Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 449 - 255 Ten-Year Plan_3

Chapter 449: Chapter 255 Ten-Year Plan_3

One approach was to maintain the basic courtesy and politeness as required by the etiquette among the court officials. The second approach was to berate with indignation filled with patriotism after knowing that the other party had decided to doom them to death.

However, General Han Fuyue’s attitude did not belong to either category.

He was still very conflicted, but his view of Li Hao had changed.

Because it was Li Hao’s strategy that had used a death-row prisoner, who resembled General Han Fuyue, to replace him, and had secretly rescued the real General Han Fuyue, placing him in this estate.

Perhaps before, General Han Fuyue regarded Li Hao as a traitorous official who betrayed his country, but after this, his opinion of him had still changed.

At least now he knew that Li Hao might have other plans and was not absolutely despicable as he had originally thought.

"General Han, please have a seat."

While saying this, Chu Ge sat down on another grand master’s chair.

This was the first meeting between the two since General Han Fuyue had been rescued from prison.

"Prime Minister Li, there is something I do not understand, may I ask you directly?"

Chu Ge nodded, "General Han, feel free to ask, I will withhold nothing."

General Han Fuyue looked somewhat melancholic, evidently troubled by this matter for a long time, "Prime Minister Li first summoned me back to court with twelve gold medals and then framed me with charges and imprisoned me. But at the last moment, you went to great lengths to rescue me.

"Why?"

Chu Ge was silent for a moment, then sighed softly, "General Han, you surely don’t believe that negotiating peace with the Jin people was solely my own idea?

"Without the emperor’s instruction, as a rootless prime minister, to wield such power and do as I please... would likely still take a few more years."

General Han Fuyue fell silent.

Chu Ge’s words pointed out the very situation he least wanted to see.

That is, the person who wanted him dead was indeed the current emperor.

In fact, to General Han Fuyue, although the current emperor had many faults, he had indeed provided some support during the Northern Expedition.

Moreover, under the ideology of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, General Han Fuyue was still somewhat hopeful towards Emperor Gaozong of Qi.

The original General Han Fuyue would have mostly believed that both the imperial medals and his imprisonment were orchestrated by the treacherous official, Li Hao. The Emperor was misled.

But now it seemed that Li Hao was quite clear-headed, primarily... carrying the blame for the emperor.

Otherwise, why else would Li Hao go to great lengths to rescue him?

If Li Hao truly was a surrender advocate seeking glory through betrayal of his country, then for the sake of negotiation or fear that his own status would be affected by Han transitioning from a general to a high official, he should have killed him.

But, Li Hao did not. Instead, he took a huge risk to rescue him.

If the one determined to kill him was not Prime Minister Li but the current emperor...

Then, Li Hao’s actions would equate to committing a regal offense, and once discovered, he could not explain himself neither to the emperor nor to the Jin people. It almost meant that his position as prime minister would instantly be jeopardized, and there would be other massive associated risks.

In any case, the act of secretly rescuing General Han Fuyue already proved Li Hao’s intentions.

But with this, new questions arose.

General Han Fuyue puzzledly asked, "Then why did Prime Minister Li go through such trouble?"

Chu Ge sighed softly, "General Han, I do not have absolute power within the court.

"To kill you was the intention of the royal family and the Jin people. I may be capable of defying the imperial orders, but it would not be long before I’d be dismissed as prime minister, and someone more adept at discerning the wishes of superiors would rise to power, and he would still end up framing you for a crime.

"So, at this time, I cannot change all this overtly.

"Saving you and your son secretly was the utmost I could do at this moment.

"As for your Deputy General... I truly am powerless to help."

The process of rescuing General Han Fuyue had gone even more smoothly than Chu Ge had planned.

Because Chu Ge, playing the role of Li Hao, had previously set himself up as a traitor, for Emperor Gaozong of Qi or other officials either from the peace faction or the surrender faction, anyone could have rescued General Han Fuyue, but it could never have been Li Hao.

It was precisely under such cover of darkness that Chu Ge was better able to operate.

By simply switching the prison guard scheduled to carry out the execution and then adopting the posture of personally supervising the execution to dissuade other officials, he successfully rescued General Han Fuyue.

After all, with Li Hao declaring that General Han Fuyue was dead, who would suspect?

Moreover, his seemingly dubious actions were even more consistent with his character setup. Everyone would assume that General Han Fuyue indeed died unjustly in prison, and the more Li Hao tried to cover it up, the more they believed it.

General Han Fuyue slightly closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Regardless, I still thank Prime Minister Li for saving my life.

"Only... I fear that I can only live in seclusion in the countryside for the rest of my life, never again able to reclaim the lost territories."

It was an undeniable fact.

If the emperor was merely confused for the moment and deceived by Li Hao, then even if withdrawing the troops now, there might still be an opportunity to fight again one day when the emperor came to his senses.

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