Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 300 - 219 Five Years_3

Chapter 300: Chapter 219 Five Years_3

At that time, he was just like Wang Wenchuan, both only in their early forties and had not yet reached the stage where "an old man who does not die is a thief."

Moreover, the method of the song from Chu used theories that would not be supported until several hundred years later; it was truly impossible for Wen Jun to comprehend it in the short term.

...

The fog before him gradually gathered and then dispersed.

Playing the role of Wang Wenchuan, Chu Song returned to the Political Affairs Hall.

But what differed from before was that he no longer faced the piled-up impeachments from the ministers, but rather many pieces of good news that made the corners of his mouth slightly rise.

With the emperor’s strong push, the new laws were quickly enforced.

In the court, many of the old party members were impeached, which included legitimate scandals, vague accusations, and even literary persecutions meant to frame them without just cause.

Historically, there were indeed old party officials impeached by the Imperial Censor over a few poems. In the Qi Dynasty, although literary persecution was not as severe as it would be later, there were still quite a few civil officials penalized for their words.

In true history, though Wang Wenchuan disagreed with these old party officials in political views, he had spoken a crucial sentence at a critical moment, "How can one kill talented individuals in a prosperous era?"

This statement obviously had a significant impact, and many of the impeached old party officials were merely demoted, without suffering particularly severe retributions.

This showed that Wang Wenchuan himself was indeed a man of principle, who refrained from using degrading means to suppress his political opponents and even spoke in defense of his opponents, despite them being against the reforms.

But since Chu Song had firmly decided to play the role of a corrupt official, he certainly wouldn’t partake in such honorable actions.

With a stroke of his pen, all these old party officials were dealt with harshly and severely!

Those who could be beheaded, would not be merely exiled; those who could be exiled, would not merely be demoted to Lingnan; and those who could be demoted to Lingnan, would never be demoted to economically developed areas.

A fierce party struggle, under the firm push by Chu Song, quickly swept through the court of the Qi Dynasty.

Party struggles, obviously, are greatly harmful to a country.

As it meant from then on, the two sides would continuously attack each other, focusing on personal attacks rather than issues.

But Chu Song didn’t care about this at all.

On one hand, because he knew from history, although Wang Wenchuan had always been tolerant toward the old party officials and always tried to avoid party struggles, after his death, the party struggles quickly spread anyway, unabated by his good intentions; on the other hand, because hesitant and ongoing party struggles were even more damaging.

Because the old party officials would not be grateful; they wouldn’t think of Wang Wenchuan as magnanimous or lenient, but only remember his suppression of them.

Thus, the mutual hatred escalated, but neither side could completely annihilate the other. The party struggle would endure endlessly, continuing until the downfall of the Qi Dynasty.

But what if, through extremely brutal party struggles, one side was directly removed from the historical stage?

Then there would no longer be party struggles, for it would directly become a dictatorship.

Although this might cause the entire country to descend into the abyss more quickly, it indeed avoided the harm caused by the internal friction of party struggles.

In short, a correct gamble could significantly extend its life; a wrong one, instant death.

The severe crackdown on the old party naturally also triggered a strong backlash from them.

But these backlashes were quickly suppressed.

Because Chu Song had made thorough preparations.

Firstly, he had gained the absolute support of the emperor, especially by incorporating the official system law into the reform policies and by proactively handing over some of his authority, which made the emperor trust him more and dislike Wen Jun and the other old party members even more.

Second, the plan of the new law caused a split within the old party, with a faction remaining neutral and failing to unite in time to deal with the crisis.

Then, Wang Wenchuan, playing the role of the betrayer, showed some tolerance, compromise, and concession without breaking his persona. Many members of the old party thought Wang Wenchuan might be willing to compromise, which made them complacent, never expecting such a steadfast Wang Wenchuan to resort to such ruthless means.

Lastly, he firmly seized control of two institutions, the Wude Bureau and the Imperial Censorate.

The Wude Bureau continuously provided him with incriminating information about the officials, and the Imperial Censorate took advantage of this to impeach these officials. In the end, the emperor became enraged and dealt with these officials strictly and harshly.

Among them, there were also some particularly corrupt new party officials.

Throughout the process, Wang Wenchuan did not need to take action personally.

Historically, for Wang Wenchuan to better implement reforms, he executed a sweeping purge. For instance, he exiled veteran members of the old party to the provinces and promoted his supporters within the Imperial Censorate.

However, these methods were too overt and not secretive enough. It was immediately obvious that these actions were performed by Wang Wenchuan.

Of course, this could also be because of Wang Wenchuan’s character; he adhered to the principle of being solely responsible for his actions, disdaining to engage in any scheming.

But the approach Chu Ge adopted at this time completely concealed himself.

On the surface, it seemed that the Wude Bureau was digging up the dirt on officials and the Imperial Censorate was impeaching them, while it was the emperor who ultimately decided on strict measures.

In this process, many members of the new party were also implicated.

One reason was that Chu Ge needed to display a stance that did not portray him as the puppet master behind the scenes, and another was to eliminate those especially opportunistic members within the new party he knew about, keeping those who were relatively obedient and capable.

For deeply cunning old party members like Wen Jun, such a level of concealment would hardly be effective, but it could greatly confuse those in the middle or officials with less political savvy.

Thus, even if some veteran ministers among the old party realized the danger and wanted to retaliate, they had no room to do so.

However, Chu Ge did not feel complacent about this, as he was well aware that he still had a long way to go to become a qualified villain.

...

[Five Years Until the Battle of Niuzhu]

As the fog in front of him dispersed once again, five years had passed.

Up to now, Chu Ge’s first phase of the plan had been proceeding smoothly.

After relentlessly suppressing his opposition, the old party within the Qi Dynasty had been almost completely dealt with.

"Indeed, to completely dominate the court within five years and purge all the old party members is challenging,"

Chu Ge still felt slightly regretful.

The environment of the Qi Dynasty was still benevolent toward scholars, and although Chu Ge consistently eradicated his political enemies mercilessly, it was still challenging to do so thoroughly.

Minor figures within the old party could easily be handled, but there were no good solutions for key ministers like Wen Jun.

One reason was that these people were highly vigilant and would not be caught off-guard, and another was that they also held weight in the emperor’s eyes.

The emperor did not wish to kill them or banish them to barren lands like Lingnan, so Chu Ge was naturally powerless.

At most, he could exile Wen Jun from court to work on editing texts, but these veteran ministers of the old party could still submit petitions to the emperor and still influence him to some extent.

It was impossible to completely purge them, and Chu Ge was preparing to face the next stage of challenges.

Natural disasters!