Chapter 224: The Only Way to Get Rich Quick

After the imperial examinations, Xiao Li handed court affairs over to Song Junzhan. Xiao Li managed the country exactly like a corporation; she was the chairwoman, holding absolute controlling interest.

Song Junzhan and the others were the high-salaried CEOs she hired. She set the direction, and they were responsible for its execution.

Of course, there were fundamental differences between a corporation and a country. At the very least, you couldn’t murder and usurp your way to the top in a corporation.

Therefore, Xiao Li’s job wasn’t to figure out how to be a benevolent Emperor ruling the realm. It was to maintain a firm grip on the armed forces, keeping Rong Qing and the firearms all in her hands. That way, Song Junzhan was merely in charge of civil administration. No matter how good he was at that, he wouldn’t have the power to rebel.

Lu Cang had dared to rebel because Xiao Jingyun was a fool. If he had faced Xiao Li, his rebellion would have been a complete joke.

In short: control the civil officials with military might, and control the military with overwhelming power.

With ultimate power in hand and the wisdom to employ the talented, an Emperor’s life was effortless.

The court gradually fell into order. Finding herself with some free time, Xiao Li began to clean up the group of people she had previously imprisoned.

As for the Imperial relatives and their ilk, Xiao Li packed them all up and sent them to guard the Imperial Mausoleum.

She didn’t need relatives to back her up, she didn’t need ancestors, and she certainly didn’t need elders telling her what to do.

So, she sent them all to "accompany their ancestors."

’Bestow titles of kings and dukes upon them and let them live in honorary retirement, like before?’

’That’s even more ridiculous. I don’t even know these people. I’m supposed to support them just because we’re related?’

’The very idea sounds like something a complete idiot would come up with.’

As a woman on the throne, these were the very people who most wanted to see her toppled. How stupid would she have to be to personally support a nest of vipers?

After dealing with the Imperial relatives, next came the civil and military officials. The military officers were the easiest to handle. The capable ones were kept. Once incorporated into her forces, it only took a few days of seeing the new weapons for them to submit completely.

Weapons that could slice through iron like mud, armor impenetrable to swords and spears, and highly destructive firearms—it was a temptation no military officer could resist.

As for the useless good-for-nothings, they were first investigated, then their assets were confiscated, and finally, they were driven out.

Among the civil servants, she had previously cherry-picked and kept some of the lower-ranking ones. As for the high-ranking officials... well, most of them had been blown to bits, which saved her a lot of trouble.

Most of the other families had been dealt with. The biggest one remaining was Wang Changwen.

Xiao Li hesitated for a moment between killing him and not killing him, but in the end, she gave the Wang family the "full confiscation package."

It had to be said, the Wang family was truly wealthy. Of all the families whose assets she had seized, theirs held the most treasures.

A horse doesn’t get fat without midnight forage, and a man doesn’t get rich without a windfall.

Xiao Li was acting like a bandit queen, seizing the assets of one family after another. The National Treasury from Xiao Jingyun’s era had been empty, a mess of corruption and bribery.

After Xiao Li ascended the throne, she relied on these confiscations to triple the size of the National Treasury in just one month, and it was still expanding.

She had more money than she could spend. She was truly rolling in it.

’Indeed,’ she thought, ’the only way to get rich quick is to transfer other people’s wealth to yourself.’

「」

Wang Changwen was already mentally prepared for the Wang family’s assets to be confiscated. His son and grandson were both dead; he had already endured the greatest blows imaginable. Now, he was actually calm.

But as soon as he was released from the palace, he learned that his daughter had become an official.

Wang Yizhu?

When Wang Changwen first heard the name, it felt familiar. She was said to be the new second-place scholar in the imperial examinations—and the only woman.

Just as he was about to express some sentiment, it suddenly hit him. ’Wang Yizhu? Isn’t that my daughter?’

He was so used to calling his daughter "Empress" that hearing people discuss her by her given name felt strange.

