Meng Yi first bowed deeply to Ying Zheng, and then turned, his gaze burning as he looked at Li Si.
"State law is state law! The very reason the laws of Lord Shang enabled our Great Qin to sweep across the six states lies fundamentally in 'trust'!"
"Merit must be rewarded, and crime must be punished! Regardless of birth, regardless of seniority!"
"If we stint on rewards today simply because Wei Zhe is young, that is a breach of trust! It is destroying our own Great Wall! How will the people of the world view our Great Qin? Among the scholars of the six states, who would still be willing to lay down their lives for our Great Qin?"
His voice rang with resolute clarity, every single word like a nail driven into the hearts of all present.
"As for talk of arrogance, that is utter nonsense! Our Great Qin has clouds of fierce generals; could we not suppress a mere fledgling? If he truly dares to be arrogant, state law naturally exists to deal with him! How can we choke on our food for fear of choking?"
"Well said!"
Another voice rang out. This time it was Wang Wan, whose hair and beard were completely white and who occupied the position of prime minister.
This old official walked forward with trembling steps, yet his cloudy old eyes flashed with a sharp brilliance.
"This old official agrees with what the Fifth Rank Official said!"
"To perform a meritorious service is to be rewarded! A monumental service demands a monumental reward!"
"This is not merely to reward Wei Zhe alone; it is to reward the officers and men of the whole army! Furthermore, it is to show the common people of the world!"
"Let them know that in our Great Qin, so long as you dare to risk your life, so long as you can achieve merit, attaining titles and becoming a general are by no means empty words!"
Wei Liao also came to his senses at this moment. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and stepped forward.
"The prime minister's words are entirely correct! Great King, weapons are instruments of ill omen. The art of warfare lies in troop morale. Now that our massive army is pressing upon the borders, we are in urgent need of a potent medicine to stir the morale of the army!"
"Heavily rewarding Wei Zhe will serve as the finest stimulant for our army's morale! Once this battle begins, the Great Qin Elite Warriors of our army will surely each become like a dragon, each like a tiger, invincible!"
For a time, within Zhangtai Hall, two distinct factions stood in sharp opposition.
The old bureaucracy, led by Li Si, advocated for safety and worried about disrupting the balance.
The utilitarian faction, led by Meng Yi, Wang Wan, and Wei Liao, advocated for breaking the mold, determined to squeeze Wei Zhe's value to the absolute limit!
Li Xin remained silent.
Within his heart, a heaven-and-earth battle raged.
As a soldier, he yearned for victory and likewise recognized military merit as supreme.
Yet as a veteran general, he felt a visceral repulsion and vigilance toward Wei Zhe's inhuman strength.
Everyone's gaze once again focused upon the man seated grandly upon the throne.
Ying Zheng did not speak.
He merely watched them quietly, watching these officials he relied upon most argue until their faces were red over a youth they had never even met.
His fingers once again tapped lightly against the cold armrest of the throne.
"Thud."
"Thud."
"Thud."
The sound was not loud, yet like a heavy hammer, it struck one beat at a time against everyone's heart.
The sounds of argument within the hall gradually subsided.
Everyone held their breath, awaiting the final verdict.
After a long while.
Ying Zheng smiled.
His smile carried a hint of playful amusement, and a touch of cold cruelty.
"What all of you have said makes sense."
His voice broke the dead silence.
"Li Si worries that people's hearts will be unsettled and the foundation of the state shaken. The prime minister and the state grandee, on the other hand, wish to use this person to inspire the three armies."
"You have all seen only the one, and not the other."
He slowly stood up and paced down the imperial steps.
"What the sole monarch desires is not whether people's hearts are settled."
"It is to ensure the hearts of the people of the six states can never be settled!"
"Nor is it merely to inspire the three armies."
"It is to let everyone under heaven know that wherever the blade of our Great Qin points, even gods and devils must retreat!"
His gaze swept across the face of every single person.
"You all feel that conferring upon him the rank of Fifth Rank Official is already a supreme grace and an exceptional act, do you not?"
Li Si and the others lowered their heads, not daring to speak.
"Not enough."
Ying Zheng uttered two words.
