The Privy Council was unusually quiet. The Small Earl looked at the sparse gathering of nobles, a mocking expression on his face.
"They're not united at all..." He turned to Lin Qi. "I heard many of them are busy dealing with certain matters. They're even bigger cowards than we imagined!"
"I thought they'd band together and launch an assault on the Imperial Palace..."
Whether the nobles admitted it or not, without the great nobles holding them back, whatever they did lacked a certain force—including their resistance against the imperial family.
The great nobles rarely got involved directly. Although they provided considerable support, there seemed to be little that was genuine or practical.
With the day when their privileges would be abolished drawing closer, the thing the nobles had done most during this period was not unite and discuss how to forcefully turn the tables, but deal with the messes in their own hands.
The most distinctive of the nobles' privileges were the Redemption System and the Scapegoat System...
The Redemption System had mostly existed during the Middle Ages. During wartime, nobles were often captured after making a mistake, but they were not worried in the slightest. Because of the Redemption System, even enemy nobles could not kill nobles who had surrendered.
They had to be treated to good food and drink until the captive's family sent over the redemption gold, after which the captive would be sent home.
Nobles who died on the battlefield were ultimately a minority. Some believed that this system had caused the nobles of the Middle Ages to develop their hot tempers, since they would declare war over the slightest matter. To them, losing merely meant paying some gold.
But being able to vent their anger was what mattered most.
The Scapegoat System, on the other