"If someone becomes my enemy, I make sure they understand the consequences. I won't simply drive Wu's army out and then return home."
"If Your Majesty truly wants to win this war, then don't kill the Crown Prince of Yue. Let him live. Let his mother keep her precious son cuddled in her arms like a treasure."
Luo He paused before adding with a faint grin. "But don't give that stupid bastard the throne. He can't even properly take care of a woman. How could he possibly control an entire kingdom?"
The words were delivered almost jokingly, but the emperor immediately understood what lay beneath them.
If anyone else had said such a thing, the emperor might have simply laughed it off. But this was Luo He.
The emperor had seen what Luo He could accomplish with a fraction of an army. He knew that Luo He did not make empty threats like people usually do.
And he knew that once Luo He decided someone was his enemy, he pursued the matter far beyond the battlefield. Luo He wasn't talking about merely defeating Wu.
He was talking about destroying the Wu Dynasty itself.
The emperor remained silent for a moment before finally nodding. "If it were not for you, son, I would have already lost this war. You planned the strategy."
"You understood the battlefield, and you brought us to this victory. If this is the one favor you ask of me, then I will grant it." He looked toward Luo He.
"The Crown Prince will live. His head will not be placed upon a spike." The emperor promised.
Luo He nodded.
"Good. Let him remain with his mother. And Your Majesty should make certain you keep your promise."
Then Luo He smiled again, his expression becoming almost mischievous.
"And since we are speaking about mothers, wives, and women, perhaps I should teach Your Majesty something in return."
The emperor raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"How to actually win a woman's heart." Luo He leaned back casually in his chair.
"Your Majesty has been emperor for decades. You have had countless women beside you, but how many genuinely love the man beneath the imperial robes?"
"How many remain because they are your wives, because they have duties, because they want influence, or because they have no choice?"
The emperor's expression changed slightly.
Luo He continued with a grin. "Start with the Crown Prince's mother. Don't simply spare her son because of a promise."
"Make her understand that you spared him because you genuinely cared about her feelings. There is a difference between possessing someone's loyalty and earning their heart."
He laughed softly. "I'll show Your Majesty how to make a woman stay because she wants to, not because she's obligated to. Maybe when the war is over." He said.
The emperor knew better than to ignore Luo He's judgment. But there was a minor problem. If the Emperor publicly went and announced that he would spare his son, it would raise questions.
So Luo He devised another solution. A political performance. The emperor would publicly declare that the Crown Prince of Yue had betrayed the kingdom and would be executed.
Then Consort Shia would appear before the throne. She would beg for her son's life. She would offer her own life in exchange. The emperor would finally relent.
The Crown Prince would believe that his mother had saved him. And the court would believe that the emperor had shown mercy because of his wife's desperate plea.
The plan unfolded exactly as intended. The Crown Prince of Yue was brought before the throne. The emperor's decree was read. His crimes were announced.
His position as Crown Prince was revoked. Then Consort Shia entered. She fell before the emperor and begged him to spare her son. She pleaded for his life. She offered her own life instead.
The Emperor remained silent for a long moment. Then, before the entire court, he finally relented. The Crown Prince would live. But he would no longer be Crown Prince. He would formally surrender all claims to the throne.
The prisoner immediately agreed. He believed he had narrowly escaped death because of his mother's sacrifice. He never realized that the entire proceeding had been arranged beforehand.
That was how court politics worked. The trials of great nobles were rarely simple trials. The verdict was often decided before the accused even entered the courtroom.
Every accusations, all the witnesses, the emotional speeches, the punishments and even the moments of mercy could all be pieces of a careful performance. The court did not merely administer justice.
It performed politics. Luo He understood that better than almost anyone. Once the crisis had been settled, the emperor began rewarding those who had helped save the kingdom with him.
Duke Bian was granted the title Honorable General, in recognition of his service during the campaign. Other generals and nobles received positions, lands, wealth and various other honors.
Then came the Jin family. Jin Quan was summoned before the throne. The Emperor granted him the title of Prefect. The Jin family's territory was also expanded rather dramatically.
Five counties were placed under his administration. His original Jin County remained the heart of the family's domain, while four additional surrounding counties were also added.
Three had access to the sea. Together, the three counties formed one massive vast coastal prefecture.
One of these counties had previously been part of Xu Mun's territory, and he had been the former prefect of the coastal region of three counties. Till now the three counties governed them selves.
Since he had been declared a traitor, a successor had not yet been appointed to the prefecture, so Jin Quan was now given that prefecture but with additional land.
For centuries, the Jin family had celebrated the achievements of its ancestors. At its historical height, the Jin family's territory had reached approximately 5,000 square kilometers of land.
That had been considered the greatest achievement in the family's entire history. Now it was dwarfed. The new Jin Prefecture covered approximately 18,000 square kilometers of land.
Five counties. A vast coastline. And a position of influence the Jin family had never possessed before. Generations of Jin ancestors had fought to build a territory of five thousand square kilometers.
Luo He had transformed it into eighteen thousand.
The Jin family had risen from a count's house into one of the most important prefectural families of the kingdom. And everyone knew why, because of Luo He.
The war had left the capital with enormous problems. Food had to be distributed. Soldiers had to be paid. Weapons needed replacement. The treasury had been drained by the campaign.
The Emperor discussed the problems with Luo He privately. Luo He listened. Then he gave the Emperor a solution. "I'll send five million gold coins." The Emperor stared at him. "Five million gold coins."
It was an extraordinary amount of wealth. But Luo He was not making an empty promise. The gold already existed. It already exists under the Jin Mansion.
The gold had been melted down and cast into standardized coins according to the proper weight. There was only one minor problem.
They had not been officially stamped. Luo He did not possess the authority to issue currency. He did not possess the Imperial seal. Therefore, he could not legally mark the coins as official Yue Kingdom currency.
"I'll send the gold," Luo He explained. "You provide the carts and the people necessary to dig and transport it. Once it arrives, place the official seal upon it yourself."
The Emperor agreed. Five million gold coins would soon travel from the Jin mansion to the capital. It would replenish the treasury. Pay the soldiers.
Purchase food. Repair the city's defenses. And stabilize the kingdom after the war. For the emperor, the victory had been military. For Luo He, the victory was only beginning.
The Wu army had been destroyed.
The capital had been saved. The Crown Prince of Yue had been neutralized without bloodshed. The Jin family had risen higher than ever before.
And now the kingdom had the wealth necessary to recover from the war. The twelfth day ended with the banners of the Yue Kingdom flying over the capital once again, proudly against the wind.
For the first time since the invasion began, the kingdom was no longer fighting simply to survive. It had survived. And Luo He was already thinking about what came next.