"Far from enough!"
His voice suddenly rose, soaring like a dragon's roar!
"Zhao Gao!"
"This slave is here!" Zhao Gao scrambled out and dropped to his knees.
"Draft the edict!"
Ying Zheng's voice boomed explosively within the empty hall!
"Thousand-Man Commander Wei Zhe of the Tiger and Wolf Army, in the Battle of Yiyang, has courage that crowns the three armies, with illustrious achievements. His nobility rank is hereby promoted to--"
Everyone in the hall pricked up their ears.
"The tenth rank, Zuoshuzhang!"
What?!
As these words left his mouth, the entire hall instantly fell into a dead silence!
Li Si's body gave a violent sway, his complexion turning as pale as paper.
Wang Wan and Meng Yi widened their mouths, their faces filled with utter incomprehension.
Even the previously silent Li Xin abruptly raised his head, those hawk-like eyes filled with shock!
Zuoshuzhang!
That was not the ninth rank, but the tenth!
A difference of a single word, yet a chasm of difference!
A Fifth Rank Official was a high minister.
A Zuoshuzhang was already a "leader," truly a Great Qin aristocrat possessing his own personal guard and subordinate officials, permitted to establish an official residence!
To advance from a new recruit to a Zuoshuzhang in a single battle!
This was no longer breaking the mold; this was creating a myth!
Yet the shock Ying Zheng brought them was far from over.
He looked at those officials who had already been stunned into wooden chickens, the corners of his mouth curling into a ruthless arc.
"Furthermore!"
"Promote Wei Zhe to--"
"Ten Thousand Commander!"
"Bestow upon him the authority to form a Personal Guard Camp of five hundred men."
"Bestow upon him the authority to form a 'Broken Army' camp, commanding ten thousand troops. Armor and weapons shall be forged with the utmost effort by the Lesser Treasury! Provisions and military pay shall be double that of ordinary men."
"This army shall not be subject to the command of various commanding generals, nor shall it enter the five-army sequence!"
"Wherever his commander's flag points will be the direction of the sole monarch's military blade!"
"This army shall obey the command of one person alone!"
Ying Zheng extended his hand and pointed heavily toward himself!
"And that is the sole monarch!"
"Boom!"
If "Zuoshuzhang" was a sudden clap of thunder, then "Ten Thousand Commander" and this "Broken Army" camp were a boulder heavy enough to shatter the entire imperial court of Great Qin into dust!
Ten Thousand Commander!
Directly subordinate to the monarch!
Free from restraint!
What manner of authority was this! What manner of grace!
This was no longer a reward; this was the enfeoffment of a new... king among generals!
"Great King! Absolutely not!"
Li Si finally recovered his wits. He dropped to his knees with a heavy thud, tears streaming down his face.
"Since ancient times, there has never been such a reward! This act places Wei Zhe upon a blazing fire to be roasted, inviting a calamity of death upon him! How could veteran generals of the army tolerate him? We beg the Great King to retract this mandate!"
"We beg the Great King to think twice!"
Li Xin and Wei Liao likewise dropped to their knees in unison.
They too had been frightened out of their wits by Ying Zheng's insane decision.
Ying Zheng looked down at the three pillars of state kneeling at his feet, his expression showing not the slightest ripple of emotion.
"The sole monarch knows what you are afraid of."
"You fear his merit will overshadow his lord, you fear he will grow too independent to control, you fear he will become a second Lord Wu'an."
His voice was icy and clear.
"But the sole monarch tells you this."
"So long as the sole monarch sits upon this throne for a single day, he, Wei Zhe, if he is a dragon, must coil for the sole monarch! If he is a tiger, he must lie down for the sole monarch!"
"The sole monarch can give him all of this, and in the snapping of a finger, he can take all of it entirely back!"
He walked over to Li Xin and helped the old general to his feet.
"High General, you are the Pillar of the Sea for our Great Qin. The sole monarch knows you worry that military morale will be unsettled."
"Yet you should understand even more that an army which forever knows only seniority and ranking, which dares not use unorthodox tactics and dares not produce monsters, cannot win this war of state annihilation!"
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