Chapter 232

Devoted (2)

He got down and crawled forward a few steps. He then bowed deeply in front of Mo Linyuan.

“Your Majesty! My King! This minister doesn’t dare! This minister would neverdare

!”

Originally, the reason why there were so many officials who followed and supported one of the three aristocratic families was because they assumed the emperor wouldn’t dare to go against those families. For many years, previous successive generations of emperors would simply keep turning a blind eye to their misdemeanors. And so, they naturally didn’t think that Mo Linyuan would be able to eradicate the families in one whole sweep.

That’s why for their own sake, the supporters formed groups that each obeyed one of the three aristocratic families, and disobeyed the emperor.

But today, not only did Mo Linyuan manage to capture all of the aristocratic families’ members, but he also managed to impact every other chess piece involved, with just one move! The fact that none of the members of the three big families returned made it clear that the conflict was resolved. What’s more, even the children of those families had been annihilated.

“Never dare?” Mo Linyuan snickered, “Never dare to do what? I’m not quite sure what you’re implying.”

After hearing one person speak up, the rest started to beg for mercy too. Each and every one of them continuously bowed their heads, trying to stir up emotions with their words.

“Your Majesty, show us mercy! We don’t want to die! We will definitely obey you in the future! We’ll be devoted!”

They had quite a bit of power in their hands, some even had their specific family’s trust. Others also held information to control the family they supported!

The surrounding original loyal officials couldn’t bear to see this scene. Yet at the same time, they also did not dare to beg for mercy. They just trembled fearfully in their seats. They didn’t want to bring any disaster to the innocent fishes in the pond.

“You’ll be devoted, eh?” Mo Linyuan regarded them lightly, “Does every single one of you think like this? How would you all certify your pledge of devotion to me?”

They all looked at each other, and finally a senior official in the back bowed to the point of prostration and begged, “We are willing to do anything for you, Your Majesty!”

“Anything? Are you guys sure?” Mo Linyuan’s eyebrows raised happily, “You all better remember what you promised…”

The officials were shocked as Mo Linyuan continued to laugh lightly. His fingertip softly tapped his throne’s armrest. He said menacingly, “…Because all of you will soon have to fulfill your promise.”

These people still didn’t quite understand what he meant. However, it didn’t matter, because they would soon understand.

At that time, Wen Feng stepped forward and whispered into Mo Linyuan’s ear, “The third group of people will be arriving soon.”

Mo Linyuan smiled softly, not responding.

In fact, everything that’s happened thus far were all a part of Mo Linyuan’s schemes. He already planned a year before to have multiple imperial guards conceal themselves in the forest. They were divided and hidden evenly, not alerting anyone to their presence.

Mo Linyuan had full control by using the fireworks as night signals, which alerted the soldiers to manipulate who came back first and who would arrive later.

After all, if the family members came back first, these terrified followers would have someone to depend on and wouldn’t surrender as easily. However, since the family members arrived later, these horrified officials would assume that the family members had already died. Naturally, they would be more willing to pledge allegiance and wouldn’t dare make another attempt at betrayal. But, how could it be this simple?

Mo Linyuan also hoped that he could destroy the three families in one move. However, it was near impossible. Therefore, he decided to cooperate with the Wen family. By doing so, he could use a diversion tactic and seize the early opportunity to subdue the supporters in the first group.