Backed the Wrong Horse!

"What is Qiu Yan doing? If he scribbles all over those case files and leaves behind some hidden trouble, it will inevitably cause problems."

Zhang Hai and Qi Jinchang exchanged a glance, the same thought flashing through both their minds. They wanted to stop him. They had brought out the files to make Qiu Yan look bad and force him to yield, not because they truly did not care about them.

Before Qiu Yan arrived, these two had schemed against each other and torn off all pretense over the post of Chief Secretariat Drafter. Yet the moment Qiu Yan came, they immediately patched things up and formed an alliance to sideline him.

At the root of it all were power and profit. There were no eternal enemies or friends.

Still, they dared act this way partly because they had powerful backers, and partly because Wang Jing had given them leave to do so.

With reforms underway and war against the nation rising again, this was already an age of great change and great contention. Anyone with connections wanted a share of the struggle, and Wang Jing was no exception. He wanted to draw allies to his side while planting trusted men in key positions.

He had favored Zhang Hai for precisely that reason, hoping to kill two birds with one stone. Yet because of a passing thought from the Emperor, someone had been forcibly inserted into the arrangement.

At any other time, with any other person, Wang Jing would have rejected the appointment on the grounds that the Emperor was arbitrarily naming an official. After all, official appointments were not things the Emperor could decide lightly; they required approval from the Two Offices and the Ministry of Personnel. As for whether this might offend Qiu Yan, there was no room