Tiger Guards

Chapter 690 Business is business
Outside the curtain, guards stood watch twenty paces away.

Inside the curtain, Zhao Ji sat on a low stool, poking at the charcoal fire with a wooden stick in his hand.

As the breakout curtain was lifted, two armored soldiers crouched down, reached out and grabbed the bottom edge of the curtain, lifting it up to reveal a hole more than four feet high, resembling a large dog hole.

Pei Mao was then pushed in with his head down, and the curtain that had been lifted was pulled back down.

Inside the curtain, Pei Mao then raised his hand and pulled away the tattered shawl covering his eyes, followed by a black veil covering his face.

When he saw Zhao Ji, he was taken aback, but then he acted as if nothing had happened, maintaining the calm and composed demeanor of a renowned scholar. He raised his hand to untie the thin ropes binding the wooden piece on both sides, then took the wooden piece out of his mouth and, as if to provoke, casually tossed it at Zhao Ji's feet.

Zhao Ji raised an eyebrow and glanced at Pei Mao, seeing that he was pretending to be calm but his eyes were full of fierceness, suppressing his anger.

Zhao Ji picked up the fire poker in his hand and struck the wooden piece that was pointed at both ends and round in the middle. The fire poker hit the right corner of the wooden piece, and the wooden piece was immediately thrown into the air and spun towards Pei Mao.

Pei Mao sensed something, but perhaps to maintain his composure and demeanor, he neither dodged nor evaded... It could also be that people get old and their reactions become sluggish, and at the same time, their bodies become numb after being tortured and stiff after being frozen.

In short, by sheer coincidence, the wooden peg Zhao Ji used to strike Pei Mao hit him in the face. Pei Mao winced in pain and instinctively turned his head to the side, then raised his hand to cover his face and looked back at Zhao Ji: "What does Yuan Si intend to do?"

"I am an important official of the court, please address me as Grand Tutor."

Zhao Ji's tone was firm: "The court rewards me for my outstanding achievements in conquering the Hu and has appointed me as the Duke of Hedong. You are from Hedong and are a subject of our country, so you should address me as Your Majesty."

"This is a mess of fate!"

Pei Mao roared furiously, "You..."

Meeting Zhao Ji's calm gaze, Pei Mao wanted to angrily denounce Zhao Ji's immoral behavior and the scandalous affair with the Empress, but he felt that this would completely enrage Zhao Ji and lead to the destruction of the Pei clan.

It wasn't that Pei Mao was taking a chance; rather, he had already seen through Zhao Ji's true nature. Just as Zhao Yan had warned him, Zhao Ji's fierce and brutal image was merely a facade. Deep down, Zhao Ji didn't want to kill; on the contrary, he possessed a great love.

This is also one of the fundamental reasons why Pei Mao dared to launch a coup: Zhao Ji would not exterminate the Pei clan!
However, if Zhao Ji is angered, the Taiyuan gentry, who were tricked and wiped out by Zhao Ji, serve as a cautionary tale.

At this moment, Pei Maocai remembered that the Wang and Guo families of Taiyuan, who were even stronger than the Pei family, were easily destroyed by Zhao Ji, who remained calm and collected, simply labeling them as traitors and criminals and killing them.

Fear brought Pei Mao to his senses, and his gaze towards Zhao Ji softened, as if he desperately wanted to awaken Zhao Ji's feelings of kinship and affection for his fellow villagers.

Seeing Pei Mao's softened attitude, Zhao Ji took a deep breath before asking, "You also experienced the Luoyang Mutiny and the Li-Guo Rebellion. Don't you know that this caused many innocent men and women to die in vain?"

“I have received the Han’s favor for generations, and now that the Emperor is in Xu, how can I go against him?”

Pei Mao calmly explained, "The emperor is still alive, and the empress is overseeing the country and ruling. This is unprecedented in history."

"Unprecedented since ancient times? That shows your ignorance and lack of knowledge of ancient times."

