate of Pacified West. They wanted to see what caused the Loulan people to disappear—they had already disappeared once years ago, and now they’d disappeared again. Was there some conspiracy? He told him that he must keep the Academy’s people safe, and analyzed for him that if these Academy people carelessly disappeared, the trouble Qiao Shiwang would face wouldn’t be much better than having nine generations of relatives executed. Everyone in the capital would not spare him, and this would be so whether it had anything to do with him or not.

What was the Emperor trying to do? He was aware of all these circumstances, and the silver he received was always the largest share. Note—this money wasn’t offered to the court, but to the Guanlong Li Family. As patriarch of the Guanlong Li Family, Li Er couldn’t possibly not know this silver was covered in blood. Why was he suddenly going mad today?

Fang Xuanling heard Pei Du’s answer and chuckled before continuing: “If following convention, it truly wouldn’t count as anything major. This old minister now only wants to ask you all—why have so many barbarian herdsmen slaves appeared in the Henan region? The pastures there are easily hundreds of li, some even exceeding three hundred li. Can you tell this old minister whose they all are?”

The Hetao was a strategic military location south of the desert. The Yellow River made a great bend through here. The Qin and Han dynasties called it Henan; after the Ming built the Yulin Great Wall, it began to be called Hetao. Its range included: the southwestern part of today’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, the northeastern part of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, and parts of northern Shaanxi Province. To the north it connected to beyond the frontier, to the south it bordered Guanzhong, to the west it neighbored Gan-Liang, to the east it linked to Youyan—it was the northern barrier of Chang’an and a flanking shield for Yanjing.

The Hetao region had been inhabited by multiple ethnicities since ancient times. During the Warring States period it belonged to Zhao. In Qin it belonged to Jiuyuan, Beidi and other commanderies. In Han it belonged to Shuofang, Wuyuan, Xihe and other commanderies. In Western Jin it was Qiang and Hu territory. During Eastern Jin, the Xiongnu established a state here, called Xia. In Tang it belonged to Guannei Circuit.

The three words “Guannei Circuit” were enough to explain the problem. The greatest dream of a barbarian’s life was to be able to invade Guannei Circuit. Now there was no need to invade—they’d been brought directly into Guannei Circuit by those greedy fools who didn’t know if they were alive or dead.

Guannei Circuit could be called the Great Tang’s front courtyard. Now beside the imperial couch slept countless bearded barbarians who hated the Great Tang. No wonder Li Er was furious. Just counting them, one would know—if the total number of bearded barbarians who could fill the entire Henan region (the ancient name for Hetao) was less than three hundred thousand, that would be the strange thing.

“Yun Ye, how many documents permitting foreign tribes to enter the pass have been approved by your hand?” Li Er began interrogating Yun Ye again, because the Yun Family had a very large pasture under Yin Mountain.

“Your Majesty, this humble subject has not approved a single one. Not only have I not approved barbarians entering Guannei Circuit, I didn’t even want to approve travel permits for Koreans coming to the capital to surrender—it was Your Majesty who strictly ordered me to approve them.” Yun Ye looked resentfully at Li Er. Whenever this fellow thought of something bad, he would ask if it had anything to do with him, as if Yun Ye himself were truly a scoundrel bringing disaster to the nation and people.

Li Er coughed awkwardly and continued: “Good that you haven’t. At least you still have some loyalty and respect. Koreans surrendering and barbarians entering Guannei Circuit are two different matters and cannot be confused. Now I ask you—how should the over three hundred thousand barbarians in the Henan region be dealt with? Since you let these people in, give me a plan.”

Utterly unlucky! Farming nicely, suddenly dragged to the Hall of Ten Thousand People to handle official business. This sort of thing was the responsibility of those civil officials—why make this group of military officials think of solutions? Where had those civil officials gone? Why was even Fang Xuanling keeping his eyes closed without making a sound?

Yun Ye’s whole body suddenly shivered. What were military men good at? Their greatest skill was taking knives to cut people down. The Emperor asking military officials for counsel—wasn’t he just wanting to kill people? Could it be that these three hundred thousand bearded barbarians couldn’t stay alive? He absolutely wouldn’t step forward, absolutely wouldn’t say the words about cutting down these bearded barbarians. If it were two armies in battle, killing however many barbarians gave Yun Ye no psychological burden—enemies should be eliminated. But now these were three hundred thousand unarmed herdsmen slaves. Yun Ye couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Bai Qi buried alive four hundred thousand surrendered soldiers and was labeled a butcher, ultimately meeting a bad end. If he himself buried alive three hundred thousand herdsmen slaves, heaven only knew how the Old Yan family would write him as a cruel and brutal person. This matter couldn’t be taken on. Any military official who could reach the rank of great general was no fool. If it were military affairs, naturally each would bravely step forward. But now, since it was about killing herdsmen slaves, it was meaningless. Moreover, if he killed all those herdsmen slaves, wouldn’t the pasture owners of the Henan region hate him to death? They wouldn’t dare hate the Emperor—all their fury would inevitably pour down on his own head. This would cause internal strife among military officials. These damn civil officials were truly vicious.

The great hall was very quiet. Yun Ye toyed with his fingers, tilted his head back to look at the patterns on the hall ceiling. There was even the story of Mencius’s mother moving three times up there. A great cluster of bats surrounded Mencius’s mother—those who knew would say this was an auspicious pattern, those who didn’t would think it was vampires attacking Mencius’s mother.

Having labored all day, Yun Ye felt somewhat fatigued. He forcefully suppressed his yawns. Whoever wanted to kill could go kill—as long as it wasn’t him, that was fine. Killing people was not a pleasant task.

“What, no one to share my burdens? Pei Du, what did you just say? Could it be that in merely the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, you’ve forgotten?” Li Er’s voice became sinister again.

Pei Du’s entire person immediately became like a bitter melon. He knelt on one knee to request punishment: “Reporting to Your Majesty, if foreign invaders attack or internal traitors create chaos, this humble subject would be shattered to pieces serving Your Majesty. But asking this humble subject to kill those unarmed herdsmen slaves—I truly cannot bring myself to do it. I request Your Majesty’s punishment.” Pei Du thought it over carefully, weighing the pros and cons, and felt it was better to refuse the Emperor’s request, because offending colleagues was far more frightening than offending the Emperor.