Chapter 1 He Can't Ignore

Ye Tao still wanted to ask Nie Rui what exactly he planned to do. But Nie Rui clearly wasn't going to answer that question. Just telling Ye Tao that he would take action had already exceeded the boundary Tan Xiaopei had set for him. This was simply to let Ye Tao know that the ruler had considered many things for him. Nie Rui said he would take action himself, but everyone understood that without Tan Xiaopei's approval, the intelligence bureau, such a central and sensitive organization, would never do anything that might cause misunderstanding. But Nie Rui, on one hand, genuinely wanted to help Ye Tao, and on the other hand, he was also helping himself. Those inexplicably incited scholars, those ignorant censors, had recently plotted an impeachment against the intelligence bureau.

The intelligence bureau had previously arrested a student of Grand Scholar Pang Rong because he had leaked something from Pang Rong's study to a friend, a talented man from the Chun Nan delegation stationed in Danyang... Unfortunately, that friend had excitedly handed the item over to his family as a stepping stone, and he had jumped to become a subordinate official in the Chun Nan Ministry of Revenue, holding no small position. But soon after, the Song family had sent news, reporting the discussion this item had caused in the Chun Nan court. How important was this item? Although Pang Rong currently held the idle title of Grand Scholar, he was still an important advisor to Tan Xiaopei. Pang Rong had been quite hostile to Ye Tao in the past, but after seeing what kind of person Ye Tao was and his capabilities, although he was somewhat reserved and couldn't bring himself to cooperate with Ye Tao, he didn't hinder him either. Pang Rong wasn't skilled in military strategy, but he had extensively studied people's livelihood and politics. This document was his *Yunhe Zongdufu* (Grand Canal Governor-General's Office) Second Phase Development Plan, which he had compiled over five years, researching, thinking, and discussing with a group of students. When the Grand Canal Governor-General's Office was established, although Prince Tan Weiming had already made many plans, they were mainly coordinating and restorative, focusing on land and agricultural strategies, and were clearly meant to appease landlords and local powerhouses. However, the Grand Canal Governor-General's Office had risen rapidly over the years, becoming a region with extremely fast development in Dongping. The commercial chain relying on the Grand Canal had strengthened, and not only agriculture and agricultural products, but also various related products, handicrafts, and manufacturing industries had developed rapidly. After Yunzhou's annexation, a branch of the Dai family had entered the original territory of Dongping and started operations. A large amount of capital had been injected into the area under the jurisdiction of the Grand Canal Governor-General's Office, and the Sufu Dai family had become the largest force outside the Tianling Fortress Dai family in Yunzhou. The Dai family had not split, nor had it declined because of giving up Yunzhou. With a strong talent cultivation mechanism, the Dai family had become one of the most important families in Dongping. While the Dai family's descendants were certainly strong in battle, they also seemed to be very good at business, and the business they were good at was grain, horses, military equipment... With some help from Ye Tao, the Grand Canal Governor-General's Office had also expanded a lot of war potential in just a few years. Pang Rong had keenly discovered this point and felt it was necessary to revise the country's original east-heavy, west-light strategy in development planning, changing it to equal development with a slight inclination...

When this scholar, who had participated in some peripheral work, was arrested by the intelligence bureau, Pang Rong and his disciples were greatly shocked. They hated this person immensely and began to pay attention to their own security work. This scholar was lively and had many friends in Danyang, especially those young scholars who often gathered to boast. The intelligence bureau couldn't publicly announce what kind of secrets this guy had leaked, but these people, after colluding, impeached the intelligence bureau and Nie Rui every three days. Tan Xiaopei was very supportive and gave them face. After clarifying the matter, he personally issued a decree, publicly announcing the scholar's crime of leaking secrets and ordering his immediate execution. But what was unexpected was that Dongping, in preparation for ruling the entire world in the future, had continuously strengthened civil governance, but now education had gone awry. Those scholars didn't dare to criticize Tan Xiaopei, but they portrayed Nie Rui as a sinister villain, staging a "cleansing of the court" drama...

These things undoubtedly touched Tan Xiaopei's bottom line. He also realized that what his daughter had said was correct: the existing bureaucratic mechanism and the current relationship between military officers and civil officials would inevitably cause problems in the future. Those scholars lacked professional competence and didn't understand the situation at the front... Dongping needed a large number of civil officials who could govern, but it didn't need so many scholars who could only engage in empty talk. But, in the current situation, Tan Xiaopei could only handle both sides: suppressing those who were using the guise of "cleansing the court" to gain benefits for themselves, and trying to cultivate qualified officials. But first, he had to strike, and strike hard enough...

Ye Tao didn't really care about what Nie Rui was going to do. He was just a little worried. As for whether it would be good or bad for him when things really started, whether it would attract more criticism or solve the problem of those impeachments, he didn't care. What really moved him was what Nie Rui said: he could not care, but his subordinates were being wronged...

