Chapter 92: 92. Capital Turmoil

Words : 1824 Updated : Sep 17th, 2025

chapter 92: 92. capital turmoil cao cao is only waiting for he jin to be truly desperate before he gives his opinion as he knows that he jin looks down on him so he will not listen until he is truly desperate. for now, he only will watch he jin's faction going down until he shows up as it's angel to help them and at the same time make his friend and rival yuan shao embarrassed losing to him. while he jin with his inner circle is gathering to discuss countermeasures, zhang rang gathers up the 9 attendants after not meeting up for a long time due to them being found out working together with the yellow turbans. zhang rang gathered up these allies but also can be called enemies as each of them only cares about their benefits, while he is also greedy at least he can see the bigger picture that's why he wanted to scold feng xu and xu feng that they don't tell the yellow turbans to burn the letters. he can feel that emperor ling began to alienate him and zhao zhong for a bit, and some of their advice or recommendations are turned away which never happened before. this was bad for him and the eunuch factions as their livelihood depended on emperor ling's blind trust in them. zhang rang: "everyone, i gather you all today to tell everyone that we need to stop aggravating both he jin and lie fan to gain emperor ling's trust back, or we demolish both of them quickly before emperor ling stop trusting us." zhao zhong: "what attendant zhang said is true, your majesty has turned away some of our advice which has never happened before. this shows that lie fan has managed to gain your majesty's trust and is growing stronger day by day so either we stop to grow back your majesty's trust or do some drastic measures." the other 8 attendants' face turn grim, this is the biggest crisis they have encountered together as a group. since emperor ling began his reign, they have controlled the imperial court like it's their own backyard, and now that emperor ling has begun to doubt them all of their power and wealth can be gone in a matter of seconds. guo sheng: "then we have to take drastic measures! if we stop now, even if we are safe the power and wealth we have will still be gone as either lie fan or he jin will control the court now!" jian shuo: "i agree with attendant guo, if it's he jin we still can take back the power. but if it's lie fan who controls the court, it will be a matter of time before either we are replaced or assassinated by him." the attendants except for zhang rang and zhao zhong also agree with guo sheng and jian shuo, surrendering from the battle meaning either they get a wolf or a tiger in the court. the wolf can still be slain easily as it's a single wolf, but the tiger is harder and very hungry which will be hard to slay. zhang rang and zhao zhong as the de facto leaders of the eunuch faction are more level-headed than the rest, at first they want to take a step back and grow back emperor ling's trust but what guo sheng and jian shuo just said is also accurate. finally, after exchanging whispers between them, zhang rang agreed to take some drastic measures and he hoped that all attendants could deploy their relatives and family members who have positions of power to begin their attack. zhao zhong suggested attacking he jin's side first to eliminate hidden danger in their backyard. attacking lie fan first consumes more money and time which can open a window of opportunity for he jin to enter, attacking he jin's first also allows them to absorb the money and power they have accumulated. all 10 attendants agreed with their plan, and zhang rang dismissed everyone except for jian shuo whom he told to stay. zhang rang: "attendant jian, i need your help in a small matter." jian shuo: "what does attendant zhang need help with?" zhang rang: "i wanted attendant zhang to stay beside prince liu xie, i can see that your majesty favors him more than prince liu bian. prince liu xie has a high chance of becoming crown prince so we need to move fast and the only attendant i trust besides attendant zhao is attendant jian." jian shuo hearing this immediately agreed to help zhang rang, only a fool will denied this chance to become the eunuch than stand beside the emperor like zhang rang. zhang rang was satisfied by jian shuo's answer and told jian shuo to prepare for his appointment. this month can be said to be a very turbulent time for luoyang, the aggressive movements from the eunuch faction take luoyang by storm. many officials from he jin's side are either demoted or dismissed from their posts under the influence of the eunuch and their relatives. he jin who knew this was very angry and fought back against the attack made by the eunuchs, leaving yuan shao's plan to take on lie fan thrown out. cao cao at this time began to rise, he also didn't expect that the eunuch would suddenly launch such an aggressive