Chapter 54 Each Has Their Own Thoughts

  The second update is delivered, and there are two more!

  Yang Guang looked at Chen Ke's terrified appearance, but instead laughed, "Alright, I'll consider this your first request. No matter what you say, I'll spare your life for now. Speak."

  For Yang Guang, he is not afraid of you making demands, as long as you make them, he can understand the thoughts of this minister. On the contrary, those who are unwilling to make demands must be insincere towards him, and such people will never be allowed to stay by his side in important positions.

  "Your Majesty, I previously thought I was an orphan, believing that my family elders had all died in the war. However, yesterday I unexpectedly met someone who immediately recognized me and revealed another aspect of my life. After verifying with the elderly servant following beside me, I realized that everything I reported to Your Majesty was incorrect. I have committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, please forgive me."

  Such a thing is not worth mentioning, let alone being considered a crime of deceiving the emperor. However, Chen Kefu voluntarily spoke up about it in order to gain a good impression from Yang Guang. As expected, Yang Guang stroked his long beard and curiously asked, "You were born into great misfortune, even if you didn't know your true identity beforehand, this matter shouldn't be blamed on you. Tell me, what did that person tell you about your real identity that made you so frightened?"

  "I, according to my family's elders, am a descendant of the Southern Chen imperial clan. On the day I was born, the Sui army invaded Jiankang, and my father, worried for my safety, entrusted me to several people who took me away and were told not to reveal my true identity, hoping that I could live as an ordinary commoner. If I hadn't secretly run away from home this time to join the military, I might have never known about my true identity." Chen Kefu said this after careful consideration. For him, if his identity was hidden and used by someone with ulterior motives, it would be a time bomb that could destroy him at any moment.

  But if he himself chose a suitable opportunity to speak out, it wouldn't be a big deal. His father was still the crown prince, wasn't he doing well as the governor? Taking advantage of this chance to make a great achievement, and adding the current opportunity, he could clarify this matter and remove a time bomb for the future. He believed that if he himself spoke out about his little stain, Yang Guang might even trust him more.

  "Hmm, this matter can be considered as having a good reason. It's not a big deal. If you didn't sneak out to join the army, then our Great Sui would have lost a brave general. You said you are from the Southern Chen imperial family, who is your father?"

  "Your Majesty, I have just learned that my father is the Taishou of Jiehan." Chen Kefu said honestly.

  Yang Guang originally thought that Chen Ke was just an ordinary member of the Southern Chen imperial family, but unexpectedly he was actually the son of the Crown Prince of Southern Chen. After being stunned for a moment, he said, "Get up, you were born on the day when Southern Chen perished. I think my great Sui is rich and prosperous, and now in the city of Chang'an, there are many imperial families from various countries and dynasties. The Ashina clan of the Turks, the Xiao clan of the Liang state, the Yuwen clan of the Northern Zhou, the Gao clan of the Northern Qi, the Chen clan of Southern Chen, and the Gao clan of Goguryeo who surrendered just recently... Now there are no more imperial families from various countries in the world. The only imperial family left is my Yang clan, and all the others are just ordinary citizens of my great Sui."

  "After the Southern Chen imperial family surrendered to our Great Sui, they also mostly abided by the law and served with loyalty. Now, all of them have entered officialdom in our Great Sui. Your mother passed away due to a difficult labor when giving birth to you, and your father never remarried after that. If he knew he had such an excellent son like you, he would surely be overjoyed. You can't choose your birth, but now the world is unified under our Great Sui, so you don't need to think about past matters anymore. I hereby declare that I will not investigate your past, and if you devote yourself wholeheartedly to fighting for our Great Sui from now on, I won't let you down either."

  Pei Shijue and Pei Yun exchanged a glance, and Pei Yun stepped forward. "Your Majesty, although the Southern Chen has been extinct for many years, Chen Kefu has always concealed his identity. This is clearly a hidden evil intention and an ulterior motive. Your Majesty, how can such a person still be by your side? Even if you reward him generously, it's not suitable for him to hold such an important position. You can grant Chen Pogun more land, gold, and silver, and let him become a wealthy gentleman. The sage once said, 'Weapons are instruments of evil, they should only be held by trustworthy people.'"

  As soon as Pei Yun made his move, the other officials who relied on Pei's power also echoed his words. Even Li's people began to jump out in agreement, they had their own calculations, although they successfully arranged Li Jie into the Broken Army Camp as a deputy, but with Chen Kefu around, it would be very difficult to control the Broken Army Camp. Now there is such an opportunity, as long as they take this opportunity to successfully drive away Chen Kefu, then in the future, the Broken Army Camp will still fall into their hands.