Zhao Ji made a sarcastic remark, then asked, "If the emperor were to unfortunately perish, murdered by traitors in Xuchang, and I were to support the eldest son to inherit the throne, with the Empress Dowager overseeing state affairs, would you rebel in that situation?"

“You are not my master. I am the Prefect of Jingzhao appointed by the Emperor of Han. I am here to punish the rebels by the Emperor’s secret edict. How could I possibly rebel?”

Pei Mao spoke with great conviction and his expression was firm and unyielding; he truly resembled a brave and loyal minister.

Zhao Ji listened and nodded slowly: "I guess you wouldn't be the mastermind either. You couldn't stop the chaos caused by Dong Zhuo and Li Guo before it started, and you were powerless to quell it after it broke out. With your character, you're not fit to be the mastermind."

Pei Mao didn't argue. He wasn't the mastermind, so there was no need for him to insist on taking on this dangerous responsibility.

He was acting on a secret edict from the Emperor of Xudu; rebelling against Zhao Ji was not his intention, but merely his duty as a Han official. He patiently awaited Zhao Ji's response, while Zhao Ji was also in a very difficult position.

The difficulty lies not in whether or not to release Pei Mao, but in how to perform the detoxification and chemotherapy as precisely as possible.

In this state, Pei Mao would never reveal any real list.

Zhao Ji thought for a moment and then said, "Come back to Jinyang with me, and the Court of Justice will investigate everything."

Pei Mao's expression changed slightly, but he remained calm.

Zhao Ji's decision not to kill him outright was a miscalculation on his part.

Although I don't want to die, dying at a crucial moment can be very effective, even more so than when I'm alive.

Seeing that Zhao Ji was suppressing his anger and not killing him, Pei Mao became more and more fearful the more he thought about it.

Zhao Ji would not kill him, much less break his shinbone like he had done with those rebellious ministers before.

At that time, Zhao Ji could not afford the consequences of a complete falling out with the nobles, so he could only punish and warn them by breaking their shinbones.

Now, Zhao Ji no longer needs to use such childish punishments as breaking shinbones. He can hand the case over to the Court of Justice for legal review and trial. Whatever happens in the end, that's the law of the land. If he wants to kill you, what does that have to do with Zhao Ji?
Before this... the Jin Yang Regent's Court had no Court of Justice at all. It seems that now they need to have one, and they need to support it strongly and handle cases rigorously!

After being tortured, Pei Mao's thinking became slow, but he gradually came to his senses and became numb.

If he truly had the decisive courage to commit suicide... he should have drawn his sword and killed himself when Ma Zhong stormed the Jingzhao Yin's office, or taken poison, or even bit his tongue while being tortured at night.

But he did nothing; he simply took the time to burn a batch of letters.

The production and promotion of paper have also brought some negative consequences.

For example, there are more ways to hide secret documents, and secret documents on paper are also easier to destroy when burned.

It was Pei Mao's hasty destruction of the letters that led to Pei Mao being tortured overnight... Ma Zhong had actually failed in his duty, but this was not Ma Zhong's responsibility, but rather a wake-up call for Pei Mao.

Zhao Ji ignored Pei Mao and came to see him personally, hoping that the guy would take the initiative to confess and give him a relatively true list.

I'll use this list and this momentum to take down a few key figures, and deal with the rest slowly.

But Pei Mao refused to cooperate, so Zhao Ji had no choice but to handle the matter officially.

It's just the Court of Justice. It's not easy to find a suitable high-ranking official to serve as the Minister of Justice right now, but it's not difficult to find a Chief Justice to oversee the Court of Justice.

As long as the Court of Justice is restored, Zhao Ji will have no shortage of cruel officials.

By continuing to crack down on powerful and wealthy families, the group of cruel officials has a bright future. This group will naturally grow rapidly and produce a new generation of talented individuals.

Isn't it Pei Mao?
No one fears a rotting behemoth.

The Pei family's deterrent power no longer exists in the present, nor will it exist in the future.

Therefore, there is no shortage of brave warriors to deal with the Pei family.

(End of this chapter)