attack but handling them was easier than lie fan so he took this chance to at least be trusted by he jin. lie fan and baohuzhe also receive reports of the sudden all-out attack between both faction, lie fan is amused by the sudden war as he doesn't expect that his movement a month before caused them to panic to such a degree. jia xu and xun you suggest that he enter the palace and have a talk with emperor ling to persuade him to do something to handle this, rather than him as this can damage emperor ling's stature and prestige which will offend him. lie fan agrees with this and the next day after jia xu and xun you suggest this he embarks on his carriage to talk with emperor ling, telling him a plan that can help them achieve big benefits for lie fan and baohuzhe. lie fan's visit to the palace and meeting with emperor ling was known by he jin and zhang rang, they sent people to inquire about the context of their discussion but none of the people they sent came back. they don't have to wait for long as after the meeting between lie fan and emperor ling ended, suddenly 2 imperial edicts came down one is for he jin faction and one for the eunuch's faction. the edict for the eunuch contains orders for song dian and bi lan part of the 10 attendants to oversee new construction projects, including a new palace hall, four large bronze statues, four giant bronze bells, and water-spouting animal sculptures with the support of zhang rang, zhao hong, and the rest of the attendants. on the other hand, the edict for he jin's faction contains an order for he jin as the grand general of the empire to oversee large-scale military training of the han army helped by all generals and military officials stationed under him to prepare for a large scale military festivals in luoyang as a celebration for the defeat of the yellow turbans. these 2 edicts caused large-scale storms in the capital, both requiring enormous amounts of money that the treasury didn't have after the war. even the tax that emperor ling ordered before for the palace renovation only small amounts are left. the next day after the edicts came down, he jin and zhang rang both suggested emperor ling not do this as this would cause massive damage to their economy and even cripple the economy. they also told him to not listen to lie fan as he is only young and doesn't understand the big picture only knows how to fight in wars. emperor ling: "stop! don't slander governor lie fan, he doesn't suggest this to me. this is my idea and governor lie even advised me not to do this, isn't this what both of you suggested to me before to have these 2 thing to be done? now there is a valid reason for 2 of these to be done commemorating the defeat of the rebellions!" everyone at the court was shocked including baohuzhe members, as they all thought that lie fan suggested emperor ling do this to divert the attention of both factions ending the all-out war as they have orders to do. he jin and zhang rang's faces grew ashen, while this 2 edicts helped them achieve some merit this also restricted them as their attention was diverted from the already full-blown war between them. reluctantly they step down and take the orders that were given. what they don't know is that lie fan is the initiator of this happening in the first place, when lie fan meets emperor ling he uses some subtle words to implant this in emperor ling's mind. he uses words on how under emperor ling they managed to defeat the highest rebellion that was ever seen in the history of the han dynasty. praising emperor ling as the best emperor who led the han dynasty under turbulent times, his prestige and luck from heaven both helped the han dynasty stay afloat to satisfy his ego and the low self-confidence he had, then saying how sad it was that this will only be recorded in history books. when emperor ling heard those words, he also began to regret how his achievement would only be remembered in books and would be forgotten after a hundred of years had passed, he wanted this generation to revere him and future generations to remember his greatest achievement that's how the festival and palace edict was handed down as spending money is the only way he knew to commemorate this. lie fan who was standing in front of the military official's line, flanked by jia xu and xun you was permitted to stand behind by emperoe long after lie fan's request at the meeting smirked a while all of this happened and exchanged words with jia xu and xun you how smart they were in coming up with this plan which makes them the only winner in this battle. __________________ name: lie fan title: yellow heaven subjugator age: 18 years old (185 ad) level: 13 next level: 12.000 renown: 175 cultivation: art of war (level 8) sp: 376.700 attribute points str: 491 vit: 204 agi: 215 int: 234 chr: 90 wis: 199 will: 155 atr points: 0

Chapter 92: 92. Capital Turmoil

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