Ye Tao didn't have much time to worry about these things. Since Nie Rui said he would solve it, he was happy to let go. Ye Tao quickly threw himself into new combat preparations. As the summer harvest began, the occupied areas had been consolidated, and the next phase of operations would begin immediately. But this time, it wasn't the kind of multi-pronged attack as before, but a rotation of attacks in several directions, making the enemy on the opposite side unable to cope. The airship squadron could also concentrate its forces, accompanying one route of attack each time, while other locations only needed to assist with reconnaissance and search. In the previous operations, everyone had experienced the benefits of using airships in a concentrated manner. Although this arrangement would make the airship squadron a bit more strenuous, the results obtained should be very objective. This kind of warfare required very complex logistical support. After all, airships were much more complex than ordinary military equipment, and concentrating airships for combat also meant that complex ground support and air command systems had to be perfected. If they hadn't stopped to rest for quite a long time, they wouldn't have been able to make such thorough preparations.

At the same time, he also had to coordinate the actions of Tan Weiran and Chi Lei's troops, who had already opened up a front in the northeast of Northern Liao, and he had to constantly put pressure on Northern Liao internally, trying to ensure that they didn't have to pay too heavy a toll, and that Northern Liao would surrender on its own. That would be the best. Operations, communication, strategy, all kinds of work accumulated together, were quite complex and troublesome, quite a headache.

However, soon after, Ye Tao still learned how Nie Rui planned to deal with those censors and scholars. During the liveliest time of the year in Danyang, the intelligence bureau arrested a censor and two *Tai Xue* (Imperial Academy) students helping in the Ministry of Rites at a poetry gathering. Two days later, they arrested two Chun Nan students studying at the *Tai Xue* and immediately deported them... Subsequently, in just a few days, they continuously captured many spies from various factions lurking in Danyang. Several of them were servants of important officials in the court. This time, every time the intelligence bureau arrested someone, they would announce the crime and evidence, each one rock-solid, leaving no room for anyone to refute. No matter how others pleaded, Tan Xiaopei remained unmoved by these actions of Nie Rui, which was itself a kind of statement.

Among all the arrests, there was a group of people who didn't have any seemingly reasonable crimes. It seemed that both Tan Xiaopei and Nie Rui had deliberately left this loophole for others to attack. But those people in the court were all shrewd, and they naturally discovered that these people were the ones who had been most fiercely impeaching the Northern Frontier Pacification Office. There were even two of them who used this kind of memorial as practice every day, and they would feel uncomfortable if they didn't write one. Everyone understood that these people were going for fame. Ye Tao would never get entangled with these people, but as long as the things mentioned in their memorials were related to him, as long as the court had any investigations or control over Ye Tao, then they would be famous, after all, they were the "initiators." Those with brains in the court felt that this was a bit too much. There were indeed many important officials in the court who felt that the Northern Frontier Pacification Office and Ye Tao were unacceptable to them. Some had differences in governing philosophy, some lacked understanding, some were worried that Ye Tao's power was too great, and some felt that a country should have unified orders and couldn't have this kind of state within a state... There were various thoughts. Many people would submit a memorial criticizing Northern Frontier affairs every few months, but in most cases, it was to remind Ye Tao, to remind Tan Xiaopei, and there were still several of these people who maintained correspondence with Ye Tao in private. Purely impeaching for the sake of impeaching was something that people with brains disdained to do. After arresting this group of people, Tan Xiaopei's disposal was only to strip them of their official positions and never employ them again, but everyone saw Tan Xiaopei's clear attitude: he trusted Ye Tao, he valued Ye Tao, Ye Tao didn't care about these people's nonsense, but he couldn't stand it anymore... In less than a month, the discussion about the Northern Frontier in the court seemed to be on the right track. Whether it was good or bad, as long as it was about the matter itself, Tan Xiaopei was still happy to see it.

This kind of rectification was only a part of Tan Xiaopei's entire plan. He had long hinted to some important people in the court that this time he was going to rectify things properly, and he couldn't let scholars and censors drag down the soldiers on the front lines and cause unnecessary trouble for the great cause of Dongping. The court was also calm about this. When a large number of impeachments and memorials came up again, Tan Xiaopei finally acted. He summoned those censors who were petitioning for the arrested people and severely rebuked them. The next day, when he attended court, he announced the reform plan for the Censorate. Previously, the Censorate was a very strange institution. The few people with the highest status had the qualifications to participate in court sessions and assist in decision-making. Most of those censors were specially appointed by the court because they needed their opinions but there were no suitable positions for them to participate in court sessions. Although the other censors had various official positions, they had always submitted memorials and impeachments in their individual capacities, relying on hearsay, with little investigation and evidence collection, and the Censorate had no investigative power.

Tan Xiaopei ordered the reorganization of the Censorate, establishing one *Zongdu Yushi* (Chief Censor), four *Xieli Yushi* (Associate Censors), fourteen *Yushi* (Censors), and about forty scribes and subordinates. Any impeachment couldn't just be something heard casually, and people couldn't just talk nonsense without taking responsibility.