But he was quickly perplexed. His daughter was Xiao Jingyun’s Empress. Now that Xiao Jingyun was dead—expelled from the Imperial Family, not even permitted burial in the Imperial Mausoleum—his daughter was a deposed Empress.

Logically, even if the new Empress didn’t execute her, she should have sent her away to be resettled somewhere.

’Knowing my daughter’s temperament, she should have found a quiet residence or a nunnery to live out the rest of her days in peace.’

But listen to what they were saying: a woman participating in the imperial examinations, acknowledged by her fellow candidates, winning second place by public vote, and becoming the celebrated second-place scholar.

’Taking the exams, having her talents recognized by all, entering the court as an official... how could that possibly be my daughter?’

’It must be someone with the same name.’

But reality wouldn’t let him escape. When he returned home, it was being ransacked, filled with wails of despair.

A crowd of people grabbed him, begging him to go plead with Wang Yizhu for mercy.

It turned out that *this* Wang Yizhu was indeed *that* Wang Yizhu. The former Empress was now a court official, and one highly valued by the new Empress.

After Wang Changwen finally understood the situation, he was speechless for a long time.

Good news: The Wang family might not be completely ruined.

Bad news: The one who had risen to prominence was the daughter of the Wang family—a daughter who had long been estranged from him.

Wang Changwen couldn’t bring himself to go beg his daughter. Besides, he felt that even if he did, the Empress would never pardon the Wang family just for Wang Yizhu’s sake.

But while he could accept this, the rest of the Wang Family could not.

Desperate to preserve their wealth and status, the Wang Family members found ways to cause a scene in front of Wang Yizhu. It was then that everyone finally learned her true identity.

The daughter of the Wang family, the former Empress.

This was just as... scandalous as the Princess proclaiming herself Emperor.

However, no matter how much people gossiped, Wang Yizhu attended her duties as usual, and the Empress personally sent guards to protect her.

Everyone was shocked for two days, and then... they accepted it.

They had already accepted a woman serving as an official alongside them. The fact that this woman was the former Empress didn’t seem to change much. The only difference was that they actually felt it was quite an honor. ’This is the former Empress, a person we once couldn’t even dream of approaching!’

The Wang Family members hadn’t even fully departed when the verdict on the Lu family was announced.

The Lu family also had their assets confiscated. The direct family line was to be executed, with no one left alive.

As for the remaining ten thousand members of the Lu Family clan, Xiao Li divided them into four groups and forced them all to change their surnames.

After changing their names, they were exiled to the four corners of the realm, directly shattering the clan.

The Lu Family members were naturally unwilling to change their surnames, but the alternative was death.

Xiao Li had become numb to killing by now, and there was no need to slaughter the entire Lu family. So, instead of "confiscating assets and exterminating the clan," it became "confiscating their ancestors."

The Lu Family: Duly chastened.

The Lu family ancestors: ...

As for that Corpse Puppet, Lu Yanzhi, after he had scared several officials from the Lu family faction to death, Xiao Li had him locked up in iron chains.

He had been ignored for many days, until now.

Looking at the Corpse Puppet chained to an iron pillar, its limbs mangled and pinned with iron spikes, Xiao Li was actually a little curious if it still possessed any human consciousness.

But then she remembered the coarse, grating, and bizarre sounds the other Corpse Puppet had made, and she decided to suppress her curiosity.

It wasn’t that she was afraid; she simply didn’t want to experience that skin-crawling sensation again.

She had someone bring her special concoction in a jar and poured it directly onto the Corpse Puppet.

The Corpse Puppet could not feel pain, so it didn’t move at all from beginning to end. Right before Xiao Li’s eyes, it simply melted into a puddle of thick, black liquid.

’Since he’s dead, he should be completely dead.’

But unlike the first time she killed him, this time Xiao Li just wanted to witness his complete annihilation. She felt no emotional fluctuations whatsoever.

Even though he was Lu Yanzhi, he could no longer stir the slightest ripple of emotion within her.

’Prince Consort? Ex-husband?’

In her eyes, he had been a dead man from the very beginning.

Undead, dead, reanimated, and now, completely gone.