Chapter 49: Final Verdict and Closure

The next day, in the imperial court.

The Emperor of Zhou carefully examined the memorial in his hands, a look of profound astonishment flashing across his eyes.

Did this Zhou Hao actually pull it off?

Private iron smelting and illicit salt trafficking within the imperial capital were so rampant; he truly had no idea when these deeply buried roots of disaster had been planted.

"Very well, you have done a decent job."

With that, the Emperor of Zhou put down the memorial, offering two lines of lukewarm praise.

Was he actually going to shower Zhou Hao with heavy commendation?

Impossible. He was merely offering a superficial, verbal acknowledgment.

Who could have predicted that Zhou Hao would actually succeed?

Meanwhile, the ministers of the Third Prince's faction turned ashen, their gazes fixed upon Zhou Hao as if they were looking at the murderer of their fathers.

They were painfully aware of precisely what Zhou Hao had done.

Those specific channels were among the Third Prince's most vital lifelines.

They were almost more important to him than his own life.

Yet, just like that, Zhou Hao had casually dismantled two of them.

It was fortunate that Zhou Hao had stopped there; otherwise, there was no telling into what sort of blind rage the Third Prince might have flown.

After reading the memorial, the Emperor of Zhou flicked his sleeves and strode out of the court.

Zhou Hao chuckled, casually stepping up to the Grand General and chatting amicably as they walked out of the imperial hall together.

Submitting the memorial to the Emperor of Zhou was Zhou Hao's final step, and also the most crucial one.

The Grand General looked at Zhou Hao with a trace of perplexity in his eyes, failing to fully grasp the significance of such a move.

"My good son-in-law, by presenting these matters as your meritorious service to the Emperor, haven't you thoroughly ground the Third Prince's faction's face into the dust?"

"Over the next few days, you can expect quite a few ministers to submit memorials impeaching you. You must tread carefully, my boy."

Zhou Hao let out a cold laugh and replied nonchalantly.

"Rest assured, my purpose in handing these matters over to His Majesty today is precisely to secure his official stance."

"As long as he deems that the two actions I took were entirely proper, then on the surface, they are entirely proper. Even if the Third Prince's role as the mastermind has been completely exposed, it still remains formally without fault."

"He can only swallow his fury, biting down on his broken teeth. Once the Emperor makes such a declaration before all the ministers, he cannot go back on his word."

This was precisely what Zhou Hao desired.

If this matter were left without a definitive conclusion, who could guarantee that the Emperor and the Empress would not quietly sweep it aside or overturn it?

Those were the Third Prince's precious lifelines; who could guarantee that those two biased, foolish tyrants wouldn't pull such an idiotic stunt?

Only by firmly sealing off every possible exit and thoroughly snuffing out all alternative routes could they be prevented from reversing a settled verdict.

Such was Zhou Hao's true objective.

Otherwise, what on earth drove him to attend court?

Just to gaze upon the Emperor's foolish, pig-like visage?

If he had the time to waste on attending court, he could see plenty of that down at the pigsty, and even a whole herd at once.

"My son-in-law, this is... hardly necessary."

The Grand General sighed, a grave expression dawning in his eyes.

By acting thus, the time his son-in-law had left in the imperial capital would become even shorter.

While the Third Prince would not dare to retaliate openly or covertly right now, he could easily whisper poison into the Empress's and the Emperor's ears and hasten the issuance of Zhou Hao's fief assignment.

They would surely select some remote, bitterly cold borderland—any wretched place with scarcely a shred of hope for survival—and bestow it upon Zhou Hao.

Such a countermeasure was far more ruthless and devastating than any open retaliation.

"How is it not necessary? If we do not beat back the hands the Third Prince has stretched out, there is no telling how much further he might overreach next."

"Only by lopping off his claws will he finally understand that he dare not reach out toward me."

Zhou Hao was no gentle saint; since the Third Prince had acted without benevolence, he could hardly be blamed for returning the favor with cruelty.

How could the Grand General fail to understand such logic?

Yet, what good did understanding do? The Third Prince and the Crown Prince were already locked in a state of irreconcilable hostility.

Had there not been the Emperor pressing down upon them from above, they would have already erupted into a cataclysmic clash right within the imperial capital.

The Grand General nodded, realizing in his heart that attempting to persuade Zhou Hao to alter his temperament was utterly impossible.

All they could do was remain by Zhou Hao's side and help clean up the bloody mess that would inevitably follow.

...

The Third Prince's Residence.

"Say that again, General Li. Surely you must be joking with me?"

The Third Prince's face bore neither anger nor a trace of a smile; instead, it was utterly placid, as though he had just returned from a quiet stroll through a Daoist temple or monastery.

Yet General Li knew all too well that a Third Prince wearing this expression was the most terrifying Third Prince of all.

For this state of calm meant the Third Prince had been driven to such a pitch of fury that he was incapable even of a smile.

"Third... Third Prince, this humble subordinate dares not jest with you. The Crown Prince miraculously evaded the crossbow ambush, even beheading the assassins and pinning all the blame squarely upon them."

"In doing so, the Crown Prince has, to some extent, managed to salvage a shred of dignity for us."

Dignity?

The Third Prince looked at General Li, the smile in his eyes threatening to consume the general whole.

"What did you say? Dignity? Zhou Hao is still breathing! And you actually have the audacity to speak to me of dignity?"

Lacking the courage to cross the Third Prince directly, General Li collapsed onto his knees with a heavy thud, terror gripping his heart so fiercely it could no longer be suppressed.

"The men this subordinate dispatched were my absolute elite trusted guards; it was utterly impossible for any word to leak. They had no inkling whatsoever of the arrangement between you and me."

Hearing this, the Third Prince first shook his head, then spoke in a slow, measured tone.

"You understand, what I wish to hear is not this. What I wish to hear is the news of the Crown Prince's death!"

"Not whatever flimsy excuses you have cobbled together!"

"If you cannot kill the Crown Prince, everything else is just an excuse! Use whatever means necessary!"

The Third Prince delivered a vicious kick straight to General Li's face.

Then, he casually drew a riding whip, lashing out with a single stroke that tore the general's robes into fluttering shreds.

"You are well aware of what I demand, so why, when the time came for execution, did you fail so miserably?"

General Li trembled uncontrollably, not daring to lift his eyes to meet the Third Prince's gaze.

A mistake was a mistake; he possessed no capacity for rebuttal.

"However... the forces I sent were not entirely without yield. At the very least, they confirmed that the Crown Prince had already deduced that a trap had been laid for him."

"Think upon it, Third Prince: since the Crown Prince dared to march directly upon our operatives, it proves he had already gained complete mastery of our troop movements."

"Not to mention that clearly, he could have smashed through and eradicated that stronghold in one fell swoop on the previous day, yet he deliberately delayed until broad daylight the following morning before bringing in the garrison."

"He had plainly already guessed that those private iron traffickers had our people among them."

General Li's meticulous analysis was entirely accurate, which naturally caused the Third Prince's expression to soften marginally.

Yet this still offered no actual solution to their dilemma.

What the Third Prince desired has always been simple: results and a remedy.

Pragmatic or not, he needed Zhou Hao, this thorn in his side, eliminated immediately!

Ever since Zhou Hao's return, the Third Prince had found his very existence intolerable.

He should have acted with greater ruthlessness from the start.

An outright assassination to rid himself of Zhou Hao once and for all would have been the safest course of action.