Looking across history, even those who rose to the rank of chancellor—the head of all civil officials, beneath one man and above tens of thousands, among the sharpest minds in the realm—could still, once they let themselves run wild, take one wrong step after another and commit grave crimes.
As for military commanders, many of them were not even as clever as civil officials. That made it all the more necessary to keep them in line.
If they were not reined in often enough, it would be even harder for them to meet a good end.
Zhao Cheng was keeping them in line now precisely because he did not want to kill them later. That was why he was reorganizing the army at such an inopportune time.
They had only taken one province so far. Though the soldiers and commanders were arrogant, there was not yet any need for excessive bloodshed. If they took several more provinces, then when the time came to reorganize them, far more people would have to die.
"The realm will soon lie in my hand, but the future..."
At last, Zhao Cheng set down the memorial in his hand and murmured softly.
He had lived two lives, and in his first, he had come from the modern age. Precisely because of that, he had never entertained the sweet dream that ruler and ministers could remain harmonious forever. Such a thing could not exist. All he could do was take precautions before the storm and avoid, as much as possible, the future slaughter of meritorious officials.
As for Great Cang, the moment he had raised his army this time, it had lost all hope of escape.
After all, he was unlike the Yellow Heaven Sect of old. With three million mighty troops, even Great Cang at