Chapter 337 (1/2)
That night, the quiet in Shazhou carried a trace of nervousness The usually lively and boisterous night streets were strangely quiet Everyone knew that so had happened, but no one knew exactly what it was
To the east of the gaest and uests froh Fan Xian was a sieneration, he did not have the attitude of a second generation His lifestyle was not plain; it was simple He had only booked the topmost, quietest floor
Xia Qifei stood conscientiously in the corner of the room In front of Fan Xian, he carefully stoay the token and signed his name on the document, then pressed on to it He then respectfully handed over a leather satchel
Fan Xian glanced at the document, nodded and smiled ”Sir Xia, noe are one faned this docu official in front of him Only, there were all kinds of people in this fa ht slave
It was clear that he probably wouldn't have a chance in this lifetiust in his heart A fierce hu could adapt to circumstances Since he had chosen this path, he would walk it properly Thus he tidied his clothing and took a step forward before falling forward into a ko ”Lower official Xia…Ming Qingcheng greets you, sir”
He finished his words, but his body didn't bon as a pair of hands had already firmly helped him up Fan Xian looked at him ”No matter how you view s Since you have entered this Council—even though we are officials of the court and divided by our ranks—we htly
Fan Xian continued ”You are probably like everyone else and have this or that prejudices about the Overwatch Council, but you are not clear about the relationshi+p of the internal department”
He paused for a bit and then smiled ”To put it less nicely, we are like a pack of wolves raised by the court, but there are ers out there If ant to survive to work for the court and interests of the common people, then we cannot care about the filth they say What is important is that we are internally united The wolf pack may have a leader, but the internal department will not have internal strife”
Xia Qifei furrowed his brows and replied, ”I understand”
”You don't understand” Fan Xian told him directly ”I know these words are e you will eventually experience in the Council in the future…yes, I understand you, after all you are the extraordinary hero of a generation Earlier I purposely suppressed you in the branch I suspect you're not feeling good about that”
Xia Qifei's heart stuttered, yet Fan Xian's expression was soft and he laughed aloud ”You were a commoner and I was an official, naturally there was a divide…but now your identity is different”
Xia Qifei didn't knohat to say, so he remained fearfully silent
”Coether ”That is why you can use them and look after them, but you cannot trust the they can climb on top of you Thus, as an official of the Overwatch Council, although we stand on the side of the Eovernance, we can only trust the Eh for the Overwatch Council to maintain only sufficient authority and pressure”
”Of course, these are only htly rolled his sleeve ”They et that after that rainy night, Fan Xian's heart had chilled Later, during his long stay in Jingdou, his heart had grown colder and colder He had long accepted Uncle Wu Zhu's words as an obvious truth of the outside world—there is no one you can trust in the world Besides the individual people who could not be trusted, it included the foolish codoht
Other than Fan and Xia in the room, there was only Su Wenmao of the Qinian unit
Fan Xian pointed at Su Wenmao and said, ”I transferred Sir Su from the First Bureau I think you don't have any desire to work close to me If you want to enter the capital in the future, it is not inan would bethe capital, but he sincerely replied, ”I rely on your promotion”
Fan Xian shook his head ”Don't say false words But, it is true that the Council can help you do s, so don't resent me We allthe Council today In the future, if you have any contact or matters that need to be passed up, you should contact Sir Su In a moment you two can talk for a bit”
He spoke to Su Wenain ”Have Sir Xia quickly becoulations”
Su Wened the order in a low voice with a salute The two people were aware that Coain and left the room
The Third Prince's small body drifted out of the inner suite like a spirit He approached Fan Xian and quietly asked, ”Teacher, is this how the Overwatch Council recruits people?”
”Special measures for special cases” Fan Xian politely invited the Third Prince to sit, ”What Your Highness heard earlier is not often seen in the Council Usually when the Overwatch Council recruits, the person is inspected for a long time We commonly pick people from the troops in each province This was a habit left from before the first tianizing the Overwatch Council”
”Of course, later we paid special attention to the failed exa examination After all, if an inspector cannot even read, then there is nothing to be done All talented individuals who have just lost hope in the iets of the Overwatch Council However the Council does not like to recruit people who are already quite powerful or have influential people behind them”
The Third Prince furrowed his brows ”Xia Qifei is the head boss of the Jiangnan water bandits”
”That's why it's a special case,” Fan Xian explained patiently ”Usually, someone like Xia Qifei would, at most, be allowed to move in the outer circles of Overwatch Council business To allow him to take the position of inspector is rare”
”Why is it a special case?” The Third Prince seemed particularly interested and keen on this topic
This ti himself with the minutiae as a prince ”Because this tinan to clean up the palace treasury, and I will run into a sleealthy merchants Thus, the Overwatch Council needed to find sonan, and it had to be someone e could control absolutely”
”Why?” The Third Prince was very confused Although he was cruel and ruthless at a young age, his princely identity iven because of the Baoyue Brothel incident, he had never ine the conan
Fan Xian glanced at hiaze a little funny, but he also felt a deep ad deep in the palace How had such a charly naïve mother raise such a ferocious prince as hardhearted, studious, and willing to bend? The nan has been run by Xinyang for too long” Fan Xian did not avoidthe Eldest Princess in front of him ”After 10 years, this place has already been become a monolithic bloc There are still people who are enemies of the Cui and Xia families, but each party always has inextricable interests, and no one wants the situation to change toolosses, and these people are not willing to see that”
”Codou, we are a massive variable to them When the outside attacks, even if the bloc has cracks, it will teether Thus, we need a piece of sand that is already within the bloc and to have this irritant becoer until it finally cracks the bloc so that it will be difficult for it to resume its old appearance”
The Third Prince furrowed his brows ”The piece of sand ht not have this ability If we help hi forward ourselves?”
