"Youjie, since I ascended the throne, have I ever treated your clansmen poorly?"
Sun Xiu no longer wore his usual pleasant expression.
Normally so composed, he now looked almost vicious and ferocious.
What Lu Kai had done had simply struck too hard at his defenses.
He was a distinguished General Who Conquers the North, had suffered no persecution, and no one had threatened to kill him. His younger cousin had just received a reward, and then he had run away. What was that supposed to mean??
Lu Kai's flight had an immense impact on the entire Wu Kingdom.
Lu Kai was upright, had repeatedly remonstrated with the emperor, and was deeply admired by the ministers.
Yet even a man like that had fled in the end.
What did that mean? That the Wu Kingdom had no room for upright men? That only petty men would continue serving Sun Xiu?
When Sun Xiu learned the news, he had nearly fainted.
What a humiliation.
He had immediately wanted to order the arrest of the entire Lu family.
But his reason told him that if he dared do so, the Wu Kingdom would truly be doomed.
Sun 𬘭 had once held such immense power, but Sun Xiu had seen very clearly how things ended after he moved against the great clans.
Sun 𬘭's swift downfall had not simply been because he was too weak. Could he really have been ignorant of how to control an emperor? The main reason was that he had dealt too harshly with the great clans.
Once the great clans all sided with Sun Xiu, Sun 𬘭 had lost his control over the emperor.
When the lower and middle ranks, and even officials throughout the regions, began siding with Sun Xiu, how could Sun 𬘭 resist?
He had been