A Grand Scheme to Strip the Fiefs: Great Gan Achieves Complete Unification

Although the situation in the Capital City had temporarily stabilized, Lin Hanzhou understood perfectly well that...

The so-called loyalty of the Three Feudal Lords was nothing more than an illusion upheld by the threat of his terrifying strength.

If he made even the slightest misstep, or his lifespan eventually ran out, these ravenous wolves entrenched in their own territories would immediately turn on the court.

The feudal lords were a thorn in Great Gan's side. They had to be eliminated as soon as possible.

On this day, Lin Hanzhou took the initiative and sought out Empress Li Yuechan, who had gained an initial grasp of the government and grown increasingly composed and decisive.

"Your Majesty, although the Three Feudal Lords have bowed their heads, their hearts are surely elsewhere."

"They command hundreds of thousands of private troops and occupy fertile lands. In the end, they remain a grave threat to the empire."

"I believe we should seize this great victory in the capital, while my prestige is at its height, and resolve this threat once and for all."

Lin Hanzhou got straight to the point, without any beating around the bush.

At his words, Li Yuechan's delicate brows drew together.

"Does the State Preceptor mean that we should send troops against the three imperial uncles?"

"But they are, after all, members of the imperial clan, and they have only just sworn their loyalty. If we send troops against them without cause, I fear we will lose the people's support."

"Heh. We don't need to use force to deal with them."

"If I wanted to use force, I'd already be on my way to visit the Three Feudal Lords, one by one, in their own territories."

"To deal with these old foxes, we should use an open scheme."

As he spoke, a smile of complete confidence curled Lin Hanzhou's lips.

He had spent nearly a hundred years as an emperor in his previous Dream World, so he knew a thing or two about the art of imperial rule.

Over the next hour, Lin Hanzhou laid out a detailed series of interlocking schemes for the young Empress.

After hearing him out, Li Yuechan's bright, beautiful eyes shimmered with excitement.

As she looked at the white-haired State Preceptor before her, her heart filled with boundless admiration and reassurance.

It's so good to have him here.

A week later.

One imperial decree after another, written in the Empress's own hand, was dispatched to the fiefs of the three lords at full speed.

The decrees were filled with the boundless grace of imperial favor.

In them, the Empress lavished praise on the Three Feudal Lords.

She extolled their "loyal defense of the country" and "remarkable military achievements" in "refraining from raising troops in rebellion" during the capital's time of peril.

To reward her three uncles for their "achievements," she had decided to summon all three lords to the capital.

She would personally bestow new titles and countless gifts upon them.

This was the first step of the open scheme: promoting them in name while stripping them of power, and luring the tigers away from their mountain.

The three Feudal Lords who received the decrees were each as frantic as ants on a hot pan.

They knew better than anyone how laughable their supposed "achievements" were.

They had already counted themselves lucky not to have taken advantage of the chaos. What merit could they possibly claim?

This was clearly a feast at Hongmen.

Going meant walking right into a trap, becoming caged birds in the capital and never returning to their own lands.

But if they refused to go?

That would be open defiance of the imperial decree!

With the White-Haired Sword Saint shaking the world, wasn't defying the decree as good as asking for death?

They had no desire to be found one day in their own manor, having "died of shame."

The three Feudal Lords were now so worried in their mansions that their hair was nearly turning white.

They secretly contacted one another to discuss countermeasures, and even sent people to seek help from the Three Great Sects, with whom they had long been colluding in secret.

Yet the Three Great Sects gave them the same astonishing reply.

"The sects must obey the court's commands. We would not dare presume to discuss state affairs."

When the three Feudal Lords received this response, they nearly smashed their tables in fury.

What did they mean, they "would not dare presume to discuss state affairs"?

Hadn't they been the ones who urged them to amass troops and rebel in the first place?

Now that they had come up against an invincible State Preceptor, were they simply abandoning them like worthless shoes?

The Three Feudal Lords cursed the Three Great Sects for their heartlessness, stopping just short of calling down the curses on every one of their ancestors for eighteen generations.

But however much they cursed, they understood their own predicament perfectly well.

The Three Great Sects had severed their ties with them, cutting off their last hope for good.

Now they had been isolated by all of Great Gan.

In the end, after several days of torment, the three Feudal Lords had no choice but to swallow their anger.

Each brought along a small personal guard and set off for the capital, their hearts filled with trepidation as they went to receive their rewards.

When they arrived in the capital, they attended the grand investiture ceremony and accepted the new official titles from the Empress.

Grand Preceptor, Grand Tutor, Grand Guardian—these positions seemed prestigious, but carried no real authority.

It was a complete case of promotion in name while being stripped of power.

Then came the second step of the open scheme, one right after another.

The Empress issued another decree, declaring that to strengthen national defense and respond to the threat posed by the Qing Army in the north, the military system across the country would be reformed.

All the private troops under the Feudal Lords would be reorganized into the national army.

They would be sent in batches to the northern border, where they would face the Qing Army, for reorganization.

When the Three Feudal Lords learned the news, their hearts, which had been hanging in suspense, finally sank.

In the past, if the court had issued such an order, they would have had a hundred ways to refuse.

But now, the State Preceptor of Great Gan had slain two Grandmasters of the Qing Army, and his prestige in the military had reached its peak.

With such prestige, there was nothing they could do that would make any difference.

Even if they wanted to raise troops in rebellion right now, the vast majority of their soldiers would never agree.

"What? You want me to fight that Protector Grand Master?"

"To fight that White-Haired Sword Saint who slew two Grandmasters alone and cut his way through a hundred thousand Snow Wolf Iron Cavalry?"

"Get lost! I'd be the first to take you down."

And so, left with no other choice, the three Feudal Lords surrendered the military authority in their hands.

Refuse to surrender their troops, and they would die at once. Surrender them, and they would not only live but earn a fine reputation as loyal subjects.

Faced with that choice, the Three Feudal Lords naturally chose the latter.

Confronted with a series of open schemes they had no way to refuse, the three lords—now trapped in the capital and reduced to figureheads with no troops under their command—

were filled with unwillingness and resentment, yet they dared not resist in the slightest.

They knew that the Protector Grand Master was deep within the imperial palace, watching them coldly.

All they could do was watch as the military power and lands they had painstakingly built up over decades were handed over to the court.

In the end, the feudal lords who had plagued the Great Gan Dynasty for decades were dealt with just like that.

And it had been accomplished peacefully, with practically no bloodshed.

Those once-arrogant feudal kings could now only remain in the capital, a gilded cage.

Of course, they could not simply live out their days there as wealthy idlers.

After all, they had once harbored rebellious ambitions. How could they be allowed to spend the rest of their lives in peace?

Their ambition had caused two of Great Gan's border provinces to fall and driven countless of its people from their homes.

Such monstrous crimes could hardly be wiped away so easily.

When the time was right, Empress Li Yuechan would settle the score with them.

Thus, several hundred years after its founding, the Great Gan Dynasty achieved true centralization and unification for the first time.