”The important part is that it is not convenient for us to cohed ”Your Highness does not kno deeply ingrained the concept of territory is in this country I can have Xiao shi+ come and open a branch of the Baoyue Brothel I can have Danbo Bookstores all over Suzhou Once it touches the fundanan people, it will probably cause a group attack”
”Group? What people would be involved?”
”I've killed a few youngfamily There are a few salt merchants who have a deep hatred ofbeen fed by the Eldest Princess, starting fronan Road all the way up to the old soldiers watching the gates in Suzhou”
Fan Xian same ”The shopkeepers of various levels in the palace treasury, the prostitutes on the street corners, the oldas a perfornan people, they will not like ive orders”
The Third Prince paused slightly then said ruthlessly, ”They can attack if they like, I…teacher is not afraid of them!”
”It's not that I a go? The law does not punish the nan truly became chaotic, those people of all walks of life have plenty of ways for the people's resentment to be heard When the people have no means of livelihood…if it really came to this, and the court debates this issue, do you think they would chop tens of thousands of heads to boost nation to appease the hearts of the Jiangnan people?”
The Third Prince paused for a while and thought, given father's personality, you'll probably not suffer much at all, but he would transfer you out of the capital He felt very dispirited about a proper teacher of the Third Prince still having to suffer such oppression
Fan Xian seehed out loud ”Of course, things wouldn't be that bad His Majesty knows the Overwatch Council is very dangerous, but His Majesty cannot be blindly gentle I's to be radually faded, and he cal is needed to set up power, then I don'tthis notoriety”
The Third Prince shook his head If tooto be difficult to clean up If the Idou kicks up another fuss, could his father really flog the his name recorded in the annals of history
Why not have that newly recruited Xia Qifei go do the killing? His eyes lit up, but he didn't dare to tell his idea from his flash of inspiration to his teacher He did not know that his seely warm teacher was actually ruthless and had already hed a couple of tiarrison of the sailors actually colluded mutually with the head of the water bandits Hoill the Overwatch Council investigate this?”
Fan Xian casually lowered his head to look at the leather satchel ”That ”
The Third Prince furrowed his brows and cruelly said, ”How can you not investigate? The army is an important part of a country The sailors of Sha Lake are important soldiers of our court and known by the title of Jiangnan sailors If there are even probleated fully, hoill the court rule itself? The Qing Kingdoest in the world Hoe ensure our safety?”
Fan Xian glanced at the Third Prince with surprise From these childish and even unclear words he could tell that the child truly cared about this matter He couldn't help but be confused, however he turned it over in hisas he handed the leather satchel in his hand to the Third Prince
”The sailor problearrison will naturally have some bad luck befall him I think, after this ive tze River, it was also a test The ood”
The Third Prince refused to cos he found in the leather satchel The more he saw, the more startled he became Inside were all the secret correspondence between the Jiangnan water bandits and government officials of various places—all the accounts were clear Although there were no nas were investigated they could probably catch quite a few officials
Fan Xian said, ”This is the so-called loyalty pledge Xia Qifei givingme his head and those of the officials Only after both sides have shown their hands can everyone feel at ease”
The Third Prince suddenly raised his head and said with disbelief, ”Xia Qifei will always be a spy?”
”Your Highness has understood quickly; you are indeed clever” Fan Xian praised his student ”We can capture these officials if ant, it will just depend on tinise the current situation and want to stand in opposition to the court, then naturally ill capture them As for Xia Qifei, he will continue to be the head of the Jiangnan water bandits and associate with the sailors and officials of various regions This is for the best”
Froainst the court was naturally the side of Xinyang
The Third Prince looked at Fan Xian with exciteood plan”
Fan Xian touched his hair and sly ”What kind of shi+tty plan is this? Everyone would be able to think of it, except no one has the same kind of resources as the Overwatch Council so they can't discover details about Xia Qifei or control hiood use any tricks”
It was rare to hear hih teacher is the ieneration, you still swear”
Fan Xian laughed even louder ”What bullshi+t immortal poet? Even i married two concubines Who in this world is h? Even if someone is, they would probably freeze to death everyone around theled and suddenly asked …even father…kno to swear?”
Fan Xian paused and felt anger rising as he looked at the child This was forcing him to tell a lie; he wanted to swear out loud He s”
After talking and laughing for a while the atmosphere relaxed The Third Prince remembered what Xia Qifei said earlier Suddenly interested, he asked, ”Teacher, I heard that head thief say that in a few days there will be soe the nan heroes It's a rare occasion…lets…lets go see it too?”
”Vulgar, so very vulgar” Fan Xian s Your Highness is a prince, why bother joining in that ruckus?”