  However, since there is support, there must be opposition. For those pro-CCP factions, they often don't agree or disagree because something is right or wrong, but simply because their opponents agree with them and they oppose, or their opponents disagree with them and they agree.

  The current situation is that the people in Pei's faction want to remove Chen Kuo-fu's military power, and Yuwen Shu immediately jumped out. In Yuwen Shu's view, although Chen Kuo-fu is not a member of the Yuwen family, he has completely surrendered to them. Not only does he listen to him at ordinary times, but Chen Kuo-fu also shows great filial piety towards him. Moreover, this time Chen Kuo-fu risked his life with one thousand men to charge against eighty thousand enemy soldiers just to save his son, which moved Yuwen Shu deeply. He has now completely regarded Chen Kuo-fu as his own flesh and blood, and as soon as he heard that the Pei family was making a move, he rushed out to protect him.

  "Your Majesty, Chen Pofu was born after the Southern Chen dynasty had already perished. For years, he has been living in hiding with a few family members and only recently learned of his ancestry. As for the Southern Chen, aside from their blood ties, they have no connection whatsoever. Moreover, even the imperial family members who surrendered to us back then were treated leniently by Your Majesty, appointed to official positions based on their abilities, and are now serving in various regions. What reason does Chen Kefu have to treat him this way? Although Chen Pofu is young, he has already made significant contributions to the great Sui dynasty several times. If Your Majesty truly listens to Lord Pei's words and deals with him accordingly, it will inevitably dishearten the tens of thousands of soldiers who have fought for the great Sui on the front lines."

  Li Yuan also hurried out and said, "Your Majesty, what Yuwen said is that the world today has long been the world of Great Sui. Why does Pei need to worry about these things? Think about it, our Great Sui is prosperous, the people are at peace and happy, who still remembers those previous dynasties? Although Pei's starting point is good, he is still a bit too worried." This is his future son-in-law, if Chen Kefu is demoted now, then the loss will also be his Li family.

  Yang Guang watched as Pei and Yuwen stood in opposition, not unexpected in his heart. These two families had never gotten along. What did surprise him was that Li's family, which had always been a united front, suddenly split into two factions. Although the Li family didn't have any particularly outstanding military leaders, they were an old and powerful clan with deep roots, not to be underestimated. The Li family had always made up for their lack of influential officials in court by standing together as one, but now they were divided because of this one thing. A faint smile appeared on Yang Guang's face, interesting, more and more interesting. He hadn't expected that such a small matter would cause the major families in court to oppose each other once again, especially the Li family's first split, which gave Yang Guang an unexpectedly pleasant surprise.

  As for the scene before their eyes, everyone was unexpected. Not only did those hundreds of thousands of soldiers not think of it, but even the ministers in the court did not think of it. Even Chen Kefu himself did not think that today's reward ceremony would end up with such a result.

  The plain was still quiet, and all the generals were watching the scene in front of them like a play. Yang Guang also had a sense of watching a play, he turned his head to look at the ministers on the platform, except for the big factions led by Pei, Yuwen, Li and others who had divided into two factions, there was still a large part of them standing there, none of whom helped each other, but only maintained neutrality.

  "Nayan, you tell me, how should I deal with this matter?" Yang Guang said, seeing Nayan Su Wei lowering his head as if he had fallen asleep. As for this oldest old man in the court, who was also in the central government since his father's time, Yang Guang had always looked down on him. He had already demoted this old man to a commoner twice before, but without this old man, sometimes he felt that the imperial court lacked something. This old man was a peacemaker, and with him in the court stirring up trouble, sometimes it also saved him from a lot of bother.

  Su Wei, since being demoted to commoner status by Yang Guang twice, had become increasingly smooth in his dealings. He had developed his own set of principles for handling matters, which was to completely lack any personal principles. Whatever the emperor said was what he would do, and whatever the emperor's intentions were, that's how he would act. However, now that the emperor had summoned him, he couldn't guess the emperor's intentions, and among the two factions below the emperor, neither was one he was willing to offend.

  He hesitated and then said, "Your Majesty, what Minister Pei said also makes sense. The sage once said that weapons are cruel instruments, so this matter must be handled with caution. And what Minister Yuwen said is not wrong either, Chen Shubao has made many contributions to Your Majesty and the Great Sui, it's indeed not right to discourage the soldiers' hearts. This matter still requires Your Majesty's wise decision, I believe whoever it is will follow Your Majesty's orders."

  He was there for half a day, and it was as if he hadn't said anything. Yang Guang smiled slightly, turning his head to look at Chen Kefu who was still prostrating on the ground, "Chen Pojun, this matter has been debated among the court officials, what do you think I should do?"

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