Chapter 114: A Familiar World (Part 10)
Translator: Etern, Kim_Guo
The next day morning, Wang Yun left the house to get an edict of Emperor Xian. Huang Xuan cleaned the sniper rifle and the guns in the passage. He felt that he indeed should do something in those days. A man should seize the opportunity.
Dian Wei sat on the bed, looking at Huang Xuan, who was rubbing and pinching the bio-bomb. He was not allowed to touch it, because Huang Xuan was afraid that he might break it. Dian Wei barely spoke in those two days. He seemed to like using weapons. Huang Xuan was still unsure about taking him home. It would depend on Dian Wei’s own decision. Although he had no family in his hometown, he belonged to this time. Huang Xuan attempted to ask, but he didn’t talk much, so he had to give up.
Huang Xuan divided the bio-bomb into parts of 10g and stuck them on specially made bullets. Thus, the power of the .81 pistol would be like tons of TNT. Huang Xuan also prepared four rifle grenades with 100g of bio-bomb in each. Rolin had warned him not to use the bomb within a radius of 300m or fire within a range of 600m, which would be like commiting suicide.
Knocks on the door were heard. It was Wang Yun. He had got the edict and had communicated with his colleagues. What worried him was whether Huang Xuan was able to kill Dong Zhuo or not.
Dong Zhuo had been hated by a lot of people since he kidnapped the emperor and moved the capital to Chang’an after being defeated by Sun Jian. Wu Fu had tried assassinating him once but had failed and been killed by swords. Dong Zhuo had been wearing an armor ever since and Lv Bu was usually with him for protection.
Wang Yun had intended to ask Lv Bu to finish the job but now Huang Xuan had decided to do it. Although Huang Xuan had said that he would succeed, Wang Yun knew that no one could make such a promise. He was very much worried, but nothing was shown on his face.
Huang Xuan opened the door with a smile. “Lord Situ, what brought you here?”
Wang Yun said, holding Huang Xuan’s hand, “Thank you for your hard work. I came to see if there is anything I can do to help.”
Actually, Wang Yun wanted to make sure nothing went wrong.
Huang Xuan had anticipated that Wang Yun would come and was well prepared. Wang Yun had been a pretty good prime minister, but he was proud, swayable in his stand, and exclusive in political opinion.
Wang Yun had been modest before killing Dong Zhuo, but after he had seized power, his doings had been terrifying. He had scarcely smiled and had never talked to his subordinates sincerely ever since, which could be shown clearly in his killing Cai Yong, a well-known scholar at the end of the Han Dynasty, who had received a courteous reception of Dong Zhuo and felt sorry for his death, for which Wang Yun had been determined to kill him in spite of the objections of his subordinates. When Cai Yong, who hadn’t been close to Dong Zhuo, had been killed, Dong Zhuo’s old subordinates and supporters were afraid. If Wang Yun had stuck to his stand and kept distance with everything that was related to Dong Zhuo, he might have been able to get the support of local despots and created a new age as well. However, he had once wanted to pardon Dong Zhuo’s old officials. When he was hesitant about it again, he lost control over the court.
From all this, Huang Xuan had learnt something about Wang Yun’s personality: he was paranoid and kept cooperating with different people; he also wanted to control everything, including his cooperation with Lv Bu.
Hence, Huang Xuan had expected that he woud check on him to make sure he had chosen the right partner. On such an occasion, all Huang Xuan needed to do was to say “No problem.” and leave all the problems to him.
Huang Xuan looked at Wang Yun with a false smile and said, “Lord Situ, have you thought about the things after Huang Xuan’s death?”
Wang Yun was surprised by the question. He made two coughs to cover his surprise and said, “Ma Richan will still be the Taiwei and Yuan Shao will be the general of the Northeast armies to suppress the Liangzhou commanders.”
Huang Xuan shook his hand and sat opposite Wang Yun. “Lord Situ, do you only want Chang’an?”
Wang Yun was upset and said, “It is the center of the Han Dynasty.”
“But you will only be able to manage Chang’an. Don’t you want to revitalise the Han Dynasty?”
Wang Yun looked at Huang Xuan, who was three times as young as him, for a long moment, and said, “The local officials are becoming more and more powerful while the central government is losing control…” He didn’t finish the sentence and asked, “Do you have any good ideas?”
“I’d like to ask Lord Situ some questions first, if you don’t mind.”
“Please go ahead.” The Han Dynasty was full of young talents. Wang Yun didn’t dare to look down on Huang Xuan.
“What to do with Li Jue, Guo Si, Fan Chou and Li Meng after Dong Zhuo dies?”
“Dong Zhuo’s being domineering is all because of these four men. They can’t be pardoned.”
Huang Xuan smiled and said, “The Liangzhou army is very powerful. If they went rebellious, who would be able to resist them?
“Assign Yuan Shao’s army to suppress them, dismiss the four men from their positions, pardon the soldiers and dissolve the army eventually,” Wang Yun answered quickly.
“The two armies have never got along. The soldiers have always been afraid of Yuan Shao. How can they trust him? If the four men aren’t pardoned, how will they be willing to surrender their military authorities? If so, when can the Liangzhou army be dissolved?”
Wang Yun was unhappy. If everything went well, he would issue the same order in one month. The same question would be asked by someone else. At last, Wang Yun would follow someone’s advice and appoint Huangfu Yizhen to be the commander. But right now he didn’t respond.
“Or are you planning to let Huangfu Song be the general?” Huang Xuan asked.
Wang Yun raised his head suddenly. Huang Xuan shook his head and laughed. “Huangfu Song is indeed a famous general but he became famous by killing rebellious soldiers and has no connections in Liangzhou. The soldiers won’t trust him. Most importantly, the four commanders including Li Jue won’t trust him. What will you do about it?”
Although Wang Yun was not good at martial arts, he knew about the military. As a man who had participated the suppression of the Yellow Turbans Uprising, he knew that the official force was not strong enough to exterminate Liangzhou army, so his ultimate reliance would be on the orthodox force of the Han Dynasty.
Wang Yun’s back started to sweat. Huang Xuan added, “After Dong Zhuo dies and Chang’an City enjoys peace, what to do with the assets in his residence?”
If it had been the day before, Wang Yun would have thought that Huang Xuan was trying to raise the price or mocking his distributing what he had got from Dong Zhuo before things were settled, but right now, he began thinking it over and said, “Dong Zhuo’s wealth will be used as military expenses.”
Huang Xuan sneered and said, “Can I get a share of Dong Zhuo’s wealth?”
Wang Yun didn’t reply.
“Can General Fengxian get a share? How about General Huangfu?”
Wang Yun still didn’t answer. Money had been often used to boost the morale of the military. However, Wang Yun had thought that no matter what a mess Chang’an had been, it still was the political center of the Han Dynasty and if anybody dared to attack it, local forces would denouce him and the defending troops of Chang’an would be in a high morale. Besides, Wang Yun also thought that the local despots he had been socialising were strong and powerful. Actually, it was clear to him that the royalty had to depend on scholar officials and local despots; it was them that had been restraining Dong Zhuo and protecting Chang’an. Therefore, sharing wealth with other officials seemed to be the only option left to him.
Huang Xuan squinted at Wang Yun and asked again, tapping the ground with his finger, “Can other ministers get a share of Dong Zhuo’s wealth?”
Wang Yun nodded slowly and looked at Huang Xuan eagerly. He sat up and asked, joining his hands, “Please tell me what to do.”
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